Shen Mianyin finally turned to Gao Zhoulei and said, "You'll have to work a little harder tonight. Draft a rough version of the collaboration proposal first."
"Alright," Gao Zhoulei nodded.
Shen Mianyin glanced briefly at Zhou Jicai before lowering her voice and saying to Gao Zhoulei, "No matter what happens tonight, call me at 8 o'clock."
"Understood!" Gao Zhoulei nodded. "Director Shen, are you sure you don’t want me to go with you? I have a feeling they don’t mean well."
“He’s already said as much. If the discussion with Zhilan doesn’t go well, they might turn around and blame us for disrespecting them, which would put us in a tough spot,” Shen Mianyin said.
“I also think he has bad intentions, but I’m not sure what exactly he’s planning. We can only take it one step at a time.”
“Even if we refuse this time, they’ll definitely look for another opportunity. It’s better to agree now and see what they’re really up to,” Shen Mianyin explained.
Gao Zhoulei nodded. "If anything happens, call me anytime."
"Alright," Shen Mianyin replied with a smile.
For some reason, seeing Shen Mianyin so calm and composed put Gao Zhoulei’s mind at ease as well.
Shen Mianyin left with Zhang Qiyuan and Zhou Jicai to head to the restaurant.
On their way down in the elevator, they ran into quite a few colleagues from various departments.
Shen Mianyin couldn’t help but feel that the colleagues they encountered along the way were looking at her somewhat oddly.
Unsure if she was overthinking it, she frowned slightly and took out her phone to send Gao Zhoulei a WeChat message:
Shen Mianyin: "Is there any gossip about me today?"
Gao Zhoulei: "No, not at all. Why?"
Shen Mianyin: "It’s nothing. Maybe I’m just overthinking it."
Shen Mianyin rode in the car with Zhang Qiyuan and Zhou Jicai.
When the car stopped at Yunjing Restaurant, Shen Mianyin raised an eyebrow.
She didn’t have a favorable impression of Yunjing Restaurant anymore and had even planned to avoid coming here for business meetings in the future.
To her surprise, Zhou Jicai had chosen this place.
As they reached the entrance, Shen Mianyin suddenly heard the enthusiastic voice of Yunjing's manager greeting, "Mr. Gu!"
Her first thought was, 'Gu Huaizhi is here too?' She immediately turned to look, only to see that it was Gu Luo'an.
Without realizing it, her initially expectant gaze instantly turned into one of irritation, and she quickly looked away.
But Gu Luo'an noticed. He stared at Shen Mianyin. Who was she expecting just now? My third uncle?
Gu Luo'an couldn’t help clenching his fists tightly, his fingertips digging hard into his palms.
The manager, eager to please, led the way ahead, guiding Gu Luo'an to the private room they had reserved.
Zhou Jingyi and the others were already there. Once the manager left, Zhou Jingyi said, "We’ve already ordered the dishes. We were just waiting for you."
"What’s going on? I heard you picked up Su Yiqing right in front of Shen Mianyin last night," He Feichi said, lighting a cigarette and exhaling a puff of smoke. "Did you really break up with Shen Mianyin?"
"Who told you that?" Gu Luo'an frowned.
"My sister mentioned it when she got home," Zheng Siyu’s brother, Zheng Sirui, replied. "My parents even want to know if things between you and Su Yiqing are about to get serious."
Gu Luo'an felt a bit irritated and asked He Feichi for a cigarette. Sitting next to him, Xu Xinye lit it for Gu Luo'an.
He took a puff, exhaling the smoke as he said, "I have nothing to do with Su Yiqing. I just think she swapped lives with Shen Mianyin, and in a way, Shen Mianyin owes her. I’m just repaying that debt for her, so if I can help, I will."
"Damn, Brother Gu, you really have deep feelings for Shen Mianyin, huh? Looks like you haven’t given up on her yet," Xu Xinye said in disbelief.
Zheng Sirui glanced at Gu Luo'an, thought for a moment, but decided not to mention that Shen Mianyin had been driving Gu Huaizhi’s car and left with him last night.
If it hadn’t been for Zheng Siyu seeing it with her own eyes, Zheng Sirui would have found it unbelievable just from hearing about it.
How had Shen Mianyin managed to do something no one else could? She seemed to be quite familiar with Gu Huaizhi.
Zheng Sirui wanted to ask Gu Luo'an if Shen Mianyin had been familiar with Gu Huaizhi even when she was with him, but he kept that question to himself.
He also warned Zheng Siyu not to speak about it. Zheng Siyu had replied at the time, "Of course I won’t talk about it! Why should I help Shen Mianyin save face? Whether she and Gu Huaizhi are really close, or if he treats her like a servant, or if she’s just throwing herself at him, who knows?"
"Maybe it’s all just a facade Shen Mianyin created on purpose, making people think she has a good relationship with Gu Huaizhi, so no one dares to look down on her," Zheng Siyu said.
It was unclear whether she truly didn’t believe Shen Mianyin was close to Gu Huaizhi, or if she was just saying it to convince herself.
Zheng Sirui thought to himself, even if Shen Mianyin had taken the initiative, Gu Huaizhi wasn’t the kind of person who would let just anyone get close to him.
Zheng Sirui snapped back to his thoughts and couldn’t help but ask Gu Luo'an, "Since you like Shen Mianyin so much, why did you leave her behind last night and instead take Su Yiqing with you?"
"Yeah," Zhou Jingyi nodded in agreement.
Gu Luo'an frowned. "Why is everyone saying this? Shen Mianyin was fine last night. Su Yiqing was really scared and in poor health, so of course, I had to look after the weaker one first."
Zheng Sirui was stunned for a moment, thinking to himself, What kind of reasoning is this from Gu Luo'an? If it were him, and he didn’t like someone, he wouldn’t care about how fragile the other woman was.
Xu Xinye, who always enjoyed stirring the pot, didn’t like Shen Mianyin much either. He wasn’t sure why, but every time he saw her, something about her just rubbed him the wrong way.
At this moment, Xu Xinye spoke up, "Brother Gu, I think Su Yiqing seems like a good person. You're helping her so much, it’s clear you have some feelings for her. Since Shen Mianyin doesn’t appreciate it, why not just be with Su Yiqing instead?"
Gu Luo'an's face darkened at these words, and he couldn’t help but think back to last night with Su Yiqing. Even now, he still couldn’t stop regretting it.
"She’s not as strong as Shen Mianyin. She was just recognized by the Su family and is doted on by her parents. If I were really with her, breaking up would be impossible," Gu Luo'an said. "She’s not someone you can just casually get involved with."
Zheng Sirui genuinely couldn’t understand Gu Luo'an. Since he was so clear-headed about it, yet still helping Su Yiqing so much, it seemed like he was already entangled with her and couldn’t get away.
Meanwhile, Shen Mianyin and the others arrived at the private room. General Manager Fang from Zhilan, along with the manager from their marketing department, joined them.
This time, Zhang Qiyuan had come along to help retain Zhilan, but if it had just been the general manager alone, Zhang Qiyuan definitely wouldn’t have needed to attend.
At the dinner table, everyone exchanged toasts back and forth, their faces glowing with the warmth of the alcohol as they became more and more tipsy.
General Manager Fang was starting to slur his words a little.
"Director Shen, right?" General Manager Fang looked at Shen Mianyin. "I heard that last time, Mr. Zhou wanted you to come represent us at Zhilan, but you refused."
"I didn’t expect Director Shen to have such a high opinion of herself!" General Manager Fang squinted, his eyes lingering on Shen Mianyin’s face, unable to stop himself from sizing her up with a strange gaze.
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