Chapter 1
"Sung-sil! You'd better explain to me today where that foundation on your clothes came from? And that cheap perfume smell! If you're going to go out and pick up girls, don't just go with any random shady stuff!"
A tall, beautiful young woman was stretching out her arm, disdainfully lifting the collar of a suit jacket with two fingers, and shrieking at the tall, handsome man who was curled up on the sofa gnawing on his nails.
This man was the "Chengshi" the woman had been talking about. His mind was a mess. The combined stress of months of work and the frenzied atmosphere of the party had led him to drink a few extra glasses of wine, and then…
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the US-based Hose Group's entry into China, employee representatives from various Hose China branches and top-performing agents gathered today in the banquet hall of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. After two days of intense meetings, speeches, seminars, and training sessions, the highlight of the 30th anniversary celebration finally arrived: Hose China's largest and most attended Gala Dinner of the year!
Besides the employees and distributors who had been "brainwashed" for two days, the attendees at tonight's dinner also included all the senior leaders of Haoskai China. It is worth mentioning that even the group president flew in from the United States to attend the event, which shows how much the Americans value the Chinese market. This made Haoskai's distributors feel particularly honored and proud.
However, not everyone present felt honored and proud. This top-level event had been a source of endless complaints for the staff of the Central Support Department for an entire year. In fact, all the staff in this department had been preparing for this event since a year ago, and they hadn't even had a proper Spring Festival. Just take tonight's dinner, for example. The Central Support Department had designed countless versions of the plan, not to mention the other supporting activities, the plans for receiving the president and his entourage, and the publicity plans for the China region. Heaven knows how much useless work they had done this year! Not to mention the useless work in planning the plans, even the execution of the plans fell on the shoulders of this department, so all the staff in this department had been in a state of frantic chaos since returning from the Spring Festival holiday. Fortunately, the president was finally going back to the United States tomorrow, and the airport transfer plan had been arranged in advance. Everything today went exceptionally smoothly: although the weather was cold, there were many people, and the security level was high, the Central Support Department was relieved that all the leaders seemed to be enjoying themselves, the hotel food was excellent, and the outsourced services did not make any mistakes in the rush... so everything seemed to be perfect and going smoothly.
Chengshi, who is currently being berated by a beautiful woman, has been working in the Central Support Department of Haoskai China for over nine years. Although he has had plenty of opportunities to change jobs and get promoted, he doesn't seem to care much about them, so he's just a mid-level deputy director. To put it nicely, Chengshi is a middle-level manager in the company, but to put it bluntly, he's still just a lackey. But Chengshi doesn't see it that way. He believes that Haoskai, a group that started by selling health products, is actually a fraudulent company, and that he's doing this job just to make a living—"the most boring job in the world"—so he has no ambition, no moral pressure, and even feels a sense of superiority because of it.
Because it is a sacrifice, a sacrifice for family, children, and loved ones.
Although the work is uninteresting, Chengshi is quite satisfied with his current salary—his annual after-tax salary is around 400,000 to nearly 500,000, slightly higher than the salary of similar positions in other industries. This is why Chengshi chose to join this "scam" company, and also why he feels there's no need to change jobs or seek a promotion. To be honest, after working at Haosikai for over nine years, Chengshi has developed a set of "how to slack off" techniques. Moreover, he has seriously calculated that his current job's cost-effectiveness index is about 2.2, which is practically a dream job. Therefore, neither promotion nor changing jobs would be better than maintaining the status quo.
Cost-effectiveness of work = Average daily wage × Overall environment coefficient / (35 × (Working hours + Commuting time - 0.5 × Time spent slacking off) × Education coefficient)
However, the job was ultimately boring because the company culture was vulgar and mercenary, with constant slogans and talk of gratitude. Cheng Shi always felt out of place in the entire Haoshikai community. But in the high-energy, celebratory atmosphere of the evening, he naturally drank a few more glasses of wine, and then, emboldened by the alcohol, he started talking at length with Candy, the department secretary sitting next to him, about his forte: philosophy and art.
Although called a secretary, Candy was more like a menial worker in the Central Support Department. The tasks no one else wanted always miraculously ended up on her shoulders. In the entire 15th floor, there were about 20 girls in the secretarial team alone, and the short, chubby Candy was completely invisible among the many pretty secretaries, let alone having any say in anything. This girl was a new employee who had just joined last year during graduation season, graduating from a third-rate university whose secretarial studies she couldn't even recall. In short, despite having worked for more than half a year and been promoted to a permanent position, Candy, lacking both looks and formal education, remained an unpopular, invisible figure, not only in the company but also within the Central Support Department.
But this is for the best. If Candy weren't so ugly and clumsy that she wouldn't dare to rush to the head table or socialize at other tables, she wouldn't have had the opportunity to sit next to Cheng Sir, who is privately recognized as the most handsome and talented person in the entire Hao Si Kai Head Office.
Although the pretty girls in the secretarial team unanimously considered Candy ugly and clumsy, she possessed a charmingly naive, innocent, and focused demeanor typical of young girls her age. Whenever Narumi assigned her tasks, Candy would always adopt a respectful attitude, as if addressing a CEO from America, which Narumi always found very pleasing. Even in this relaxed atmosphere at the dinner table, Candy refused to let her guard down. When Narumi spoke of Foucault, Candy, wearing an ill-fitting rented dress and heavy makeup completely inappropriate for her age, displayed nothing but adoration and infatuation on her face.
In truth, Candy had no idea who Foucault was or what Cheng was talking about, but she simply loved listening to this Mr. Cheng speak, anything he said was fine; even if he said nothing at all, just being able to sit next to him and look at his handsome face was enough to make her content. Cheng was the "ideal man" in the eyes of many unmarried young women in Haosikai, and Candy never dreamed that she would be so lucky as to drink with him and listen to him talk today.
Under Candy's adoring and admiring gaze, Chengshi was momentarily lost in thought. He suddenly realized that his wife, Huang Ruoyu, hadn't looked at him like that in a very long time. So, Chengshi, already quite eloquent, became even more talkative, and naturally, drank even more heavily. After a few rounds of drinks, Chengshi felt waves of secret joy and pride, as if he had returned to the days when he first met Huang Ruoyu—ah! How wonderful those days were! His little fish was so beautiful, understanding, and so docilely endearing…
To everyone's surprise, Candy's alcohol tolerance was far worse than Huang Ruoyu's. She'd only had two drinks with Chengshi when she hurriedly covered her mouth and ran towards the restrooms outside the banquet hall. Chengshi, who always prided himself on his gentlemanly manners at work, naturally followed to check on her. But... Chengshi didn't know what exactly happened. He just remembered kissing Candy in the hotel's outdoor garden. Even though it was almost the end of April, a gust of cold wind made Candy, wearing an off-the-shoulder dress, shiver and huddle in his arms...
Before going home, Chengshi made a point of washing his face and hands thoroughly, but he genuinely didn't notice the foundation stain on his suit collar, nor did he smell any cheap perfume—he felt his nose had been overwhelmed by the mixed, pungent scents of all the different people he'd met over the past two days. Now, facing the slightly dramatic Huang Ruoyu, Chengshi was determined not to reveal a single word of this "accident" to her, but at the same time, he found himself unconsciously biting his nails…
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