10. You are not destined to be together
Every Monday is like a big exam. Traffic is extremely congested, and everyone looks miserable. If the morning rush hour is unfortunately accompanied by rain or snow, the situation is even more miserable.
Vivian rushed into the office, barely making it to the department's weekly morning meeting. The meeting was long and rambling, lasting only three hours. Her immediate boss, Jia Lan, was still feeling unsatisfied, with many insights he hadn't yet shared. Finally, he assigned his staff to read "Elon Musk," and next week everyone was required to speak and share their thoughts.
Vivian couldn't help but complain inwardly: Why is it that once people sit in a certain position, they naturally feel that every word they say is insightful and even their reading tastes are worthy of their subordinates' compliance.
At the meeting, she reported on a recent internet celebrity restaurant retail project she'd been following. Jia Lan listened and nodded, "I think we can continue to push it. Bring Ziqi along. I'll give you two more weeks to conduct interviews, update the data, and try to get the project approved as soon as possible."
Yang Ziqi, a new colleague who joined the company this month, is no ordinary newcomer, but a VIP employee who joined the company without going through the recruitment process.
When the primary market is hot, every investment institution needs such a special group.
These individuals often maintain a quiet demeanor at work, not seeking career advancement, and maintain a remarkably good work-life balance. Within project teams, they're often useless, serving as mascots. Yet, key projects always require one or two of these individuals so they can confidently claim to have participated in some important project.
This was the case with Feng Simiao yesterday and Yang Ziqi today.
Vivian was naturally unhappy with this arrangement. She would have preferred a humble, hardworking, and discerning intern to handle the chores, but she had no choice but to agree. As a mere VP, she had no say, and Jia Lan had already promised her a promotion by the end of the year. As a subordinate, she naturally had to obey orders and not resist.
Feng Simiao must have been very idle at his company, so he was busy chatting with Vivian on Monday:
"Any progress with Eric?"
"What progress, miss? I've been so busy lately, and Lao Jia even gave me this little piece of crap."
"Didn't anything happen that night? You really wasted your chance."
"Really not. I'll just watch you leave and go back to your homes."
"It seems like you guys really don't have chemistry. Never mind. I'll just leave you alone."
Vivian thought to herself, Luofu's intention to make Jun indifferent is all in vain. I don't have the confidence that you, the eldest lady, can get whatever you want.
A meeting reminder popped up on her computer, and she quickly ended the conversation.
People who have to earn everything with their own hands have no time to complain like this.
*
A colleague sent Vivian an invitation to a brand launch conference. The colleague is a young entrepreneur known for his literary and artistic style. After his previous company went public, he sold his shares and went cycling around the world. After returning, he founded this new company that runs a cycling community.
For a while, everything was being made into a "community," with dining and shopping all being considered "social." Now, if that wasn't a scam, it was a form of mass hysteria.
This kind of story of pursuing one's dreams after achieving financial freedom is unremarkable from a business perspective, and the results are often a mess. But Vivian had nothing else to do that day, so she went to join in the fun.
The event was held at a designer hotel. These kinds of events are all the same: a cocktail reception, a few minutes of chatting, and then a dinner. Everyone milled around outside the ballroom, pretending to be serious, sipping champagne, but actually impatiently wondering when they'd be allowed in for dinner.
The company she had invited hadn't arrived yet, and she wasn't too lazy to socialize. So she pretended to pore over the company profile on the acrylic backdrop—hundreds of words and a few images—and read it over and over again.
"You are also Mr. Qin's friend, right?"
She turned her head and saw a strange man who looked like a typical user of this so-called cycling community, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, dark skin and white teeth, and a body that could be achieved by spending many hours on the beach and in the gym.
"Isn't this kind of pick-up a bit too routine?"
"Hahaha, I was wrong. Can we have coffee together? My name is Alan, Fang Tianyi."
He wasn't at all embarrassed by having his cheesy tricks exposed. That's the beauty of people who know how to strike up a conversation: they avoid awkward situations. They understand the back-and-forth, the rhythm of movement, the flow of movement, like a Latin dance, requiring both empathy and flexibility. Those who don't tend to be overly slick or overly serious, easily making things awkward.
Vivian was almost immediately interested in him and began to wonder why he came to chat her up. She knew very well that she was not the kind of woman who was so beautiful that a strange man would bother to talk to her.
*
Vivian and he walked to the lobby bar on the first floor.
Sitting face to face, he was still pleasing to the eye, the type she would have loved if she were five years younger: his smile was as bright as a gum or deodorant model, and his every move seemed to be captured by a camera, with a particularly artificial and unrestrained air.
But within five minutes of chatting, she frowned slightly and could only pick up her coffee cup and sip slowly to hide her impatience. Although this man was not in finance, he had all the problems of financial men - self-righteousness, boasting, but his words were meaningless.
He didn't notice the atmosphere was off, and continued to talk as if he were giving a speech. Vivian was distracted, but she roughly understood that he was an art investor and had been working on NFTs for the past two years. He also invited her to visit his company.
"China's current art and NFT auction revenue has reached $4 billion, making it the world's second-largest art market. For investment institutions, this is still a blue ocean. I wonder if Ms. Fang is interested in learning more?"
Vivian took the business card and saw that it was a WeWork office nearby.
She was polite and perfunctory:
"This field...is definitely not within our current scope. It really requires a lot of vision and professional knowledge. But if I have the opportunity, I'm very willing to learn."
But I was thinking: Yesterday they were working on virtual currency, today they are working on the metaverse. There are really a lot of people like this. They do whatever is popular and dare to say that their company is only one programmer away from Series A financing by making a PPT.
This guy is no joke, and he has ulterior motives. He's just a small VP, but it shows how desperate he is, and how he's lost his mind.
This kind of clichéd man is not cute.
She was about to say goodbye politely when suddenly a hand rested on her right shoulder. "Why are you here?" the voice was extremely intimate.
She had no choice but to greet politely: "Hello, what a coincidence."
Fang Tianyi looked at him doubtfully, then at Vivian. Eric shook his hand, then quickly withdrew his right hand and continued to hold her shoulders, tightening his grip a little. "Well, are we ready to go?"
She was confused, but she couldn't say anything and could only smile.
Fang Tianyi was very perceptive and read her expression, then stood up and said, "That won't bother you anymore. Miss Fang, see you later."
"I'll make an appointment with you another day." She said goodbye loudly and smiled at him. After watching him leave, she turned around and rolled her eyes at Eric. "Why are you ruining my good thing?"
"I'm afraid you'll be cheated by a bad man."
"Thank you. It's troublesome."
"Can't you see that this is a shady way of making money?" He looked very serious.
"Thanks for your concern, but it's not necessary. I'm no longer at the age where I would be fooled by such tricks." Although Vivian didn't like Alan very much, she hated him in her heart.
"Why are you angry? Let's go, I'm hungry." He smiled, "How about Mexican food?"
"Let go. Men and women shouldn't touch each other."
Despite being angry, Vivian didn't mind eating with him. This guy was strange. In front of others, he was carefree and carefree, but in private, he was so serious. He carefully helped her order the food and even changed seats with her to avoid the air conditioning vents.
The two of them sat down, and Vivian smiled: "It's such a big city, how come you are everywhere?"
He raised his hands in surrender. "I'm really not a pervert stalking you. Is it possible... this is fate?"
"I never believe in such a thing as fate."
"How do you say that?"
"With today's technology, there's no such thing as someone you can't find or meet. Using fate as an excuse is hypocritical and cowardly, isn't it?"
"But you and that man just now are destined to be apart."
Vivian was both amused and confused: "Could it be that we are destined to be together?"
"Don't you think so? It seems like we've been old acquaintances since the beginning."
Old. Familiar.
Vivian chuckled inwardly. So his thoughtful actions were just a way of managing a fish pond.
///
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