New Client in the President’s Office - Chapter 42

Shen Yan was momentarily unsure whether she should worry about being caught by Zhong Cheng and getting entangled with him, or if she should worry about Zhou Xing being unhappy with her spreading two rumors about him in one day.

She didn’t dare to look up at Zhou Xing. She felt guilty.

However, she saw Zhou Xing standing in front of her, speaking to Zhong Cheng,

“I see you’ve come to find Xiao Shen twice today.

Is there something urgent?”

Zhong Cheng had initially hoped that Shen Yan was lying about dating, but he hadn’t expected Zhou Xing to suddenly appear and not deny it.

Shen Yan was blocked by Zhou Xing and couldn’t see Zhong Cheng’s expression.

She only heard Zhong Cheng say, “It’s nothing now.”

Shen Yan thought, maybe Zhong Cheng had given up on reconciling with her.

Finally, some good news.

She peeked her head out from behind Zhou Xing and said, “Goodbye, take care, no need to see me off.”

After Zhong Cheng left, Shen Yan planned to sneak away as well.

Pretend nothing happened.

Since Zhou Xing didn’t say anything, Shen Yan was surrounded by two aunts.

“You must be Xiao Shen, right?”

One aunt, dressed in a qipao, asked her warmly.

Could these two aunts also be teachers from the Business School?

Shen Yan glanced at Zhou Xing, who was still standing there without moving.

Zhou Xing rubbed his nose and silently looked away.

Shen Yan: …

Just as she was about to brace herself and respond to the “teachers,”

Zhou Xing walked over, pulled the two aunts aside, and said,

“Mom, Aunt, she’s busy.”

Shen Yan: ???

Mom???

Aunt???

Ah???

This is so awkward.

What on earth did she just do?

Why did she even go out today?

Zhou Xing introduced, “This is my mom, my aunt. I have a cousin, and he’s graduating this year.”

Shen Yan thought, I really don’t want to know.

She glanced at Zhou Xing’s cousin, whom she had never met, and didn’t know which department he was from.

Zhou Xing’s mom and aunt probably didn’t hear what she said, right?

She tried to deceive herself into thinking that.

Then, the aunt in the qipao said, “Let Xiao Shen come with us to have a meal later.”

Shen Yan: … Right, she was really deceiving herself.

The other aunt agreed, “Yes, since we’ve already met.”

Then Zhou Xing quickly said to his mom,

“She really has something to do. I’ll explain it to you later.”

After saying that, he pulled his mom and aunt away.

Shen Yan watched them leave and thought about it for a while.

Zhou Xing really did have something to do tonight.

He wasn’t using that as an excuse to avoid them.

She thought maybe her brain had been too stimulated, causing her to overthink.

She went to the school supermarket to find Feng Shanshan and the others.

After returning to the dorm, she hurriedly took out her phone and wrote a little apology note to Zhou Xing.

She really wasn’t doing it on purpose.

She had just been following Zhong Cheng’s lead.

She definitely held him in high regard, with no ulterior motives.

She promised.

After sending the little apology note, Shen Yan, who usually had good sleep quality, unexpectedly had trouble sleeping tonight.

When she finally fell asleep, she entered the same dream as last time,

this time, she was proposing to Zhou Xing in the village.

It felt like continuing from the previous dream.

Zhou Xing took the rose she was holding and threw it heavily to the ground, glaring at her angrily,

“Why did you speak ill of me behind my back?”

Shen Yan couldn’t answer.

She wanted to say that she hadn’t done it on purpose.

But she had said it, and not just once, when it got to the main point, she even mentioned it in front of his mother.

She couldn’t defend herself.

Because of her silence, Zhou Xing imposed a punishment on her by the end of the month, she was to write a report on each of the 11 projects currently underway at the Lu Group,

as well as the 23 new projects in preparation.

Shen Yan was scared out of her wits, and when she woke up, she initially felt a little relieved since it was still early June, and there was more than half a month left before the end of the month.

Then, she realized it was just a dream.

She looked at her phone, and Zhou Xing had replied to her apology message.

[Zhou Xing: Let’s talk in person.]

Shen Yan: ??? Talk about what?

The unknown fear made her feel disoriented during the graduation ceremony.

Feng Shanshan and the others invited her to hang out over the weekend, but she couldn’t focus.

Feng Shanshan didn’t know why Shen Yan had suddenly changed: “Old Shen, let’s go to the hot springs! You can play mahjong while soaking, you’ll love it.”

Shen Yan firmly refused: “No, I don’t like it. I only like working.”

Feng Shanshan: “…Well, if you don’t like it, we’ll be short one player.”

Shen Yan: …

The six-day-long holiday passed in a blur of chaos and shocks.

In the end, Shen Yan did go to the hot springs with them, but because her mind was elsewhere, she lost a lot of chips while playing mahjong.

At least they were just playing for fun, so no money was involved.

It even helped ease the sadness of graduation season.

On Sunday afternoon, at the high-speed train station, she and Sun Qiong gave each other a big hug.

Feng Shanshan looked at Shen Yan with teary eyes: “Old Shen, I’ll be back soon.”

Shen Yan: “Mm! Come back and live with me.”

Feng Shanshan: “Mm!”

Feng Shanshan’s eyes were red, and the mood was a bit ruined by the awkward moment.

Feng Shanshan: “If you help me cook and clean, maybe I’ll consider that offer.”

Shen Yan: “You’ll have to take up that offer elsewhere.”

Sun Qiong sighed from the side: “Ah, I won’t be coming back anymore.”

Shen Yan joked: “When you come back, you’ll be a tourist.”

Then, Cha Ya, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up: “Let’s go visit Old Sun’s hometown!

It’s become popular online recently, and there’s a lot to eat.”

Feng Shanshan, hearing this, almost burst into tears, but she quickly held them back.

She exchanged a glance with Cha Ya: “How about…?”

They both looked at Sun Qiong.

Sun Qiong: “Let’s go! Now that university students and middle and elementary school students don’t have holidays, there are plenty of train tickets.”

“Let’s go! Change the tickets!”

In the end, Shen Yan was the only one left at the high-speed train station, with the others off to their destinations.

Shen Yan resigned to her fate. She loves working!

After getting home, feeling guilty about Zhou Xing, Shen Yan quickly wrote up the reports for the work uniform and team-building proposal that had been mentioned in the Monday meeting with General Manager Fan.

The work uniform proposal wasn’t too hard to write.

she had already done a lot of preliminary work, so it was quick to put together.

But the team-building proposal…

She realized she couldn’t work in isolation, so she asked her class president for past team-building proposals from their school.

Her class president was very reliable and quickly sent her three proposals.

She was told these were from the time when the class president was in charge of external relations, and though she thought the second one was the best, the department head had chosen the first one.

Shen Yan opened each proposal and studied them carefully.

Finally, before 11 PM, she had finished both proposals.

For the team-building proposal, Shen Yan originally planned to follow the class president’s lead and make multiple options (Plan A, B, and C) for General Manager Fan to choose from,

but she feared Fan might just reply with “or,” so she decided to only make one.

Another Monday arrived, and as Shen Yan stood in front of the Lu Group building once again, she felt as if she had entered a different world.

Thinking about Zhou Xing’s “face-to-face” talk, she walked into the company building with heavy steps.

After making coffee and returning to her desk, she saw Zhou Xing standing in front of her workstation.

When he saw her approaching, he said, “Last week, General Manager Fan asked if the work uniform proposal is ready?”

Shen Yan noticed his slight awkwardness, but she pretended not to notice: “Yes.”

Zhou Xing tapped on the desk next to her workstation and said,

“Alright, at 9:30, let’s meet in the small conference room for a meeting.”

“Okay,” Shen Yan responded.

When Shen Yan heard Zhou Xing say “meeting,”

She thought there would be others present, but when she entered the small conference room at exactly 9:30 and found it was just Zhou Xing.

She suddenly realized the meeting was just an excuse for a face-to-face conversation.

“It’s just the two of us.

Please, take a seat,” Zhou Xing said.

Shen Yan chose a seat opposite him.

Seeing Shen Yan preparing a few pages of documents, Zhou Xing asked, “Have you finished the proposal?”

Shen Yan handed him the printed proposals: “Yes, both the work uniform and team-building proposals are ready. You can take a look.”

Zhou Xing read through them and nodded:

“Hmm, this looks good. But once the board approves the work uniform proposal, there will likely be issues with the bidding and selection of materials.”

Shen Yan was taken aback:

“Isn’t General Manager Fan’s family involved in this?”

Zhou Xing smiled:

“They are, but the proper procurement process still has to be followed, and some suppliers will likely reach out to you with quotes and material options.”

Shen Yan had initially thought this would be a simple task, where she could just arrange for factory workers to come in for measurements and finalize the uniforms.

Fortunately, during her earlier research, she had analyzed the budget for work uniforms across various subsidiaries.

In her report, aside from explaining the necessity for standardized uniforms, she had also included a budget analysis.

Regardless of the final supplier, the budget and material framework were already in place.

Zhou Xing: “No rush. We’ll deal with this once the board approves it.”

Shen Yan: “Got it.”

Zhou Xing then set aside the work uniform proposal and picked up the team-building proposal: “As for this team-building activity, you’ve proposed camping by Yangming Lake?”

Shen Yan: “Yes. The weather isn’t too hot now, so it would be nice for a barbecue.”

“However,” Zhou Xing continued, “this activity has to go through General Manager Fan’s review first, then follow the union’s procedures, and once the departments receive the notice, people can sign up.

From my experience, even if it’s planned for July, it probably won’t come together until later.”

He paused, “It may need a week or even half a month just for General Manager Fan to sign off on it.”

Shen Yan: … This was certainly beyond her expectations.

She calculated the time and suggested, “Then maybe we should delay it a bit?

Push it to after the summer, say September?”

Zhou Xing seemed to agree, saying, “That works. It’s not urgent.”

After discussing the work-related matters, Shen Yan and Zhou Xing sat across from each other in the conference room, facing each other in silence.

Shen Yan wondered if she should break the awkward silence by making another attempt to apologize.

Zhou Xing broke the silence first: “About that day… I’m sorry.”

Shen Yan was taken aback wasn’t it her who should be apologizing?

What was Zhou Xing apologizing for?

Zhou Xing: “I have one more request.”