Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Night came quietly, and Lin Yao was the only one left on the 26th floor of Yueyang Building. She was in a bad mood, and didn’t keep cramming English, but was reflecting instead.
What did “bian” mean?
All Chinese elementary school students knew that the character flat was a polyphonic character that had two meanings: 1.biǎn, (1) Objects that are flat and thin: such as lentils and bolsters. 2. Piān, small, such as a flatboat (little boat).
But in terms of online slang, “bian” meant hitting and beating, for example, “owing bian” meant beating.
But as for whether or not an old overseas Chinese like Mr. Wen knew the other meaning of “bian”, she had no way of knowing.
Lin Yao got the feeling that Mr. Wen knew, and she was likely duped.
In theory, since Mr. Wen knew who Chen X-bian was, how could he not know how to write the character bian?
If that was true, why would Mr. Wen play her?
Was it simply because her voice was too small, or did she inadvertently say something wrong?
At the moment, everything was a mystery.
She still knew too little.
Ugh…
******
“Ring ring ring—”
Lin Yao’s phone abruptly started ringing, breaking the silence in the room.
She glanced at the caller ID and discovered that it was Jiang Mingshu calling.
She picked up the phone and said, “Hey?” Strangely there was no one speaking on the other end.
What was up with Jiang Mingshu?
She had always been self-willed and very saucy. How could such a person say nothing after making a call?
More and more, Lin Yao intuitively felt that something was wrong, so she hurriedly asked, “What’s wrong, Mingshu? Say something.”
Jiang Mingshu was actually trying to contain her inner excitement over the phone, and it certainly wasn’t that she didn’t want to speak. It’s just that a colleague had passed by, so it wasn’t convenient for her to speak.
Finally, when the others walked away, Jiang Mingshu could barely wait to start talking, “I saw our CEO today, he…ahhhhhh!”
On the other end of the phone, Lin Yao didn’t know whether Jiang Mingshu was too excited or didn’t know how to express herself, but she couldn’t finish her words after she opened her mouth. All she could do was keep saying “ahhhhh”, but for some inexplicable reason, this made Lin Yao feel relieved.
She took a sip of water to calm her nerves, and then she asked slowly, “Well then, what about him?”
Jiang Mingshu was barely able to suppress her urge to scream. “He came to visit the company today, ahhhhh!”
Jiang Mingshu had been working at Orlando Apparel for a full year and a half. She was so excited to see her boss for the first time.
Lin Yao was incognizant, and she teased her slightly, “Then what? Did the CEO fall in love with you?”
Jiang Mingshu, who had been saying “ahhh” over the phone nonstop, immediately quieted down upon hearing her words.
She seemed at a loss for words for a while, or was perhaps lost in her thoughts for a while, before she said despondently, “How could that be possible?”
Of course, it was impossible.
The CEO of Jiang Mingshu’s company kept an extremely low profile, but Lin Yao had heard of his accomplishments here and there.
The Orlando Group had been established in Hangzhou for many years, so for a tycoon to build this enterprise from scratch, then have it expand on such a large scale, and to be listed on the Forbes Billionaires List, he had to be at least in his 40s or 50s, right?
Jiang Mingshu was only one year older than Lin Yao. She turned 22 this year, so how could she fall in love with such an old man?
Although Jiang Mingshu was attractive, Orlando had many more vivacious girls than her.
Besides, perhaps there was something wrong with Jiang Mingshu’s aesthetics, but her fashion choices lately were pretty questionable, so the Cinderella story of a CEO falling in love with her was very unlikely to happen to her.
Lin Yao quipped with a smile, “What are you doing?”
“You…I…” Jiang Mingshu started talking then fell silent for a while, and then she sighed and muttered in a low voice. “I’ll find you later, and then, slowly, tell you the whole story.”
Lin Yao was quite surprised, “It’s only 7:30, are you sure you want to leave so early?”
Jiang Mingshu usually didn’t leave until she worked “overtime” until ten o’clock.
Jiang Mingshu exclaimed exasperatedly, “Today’s a special circumstance, and I’ll go crazy if I don’t leave, ah!”
Lin Yao knew that it was probably inconvenient for her to explain while in the office, so she said, “Then wait for me in my home, and I’ll go back immediately.”
“Okay, see you later, ah ah, I’m going crazy, woo woo —”
Lin Yao had already begun to worry. Perhaps something had happened between Jiang Mingshu and the CEO?
******
Three minutes later, Lin Yao turned off her computer, but before she could even start packing up her belongings, she received a call from Jiang Mingshu again. She asked in a choked voice, “Where have you been?”
Lin Yao was speechless, “Miss Jiang, you’re calling my landline now, but you still ask me where I am?”
Jiang Mingshu paused for a moment. “Oh, I forgot.”
After a few seconds, she argued, “Isn’t there a thing such as forwarding a call, you could have also received my call using your cellphone.”
Lin Yao decided not to shatter Miss Jiang’s pride so she refrained from arguing with her.
From the clamoring background noise from the other end of the phone, she could tell that Jiang Mingshu had left the company by now, so Lin Yao asked, “What on earth happened to you today?”
Jiang Mingshu couldn’t hold back anymore. She spilled the beans on what happened that night.
“So this was what happened. I was working overtime. Ah, you know, I was watching a TV series, and suddenly this super handsome, extremely charming man walked over and glanced at me. I didn’t take it seriously and continued watching the show. After he left, Old Jiang told me that the man was the CEO. Wah wah—I think I’m about to lose my job, wah—”
Lin Yao clasped her forehead. Jiang Mingshu had been watching TV in the office to keep up the facade of working overtime. It wasn’t that big of a deal, and she certainly wasn’t the only one doing it.
Even if she was seen by her colleagues, everyone knew about the unspoken rule, but she had been caught by the CEO, who appeared only once every few years. That was indeed quite unfortunate—she may never have the opportunity to prove herself to the CEO again.
Lin Yao racked her brains to console her, “Maybe it’s not that serious. Your seating position is inside, so the average person wouldn’t be able to see anything on your computer screen at all, and you muted the sounds…”
“Wah—but I wore a headset today, the big one, wah—”
Lin Yao pulled at her hair. With Jiang Mingshu’s taste, the style of the headset she chose was probably extremely over-the-top, flashy, and just as eye-catching as her fashion style.
Unless Orlando’s CEO was blind, he probably saw it.
“Wah—and, I put my feet on the desk, wah—”
An image suddenly flashed through Lin Yao’s mind:
On a whim, the CEO of Orlando decided to take a look around the company he had been operating for many years. He came to the 23rd floor for a visit, and then he saw Jiang Mingshu.
Her face was caked in heavy makeup, on her head was the latest, trendiest and coolest huge headphones, and she was wearing a biking leather jacket + distressed jeans, and a pair of rivet leather boots on her feet.
She slumped limply in a swivel chair as if there were no bones in her body and sprawled her feet on the desk.
The most brazen part was that she glanced at the CEO, and then continued to watch her show right in front of the CEO.
Lin Yaoguang thought about the scene for a while and couldn’t help but suck in a breath.
In this situation, she really didn’t know how to comfort Jiang Mingshu, and asked, “What was the CEO’s attitude?”
At the same time, Jiang Mingshu also asked with a nasal tone, “Yao, is your company still recruiting people?”
“What if the CEO didn’t think anything of it at all?”
“The chairman smiled at me.”
The two spoke again in unison.
Lin Yao continued to speak, “Think about it, the CEO had lived for so long, so what hasn’t he seen in this world? Perhaps he didn’t think anything of it at all, and besides, he isn’t responsible for personnel, so maybe he turned around and forgot about it…
Her consolation was clumsy, but Jiang Mingshu stopped sobbing.
Jiang Mingshu said with awe, “Yes, the CEO doesn’t care about such trivial matters. Let me tell you, our CEO is really super handsome. He was wearing a black suit and was even more handsome than a Hollywood celebrity!”
Lin Yao knew that Jiang Mingshu had peculiar tastes, but at the moment, she decided not to shatter her illusions.
She agreed nonchalantly and said, “Oh~~~ then he must be really handsome.”
What she was really thinking inside was, is your CEO that handsome? If he’s so handsome, then why did you keep watching the TV show?
Regardless, Lin Yao’s consolation actually seemed to be pretty effective, and Jiang Mingshu quickly recovered.
In the period following, she rambled on and on as she fawned over how handsome and charming Orlando’s CEO was.
Lin Yao actually wanted to tell Jiang Mingshu that these words might actually be useful if they were said in front of the CEO, and it was completely useless telling her this because she probably wouldn’t see the CEO of Orlando in her lifetime.
But, the point was, Jiang Mingshu no longer needed her consolation.