Chapter 57: Managerial Authority (Part Four)
Back to Sao Paulo, Huang Xuan just rested for one day. He rented a helicopter and flew to the office of Shengfeng Company.
Shengfeng Company mainly dealt in farm products that were sold in the home market and was headquartered in Sao Paulo.
Direta Street was one of the main business centers in Brazil. The headquarters of Shengfeng Company was on the 21st floor of Bento Building, where there was a staff of one hundred people, the middle management of which were basically all Brazilians.
Just like most of the buildings in Sao Paulo, there were four helicopter parking lots on the roof of Bento Building, one of which was public. Huang Xuan didn’t call Huang Youwei until he had got off the plane.
“I have arrived at the office.”
He Ceng was already waiting at the elevator with several high executives. He greeted Huang Xuan first, walked close to Huang Xuan and said in Chinese, “The general manager has just gone out, so he asked me to receive you.”
Huang Xuan nodded slightly at the other people and walked into the gate with Chinese and Portuguese characters on.
Most of Shengfeng staff were stationed on the farms surrounded by a 120,000 hectares savannah, i.e. 1,200 square kilometers, covering seven states in the midwest, where the staff of Shengfeng Company was distributed. Sao Paulo was the most concentrated, where functional departments like human resource, finance, and import and export trade were established.
The staff all stood up and clapped their hands. Huang Xuan who hadn’t seen such a scene was caught on the hop and clapped his hands too, saying in Portuguese with a slight bow, “How warm you are! Thank you very much!”
His Portuguese was already excellent. Actually, the Portuguese spoken by the Spanish and that by the Portuguese were greatly different. But since Huang Xuan was just a teenager who was new in Brazil, he still had amazed the people present. Seeing Huang Xuan walking toward a room with a sign saying “General Manager” on, He Ceng’s face became tense. Before he could stop, Huang Xuan had already pushed in.
Huang Youwei was savoring tea, lying on the back of the chair.
“Manager Huang, you are back,” Huang Xuan said.
“What?” Huang Youwei sat up quickly in surprise and almost bumped into the table in front. Seeing that He Ceng who was behind Huang Xuan kept blinking at him, he said, “Yes.”
The words on the door were Portuguese. The two hadn’t expected that Huang Xuan had learned Portuguese within days.
“Good.”
Huang Xuan sat on Huang Youwei’s chair and said to the crowd at the door, “Let’s have a meeting. The ones who are managers, all come in.”
More than twenty people walked in noisily, including three general managers, several department managers and financial managers, among whom were only eight Chinese. Huang Xuan continued in Portuguese, “Have a seat, please. I am your boss. You have known it, right?”
The company had made an announcement a month ago, so the crowd nodded.
“Then do you know that I have taken over the managerial authority of the company?”
A clamor rose from the crowd. Huang Youwei was angry. He hadn’t expected that Huang Xuan would be so anxious to take his place. On the other hand, he sneered at Huang Xuan’s being so young and naive.
“We didn’t know about this!” a man shouted. “Certainly, the managerial authority should be given to someone experienced.”
Everybody heard him clearly. The room was suddenly quiet.
Huang Xuan glanced at the man. It was Li Minpu, the manager of the declaration department, who was in his early thirties, with a conceited look and tall eyebrows, just like a rooster ready to fight.
Huang Youwei had been working in Shengfeng for four years, during which the high executives had all ganged up solidly. Even Zhang Xinyi wouldn’t be able to do anything about them in a short time. To restructure this company would even be harder than to rebuild it.
Huang Xuan tapped on the table and said, “Anyway, you know about it now. Do you have any problems with it?”
The crowd responded faintly, but Huang Xuan wasn’t offended. He turned his head and said to Huang Youwei, “There isn’t much time left today. I want to have a look at the accounts to gain a general understanding of the situation.”
A secretary came and handed Huang Xuan the accounts immediately, but Huang Xuan said, “I mean the original ones.”
Huang Youwei almost burst into laughter. “The original accounts. Kid, can you understand them? The documentary that has filled a dozen cupboards can blind you.”
Li Minpu just stood there, clueless about what to do. The two vice managers shook their heads at him. Huang Xuan didn’t see it. He stared at the secretary and yelled, “Why are you still here? Go!”
“Don’t you hear him? Hurry!” Huang Youwei shouted to stop himself from laughing.
“Which period of accounts should I fetch?” The secretary was in an awkward situation.
“Start from three years ago. Get some help if you can’t carry them by yourself.” Huang Xuan sipped a mouthful of tea, betraying no emotions, and then leaned deeply against the back of the chair.
The meeting room quieted down at once. Huang Youwei bit his gums and held his head high. The accounts were indeed questionable. But these had been doctored a long time ago. Even the tax inspectors wouldn’t necessarily be able to find the evidence.
The original accounts were carried in. Dust rose, and people withdrew to avoid it. Some were tapping their suits. Only Huang Xuan remained on the chair and started reading from the first page. The accounts were complicated with day-to-day accounts, invoices, stubs, and so on, exhausting to read.
However, Huang Xuan’s way of audit was unique. He just turned the pages and took some pages out randomly. The invoices, accounts, and stubs were put into three piles on the table, of which, one was OK, and the other two were questionable.
After about half an hour, Huang Xuan was finished with the accounts of one year. He stopped to have a break. After drinking some tea, he gestured to the financial manager and said, “You, come over. I have some questions for you.”
The financial manager was Liu Hong, who was around 50 years old with a round belly and a round face. He walked over with a big smile and said in Chinese, “Huang Gongzi, what can I do for you?”
“Call me boss,” Huang Xuan said in Portuguese.
“Yes, boss.”
It sounded awkward. Huang Xuan looked at him with one squinting eye and pulled some invoices out from the top of the questionable pile. He flipped some pages, then put them down and asked, “Can you tell me why this invoice was printed on a different printer?”
Liu Hong had been an accountant for 30 years, but he had never been asked such a question. He looked left and right and answered, “It is possible. Maybe the printer broke down, or I printed the invoices separately.”
“Really? So it happened to be the middle piece, and when it came to the next one, the printer worked well again?” Huang Xuan said.
It required specialized equipment to detect which printer had been used. Liu Hong thought someone on his own team must have betrayed him. Before he could figure it out, Huang Xuan pulled out some check stubs and invoices and asked again, “Why these invoices were printed three months after the money had been withdrawn?”
Liu Hong had tried so hard to maintain a smile it seemed that the muscle had frozen on his face. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva heavily, took over the invoices and pretended to look.
“You must have made a mistake. The dates are the same.”
“They were dated the same, but there is a time difference of three months between the inks used.”
“How come?” Liu Hong’s hands were shaking. He peeked at Huang Youwei. This invoice was his first one-million income, for which he had helped Huang Youwei embezzle 10 million dollars. After that, he had tempered with the accounts. He hadn’t expected that someone could even tell the time of the ink with naked eyes.
Huang Xuan smiled. He didn’t need Liu Hong to confession. He had known everything through Rolin. Huang Youwei had helped his first grandfather earn a lot of money in the past. It wouldn’t have been found out if Huang Xuan hadn’t come so soon.
He Ceng coughed and was trying to speak. Huang Xuan stared at him angrily, picked up another account book and continued, “Your name is Liu Hong, isn’t it? Now you tell me, why the pages in the middle of this account book have been replaced?”
Liu Hong took the book over with shaking hands, wondering what had gone wrong. Huang Xuan picked up another one. The room watched everything in shock, including Huang Youwei. When the Brazilians were looking at Huang Xuan with admiration, he dropped the account book and said to the secretary calmly, “Call the police.”
“Please don’t!” Liu Hong’s mouth crooked with fright as if he had been in a stroke. He threw himself on the table, hands stretching for Huang Xuan, saying, “Huang Gongzi, no, boss, boss, for the sake of the five years I have worked for Shengfeng.”
Meng Quhao who had been silent for a long time also pleaded on Liu Hong’s half, “Boss, this is all business. It’s better that we handle it internally.” Privately, he was worried that this young boss he couldn’t see through would get everyone into trouble.
He Ceng echoed his views. Then came all kinds of pleas and persuasion from the crowd. If Huang Xuan was just aimed at the managerial authority of Shengfeng, he might have let it go easily. Unfortunately, he was scornful of Shengfeng, which was worth nearly 150 million dollars but made a profit of only 10 million. The family businesses at home shared all the rest and had signed a five-year contract as a result of compromise.
Huang Xuan wasn’t moved at all. He said to the secretary seriously and clearly, “Call the police.”
By this, he was actually telling those arrogant family members, “I am here. I am fine.”
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