27. Snow in a silver bowl
◎"Your position is the Chairman's personal assistant."◎
Shang Xinuan pouted and glanced down at the magnolia brooch.
The exquisite white magnolia design perfectly complements her outfit today.
But her inner pride prevented the young lady from backing down.
She removed her foot from Li Xiran's knee and knocked the brooch from his hand.
The platinum brooch rolled all the way under the sofa.
"I don't care." With that, the young lady lifted her skirt and got up, leaving the bedroom without paying any attention to the person still kneeling on the ground.
When she arrived at the small hall where the birthday banquet was being held, the banquet had already begun.
Directly in front of the auditorium was a stage, where an opera troupe was performing "Magu Presents Longevity".
She didn't understand opera, and her mind was not at peace at the moment, so she didn't hear a single word of the lyrics.
"Nuan Nuan?" Aunt Hui pushed through the crowd and patted her on the shoulder. "Miss Bai is looking for you."
"Bai Quesi?" This was the first name that flashed through Shang Xinuan's mind.
Bai Quesi accompanied Li Yuzhan to celebrate his birthday today, and was sitting in the small garden outside the auditorium.
In the height of summer, she wore a light green printed cheongsam, and her long black hair was tied into a low bun with only a wooden hairpin.
Its fresh and dignified temperament is a perfect match for this Chinese-style courtyard.
The young lady lifted her skirt and sat down beside her. "You were looking for me?"
Shang Xinuan and Bai Quesi had no connection whatsoever. Even when rumors of their engagement were rampant and the young lady fell from her horse, neither of them tried to find the other.
"Actually, I've wanted to chat with you for a long time." Bai Quesi poured tea for her in a generous manner, "but I just haven't had a good opportunity."
"What's there to talk about between us?" It would be a lie to say that the young lady harbored no resentment towards Bai Quesi. After all, as a former rival, she had almost lost her life under a horse's hooves.
"I was afraid you would misunderstand why I contacted you, so I waited until everything was settled before explaining to you."
Shang Xinuan raised an eyebrow. "Miss Bai, I am not your employer. There is no need to explain this term."
"Miss Shang, don't you want to know why Chairman Li would rather choose me than someone as close as you?"
Just as Shang Xinuan was about to get up, she suddenly felt thirsty again, so she picked up the teacup on the round table.
While ostensibly enjoying tea, they were actually tacitly allowing Bai Quesi to continue speaking.
"Mr. Li and I never thought about getting engaged. It was just that my status as his illegitimate daughter could keep Mr. Li in check and make Ms. Chen lower her guard. The day she publicly announced my identity to the media, even I was very surprised."
"I didn't clarify immediately because I didn't want to fight an unprepared battle with Ms. Chen. But I didn't expect it would hurt Ms. Shang, and that's the only thing I feel sorry about."
The young lady rubbed her fingertips against the teacup and said calmly, "The past doesn't matter anymore."
She doesn't want to dwell on the past now; she just wants to live her future life well, or perhaps a future without Li Xiran.
"Miss Shang is simple and straightforward. Chairman Li, on the other hand, is someone who keeps things to himself and has a very strong sense of propriety. It must be very difficult to like a man like that."
"If Miss Bai is here to analyze my personality and his, there's no need for that."
“Miss Shang, it is precisely because of his strong sense of propriety that he refuses to mix love with the friendship between allies. He can make everyone pretend to be nice to him, but he insists on giving you pure love.”
The young lady put down her teacup and realized that the tea was bitter, with no sweet aftertaste whatsoever. "Is this such a subtle form of love?"
“But for me, love that I can’t feel isn’t love.” Shang Xi warmed her hands on the table and suddenly stood up. “I’m straightforward and have been pampered. I don’t want to do anything hard anymore.”
After saying that, she turned around and stepped onto the stone steps.
Bai Quesi's voice didn't stop, but she still smiled and said, "The pink jewel on your crown is the most beautiful one that Oriental Lide has auctioned in recent years."
"It suits Miss Shang's temperament perfectly." So rich and alluring, it rivals even the stars and moon in brilliance.
Shang Xinuan paused briefly, then left without the slightest hesitation.
While getting her hair and makeup done that morning, she wondered when Shanshan, a makeup artist, had become so generous and lavish.
She had always thought it was a cheap knockoff, but now the young lady is finally getting to the bottom of it.
In this world, besides the Shang family who would grant her every request, there is only one other person who would spend lavishly on her.
But the young lady no longer likes his self-righteousness and feigned affection.
So she went straight back to her bedroom, and in a few quick movements, she took off the antique crown from her head and replaced it with the Chaumet tiara that her grandfather had given her.
After she finished fixing her makeup and styling, she discovered that the magnolia brooch that Li Xiran had given her that day was placed in the corner of her dressing table.
The young lady looked in the dressing mirror and almost laughed in exasperation. "Are you a money-spending celestial being?"
-
This time, Shang Xinuan didn't dare go to the front hall anymore.
She had no idea what other oddballs were waiting for her.
"Nuan Nuan, it's time to cut the cake for Grandpa." Aunt Hui searched around before finally finding her in the walk-in closet. "Are you feeling unwell today?"
She usually loves these kinds of banquets and always goes wherever there are lots of people.
Today was unusual; I couldn't find her anywhere in the crowd.
"I just touched up my makeup." The young lady didn't know why, so she patted her skirt and stood up.
When she arrived at the front hall, she found that everyone was waiting for her to cut the cake.
"Grandpa, why do you still have to wait for me?" she said coquettishly, hiding her emotions.
"The cake cut by Nuannuan is the sweetest, so naturally it should be reserved for Nuannuan." Shang Zun's favoritism towards her was so blatant.
As the only daughter-in-law among the grandchildren, Qiao Xi was also going to cut a piece of cake for Shang Zun this time.
It means to ward off disasters for descendants and accumulate blessings for the elderly.
Two young ladies, considered the happiest capitalists in Shanghai, stood together, knives in hand, the constant cheers only making them seem more like the main characters.
The young lady inquired about the various sounds, her gaze sweeping around the room.
Before she could finish her thought, Qiao Xi whispered in her ear, "The nanny from the Li family just called and said that Shao Yi's grandmother is acting crazy at home, so her uncle went back to deal with it."
Upon hearing this, Shang Xinuan's eyes began to dart around, and she scoffed, "What does this have to do with me?"
Would the young lady even care whether he was present or not?
But after cutting the cake, Shang Xinuan only took a few symbolic bites before making an excuse that she had to go to the Li family to report on Monday and go back to adjust her sleep schedule.
-
The next day, as dawn broke, Shang Xin's eyelids finally closed drowsily.
When she was woken up by her phone alarm again, she realized she had only slept for three hours.
She had originally planned to report to the Li family on Tuesday, but she also wanted to get through the month-long gambling period as soon as possible, so she figured it was better to end the pain quickly than to suffer for a long time.
The young lady stood in the bathroom, half-dazed, washing up and putting on makeup. In the end, she randomly picked out an embroidered daisy dress and went out.
The driver was already waiting at the door; before yesterday, he was still Shang Dan's man.
Upon seeing Shang Xinu come out, they immediately opened the car door for the young lady.
Monday morning rush hour was congested on all roads.
When they arrived at the Li family's building before going to work, Shang Xinuan even had the illusion that the Li family's building was much more lively than before.
The elevator on the first floor was more than twice as crowded as before.
However, it was only during the minute she waited for the elevator that she realized today was also the onboarding day for Li's spring recruitment, and most of the people queuing here were interns.
Seeing that she was about to be late, the young lady pressed the button for the elevator that went directly to the boardroom floor and walked in in front of everyone.
"Is she an intern too? She's using the chairman's elevator."
"But I didn't see her during the interview."
"But I just saw a driver bring her here in a Cayenne. And her little black dress and flats were from Chanel, out of season."
Before Shang Xinuan even reached the boardroom floor, rumors had already spread throughout the Li family that a young lady had come to experience life.
However, the board office, which has always had stable staff and strict performance evaluations, was much calmer in comparison.
Aside from complaining about how long it is to wait for the elevator, he didn't participate in any other topics.
Just as the elevator dinged, everyone instinctively stood up and was about to say "Good morning, Chairman Li" when Shang Xinuan walked out.
"Nuan Nuan!" Xiao Su, the receptionist, almost jumped up in surprise. "Last week, when General Manager Chen told us that you were coming to intern for a month, we thought it was a lie."
"My life is so miserable." The young lady hadn't slept well, and her heart was about to explode. All she wanted to do was find a chair and collapse. "Where am I supposed to sit?"
Xiao Su smiled and handed over the employee badge with her photo on it, saying, "Come with me."
The young lady followed behind Xiao Su, glanced down at her employee badge, and asked, "Is this all done?"
"We submitted the application along with the interns from other departments," Xiao Su said enthusiastically. "Every year during the spring and autumn recruitment seasons, our board office is the only one that can't get any new staff. We just wanted to join in the fun since we knew you were coming."
"It's only for a month, so it's not really necessary."
"The necessary sense of ritual should still be maintained."
As soon as she finished speaking, Xiao Su stopped in her tracks. "Your workstation is in Chairman Li's office."
The young lady's lips twitched. She pointed to the room with the wooden door tightly closed and asked, "Who arranged this?"
"I arranged it." At the same time, the wooden door was pulled open from the inside.
Li Xiran was wearing a black suit, which was clearly the most basic style of business attire, but on him, it exuded a sense of nobility.
Xiao Su left at the right time, leaving Shang Xinuan alone standing face to face with Li Xiran.
"Your position is the chairman's personal assistant, so you will need to sit in the same office as me."
The young lady looked at him expressionlessly. In fact, she had already prepared herself to be tormented when she agreed to come to the Li family.
Unexpectedly, before she could even sit down and rest for a while, she encountered her first setback.
But Shang Xinuan, still thinking that the sooner she suffers, the sooner she can be reborn, pushed him aside and walked into the office.
The office features floor-to-ceiling windows that allow for excellent ventilation from both north and south, while the rooftop garden is filled with blooming crape myrtle in June.
Her former office, which had been restored, was replaced by her former study.
"I had someone restore it before."
“I know I didn’t give permission.”
There were still doodles she left on that desk when she was bored.
On the table, in a glass bottle of fresh milk tea, is a fresh crape myrtle still glistening with dew.
"I threw away the milk tea bottle too."
"I know, I've found it."
Shang Xinuan frowned, finding it somewhat amusing. "Li Xiran, are you a beggar?"
“I have the right to decide whether to keep or leave my things in my office.” He was quite frank, and even took the initiative to show off to her, “I’ve restored the hourglass you broke in the desert.”
The glass hourglass was placed in front of his computer.
The young lady strode over and said in a very domineering manner, "That's my hourglass of time. What right do you have to put it here?"
The light from the floor-to-ceiling windows dappled her cheeks.
Li Xiran slowly blocked half a ray of light, which made his pupils look even more like amber and jade.
"Nuan Nuan, you really have no sense of reason." He leaned down to look the young lady in the eye. He stared into her eyes, trying to see through her emotions. "You've already thrown it away."
"It's obvious that you like to pick up other people's things."
Just as the two were arguing, Chen Ti walked in and witnessed the scene.
He suppressed a laugh, thinking that Li Xiran was usually a calm and taciturn person, but he would playfully bicker with Shang Xinuan.
"Nuan... Assistant Shang, this is your job description."
A single A4 sheet of paper was filled with Li Xiran's daily work process and schedule.
Even the type of coffee to be drunk on which day of the week in the morning and the afternoon tea are clearly marked.
"Your board of directors doesn't have a special department called the Li Xiran Observation Agency, does it?" So detailed that if the feudal dynasty were to return, this person could only be the emperor.
“There really wasn’t one before, but now that Assistant Shang is sitting with Chairman Li, he can try to take on the daily operations of this organization.”
The young lady glared at the smiling man, then pointed to the timeline on the paper, "It's time for Chairman Li to drink his Americano, please wait a moment."
Then, in front of Li Xiran and Chen Ti, she took a large red wine glass from the glass display case.
Six shots of espresso, without ice or pure water, filled the wine glass to eight-tenths full.
Through the blinds, the entire boardroom saw the young lady ostentatiously place the cup in front of Li Xiran.
"Drink!" It didn't sound like serving a boss; it sounded more like a cruel torture method used by the Qing Dynasty to torment death row inmates.
Just as everyone was wondering if Li Xiran would refuse, he picked up his champagne glass and, as if savoring red wine, took a sip of a six-point espresso Americano.
"Is this something you just learned?" He didn't even frown, his expression was more like he was tasting a rare delicacy, and even his tone was full of praise, "The aroma and taste of the coffee are very rich."
The young lady shrugged with a cold laugh, "Six servings of concentrate are enough to make you, Chairman Li, depressed."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com