236: Chapter 236: ‘Insider News’ (Please Favorite, Subscribe, and Vote for Monthly Tickets) 236: Chapter 236: ‘Insider News’ (Please Favorite, Subscribe, and Vote for Monthly Tickets) The moon sets as the sun rises, and the stars give way to daylight.

It seemed like an ordinary morning.

During the lunch break, Jack tucked a bottle of red wine under his arm and headed out to find the workshop supervisor.

But just as he glimpsed the supervisor from afar, his wristband suddenly began to vibrate insistently.

It was a call from his wife, Elsa.

Jack paused, glancing at the supervisor who was chatting with a few workers in the distance.

The workers were already saying their goodbyes, about to leave.

This would be the perfect opportunity to strike up a conversation with the supervisor.

Jack felt the wine bottle hidden inside his jacket.

He had spent over six hundred federal coins on this fine red wine.

The supervisor was particularly fond of wine, and if he accepted this bottle, Jack’s business was likely halfway done.

As his wristband continued to buzz, Jack looked at the supervisor one more time and eventually lifted his hand to answer the call.

“Jack, you have to check the email from Chairman Vian sent to all the employees!”

Excitement tinged Elsa’s voice on the phone.

“What happened?”

Jack was somewhat confused, but he nonetheless opened his mailbox and saw an email sent by ‘Chairman Vian’ to all the staff.

The message was sent at 9:30 a.m., which was during the busiest time of the morning, so Jack had missed the reminder on his wristband.

The content of the email was straightforward, written in plain language, with two main points:

First, for all employees of Nolanka Group with school-age children, a tuition discount of up to 35%, a cost of living reduction of 40%, and a 25% discount on child-care services would be available for children attending the group’s affiliated kindergartens, elementary, and middle schools.

To apply for these discounts, employees only needed to fill out the relevant forms on the company intranet and attach the required documentation.

Once approved, they could use the official document to proceed with tuition discount procedures on the school’s website.

Second, all employees of Nolanka Group would be eligible for a rent discount of 15% to 30% on apartments owned by the group.

Just like with the school discounts, employees need to submit an application form on the intranet.

After approval, they can take the document directly to the apartment manager to receive the rental discount.

The email ended with two attached files outlining the rules for eligibility for these benefits.

Jack downloaded the files and glanced through them.

He discovered that as a dual-income couple who were new immigrants without any seniority in Kaye City, he and his wife could apply for substantial savings.

“Have you finished reading?

Have you finished?”

Elsa’s excited voice came through the phone.

She had repeated herself several times already.

“I’ve finished,” Jack was much calmer than his wife.

In a measured tone, he replied, “These benefits seem good, but there’s an approval process.

In the end, it’s down to what they decide upstairs.

Benefits like these don’t usually trickle down to us ordinary employees.”

“It’s different this time,” his wife’s voice suddenly dropped to a whisper, barely audible,

“I heard from a colleague that this new Chairman Vian is the one personally pushing for this.

He ousted the previous chairman, some guy named Philip, who had embezzled a significant amount of the group’s funds and is now under arrest.

The new chairman, Mr.

Vian, is a good man.

He took the funds embezzled by Philip and used them for employee benefits.

It seems he even had a falling out with the board of directors over it.

The board wanted to distribute the money as dividends, but he refused to let them because he’s the majority shareholder, and he was adamant about implementing this new benefits policy.

Rumor has it that this time anyone who’s an employee and applies will receive the benefits.

My colleague told me she got this insider information from her sister who’s in a supervisory position.

She told me not to spread it around.”

“Why does this story sound so bizarre?”

Jack was somewhat skeptical.

“I already said it’s insider information,” Elsa whispered on the other end of the phone, “besides, it’s free to apply, we have nothing to lose.

It says here that results will be out at the latest in twenty-four hours, and if it really doesn’t work out, we can think of other ways then.”

Jack hesitated for a moment, clutched the red wine in his arms, and nodded lightly, “I’ll send you the documents.

We can apply.”

As his wife had said, it didn’t cost anything, so there was no harm in trying.

······

When the lunch break ended, Jack returned to the workshop,

and placed the bottle of wine he was carrying into the storage locker.

“You’re bringing wine to work now?”

The man on shift with Jack was a middle-aged man with red curly hair, a big beard, and a large beer belly; he came over, laughing, and asked, “Going to have a couple of drinks after work?”

“Bought it by mistake a few days ago, planning to return it today.”

Jack smiled, locked the wine in the locker; as a newcomer, he wasn’t very familiar with his coworkers and still felt a sense of distance when speaking, “My wife’s waiting for me to have dinner at home tonight, so I won’t be going.”

“Good man, good man.”

Big Beard chuckled appreciatively, not upset at being turned down.

At this moment, a few other workers came over, waving their wristbands, “Did you see the email from the board of directors?

What in the world do those lords mean, with 35% this, 25% that, we can’t make heads or tails of it?

Can we trust this thing or is it just another cunning scheme by those lords to fool us while they make money?”

Suddenly, everyone started discussing, and Jack got swept up in the conversation.

As the talk went on, he began speaking slowly, “I have some insider information that I heard from my wife’s colleague’s manager; you guys better not tell anyone…”

——

He Ao lounged in his office chair, the projection screen in front of him displaying the ever-changing number of applicants.

Lina, with huge dark circles under her eyes, sat next to He Ao, pouring coffee into her mouth cup after cup.

“How’s the effect?”

She leaned forward to look at the numbers on the monitor.

The review wasn’t entirely manual; Eve would first screen all the applications, roughly categorizing them, then pass them on to the administrative personnel who were urgently assembled that morning for review.

The opinions of these personnel would ultimately be fed back into Eve’s database for machine learning, allowing her to make more accurate judgments.

Out of all the reviewers, apart from those who were obviously unqualified, like those without children applying for education subsidies, everyone who applied would be allocated a preferential spot.

However, for high-income groups like corporate executives, the preferential treatment they received would be minimal, not exceeding five percent, and there was a cap on deductions; it was basically a formality.

On the other hand, the lower-income and economically disadvantaged workers would receive higher benefits.

The reason for making such an across-the-board decision was to build up the trust of the group’s senior management.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com