Chapter 29 She looked like she was…

Lin Chaoyue felt that when it came to apologizing, one had to take the initiative and not just wait to be scolded, otherwise one would be passive and the effect of the apology would be greatly reduced.

She planned to slide to her knees before entering the room and then apologize.

Be more sincere.

As the saying goes, you can't hit a smiling face.

Even if Pei Shuwen was really angry, this smooth combo would probably have calmed her down by half.

Her parents fall for her act.

She didn't believe Pei Shuwen was unmoved.

Lin Chaoyue took a deep breath and pushed the door open forcefully. The words she had prepared all the way were on the tip of her tongue: "Shu..." Brother Wen.

The moment she uttered the first word, the scene before her eyes silenced her with shame.

Why are there so many people?

What are you doing?

Should we hold a public denunciation meeting against her?

The moment Lin Chaoyue opened the door, everyone turned to look at her in unison, but no one spoke. The office was eerily quiet; Lin Chaoyue could even hear her own heartbeat.

Until Pei Shuwen said, "Continue."

Continue what? There are so many people here, she has no shame...

"Ah, okay, Pei Lu, then I'll continue reporting on the recent work arrangements..."

Oh, so it wasn't about her.

The others tacitly turned away from Lin Chaoyue, and she instantly went from being the 'focus' to 'air'.

Don't make it too obvious that you're trying to distance yourself from her.

Is Pei Shuwen genuinely busy with work, or is she angry?

Lin Chaoyue felt a little uneasy.

But apart from glancing at her the moment he entered, he didn't give her a second glance.

She had a bellyful of unfulfilled dreams, but couldn't let outsiders watch the spectacle, so she could only stand obediently to the side and wait.

This wait lasted a very long time.

Lin Chaoyue's legs were aching from standing when she heard Pei Shuwen say, "Then let's proceed with the work as we just discussed. Qin Wen, I've already forwarded the business trip schedule to the HR department. Attorney Zhao will also be on vacation soon. If you need anything at the office, you can go directly to Tang Chenbin."

"Understood." Qin Wen nodded, glancing at Lin Chaoyue out of the corner of her eye, and then asked, "Attorney Pei, there's one more thing. The institute's team building event is scheduled for the end of this month. Should we postpone it? Can you make it back?"

"No need to postpone, proceed as planned, we will be back before the end of the month."

"Okay, then I have no problem on my end."

As everyone gradually left, Qin Wen patted Lin Chaoyue's shoulder twice as she passed by, her gesture clearly conveying comfort.

But Lin Chaoyue didn't realize that she was still pondering how to act well so that she could move on from yesterday's incident.

At this point, Lin Chaoyue hadn't realized that Pei Shuwen had an extremely abnormal desire to control everything. He might tolerate her being a bit lax for a while, but once things deviated from his expectations, even by the slightest margin, he would rather overturn everything and start over than allow her to be ambiguous.

It's impossible to turn the page easily.

"Come here." Pei Shuwen finally looked at her.

"Oh." Everyone else had left, and the office suddenly became empty, leaving only the two of them. Lin Chaoyue slowly moved over.

“Look at these.” Pei Shuwen’s attitude was calm, without any emotion.

"What is this?" Lin Chaoyue stared at the mountain of documents, her eyelids twitching suddenly.

"Your work for the next week." The man leaned forward, pointing to the dates on the documents: "Each volume has a date marked on it. The work for the day must be completed on the same day. You must carefully read and memorize every clause in the documents. After you've finished reading, come to my office. I'll be here anytime this week. I will randomly check your work. You can only leave if you pass the test."

"Are you kidding me?" The man glanced at her, and Lin Chaoyue awkwardly corrected herself, "I mean, isn't this too much?"

"And what about Anjiang Group..."

Pei Shuwen interrupted her: "Someone will take over the matter over there. It's not like you're indispensable. The work in front of you is what you need to focus on."

Pei Shuwen's attitude didn't seem like he was joking.

but……

Lin Chaoyue flipped through the documents, and as expected, the contents were complicated, tedious, and lengthy.

She has a good memory, but she's not a photocopy machine.

Lin Chaoyue asked with a pained expression, "Can I refuse?"

“No, if you don’t finish your work today, you’ll just have to stay here. I have plenty of time, I can keep you company.”

Lin Chaoyue didn't know whether to cry or laugh. Yesterday she was so confident and insisted on 'delaying' Pei Shuwen, but today the tables had turned.

But when he said this, his tone was gentle and mild.

Lin Chaoyue felt increasingly guilty.

He lowered his voice a few decibels: "Brother Shuwen, about yesterday... I really just passed by yesterday. I didn't know any of those people, and I didn't plan to do anything. I deleted everything as soon as you told me yesterday. I deleted it completely. You can see for yourself."

Lin Chaoyue handed over her phone as if it were a treasure.

Pei Shuwen simply glanced at her indifferently.

The gradually quieting atmosphere made Lin Chaoyue unconsciously tense up, and her raised hand began to ache.

Just when her arm was about to give way from fatigue, Pei Shuwen finally took the phone.

Lin Chaoyue relaxed her shoulders and let out a long sigh of relief.

She was well-prepared; on her way here, she even changed the nickname 'Pei the Skinflint' to 'Brother Shuwen' in her contact information.

He was secretly pleased with himself.

Pei Shuwen placed his phone on the table without looking at it: "I'll be going on a business trip starting next week, and I'll need you to be my assistant. These are the preliminary preparations. A week isn't a long time, but it should be enough for you. Do you have any other questions?"

Business trips should be considered a type of fieldwork.

She had taken Pei Shuwen's money after all, and it hadn't even been a week since the agreement was made. She couldn't go back on her word.

Lin Chaoyue unconsciously bit her lip, and when she looked down, she inadvertently caught Pei Shuwen's hand resting on the table.

The black suit sleeves only covered half of the area; the gauze from last night was still wrapped around it. The lighting was dim last night, and the knot she tied looked ugly.

Lin Chaoyue was somewhat distracted while watching, and when she turned back to pretend to be pitiful and refuse, Pei Shuwen's gaze was clearly probing.

The worst thing about performing is being interrupted. She hesitated for a long time but couldn't think of any other way to refuse.

never mind.

Pei Shuwen at least came to her rescue yesterday, neglecting her injury from playing basketball, and he compromised this time, Lin Chaoyue comforted herself. It's just memorizing materials, she'll treat it like exam week. Once these few days are over, and Pei Shuwen's anger subsides and his attention stops on her, she'll be free.

"Okay...okay."

Lin Chaoyue looked at the stack of documents in front of her and felt a little worried. There were so many, how was she going to carry them back?

Why don't we take today's portion back first?

She counted the dates, taking out one book after another. When she got to the fifth one, Lin Chaoyue's expression almost collapsed. Fortunately, the date written on the next one was tomorrow.

Very good, five books, not too many.

Lin Chaoyue silently comforted herself, thinking that patience would bring peace and that taking a step back would allow her to escape the cage.

If Lin Songsong can become one, what are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles compared to him?

"Then I'll be going now."

"Wait a moment."

Pei Shuwen called her back again.

"Is there anything else?"

Lin Chaoyue was about to lose her temper. She thought to herself that if Pei Shuwen made any more unreasonable demands, she would really quit. You can't bully people like this.

Pei Shuwen casually took a document from the drawer, walked around to her, and handed it to her: "Sign this document."

"What's this?"

Lin Chaoyue opened the document and saw that the first line under the red-headed document read "Personnel Appointment Letter," and the position was Special Assistant in the Financial Securities Department. Looking at the name, "Lin Chaoyue," she looked up in disbelief.

"What do you mean?" Lin Chaoyue thought her comprehension was pretty good: "Finance and Securities Department? Special Assistant? You've decided on your assistant?"

"Yes, it's settled."

Lin Chaoyue's mind went blank for a moment. Staring at her own name on the document, she asked, almost as if possessed, "Who's chosen?"

"you."

Lin Chaoyue's fingers trembled, and the paper she was holding by only one side floated to the floor. She bent down to pick it up in disbelief, but lost her footing and stumbled, almost falling headfirst into Pei Shuwen's arms.

When she was pulled out of the water, Lin Chaoyue was still a little dazed: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, um, I didn't eat breakfast and I have low blood sugar. Let me check again."

Unconvinced, Lin Chaoyue watched it again from beginning to end.

It really is her.

I recalled Nie Shanshan's words: "He's called a special assistant in the finance and securities department, but he's really just Pei Shuwen's personal secretary, the kind who needs to work 24/7."

Lin Chaoyue looked utterly hopeless.

"Special assistant? Aren't you going to consider someone else?"

Pei Shuwen was amused by Lin Chaoyue's expression: "I'm not considering it anymore. After comparing, I still think you're the most suitable."

"Where would be a good place?"

Pei Shuwen seemed to have thought about it seriously, and after a while said, "If I choose you as my assistant, I won't have to pay you extra overtime pay for working on weekends."

Pei the Skinflint! Capitalist!

Change the note back!

She wants to change it back once she gets her phone back.

Let's just shut him down.

"Don't you want to sign?" Lin Chaoyue asked reluctantly, hesitating to put pen to paper.

"Sign it, I'll sign it right now."

Anyway, she's been signing 'indentures' ever since she returned to China, so one more won't make a difference.

"It's signed, here you go." Lin Chaoyue packed up the paper and pen and threw them back, then turned and left. She was already out the door when she came back looking like a wronged child.

Lin Chaoyue reached out her hand: "You haven't returned my phone yet."

"I'll keep your phone safe for you until the end of today's workday. For the next week, come to me first thing at work to collect your work documents and hand over your phone."

"I'm not a child, Pei Shuwen, don't go too far."

Pei Shuwen raised an eyebrow, her expression seeming to say that taking your phone was already excessive, and that there was more to come.

Pei Shuwen: "I'll return it to you when the work is finished, but you'd better not get any funny ideas. Juntian Liangmu also has some business overseas."

"If it's there, it's there," Lin Chaoyue said impatiently.

What does it have to do with her? She can't possibly run back abroad.

wrong.

Lin Chaoyue had a sudden flash of inspiration and thought of something; her eyes became clear.

Pei Shuwen: "I suggest you say everything you want to say at once. Next time I talk to Aunt Zhong about your matter, I can convey your opinions at the same time."

"No, no, wait, there is something. You took my phone, what am I going to eat for lunch? I don't have any money..."

Lin Chaoyue righteously cried poverty.

Pei Shuwen casually tossed her a meal card.

Wen Ya had been busy all morning when she looked up and saw Lin Chaoyue rushing over from the elevator.

"Why did it take you so long to come back?"

"Let's not talk about that now. Quick, quick, lend me your phone for a second. I need to make a call."

Although she thought it was unlikely, her damn sixth sense was unusually strong.

The phone rang seven or eight times, and just a second before it was about to hang up, a sullen voice came from the other end.

"Hey, who is it? Disturbing my sweet dreams, you better have something to say."

Lin Chaoyue glanced at the time; it was not yet 11 p.m. in China, but only a little past 9 p.m. in New York.

Lin Chaoyue said bluntly, "I might believe you when you say you go to bed at nine o'clock every night on your eightieth birthday."

Hearing the familiar voice, Li Cong immediately perked up: "Hey! Yuebao, you changed your number? Why didn't you tell me? I could have saved it."

"That's not my number. Stop talking nonsense. I have a question for you. What's the situation with Zuo Mingzhuo and his group?"

She originally wanted to call Mu Qiao and the others directly, but she didn't remember any of their numbers, so she could only call Li Cong.

Li Cong: "My brother should be fine, right? My aunt has already gone to bail him out, and Mu Qiao has already been released. She orchestrated that whole thing yesterday."

Li Cong smacked his lips as he spoke, sounding somewhat regretful: "I heard the police arrest scene last night was quite a spectacle. I wasn't there, so I could only watch the videos and enjoy the show. That Mu Yang, he's incredibly shrewd. He probably already guessed this would happen and went on vacation to Hokkaido. His bar had an incident, but he's completely unscathed and even got some free advertising in the industry..."

"What video?"

Li Cong: "You were there yesterday too, didn't you know? It's the video of the arrest scene, it's all over the industry. At first I didn't take it seriously. That kid Zuo Mingzhuo got arrested, so what? He's been spoiled by my aunt, he's not as serious as me. But when I saw you in the video, I took a few more glances."

No wonder.

She had barely gone in when Pei Shuwen appeared at the police station to bail her out; he probably found out about it that way.

But now she's more curious about what else Pei Shuwen saw last night.

Lin Chaoyue: "Besides videos, what else?"

"What? What else?" Li Cong looked completely bewildered.

"Never mind, give me Li Wei's phone number, I'll ask him."

"Oh, write this down, 137*****."

After getting the phone number, Lin Chaoyue immediately said goodbye without hesitation. Before hanging up, she told Li Cong not to call her phone recently.

Li Cong pouted: "Why? You've only been back in China for a few days and you already find me annoying? Aren't we best buddies anymore?"

"My phone has been confiscated. If you feel you're living too comfortably, I won't stop you from making calls."

Li Cong was instantly filled with intense curiosity: "Who? Who confiscated your phone? Aunt Zhong?"

Lin Chaoyue was annoyed and had no mood to talk about this, so she hung up and called Li Wei.

Li Wei answered the phone readily. He hadn't had a moment's peace since last night. He had just gotten home and taken a shower to cleanse himself of bad luck when he was summoned to the old house. He was given a severe scolding last night, and it continued early this morning. If his mother hadn't stopped him, the old man would have called in the family discipline and given him a beating.

He finally got a call to rescue him, and even if it was a scam call, he would still chat with the caller for a while before saying anything, let alone if it was an unknown number.

"Hey... Yueyue, I'm fine. Yesterday was all a misunderstanding. If you need me to talk to you, can't we talk on the phone? If you want to meet, sure, I'll be there in a bit..."

Lin Chaoyue made the call, and before she could even finish introducing herself and saying anything else, she heard this whole thing unfold on the other end.

I have a pretty good idea of ​​what happened.

She listened as the other person spoke, occasionally responding with a few "hmm" sounds.

Two minutes later, Lin Chaoyue heard Li Weichang let out a long sigh of relief on the phone.

"Phew... Yueyue, your call came just in time, otherwise I might not have been able to leave the house today."

Lin Chaoyue frowned: "How did your family find out so quickly? Did the legal counsel you called tell Uncle Li?"

She remembered that Li Wei and Mu Qiao were discussing yesterday how to get the legal department to suppress the matter and not tell Li Wei's family.

Both of them were ready to offer money as a bribe.

Is this a bribe?

Li Wei felt unlucky just thinking about it: "Don't even mention it. There's no need for legal counsel. It's all because of that bastard... Pei Shuwen. He complained to my dad last night, and this morning he added fuel to the fire, saying that I've had enough experience in China and can go abroad for further studies. If I hadn't pleaded with him, I probably would have been packed up and sent abroad tomorrow, to some godforsaken place."

"Exaggerating... Why? What did you do to offend him?"

"You still don't know?"

The familiar rhetorical question—she'd heard those five words for the third time today.

Her strong sixth sense told her that this was definitely not a good thing either.

Lin Chaoyue was impatient and somewhat anxious.

"So should I know?"

Li Wei's lips twitched, and he said with some sympathy, "I sent it to the group last night. I'll send you another one, and you'll see. Don't blame me for not warning you, you'd better avoid Pei Shuwen these days."

"Wait a minute, um, don't send it to my phone, send it to my email, please write down my email address..."

Lin Chaoyue returned the phone to Wen Ya and casually mentioned that she would treat her to lunch at the cafeteria.

Wen Ya saw Lin Chaoyue's meal card and thought she had finally gotten it done after so long, but the card looked a little different from hers.

Lin Chaoyue hurriedly returned to her workstation, and Wen Ya didn't get a chance to ask.

Li Wei sent a rather large compressed file to Lin Chaoyue's email address, and it took her a long time to download it.

With her phone confiscated, Lin Chaoyue had nothing else to do, so she flipped through her work notes for the day.

Isn't she Pei Shuwen's assistant? Why does she even need to remember how many people are in the family of a partner at another law firm, and what about their life experiences and hobbies? Who cares about these trivial matters?

Lin Chaoyue took a deep breath, closed the file, and tossed it aside.

After downloading the videos, she randomly selected two. The content was unremarkable; they were probably casually recorded by people who went to bars yesterday.

The one below does have some content; the latter half even shows several police cars.

She crossed her legs, leaned forward, and rested her chin on her hand as she continued to nod.

Mu Qiao's slightly drunken voice came through the earphones.

"...Yueyue, if you ask me, you should just start a rebellion. You're the only precious child of the Zhong and Lin families. No matter how powerful your parents are, they won't just let you end up on the streets. If all else fails, just run back to America. You'll be free to roam the world then. As for that piece of trash Pei Shuwen, let him go cool off somewhere else..."

"...These younger brothers were all carefully selected by me. Yueyue, stop pretending with us. You're going abroad, not becoming a nun. Don't act like you're some kind of goddess. What do you think of this little Wei brother..."

Lin Chaoyue felt as if she had been struck by lightning.

No... how did these get out?

Are you trying to kill us all?!

Lin Chaoyue's only consolation was that she was not interested and had refused almost everything she could.

But before he could catch his breath, he turned to the next video, and his head and that Xiao Wei's head were touching. Under the flickering lights of the nightclub, their normal conversation was tinged with an indescribable ambiguity.

From a certain awkward angle, it looked as if she was hugging a strange man's waist and even tilting her head back to smile at him.

The previous video criticizing Pei Shuwen was perfectly synchronized with the audio and video, but in this one, you can't make out a single word of what the person in it is saying.

Could Pei Shuwen have seen this and misunderstood?

Thinking of her previous vows that she would not engage in casual relationships, Lin Chaoyue felt a wave of dizziness.

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Author's Note: Updates have resumed! Daily updates are in progress! [Good luck][Good luck][Good luck]