Lin Jin and Gao Jiang smiled as they were introduced.
Then, Tan Lin said to them, “These gentlemen here are from Green River City’s Beast Appraisal Association. This is Chief Xu Anqiao and the others are official beast appraisers from Green River City.”
After the brief introduction session, Lin Jin came to understand that their ‘colleagues’ from Green River City’s Beast Appraisal Association had arrived.
However, based on the current situation, despite the exchanged smiles, he could sense a hostile clash of energies between these individuals. It wasn’t just Lin Jin who noticed it; Gao Jiang sensed something was off as well.
Although both of them were at odds with each other, as representatives of Maple City’s Beast Appraisal Association, they stood beside Tan Lin immediately to back her up without hesitation.
“Haha, I’ve heard about Appraiser Lin. It’s said that you’re the youngest Rank 2 beast appraiser around the neighboring cities here. Finally, I got the chance to meet you in person. I gotta say, you sure seem like an extraordinary and promising young man.”
The man named Xu Anqiao immediately praised Lin Jin.
It was too obvious that he was trying to sow discord between the appraisers. By deliberately ignoring Gao Jiang who was standing right beside Lin Jin, he was clearly trying to turn their relationship sour.
Sure enough, Gao Jiang’s expression stiffened and he seemed somewhat unnerved. At this, Tan Lin immediately supplemented, “Chief Xu, in terms of experience, Appraiser Gao is far above Appraiser Lin.”
Commending Gao Jiang soothed the already-tense atmosphere The latter now seemed much more at ease upon hearing his chief’s statement.
Just as annoyed by the situation, Lin Jin, in particular, started to dislike this Xu guy for attempting to put him in a tight spot. Although Lin Jin wasn’t afraid of Gao Jiang, he couldn’t possibly let someone who was trying to sabotage his work relations have their way.
But since Tan Lin had retorted, there was no need for him to say anything extra.
Seeing how the other party was trying to stir up trouble at every given chance, Lin Jin realized that these folks harbored ill-intentions. Consequently, he now understood why Tan Lin had summoned him and Gao Jiang over.
Clearly, she couldn’t take on all of them alone.
Sometimes, instead of direct confrontation, sabotage operations like this dealt far more damage.
The group sat down together.
Xu Anqiao began, “Chief Tan, since Maple City’s official beast appraisers are here, let’s continue our conversation from earlier. I understand that through your connections, Chief Tan has requested from headquarters to create two more official positions for Maple City’s branch. There seem to be no objections from HQ, but they’ve yet to release an official announcement, so why must you hold onto those two candidates? Our Green River City currently has two job openings so why don’t you let them come to us for now? You can still find suitable candidates after you’ve received your additional spots. I truly don’t understand why Chief Tan has to be so willful about this whole matter.”
Lin Jin listened carefully.
It sounded like they were fighting over someone.
Both Maple City and Green River City’s Beast Appraisal Association were fighting for the same person.
Lin Jin heard about Tan Lin requesting two additional official positions but he heard nothing about these two branches competing for a single candidate.
But it didn’t matter. He would soon understand after hearing more of what they had to say.
And sure enough, Lin Jin found his answer shortly after.
In the nationwide beast appraiser examination several days ago, among the examinees that have passed the exams, two exceptional candidates had appeared and both were surprisingly from Maple City.
It was said they passed with an almost perfect score.
It was naturally important for Beast Appraisal Associations everywhere to take in the brightest talents with the most potential. That was a given. However, the Maple City branch’s performance had been lackluster for the past few years, unsurprisingly because of that wretched Wang Ji. The fact there they only had two official beast appraiser positions reflected how terrible a state this branch was in.
Branches in other cities had at least four official positions with some places having over ten official beast appraisers. Hence, even if amazing talents appeared, Maple City couldn’t afford to keep them around.
But ever since Tan Lin took office, she sought to change this situation.
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She applied for the additional positions just so she could keep these talented individuals. Only with this could Maple City’s Beast Appraisal Association grow in prominence.
It was a wonderful plan that was nicely executed up until this point. But who knew that a problem would arise so early on.
For some reason, Green River City’s Beast Appraisal Association abruptly appeared with the intention of scouting the two talents that were said to have come from Maple City.
Tan Lin was a feisty woman and she would never allow such a thing to happen. Being much sterner than Wang Ji, she placed dibs on the two candidates from the very beginning, and perhaps only she would have this audacity to do so.
Green River City’s branch refused to back off without a fight so Xu Anqiao brought his men over today to seize the talented candidates.
Tan Lin remained firm. “That’s inaccurate, Chief Xu. You must honor the first-come-first-served policy. Moreover, Zhang Ze and Mo Huan originated from our Maple City branch and I’m the one who approached them first. It’s inappropriate for you to suddenly cut us off like this. It’s just not right no matter how I see it.”
Zhang Ze and Mo Huan must be the two top candidates who passed the Rank 1 beast appraiser exam.
It was currently a ‘contest’ between the two chiefs so Lin Jin and the others couldn’t possibly intervene in the fight.
Xu Anqiao smiled in response, seemingly unaffected by Tan Lin’s ‘forceful reply’.
“Chief Tan, there’s really no point, arguing like this. Why don’t we hear what Zhang Ze and Mo Huan have to say? After all, this concerns their future, isn’t that right?”
This suggestion sounded reasonable.
However, Lin Jin knew that things wouldn’t be that simple. The other party must have liaised with the two candidates in private and perhaps even promised them some advantages.
No doubt, this was considered foul-play and if everyone did it, chaos would descend upon the beast appraiser’s community.
However, the other party would never admit to their actions.
Tan Lin was obviously at a disadvantage now.
In terms of overall strength, the Maple City branch couldn’t possibly compete with Green River City’s. The latter’s association operated on a much larger scale with eight official positions, compared to the former’s measly two.
The best analogy would be two corporations scouting for the same individual. Obviously, the larger entity would score a better chance at attracting said individual.
Tan Lin sighed and could only comply by summoning Zhang Ze and Mo Huan over.
If given the choice, the two talents would most probably choose Green River City.
After all, struggling for the best applied to beast appraisers as well.
Lin Jin shook his head as well. He was truly helpless in such a situation. In fact, he started thinking about ways to console himself as well as the Chief. If the candidates wished to go to Green River City, so be it. Exam results do not always reflect one’s performance at their job, so there was no need to be so adamant about it.
However, Tan Lin, being competitive in nature, obviously refused to accept it.
As they waited for Zhang Ze and Mo Huan, a Rank 2 beast appraiser from Green River City suddenly got up and approached them.
“Chief Tan, Appraiser Lin, Appraiser Gao, I’ve heard wonders about the appraisal skills of Maple City’s beast appraisers. Since we have the opportunity to do it, I’d like to seek your guidance and I hope we can share our knowledge in the process. I do hope that you are generous enough to show us your capabilities.” As humble as the beast appraiser sounded, his malicious intent was as clear as day.
Tan Lin’s expression instantly darkened.
The people from Green River City’s branch had crossed the line. Not only were they scouting for Maple City’s talents, but they were also trying to challenge their branch.
Seeing how their branch’s chief, Xu Anqiao showed no signs of stopping his subordinate, the trio realized their guests had such intentions from the start.
This was too much!
Since the other party was asking for a ‘lesson’, they couldn’t back down that easily.
Enduring her anger, Tan Lin replied, “Appraiser Ding, I don’t think we’re able to guide you but a sharing session is still acceptable.”