Miss Witch doesn't want to be a diva!.

Chapter 603: The Dilemma of the Chaebol Group

Once upon a time, Tilan had a fantasy filter for this kind of high-end banquet, just like ordinary people would imagine how big the emperor's house was and how wide his bedroom was. But in fact, the emperor's bedroom was not bigger than that of ordinary people, and even high-end banquets would be more casual, not like a performance rehearsal.

After arriving at the agreed place, Tilan got out of the car, looked up, and saw the familiar building and sign, feeling a little subtle.

This is the 'Four Winds Hotel', where she and her companions used to work. She remembered that an accident happened there, which made Shui Yanqing withdrawn for a long time.

When she entered the hotel, the lobby had already been cleared and the greeting staff who had been waiting for a long time quickly stepped forward to welcome the singing girl.

"Lord Pulin has arrived and is now in the banquet hall. Do you need me to lead the way for you?"

Tilan nodded slightly, then looked at the people who followed her, asked some of them to stay in the lobby, and then took the rest to the elevator.

Wearing simple black dresses, grey goggles covering their eyes, mechanical swords at their waists, and pistols hidden inside their dresses, these members who followed Heshia Tilan were no longer the young men they were a few years ago. Now, they were all well-trained and their strength was comparable to that of the members of the Inquisition.

To ordinary people, these all-Sequence 6 elite transcendents have a strong aura and oppressive force. Even a glare from them is enough to make transcendents below Sequence 3 feel fearful. The girl in the protection center of this group of people appears much more quiet and weak. Her fair and slender fingers and figure show that she does not have much fighting power.

The hotel staff who was in charge of leading the way in the elevator was thinking about various things in his mind, until a 'ding' sound was heard in the elevator and then the elevator door opened, waking him up from his fantasy.

"Please go this way." He continued to lead the way, bringing the group to the luxurious banquet hall on this floor.

Passing through a short empty corridor, soothing music and voices could be heard. When the group arrived in front of the gate, Tilan stopped and whispered a few words to the two people behind her. The group that followed stayed outside the banquet hall, and she only took two people into the banquet.

The lights here are bright. The seven-story glazed tower chandelier on the ceiling is said to be specially carved by a famous master. There are also many paintings by artists hanging on the side walls of the hall. However, Tilan is no longer surprised by these things. She swept her eyes across the room and immediately saw Pulin, the only one in the room wearing a bright red dress.

Pulin is now 160cm tall, and with the thick-soled high heels she wears, she has the temperament of a "little queen". The reason why I use the word "small" is probably because her face shape and figure both look young.

Tilan walked over. Many guests wanted to greet the girl, but she just nodded slightly without stopping.

Pulin, who was talking to someone, noticed something, turned around, and saw the girl approaching. Her fiery red eyes blinked, and then a faint smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.

"You're here." Both of them are singers, so they don't need complicated language to communicate. Sometimes they just look at each other and they can roughly understand what the other wants to express.

"Well, good evening." Tilan took the wine glass from the waiter's tray and raised it slightly.

"You too." Then Pulin pointed Tilan in a direction. In a corner of the banquet, three middle-aged men in formal attire were standing together and chatting.

Soon, at the reminder of the deputy beside them, the three turned around and saw Tilan standing with Pulin, so they walked over quickly.

"Welcome Miss Tilan to the party we are hosting. Please relax tonight and don't be too restrained." Then one of them clapped his hands, and the music on the scene changed to a new one. The style was classical and soft, affectionate and lingering. They thought Tilan should like this style of music.

In response, Tilan just nodded slightly, and then someone came to lead Tilan to a quiet corner of the banquet hall, where there was a seat and a small round table specially reserved for her.

Soon after Tilan sat down, a waiter brought two bottles of special drinks with different flavors, as well as snacks on jade porcelain plates.

Just like that, after Tilan had a drink and sat for a while, one of the three men slowly came over and sat in the seat opposite Tilan.

"This should be the first time we meet, Miss Tilan. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Ankla Filura, the chief of the 'Queen Bee Business Alliance', and also the president of the giant enterprise 'Nest Tree Group'." He has straight black short hair, deep blue eyes, and wears silver-framed glasses, giving him a meticulous temperament.

The 'Queen Bee Business Alliance' is one of the ten largest human chaebols in the central star field, while the 'Nest Tree Group' is a behemoth in the fields of building materials, real estate, home design, etc. It has many large companies under its command, distributed upstream and downstream of the entire industry.

"Hello, I'm Heshia Tilan." There is no need to add any other titles, the singer's name alone is enough to represent a lot.

Then there were some polite compliments. The other party talked about when he first heard Tilan's song, then talked about his student days, and then talked about the changes in the Federation over the years, etc.

As the atmosphere became less awkward and tense, the other party gradually turned the topic to the main point, testing Tilan's attitude.

"I wonder what Miss Tilan thinks of the current situation in the Federation?"

"I don't quite understand." The girl was not naive, so she would not easily reveal her true thoughts. She just said that she did not understand the complicated situation in the upper echelons of the federation.

Seeing that Tilan was not so easy to give in, the other party did not get impatient, but slowly recounted the ups and downs in the federation over the years.

"After Her Highness Aimuralin ended the civil war, many groups and clans fell, and opportunities reappeared in many fields and industries. In the decades after the war, production was restored and the economy continued to rise."

"This period of time is probably the history that everyone likes. Then came the era of the three Sunday-level singers, 'Hu Xun Hui Yin' Perrit, 'Cang Se Xin Zhu' Eladya, and 'Silver Key Inscription' Tishinasha. When they were in power, although the Federation was not as glorious as Her Highness Aimuralin's era, at least it maintained a general fairness and stability within the Federation. All forces could find them as intermediaries or witnesses to prevent any party from breaking their promises."

"After that, for nearly a hundred years, there was no Sun-level singer. The voices within the Federation gradually diverged and it became difficult to unify. The economy also slowly entered a period of stagnation. There were no new breakthroughs in various industries, and conflicts accumulated more and more."

"Although some people say that we, as a vested interest group, are not qualified to say such things, I still want to say that if the overall environment continues to deteriorate, it will be difficult for us, as owners of large assets, to obtain positive returns."

"In the past, if you invested 100 yuan, you could get a return of about 30 yuan, but now if you invest 100 yuan, you may not even get a return of yuan."

"People think that it is the giant companies that are doing evil and monopolizing, but the reality is that even if we are at the helm of the company, we cannot fully control this ship."

"It's not just government officials who are corrupt. Senior executives, middle managers, front-line salesmen, etc. of large companies all use various means to extract benefits from the company. They are more bold and direct, and there are too many ways to cover up such behavior, making it more difficult to detect than government agencies that strictly supervise it."

"They will falsify data for business indicators, deliberately block information that is unfavorable to them, report to their superiors, use company projects to accumulate their own personal coffers, and so on."

"The moral decline of the entire society has resulted in the shattering of trust in all walks of life. Things that originally only cost 10 yuan to complete now require an additional 10 yuan to develop a complex supervision process, hire specialized auditors to verify, and so on."

"Investigation, design, production, promotion, sales, after-sales, every link has deception and untruthfulness, but the company is owned by only a few people. Even if each of them is a genius, they can still take care of everything when the company is relatively small. Once the scale is expanded, various problems will inevitably arise."

"This has been going on for thirty years, until the building is on the verge of collapse." He raised the glass and drank it with a sigh.

Tilan looked at the dance floor at the banquet and just listened to the other party quietly without responding.

She would not speak in black and white like a child, or simply believe that justice defeats evil, and that a happy ending can be achieved as long as a certain enemy is defeated.

Human heart, morality, economy, civilization, these words seem to be far apart, but they are inextricably linked to each other.

It is hard to imagine that in a country full of corruption and injustice, the economy can develop healthily and rapidly, and the entire civilization can move forward in great strides. In other words, if a country maintains a fair and open atmosphere and maintains moral standards, such a country will also accumulate wealth quickly, because everyone can see the return of their efforts, so they will be more willing to participate in this wonderful world. Tilan closed her eyes, then opened them, and she picked up the wine glass on the table beside her.

"So, what do you want to do to save this era from darkness?"

The other party nodded slightly and then shook his head: "Even if I am the president of a large chaebol group, I dare not say such big words. Reality is not a game. As long as you are the leader, the people below will execute the order unconditionally when you give it."

"They may have other ideas, they may be bought off by someone from another company, they may just do it to save trouble, they may not understand this strange order and do their own thing."

“Capital pursues profit, and a group that pursues profit completely cannot use this principle to control its subordinates, because employees will find it easier and more convenient to put the company’s money into their own pockets.”

"So, even companies that are only interested in making money will spend all kinds of energy to cultivate so-called 'corporate spirit', 'belief' and so on. Sometimes it's hard not to laugh. The larger the interest group, the more it needs things like 'spirit', 'culture' and 'trust' that do not involve interests to maintain the stability of the group."

"I know it's a bit hypocritical to say this, but I do hope that this era can be better. People like us have already enjoyed the best material conditions and resources in the world. Many things that ordinary people envy and yearn for are no longer fresh and satisfying to us."

"Career success, recognition from the world, and a name that will be passed down from generation to generation, these things that ordinary people consider to be 'empty', are things that we gradually begin to value."

"I hope Miss Heshia Tilan can look at us again and give us a chance to trust her."

"Mr. Ankara, how many singers have you said this to?" Tilan asked with her head tilted.

"I only told you, but Pulin also knows the general situation. It was she who recommended you to us."

"Why do you trust me so much? I don't seem to have that much influence now."

"That's only now. In fact, we have done a very thorough investigation. Please believe that as the intelligence system of the top chaebol in the Central Star Region, although it is not enough to compare with the Inquisition, there are not many secrets in the Federation that we don't know."

"Alas... this is indeed the true nature of businessmen." Tilan shook her head. It seemed that these guys were ready to make a bet in advance to take advantage of the rare goods.

The girl's eyes closed slightly, then opened after a few seconds.

"I don't know what you want specifically, but you should also know that if the reform is not thorough, the result will only be a change of name but not substance, and it will soon return to the old ways."

"I can't guarantee that your names will be among the top ten tycoons in the federation in the future."

"If Miss Tilan doesn't trust us because of this, I think there is no need to worry." The other party raised his glass.

"You should have read a lot of history and know about the chaotic times at the end of dynasties. Why do you think the powerful families in those places would risk everything and join a group of forces?"

"Because they have no other choice at this time. Staying where they are will only make things worse, and they will eventually be devoured by some passing warlord."

"The more wealth you have, the more it will be coveted and spied on by countless people in a chaotic era, and the more crises you will face. Moreover, modern wealth is just a line of data in the banking system. When countries change, the newcomers can wipe out this data with just a slight policy change."

"Wealth only exists in an environment with perfect order. If there is no order, all wealth will be gone. Our consortium also has trillions of assets in the Western Star Region, but with the establishment of a new country, the network and access are cut off, and everything is gone. Even if the Federation retakes the Western Star Region in the future, those things will probably no longer belong to us."

"You see, these things that others envy are actually so fragile. They are very useful and can call the wind and rain in peacetime. In wartime, all it takes is a soldier pointing a gun to your head and you have to willingly give everything to them." The other party said self-deprecatingly.

"If it were the Earth of the past, people could still flee to various safe countries, but in such a vast interstellar era, we have nowhere to escape. The warships that exceed the speed of light are enough to catch up with all losers."

"So we just hope to get a ticket from you to the next era. As for whether it can continue to prosper, it depends on the luck of future generations." He said some ancient oriental words.

Is the situation already so bad? Tilan thought to herself as she slowly sipped the glass of light red fruit wine.

If there was a slight turnaround and hope, these big capitalists would not beg so humbly. It can only be said that the current federation is developing more and more out of control. As the participants who see the most clearly, they have already sensed the chill and imminent danger.

I guess they didn't just look for me. They must have also taken other methods to conceal and transfer assets. But this is normal. No one would put all their eggs in one basket.

After thinking about it, Tilan drank the little fruit wine left in the glass, and then placed the empty glass gently on the glass table.

"You should be prepared to atone your sins. This will probably be a painful but necessary path." She stood up, waved goodbye to Pulin in the distance, then turned and left the hall.

As the singing girl left, the waiting members of the star group followed her out, and then the music in the banquet hall slowly stopped.

Ankara, who had been talking with Tilan for a long time, stood up and looked at Pulin with a little hesitation, as if he wanted to get an answer from her.

"How stupid! Tilan means that you should be prepared to vomit blood. She won't show mercy to you just because you surrender early." Pulin lifted her fiery red hair and blew a breath.

"Think carefully about what shameful deeds you have done over the years. Pay them back while you still have money and appease those little people who were bullied by you. This way, she may be more easy to talk to in the future." Pulin told the chaebol executives present.

"She is not as easy to talk to as she looks. She just doesn't have the chance to show her cold side. Or, if she wants the federation to be clean and fair in the future, she must do a thorough cleanup like Amy Larin did." After saying this, Pulin spread his hands.

"Because of love, I will be calmer and more rational, maybe that's it."

"But she is just a second-tier singer of the new generation. Is she so arrogant?" A chaebol executive was dissatisfied and thought that Tilan was too arrogant. She was not even at the Moon Level, but she dared to have such an attitude.

"Oh, you think so? No wonder." Pulin tilted his head and looked at him, then a flash of fire appeared in his eyes, and the other party collapsed to the ground in horror.

"Do you believe it? Even if I haven't even reached the Moon Level, I can still penetrate your spiritual will with one glance. If it were her, it would be even easier. I guess even Ores's talent is not as strong as Tilan's."

"I am one of the few people who can see this clearly in advance. If it weren't for your care for me, I wouldn't want to tell you this."

"Since you begged me, you must respect the choice I gave you, otherwise get out of here." She was not as good-tempered as Tilan, and she couldn't stand seeing someone jumping around in front of her.

Although Pulin does not have much experience at present, she is the only trump card in the hands of the top ten chaebols that can fight against Orlais. If she opens her mouth to exclude someone, then this person, even if he is a relative or a senior executive in the chaebol group, will not escape the fate of being dismissed and expelled.

At this point, the entire banquet hall fell silent.

(End of this chapter)