New Client in the President’s Office - Chapter 15

Shen Yan: “Didn’t see that coming.

Never would have thought.”

Feng Shanshan had a sudden realization.

“You said you run into Yu Xinnian every morning when you buy breakfast?”

Shen Yan nodded.

“Yeah.”

Feng Shanshan: “Could it be… he also lives nearby?”

Shen Yan thought this analysis made sense.

“What’s that saying again? The closer you live, the later you arrive.”

Feng Shanshan lowered her voice.

“Let’s observe how Yu Xinnian gets here later.”

Shen Yan: “Alright.”

They sat in the private room for a while.

Before Feng Shanshan could even start singing, people began arriving one after another.

The first to enter were two girls from A University’s financial management program, Xing Ning and Qian Xiafeng.

They had joined the finance department of Lu Corporation during last year’s fall recruitment.

Technically, they had already been interning at Lu Corporation for more than half a year.

“How does the internship salary work?”

Shen Yan, seeing that Feng Shanshan was already chatting with them, took the opportunity to ask something she had always been curious about but felt too embarrassed to ask her office colleagues directly.

It was perfect these two not only received an internship salary but also worked in finance, making them well-informed.

Xing Ning explained, “Interns get 150 yuan per day.

Housing and meal allowances are separate.”

Shen Yan recalled the money that was deposited into her meal card every month and asked, “The meal allowance is 600 yuan per month, and it goes into the meal card, right?”

Xing Ning waved her hand.

“No, that’s separate.

It’s about 50 yuan per day.

The housing allowance is 3,000 yuan per month.

Last month, I took home 7,000 yuan.”

Qian Xiafeng added, “If the team gets a bonus, it depends on your supervisor.

If your supervisor is kind-hearted, they’ll split the bonus as if you were a regular employee.”

Shen Yan: “What do you mean by a ‘regular employee’?”

Qian Xiafeng: “For example, if your project gets a 50,000-yuan bonus and your team has five people, a good supervisor will divide it equally, so you’d get 10,000 yuan.

But if your supervisor doesn’t consider you a full-fledged team member, they might cut your share down to 60% or 70%.”

Shen Yan understood.

She could only hope that Zhou Xing would treat her as a full person.

“But I work in the President’s Office.

Do we even get project bonuses?”

Qian Xiafeng explained, “You’re actually in the same administrative system as us.

Nearly every project has some bonus allocation.”

Shen Yan’s eyes lit up.

“Really?

That good?”

Qian Xiafeng immediately crushed her hopes.

“But the amount is small.”

Shen Yan: …

Qian Xiafeng: “At most, we get to sip the soup from the project teams.”

Xing Ning added, “But sometimes, if you drink enough soup, you can still fill up.”

Shen Yan got the message.

She remembered that when Zhou Xing introduced Fan Mingxu to her last time, he mentioned that Fan oversaw HR and finance.

“Wait, so does VP Fan also manage you guys?”

Xing Ning and Qian Xiafeng exchanged a knowing smile.

“You’ll understand once you interact with him more,” Xing Ning said, patting Shen Yan’s hand.

Shen Yan wanted to say that she already had a rough idea she had experienced it firsthand on Friday.

Feng Shanshan was curious.

“Is he eccentric?”

“You’re really from the Chinese department!

You immediately got to the heart of the issue.”

Qian Xiafeng found Feng Shanshan’s wording very fitting.

“Yes!

He’s totally eccentric.

He’s a madman!”

Xing Ning got excited too.

“The craziest part was when our manager wanted to distribute bonuses, and he objected.”

Shen Yan: ?

Feng Shanshan: ?

Shen Yan: “So you guys didn’t get a bonus?”

Qian Xiafeng: “Our manager fought for us and got the bonuses back.”

Xing Ning: “Do you know what the most insane part is?”

Shen Yan and Feng Shanshan shook their heads in sync.

Xing Ning: “The wildest thing was when he told our manager, ‘Look, I’m giving you the opportunity to play the good guy.

If I hadn’t intervened, how would these interns even know that their bonuses could be taken away?’”

Shen Yan felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

“Did he say, ‘This is the art of management’?”

Xing Ning and Qian Xiafeng’s eyes widened.

“Yes, yes, exactly!”

Shen Yan recounted the overtime incident from Friday afternoon to them.

She also mentioned how Fan Mingxu had pulled Zhou Xing aside for a private conversation but ended up speaking so loudly that she overheard everything.

Feng Shanshan, having already heard this story twice, quickly made a connection.

“Your finance manager is also one of the young executives that President Lu brought over from Shen Yu Technology, right?”

Xing Ning thought for a moment.

“That’s right.”

Qian Xiafeng suddenly caught on.

“Is this the old forces in the company trying to suppress the new ones?”

Shen Yan: “He keeps talking about the ‘art of management,’ but if even we interns can see through his tactics, then he’s really not that capable.”

“Who’s not capable?”

A sudden voice from the doorway startled them.

They turned to look and saw Yu Xinnian and Li Hefeng standing there.

Since they were all from the School of Economics and Management, they already knew Xing Ning and Qian Xiafeng.

Yu Xinnian spotted Feng Shanshan and greeted her.

“You said last time that you got into a state-owned enterprise.

I thought we’d never meet again.”

Feng Shanshan replied, “I really didn’t want to meet again.

No one wants to keep going through interviews forever.”

Yu Xinnian chuckled.

“True.

Congrats to all of us for finding jobs.”

Feng Shanshan smiled.

“Old Shen wanted to come but was nervous.

I figured since I had nothing else to do, I’d tag along and give her some courage.”

“Old Shen?”

Yu Xinnian glanced at Shen Yan.

“I’ve been running into Old Shen every single day lately.”

Shen Yan, suddenly called out, didn’t know how to respond.

She just said, “Uh-huh.”

Yu Xinnian suddenly seemed to recall something.

“I see you having lunch with Assistant Zhou every day?”

Shen Yan nodded.

“Yeah.

There are only four people permanently in our office.

Sister Jian and Sister Meng don’t eat lunch, so I just eat with Assistant Zhou.”

Feng Shanshan seemed to pick up on some gossip and asked, “Assistant Zhou?”

Xing Ning explained, “Assistant Zhou is probably the head of the President’s Office.

He and President Lu were classmates.”

Feng Shanshan thought for a moment.

“If President Lu isn’t that old, then Assistant Zhou shouldn’t be either, right?”

Xing Ning estimated, “Probably 27 or 28?”

Feng Shanshan pondered.

“That’s kind of old.

But also… not really.”

Yu Xinnian, standing nearby, said in an ambiguous tone, “Men start going downhill after 25.”

Li Hefeng scoffed, “So what, you’re just going to stop living after 25?”

Yu Xinnian grinned.

“You’re not even 25 yet.

Why are you so worked up?”

Li Hefeng:

Feng Shanshan:

Shen Yan wanted to argue that Zhou Xing was actually a pretty decent guy.

But facing so many unfamiliar people at once, she found it hard to speak up.

Just as an awkward silence settled over the group, the private room door opened again.

This time, Shen Yan recognized the person who walked in.

She tugged on Feng Shanshan’s arm.

“She didn’t join Lu Corporation, did she?”

Feng Shanshan shook her head.

“Never heard anything about it.

You should check the company directory tomorrow.”

Before Shen Yan could even look her up, Yu Xinnian introduced her to everyone.

“Yang Ming, our school’s campus beauty.

Everyone knows her, right?”

Yang Ming rolled her eyes at him.

“Can you be serious for once?”

Yu Xinnian grinned playfully.

“Alright, alright.

Campus beauty or not, she’s not with Lu Corporation she’s at Huaxin next door.”

Next door?

Shen Yan had been working for a week already and hadn’t heard of any company called Huaxin in the building next to theirs.

Xing Ning voiced the same question she had.

Yang Ming explained, “The building next to yours has actually belonged to our company all along.

It was just leased out before, so it wasn’t in use.”

Xing Ning asked, “So you guys have moved in now?”

Yang Ming nodded.

“Yeah.

We just moved in this week, so I haven’t had the chance to run into anyone.”

Shen Yan’s heart skipped a beat.

She really wanted to ask if Zhong Cheng had joined Huaxin.

She hoped he hadn’t.

It would be incredibly awkward if they ran into each other downstairs one day.

“Come to think of it, not many people from our school joined Huaxin, right?”

Yu Xinnian’s question made Shen Yan’s ears perk up.

Yang Ming replied, “Not many from our department, but a lot from the Computer Science department.”

Feng Shanshan followed up, “So are you the only one from your department?”

Yang Ming suddenly seemed to notice Shen Yan and Feng Shanshan for the first time.

She studied Shen Yan carefully.

“You’re… Zhong Cheng’s girlfriend?”