3:40 PM. S.A. Group Headquarters, third floor.
Endo's office door was ajar.
When Satsuki walked in, Endo was on the phone.
Seeing her, he immediately said "Call back later" into the receiver and hung up.
"Young Mistress."
"Sit down and talk."
Satsuki sat in the chair opposite the desk, and Fujita had already placed a cup of black tea in front of her.
Endo opened the three reports neatly stacked on the desk and pushed them toward Satsuki one by one.
"Alright, I'll begin."
"Let's start with Jena."
"Mr. Gruber's contract has been signed. The monthly salary is 1.2 times that of his West German peers, including housing subsidies and spouse job placement. He will report for duty on the 15th of next month."
Satsuki nodded.
"Mr. Lange is still hesitant. His concern is that his elderly mother is in Jena, and he is unwilling to move. We are currently researching whether we can sign a short-term consultant contract, keep him in Germany, and have him fly to Japan periodically."
"That's fine. Handle it flexibly, as long as we get the knowledge."
"What about Hoffman?"
"His visa is still stuck at the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Cleanroom management experience involves security reviews, which requires one more step than ordinary technical personnel. It is expected to be approved within two weeks."
Satsuki nodded.
"Pudong."
"Geological survey was completed on October 12th, confirmed by Party A with no abnormalities."
"The pile foundation construction plan has been submitted to the Waigaoqiao Management Committee for approval, and approval is expected within ten days."
"The advance team engineers reported a delay in the construction water connection. I have already asked the Shanghai side to coordinate. This is not a major problem and can be resolved within a week."
"Has the registration for Itakura's Hong Kong shell been completed?"
"We received the business registration certificate three days ago. S.A. Industrial (Shanghai) Limited, registered in Hong Kong, legal representative Lucas Sterling. We can start signing contracts externally."
Satsuki's finger tapped on the rim of her teacup.
"Good. The third item."
Endo pushed the third report over but did not open it. His hand pressed on the cover, pausing for half a second.
"The domestic harvesting line." His tone paused slightly. "The situation this week is quite special."
Satsuki looked at him.
"Seven new targets were evaluated this week. After the initial screening, I kept two."
"One is a precision bearing factory in Saitama, and the other is an electronic component distributor in Chiba. Both have usable technology or personnel, making them worth due diligence."
"What about the other five?"
"They are already pure shells. In three of them, even the factory buildings have been seized by banks. The remaining two are involved in civil litigation, with over twenty creditors. It is not worth touching them at all."
He paused.
"Frankly speaking, the meat we can eat is getting less and less. The remaining bones are covered in lawsuits and bad debts."
"Going forward, unless Mieno tightens the screws again at the end of the year and pushes larger enterprises off the cliff, the targets in the Kanto region that are worth our effort have basically bottomed out."
Satsuki's expression did not change. She picked up her teacup, took a sip, and put it down.
Endo was silent for two seconds, then he pulled an internal routing slip from the bottom layer of the desk.
"Young Mistress, there is one more thing."
"I want to discuss it with you in person."
He spread the document out on the desk. There were four pages in total.
Satsuki lowered her head and scanned it.
It was a logistics path summary table. It listed all cross-border material flow records handled by the group's subsidiaries over the past three months.
Arrows crisscrossed, with numerous nodes, looking like a spiderweb marked with red, blue, and black colors.
The four sheets of paper were spread out side by side.
"These four documents come from four different subsidiaries, passed through four different approval processes, and traveled along four completely different trade channels."
Endo's index finger pointed to them one by one.
"The Pudong equipment uses the Yokohama to Shanghai bulk carrier, under the name of the S.A. Industrial Hong Kong shell."
"The import of precision instruments for Jena uses the agency channel of Mitsui, and we paid a 3.5 percent commission."
"The procurement of chemical products in Southeast Asia is currently listed under S.Food, but the business scope of S.Food is written as 'food processing and wholesale', so strictly speaking, this transaction is bordering on crossing the line in terms of qualifications."
"The products of the two newly acquired precision manufacturing factories in the country will be exported in the future, but the customs declaration entity has not even been determined yet."
He withdrew his hand from the document and placed it on the desk.
"The group's footprint has expanded too quickly over the past two years."
"Pudong needs to transport equipment, Europe needs to transport people and instruments, Southeast Asia needs to transport chemical products, and the new domestic factories need to export precision components."
"These things are scattered across different channels. Some are borrowing shells, some are borrowing people, some are borrowing others' qualifications. Efficiency is low, risk is high, and if a problem arises, there is no unified responsible party that can be traced."
Endo's gaze looked steadily at Satsuki.
"Young Mistress, frankly, the current size and manpower of Saionji Trading are already completely unable to keep up."
"Saionji Trading."
In Satsuki's mind, the old building squeezed into an alley in Nihonbashi appeared.
This company was much older than she was.
It was already a legacy from her grandfather's generation.
It was originally used for overseas trade in silk and Shizuoka tea, and at its peak, it had offices in London and San Francisco.
Later, the family fortune declined, the offices were closed, the staff dispersed, and by the time her father took over, it had shrunk to a small department of thirteen people.
Only three full-time employees plus ten part-time clerks, mainly handling some scattered import and export chores under the family name.
The annual trade volume was not even one billion yen.
After Satsuki took power, all her energy was poured into finance, retail, real estate, and technology.
As for the trading side, she had never touched it.
It wasn't that she had forgotten.
It was that she didn't need it before.
Satsuki admitted it. She had previously looked down on the bloated traditional Japanese general trading companies in her heart.
But now, if the Saionji Family wants to become a zaibatsu that can influence all of Japan, it must fill this shortcoming.
The core action of the Saionji Family's expansion over the past two years has been acquisitions within Japan.
Buying land, buying companies, buying people.
All transactions took place on this island, settlement was in yen, and customs clearance and shipping were hardly involved.
But now.
Satsuki picked up the A3 document and looked at it against the darkening sky outside the window for a few seconds.
The 34.67 hectares of land in Pudong needs 120 industrial machine tools transported from Japan, Jena needs to transport ultra-precision magnetron sputtering equipment back to the laboratory in Chiba, the high-purity reagent channel in Southeast Asia needs its own trade qualifications, and the products of Yodoba Precision and Otai Seiko want to be sold overseas, which requires export letters of credit and customs clearance capabilities.
The roots of the empire have already pierced through the national borders.
And those roots, some hanging under the name of Hong Kong shell companies, some moving through the hands of other trading companies, some supported by Endo's personal connections, are scattered and acting on their own, like the roots of a tree being dug out of the soil and exposed to the sun.
Low efficiency. High risk.
Satsuki put the document back on the desk.
"Endo."
"Here."
"Saionji Trading, upgraded, effective today."
Endo's hand had already reached for his fountain pen. He opened his notebook to a new page.
Satsuki's speaking speed was not fast. She dropped the instructions one by one.
"For personnel, transfer backbone staff with overseas trade or logistics experience from within the Group."
"S.A. Logistics should have a few who have run foreign trade lines. Screen them. You can also look in the Group's procurement department. There should be those who have handled cross-border equipment imports. Build the skeleton first."
"At the same time," She paused for a beat. "Among the small and medium-sized trading companies that have gone bankrupt recently, are there any usable mid-level staff?"
Endo thought for two seconds.
"Quite a lot. 'Nikko Trading', which went under last month, specialized in Southeast Asia chemical agency. Their customs and shipping departments have over twenty people combined, and they should still be on the job market now."
"In addition, there is a trading company in Chiyoda Ward that has been doing letter of credit operations and foreign exchange settlement for fifteen years. They just applied for civil rehabilitation last week."
"Pick people."
"They must have practical LC operation experience, have run the full letter of credit process, and be familiar with shipping scheduling."
Satsuki's finger tapped lightly on the armrest of her chair.
"Initial headcount is fifty. It doesn't need to be many, but each one must be able to start working immediately."
Endo wrote it down.
"Second thing. Functional centralization."
Satsuki continued.
"From today, all cross-border logistics and trade settlement of the Group will be unified under Saionji Trading."
"The equipment transportation for Pudong, the instrument imports for Jena, the export channels for domestic precision manufacturing products, all will be gathered into one channel. Subsidiaries will no longer look for their own channels."
"The urgent priority is the batch of equipment shipping from Yokohama Port at the end of November."
"120 machine tools plus accessories. This is the first order after the Trading company is upgraded."
"From customs declaration to loading, to insurance, to destination port clearance, the whole process must be run through. Use this shipment as a practical drill."
Endo turned the page and continued writing.
"Regarding qualifications." Satsuki picked up her teacup, found it was already cold, and put it down again. "Establish independent letter of credit opening capabilities as soon as possible. Do not hang under the channels of Mitsui or Marubeni anymore."
She paused here.
Endo's pen stopped as well.
He looked up at Satsuki's profile.
Her gaze fell somewhere outside the window. The sky was already more than half dark, and the outlines of several office buildings in the distance were gradually blurring in the twilight, as if she were calculating something further in her heart.
But she didn't say it out loud.
"Do these first." Satsuki withdrew her gaze. "Give me an execution plan and a list of candidates within a week."
"Understood." Endo closed his notebook.
"Send me the packing list and HS codes for the machine tools by tomorrow afternoon."
"Yes."
The office was quiet for a few seconds.
Endo organized the documents and reached for the mineral water bottle on the corner of the desk. This was probably his fourth bottle today, and the plastic body had been squeezed into several dents.
Satsuki stood up from the chair.
She walked to the window.
A Tokyo evening in October. Just past four o'clock, and the sky began to sink into grey-blue.
Outside the window, a section of the Shuto Expressway could be seen, with car lights forming a slowly flowing red ribbon.
Further away was the skyline in the direction of Shinjuku, where the red signal lights on the tops of several high-rise buildings were flashing.
"Endo."
"Here."
She did not turn around.
"Any new movements from Sumitomo?"
Endo's hand holding the mineral water bottle paused for a beat. A slight plastic squeezing sound came from the bottle.
Silent for about two seconds.
"There is some wind." His voice was half an octave lower than before. "The heads of the Sumitomo main family contacted the directors of the Hakusui-kai last week. It has not been confirmed what was discussed specifically, but the timing is a bit subtle."
Satsuki's silhouette was reflected on the glass window, overlapping with the twilight outside.
Her shoulder line was very straight, motionless.
"Watch them."
"Yes."
Satsuki turned around and walked toward the door.
When passing Endo's desk, her footsteps paused.
"By the way, that MIPS instruction set manual, the original English version. Do you have a way to get it? It's out of print."
Endo was stunned for a moment. The degree of jumping in this topic was clearly beyond his expectation.
"I will ask the second-hand booksellers."
"Mm, as soon as possible."
Seven o'clock in the evening. Saionji main residence.
When Satsuki returned to the dining room, Shuichi was already there.
On the table were three dishes and one soup: yellowtail teriyaki, spinach with sesame, pickles, and tofu miso soup. The steam from the white rice was curling up under the light.
"You're back." Shuichi put down the teacup in his hand.
"Mm."
Satsuki sat in her seat and picked up her chopsticks.
The yellowtail was cooked just right, the sauce on the surface was bubbling slightly, and when the chopsticks poked down, the fish meat immediately split neatly from the middle.
The two people ate quietly for a while.
"Did you go to headquarters today?"
"Yes. Met with Endo."
"Any big news?"
Satsuki put a piece of fish into her mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed.
"Trading is being upgraded."
Shuichi's chopsticks paused in mid-air for an instant. He looked at Satsuki, seemingly digesting the weight of this sentence.
"Saionji Trading... that was all from your grandfather's time."
"Yes."
"How many people?"
"Fifty initially."
Shuichi nodded and did not ask for details.
He knew what Satsuki meant by "initially". The final scale would definitely be more than that number.
He picked up a piece of pickles with his chopsticks and chewed twice.
"If your grandfather knew, he would probably be very happy."
Satsuki did not answer. She lowered her head and drank a sip of miso soup.
The rain outside the window had stopped, and the sound of insects in the garden floated up again.
In mid-October, the chirping of crickets was much sparser than in summer, intermittent, like a music box about to finish its spring.
"Go to bed early tonight." Shuichi stood up.
"Mm."
Shuichi walked two steps, then turned back.
"The light in the study tonight..."
"I know, off before twelve." Satsuki's chopsticks tapped lightly on the edge of the bowl. "Is that all right?"
Shuichi smiled.
"That's all right."