Chapter 22: Review and Reflection
After the negotiations concluded, Li Fengyu and Chen Yuxuan cornered Secretary Gu Yumin in the men's restroom on the third floor of the Huayu Group headquarters and handed him one million yuan. Li Sen, having witnessed this scene, was shocked and immediately demanded, "What on earth is going on here?"
The story began during the first half of the meeting, when Chen Yuxuan whispered to Li Fengyu. Seeing that Li Fengyu was becoming anxious, Chen leaned in and said, "President, let's take a break. I have a way to break the deadlock." During the recess, Li Fengyu intercepted Secretary Gu Yumin in the restroom and proposed a deal. "Sir, could you do us a favor? This business deal is of vital importance to us," Li Fengyu said. The secretary remained silent. Sensing the opening, Chen Yuxuan added, "How about five hundred thousand if we succeed?" The secretary still said nothing, but his hesitation was evident. Li Fengyu then upped the ante: "What about one million?" Gritting his teeth, the secretary agreed and proceeded to divulge a wealth of intelligence. It turned out that Gu Yumin’s fatal flaw was that she was too clever. As an elite graduate of Oxford University, she thought too deeply and too quickly about every issue. Since it was impossible to deceive her using conventional methods, they had to employ an unconventional, collusive strategy to overcome her.
They began to formulate a plan. First, they created a diversion to put pressure on Gu Yumin, then used masterful acting to induce anxiety, and finally threatened to walk away from the negotiations, forcing her to concede. Li Fengyu prepared to exit, the secretary stepped in to stop him, and the two performed a choreographed charade. That was how they finally managed to handle the woman. However, such tactics alone would not have been enough to force such a massive concession—taking her from a guaranteed one hundred million plus fifty percent of the post-trading profits down to a mere fifteen percent, with five percent of that even being added back by Li Fengyu himself.
Li Sen was enlightened after hearing the explanation. As soon as they stepped out of the Huayu Group building, he called Lin Chu to report the victory. Li Fengyu and his team had perfectly resolved the crisis. On the way back, Li Sen remarked, "Was giving the secretary one million a bit too much?" Li Fengyu waved his hand dismissively. "Not at all. Not even close. Our initial expectation was twenty million, and we ended up cutting it down to almost nothing. Giving the secretary one million was well-deserved; I even feel it was too little. After all, the risk he took was significant—if he had been discovered, it would have been a disaster." Li Sen and Chen Yuxuan nodded in agreement.
That night, while Li Fengyu’s group slept soundly, Gu Yumin tossed and turned. She put on her pajamas and brewed a cup of saffron tea, meticulously reviewing every detail of the day to figure out exactly how she had failed. In truth, Gu Yumin’s failure was not solely due to the mole; she suffered from three fatal weaknesses. First, she lacked Li Fengyu’s astonishing courage. Li was willing to fight with his back to the wall and go all-in, whereas Gu was indecisive and overly cautious. Second, Li Fengyu had nothing to lose and a clear path to retreat, but the Huayu Group was a Gu family asset; Gu Yumin could not bear the thought of any losses. In this round, Li Fengyu was the man in bare feet who didn't fear the man wearing shoes.
Third, as the secretary had noted, Gu Yumin was simply too smart. She obsessed over every detail, overthinking everything, and believed she could see through everything. When she was bluffed by Li Fengyu’s superb performance, her own hesitance and over-intellectualization led to the ultimate irony: her cleverness became her own undoing.