[T/N: Hope you all celebrated the holidays well with family and friends!]
Zhao Chenlin's return to the company seemed to be an omen. Many employees sensed that the era of Zhou Cheng might have really ended, and now, they had reentered the era of Zhao Shao. Everyone felt that it was pitiful; Zhou Shao had been a good leader, and compared to Zhao Shao, he was an outright angel.
Everyone thought that once Zhao Chenlin returned, he would be the same as he had been before, and they all made psychological preparations. However, Zhao Chenlin's changes truly surprised them.
Just like a recent college graduate who’d never entered a big company before, Zhao Chenlin was full of energy. In contrast to before, he didn’t show off his status as a young master. Instead, he was serious and active in his work, arriving early and leaving late, and he was also very polite to his colleagues. It was as if he had suddenly turned over a new leaf.
Those who were more shrewd were not surprised at all. After some consideration, the purpose of his performance was obvious. It was nothing more than the fact that he was lacking a strong competitor, so he wanted to take this opportunity to perform well to let the chairman value him. Most people didn’t think that his act would last forever.
A person like Zhao Chenlin who had been drinking tea since childhood, a person who only needed to extend a finger to eat or open his mouth to drink, definitely didn’t have much in terms of perseverance. One could predict that he’d already shown his true colors in private, and his impatience was apparent in his eyes.
Zhang Wu took advantage of his lunch break to go to the rooftop and report to Wang Cheng. Ever since Wang Cheng had recommended him to the head office, he had been labeled as Wang Cheng’s person. Even after Wang Cheng had been removed from the office, in the eyes of others, he still had Wang Cheng’s label.
Wang Cheng was still struggling with the matter of surrogacy. One day had passed of the three-day period, yet he felt like it had elapsed in the blink of an eye. Only when Wang Cheng heard Zhang Wu mention Zhao Chenlin did he cheer up a little.
"That idiot. Don’t pay attention to him, you don't have to worry about him targeting you. He is currently busy showing off to my grandpa right now, where can he find the time to make you wear tight shoes*? Unless he really wants to die, he won’t dare to touch you. Just continue to do things as usual. If something truly doesn’t belong to someone, they’ll never be able to get it no matter how much they try."
[T/N: *to make life difficult for someone]
Zhang Wu's eyes flashed. "I understand, Zhou Shao."
Others thought that since Wang Cheng had disgusted Zhou Shichang, he might never receive another chance in the future. However, Zhang Wu didn't believe that. And now that he heard Wang Cheng's words, he was able to confirm that his doubts were correct.
Zhang Wu put away his phone and left the rooftop. On the way back, he happened to encounter Zhao Chenlin, who was flirting with two female employees. When Zhao Chenlin noticed him, his smug expression disappeared in an instant, and he immediately showed a friendly smile. He dismissed his two female colleagues before taking the initiative to go and greet Zhang Wu.
"Ah, so it’s Assistant Zhang. My parents often mention you - I heard that you relied on Zhou Cheng to receive your position as President Feng’s assistant."
Zhang Wu said without changing his expression: "It seems that we are in the same boat."
Zhao Chenlin grasped his remark, and the smile on his face immediately cooled. "Let’s pray that you can stay in your position for a while. I’m curious to see how much longer you can hold your position without Zhou Cheng to support you."
“No need to worry, Zhao Shao. I will definitely last longer than you expect." Zhang Wu threw down this sentence as he walked past him.
Zhao Chenlin stood in the same place for a long while, a cloudy expression remaining on his face. By the time he returned, his expression had been replaced with a mask of a smile. Though he tried his best to display a friendly attitude, there were still not many people sincerely willing to get close to him. Those who were willing to surround him were all people who wanted to curry favor with him.
Zhang Wu knocked on the doorframe of Feng Yifan's office and walked up to the man, who continued to work. "President Feng, were you looking for me?"
"This is the report from the branch office, take it to the chairman." Feng Yifan handed him a document he had just finished reading.
Zhang Wu took the document. "Understood. Do you have any other orders?"
"That’s it, you can leave."
As he walked out of the office, Zhang Wu unconsciously glanced at the documents in his hand. Mr. Xie was in charge of the document sent by the branch office, and if he wasn’t mistaken, that document most likely detailed the monthly summary of June. He remembered that Mr. Zhou and Mr. Xie had held joint responsibility of the branch office in June. There was usually no need to send such things to the chairman for review. Could it be that President Feng had, for some reason, sent it intentionally?
As he handed the document over to the chairman, Zhang Wu deliberately observed the chairman’s expression. However, he saw nothing of note.
After Zhang Wu left, Zhou Shichang opened the document. Once he looked it over a few times, his unperturbed expression finally showed signs of wavering. A moment later, he let out a soft sigh.
This document was indeed the summary for the month of June. The foreign locations where the company had encountered the best benefits and the fastest development were the UK and Italy. Italy was where the Eimer family was located, so this result was predictable. However, the success in the UK had been an accident. During a conference, some high-level executives had even been unoptimistic about the UK. He turned to the back of the document, to read the final summary. According to the person in charge of the hotel there, Wang Cheng was responsible for receiving the credit, those big shots only attended to give face to Wang Cheng.
Zhou Shichang looked at the words for a while before finally expelling those thoughts from his mind.
...
When Chu Yifeng returned to the apartment, Wang Cheng was sitting legs-crossed on the floor of the living room, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. A cartoon character was printed on the front and back of his outfit. In the front was Luffy, smiling particularly brightly with two rows of teeth, while in the back was Zoro with his three samurai swords pinned to his waist. Below, he wore a pair of knee-length black shorts. Wang Cheng noticed this set last time when he went to the mall to buy summer clothes. He thought it looked interesting, so he bought it, though it was only to wear at home. He also bought a set for Chu Yifeng, but he hadn’t worn his yet.
The AC was turned on in the living room, so Chu Yifeng also went back to his room to change into suitable casual clothes. He went to sit next to Wang Cheng, who was facing a laptop and browsing the web. When Wang Cheng saw him coming, he hurriedly closed his web window.
"What are you looking at?"
"Nothing." Wang Cheng pretended to be calm.
Chu Yifeng reached over to reopen the window, but Wang Cheng immediately pressed his hand down. "What are you trying to do?"
"Tell me honestly, what were you looking at just now?"
Wang Cheng knew that he’d most likely already seen his screen just now, so he shook his hand and gave him a blank stare. "I was just looking at how women fare after they give birth. Is that good enough for you?"
Chu Yifeng slung an arm around his shoulders.
Wang Cheng attempted to peel his hand away and succeeded, but only because it moved to his waist. After struggling for a long time to no avail, he finally gave up and quickly explained: "Don't get me wrong, I was just taking a look. That doesn't mean I'm ready to agree to anything."
"I know." But taking a look indicated that he was already leaning a certain direction. Chu Yifeng couldn't help but lower his head and kiss his lips, lingering in this exchange until the atmosphere was moist with eroticism.
About five minutes later, Wang Cheng gasped for breath and pushed him away. "That's enough, I'm going to cook." If they continued to kiss, they wouldn't have been able to eat dinner. His underwear already felt a little wet and his whole body had been scoured by Chu Yifeng, so he was still a little sticky. Fortunately, the air conditioning was turned on.
Chu Yifeng refused to let go of Wang Cheng, instead hugging him and burying his face in Wang Cheng’s neck. After a while, he said, "If you really don't want to, you don't need to do it."
Initially, Wang Cheng thought he was talking about whether or not he should cook, but he soon registered that that was not the case. At this point, he couldn’t figure out what Chu Yifeng was thinking. Though he didn’t particularly like children, he didn’t really hate them. He simply couldn’t imagine himself growing a large belly...
"By the way, let me tell you something."
"What?"
As Chu Yifeng smoothed his messed up hair, he continued to say, "Grandmother wants us to stay at the Chu house for a few days."
Wang Cheng lifted his head. "Why so suddenly?"
"Wenting planned a long vacation to make up for his missed honeymoon with Shen Qing. However, Shen Qing is usually the only one to accompany Grandmother, so once she leaves, there will be no one in the family to accompany her."
"Aren't your second and third aunts still there?"
"My second aunt? Grandmother doesn't like my second aunt’s character and my aunt knows it, so she never takes the initiative to approach her. As for my third aunt, she happens to have something to do tomorrow." Chu Yifeng explained, "Aren't you quite experienced with the elderly? Now that you don’t have to go to work every day, you can talk to our grandparents so that you don’t get bored.”
"Alrighty then, when should I go?" Most young people didn’t have the patience to accompany the elderly, but Wang Cheng was different. The old monk grew very old himself, but a few years before his death, he’d softened from his previous solitude and began to mix in with a group of elders at the foot of their mountain. Wang Cheng would often have to go look for him, so he grew familiar with the elders after meeting them several times.
"Go whenever you want."
Wang Cheng was finally energized so he immediately went to the kitchen to cook. He didn’t have anything to do all day at home, so he cooked lou mei* in several flavored sauces: basic, salty, spicy, and slightly sweet. He and Chu Yifeng both liked heavy flavors, so he was heavy on the spices. If he wasn’t so considerate of their health, Wang Cheng would’ve liked to make dishes that spicy all the time. The aroma as he transferred the food from the pots to dishes attracted Chu Yifeng, who was instructed to carry the dishes away.
[T/N: *meat braised after marination]
"How come we are eating so well today?"
"Because I'm free, and one of the old monk's favorite things to eat was this lou mei. I improved my recipe recently, so it should taste better than before." Wang Cheng plated some freshly marinated shiitake mushrooms and served it to Chu Yifeng.
The scent made Chu Yifeng even hungrier. "What a coincidence, my grandpa also liked to eat lou mei. When I was younger, it was said that he wouldn’t be happy without it. However, now that he’s old, he can't eat such spicy foods."
"Perfect. Let's go to the Chu house tomorrow and bring some lou mei over there," Wang Cheng announced enthusiastically.
"Alright." Chu Yifeng smiled slightly.
[T/N: Hope you all celebrated the holidays well with family and friends!]
Zhao Chenlin's return to the company seemed to be an omen. Many employees sensed that the era of Zhou Cheng might have really ended, and now, they had reentered the era of Zhao Shao. Everyone felt that it was pitiful; Zhou Shao had been a good leader, and compared to Zhao Shao, he was an outright angel.
Everyone thought that once Zhao Chenlin returned, he would be the same as he had been before, and they all made psychological preparations. However, Zhao Chenlin's changes truly surprised them.
Just like a recent college graduate who’d never entered a big company before, Zhao Chenlin was full of energy. In contrast to before, he didn’t show off his status as a young master. Instead, he was serious and active in his work, arriving early and leaving late, and he was also very polite to his colleagues. It was as if he had suddenly turned over a new leaf.
Those who were more shrewd were not surprised at all. After some consideration, the purpose of his performance was obvious. It was nothing more than the fact that he was lacking a strong competitor, so he wanted to take this opportunity to perform well to let the chairman value him. Most people didn’t think that his act would last forever.
A person like Zhao Chenlin who had been drinking tea since childhood, a person who only needed to extend a finger to eat or open his mouth to drink, definitely didn’t have much in terms of perseverance. One could predict that he’d already shown his true colors in private, and his impatience was apparent in his eyes.
Zhang Wu took advantage of his lunch break to go to the rooftop and report to Wang Cheng. Ever since Wang Cheng had recommended him to the head office, he had been labeled as Wang Cheng’s person. Even after Wang Cheng had been removed from the office, in the eyes of others, he still had Wang Cheng’s label.
Wang Cheng was still struggling with the matter of surrogacy. One day had passed of the three-day period, yet he felt like it had elapsed in the blink of an eye. Only when Wang Cheng heard Zhang Wu mention Zhao Chenlin did he cheer up a little.
"That idiot. Don’t pay attention to him, you don't have to worry about him targeting you. He is currently busy showing off to my grandpa right now, where can he find the time to make you wear tight shoes*? Unless he really wants to die, he won’t dare to touch you. Just continue to do things as usual. If something truly doesn’t belong to someone, they’ll never be able to get it no matter how much they try."
[T/N: *to make life difficult for someone]
Zhang Wu's eyes flashed. "I understand, Zhou Shao."
Others thought that since Wang Cheng had disgusted Zhou Shichang, he might never receive another chance in the future. However, Zhang Wu didn't believe that. And now that he heard Wang Cheng's words, he was able to confirm that his doubts were correct.
Zhang Wu put away his phone and left the rooftop. On the way back, he happened to encounter Zhao Chenlin, who was flirting with two female employees. When Zhao Chenlin noticed him, his smug expression disappeared in an instant, and he immediately showed a friendly smile. He dismissed his two female colleagues before taking the initiative to go and greet Zhang Wu.
"Ah, so it’s Assistant Zhang. My parents often mention you - I heard that you relied on Zhou Cheng to receive your position as President Feng’s assistant."
Zhang Wu said without changing his expression: "It seems that we are in the same boat."
Zhao Chenlin grasped his remark, and the smile on his face immediately cooled. "Let’s pray that you can stay in your position for a while. I’m curious to see how much longer you can hold your position without Zhou Cheng to support you."
“No need to worry, Zhao Shao. I will definitely last longer than you expect." Zhang Wu threw down this sentence as he walked past him.
Zhao Chenlin stood in the same place for a long while, a cloudy expression remaining on his face. By the time he returned, his expression had been replaced with a mask of a smile. Though he tried his best to display a friendly attitude, there were still not many people sincerely willing to get close to him. Those who were willing to surround him were all people who wanted to curry favor with him.
Zhang Wu knocked on the doorframe of Feng Yifan's office and walked up to the man, who continued to work. "President Feng, were you looking for me?"
"This is the report from the branch office, take it to the chairman." Feng Yifan handed him a document he had just finished reading.
Zhang Wu took the document. "Understood. Do you have any other orders?"
"That’s it, you can leave."
As he walked out of the office, Zhang Wu unconsciously glanced at the documents in his hand. Mr. Xie was in charge of the document sent by the branch office, and if he wasn’t mistaken, that document most likely detailed the monthly summary of June. He remembered that Mr. Zhou and Mr. Xie had held joint responsibility of the branch office in June. There was usually no need to send such things to the chairman for review. Could it be that President Feng had, for some reason, sent it intentionally?
As he handed the document over to the chairman, Zhang Wu deliberately observed the chairman’s expression. However, he saw nothing of note.
After Zhang Wu left, Zhou Shichang opened the document. Once he looked it over a few times, his unperturbed expression finally showed signs of wavering. A moment later, he let out a soft sigh.
This document was indeed the summary for the month of June. The foreign locations where the company had encountered the best benefits and the fastest development were the UK and Italy. Italy was where the Eimer family was located, so this result was predictable. However, the success in the UK had been an accident. During a conference, some high-level executives had even been unoptimistic about the UK. He turned to the back of the document, to read the final summary. According to the person in charge of the hotel there, Wang Cheng was responsible for receiving the credit, those big shots only attended to give face to Wang Cheng.
Zhou Shichang looked at the words for a while before finally expelling those thoughts from his mind.
...
When Chu Yifeng returned to the apartment, Wang Cheng was sitting legs-crossed on the floor of the living room, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. A cartoon character was printed on the front and back of his outfit. In the front was Luffy, smiling particularly brightly with two rows of teeth, while in the back was Zoro with his three samurai swords pinned to his waist. Below, he wore a pair of knee-length black shorts. Wang Cheng noticed this set last time when he went to the mall to buy summer clothes. He thought it looked interesting, so he bought it, though it was only to wear at home. He also bought a set for Chu Yifeng, but he hadn’t worn his yet.
The AC was turned on in the living room, so Chu Yifeng also went back to his room to change into suitable casual clothes. He went to sit next to Wang Cheng, who was facing a laptop and browsing the web. When Wang Cheng saw him coming, he hurriedly closed his web window.
"What are you looking at?"
"Nothing." Wang Cheng pretended to be calm.
Chu Yifeng reached over to reopen the window, but Wang Cheng immediately pressed his hand down. "What are you trying to do?"
"Tell me honestly, what were you looking at just now?"
Wang Cheng knew that he’d most likely already seen his screen just now, so he shook his hand and gave him a blank stare. "I was just looking at how women fare after they give birth. Is that good enough for you?"
Chu Yifeng slung an arm around his shoulders.
Wang Cheng attempted to peel his hand away and succeeded, but only because it moved to his waist. After struggling for a long time to no avail, he finally gave up and quickly explained: "Don't get me wrong, I was just taking a look. That doesn't mean I'm ready to agree to anything."
"I know." But taking a look indicated that he was already leaning a certain direction. Chu Yifeng couldn't help but lower his head and kiss his lips, lingering in this exchange until the atmosphere was moist with eroticism.
About five minutes later, Wang Cheng gasped for breath and pushed him away. "That's enough, I'm going to cook." If they continued to kiss, they wouldn't have been able to eat dinner. His underwear already felt a little wet and his whole body had been scoured by Chu Yifeng, so he was still a little sticky. Fortunately, the air conditioning was turned on.
Chu Yifeng refused to let go of Wang Cheng, instead hugging him and burying his face in Wang Cheng’s neck. After a while, he said, "If you really don't want to, you don't need to do it."
Initially, Wang Cheng thought he was talking about whether or not he should cook, but he soon registered that that was not the case. At this point, he couldn’t figure out what Chu Yifeng was thinking. Though he didn’t particularly like children, he didn’t really hate them. He simply couldn’t imagine himself growing a large belly...
"By the way, let me tell you something."
"What?"
As Chu Yifeng smoothed his messed up hair, he continued to say, "Grandmother wants us to stay at the Chu house for a few days."
Wang Cheng lifted his head. "Why so suddenly?"
"Wenting planned a long vacation to make up for his missed honeymoon with Shen Qing. However, Shen Qing is usually the only one to accompany Grandmother, so once she leaves, there will be no one in the family to accompany her."
"Aren't your second and third aunts still there?"
"My second aunt? Grandmother doesn't like my second aunt’s character and my aunt knows it, so she never takes the initiative to approach her. As for my third aunt, she happens to have something to do tomorrow." Chu Yifeng explained, "Aren't you quite experienced with the elderly? Now that you don’t have to go to work every day, you can talk to our grandparents so that you don’t get bored.”
"Alrighty then, when should I go?" Most young people didn’t have the patience to accompany the elderly, but Wang Cheng was different. The old monk grew very old himself, but a few years before his death, he’d softened from his previous solitude and began to mix in with a group of elders at the foot of their mountain. Wang Cheng would often have to go look for him, so he grew familiar with the elders after meeting them several times.
"Go whenever you want."
Wang Cheng was finally energized so he immediately went to the kitchen to cook. He didn’t have anything to do all day at home, so he cooked lou mei* in several flavored sauces: basic, salty, spicy, and slightly sweet. He and Chu Yifeng both liked heavy flavors, so he was heavy on the spices. If he wasn’t so considerate of their health, Wang Cheng would’ve liked to make dishes that spicy all the time. The aroma as he transferred the food from the pots to dishes attracted Chu Yifeng, who was instructed to carry the dishes away.
[T/N: *meat braised after marination]
"How come we are eating so well today?"
"Because I'm free, and one of the old monk's favorite things to eat was this lou mei. I improved my recipe recently, so it should taste better than before." Wang Cheng plated some freshly marinated shiitake mushrooms and served it to Chu Yifeng.
The scent made Chu Yifeng even hungrier. "What a coincidence, my grandpa also liked to eat lou mei. When I was younger, it was said that he wouldn’t be happy without it. However, now that he’s old, he can't eat such spicy foods."
"Perfect. Let's go to the Chu house tomorrow and bring some lou mei over there," Wang Cheng announced enthusiastically.
"Alright." Chu Yifeng smiled slightly.
