Chapter 47 "Want me to kiss you?"
"?"
Yu Xin reached out and snatched the thermometer from her hand: "It's not even 38 degrees, how come you're so feverish you're practically delirious?"
Shen Mengqing quickly sat up straight and rubbed her sore and stiff neck.
After realizing the outrageous things she had just said, she wished she could just faint from the fever.
Right now, in her home, she completely forgot that Yu Xin was her boss. This familiar scene made her feel as if they had returned to their old relationship.
Shen Mengqing chuckled awkwardly twice: "I still have a slight fever. No wonder I've been feeling dizzy and unable to speak properly."
Yu Xin put down the thermometer and looked at her leisurely, saying, "I think you're not unable to speak, you just accidentally blurted out what's on your mind."
"How could that be!" she said, slightly agitated. "You were the one who got so close to me for no reason. Anyone would have thought something was up."
"Want me to kiss you?" Yu Xin kept bringing up the topic.
Shen Mengqing replied firmly, "No."
Yu Xin: "That means you want to kiss me."
Shen Mengqing: "No!!!"
Why can't this person understand human language?
"Why don't you beg me? Maybe I'll agree since you're sick."
Yu Xin was determined to tease her, and Shen Mengqing saw through it. After glaring at him fiercely, she gave him a ruthless dismissal, saying, "Mr. Yu, I've finished eating. If there's nothing else, you can leave."
Seeing her face suddenly turn cold, Yu Xin spread her hands and said, "I'll leave after you take your medicine."
She's not a child anymore; she doesn't need someone to watch her when she takes medicine.
Shen Mengqing braced himself on his arms and stood up. He walked to the cabinet, took out the medicine with a clatter, and gulped it down in a few mouthfuls with warm water.
"Is this okay now?" she asked, opening her mouth slightly, like a student asking a teacher to check their homework.
Yu Xin had already cleaned up her takeout and wiped the coffee table until it shone. He picked up the trash and said, "Okay, I'm leaving now."
He walked to the door and said again, "If you're still not feeling well tomorrow, don't come to the company. Don't force yourself."
Shen Mengqing nestled back on the sofa, wrapped herself in a blanket, and called out, "Okay."
She immediately sneezed twice, reasonably suspecting that Yu Xin was talking about her behind her back.
...
After a night's sleep, Shen Mengqing's cold was much better.
Although Yu Xin always had a sharp tongue that annoyed her, Shen Mengqing had to admit that his presence still brought her a sense of warmth during her vulnerable moments when she was sick.
That's just how he is. He looks very cold on the outside and always likes to tease people when he speaks. He's not used to expressing his feelings or thoughts directly, but he's softer inside than most people. His tough exterior is like a defense mechanism he built up since childhood.
As she stepped into the office building elevator, the person who had been on her mind just a moment before was now standing in the corner watching her.
Seeing that she looked normal, Yu Xin asked, "Is your cold better?"
Shen Mengqing nodded and pressed the close button: "Much better."
"Did you take your medicine this morning?" he asked.
Shen Mengqing almost laughed, turned her head to look at him and said, "If you want to care about someone, can you stop asking if they've taken their medicine?"
Yu Xin crossed his arms: "Then what should I ask?"
"How did you sleep last night? Have you had breakfast? Is your fever gone? Are you still feeling unwell?" Shen Mengqing listed them one by one, saying, "Isn't this a lot of questions?"
After she finished speaking, Yu Xin didn't reply, but just stared at her intently, a faint smile playing at the corners of his eyes.
Do you know what you sound like when you say that?
His eyes were mocking.
Like a girlfriend who complains to him in a spoiled manner.
Shen Mengqing realized this too, quickly turned her head away, and said in annoyance, "Stop talking."
She recalled Jiang Yu's words that she suspected Yu Xin liked her. Actually, it wasn't that she couldn't sense that faint affection, but let alone Yu Xin, she couldn't even explain her own feelings for Yu Xin.
Is this kind of feeling, born from physical desire, truly strong? She wasn't sure. Desire is a terrible thing; it catalyzes the throbbing within the body. Is it deep affection or just a physical impulse? She couldn't tell; her mind was shrouded in a fog.
A bell hangs in her heart, ringing in those ambiguous and blurred moments, reminding her not to lose her sense of propriety.
Shen Mengqing pursed her lips and remained silent all the way to her office.
In the days that followed, Yu Xin was so busy that she was rarely seen, and Shen Mengqing was also focused on planning the sharing session. The undercurrents of restlessness gradually subsided, and she returned to being the secretary whose mind was only on work.
The sharing session was held on Monday afternoon. Prior to that, she had the HR department make several promotional posters for the speakers and promoted them extensively in various work groups within the company, attracting many people to pre-register for the meeting.
Shen Mengqing specially booked the largest conference room, a spacious and bright room with a floor-to-ceiling window offering a superb view, capable of accommodating two to three hundred people.
The front row of seats in the middle is reserved for senior management, the next two rows are for department heads, and the seats behind that are open to colleagues.
A large number of people came, and the shareholders gradually filled the first row. Some leaders of core business departments even made their employees attend the event.
Six colleagues shared their experiences, in reverse order of who won the competition at the time, with Zhang Tu appearing last.
Zhang Ming was sitting in his seat, chatting and laughing with the shareholders around him. He was looking forward to his son's performance today and believed that Zhang Tu would definitely become the protagonist of this public meeting and make him look good.
Before the meeting officially began, Shen Mengqing went to the restroom.
She came out after washing her hands and bumped into Liang Jun, who was walking out from the other end.
This was the first time she had met Liang Jun privately since becoming his secretary. Since moving offices, she had rarely seen her former leaders and colleagues. After all, the only department directly managed by the board office was the media department, and there was a layer between it and other departments such as the sales department.
Shen Mengqing smiled slightly at him, a polite greeting, since she didn't want to give him any pleasantries given what he had done before.
But in Liang Jun's eyes, her attitude was extremely contemptuous. He scoffed and said, "Secretary Shen, you've climbed up the social ladder and forgotten your roots?"
"Manager Liang, that's a strange thing to say. How could I be considered ungrateful? I remember I resigned from my sales job before I became a secretary, didn't I?" Shen Mengqing said with a smile. "It's my own skill that I was able to climb the social ladder. Manager Liang, please don't tease me. Aren't you the best at building connections?"
Liang Jun stared intently at her: "I'll wait and see how long President Yu can back you up. These rich kids are the kind you use for a few months and then throw away."
Shen Mengqing wasn't annoyed and said calmly, "I think Manager Liang has used too many unfair means and thinks everyone is just as dirty as you."
Liang Jun was about to shout angrily when Shen Mengqing touched a nerve, when Liang Ruwei walked out from behind the two of them.
"It's about to start, what are you all doing here?"
Her words dispelled the tense atmosphere between Shen Mengqing and Liang Jun. Shen Mengqing smiled and went into the conference room with her. Liang Jun came in a little later.
Shen Mengqing was the host of the meeting. When the time came, she picked up the microphone, walked onto the stage, and began her opening remarks.
She had hosted many times during her student days, and surprisingly, she was still quite skilled even after several years. Her voice was naturally clear and melodious, and when she hosted, she deliberately made her tone more dignified. Her words were pleasant to the ear, like a gentle stream, and made people feel very comfortable.
A row of lights shone on her in front of the screen, as if illuminating her with a shimmering outline. Yu Xin sat in the very center of the conference room, looking at the confident and dazzling Shen Mengqing, feeling that she was like a diamond, constantly being polished to reach the purest brilliance.
Each colleague had about fifteen minutes to share, followed by ten minutes of comments and Q&A from the leaders. The process went relatively quickly, and after about two hours, it was time to share the pictures.
This was also the first time Shen Mengqing had seen his detailed plan. After all, the list that was released at the time only had the plan name and a brief introduction, and no other information.
She sat on the side near the front and looked up at Zhang Tu.
Zhang Tu was as flamboyant as ever. Before starting, he even gave Shen Mengqing a slightly provocative look.
After opening the PowerPoint presentation, he proceeded to explain it page by page, and Shen Mengqing's gaze grew colder and colder as time went by.
Zhang Tu's proposal was exactly the final version she submitted, with 90% of it unchanged. A few parts were expanded for the 15-minute presentation, but these were mostly minor additions.
He and Liang Jun are truly shameless, stealing her plan without changing a single word, completely unconcerned about any negative consequences.
Zhang Tu's speech was neither particularly good nor bad. This plan was the result of Shen Mengqing's numerous revisions, and as long as he followed the content, it would be enough to make him stand out.
After he finished his report, thunderous applause erupted from below. Zhang Ming could not hide his smile and clapped his hands proudly.
When it came to the Q&A session, with Zhang Ming present, the other shareholders only asked some simple questions, which Zhang Tu could answer in just a few sentences.
The microphone was passed to Yu Xin, who looked down at the printed proposal materials and asked, "As a sales representative, why did you choose to promote a new health product as your theme?"
Zhang Tu didn't expect Yu Xin to ask about the original intention of choosing the theme of the program. The questions he had anticipated were all based on the details of the content.
He paused for a moment, then said, "At that time, the new health products launched by the company were not selling well in the market. I noticed this situation, so I wanted to approach it from the perspective of how to promote them."
Yu Xin nodded and said, "This plan has a lot of promotional data to support it. In fact, it seems more like a plan made by the media department. Do you usually pay attention to the work of the media department?"
"Uh, yes." Zhang Tu could only go along with what he was saying.
"Then explain to me the big data analysis model used on page 40."
Yu Xin stretched out his hand and touched the paper with his fingertip.
Upon hearing his words, Zhang Tu was instantly dumbfounded. He had no idea what big data analysis models were!
He quickly flipped through the PPT with his head down, finding the model Yu Xin had mentioned. However, he was now completely bewildered by Yu Xin's comments, finding the English terminology on it like something out of a fantasy.
His palms began to sweat as he gripped the microphone, and his legs felt weak. He stammered for a long time, unable to utter a single word.
Yu Xin leaned back in his chair, no longer giving him time: "You can't explain how you used this model to summarize several pages of analysis."
"I...this..."
Zhang Tu looked to Zhang Ming for help.
Zhang Ming was unaware that he had stolen the plan, and simply assumed he was too nervous, encouraging him with his eyes to have more confidence.
Yu Xin sneered: "You didn't write this plan, did you?"
His words suddenly broke the silence of the conference room, which had been quiet, and whispers filled the air.
Zhang Tu's face flushed with anger, but he still stubbornly insisted, "It was my proposal, but it was from several months ago, I can't remember exactly."
"Can't remember?" Yu Xin's cold voice fell on Zhang Tu's ears, no different from a cold and ruthless judge of hell. "Then let me help you recall."
He called Chen Mo over, and Chen Mo plugged a USB into the projected computer. Another PPT was displayed on the computer, which looked exactly the same as the one with the picture from before if you didn't look closely.
The only difference is that the folder containing this PPT contains many versions of the plan, and each version is meticulously marked with its detailed date and time.
“This is the planning proposal that Secretary Shen submitted back then, and it’s exactly the same as yours,” Yu Xin said to Zhang Tu.
Zhang Tu immediately glared at Shen Mengqing: "She plagiarized my proposal!"
Yu Xin calmly replied, "Then can you provide a historical version of your plan?"
Zhang Tu naturally couldn't provide any solutions, so he turned to Liang Jun, hoping he could find one.
Liang Jun huddled in his seat, not daring to meet his gaze, afraid that he would be dragged into the conversation as well.
Yu Xin looked at him for a few seconds and said in a deep voice, "Alright, stealing a colleague's proposal to win a prize, our company will have a hard time keeping an employee like that. What do you think, Mr. Zhang?"
He casually turned his head to look at Zhang Ming.
With so many company employees here, they all know about Zhang Tu's actions. Yu Xin clearly wants to make an example of him, so how could Zhang Ming dare to say no?
He gritted his teeth and uttered, "Let General Manager Yu punish me as he sees fit."
Having said that, he was too ashamed to stay any longer and stormed off.
The scene froze. Yu Xin didn't want to deal with Zhang Tu right there. He let Shen Mengqing end the sharing session normally and then announce the punishment for Zhang Tu later.
As people gradually left the meeting room, no one expected that something a hundred times more exciting than the entire meeting would appear at the last minute.
The surroundings fell silent again. Shen Mengqing finished packing up his computer and saw Yu Xin sitting at the front, still looking down at his phone.
She walked over with her laptop and said to Yu Xin, "Why aren't you leaving yet?"
Yu Xin put down his phone, looked up at her, and whispered, "Was it good?"
Shen Mengqing feigned modesty, pursed her lips, nodded, and then couldn't help but smile, her eyes crinkling into a smile.
She said with a smile, "Awesome!"
Yu Xin raised the corner of his eye, extended his right hand to Shen Mengqing, palm up, and silently looked at her.
Shen Mengqing understood, raised one hand, and slapped it down hard, giving him a high five.
-----------------------
A note from the author:
Liang Jun and Zhang Tu have finally been punished!
Actually, Aqing's writing about promoting health supplements is related to her neighborhood. Let me remind you of some content from a few chapters a long time ago—lots of elderly people in her neighborhood were poisoned by health supplements, hahaha [dog emoji]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
