Chapter 677 - I Suppor
Long Jian nodded a silent thanks to his mentor, the COO. Once again, he couldn't help but compare the COO to his own father. The COO defended him readily from Long Meng in front of everyone while Long Tengfei chose to remain silent.
However, his resentment against his father was no longer as intense as before. The COO and his wonderful close-knit family had taught him to live in the present and look forward to the future rather than dwell in the past and wallow in regrets. Without the shackles of intense resentment, he now began to see that Long Tengfei wasn't as free to do whatever he wanted as Long Jian first thought.
His father was both the clan head and the President-CEO of Long Industries. Long Tengfei had to be careful not to rock the boat too much and worsen the discord within the clan, especially regarding all of his children. He wasn't the best father in terms of creating close bonds with his children. In fact, he was very awkward in this aspect but had been gradually improving after marrying his third wife, Yang Jiahui.
This was why Long Jian didn't expect anything anymore from his father in terms of paternal affections, or in this case, defending him from Long Meng in front of everyone. He could only rely on himself and he believed himself capable of doing so. Nevertheless, it was still a great feeling that the COO stepped forward to defend him. Warmth and gratefulness filled him. And also strengthened his goal to succeed his father and become the next head of Long Industries.
'I swear I'll become a better leader than Father. I know I can do it. I'm sure that the COO will be proud of me and maybe Father, too, even for just a little.'
While Long Jian felt fired up and was even reaffirming his final goal of winning the battle of succession, Iris was taking it easy on the seat beside him. She was actually continuing to crave for some popcorn to munch on!
Never had she expected that this meeting would be so entertaining. At first, she only forced herself to attend when Long Jian informed her about the emergency meeting last night. Since they were currently allied together in a plot to kick out Long Hui in the battle of succession, of course she agreed to come even though she would rather continue preparing for her wedding instead. She personally didn't want anything to do with the messy Long clan which was a cesspool of prejudice and narrow-minded people, but had to involve herself for the sake of her godson, Little Jun.
Watching the show playing in front of her was making Iris want to clap her hands in applause for everyone's performance. Particularly, Long Jian was doing an excellent job. Indeed, he wasn't lying when he told her earlier that he was a better actor than Long Hui. There was no sibling love between her and Long Jian, but as allies, she also needed to provide him support when he was putting the first step of their plan into action by recommending her today.
"Excuse me, Father—I mean, President Long," she interrupted the tense atmosphere, deliberately calling Long Tengfei "Father" before correcting herself and calling him with his official title, in order to remind everyone in the meeting that she was the daughter of the company's President-CEO. "May I speak?""Yes, you may. As long as it's relevant to our current discussion," Long Tengfei said.
"Thank you, Father." Then she swept her eyes across every single person sitting around the conference table. "I know that I'm only a brand ambassador so I'm unable to make big decisions on my own. But like what my brother Jian mentioned to you just now, I have proven myself an effective endorser. People believe in the brands that I endorse. They trust in my seal of approval and believe that whatever product, brand or company that I choose to lend my name to will be of high quality. The best example that I can provide you is my own company, Orchidia Beauty. I don't know if all of you are aware but my small, humble company broke records for selling out everything in just five seconds on its launch. And that trend continues to this day as we sell out all of our restocks and new product launches."
Many mouths twitched when they heard her describing Orchidia Beauty as a "small, humble company". The new company could sell out its entire inventory within a day or two and had to constantly expand its manufacturing capacity every time. Its owner was the multi-award-winning musician Iris Long who was engaged to marry billionaire CEO Jin Liwei. Plus it had a superstar top endorser, Jin Chonglin! Which part of Orchidia Beauty was "small" and "humble"?!
"Aren't you just bragging?" Iris heard Long Meng muttering with her great hearing.
She could choose to ignore the elder but decided not to this time. "Grandaunt Meng, you may describe what I'm doing as bragging but I prefer to call it what it is—stating facts. Everything I said about my company just now is all 100% true." Not giving the elder a chance to retort, Iris continued speaking. "The reason why I'm saying all of this is to show all of you that I already have a proven track record of success in the area of using my image to boost a product, brand or company of my choosing.
"And as the officially appointed brand ambassador of Long Industries and also as the President-CEO's daughter, I pledge to all of you today that I will do my utmost best to help improve the company's image by using my status as a celebrity who has already built a considerable following in the country," she announced with confidence.
"As the Deputy COO, I believe that my sister is the most effective solution for our current crisis," Long Jian said. "I support her!"
"I, as the COO, also support Miss Long."
The two Black Stars followed suit. "We support!"
"I support, as well," Long Jufang said.