As Long Industries' celebrity brand ambassador, Iris Long attended many events and performed a lot of marketing and PR duties for the company. Her circle of business acquaintances expanded a great deal during this short period of time as a result. She wouldn't be a student of the (shameless) business genius Sir Lu Jianhong if she didn't take advantage of this precious opportunity to meet important business figures from different fields on a regular basis.
On the surface, she was diligent in fulfilling her commitment as Long Industries' brand ambassador, but on the side, she was gathering potentially lucrative business connections for her own companies. After attending these events, she would instruct Chen Fei (Orchidia Beauty) and Hou Liang (Planet Monkey) to contact selected personages she met through these events to form some sort of business relationship. There was no need to worry about her real estate company Gold Heights because it was already well-established even before she acquired it after Jin Liwei gifted it to her.
In this way, Iris wasn't only increasing her personal influence in Long Industries, and in extension, in the Long clan but also expanding her companies' connections in the business industry. Also, she didn't forget her original goal of winning the Longs' battle of succession and purging the cesspool of ancient prejudice and narrow-mindedness in the clan for the sake of securing a safe and bright future for her godson, Little Jun.
It was difficult but without a doubt a win-win solution, hence why she didn't mind spending a lot of time and effort in her brand ambassadorship even though she barely had any time to rest and felt exhausted all the time.
Fortunately, her hard work paid off. Long Industries stock prices recovered and even exceeded its previous value before the overnight crash by a few points. There was no need for the contingency plans that Long Hui had been assigned to prepare in case Iris and Long Jian failed.
To celebrate the happy occasion, President-CEO Long Tengfei threw a company-wide party. All employees were invited from the ones in the lowest rungs to the top level. The party had to be hosted in a rented convention centre instead of a hotel hall in order to accommodate everyone. It wasn't very luxurious compared to previous parties but it was appropriate given that they just survived a dangerous stock price crash.
Iris attended the party without an escort but still stunned everyone wearing an elegant emerald evening dress with a golden dragon embroidered on the entire back. The dragon depicted on her dress was rising to the heavens, the symbol of the Long clan.
Seeing that she was wearing the clan's symbol with so much pride, many of the clan members who attended the party, especially the elders, couldn't help but nod in approval. Even Long Meng, Long Hui's number one supporter in the clan, appreciated Iris' homage.
The party seemed to freeze for a few seconds when Iris stepped inside the venue. Her entrance was silent, yet her presence was magnetic that almost everyone's heads turned towards her at the same time.
"Kyaaaah! Boss Iris is here!"
"Thank you for saving our jobs, Young Miss Iris Long! Thanks to you, we didn't have to be laid-off!"
"Boss Iris! Please give me an autograph!"
Iris flashed them a breathtaking smile, dazzling them so much that they almost couldn't believe a human being could be so beautiful. They knew that Iris Long was beautiful and even caught sight of her multiple times coming in and out of the company recently, but there was just something about her at this moment that caused people to stare at her like dazed idiots. She seemed to radiate an extra brightness from within.
Greeting everyone, especially her fans, she interacted with them for a few minutes before Long Jian came to "rescue" her from the growing crowd.
"Sorry, please excuse me," she apologized to them. "I need to greet my father, President Long, first."
Her adoring fans didn't complain and waved her away with great reluctance. Many of them were happy because they got pictures and autographs from her. The evening was still young. There were plenty of opportunities to bump into her again later.
"You didn't bring anyone with you? Where are your bodyguards?" Long Jian asked in a whisper as he steered her away.
"My bodyguards are here. You just don't notice them. Liwei won't let me leave the house without bringing bodyguards especially after the bomb incident," Iris told him.
It was interesting to note that even without an official announcement of segregation, the employees automatically divided themselves according to their positions in the company. Those belonging in the lower ranks were near the entrance where Iris was greeted with the greatest enthusiasm because a lot of them were her fans or admired her as a celebrity.
The farther Iris and Long Jian walked, the higher the positions of the people in the company and the more elitist they behaved with some ignoring Iris and Long Jian altogether as if the two were nobodies, despite already noticing them right from the start due to Iris Long's large and magnetic presence.
Iris and Long Jian also didn't acknowledge those snobs but made a show of reciprocating those who greeted them regardless of whether the greetings were sincere or not.
"This is so tiring. My lips are tired smiling and acting nice to all these people who are clearly talking trash behind our backs," Iris muttered while smiling.
Long Jian smirked. "You still have a long way to go, little sister. I told you that acting skills are important if you want to survive in the corporate world."