Alex Cohen finished reading the post and immediately called Kevin Lindstrom back.
“Cousin, I’m sorry. The person who posted that should’ve just come at me. Because of this, the entire Helse Pharmaceuticals was implicated.
I personally don’t care much about what others say about me, but the reputation of a business is important, and if not dealt with properly, it’ll affect our interests…”
Kevin, on the other end of the call, was not as anxious as he was before. His tone had become much calmer as he said, “Our public relations department has already taken action and that post will be deleted soon.
But since quite a few people have already seen that post, it’ll probably appear again even after being deleted. Although it’ll definitely bring up a burst of unfavorable public opinion against Helse Pharmaceuticals, the actual impact on Helse is certainly not as great as you think.”
“Oh? What do you mean?”
“People get popular when there are rumors about them, so it’s the same for business. In this world, many are envious because they’re not just incapable of earning money, but also can’t stand if others are earning a lot.
They just have an anti-rich mentality, or to put it simply, they’re just jealous. Although Helse Pharmaceuticals has always been low-profile, as the city’s largest corporation, we’ve become a target for those people.
Besides, malicious slander from competitors also happens from time to time. Anyway, it’s not the first time Helse Pharmaceuticals was targeted, so a post like this is really nothing.”
“Then why did you seem so anxious when you called me just now?”
“I was worried that you couldn’t handle the pressure from the internet and was anxious for you. Since you don’t care what others say about you, it’s not a big deal. But there’s still one thing to note, you’re probably targeted by people with ulterior motives. So it’s best to investigate this matter clearly and find out who started it.”
“Yup. Even if I don’t care what people say about me, that’s my business. I still can’t condone those who maliciously defame me and Helse. But how can I catch the person who created the post? I don’t even know who actually posted it, let alone catching the guy.”
“Just leave this to me. Oh, there’s one more thing. Just now, a shareholder you probably haven’t met before called my father, saying that he wanted to discuss this matter.
If you have time now, you should come over. Even though my father and I believe in you, the other shareholders don’t know you. When the time comes, it’s best if you can explain to them in person rather than for us to explain on your behalf.”
“No problem, then I’ll come over right away! By the way, Cousin, was it Yannick Solomon who called the meeting?”
“Yeah, what’s wrong? No wait…how do you know? You haven’t even met him yet, right?”
“Well…I can’t explain it clearly over the phone. I’ll tell you more when we meet.”
Alex had a lot of enemies, so at the moment, it was impossible to determine who actually created the post.
However, since Alex was aware that Yannick had promised Zachary to deal with him from within Helse Pharmaceuticals, he guessed that Yannick was probably the most anxious to make a big deal out of the post. Yannick had also received the deposit from Zachary, so if he wanted to get more money, he had to complete his task…
Alex ate breakfast at home with Isla Sullivan, then called up Big Ken and rushed to the headquarters of Helse Pharmaceuticals.
Kevin welcomed Alex into the office and could not wait to ask, “Cousin, how exactly did you meet Yannick Solomon?”
“Well…”
Alex responded after thinking about it, “I met him at a hotel yesterday.”
“How did you guess that he was the one who called for the meeting today?”
“Because when I saw him at the hotel yesterday, he was having dinner with Zachary Ewing.”
“What? Isn’t Zachary Ewing the son of Zentrum Pharmaceuticals’ CEO, Zephyr Ewing? How did the two of them get together? Could it be…”
Kevin thought about it and suddenly had a bold guess, but before he had time to say it, the office door was pushed open. He turned his head to look and found that the one who pushed the door open was precisely the person he was discussing with Alex – Yannick Solomon.
“Cousin, you came just in time…”
Kevin said this and wanted to go up to Yannick to ask him in person.
Alex considered that it was not yet time to lay it all out with Yannick and wanted to see what other devious ideas Yannick had come up with first, so he dragged Kevin back and said softly, “Don’t alert the enemy just yet. Just pretend you don’t know anything. Wait until I find a chance to get more information from him.”
“Okay.”
Kevin followed Alex’s suggestion and once again turned his head to look at the door.
Yannick, who was quite surprised to see Alex there, paused for a while before he entered the office. He scrutinized Alex and asked probingly, “Why are you here?”
Alex shrugged his shoulders and said, “Kevin invited me.”
“Yup!”
Kevin hurriedly nodded and added to Alex’s words, “Yannick, didn’t you want to discuss the post and even want to hold an emergency meeting? Since this is about the reputation of the entire Helse Pharmaceuticals, it also concerns the interests of all shareholders, so everyone should try to participate. That’s why I gave Alex a call. It just so happened that he had time today, so he came over.”
“In that case…”
Yannick was doubtful but did not ask more questions. He just turned and said, “Uncle has already brought several shareholders to the meeting room. It’s almost time, so let’s go over together. The situation is rather urgent, so the sooner this meeting is held, the better.”
“Good point. Let’s head on over then.”
Kevin’s curiosity was piqued. He had a feeling that Alex was holding back something. Prompted by his curiosity, he led Alex and Yannick to a small conference room with quick steps. Normally, this conference room would only be used when a high-level meeting was held.
There were already several people inside. In addition to Lenox Lindstrom, there were also two minority shareholders and two vice presidents.
It can be seen that those who were present either had shares or real power. They were certainly key people in Helse Pharmaceuticals.
Lenox greeted Alex with a nod and gestured for Alex to take his seat, then scanned the conference room and said, “Yannick, you’ve invited quite a few people for this meeting. Initially, I thought that you were just looking for me and Kevin in a private setting, but it turns out that you’re holding a rather formal meeting.”
Yannick waved his hand and responded, “Whether it’s business or personal, we shouldn’t underestimate this post.”
“Since you organized this meeting, tell us your thoughts first.”
“Alright. Then today, I’ll speak my mind!”
What Yannick wanted was this opportunity to let him speak freely. After a short pause, he slowly spoke, following the script he had prepared beforehand.
“I think all of you here must’ve seen the post targeting Helse Pharmaceuticals. This post was hostile towards us and obviously wants to stir up public opinion about our company!”
Lenox frowned slightly and asked, “So…?”
“I carefully studied that post and found that whether it’s the text or pictures, they’re all related to Alex Cohen. No…strictly speaking, Alex should be taking the blame for all the events listed by the person who posted this, regardless if it was true or not. Helse is not at all to blame for any of it! First of all, the post mentioned that the land acquisition project of Zentrum Pharmaceuticals was snatched by our company. But I remember that in previous discussions, there was no vote on this motion, right? This means that Alex did this privately, and even used Helse’s name. Likewise, it’s also not the company’s intention for Alex to repeatedly find trouble with Zachary Ewing.”
Lenox did not rush to pick a side. He turned to Alex and asked, “What’s your opinion on this post?”
Alex shrugged and replied, “Let’s hear what Yannick has to say first. Assuming that what you said is true, what’s your strategy to handle this?”
Yannick straightened his back and said in a very firm tone, “Alex, we can understand that as the second-largest shareholder of Helse, you want to contribute to our company. But it turns out that you simply don’t have the strength to do so and your actions will only discredit us as a collective. Then instead of doing bad things with good intentions, you shouldn’t do anything at all. I suggest that you transfer your shares or find someone else to hold them on your behalf. This way, you can’t interfere with our company’s matters anymore. Also, you should terminate that land acquisition project immediately!”
“You think you can use one post to kick me out of the company? Aren’t you just too naive?”
“This is just my suggestion. We still have to discuss how to deal with it.”
“Let me ask you a question first. What you just said…is it really your suggestion?”
Alex paused for effect before he continued, “Or was it Zachary Ewing’s?”
