What could be more enjoyable than drinking beer?
Chen Shanshan's assistant, Xiao Liu, came to collect the lunchbox shortly afterward, happily thanking "Sister Luo Luo".
Xu Luoluo almost coughed up blood. Little Liu seemed pretty clever, but didn't she know that a woman's age was a major taboo? Seriously? Even if the other person was a recent college graduate, it wouldn't work!
Xu Luoluo sighed and went back to memorizing the proposal. After a few repetitions, it was time to leave. She packed up her laptop, took out her room key, and went out.
After walking a few steps, another door opened, and Tang Yizhuo came out, straightened his shirt cuffs, and then looked at Xu Luoluo, who was hesitating whether to leave or not.
"Are you... alright?" Xu Luoluo looked at his face guiltily, and seeing that he seemed fine except for a slight fatigue, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"What do you think?" He yawned and walked towards the elevator. "I suddenly feel like a meal is too cheap for you."
Xu Luoluo hurriedly followed: "That won't do. You can't go back on your word."
Tang Yizhu snorted: "Now you know the importance of keeping your word."
What does that mean? When did she stop keeping her word? Xu Luoluo was about to ask further when the elevator doors opened, and a whole elevator full of acquaintances greeted them, mainly "President Tang."
It seemed everyone had decided to meet downstairs, so it wasn't appropriate to say much in the elevator. Xu Luoluo pretended to bump into them by chance, entered the elevator, stood next to a few familiar colleagues, looked up at the LCD screen displaying numbers, and remained silent.
As they exited the elevator, Xiao Liu appeared out of nowhere and walked alongside Xu Luoluo, saying warmly, "Sister Luoluo, where did you order that takeout you sent me at noon? That chopped chili fish head was amazing, just as good as any restaurant's!"
Of course, I bought it at the restaurant! Xu Luoluo couldn't possibly say that she brought an extra portion with her meal, so she just laughed it off and said, "Really? I asked someone else to order it for me, and they even ordered too much. I think it's pretty good too. I'll ask him about it for you later."
"Great, thank you, Sister Luo Luo." Little Liu smiled broadly, clearly a true foodie.
He coughed as if he had choked while laughing. Xu Luoluo turned to look at him in surprise, only to see him respectfully greeting him from the front: "President Tang".
"Hmm." Tang Yizhuo was actually a step behind the others and had been walking ahead of them. Now he stopped and turned around. "I have something to tell you about the proposal. Xiao Liu, you go and get together first."
After he finished speaking to Xu Luoluo, he pointed towards the hall to Xiao Liu.
Xiao Liu breathed a sigh of relief, secretly gave Xu Luoluo a "good luck" look, and then slipped away.
Xu Luoluo couldn't help but wonder, why was he so afraid of Tang Yizhuo?
But she couldn't worry about that right now. She looked at Tang Yizhu seriously and asked, "Is there a problem?" Then she added with some annoyance, "I felt it yesterday. Why didn't you say so sooner? Now it's too late."
Then she remembered her miserable situation last night, and under Tang Yizhuo's emotionless gaze, she suddenly felt guilty and added, "It would have been better to say it this morning."
"Are you lacking confidence in me or in yourself?" Tang Yizhuo shifted his gaze, his tone leisurely. "For such an important collaboration, if there were problems with your proposal, would I have let you be the main speaker?"
"What do you mean?" Xu Luoluo opened her mouth slightly in surprise, but she already understood that he was affirming her strength.
Tang Yizhuo glanced at her, saw that she still looked puzzled, but her eyes were shining with a "praise me" light, and remained silent.
"What do you think? How am I supposed to know if you don't tell me?" Xu Luoluo urged impatiently.
Tang Yizhuo sighed, glanced at her again, and this time with a hint of a smile: "Alright, I'll let you have your fun."
After saying that, he looked down and fiddled with his phone for a while, then turned and left without looking back, without even looking at her reaction.
Xu Luoluo's phone vibrated. She looked down and saw a new WeChat message notification. She opened it and saw that it was a message from Tang Yizhuo: Not bad.
That's it? Not bad? Is this what he meant by "having a good time"? This guy is so stingy with praise, isn't he afraid she'll have a mental breakdown on the spot?
But she did feel a little happy. She didn't know why, but after receiving his affirmation, her heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down and she felt much more at ease.
Could she have masochism?
Xu Luoluo quickly shook her head to banish the terrible thought and strode towards the hotel lobby.
The meeting went even more smoothly than expected. After it ended, everyone left, but G Company's investment director and Tang Yizhuo were still talking in the meeting room, chatting happily as if they had known each other for a long time.
Xu Luoluo felt something was off, so she slowly followed at the back of the crowd, hoping to overhear some gossip. But when she secretly glanced back at them, her eyes met Tang Yizhuo's. He paused for a moment, then smiled gently at her and pointed at her towards the investment director. Immediately, everyone looked at her meaningfully.
The unprecedentedly gentle gaze sent a chill down her spine, and she suddenly felt like she had been tricked. Without caring whether anyone was watching her, she turned and slipped into the group, fleeing the conference room as if her life depended on it.
"Why did you run so fast?" Tang Yizhuo called as soon as she got back to the hotel.
"If I don't run, are you waiting for me to be sold off?"
"How come I seem so sinister to you?" This question might have been more accusatory if it hadn't been said in a smug tone.
So Xu Luoluo ignored his accusation: "Then why are you pointing at me? And laughing! That female assistant of President Gu is practically staring me down like crazy."
"Her name is Gu Yue," Tang Yizhuo replied, seemingly unrelated to the question.
"The name is quite nice, you don't happen to have feelings for her too, do you?" Xu Luoluo became even angrier at this thought, "If you two are so in love, why are you smiling at me like that!"
Tang Yizhu chuckled on the other end of the phone: "Why are you reacting so strongly?"
Xu Luoluo paused for a moment, then continued, "She also has the surname Gu, didn't you think of anything?"
“President Gu, Gu Yue…” Xu Luoluo subconsciously ignored the previous question and thought about it seriously for a moment, “You’re not going to tell me they’re relatives, are you?”
"Congratulations, you got it right. Ms. Gu's cousin is doing a summer internship."
"Who wants this kind of congratulations?" Xu Luoluo pouted and sighed. "Then I can't afford to offend them even more. What exactly did you say to them today?"
"It's nothing. G Company is having a cocktail party the day after tomorrow, and I'll just tell you you're my date."
Tang Yizhuo made it sound as casual as drinking water, but Xu Luoluo exploded: "Do you want me to die? I'm not going!"
Tang Yizhuo said calmly, "I remember someone just said today that a person should keep their word?"
"You didn't even ask me, so how am I going back on my word?" Xu Luoluo said matter-of-factly.
"Saturday, at the entrance of Jin Feng. What did you say?"
“I…” Xu Luoluo suddenly fell silent.
"You remembered?" Tang Yizhuo smiled. "Then it's settled. See you tomorrow."
"..."
Having achieved his goal, Tang Yizhuo hung up the phone without any hesitation. Xu Luoluo stared at the darkened phone screen, tears welling up in her eyes. If only she had known this man was a cunning fox, why hadn't she learned her lesson every time?
Her phone suddenly vibrated again. She thought Tang Yizhuo had figured out the pros and cons and was kindly going to let her go, but when she picked it up, she was somewhat surprised.
"Producer Xu?"
"Lolo, you mentioned last time that you wanted to hire an assistant. I've arranged a few candidates here. If you have time tomorrow afternoon, you can interview them." Producer Xu got straight to the point as always.
"Great, Producer Xu is as efficient as ever." Xu Luoluo flattered him, then, thinking she was free tomorrow, she said, "My hotel isn't very convenient, could we borrow a meeting room at Yaoxing Hotel?"
“Sure, I’ll reserve a meeting room for you tomorrow.” Producer Xu agreed readily, then added as if remembering something, “I’ll send you a separate agreement regarding the assistant’s payment later. You can talk to them without worry. The important thing is to ensure quality.”
"Producer Xu, you're so thoughtful, thank you so much." Xu Luoluo put down her phone, still feeling a little unreal. She was actually going to have an assistant. Thinking back to those days in college when she was struggling to write scripts, constantly getting writer's block, and finally finishing a draft only to have it rejected, it all felt like a lifetime ago.
She didn't know what was wrong with her today; the phone kept ringing. Before she could even reflect on her life, another call came in—it was her mother. Xu Luoluo realized she'd been so busy these past two days that she hadn't even called. It was her parents' first time visiting S City, and she'd completely forgotten to ask if they were settling in comfortably. Feeling a pang of guilt, she pressed the answer button: "Hello, Mom."
"Hey, Luo Luo. Who are you talking to on the phone? I've been trying to call for ages and can't get through." Xu's mother's tone contained not only complaint but also a hint of gossip.
Xu Luoluo looked up at the sky, but only saw the ceiling of the room. It seemed that her parents were doing well in S City even though she wasn't there. Thinking this, she spoke up.
"Oh, I was just about to tell you that," Xu's mother said with a hint of smugness in her voice. "We've already gone home. We left the key with Xiao Su. You can ask him for it later."
"Oh, why did you go back? You didn't even wait for me to come home and take you." Xu Luoluo was shocked. Her relationship with Su Ze was still quite awkward. She immediately complained, "You could have just taken the spare key home yourselves. Why did you give it to someone else? Aren't you afraid of inviting trouble?"
"What nonsense are you spouting, child?" Xu's mother interrupted her rambling. "Xiao Su is a very good person. He even took us to the train station yesterday. I've already explained your bad temper to him. Xiao Su is a rare find; he said he can tolerate anything. Stop being unreasonable. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When you get the keys, speak properly. Do you know how hard it is for your mother to do this for you?"
Xu Luoluo was completely bewildered by her mother's barrage of words. What explanations? What tolerance? What was all this nonsense? It was as if she had been caught cheating and her family was coming to apologize. She wanted to explain the logic of the situation to her mother, but her mother shut her down with, "Speak properly, don't act like a child," and hung up on her.
This is too much information! What is all this about? She collapsed onto the table, feeling utterly ashamed to face Su Ze again.
She turned on her computer, opened the script document, and wanted to continue writing the first episode. But she typed and deleted, typed and deleted, and after sitting in front of the computer for a long time, she hadn't managed to write more than a few lines.
She stood up abruptly, feeling a tightness in her chest; she felt like she would suffocate if she stayed in the room any longer.
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