Chapter 27 "What, are you expecting me to do something..."
Once inside the car, Shen Mengqing felt stuffy and breathless, and reached out to turn down the air conditioning.
Unexpectedly, Yu Xin also reached out his hand. Their hands collided in mid-air and then bounced away rapidly at the same time.
Shen Mengqing swallowed hard and said, "I'd like to turn the air conditioning down a few degrees."
"Okay." Yu Xin withdrew his hand and continued to focus on driving, keeping his eyes on the road ahead. "Turn it down a bit for me too."
"good."
The atmosphere was inexplicably awkward and subtle. After adjusting the seat, Shen Mengqing shrank back to his seat, neatly placing his hands on his knees. His eyes were fixed on the street scenes flashing past the car window. His mind was empty, as if he was thinking of nothing, yet it also felt as if it was filled with something.
The night was enchanting. As she gazed out the window, her eyelids grew heavy. After counting nearly a hundred streetlights, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Even after the car slowly came to a stop downstairs at his home, Shen Mengqing was still unconscious.
Yu Xin wasn't in a hurry to leave. He glanced at the sleeping Shen Mengqing, then turned down the air conditioner's fan speed, mimicking her by raising his arms to hug himself and closing his eyes for a nap.
He hadn't had a good night's sleep in a long time.
The night inside and outside the car was equally pitch black and silent, save for the two people's even breathing, rising and falling, gradually synchronizing.
The two of them, like hibernating animals, nestled in this small cave and slept peacefully.
The sudden ringing of the phone startled the two awake. Yu Xin, who wasn't a deep sleeper, quickly hung up.
Before regaining consciousness, Shen Mengqing saw the character "Lin" flash across the screen, which must have been the contact name of the caller on Yu Xin's phone.
She tried to shake off her lingering drowsiness, glanced at Yu Xin, and said, "Then I'll go back."
Yu Xin remained silent, his eyes fixed on her with a deep, unfathomable gaze.
Then, he slowly raised his hand, his fingertips getting closer and closer to Shen Mengqing's face.
Shen Mengqing remembered what happened in this car last time, and her face flushed instantly. She subconsciously leaned back and dodged his hand.
"?"
Yu Xin gently placed the small yellow flower, which was about to fall, back in front of the windshield. He glanced at Shen Mengqing and said, "I'm just taking this flower. What do you think I'm going to do with it?"
"Oh," Shen Mengqing muttered softly.
"What, are you expecting me to do something?"
Yu Xin lowered his hands, propped himself up on the seat next to Shen Mengqing, leaned down, and slowly approached, his breath overwhelming him.
Shen Mengqing's heart pounded like a drum, and her voice softened: "I didn't."
Just as Yu Xin was about to press his lips against hers, he sat back down, tapping the steering wheel with his fingers, and said calmly, "You can go now."
Revenge, this must be his revenge.
Shen Mengqing got out of the car, and a second before entering the building, she looked back at the black car that had not yet driven away. Yu Xin's face was hidden in the car window and could not be seen clearly, but that did not stop her from glaring at it angrily.
Not long after she entered the house, Hao Qisi also returned. He excitedly ran to Shen Mengqing's side and said loudly, "Sis, I saw the tour guide's Rolls-Royce when I entered the community! He came to see you!"
Shen Mengqing didn't even look up: "Oh."
Seeing that she had no expression, Hao Qisi assumed that she hadn't understood and continued, "Didn't you two have a fight? He must have come to apologize to you!"
Shen Mengqing: "Oh."
Hao Qisi observed Shen Mengqing, who still seemed angry. He scratched his head and said, "He didn't even dare to meet you, did he? That shouldn't be the case. He doesn't seem that cowardly."
"Yeah, he's not a coward at all," Shen Mengqing sneered inwardly, staring at Hao Qisi and saying, "If you mention him again, I'll send you to school tomorrow and I'll abandon you."
Hao Qisi immediately shut up and said, "I understand."
Then he went back to his room and closed the door tightly.
He took out his phone and sent a message to Yu Xin:
"Brother, why haven't you made up with my sister yet?"
Yu Xin replied to him after a while.
YX: "..."
YX: "How do I coax him?"
Hao Qisi sighed in exasperation and typed:
"A real man should have the courage to admit his mistakes and apologize directly! Try your best to satisfy whatever she wants."
YX: "You must have had quite a few early romances in school."
Hao Qisi pictured Yu Xin's cold face in his mind, and he could almost picture the expression on his face when he said those words.
Hao Qisi said, "Brother, I'm doing this for your own good, how can you repay kindness with enmity?"
Yu Xin didn't reply to him for a long time, until very late, when he suddenly sent a message:
"What would happen if your sister found out she'd been scammed?"
Hao Qisi turned off all the lights in his room, curled up in bed with the blankets, with only the screen flickering a faint light.
He was a little confused, chewing on his fingers for a while, then his eyes widened and his fingers flew across the keyboard:
"You didn't scam my sister out of her money, did you???!!!"
He indignantly bombarded Yu Xin with his rant: "My sister works so hard in Beicheng to earn money, it's so difficult for her. If you still cheat her out of money, you're just not human!!"
Perhaps it was because he was sending messages too frequently that he caught Yu Xin's attention, and this time he replied very quickly.
YX: "...No."
YX: "It has nothing to do with money."
Hao Qisi breathed a sigh of relief:
"It's alright, it's nothing if it doesn't involve money, don't worry. Bro, I'm going to sleep now."
Yu Xin and he put down their phones at the same time.
After talking with Hao Qisi, he seemed to have an even bigger headache.
For him, if it only involves money, then it's a trivial matter.
-
After sending Hao Qisi to school, Shen Mengqing finally completed her task of taking care of him for the past few days.
Monday arrived in the blink of an eye, and when Shen Mengqing entered the office, she indeed saw that two or three workstations were already empty.
She had barely sat down at her workstation when Qi Shuying sent her a message, her words barely concealing her excitement:
"Sister Mengqing, Brother Jun has handed over the work of a former colleague to me. From now on, I'll be handling business on my own!"
Shen Mengqing smiled slightly and replied:
Congratulations!
Qi Shuying: "Do you have time at noon? I'd like to treat you to lunch to thank you for your help since I joined the company^^"
Shen Mengqing: "OK"
The two met at a brunch spot near the company for lunch. After ordering a few simple dishes, Qi Shuying couldn't wait to share her experience of meeting a client alone with Shen Mengqing.
“I learned a lot of talking techniques when meeting clients from you and Brother Tu, but I found that it was still different in practice. There were some problems with clients that I had never encountered before. Also, after I started doing business independently, many people would come to me to communicate, and I realized that you have to deal with so much information every day.”
Qi Shuying spoke with great enthusiasm and excitement, while Shen Mengqing listened quietly, occasionally taking a few sips of juice.
"But, Sister Mengqing, have there been this many personnel changes in the department in previous years? A lot of people have left the company recently, and I'm a little worried," Qi Shuying asked Shen Mengqing with a puzzled look.
Shen Mengqing put down his cup and said, "It happens every year; it's a normal phenomenon."
“Really…” Qi Shuying paused, cautiously looked around at the customers in the store, and then lowered her voice and leaned closer to say, “Last time when I was helping Brother Zhang Tu with his work, I accidentally overheard his conversation with Brother Jun. It seemed like Brother Jun was saying that the company might lay off employees in a while.”
Shen Mengqing was taken aback: "Layoffs?"
Qi Shuying nodded: "As far as I know, your company has never proactively laid off employees before, right?"
Shen Mengqing shook his head and said, "No."
"Sigh, I don't know how this news suddenly came out." Qi Shuying's face fell. She forked a piece of lettuce from the salad, put it in her mouth, and chewed it.
After learning the news, Shen Mengqing became somewhat absent-minded. During her afternoon work, she often drifted off unconsciously, resulting in exceptionally low efficiency.
In the past, she would never have worried about her name appearing on the layoff list, but her performance ratings have not been very good in the past year. If the evaluation criteria are based on such hard indicators, then she might actually be selected.
After several sleepless nights, Shen Mengqing couldn't help but ask Jiang Yu if there were any rumors about the matter.
Jiang Yu spent almost a week inquiring before finally managing to pry a little information out of someone else.
But it's not good news.
She told Shen Mengqing that the layoff list was jointly finalized by the department managers and the human resources department, with the department managers having a significant portion of the decision-making power. She added that the list was expected to be released in October.
Shen Mengqing was in a terrible predicament. This unexpected event felt like God had a knife to her throat, forcing her to make a decision as soon as possible.
She spent almost every day of September feeling anxious and conflicted, and was always out of sorts when meeting clients.
However, if things continued like this, her physical and mental health would suffer. After much painful reflection, Shen Mengqing felt it was time to take a step to change things. If she remained in a passive position, she would only be caught off guard when unexpected events occurred.
Even if she hadn't been laid off, her performance in the second half of the year wouldn't have been much better, so what hope would she have of staying here?
In the last two days of September, she returned to Chucheng to attend a company interview.
The person who recommended this job opportunity was a female classmate who sat next to her at the class reunion that day. The classmate's name was Fu Lan. She had a very gentle personality and had only recently come to Beicheng from Chucheng, so she was quite familiar with the situation in Chucheng. After learning that Shen Mengqing had the idea of going back, she quickly recommended several job postings to her.
Although this pharmaceutical company called Santong is not as large as Yusheng and Yunji, it is considered a relatively leading enterprise in Chucheng.
She applied for a position as an assistant to the board, no longer considering sales or similar roles. Since she was leaving a large company, she only wanted to advance her career further.
The day after submitting her resume, she received a call from HR. They had a preliminary discussion about her situation, and HR was quite surprised to learn that she could have an in-person interview at the end of September.
When Shen Mengqing stood downstairs at the Santong Company building, he was amazed by its grand and magnificent office building, which rivaled even Yusheng's. Moreover, unlike Beicheng where land was incredibly valuable, Chucheng's production factory was conveniently located on a large open space behind the office building.
The HR came downstairs to pick her up, swiped her card, and took her straight to the top floor. As she watched the numbers on the elevator screen jump up rapidly, Shen Mengqing's heart raced. She had thought she wouldn't be nervous.
"First, there's the board office interview. If you pass, we'll arrange for the chairman to interview you personally," the HR person said with a friendly smile. "The chairman just returned from his business trip before the holiday, so the schedule is a bit tight. Is that alright?"
Shen Mengqing smiled faintly and said, "It's alright, it's even better this way."
Before she stepped out of the elevator, she received a message from Hao Qisi.
Hao Qisi: "Okay, I'll come pick you up."
Shen Mengqing sent a question mark, then immediately withdrew the message.
Hao Qisi: "Sis, I sent it to the wrong person, it's okay."
Shen Mengqing: "..."
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Author's Note: Aqing: ? This isn't simple [shy]
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