Chapter 8

Around 3:30, Chu Muchao took a half-circle route and went up to the top floor via the VIP elevator.

Before coming, she sent Chu Wen a message.

Only after confirming that going up to him now wouldn't affect his work did I say: "Call the person in charge of the branch office's event to come along."

"bite."

The elevator doors opened.

Secretary Wu waited outside the elevator.

"Ms. Chu, Mr. Chu is already waiting for you in his office. Please come with me."

Chu Mu nodded slightly to the other party: "Thank you for your help."

Secretary Wu smiled and said, "No trouble at all, it's my pleasure to serve Miss. Manager Zhao, who is in charge of the 'Unlimited Dreams' event, is currently in an online meeting and should be finished in about ten minutes."

"Okay, sure."

Secretary Wu led Chu Muchao through the corridor and the secretary's office to the president's office.

He opened the door for Chu Muchao and said, "Mr. Chu, Ms. Chu, I'll go out now."

Chu Muchao turned around and nodded to Secretary Wu.

Secretary Wu smiled in response and closed the office door for them.

Chu Wen almost never saw Chu Muchao angry.

From childhood to adulthood, Chu Muchao was always pampered and cherished by everyone.

His parents couldn't bear to see her suffer even the slightest grievance, and he would never allow anyone around him to have the opportunity to bully his sister.

This was a rare sight, showing obvious displeasure and anger on her fair and delicate face.

Chu Wen stood up and walked to Chu Muchao.

"What's wrong?"

Chu Muchao looked around and sat down on the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window.

It's deserted here; apart from the things needed for work, there's no other color or interest.

"elder brother……"

The soft voice had barely begun when it abruptly stopped.

A cold glass was pressed against her cheek.

"This is?"

Chu Wen sat down next to her with a cold expression.

"Milk tea, have a taste."

"Thank you, brother~"

Chu Muchao immediately laughed, his voice rising at the end, tinged with amusement.

I took a sip of milk tea through the straw. The milk and tea flavors were rich and strong, with a faint hint of osmanthus fragrance between my teeth.

The brown sugar pearls underneath are soft, chewy, and delicious with every bite.

For the sake of the delicious milk tea, she stopped being angry.

After drinking half of his milk tea, Chu Muchao finally spoke.

"Can the group directly manage the leadership of the branch offices?" Chu Muchao stated his purpose directly. "The operations director is not capable enough for his current position. Let's have a talk with him. Either he should correct his current problems, or he can be transferred to another position."

Operations Director.

Chu Wen recalled the person's name and face in his mind, and asked calmly, "Is it related to this event? Would you like to tell me more about it, brother?"

"It was caused by the event, but mainly because of his problematic conduct."

Chu Muchao briefly described the information he had gathered from the event, and then continued.

"He is afraid to speak up and cannot solve problems. As a department leader, he cannot distinguish the responsibilities of his superiors and subordinates. He allows any employee from another department to order him around, and anyone can order his employees around without any reason."

"The problem with this event started from the inadequate preliminary work of another department. Later, that department tried to shirk responsibility by citing problems with the planning of the event. Instead of standing up for what was right, Director Zhou made his employees work overtime unconditionally and cooperate with the other department. Now he's even making his own employees take the blame and write self-criticisms. He's not fit to be a director."

"Okay, brother understands."

Chu Wen stroked Chu Muchao's long hair and comforted him in a deep voice.

Chu Muchao turned his head and said angrily, "He's so infuriating! He only takes his anger out on his subordinates. Brother, does he think everyone else is stupid? Taking all the responsibility upon himself and then making his subordinates take the blame for him—does that do him any good?"

"What kind of leader is a leader who can't even protect his own employees?"

"Moreover, everyone involved in this activity bears some responsibility for its implementation. Investment inherently carries risk, and as long as the risks borne by the activity are within acceptable limits, there's no problem, right?"

Chu Muchao grew angrier the more he thought about it, and turned to glare at Chu Wen.

The voice was soft, but the tone was commanding: "Let him go. Transferring him to another branch is fine, just don't let someone like that occupy a position without doing any work!"

Chu Wen's expression unconsciously turned serious.

"good."

"Ha, little sister Chao, you have quite the airs of an official. You haven't even taken over the company yet, and you're already making arrangements for your brother."

A flippant, teasing male voice rang out from the doorway.

Chu Muchao turned his head to look over, and Chu Wen, who was beside him, also looked over in the direction of the sound, but he happened to be leaning forward and blocking Chu Muchao's view.

From an angle unseen by Chu Muchao, Chu Wen's brows furrowed slightly, and displeasure was evident on his cold and stern face.

The man at the door chuckled, walked into the office, and closed the door behind him.

Chu Muchao recognized the person who had come.

Tall and slender figure, with the arrogant and wild temperament of a wolf.

Before his unruly and roguish smile, what catches the eye is his flamboyant 3/7 parted hair, which is almost as tall as the office door frame.

Chu Muchao greeted him politely, "Brother Qin Ye."

Chu Wen frowned, his voice growing even colder.

"You call him brother?"

"Ha, what's wrong? You're jealous? I'm older than Xiao Chao, so why am I not her older brother?"

Qin Ye walked to the desk, put his hands in his pockets, leaned against the desk, and looked at them lazily.

"What's wrong? Who bullied our little Chao?"

Chu Wen frowned even more deeply.

Chu Muchao pinched the corner of his shirt with two fingers, tugged at it, and whispered, "The day I returned to China, Brother Qin Ye picked me up at the airport, and later threw me a welcome banquet."

Chu was speechless.

He always regretted that he had missed several of Chu Muchao's most important occasions.

But Qin Ye's appearance was really unpleasant.

Chu Wen turned his head and glared at Qin Ye.

Qin Ye raised an eyebrow, a provocative smile playing on his lips.

"Not only that, I also went to Xiao Chao's graduation day. Didn't I, Xiao Chao's little sister?"

After saying that, he glanced to the side and winked at Chu Muchao.

Chu Muchao immediately became anxious: "We agreed not to tell!"

She knew Chu Wen wanted to attend her graduation ceremony, but he was too busy and couldn't be there, which annoyed and disappointed Chu Wen. Because of this, Chu Wen repeatedly emphasized on the phone that he wanted to make it up to her, saying he would give her anything she wanted.

But there's nothing we can do about it.

We agreed not to let Chu Wen know, just pretend that only her parents were there that day! We already agreed with Qin Ye, so why is she still like this today…?

Chu Muchao looked at Chu Wen guiltily.

Seeing the other person's tightly furrowed brows and his increasingly cold and aura, Chu Muchao glared at Qin Ye reproachfully.

Chu Wen suddenly stood up.

His tall and strong figure, standing over 1.9 meters, almost completely blocked Chu Muchao's view.

With his back to Chu Muchao, where she couldn't see him, his eyes were gloomy, but his tone of voice was still gentle and mild.

"Chaochao, Qin Ye and I still have official business to discuss. You go back first, and I'll pick you up after get off work. As you said, I'll have Secretary Wu follow up on it later."

"Okay, sure."

Chu Muchao rubbed his arms.

She also felt it was better to go downstairs quickly, as the air conditioning was too strong and it was a bit cold.

-

Chu Muchao walked out of the office.

Secretary Wu stood up to greet him.

Chu Muchao waved her hand at him, "You don't need to take care of me. I'll take the staff elevator down. You go about your work."

Secretary Wu bowed slightly: "Yes, Miss Chu."

After watching Chu Muchao walk into the corridor, Secretary Wu turned around and brewed a cup of tea, bringing it into the office.

"Mr. Qin, please have some tea."

Secretary Wu placed the tea on the table in the reception room and couldn't help but rub his arms.

"Mr. Chu, should we turn the air conditioning up a bit?" Secretary Wu asked.

Chu Wen's cold gaze swept over.

Secretary Wu understood: "Okay, I understand. Mr. Chu, I'll head out now."

The huge CEO's office returned to its usual quiet and deserted state.

Chu Wen returned to his desk and casually picked up a stack of documents to look through.

Qin Ye pulled out a guest chair, sat down, crossed his legs, and picked up a steaming cup of black tea.

The color of the tea soup is different from usual.

Qin Ye asked, "Did you change the tea leaves?"

Chu Wen's voice was indifferent, and he didn't even lift his eyelids: "Hmm."

Qin Ye pouted and said, "I'll have someone send over a few boxes next time. I don't like drinking anything else." With that, he put the teacup back in its place.

Chu Wen raised his eyes.

His serious and cold face revealed no emotion whatsoever.

"Is there anything else?"

Qin Ye was also testing the waters.

Her upturned, almond-shaped eyes stared at Chu Wen's face for a while.

They were childhood friends who had grown up together, and Chu Wen knew his character all too well.

Similarly, he was also very clear about what kind of person Chu Wen was.

If Chu Wen had heard even the slightest bit of news about Xiao Chao, he wouldn't have been able to keep his expression so composed and speak to him with such a cold face.

Chu Wen appeared cold on the surface.

It seems Chu Wen doesn't know yet.

Qin Ye narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Just passing by, and thought I'd drop by to see how Xiao Chao is doing."

Chu Wen snorted coldly: "You don't need to worry about it. I won't let her suffer any injustice."

"Is that so?" Qin Ye smiled knowingly, worried that Chu Wen would see through him, and turned his head to look at the floor-to-ceiling window. "I didn't expect her to actually join the company so quickly. I was thinking of taking her out for a couple of days. After studying abroad for several years, her hometown has changed so much, she should be shown around."

Chu Wen stared at the back of Qin Ye's head, but the other man seemed completely oblivious and didn't turn around.

Chu Wen felt something was off, but he was too lazy to think about it.

He had long since figured out Qin Ye's feelings for Chaochao.

"I won't see you off unless it's absolutely necessary. I'm very busy this afternoon."

After speaking, Chu Wen looked down at the stack of documents.

"Okay, I'm off."

Qin Ye didn't linger and got up to leave.

As Qin Ye was taking the elevator downstairs, he sent a message to Chu Muchao.

[Xiao Chao, your brother and I have finished talking. Do you have time to show me your workstation? I'd like to see what your work environment is like.]

Chu Muchao's reply came after he went down to the basement and got into the car.

【I'm working! Besides, you're too conspicuous, I don't want to attract attention. You go back to what you're doing, I'll get back to work too.】

Qin Ye lowered his eyes.

He read those few lines of text several times.

Finally, reluctantly and disappointedly, I locked my phone screen.

He didn't know when it started, but he always felt that Xiao Chao was deliberately avoiding him.

When Mingming was little, she would hold his hand and use her soft, sweet voice to coax him to carry her on his back or hug her.

After being scolded by Chu Wen, she would secretly come to him to cry and complain.

When did it change?