Chapter 19 After the argument, she fell asleep peacefully.
[Xiao Sun: Sister, I'm so sorry, I'm really sorry]
[Xiao Sun: I really just saw cat hair and wanted to help you remove it]
[Xiao Sun: Please don't be angry anymore, sis!]
After Tang Yi got up, she reached for her phone on the bedside table, and a long string of messages sent by Sun Yuyang in the early hours of the morning instantly appeared on the screen.
Tang Yi lowered her eyelashes and typed: [It's okay, I'm not angry, don't take it to heart.]
She stared at the chat history, lost in thought.
To stop herself from dwelling on what happened at the bar the previous night, Tang Yi deliberately increased her workload at the company all day to numb herself, running around like a spinning top without stopping for a moment.
She had barely settled into her seat after getting off work when Zhang Minglang called, sounding quite pleased.
Are you off work yet?
Tang Yi felt that his tone was a little too intimate, making her feel strange, but she still replied, "Just got home."
"OK, I'm downstairs at your place. I'll bring Xiaobai down with me."
Tang Yi hadn't expected him to return from his business trip so quickly, but before she could say anything, the other end of the phone had already hung up.
After hesitating for a moment, she decided to go downstairs and explain the whole story in person.
Zhang Minglang sat in his car downstairs, his fingers tapping out a rhythm unconsciously, a sense of excitement welling up inside him.
Suddenly, he saw that familiar figure appear through the car window. He quickly suppressed the smile on his lips, averted his gaze, cleared his throat, and casually loosened the tie that was tightening around his throat.
"Mr. Zhang, I didn't expect you to come back so early."
"I am highly efficient at work."
Zhang Minglang raised his head, looking smug and self-satisfied.
After he finished speaking, he leaned out to look at her empty hands and asked in confusion, "Where's Xiaobai?"
"I was just about to explain this to you on the phone, but you hung up too quickly."
Tang Yijing observed his expression for a moment before continuing, "Xiaobai isn't at my house right now."
"What's the meaning?"
As expected, the faint smile on Zhang Minglang's lips froze and gradually disappeared.
He stared directly into Tang Yi's eyes: "Do you think that just because I'm not around, you can easily shirk the work I give you?"
Tang Yi could have predicted his reaction with her bare hands. She wasn't upset at all; she let him vent his anger first before she started to explain.
"I brought it back that day..."
"Alright, I can't be bothered to listen." He interrupted impatiently. "In short, where's the cat right now?"
"Assistant Zhou's family."
Zhang Minglang nodded knowingly, gave her a deep look, and then the car window slowly rolled up.
"etc!"
Without even thinking, Tang Yi stepped forward and swiftly reached into the closing window crack.
The window sensed the resistance from the hand, activated its anti-pinch function, and stopped the closing action.
Zhang Minglang was so shocked by her move that he broke out in a cold sweat.
He was both anxious and angry. He opened the car door, got out, and rushed out, asking, "Are you crazy? Is your hand okay?"
However, he suddenly remembered her reaction to physical contact at the last dinner party, and his outstretched hand, which he had reached out to grab, hung in mid-air before clenching into a fist and letting it fall down.
Tang Yi's face remained expressionless throughout. Her voice was cold as she looked up to meet Zhang Minglang's anxious eyes, explaining clearly, word by word:
"First of all, on the day you went on your business trip, which was the day before yesterday, I picked up Xiaobai according to the location you gave me, and I also sent you a video, did you receive it?"
Zhang Minglang paused, remaining silent.
"Secondly," Tang Yi continued, "around one or two in the morning yesterday, I couldn't sleep because I was so itchy. When I got up, I found that my neck was covered in red rashes. At two in the morning, I took a taxi to the city hospital to have blood drawn for tests, get medication, and check for allergens. It was confirmed that I had a mild allergy to animal hair."
As she spoke, she opened her phone's photo album, flipped to the picture of the medical report she had taken the night before, and handed the phone to Zhang Minglang.
He frowned deeply, staring at her serious face, his eyes filled with a complex mix of regret and worry, and he even forgot to look at the content on the screen.
"I......"
"For my own health and safety, and so that Xiaobai can be properly cared for, I asked Assistant Zhou to take it away because he is experienced and has no history of allergies. I don't think there's anything wrong with this arrangement."
Tang Yi interrupted him, finished her statement, put away her phone, looked at the man in front of her, and waited for his response.
"......sorry."
After a brief silence, Zhang Minglang lowered his head and uttered those three words with difficulty, his voice hoarse and low.
He didn't know what to say. He couldn't bear to look her in the eyes anymore.
Both of them inexplicably fell silent.
Seeing the man's unusually humble demeanor, Tang Yi was somewhat stunned. Her tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and she realized how much aggrieved stubbornness had been mixed in with her explanation just now.
So when she looked up again, her tone softened: "I'm not saying this to blame you. I stopped you to explain because I didn't want any misunderstandings. It was my oversight to forget to tell you, causing you to make a wasted trip and taking up your time."
"No!" Zhang Minglang suddenly looked up and interrupted her, his eyes burning with an urgent need to clarify. "You did nothing wrong. It was me... I shouldn't have spoken to you like that without understanding the situation."
Tang Yi was completely stunned, her gaze fixed on his face. She never expected to hear an apology from this rock.
"So how is your allergy now? Is it serious?"
Zhang Minglang spoke in a low voice, his gaze glancing at her neck, which was covered by her hair.
"After applying the medicine, it's much better, it's not serious."
He nodded, and the room fell silent again.
There was a subtle, lingering awkwardness in the air between them, yet a warmth they had never felt before was quietly brewing.
Zhang Minglang reached out and tugged at his tie, trying to cover up his blunder.
Strange, I clearly untied it just now, so why does it still feel so tight?
"Go pick up Xiaobai, I'm going upstairs first."
Tang Yi spoke first, breaking the tense atmosphere, and then decisively turned around and went upstairs.
She didn't turn around, but Zhang Minglang stood there, watching her figure grow smaller and smaller until it disappeared around the corner of the stairs.
The next day at work, almost all the colleagues in the secretariat felt that the usually grumpy General Manager Zhang seemed to have been possessed and become a different person after returning from his business trip.
Especially in his attitude toward Secretary Tang.
For several days in a row, no one saw the two arguing again, or even bickering.
Fortunately, the whole company has been busy with the final "midnight" project these past few days, so no one has paid much attention to this matter.
Inside the meeting room, all the key members of the core R&D team were gathered, while Zhang Minglang chaired a confirmation meeting before the final application for "Zero Point".
However, just as the last few executives were giving their reports, Tang Yi received a message on her tablet.
She glanced at it quickly, her pupils shrinking sharply.
She looked up at Zhang Minglang, who was still frowning, listening intently to the other party's report.
Tang Yi lowered her head, got up with a heavy heart, and went out through the back door.
Assistant Zhou was already waiting outside, his expression equally serious.
"What happened?"
"Secretary Tang, about two weeks ago, President Zhang privately instructed me to pay close attention to the patent applications of several competitor companies."
He stopped there and handed the document to Tang Yi.
She took it, but after reading only the beginning, her heart sank.
"This is our idea!"
Her voice was low and heavy, with a hint of disbelief.
A thought flashed through Tang Yi's mind. She looked up and met Assistant Zhou's gaze, her eyes full of inquiry.
The other person lowered their eyelashes and simply nodded slightly.
Upon receiving a positive reply, Tang Yi felt as if all her bones had been removed, and her heart sank.
But she managed to calm herself down: "Have the technical department be ready to terminate the permissions at any time."
Assistant Zhou nodded solemnly.
There was a commotion in the conference room, then the door opened and a group of executives poured out, still discussing the project among themselves; clearly, few of them knew about this.
Tang Yi and Assistant Zhou exchanged a glance, and the two tacitly chose to pretend that nothing had happened, greeting the bosses as usual.
The door to the president's office closed, and Assistant Zhou reported his findings in detail.
To their surprise, Zhang Minglang's reaction wasn't too strong.
He walked slowly to the window, looking out at something.
Tang Yi stood by the table, waiting for the storm to break in the office, which was shrouded in dark clouds.
The atmosphere remained frozen for a long time, so long that just as Tang Yi was about to speak, she suddenly heard a soft laugh.
"I had a feeling something was wrong, and sure enough, it happened."
Zhang Minglang turned around, his face full of contemptuous smile.
Assistant Zhou stepped forward: "President Zhang, Dingsheng is expected to hold a press conference to publicly announce it in a week. We still have a chance, but..."
It's just that time is too tight.
Tang Yi silently recited in her heart.
One week. Only one week.
If Junmao cannot provide conclusive evidence within a week that "Zero Point's" secrets have been plagiarized, then all its efforts over the past period will have been in vain.
Putting aside employee morale, even Zhang Minglang himself might not be able to hold onto the position of president.
However, at this critical juncture, Zhang Minglang's restless heart calmed down.
"Secretary Tang, contact the legal department and lawyers, and have them draft an infringement lawsuit within two days. Assistant Zhou, immediately notify the technical department to suspend access to, and also the tracking server you previously instructed to access..."
Upon hearing this, Assistant Zhou suddenly realized what was going on.
No wonder Mr. Zhang suddenly asked him to keep a close eye on the employees' servers a few days ago. It turns out that Mr. Zhang had already noticed some clues and was therefore keeping an eye on things.
“It’s been going on.” He replied with a firm look in his eyes.
Zhang Minglang nodded.
“A week?” He lifted his eyelids, his eyes brimming with confidence and ambition. “That’s far too lenient.”
Because this matter involved the leakage of major company secrets, Zhang Minglang specifically instructed Tang Yi and Assistant Zhou to carefully select and arrange the establishment of a private investigation team, granting them full authority.
Inside the office, Zhao Linrui was chatting with several senior executives.
"Delete everything, okay?"
"Absolutely, Mr. Zhao, there's absolutely no more."
Zhao Linrui smiled with satisfaction: "Unless he has the ability to predict the future, I really don't believe he has the ability to turn the tide within a week."
As he listened to the compliments from his subordinates, he recalled Tang Yi's expression when she suddenly stood up in the conference room. She appeared calm on the surface, but in reality, she was very anxious.
No matter how well she hid it, she couldn't escape his eyes.
He didn't believe that a businessman like Chairman Zhang would leave a void in the talent pool of someone like Tang Yi, as long as the president was ousted.
When he submits the application again, she'll have no choice but to agree, whether she wants to or not.
Zhao Linrui looked at the fish tank on the table and couldn't help but laugh.
Xiao Yi, I already told you not to avoid me.
Looking through the transparent glass, he felt as if he could see Secretary Tang bustling around in the president's office.
In fact, Tang Yi was as busy as a goldfish splashing in a fish tank. Roughly speaking, she had been working at a high intensity for almost two months.
I thought that after the "Zero Hour" project was successfully submitted, the team building activities could proceed smoothly and I could have a normal two-day weekend. I never expected to encounter such a serious problem as the leakage of confidential information.
Because the investigation was not public, she didn't even inform her other colleagues in the secretariat as a precaution. Therefore, apart from Zhang Minglang himself, the investigation team, and Assistant Zhou, only she knew about it and participated in the entire process.
To prevent passersby from seeing or leaking her investigation work near Tang Yi's workstation, she applied to Zhang Minglang to work alone on the sofa in the president's office for nearly a week.
"No, Secretary Tang, when did you become so proactive?"
After hearing her request, Zhang Minglang chuckled and teased her on purpose.
It's started again.
It's started again.
He's the only one who would still be joking when the situation is this urgent.
Tang Yi pursed her lips and surprisingly admitted it: "Yes, just consider it as me taking the initiative."
Hearing her say that, he stopped joking and seriously agreed.
Zhang Minglang was once again too busy with meetings to have lunch. When he stepped out of the elevator, rubbing his temples, he realized it was almost one o'clock.
The workstation was silent. All his colleagues were asleep. He subconsciously glanced at Tang Yi's workstation, which was empty and deserted.
He frowned, about to ask a question, when he looked up and saw the gold-plated sign on the wall, the three characters "President's Office" shining brightly in the sunlight streaming through the window.
He suddenly realized that Secretary Tang had briefly "moved into" the president's office, so there was no one at her workstation.
I'm so busy I've forgotten everything.
Thinking of this, he lowered his head and chuckled for some reason, his hand stroking Tang Yi's workstation partition, feeling a silent sense of fulfillment.
Zhang Minglang walked quietly to the door of the president's office, straightened the hem of his suit jacket, tugged at his tie, and ran his fingers through his hair in front of the gold trim of the door frame before finally pushing the door open.
And so he saw the scene that, even after many years, remained vividly etched in his mind:
Behind the sofa, a large, bright floor-to-ceiling window lets in warm yellow sunlight, which streams into the room and onto Secretary Tang, who is hunched over the coffee table.
Her black hair was dyed gold by the sunlight;
She curled her legs up in the gap between the sofa and the coffee table;
She tilted her head, revealing half of her fair face;
The fine hairs on her face danced in the sunlight.
She fell asleep peacefully.
Author's note: Thank you so much for all your support! [starry-eyed emoji]
Wishing you a happy holiday! A red envelope will be randomly dropped in this chapter!
My next book is titled "Dating Someone Like Me".
Chili blogger × Loyal cake artist
Those who are interested can check it out! [rose emoji]
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