New Client in the President’s Office - Chapter 47

That night, after Shen Yan got home, she was still messaging Zhou Xing back and forth.

Zhou Xing secretly shared with her what he knew about Lu Yu and Gong Jia.

He knew she had a group chat dedicated to gossip and made her swear not to tell anyone else.

Shen Yan hesitated; she wanted to know, but she was also afraid she wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut.

Although she was socially anxious, she was the kind of socially anxious person who loved gossiping with familiar people.

After a bit more inner struggle, she decided to trust herself!

She was sure she could hold it in!

She even swore on her hair!

[Zhou Xing: You really didn’t have to swear such a vicious oath.]

After she finished swearing, Zhou Xing told her that Gong Jia was their high school classmate and Lu Yu’s ex-girlfriend, and they broke up because she went abroad to study.

Only then did Shen Yan realize that Zhou Xing and Lu Yu had known each other since high school.

Wasn’t that just like her and Feng Shanshan?

No wonder their relationship was so solid.

But if she were an ex-girlfriend, Shen Yan could kind of understand why President Lu was avoiding the meeting at the financial office.

Shen Yan: How did you know President Lu’s blind date was Gong Jia?

Zhou Xing: Because the rumors about President Lu dating someone started right around the time Gong Jia came back to the country.

Shen Yan thought to herself, Zhou Xing’s gossip radar was pretty sharp.

She had to get closer to Zhou Xing she had a hunch he definitely had a lot of juicy inside stories about their company.

After talking about President Lu, Shen Yan asked Zhou Xing about something she’d heard that someone’s office romance got exposed through the leave system.

Zhou Xing knew the inside story.

Zhou Xing: You might not know them?

It was Xu Yi from the legal department and Kong Cheng from Deep Feather Tech’s R&D department.

Shen Yan indeed didn’t know them, but she did know about the legal department and Deep Feather Tech’s R&D team, and they didn’t even work in the same building.

Shen Yan: Even being that far apart, they still got caught?

Zhou Xing: Only physically far apart.

After someone told me, I checked the system and saw that they often requested leave at the same time.

It was easy to notice.

Shen Yan: You have too much time on your hands…

…

In just one night, Shen Yan had a brand new understanding of everyone in the Lu Corporation.

Zhou Xing shared a lot of gossip with her honestly, she hadn’t even heard of most of the people he mentioned, let alone seen them in person but she still listened with great interest.

That night, she had another dream.

This time, it wasn’t at that stage in the village square; it changed to a dirt hill.

She and Zhou Xing sat side by side, as he slowly told her stories about all the legendary people and gossip in the Lu Corporation.

The moonlight was bright, casting a cool glow over Zhou Xing’s blurry face, and Shen Yan rested her head on her hand, just watching him like that.

Even though his face was unclear, the atmosphere was nice.

This time, Shen Yan didn’t wake up startled from the dream.

On Friday morning, she woke up feeling refreshed from her sleep, and immediately thought of the real-life nightmare awaiting her.

It was Friday.

Friday night, Director Fan was taking them out for dinner.

At a restaurant of his choosing.

He had vetoed the idea of drinking sake and eating Japanese food.

Director Fan clearly wanted to “get a read on her.”

…

Now this was the real nightmare! She’d rather be forced by Zhou Xing to hold pebbles in her mouth and give a speech at the village entrance in her dream.

Why hasn’t anyone put an end to this whole drinking-table culture yet?

Shen Yan touched her forehead.

Nice, pathetically cold, but comforting.

She looked at her skin.

Nice, no allergic reactions, completely healthy, very comforting.

…

She lay in bed for a long time but couldn’t come up with a decent excuse.

Then she started questioning the meaning of going to work.

Work was one thing, but this kind of forced dinner, who even wants to go?

Who does it benefit?

But there was no way around it.

She couldn’t think of any way to get out of it.

All she could do was drag herself out of bed and go to work.

For once, she hoped the workday would go slowly, even slower than usual.

She truly understood that feeling of wishing she could split a single minute into two during work hours.

But reality, of course, had other plans.

Because the “Shareholders’ Meeting” had been announced the day before, she was overwhelmed the entire day.

Sending out notices to shareholders, drafting the agenda, reviewing the shareholders’ proposals…

Shen Yan felt like she hadn’t finished anything, but when she checked the time, it was already 4:30, and Director Fan had even come to their office to ask how they were planning to get to dinner.

The moment Shen Yan saw him walk in with that grinning face and start chatting with them, she instantly felt irritated.

For the shareholders’ meeting, all he had to do was flap his mouth a bit; the ones handling the notices, collecting the materials, weren’t him.

Of course, he had the free time to come check whether they’d be on time for dinner and how they were planning to get there.

Shen Yan: Is it okay if I just don’t go?

But she didn’t dare say it out loud.

In the end, Director Fan chose a restaurant not far from their office building.

According to him, he had booked a private room with a river view.

Shen Yan said she would take her electric scooter there.

Director Fan frowned when he heard that.

“Better to leave the scooter at the office, yeah?

Sure, riding an e-scooter after drinking won’t get you arrested, but if something happens, it’s still not good.”

Shen Yan thought, This guy has a million flaws, but at least he follows traffic rules.

“Ah, Director Fan, I can’t drink.”

Director Fan waved it off.

“Fresh graduates can’t drink, that’s normal.

That’s why you need to practice more.”

Shen Yan: I take back what I just said about him.

Fortunately, over the past few days, Shen Yan had already done some mental prep.

Fine, let’s just drink then.

It’s not like she couldn’t drink.

Later, Director Fan even urged them to get off work early, saying anything unfinished could wait until tomorrow.

After he left, Meng Gulan spat, “Ugh, I almost thought he had a change of heart.

Then I remembered tomorrow is Saturday! What’s there to do tomorrow?!”

Shen Yan still had a few shareholder calls left, so she quickly asked, “Meng-jie, I haven’t finished contacting a few shareholders.

Tomorrow I can”

Meng-jie immediately cut her off.

“Stop that thought right there! It’s Saturday!

We might be working, but the shareholders still get to rest.”

Only then did Shen Yan feel at peace and firmly decide not to come in for overtime tomorrow.

She was about to make a few more quick calls before the end of the workday.

But Meng-jie stopped her again.

“It’s too late now. Don’t bother.”

Shen Yan went with the flow and put the phone down.

She’d follow up on Monday.

According to Director Fan’s arrangements, Shen Yan, Meng Gulan, and Jian Hong were to ride in Zhou Xing’s car.

Cheng Rong and Wang Yuwei would ride with Lu Qing, who would also bring Fan Mingxu and his assistant.

Zhou Xing was still in a meeting downstairs near the end of the workday, so Shen Yan waited in the office with Meng Gulan and Jian Hong.

Shen Yan silently wished that the meeting would go on just a bit longer, ideally until 9 p.m.

Unfortunately, just as that thought popped into her head, Zhou Xing pushed the door open.

“Let’s go,” Zhou Xing called out to them.

They followed him into the elevator and headed to the basement level.

On the way, they ran into Qian Duo.

Qian Duo saw the whole office crew heading out together and instantly understood.

“You guys going out for dinner?”

Zhou Xing nodded without hesitation.

“Yeah, Director Fan’s treating us.”

“Come on,” Qian Duo snapped.

“Why are we working overtime while you guys get taken out to eat by Director Fan?”

Shen Yan wanted to say, You want this blessing?

You can have it.

But she chickened out.

Zhou Xing, on the other hand, just shrugged.

“Maybe it’s because Fan is planning to expense this dinner.

But you guys are in Finance, you can’t approve your own reimbursements, right?”

Qian Duo growled, “I’m going to keep a close eye on that reimbursement. Not letting it through!”

Zhou Xing didn’t care at all.

“Great, saves me the trouble.

It’s Director Fan’s treat anyway.”

Qian Duo: !!!

That helpless feeling, like punching a cloud of cotton.

Thankfully, the elevator reached the floor Qian Duo needed to get off on.

Zhou Xing: “Bye-bye.”

Qian Duo walked out of the elevator, gritting his teeth.

Qian Duo stomped out of the elevator, teeth clenched in frustration.

Shen Yan thought to herself, Finance is pretty miserable too.

Lately, because of the Link project’s financing situation, Xing Ning and Qian Xiafeng had also been working overtime every day.

She mentally weighed her options: drinking or overtime.

After much consideration, she figured overtime might be the easier choice.

If a manager showed up right now with a mountain of work and told her to go back and pull an all-nighter, she’d probably swear loyalty on the spot.

Unfortunately, both her direct supervisor and her supervisor’s supervisor were already at this dinner.

Why?

Just because it’s a private company, you can eat and drink without restraint?!

Doesn’t this company have a disciplinary committee or something?!

Even though she was grumbling nonstop in her head, her legs still obediently followed the others into Zhou Xing’s car, heading toward the restaurant Fan had booked.

No escape.

The ride was smooth.

Zhou Xing drove carefully, no surprises.

Well, one surprise he brought up the topic of learning to drive again.

“Xiao Shen,” Zhou Xing said, glancing at her from the passenger seat,

“once your formal employment is settled, I’ll sign you up for a driving course.”

Shen Yan quickly waved him off.

“No, that’s too much trouble! I’ll sign up for myself.”

Zhou Xing didn’t push.

“Alright. Just bring me the invoice after you sign up I’ll get it reimbursed for you.”

Shen Yan hadn’t expected that to be a perk.

Good thing she never learned in college.

“Nice.”

From the backseat, Meng Gulan overheard them and asked curiously,

“The company reimburses driving lessons now? Under what category?”

Jian Hong guessed,

“Maybe under professional training? Driving’s kind of a core skill for assistants, after all.”

Meng Gulan nodded, seeing the logic.

Still, both she and Jian Hong had learned to drive ages ago.

Now it just felt like they’d missed out on a chunk of free cash.

In the driver’s seat, Zhou Xing rubbed his nose, a little sheepish after hearing all that.

The drive ended uneventfully, and they arrived at the restaurant Fan had picked.

Shen Yan followed behind Jian Hong as they walked into the private room.

A round table greeted them, with absolutely zero expectations.

There weren’t even any soft drinks on the table, just alcohol.

Shen Yan had mentally braced herself for this.

She even thought about tactics to dodge forced drinking if things got bad.

But surprisingly, after she poured herself a small glass of red wine, no one pressured her again.

Fan didn’t “test her limits” either.

During the round of toasts, he included her once, and that was that.

When he noticed her glass had wine, he didn’t say a thing not even the usual “Bottoms up!”

Shen Yan let out a sigh of relief.

So I was just overthinking it.

This dinner’s actually kind of chill.

She followed Jian Hong and Meng Gulan around for a round of polite toasts, completing her social duties.

After that, she kept her head down and focused on eating, though she kept her ears perked for juicy gossip.

Besides gossip, she couldn’t avoid hearing Fan brag about his career.

Seriously, I already hear him talking about this stuff at every meeting.

Why does he have to repeat it over dinner?

Luckily, the restaurant he chose had good food.

After she was full, Shen Yan got up to go to the bathroom.

As she got close, she heard the sound of someone vomiting.

From the men’s room.

Someone drank too much.

She didn’t even flinch, eyes straight ahead, and walked calmly into the women’s restroom.

She looked at herself in the mirror.

Not bad her face looked natural, no red flush, no dazed eyes.

She looked totally fine.

She let out a breath of relief, thinking she was still in good shape.

She’d just sit for a little while longer, then find a good excuse to slip away.

At worst, she could say a “friend” was coming to pick her up good enough reason to bounce early.

She pulled out her phone, just about to send a message, when the door opened.

It was Jian Hong.

Jian Hong walked in with a big sigh. “Finally escaped.”

Shen Yan smiled.

“You full too?”

Jian Hong leaned against the sink and said quietly, “Yeah, I’m full, but my ears are about to fall off.

Boss Fan is at it again, talking about how he led his team, how he turned things around, how he signed million-yuan deals at the dinner table… I’m seriously gonna lose it.”

Shen Yan nodded. “Right? Hasn’t he told that story like three times already?”

“Three? I’ve heard it at least ten.”

Jian Hong rolled her eyes.

“If I hear the word ‘connections’ one more time, I’m gonna scream.”

Then she suddenly leaned in and lowered her voice.

“Hey, do you get the feeling Zhou Xing kind of treats you differently?”

Shen Yan blinked. “Huh?”

Jian Hong said, “He was talking to you the whole ride here, even helped you with that driving school thing.

Back when we were interns, nobody got that kind of ‘perk.’”

Shen Yan replied, “…I think maybe it’s just because I’m new? He’s just looking out for me a bit.”

Jian Hong gave her a meaningful “Ohh,” but didn’t press further.

That “Ohh” made Shen Yan feel slightly uneasy, but also amused.

The two of them stayed in the restroom for a bit, fixed themselves up, and then slowly made their way back to the private dining room.

As soon as they stepped in, the vibe had clearly shifted way more lively.

Some people had flushed faces, some were leaning back in their chairs, burping, and some were holding up their glasses, half-coaxing and half-pushing for more drinks.

As soon as Shen Yan sat down, she saw Boss Fan heading toward Zhou Xing’s table with a drink in hand.

Her gut told her this wasn’t good.

Boss Fan was drunk.

Wanna keep going and see how the dinner escalates, or should Shen Yan start plotting her escape?