New Client in the President’s Office - Chapter 48

Shen Yan came out of the restroom, and the sound of vomiting from the next stall was still going on.

Still not done throwing up?

How much did they drink to be like that, Shen Yan thought.

She knew it wasn’t her business,

She should be heading back to the private room and continue eating her meal.

But she really didn’t want to go back and keep listening to Director Fan ramble on and on,

making his nonsense sound like it was full of wisdom when, in fact,

it was unclear what he was even trying to say.

On the other hand, she was genuinely curious about who the person was that was drinking so heavily that they ended up like this.

Although most likely, it was someone from another private room, someone she didn’t know.

So, she pulled out her phone and sat down on the sofa placed outside the restroom,

planning to rest a bit before heading back in.

Hopefully, by the time she went back, Director Fan would announce the end of the gathering, and everyone could go home.

She had just been scrolling on her phone for a short while when she heard someone calling her.

“Xiao Shen?”

Shen Yan jumped in surprise.

Was she getting caught slacking off this quickly?

She looked up and saw that it was Lu Qing.

Shen Yan respectfully greeted her: “Hello, Teacher Lu.”

Lu Qing asked her in surprise, “Why are you sitting here…?”

Shen Yan: …She couldn’t just say she didn’t want to go back and listen to Director Fan bragging, could she?

She had to come up with an excuse.

Luckily, before she had to say anything, Lu Qing figured it out herself:

“Oh~ did you drink too much and feel a little dizzy?”

Shen Yan didn’t expect such a perfect excuse to fall into her lap,

so she quickly pressed her temples and nodded: “Yeah, yeah, just sitting for a bit to sober up.”

Even though she actually hadn’t even finished the first glass of wine that had been poured, she was completely sober.

Lu Qing nodded knowingly:

“Alright then, you rest and sober up.

I’m going to use the restroom.”

Lu Qing went into the restroom and didn’t take long before she came back out.

But this time, she wasn’t alone;

She came out with someone.

“Xiao Shen, come give me a hand.”

Lu Qing called out to Shen Yan.

Hearing the voice, Shen Yan looked up and saw Lu Qing supporting Zhou Xing as they came out of the men’s restroom.

Shen Yan: ??? Where did Assistant Zhou come from?

She looked at Zhou Xing, whose brows were furrowed and eyes shut tight as Lu Qing held him up, and suddenly understood…

Was the person who had been vomiting earlier Zhou Xing?

How could it be him?

She thought back when she had left the private room earlier, she didn’t see Zhou Xing around.

Then again, during the meal, she’d been too focused on eavesdropping on gossip and scarfing down her food to notice whether Zhou Xing was even there.

Did Director Fan really force that much alcohol on him?

Or did he just have a low tolerance?

Shen Yan quickly stood up from the sofa and helped Lu Qing support Zhou Xing, guiding him to sit down.

Seeing Zhou Xing’s flushed face and furrowed brows, Shen Yan asked Lu Qing,

“Why did Assistant Zhou drink so much?”

Lu Qing replied, “Probably got forced by Director Fan.

But Assistant Zhou doesn’t have a strong tolerance to begin with.

Xiao Shen, go ask the waiter for a bottle of mineral water.”

Shen Yan said, “Oh, okay.”

The waiter quickly brought over a bottle of mineral water.

When Shen Yan returned with it, she saw Lu Qing gently patting Zhou Xing and asking,

“Assistant Zhou, are you alright? Director Fan was just asking where you went.”

Zhou Xing nodded.

“I know.

I feel a bit better after throwing up.”

Lu Qing saw Shen Yan coming back and motioned for her to open the bottle.

Shen Yan twisted the cap off and handed the water to Zhou Xing.

Zhou Xing took the water from Shen Yan’s hand, looked up at her, and said, “Thank you.”

Shen Yan: “No need to be so polite.”

Zhou Xing took a big gulp of water, leaned back on the sofa,

held his head with one hand, and said to Lu Qing and Shen Yan,

“Teacher Lu, Xiao Shen, you two go back first.

I’ll come in after sobering up a bit.”

Lu Qing looked at Zhou Xing sitting on the sofa, sobering up, then glanced at Shen Yan,

who had also been sitting there for the same reason:

“…Assistant Zhou, glad you’re alright.

I’ll head back first.

As for Xiao Shen, you…

You figure it out yourself.”

Shen Yan, who just moments ago had said she was sitting there to sober up: …

If she had known earlier, she wouldn’t have been curious about who was vomiting so severely.

She should’ve found a spot with no people to sit.

But sitting here sobering up with Zhou Xing also felt weird.

She glanced at Zhou Xing and quickly followed Lu Qing:

“I’ve sobered up, too.

I’ll go back now.”

Zhou Xing watched Shen Yan walking behind Lu Qing and thought maybe he really was drunk.

Shen Yan didn’t look like she had drunk much.

Was her alcohol tolerance really that bad?

Shen Yan followed Lu Qing back to the private room.

As she pushed open the door, she paused for a second.

If she hadn’t been following Teacher Lu, she might have thought she was drunk and walked into the wrong room.

Inside the room, there were now two people sitting beside Director Fan, whom she didn’t recognize.

One of them was sitting in Zhou Xing’s original seat.

The other was in Lu Qing’s seat.

Director Fan saw Shen Yan and Lu Qing return and introduced them to the guests beside him:

“These two are Lu Qing and Shen Yan from our executive office.

Teacher Lu is in charge of logistics for our group and basically runs everything.

And Xiao Shen is a secretary;

she writes extremely well.”

Lu Qing saw someone had taken her seat, but didn’t say anything.

She simply asked the waiter to bring an extra stool and sat near the serving station.

Shen Yan followed Lu Qing and, whew, quickly returned to her seat.

In a low voice, she asked the person beside her,

“Who are those two?”

“They’re from Jianhong Construction.

Said they just happened to be nearby and came over from the room next door to say hi.”

Shen Yan didn’t expect dinner to be the kind of event people could casually crash.

But now with these two guests from the construction company, the conversation shifted and was no longer focused on them.

People started murmuring to each other in private.

Earlier, when Director Fan had been forcing them to listen to him,

Shen Yan had been annoyed she didn’t want to hear a word of it, thought it was all noise.

But now that they were speaking in hushed tones, she started to get curious again.

She perked up her ears, trying to catch what the three of them were talking about.

Maybe there was some juicy secret being discussed.

But her seat was right next to the serving station,

far from Director Fan, so she couldn’t hear a thing.

After eavesdropping for a while and picking up nothing,

neither the important bits nor the irrelevant ones, she looked at Jianhong.

Jianhong shrugged at her.

She hadn’t caught a word either.

Just as Shen Yan was about to give up and go back to quietly eating her meal,

Zhou Xing walked in through the door.

Director Fan heard the door open, looked up, and seeing it was Zhou Xing,

immediately stood up, picked up the wine bottle, and said to him,

“Xiao Zhou, these two are President Wang and President Li from Hengyin Construction.

They’re key people for our LINK project.

Come on, give them a toast.”

Zhou Xing, who had just walked in: …

Where did these two come from?

Was this just bad timing on his part?

Could he leave again?

Zhou Xing, helpless, had no choice but to walk over to his seat, pick up the baijiu glass he had been drinking from earlier, and let Director Fan pour him another shot.

He raised his glass to President Wang and President Li and said,

“Hello President Wang, President Li.

A toast to you both.”

After saying that, he downed the entire glass of baijiu in one go and even showed them the empty glass afterward.

Zhou Xing was certain his smooth series of actions fully met all the unspoken rules of table drinking etiquette.

Who would’ve thought President Wang and President Li were not satisfied.

President Wang nudged Zhou Xing’s empty glass and said,

“Assistant Zhou, this is my first time drinking with you. Using such a small cup is no fun at all.”

Zhou Xing:?

Baijiu.

Using a baijiu glass to drink baijiu.

How is that not perfectly normal?

This President Wang, he should go find the inventor of the baijiu glass and ask why they made it so small if it wasn’t satisfying enough.

Before Zhou Xing could finish venting in his head, he saw President Li,

Who was sitting in his seat?

Pick up an empty wine glass from the table,

fill it with baijiu,

And hand it to him.

Zhou Xing blinked.

Who uses a wine glass for baijiu?

Where did this guy come from?

Does he even know what he’s doing?

More importantly, that glass had to hold at least 250 milliliters.

He seriously started doubting whether he was hallucinating from being drunk.

He even began to wonder if this whole scene was a dream he was having after passing out drunk.

He subtly pinched his thigh.

His brows furrowed.

Ouch, that hurt.

At that moment, he heard Director Fan say,

“Xiao Zhou, President Wang has made a request.

You’ve got to represent Lushi Group’s stance here.”

Zhou Xing looked at Fan Mingxu and thought,

Why doesn’t he represent the group’s stance?

As if hearing Zhou Xing’s thoughts, Fan Mingxu swirled the wine in his own glass and said,

“I’d love to do my part for the LINK project’s success, but my health just won’t allow it.

I’ve had surgery for pancreatitis, you know that.”

Zhou Xing: …This guy can’t even pronounce ‘LINK’ correctly and wants to ‘contribute to the project’s success’?!

At this rate, he was going to end up with pancreatitis himself.

Zhou Xing’s brain was simultaneously throwing shade and working overtime,

searching for any possible way to dodge this drink.

He glanced at the wine glass President Li handed him.

Now that he’d thrown up, he was sober enough to know that if he drank that glass, he was sleeping here tonight.

If he really had to drink it, then he needed to have a backup plan in place before taking that sip.

If he really had to drink this glass, he needed to plan an escape route before doing so.

He glanced around the dinner table.

The three female colleagues were clearly not suitable.

Teacher Wang had to go home and take care of his grandchild also a no.

Teacher Cheng lived too far away still not viable.

So, he turned his gaze to Lu Qing.

Lu Qing, probably the only one in the entire room, met Zhou Xing’s eyes as soon as he entered.

Everyone’s attention had already shifted to Zhou Xing, and it was clear to all what kind of state he was in.

Lu Qing picked up on Zhou Xing’s silent plea and gave him a small nod, as if to say: “Don’t worry.”

Zhou Xing took a deep breath.

He decided to go all in.