Chapter 3. Li Li was spoiled rotten by her family since childhood...

Li Li was spoiled by her family since childhood, and as her name suggests, she was very proud and aloof, like a cat. She couldn't say what she wanted directly, but had to beat around the bush and let others guess before she would willingly do it.

This is also why Li Zhoudu is angry.

If you really don't want your family to worry, how much trouble would it take to get your hair cut and come back?

However, she wanted to make it clear to everyone that she had suffered a great injustice, and demanded that Li Zhoudu retract what he had said at the Jixi Ancestral Hall and stand up for her.

But this trick of hers always works.

Li Liwo had been playing the melancholy Lin Daiyu in her room for half an hour when her aunt knocked on the door, saying that her brother was waiting downstairs.

Half an hour later.

Li Zhoudu sat on the sofa in the styling room, flipping through a magazine. He met Li Li's eyes in the mirror, who was wearing a white apron. Seeing her ingratiating smile, he felt both annoyed and amused.

It was late at night when she finished getting her hair cut. Li Li happily and curiously fiddled with her short, inward-curling hair. Li Zhoudu, who was next to her, was scrolling through his phone and asked her what she wanted for a late-night snack.

Li Li immediately switched to a sycophantic tone, showering him with compliments, saying: "Brother, you're so thoughtful! I love everything you choose! Whoever marries into our family will be so lucky!"

Li Zhoudu glanced at her and asked sarcastically, "What good fortune? The good fortune to watch you make a fool of yourself?"

Li Li smiled and shook his arm: "I'm not ashamed. It's because I have you here!"

Of course she wouldn't embarrass herself.

With her powerful backing and a reputation for being vengeful, who could truly make her suffer a loss unless she was willing to do so herself?

No one else knows what happened in the conference room that day.

According to the cleaning lady who went in later, there was long hair all over the floor. The general manager's secretary had already left, leaving only the group's HR director with a dark face, cursing loudly on the other end of the phone.

-How do you do your job?

-How did we manage to hire such an arrogant and conceited person?

- Go through the process as soon as possible to print out the termination notice, and don't let this person come to work on Monday!

You Chang had a rather difficult time over the weekend. Although he had only been working with Li Li for less than a month, the two of them had lunch together every day, gossiped and complained, and had already developed a revolutionary bond that went beyond that of ordinary colleagues.

Li Li emerged from the conference room in a disheveled state. You Chang was filled with worry but dared not ask, fearing he might rub salt into her wounds.

All the rumors were pretty much the same: she was most likely going to lose her work partner.

You Chang thought this with frustration.

On Monday morning, You Chang was listlessly typing and deleting code on his computer when suddenly a cup of coffee was placed beside him, and someone walked around from behind.

She turned around in surprise and saw Li Li with short hair.

"I brought you a latte," she said.

You Chang, holding her coffee cup, asked, "Are you alright?"

Li Li laughed and said, "What could possibly be wrong with me? Look at my new hairstyle, doesn't it look good?"

"It looks good." You Chang wasn't sure what was going on.

When the group's HR came over around 10 o'clock, she was extremely nervous again. It turned out that they were just informing her that Shi Han would officially become the mentor of the three interns, guiding their daily work, supervising project progress, and being responsible for performance evaluation and scoring.

You Chang finally breathed a sigh of relief, confirming that Li Li was truly alright.

After seeing off the personnel outside, Shi Han raised his hand and said, "Xiao Li, come sit in the front."

Li Li followed her instructions, carrying her notebook, and waited for her arrangements and instructions.

Shi Han simply pointed, indicating that she should sit in the empty seat next to her, and told Li Li to bring over the blanket and personal belongings during her lunch break.

"Is there any work available, Sister Shi?" Li Li asked.

"Have you been trained on all the company's rules and regulations?"

"The video has been re-uploaded."

Shi Han tapped her manicured nails on the table, pondered for a moment, and said, "Then let's understand it more thoroughly and watch it again. Take your time, there's no rush."

Li Li's seat was moved to the front, and the empty seat between You Chang and Ou Ning was quickly filled again with a jumble of miscellaneous items.

You Chang felt a little lonely, but luckily the two weren't far apart. She secretly messaged him on WeChat, asking, "[What did Sister Shi ask you to sit over there to learn?]"

Li Li bought a paper employee handbook.

You Chang: [Oo]

Li Li: [Are you free or not?]

Li Li was treated like a mascot in the office, and while You Chang and Ou Ning were busy to the point of exhaustion, her training videos were being replayed for the third time out of boredom.

During her lunch break, Shi Han was still chatting with You Chang about work when Ou Ning saw that her takeout order had come through. She got up and said, "I'll go get it for you."

You Chang stood up halfway and hurriedly said, "No need, Brother Ou, I'll go in a bit."

Shi Han stopped her: "Let Ou Ning go. It's not good for coders to sit for too long. Boys should move around more, right?"

You Chang then sat down again.

A short while later, Ou Ning came in carrying a takeout bag and went straight to Li Li's seat to help her unpack her portion.

You Chang looked up and noticed a cryptic smile on Shi Han's lips. Confused, she asked, "Sister Shi?"

Shi Han's attention returned to the present, and she said with a hint of helplessness, "Xiao You, why are you being so silly?"

You Chang always had a kind of naiveté that made her oblivious to the situation. She was only happy that Li Li didn't have to leave after arguing with HR that day, but she didn't sensitively notice the subtle changes in the situation after that incident.

Why was Li Li not assigned any work, and was so free that she could watch TV series in the office every day?

Why would the usually taciturn Ou Ning fawn over Li Li?

They didn't even consider that if someone else secures a permanent position and sits back in comfort, where will the probability of failure lie in the future?

Shi Han felt sorry for her kind and naive nature, but couldn't directly remind her of these things. She could only hint at it indirectly, saying, "Xiao Li's family situation seems a bit unusual."

"Huh?" You Chang was taken aback. "Really?"

"Didn't you notice the bags she carries every day? They're worth tens of thousands."

You Chang had only recently graduated and came from an ordinary family. Her understanding of luxury goods was limited to the eye-catching posters in luxury brand stores on the CBD shopping street. She had never recognized what expensive items Li Li was using.

In her opinion, Li Li's family was local and probably more well-off than ordinary graduates who had to consider renting a place, eating, and commuting, but Shi Han said that she was not particularly special, which did not seem to be the case.

After all, Li Li and she ordered takeout together every day to reach the minimum spending requirement for discounts. Why would a girl from a very well-off family do such a miserable outsourcing job to earn a few thousand yuan a month as an internship salary?

Seeing that she didn't believe him, Shi Han stopped talking.

After Shi Han went to the cafeteria for lunch, Li Li brought over the takeout to eat with her. Suddenly, You Chang blurted out, as if out of nowhere, "Is your salary enough?"

Li Li got excited as she talked about it: "How could that possibly be enough?!"

The first month's salary she had been looking forward to was only a little over 7,000 yuan after deducting social insurance and housing fund contributions. A few days ago, when it was her birthday, the car that Li Zhoudu had arranged for her arrived, and Li Junchuan and Wenxi even took a day off to go to the hotel to celebrate with her.

You don't know the cost of firewood and rice until you're in charge of the household. Li Li reluctantly paid the bill with her salary, but she was also very proud to pretend to be rich and keep her promise to give her grandmother and aunt Australian white necklaces and a pair of cufflinks to Li Junchuan. The only cheap gift she prepared for Li Zhoudu was a Bluetooth sports headset.

But even with this calculation, that little bit of salary would have already been used to pay out of pocket a considerable amount.

She didn't go into much detail, only saying that money doesn't last long, and that going out to earn money means having to use up all her savings to make ends meet, which is really tough.

You Chang understood and felt the same way, saying with a sigh, "I also need my family to subsidize me every month. Things will be better once I become a full-time employee and receive my full salary."

"If I could eat at the cafeteria, I could save up even more," she said.

Li Li couldn't understand why she longed for the company's communal meals so much, but soon one day, while she was waiting for You Chang to finish her lunch break, Shi Han asked, "Have you guys never eaten at the cafeteria here before?"

Both of them shook their heads.

Shi Han laughed and said, "Then you guys can use my card to have a meal and experience it, and just pack a takeout for me while you're at it."

Li Li accepted it from her hand without hesitation.

Yanqi's cafeteria is on the ninth floor, and there's always a long queue of employees during mealtimes. The food is indeed quite good, no wonder You Chang has always longed to go there.

You Chang ordered a glass noodle soup, and Li Li ordered a small wonton.

While waiting for her number to be called, Li Li got up and went to the restroom. As she flushed the sink, she suddenly recognized the person rushing past her as the HR person who had scolded her in the meeting room earlier.

She thought for a moment, then slowly followed behind.

The HR director headed towards a private room in the restaurant, where a group of people had just finished their meal and were coming out.

The man was the tallest among them, with thick, sharp eyebrows and eyes, and a high nose and thin lips—the kind of cold-hearted look that Li Li had long recognized in her heart.

Of course, it cannot be denied that his body proportions are really good. He looks like a runway model in a suit, which makes the other executives standing next to him look short and fat.

While they were still talking, Li Li had already stepped forward.

He first bowed respectfully to the HR director and said, "Hello, sir."

Then she straightened her back and said to the man in the suit in the middle of the room with feigned innocence, "Brother Tan Su, I'm working on the 13th floor."

A subtle and underhanded scheme, using the HR director to embarrass Tan Su, killing two birds with one stone.

The HR director's face flushed red, but Tan Su ignored her attempts to sow discord. He looked up at Li Li, who had a pretty short haircut, and nodded: "Zhou Du has already told me about you coming to work. If you have any difficulties, you can contact Secretary Chen."

"So that means it exists."

She bluntly stated her request in front of everyone: "I need a designated parking space. I'm not very good at driving the new car we bought, and it takes me a long time to find a spot in the morning. I see there are many empty parking spaces downstairs that are usually empty. Could you spare one for me?"

She was referring to the company's reserved parking spaces for VIPs or leaders, which are usually blocked by parking locks.

Chen Ya chimed in, "Ms. Li, Mr. Tan is busy right now. The company's underground parking spaces are limited, and employees are put in a queue in order of their applications after they are officially hired. Since you're in such a hurry, why don't you submit your application on the intranet first? I'll process it with priority."

Tan Su didn't even lift his eyelids, and said directly, "Arrange it for her."

“I want A88,” Li Li had already chosen it, “It’s on the same day as my birthday, thank you, Brother Tan Su.”

Tan Su asked, "Is there anything else?"

“No, that’s all,” Li Li said with a forced smile. “I need it first thing tomorrow morning, thank you Secretary Chen.”

Having achieved her goal, she turned and left.

From afar, I heard an awkward compliment from behind: "Mr. Tan's sister is quite unique..."

Li Li usually has a driver to pick her up and drop her off at get off work, which is actually more comfortable than driving herself.

However, to verify whether Chen Ya was slacking off, she still drove the ice-berry pink sports car into the underground garage early in the morning. Sure enough, the A88's parking lock had been specially lowered, and she happily backed the car into the parking space.

She thought she had kept a low profile, but with so many people watching, the whole thirteenth floor soon knew that an intern drove a sports car to work.

When some of her colleagues in the office came to ask out of curiosity, Li Li, seeing that she couldn't hide it any longer, answered frankly, "It's a car that my family gave me to use for commuting."

Suddenly realizing that the girl next to her was a rich heiress, You Chang felt a bit disappointed, especially when she discovered that Ou Ning was treating the two of them differently and trying to curry favor with Li Li.

Shi Han could understand her mindset quite well, and she secretly told You Chang a lot of inside information.

Ou Ning is not a recent graduate.

He actually has a very good academic background, with both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from prestigious universities. Upon graduation, he admired the reputation of big companies and was lured by HR to work in outsourcing with the promise of a permanent position. As a result, he worked overtime as required and completed the projects he was supposed to do, but when it came time to submit his application for a permanent position, he was rejected time and time again for various reasons.

He realized that there was no future in staying, so he resigned. Unable to find a suitable job, he was forced to settle in Moshi.

Now approaching thirty, with his career not going as well as he hoped, he wants to settle down in S City. But with all his savings over the years, he can't afford even a few square meters of housing. So it's understandable that he's inclined to find a girlfriend from a wealthy family.

Li Li has just graduated and is inexperienced in the ways of the world, so being close to the source makes her a good candidate.

“But—” Shi Han spread her hands, “But to put it another way, if someone has everything, why would they choose you when they’re looking for a partner down to their level? It’s like winning the lottery.”

A note from the author:

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P.S.: Tan Su is the male lead.

Tan Yi is my current boyfriend.

Li Zhoudu is my cousin [milk tea emoji].