The Heiress's Game

Wang Manyun wasn't the kind of housewife who only enjoyed idyllic scenery. She had a job.

Her office is located in a cultural media company under the Gu Group. Nominally, she is the vice president in charge of brand strategy, but in reality, she manages all of the Gu Group's public-facing brand promotion channels.

—From the press releases for the group's annual meeting to the selection of partners for the art fund in which Gu Zhenxing personally holds shares, and the image management of every member of the Gu family in the public eye, everything has to go through her hands.

She performed her position flawlessly, earning the respect of the senior executives in Gu's real estate sector, and Gu Mingcheng never openly contradicted her.

When she married Gu Zhenxing, she told him: "I don't need money, but there's one thing you have to let me learn." Gu Zhenxing asked her what it was.

She said, "I want to learn how to do business." She said it with a smile, her tone gentle, but Gu Zhenxing glanced at her and said okay.

She has been teaching for more than a decade, and her office has changed from a small room in the corner to a suite that occupies half a floor.

This afternoon, she had just come down from a brand cooperation meeting and signed three documents when she suddenly remembered something.

Gu Yunjin has been back for almost two months—she's been on blind dates, taken to art exhibitions, attended performances by the Daheng Song and Dance Troupe, bought the necessary items for the house, and met the people she was supposed to meet.

But there was one thing she forgot. Her personal assistant.

To be honest, this can't be blamed on her—Su Wanning's daughter was originally a card with little or no influence in the Gu family, but this step couldn't be skipped.

Because Gu Yunjin is, after all, the second young lady of the Gu family, she cannot lack any of the proper privileges. Otherwise, if word gets out that Wang Manyun is mistreating her stepdaughter, it will be because she, as the head of the household, is being inconsiderate.

It was getting late when Wang Manyun went upstairs and knocked on Gu Yunjin's bedroom door.

Gu Yunjin was leaning against the headboard reading a book when she heard the knock on the door. She closed the book, placed it next to her pillow, and said, "Come in."

Wang Manyun pushed open the door and came in, having changed into a home cheongsam. Her makeup was still on, indicating that she had just returned from outside.

She turned her head to look at Gu Yunjin, as if she had suddenly remembered something very small.

This expression is very common on her face—it's always like this "I just remembered" look whenever she's about to assign something to someone.

"Jin'er, it's been two months since you came back." Wang Manyun's voice was unhurried, carrying the efficiency of someone handling official business.

"There's something I've always remembered, but I almost forgot in all the busyness—you don't have a personal assistant yet."

She sat down on the single sofa by the bed, pulled up her skirt above her knees, and explained the assistant recruitment process—the Gu family would handle the expenses, and the recruitment could be handled by the group's HR, who would screen candidates up to the final interview before handing the selection over to Gu Yunjin, or she could do it herself, whichever was more convenient for her.

Gu Yunjin sat obediently on the edge of the bed, and did not rush to answer after listening.

She tilted her head slightly and thought for a few seconds, as if she was seriously weighing her options, then looked up and said, "I'll recruit myself. I want to see how the recruitment process works in China, just to practice."

Wang Manyun glanced at her and said okay.

The Gu Group has a building specifically for its "own people".

It's not the kind of office building where a few floors are set aside as an administrative headquarters; it's a gray-white five-story building hidden in the southeast corner of the old Gu family compound.

There are no signs at the entrance, but every department within the group knows its name—the Gu Family Affairs Management Office.

This place doesn't concern itself with the group's business. It only cares about its own family matters.

From recruiting servants for the old house, to background checks, contract signing, social security payments, and exit interviews.

From the staffing and salary determination of each family member's personal assistant, to the venue planning, supplier bidding, menu approval, and security arrangements for family banquets.

All non-commercial matters related to the word "family care" are handled by the people in this building.

The office manager's surname is Peng, his name is Peng Yuming, he is 48 years old, and he previously worked in the administration department of Gu's Group for 15 years.

Because he was tight-lipped and steady-handed, Gu Zhenxing specifically requested him to be the "housekeeper" of this building.

He oversees three smaller departments: the Human Resources Group, the Procurement Group, and the Legal and Risk Control Group.

The personnel team's office area is on the second floor.

Gu Yunjin's recruitment needs were transferred from the system to the HR backend of this building at 10:00 AM.

The salary budget, job description, and direct reporting relationships have all been approved in the OA system.

The first person I saw was Zhou Xiaoyun. She was an ordinary employee in the human resources team, 26 years old, and had just joined the team last year from a human resources outsourcing company. She usually sat at the row of workstations behind the reception desk by the window.

When she refreshed the backend page, she saw a newly popped-up job posting among a bunch of maid contract renewals and driver schedules, with a note after the number: "Miss Gu Yunjin's personal assistant".

"Who is Gu Yunjin?" she asked her colleague, Sister Zhao, in a low voice.

Sister Zhao is a veteran in the personnel team. She has worked in the Gu Family Affairs Office for six or seven years and has seen the names of everyone in the personnel file system.

She adjusted her reading glasses and glanced at the screen.

"Mr. Gu's second daughter. The one from his second marriage. She went abroad when she was young and only recently came back."

"Second Miss." Zhou Xiaoyun chewed on those three words.

She had been working in the Gu family affairs office for over a year, and her name had never appeared in the list of Gu family members' private affairs that she had handled.

But Gu Yunjin—she could hardly recall where that name fit into the Gu family.

"So, is she not very favored?" Zhou Xiaoyun moved her chair closer to Sister Zhao and asked in a voice only the two of them could hear.

"She's been away from home for years and only came back two months ago when I thought of getting her an assistant."

Sister Zhao didn't respond to that. She simply flipped through the new configuration in the HR system and clicked her tongue.

"Don't talk nonsense. Look—the salary budget is quite high, even higher than the young master's assistant."

Sister Zhao adjusted her reading glasses. "The remarks column says that if the performance is good, the second young lady will give a separate bonus—not through the company account, but paid privately by her."

"I always say—you have to be born into a better family in your next life. Look at other people, they have a personal assistant with them wherever they go."

The salary is higher than ours, plus extra bonuses, and the boss is a young woman—who hardly ever goes out. You couldn't find a job like this even with a lantern.

Sister Zhao glanced at her through her reading glasses, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.

She has seen too many assistants for family members and knows what kind of assistant is the hardest to be.

It's not that the most difficult person to please is the hardest to be; it's that the person everyone thinks is easy to please is often the most difficult to please.

She didn't say anything more, but simply checked the wording of the job requirements over and over again.

There was no bias, no implication.

She kept comparing the two names in her mind—Gu Mingyue and Gu Yunjin.

Biological sisters, half-sisters, one already has a team of seven, the other just got her first assistant position. That's the Gu family.

The job description that was posted was several times more detailed than the one that Wang Manyun approved for Gu Yunjin, covering tasks such as itinerary management, daily affairs, purchasing, bilingual translation (Chinese and English), and basic bookkeeping.

In less than a week, I received three or four hundred resumes in my inbox.

Gu Yunjin would occasionally pick up a tablet in the living room and pretend to browse through it. When Wang Manyun passed by, she would peek over and say, "Take your time choosing, don't rush to decide."

Gu Yunjin smiled and said okay, then continued swiping the name on the screen.

Most nights she spent alone in her bedroom, sending the selected resumes to Zhou Ji for review.

From the perspective of how the team has previously assessed individuals, their educational background, past employment relationships, and social media activity were investigated.

This is the first employee she has ever hired in China, and there may be more than one in the future.

She doesn't ask the Gu family affairs office about the people she wants to hire; she only asks her own standards.