Chapter 401 - Office Relationship
Chapter 401: Chapter 402 Office Relationship
Dressed in a white half-sleeved chiffon shirt and a khaki A-line skirt, Ziyuan looked elegant and lively. When I was a child, I always felt that Ziyuan was very good at choosing her outfit. Even if it was the cheap clothes she bought from the street sellers, she would still be able to put together a great outfit. The current style of Chu Yuan’s clothing was also heavily influenced by her.
With a silk scarf that was tied into a bow on her left wrist, it highlighted this kind of elegant and sophisticated temperament even more. Coupled with her special biracial charm, she became a focus of all men in the office.
When I entered the door of the office, I saw her being surrounded by Old Black, Xiao Sun, Gong Fanlin, and others in the middle, seemingly talking about something with them. However, seeing her frowning and smiling, I knew that she must want to leave but felt embarrassed to say it, so she could only endure it politely.
Brother Wei sat far away with a gloomy face, Yao Wan’er, Qin Lan, and Elder Sister Liu seemed to be comforting him.
Seeing me walking into the office, Ziyuan hurriedly walked toward me with a stack of documents to greet me as if she had seen her savior, “Xiao Nan…”
Not knowing if she was thinking about what happened that night in the hotel or she felt embarrassed calling me so intimately in front of other people, she paused abruptly and her face quickly turned red
Her behavior immediately caused everyone to look at us suspiciously, while we were trying to avoid each other’s eyes.
“Morning… uh, how are you settling in your new job?” I tried to greet her as naturally as possible, but my stuttered voice only made my greeting sound very awkward. God damn it, even if we did not do something that was beyond friendship, I still didn’t need to be so nervous, right?
At this time, Ziyuan’s reaction was much better than mine. Seeing me stuttering, she burst out chuckling like the blooming of a peach blossom. It made all the men in the office fall into a daze. I hadn’t seen her in five years, but she was much prettier than before.
“Last week I just came to check the company in advance to get familiar with my specific work duty. Yesterday and the day before yesterday were the weekends. Today is my first day at work, so what do you think? But don’t worry, I will get used to it.”
“Oh? Well, that’s good, hehe, haha, it will indeed take some time to get used to the new environment…” I laughed while scolding myself for being an idiot. All I thought was how awkward it was to see her in the company as soon as I entered the office earlier, I had completely forgotten that today was her first day in the company. But then, thinking that Ziyuan might’ve spent two days alone in the hotel, I felt very guilty.
Whenever I was alone, I would think of what happened that night. I believed that when she was alone… She would probably think much more than I do.
Actually, I really wanted to comfort her and listen to the grievances she had in the last five years, but I didn’t have that courage… Could I really give Ziyuan the happiness she wanted? What about Liusu? At the thought of this, I was a little hesitant.
“Did Miss Shu’s family go back?” I didn’t know why Ziyuan would suddenly ask this question.
“Not yet, they will return to the village the day after tomorrow. Liusu will accompany them to go shopping today. So I decided to come to the company.” In fact, there were two reasons why I didn’t want to follow them. The first reason was that Grandma Shu didn’t want me to go with them. She was worried that it would take up my working time.
The second reason was that Liusu clearly wanted me to carry bags for her. Because I had accidentally revealed my naked body to the three girls in the flat, in the last few days, I had to sleep in the living room as a punishment. Because of that, not only did I not sleep well, but my body was still aching all over, so how would I have the energy to hold bags for them? Therefore, I gave this task to Father Shu and ran back to the company.
“So that means you will not be free today because you’re going to have dinner with them tonight…” Ziyuan frowned, there was a trace of surprise in her eyes.
I couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong? Do you need me to do something?”
“No.” Ziyuan smiled hurriedly, “Nothing…”
Before she finished speaking, Tian Guochong, whose nickname was Old Black, smiled at me and said, “Chu Nan, today is Miss Xue’s first day at work. According to the tradition of our general operation team, we have booked a room in Earthly Paradise to hold a welcome party for her. Miss Xue has accepted the invitation, so do you want to join us?”
Tian Guochong had dark skin, and his age was much older than Brother Wei, so normally we all call him Old Black or Brother Black. Seeing him winking at me enthusiastically, I knew that they wanted to use the welcome party as an opportunity to get closer to Ziyuan. After all, when Liusu and I got into the company, they didn’t hold any welcome party for us.
Xiao Sun’s full name was Sun Zhe, and he was as old as Brother Wei. Calling him Xiao Sun was not because he was young, but because his figure was relatively small. He and Old Black were best buddies in the general operation team. Before I said anything, he said, “Chu Nan will have a candlelight dinner with Granny Cheng, so he probably will not be free. Old black, you shouldn’t ruin his date with Granny Cheng, you know.”
‘Screw you! Who said that I am going to have a candlelight dinner with Liusu?! Moreover, is holding a welcome party for the new people a tradition? Then why didn’t you hold a welcome party for me?? Am I not a part of the general operation team? Also, Ziyuan is not part of the general operation team. She is Mo Fei’s assistant, alright!’
Men were fickle in affection. From those people’s reactions, it could be seen that those people must have lost their interest in Liusu, Yao Wan’er, and Qin Lan, those three beauties of the general operation team…
Gong Fanlin seemed to want to say something to me, but he first looked back at Yang Wei. Their gazes could almost emit sparks when colliding in the air. Gong Fanlin sneered at Brother Wei without saying anything. But Brother Wei’s face was filled with anger, his blood veins were bulging on his forehead. If Qin Lan hadn’t pressed him down, he would’ve probably jumped up cursing Gong Fanlin furiously.
What happened to these two guys?
“Who said I am not free?” I smiled, “Besides, I still owe everyone a meal. I’ve been very busy recently so I haven’t had time to invite everyone to a meal. Now that Xiao Zi is back, and I also haven’t held a welcome party for her, I might as well use this opportunity tonight to do the two things together. Hehe, let me pay the bill tonight.”
Even if Yao Wan’er, Elder sister Liu, and Qin Lan did not nod to me, I would still go to the welcome party. My understanding of ‘sex’ was not as open-minded as other people in this era. When I had sex with a woman, I must take responsibility for the woman. This conservative thinking was already carved into my bones. So how would I not be worried when Ziyuan needed to attend a welcome party alone with those men? Especially that Gong Fanlin; he was the person that I was wary of the most.
Not just me, whichever the occasion that Gong Fanlin attended, all the women in our general operation team would think twice before attending. Ziyuan was just new to the company, so she didn’t know about this at all.
Hearing that I was also going, Ziyuan smiled gratefully.
Just like my little sister, Ziyuan also didn’t like the noisy environment, and she didn’t like to engage in social activities even more. She needed to use someone as an excuse to avoid talking to other people during the party, but so far, it seemed like apart from me, she couldn’t find someone else.
“Xiao Nan, thank you…”
“Why do you need to thank me? This is what I should do.”
Ziyuan probably had misunderstood what I said, she blushed and said. “I need to deliver the document to Ms. Mo.” After that, she lowered her head and ran away in panic.
“Chu Nan, do you know what your greatest strength and weakness are?” Old Black patted my shoulder and said earnestly, “You are still not clever enough. I was trying very hard to give you eye signals, but why didn’t you understand it?”
I pretended to be dumb and said, “What do you mean? I thought you wanted me to join the party. Was that not the case?”
“You… Sigh…” Old Black gave me a look as if I was hopeless and said, “Forget it. Anyway, since you are paying the bill tonight, it’s not bad either. It can also save me some money. Haha, but you have to take Granny Cheng with you. You are a chick magnet. If you don’t bring her, I won’t feel safe at all…”
‘I also don’t feel safe because all of you are thinking about going after Ziyuan.’ While thinking this, I smiled, “Okay.”
One of the most important things that people needed to learn when working in the office was to get along with their colleagues. And the trick of getting along with colleagues was to know when to be smart. If you pretended to be dumb, you might suffer some small losses, but most of the time, the benefit you get would definitely be bigger than the losses.
“Elder Brother Nan,” As soon as Old Black walked away, Yao Wan’er approached me, “Ms. Mo said that if you come to the company, she wants you to go to her office. She said that she wants to discuss something with you.”
“Mhm,” I nodded and then lowered my voice to ask her, “Wan’er, what’s wrong with Brother Wei? Is he and Gong Fanlin…”
“Mhm,” Yao Wan’er also seemed to be angry at Gong Fanlin, “Gong Fanlin that group of men wants to invite Miss Xue to dinner. Miss Xue doesn’t want to go, so they made up a lie, saying that the welcome party is the general operation team’s tradition.
“They even said that if Miss Xue didn’t want to accept the invitation, it meant that she was looking down on them. Elder Brother Wei couldn’t stand them bullying Miss Xue, so he told Miss Xue that there is no such tradition. He asked them to stop giving Miss Xue a hard time, but Gong Fanlin exposed Brother Wei’s past in front of Miss Xue. That’s why brother Wei is very angry…”
This damn Gong Fanlin, he was such a bully! I knew that although Tian Guochong and Sun Zhe derided Gong Fanlin’s character, they still had many things in common, so they could be considered friends. On the other hand, they did not know Brother Wei well, plus Brother Wei frequently changed his girlfriend, it made them very envious, so they were not close to Brother Wei.
This reason seemed a bit naive, but in fact, the close relationship in the office was often determined by these naive factors. For example, the reason why I was popular, was because I was a stupid good guy. I always gave people some small favors to build up their friendliness…
Regarding the office relationship, Brother Wei was not clever enough. It was exactly because of this problem that with his ability, he was still a small office clerk even after working for Fengchang for several years. However, it was probably also because of his ability that he was transferred into the general operation team by Mo Fei.