4. Not a story about a domineering CEO.
Fang Kaixuan also found it strange.
Logically, she should be feeling utterly despondent during this time. Psychologists say that the process of falling into grief has five stages: denial, anger, confusion, frustration, and acceptance.
It may take months or even years to reach final "acceptance".
Like a textbook example, Fang Kaixuan himself did indeed spend several months going through denial, anger, and confusion, and is now in a state of deep depression. And "depression" is more terrible than "anger," and is the most difficult of the five stages to get through. It will leave you exhausted, constantly blaming yourself, and even at risk of self-harm or suicide.
Fang Kaixuan was cautious and tried her best to stay away from self-harm. But constant rumination and self-doubt had become her mental state lately.
Normally, this is the time when she would be least interested in men. Yet, she felt such excitement towards this stranger she had met by chance.
She had never known that she could feel guilty about being happy.
*
“If you say you’re coming at four in the afternoon, then I’ll be happy from three o’clock onwards.”
That's what they both read in "The Little Prince".
Indeed. With the promise to watch the sunset together, Fang Kaixuan found herself in a better mood, even for her least favorite time of day – the morning.
Early in the morning, she waited quietly for her boss at the restaurant.
The boss looked excited. He couldn't help but be excited; in just one day yesterday, he had turned the tide and made a paper profit of two billion Hong Kong dollars.
Fang Kaixuan understood that the money wasn't entirely clean. She also found nothing endearing about this domineering CEO.
For an ordinary person like her, money is precious and hard to come by. But for him, money is like flowing water, easily manipulated, and entirely at his fingertips.
He had enough money to support any extravagant lifestyle until old age, yet he still worked more than twelve hours a day.
He just likes to keep winning.
As a subordinate, Fang Kaixuan had neither the right nor the interest to make this moral judgment. But recently, his success and increasingly bold and unrestrained behavior made her suspicious.
"Good morning, Sam," Fang Kaixuan nodded in greeting.
The boss doesn't allow his subordinates to call him "boss" or "General Manager Shen." He thinks those are too rustic, too nouveau riche, and uncouth.
He has the right to be so critical. The tides of the world sweep everyone along; some go with the flow, while others ride the wind. And these past ten years, the fierce east wind has propelled him to great heights, reaching heights he never imagined.
Some economists say that a person may encounter three upward trends in their lifetime, and seizing just one is enough to enjoy lifelong wealth. Warren Buffett also said that if you seize just one opportunity to become rich overnight, all you need to do is protect your wealth and not squander it.
Unfortunately, what ordinary people need to learn most is not how to protect their assets, but how to find that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Most people won't find it. They'll end up like Fang Kaixuan, toiling away day in and day out, like Sisyphus rolling the boulder to his death. Even if they're dressed in a suit and standing in a high-end hotel deep in the Alps, looking respectable, as long as they don't control the means of production, no matter how glamorous they appear, they're just being used by others.
She is very clear about her role.
The boss, however, didn't see it that way. He considered himself a gentleman, kind and tolerant, good at cultivating his subordinates, and unmoved by temptation. Everyone assumed there must be something between Fang Kaixuan and him, otherwise why would he take her everywhere?
He only despised those people for their low-level thinking.
He has countless beautiful women these days, but few women truly worship him. Everyone who flatters or fears him does so simply to extract something from him.
Fang Kaixuan, however, seemed to regard him as a true hero.
The dopamine released from this kind of youthful admiration and recognition from the opposite sex is far more precious than that from romantic relationships.
She was originally just an ordinary subordinate, intelligent, self-disciplined, and cautious. However, for a period of time, she suffered many grievances at work and was repeatedly tormented by a newly appointed superior. It's a common workplace practice for newly appointed superiors, lacking a strong foundation, to use a weak person as a scapegoat to establish rules. This time, Fang Kaixuan was unfortunately chosen.
It was by chance that Fang Kaixuan was sent by her new boss to assist him in completing a complicated and error-prone task. He casually asked her how she was getting along with her new boss. She was usually very quiet and seemed easy to bully, but she actually teared up in front of him, feeling wronged.
Looking back now, it's impossible to tell whether those tears were genuine or an act. But at the time, his heart couldn't help but flutter.
It wasn't the thrill of romantic love; it was an instant trip back to when I was eighteen.
Boss Fang Kaixuan isn't the kind of domineering CEO you find in romance novels, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, blessed with a silver spoon in his mouth, who then achieves great success through hard work, ruling over a multi-billion dollar empire at the young age of twenty-eight. He also doesn't look like Daniel Wu, constantly raising his eyebrows and smirking; he's more like a gigolo than a domineering CEO.
In the first half of his life, he was just an ordinary person among ordinary mortals. It wasn't until after he turned thirty-five that, by chance, he began to prosper and rise to a level he never expected.
Therefore, he values the respect and admiration of others, because this is not something he was born with.
Fang Kaixuan acted impulsively that day, and looking back, he realized it was unprofessional. Today's workplace may seem open and egalitarian, but in reality, hierarchy is strict; those one level below are considered inferior. Even a lowly line manager can control the careers of their subordinates.
Her reaction was indeed naive. The boss thought so too. Anyone else would have been considered a kind boss, offering a little comfort before sending them away. But her tearful eyes somehow reminded him of his girlfriend when he was eighteen. They had spent a wonderful summer together, but when summer ended, she moved to Canada with her family, forcing them to break up. Back then, his girlfriend had also had those same helpless, tearful eyes.
Fang Kaixuan doesn't look like her, but their tearful expressions are the same. She's exceptionally stubborn, with an air of defiance and untamed spirit.
This ordinary subordinate had the air of an old friend, no wonder his heart fluttered. At eighteen, he was powerless to change things, but today, things were different.
As Eileen Chang said, a middle-aged man wakes up in the middle of the night to find himself surrounded by people who depend on him. He was exactly like that.
He had a wife, three or five children, several lovers, and many subordinates, all of whom treated him as their support, connections, resources, and ATMs. Yet few of them truly admired him.
At his age, he no longer believes in romance, but today he has the power to act willfully and arbitrarily. He completely ignores the HR director's advice. In HR's eyes, people are no different from goods; as long as the price is right, there are as many as they want, so why blame senior management for ordinary employees?
But he insisted on his own way. As a result, Fang Kaixuan's boss resigned in frustration, unable to understand why it was unacceptable to bully a subordinate. Isn't making an example of someone a common practice in the workplace?
Since then, everyone has said that Fang Kaixuan is the boss's man. The things said behind his back are incredibly nasty. Although no one dares to express their dissatisfaction in front of the boss, Fang Kaixuan has heard quite a bit of it.
He had heard about it too, and once asked her, "Aren't you worried about those rumors?"
Fang Kaixuan gently shook his head: "No. I have a clear conscience."
He laughed heartily: "You're still young. It's okay to feel guilty when you reach my age."
That sounded like a veiled criticism. However, he never made any inappropriate advances towards her.
Because it's unnecessary.
If Fang Kaixuan were willing to rely on him, he wouldn't refuse, since it wouldn't require him to give anything in return, and he would even feel entitled to it. But since she was always shy and proper, he couldn't force or entice her.
There are plenty of beautiful women out there, but he'd rather keep her as a simple admirer.
The kind of domineering CEO plot in romance novels where he falls for an innocent girl and insists on taking her by force is just satisfying some unrealistic fantasy.
In their world, there is no such thing as "it has to be you".
But from then on, no one would intentionally make things difficult or obstructive at work anymore. She was happy about this. Because those who bully their superiors and oppress their inferiors are always good at changing their tune, and they are more ridiculous than clowns.
From then on, she often viewed people with a sarcastic attitude.
The events of this year transformed her into a skeptic. From a passionate and naive romantic, she became someone who scoffed at the mere mention of love. From a diligent and hardworking employee, she became someone who appeared docile but was inwardly filled with cynicism.
Even when you meet a seemingly perfect man.
Especially... when you meet a man who seems perfect.
///
Men are predictable!
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