Chapter 13 Passing By He gestured to He Ming with his eyes: This girl is still...

He Ming didn't have a habit of eavesdropping, but unfortunately, they were right next to each other, separated only by a thin bamboo curtain.

Gu Xufeng booked a table at the Lotus Hotel three days in advance to host a small welcome party for Jiang Shuting, a newcomer in the group who had just passed her internship assessment.

Two years ago, after gaining the authority to sign off on audits, He Ming separated from his mentor, Yu Huan, and formed Audit Team Four on his own.

Less than a month later, Gu Xufeng, unable to tolerate Yu Huan's forceful way of handling things, asked the director to assign him to He Ming's group, citing his desire for more experience.

They were classmates, taught by the same mentor, and got along quite well. They initially thought the director wouldn't release them so quickly, but to their surprise, their application was approved in less than a week.

Zhonghe is considered a leading accounting firm in Gucheng, and its business has been increasing in recent years. The director is naturally happy to see the young people's desire to take on independent responsibilities.

At first, Audit Team 4 only had He Ming and Gu Xufeng. When things got busy, they could only borrow people from other teams. If they couldn't borrow anyone, they had to work through the night on their own.

Other teams have their assistants do all the drafting, but their team has to do everything themselves. During busy seasons, it's common to work several all-nighters in a row.

Later, when the firm recruited interns, it would also assign a few college students to Group 4. However, the audit work was tedious and boring, and it was very energy-consuming and time-consuming. In the end, only Lin Hui, a boy, was left.

Actually, there were a few girls who wanted to stay, but without exception, He Ming marked them with an X on the evaluation form because of their ulterior motives.

After all, what he needs are comrades who can truly get things done and are wholeheartedly dedicated to their work, not admirers who only care about romance every day.

Jiang Shuting is a recent graduate. The reason she was able to stay in Audit Team 4 is naturally due to her hard work and willingness to learn. In the first half of the year, when the team was busy with the audit of corporate annual reports, the young woman worked diligently every day, reviewing working papers until her eyes were dark and swollen, but she never complained.

Most importantly, although she sweetly calls He Ming "Master," her words and actions are very measured. She also consistently maintains an appropriate distance from the men in the group, clearly not someone "love-struck."

In the afternoon, He Ming went to the Transportation Bureau to take care of some business, and on the way back, he encountered a traffic jam, so he arrived at the restaurant more than ten minutes later than the others.

As he pushed open the glass door of the Lotus Hotel, he happened to see a petite girl being pushed by a middle-aged woman into the depths of the restaurant.

The long, tiled corridor was deserted except for them. What drew my attention was probably the middle-aged woman's loud voice; she kept gesturing in the air as she spoke, making her back view look somewhat comical.

Gu Xufeng sent him the table number. He Ming stood by the reception desk and asked the waiter, then walked towards his table in the direction the waiter pointed.

He looked up and saw the two figures from before again, this time facing him directly. The young girl was being pulled to a seat by the middle-aged woman, her head bowed, looking rather unwilling.

He Ming didn't look closely and quickly looked away.

"Sorry to keep you waiting..." He found the table and greeted his colleagues casually, "Why didn't you order anything?"

Gu Xufeng teased, "Little Jiang said he didn't dare order before his master arrived. I told him, Lao He, you're always too serious; Little Jiang is afraid of you..."

He Ming ignored Gu Xufeng's words, bent down and sat down, and took out his phone to scan the QR code to order food: "I'm not picky about food, anything light is fine, you guys choose what you like."

As he said this, he looked up and nodded at Jiang Shuting as a greeting. Jiang Shuting, sitting in the booth opposite, was taken aback by He Ming's sudden "enthusiasm," opened her mouth but didn't know what to say, so she could only return a shy smile.

Gu Xufeng was the most talkative person at their table, followed by Lin Hui. The two chatted about everything from the real estate market in Gucheng to trending news online, and even discussed going to the sports center to watch a game another day, completely ignoring the main character of the welcome party.

He Ming was used to the two men's chatter and didn't interrupt them. He simply picked up his laptop and sent documents to his clients while waiting for his food.

"Look at Teacher He, he's a real workaholic. He can even squeeze in time for a meal. We don't have to worry about our commission this year..." Gu Xufeng joked.

He Ming glanced at him silently, quickly closed the notebook and put it in his bag, then slowly poured some hot tea and began to wash the bowls and spoons.

The spoon made a crisp sound as it hit the side of the bowl, but the other three people at the table remained silent, creating a slightly awkward silence. Fortunately, the waiter quickly brought out several cold dishes.

It was precisely because of the momentary silence at their table that the conversation at the next table could be clearly heard by the people present.

It's easy to guess from their conversation that this was a blind date.

It was still a blind date led by the man.

A thin bamboo curtain hung down, obscuring their view of the person opposite them. They could only hear the man's sharp voice, laced with an unmistakable air of superiority. This made Gu Xufeng and Lin Hui, both men, look down on him.

He Ming remained as indifferent as ever, without even frowning.

His seat was next to the table next to his. So even though he tried to ignore the conversation, every word the man said still reached his ears.

Although he didn't say it out loud, he and Gu Xufeng were actually just as curious as he was about how the girl would handle such a blind date.

From the brief glance he had just caught, he had a rough idea that the girl must have been forced to come here.

No one expected that the girl would use such an old-fashioned reason as "incompatible zodiac signs" to reject the boy. Listening to her sincere and bitter words, Gu Xufeng couldn't help but chuckle, thinking that she was putting on quite a convincing act.

He gestured to He Ming with his eyes: This girl is quite interesting.

He Ming ignored him.

Unable to get a response, Gu Xufeng became extremely curious and couldn't help but turn his back and secretly lift a corner of the bamboo curtain to see what the girl looked like.

After glancing for a moment, he secretly lowered the curtain and returned to eat, his voice tinged with excitement: "What a coincidence, Lao He, that girl next door looks very familiar. She really looks like the beautiful woman I met at the food street a while ago."

"What beautiful woman?" Lin Hui's gossip instincts kicked in, and he whispered to Gu Xufeng to find out more.

He Ming cleared his throat, glanced at Jiang Shuting who was being ignored, and said, "You two should stop now. Don't forget what you came here for today."

The other two chuckled sheepishly, then quickly rose to offer tea instead of wine as an apology to the newlyweds. Jiang Shuting drank her tea and was about to say a few polite words when she was interrupted by a slightly louder voice from the next table saying, "Let go."

It seems there's a new development in the plot.

The others were busy chatting and might not have heard clearly, but He Ming did, including the absurd conditions the man offered.

"I hope nothing's happened next door?" Jiang Shuting asked in a low, worried voice. "Master, should we go help them?"

"Let's wait and see. The curtains aren't even drawn in public, so they probably won't do anything rash. If something really happens, it's just a short walk away..." He Ming shook his head and continued eating his food, but hesitated slightly when scooping soup.

The attention of the people at the table was drawn to the people at the next table, and they looked slightly nervous.

After a while, there were a few rapid "tap-tap" sounds, and then there was no more movement from the other side.

Lin Hui quickly got up, peeked through the bamboo curtain, and whispered back, "It's alright, the girl has already left."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and resumed eating, but no one mentioned the farce they had just witnessed.

...

The girl he bumped into was probably also tricked into a blind date. He Ming's gaze lingered on his phone screen, slightly lost in thought. He quickly dismissed his own pointless speculation.

Although Gucheng is small, there are countless people looking for a partner, so it's unlikely that such a coincidence would happen.

He quit Yueyin FM and then sent several industry policy-related study documents to the WeChat group, specifically tagging Lin Hui and Jiang Shuting, asking them to study them carefully in their spare time.

His reply was two young men kneeling and shouting "OK".

————

June is almost over, and Gucheng has finally received the good news that the plum rain season is expected to end in early July.

For Zhu Liushuang, who had been suffering from the rainy season, this was a momentous occasion worth celebrating with a bottle of soda.

Because of the continuous rain, she has been unable to set up her stall for two consecutive weekends.

To make matters worse, her most important "ride," her electric scooter, was damaged by the rain; the battery became damp and could not work.

Zhu Liushuang reluctantly pushed the car to a roadside repair shop and gritted his teeth to replace four new batteries.

The shopkeeper initially asked for 400 yuan, but she pleaded and begged, feigning poverty and playing the victim, until the price was reduced to 350 yuan. The 50 yuan saved could at least buy her two more lunches.

Unfortunately, the smug Zhu Liushuang didn't know that exchanging an old battery for a new one only cost 300 yuan. So, the repair shop owner was still making a killing.

However, she didn't have time to dawdle. After replacing the car battery, she rushed to the company where she needed to run errands.

Because of a slight delay on the road, Zhu Liushuang went all out, riding his electric scooter with the flair of a food delivery driver.

Even though she rushed as fast as she could at 25 miles per hour, she was still late.

The sky was overcast. Zhu Loushuang parked her car and looked up. In front of her stood a 60-story office building with a huge spherical decoration on top, which was considered a landmark building in Gucheng.

The Zhonghe Accounting Firm she was going to was on the thirtieth floor of this office building. Today, she was on orders from General Manager Guo to deliver a contract to the other company.

At 2 PM, there weren't many people coming and going in the lobby on the first floor. The elevators were lined up in a row, and the numbers on the displays all started at two digits, with none going down. Zhu Lou held the contract in his hands, his eyes anxiously fixed on the elevator doors.

She waited five or six minutes before the elevator finally arrived. As a result, she arrived at Zhonghe Accounting Firm fifteen minutes later than scheduled.

Zhu Liushuang felt ashamed of her rare unpunctuality.

The office's automatic door opened, revealing two computers with lit screens at the reception desk, but no one was there. She walked in nervously and found the audit department's office.

At first glance, most of the workstations were empty. No one paid any attention to her; the only sounds were the clicking of mice and the operation of the central air conditioning.

Zhu Liushuang knocked twice on the door, somewhat embarrassed: "Excuse me, is anyone from Audit Team Four here?"

This was her first time visiting this firm, and she didn't know who was in charge of their project. She only knew that Mr. Guo had asked her to submit the contract to Audit Team Four.

Still no one paid her any attention, and Zhu Liushuang became even more flustered. She was about to ask again when someone behind her came to her rescue: "Who are you looking for?"

It was a girl who looked to be about the same age as her. Zhu Liushuang's stiff smile relaxed: "Hello, I'm from Ruixin Technology. I have a contract to send to Audit Team Four."

The girl held out her hand: "You've finally arrived. Teacher He has been waiting for you for quite a while, but you had to go to the meeting. Give me the contract. I'm Jiang Shuting from Audit Team Four."

Jiang Shuting's words carried a hint of reproach, which Zhu Liushuang noticed. She handed her the contract and said apologetically, "I'm so sorry, there was an unexpected accident on the way. Please help me apologize to your manager."

“Okay, I’ll pass it on.” Jiang Shuting accepted the contract. “We’ll be visiting your company next month, and we’ll contact you then.”

Zhu Liushuang stood by the door, hesitatingly asking, "How about I add you on WeChat first?"

“That’s fine too…” Jiang Shuting then pulled up her own QR code.

Zhu Liushuang scanned the QR code and typed her name in the application notes: "Added you, my name is Zhu Liushuang, I'm an accountant at Ruixin, see you next time." She waved her phone, her smile much more natural than before.

Having completed her task, Zhu Liushuang turned and strode out of the audit department.

As she turned around, a tall, slender figure wearing a white shirt and gray trousers emerged from the conference room.

Jiang Shuting greeted him with a smile: "Master, Ruixin's accountant has brought the contract over."

He Ming rolled up his sleeves, revealing a wiry, lean forearm: "Where is she? There's some information for her to take back."

"She's over there..." Jiang Shuting pointed to the door. "Huh? She should have just left. I added her on WeChat, should I give her a call?"

He Ming glanced towards the door, then looked down at his phone and said, "Never mind, I'll send you the electronic file later, and you can forward it to her."

Zhu Liushuang took the elevator to the first floor, strode out of the lobby, and then jogged towards the parking lot. Just as she was about to start her car and head back to the company, her phone vibrated twice; a new message had arrived.

She opened WeChat and saw a PDF document sent by Jiang Shuting. Immediately after, another new message arrived.

[Accountant Zhu, this is a document that Teacher He asked me to send you. Please remember to check it beforehand, and ask me if you have any questions!]

A note from the author:

----------------------

The contract has already been sent; how far can a meeting be?