Chapter 7 Sunset "Your acting skills still need improvement."
The contract was successfully signed. Tang Yi breathed a soft sigh of relief and followed Zhang Minglang out of the tea room, her steps becoming slightly lighter.
A gentle breeze caressed their faces, causing Tang Yi's long hair to flutter from her chest down to her shoulders and back. Zhang Minglang's black tie also billowed in the air.
"Are you happy?" Zhang Minglang noticed that Tang Yi was visibly more relaxed. He put his hands in his pockets and asked as he walked away, turning back to look at her.
Tang Yi suppressed the barely perceptible upturn of her lips and replied calmly, "It's alright."
"Heh, not bad," Zhang Minglang noticed her little expression, chuckled, and teased, "Why didn't you get to enjoy your performance?"
"When it comes to acting skills, I'm completely outmatched by you," Tang Yi retorted defiantly.
Zhang Minglang couldn't help but laugh when he recalled his "clumsy" performance of getting up to get his suit a few minutes earlier.
Assistant Zhou was already waiting in the driver's seat.
He was humming a song out of boredom when he caught sight of President Zhang and quickly sat up straight. Then he glanced at the woman beside him.
Why is Secretary Tang here too?
Assistant Zhou thought to himself, "Hasn't President Zhang been spending a lot of time with that secretary named Liu Zhang lately? Although he seems a bit less capable, Liu Zhang is much less intimidating than Secretary Tang."
Upon closer inspection, he saw the two standing together: one in a suit and tie, the other slender and gentle; one with her hands in her pockets, tilting her head to speak, the other smiling and lowering her head, tucking her hair behind her ear. The two standing together were actually quite pleasing to the eye, and they were chatting and laughing as they came out.
Something's really wrong.
He knew about President Zhang's bad temper. He'd also heard about Secretary Tang's meticulous and serious demeanor at work. Why was everything so strange today?
Lost in thought, Zhou's assistant quickly got out of the car to open the door for Zhang Minglang.
"Mr. Zhang, Secretary Tang."
Zhang Minglang lowered his head and sat in the back seat, not bothering to respond. Secretary Tang's smile hadn't faded yet; she nodded at him amicably and got into the passenger seat.
Assistant Zhou was startled by Tang Yi's sudden smile.
Who told you that Secretary Tang is fierce at work? That's complete fabrication!
"What are you standing there for?" Zhang Minglang asked, sticking his head out from behind the car when it stopped moving.
"Uh... I'm sorry, Mr. Zhang." Assistant Zhou quickly pulled himself together and started the car. "Mr. Zhang, it's already past closing time. Should I take you home directly, or..."
"otherwise?"
"Then Secretary Tang..."
Upon hearing this, Tang Yi turned to look at Zhang Minglang. He looked at her and gestured with his chin toward Assistant Zhou.
After thinking for a moment, she replied, "Just take me to the east gate of No. 1 Jincheng."
Upon hearing this, both Zhang Minglang and Assistant Zhou looked up sharply and stared at her.
?
Tang Yi looked at the two of them with some confusion, feeling uneasy.
"What a coincidence, Ms. Tang! You and Mr. Zhang live in the same neighborhood!"
Tang Yi felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
Clear Broth Master!
She simply didn't want to reveal her exact address to her boss, so without thinking, she casually gave him a place on the way to her apartment complex, planning to take a taxi home after getting off the bus.
Who would have thought he'd be so unlucky? Of all the places in City A, why did Zhang Minglang have to live there?
Zhang Minglang gave a low, ambiguous laugh.
"What a coincidence. But I've stayed here for so many days and I've never run into Secretary Tang."
You have to make up a lie you told yourself.
Tang Yi feigned surprise and replied, "That's unfortunate, Mr. Zhang. Perhaps it's because... I prefer to go out at night."
“That’s even more of a coincidence, I go for a run every night.”
Tang Yi choked for a moment, then secretly glanced at the man behind her through the rearview mirror. Seeing that his eyes seemed somewhat sincere, she blinked and had no choice but to continue making things up: "Um, um, that's really unfortunate."
Assistant Zhou, who was in front of him, was confused by the back-and-forth between the two men about "coincidence" and "uncoincidence." He didn't understand the game between them and just kept muttering, "It's too coincidental that Secretary Tang and President Zhang live in the same neighborhood."
The three of them drove in silence to the gate of Jincheng No. 1.
"Ms. Qiao... no, Mr. Zhang," Secretary Zhou quickly slapped his mouth, "we've arrived."
Zhang Minglang glanced ahead deliberately before opening the door and getting out of the car. Seeing that Tang Yi was still sitting motionless in the passenger seat, he deliberately walked around to her window and tapped the glass with two knuckles: "Secretary Tang, why aren't you getting out of the car?"
Tang Yi slowly raised her eyes to look at him, and seeing that she couldn't hide it any longer, she had no choice but to open the door and get out of the car.
At that moment, the setting sun was casting long shadows of the two people, one in front of the other.
Zhang Minglang, with his broad shoulders and narrow waist, bore most of the sunlight, blocking it like a wall in front of Tang Yi. He strode ahead, head down, texting, while Tang Yi walked along, thinking about how to escape.
After sending the message, he suddenly stopped, turned around, and watched her walk forward with her head down, completely unprepared.
The two drew closer and closer, but Zhang Minglang deliberately remained silent. It wasn't until Tang Yi noticed a pair of shiny leather shoes that things changed.
The tips of their shoes almost touched.
Tang Yi was startled and hurriedly looked up.
The wind blew the stray hairs across Zhang Minglang's forehead, but they didn't look messy. He squinted slightly as the wind blew, and looked down at her with a playful expression.
"Secretary Tang, are you so eager to get closer to me?"
Tang Yixin was startled, followed by a tingling sensation on her scalp.
She hurriedly took a few steps back, momentarily at a loss for words.
Zhang Minglang noticed Tang Yi's conflicted expression and decided to let her off the hook.
"Alright, stop pretending, you can go back now."
Upon hearing this, Tang Yi, who had been pondering silently, suddenly looked up, momentarily at a loss for words.
"You still need to work on your acting." Zhang Minglang put away his phone, tossed out a mocking remark, and walked away without looking back.
Tang Yi stared blankly as his figure receded into the distance, then sighed resignedly, turned and walked out of the residential area. Just as she was about to take out her phone to hail a taxi, she suddenly heard Assistant Zhou call her name.
"Secretary Tang, President Zhang just instructed me to wait for you here!"
Looking at the puzzled yet obedient expression on Assistant Zhou's face, and recalling Zhang Minglang's nonchalant attitude earlier, she opened the door and got into the car with mixed feelings.
"Hahaha, you know what, your boss is actually quite humane. He saw through your deception and kindly asked the driver to stay and take you home!"
Xu Xiaoxiao's mocking laughter came from the other end of the video chat.
Tang Yi wore black-rimmed glasses, and her hair was tied into a loose bun, with a few strands of hair that weren't tied up mischievously sticking out and running along her neck all the way to the neckline of her nightgown.
She was typing away on her keyboard, organizing today's meeting minutes, with a face mask on, and mumbled, "Where's the kindness? A CEO of Tian Da University keeps treating me like a child, what kind of kindness is that?"
"Hey hey hey, something's wrong. You've worked for so long and you've never complained to me about your boss before~" Xu Xiaoxiao's CP radar was activated.
"Don't give me that."
"Why are you covering my mouth? There's definitely something going on between you two."
"What's going on? I'm so busy at work every day that I just want to run away from my colleagues as far as possible."
As usual, Secretary Tang arrived at her workstation on time the next day, as she couldn't escape.
Before she even sat down on the chair, Tang Jiaxin slid her wheelchair over to Tang Yi's side.
"General Manager Zhang is here, he's inside reprimanding Liu Zhang."
Tang Yi raised her eyebrows almost imperceptibly, but didn't stop what she was doing. She didn't say anything, just responded with a "I understand."
"You lost, Li Da!" Tang Jiaxin shouted excitedly to Li Da, who was peeking out to observe, when she saw that Li Da didn't react.
"I knew it! Secretary Tang wouldn't react at all. She's not like us; she never talks about her colleagues in private," Tang Jiaxin said proudly.
"Stop, stop, stop! Who's talking about 'we' with you? I'm not talking about people like you!"
"Come on, what are you pretending for? It's a deal, you're treating me to lunch."
The two were bickering when the door to the CEO's office suddenly opened. Tang Jiaxin nimbly slid back past Tang Yi.
Liu Zhang walked out, his face ashen, a stark contrast to his previous smug demeanor.
"President Zhang wants you to come in," Liu Zhang told Tang Yi, then dragged his heavy steps back to his workstation.
Tang Yi walked into the president's office and made a point of observing Zhang Minglang's expression. He was clearly very angry, his face was very tense.
"Tell HR this afternoon to process Liu Zhang's resignation."
It would be a lie to say she wasn't shocked. Although Tang Yi had considered that Liu Zhang might punish her with a pay cut, she never expected Zhang Minglang to go to such extremes as to fire her outright.
Tang Yi didn't dare to reply; her lips parted slightly, but she really couldn't think of what to say.
"You object again?" Zhang Minglang slowly raised his head and stared at Tang Yi's face.
Tang Yi looked up and met his gaze, but she wasn't intimidated by his serious look. She hesitated for a few seconds, then decided to try and appease him with a few words to calm him down.
I understand why you're angry...
"Stop with the polite formalities."
Tang Yi was abruptly interrupted, choked for a moment, and decided to tell the truth.
I don't quite agree with your approach.
"reason?"
“Liu Zhang’s mistake this time is very serious, but not to the point of being irreparable. Moreover, he has been with the company for five years, and you fired him after only one week of joining. I’m afraid it will cause unnecessary disputes and panic within the company.”
“It’s precisely because he’s been with the company for so many years that I’m even more determined to fire him,” Zhang Minglang said, standing up and walking to the French windows. “Junmao is such a large listed group, and it’s taken five years to keep such a useless person.”
Tang Yi walked up behind him and calmly suggested, "If you want to teach him a lesson, you can suspend his salary and demote him as a warning, or issue a public reprimand within the company. This would also have the effect of making an example of him."
Zhang Minglang remained silent for a long time, as if he was thinking.
The final punishment for Liu Zhang was the cancellation of his year-end bonus, plus an internal company notice of criticism.
He was satisfied with the punishment. Seeing how angry Mr. Zhang was, he thought he was going to lose his job.
The other employees in the secretariat, who had been testing and observing, witnessed President Zhang's ruthless methods for the first time and admired Secretary Tang's magnanimity even more. Not only did she not care about Liu Zhang's previous insults and suspicions towards her, but she also stepped forward to persuade President Zhang to stop, and in the end, she only gave him this punishment.
She herself didn't feel anything was wrong.
After all, the duties of a secretary are nothing more than to act as an outlet for the boss's anger and a brake, to be a professional bad cop by his side.
She had long been well aware of this.
Tang Yi worked an extra hour this afternoon, and it was almost 7 p.m. when she finally packed up and left work.
Tomorrow is the weekend, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, I should be able to get some rest. After getting home, Tang Yi washed up early and went to bed to scroll through her phone.
[Sun Yuyang: Sister Tang, you haven't been to the shop for several days, we haven't been able to make our special drinks!]
When Tang Yi saw this message, she realized that it had indeed been a long time since she had visited Heaven.
So she typed:
[Recliner: Tomorrow afternoon then.]
Sun Yuyang: !!! I'll tell them right away that Sister Tang will be arriving tomorrow afternoon!
Tang Yi chuckled and exited the chat.
She rushed back early the next morning, took a relaxing shower, and sat cross-legged at the coffee table to process work information. Before she knew it, it was noon.
She quickly ate a simple lunch, and since she had nothing else to do, she cleaned the house. Before she knew it, it was afternoon.
Tang Yi pulled out a black, form-fitting slip dress from among the many business suits in her wardrobe. After changing into the dress, she turned around in front of the full-length mirror, then sat back down at her vanity to put on makeup, satisfied.
"Sister Tang, you've finally arrived!"
When Tang Yi pushed open the door of Heaven, Sun Yuyang, who was leaning against the bar, saw her through the crowd and greeted her warmly.
Sun Yuyang is one of Heaven's partners, and he graduated from university just two years ago. He sports a head of brown curly hair and dresses in a very youthful manner.
A blast of heavy metal and DJ music assaulted Tang Yi's ears, but she remained expressionless, as if she hadn't heard a thing. Many eyes in the crowd followed her every step, watching her until she reached the bar.
"Sis, you look so righteous, you don't look like you're here to have fun at a bar, you look like you're here to arrest someone," Sun Yuyang teased.
"Stop being so glib," Tang Yi pushed open the small door of the bar and walked around to the bar. "I didn't come here to have fun."
"Okay, okay, you come stand here, I'll step aside!" Sun Yuyang casually raised his hands above his head, moving outwards to make room for her.
The special blend he asked about was something she hadn't made in a long time, so she was a bit rusty.
She recalled the recipe in her mind, turned nimbly, and took a bottle of base spirit from the liquor cabinet shelf with one hand, pouring it precisely into the shaker and metal cup on the work surface. Almost instinctively, her left hand reached out at the same time, gently picking up the measuring cup to measure the syrup. With a flick of her wrist, the liquid arced through the air and fell into the shaker.
She added a few ice cubes to the shaker and then placed the metal cup on top, making a "click" sound. Relying entirely on her sense of touch, she held the shaker with both hands and used the strength of her shoulders, neck, and arms to vigorously and rapidly shake it. The ice cubes hit the sides of the shaker, producing a crisp sound with a distinct and powerful rhythm.
Her cold expression paired with her exquisite and flamboyant makeup drew the attention of many people quietly drinking at the bar, who couldn't help but look over, thinking to themselves that she must be a master bartender.
After a series of actions, she opened the lid, casually picked a martini glass, poured in the liquid, and took a sip.
Seeing that his Sister Tang had attracted countless admiring glances from the men and women drinking around them, Sun Yuyang felt inexplicably proud. He deliberately cleared his throat, leaned forward, and loudly asked, "How does it taste? Can you make it again?"
Tang Yi calmly put down her cup and shook her head.
"It tastes awful."
A note from the author:
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