"General Manager Zhou," Xu Huaixiang said in a low voice, "the partnership between Jincheng and Kewei, which Shen Mianyin is overseeing, is about to be finalized. The final agreement has been drafted, and the signing is scheduled for next Monday."
Shen Mianyin had initially assumed that Lin Yunan’s promise to personally apologize to her was just a courteous remark.
After all, several days had passed without any follow-up from him, and she had already put the matter out of her mind.
Yet, to her surprise, Lin Yunan was now sitting right across from her.
"President Lin, you really don't need to apologize to me," Shen Mianyin said politely. "This wasn't your fault, and you've already handled the person involved in a timely manner."
"In the end, it’s my failure in management that allowed someone like him to become our company’s general manager. He doesn’t even realize how many disgusting things he’s done in the past, damaging the company's reputation," Lin Yunan said. "So, I am still at fault."
"The collaboration between Zhilan and Jincheng remains unchanged. As a gesture of my apology, if you ever need anything in the future, President Lin, please don’t hesitate to let me know," Lin Yunan said.
"Thank you, President Lin," Shen Mianyin replied, though she didn’t take the words to heart.
As she was about to leave, Lin Yunan stood by the door, hesitating for a moment before asking, "Forgive me for being presumptuous, but is it true that General Manager Shen and the Third Master of the Gu family…?"
This time, it was Shen Mianyin who was caught off guard. "Why would you mention me and President Gu together, President Lin?"
"Understood," Lin Yunan said, realizing that it was meant to be kept a secret, and he didn’t ask any further questions.
But Shen Mianyin was no fool. From his tone, she could guess quite a bit, and when she thought about Lin Yunan's attitude toward her, things started to fall into place.
She had been puzzled earlier—there was no need for Lin Yunan to take responsibility for this matter, nor did he need to come personally to apologize.
To be honest, in the eyes of these capitalists, someone like her was hardly worth noting.
Yet, Lin Yunan had come anyway, and that left her confused. But now, Shen Mianyin suddenly began to form a new idea.
"Mr. Lin, has Mr. Gu contacted you?" Shen Mianyin asked.
Lin Yunan was a bit surprised; he hadn't said anything yet.
Shen Mianyin was indeed clever.
When Shen Mianyin was still the young lady of the Su family, he only knew of her and didn't have much interaction with her, so his impression wasn't deep.
He had been wondering what kind of woman could capture Gu Huaizhi's attention so much.
After talking for a while just now, he hadn't noticed anything particularly remarkable about Shen Mianyin, except that she was really beautiful.
It wasn't until now that he realized she was truly clever, with an incredibly quick mind.
Lin Yunan nodded and said, "After Mr. Gu learned about this matter, he personally contacted me. But he didn’t intervene."
Lin Yunan smiled and continued, "However, since Third Master Gu personally inquired about this, it shows he takes it seriously. Even if he said nothing, I still have to treat it with importance."
Gu Huaizhi hadn't interfered in any of their business matters, but his involvement made Lin Yunan too cautious to slack off. That was the way Gu Huaizhi was.
After seeing Lin Yunan off, Shen Mianyin returned and picked up her phone, hesitating for a long time.
She opened Gu Huaizhi's WeChat, wanting to send him a message.
However, after typing and deleting the text several times, Shen Mianyin finally put her phone down with a headache.
But she couldn't just ignore the matter, so she gathered her courage and picked up her phone again, asking, "Are you working overtime today?"
Determined not to give herself a chance to delete it, Shen Mianyin gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and hit send.
To her surprise, Gu Huaizhi replied almost instantly: "No overtime. Should I pick you up?" Shen Mianyin looked at the message and couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
It felt like… like they were so close, as if they were even in a relationship. Shen Mianyin’s face flushed slightly, and she quickly replied,
"No need, no need. I just… wanted to thank you. If you're free tonight and get home early, would you like to come over for dinner?"
Gu Huaizhi: "I'm free tonight. I'll pick you up, and we can go back together."
Shen Mianyin really hadn’t intended for him to come pick her up, but then she received another message from Gu Huaizhi: "We can stop by the supermarket on the way and buy some ingredients for dinner."
Shen Mianyin thought for a moment. She was usually busy with work, so she took time on weekends to shop for ingredients for the whole week, organizing them by category.
On weekdays, when she came home, she could just take what she needed from the fridge and cook.
Only when she was really too busy did she resort to ordering takeout. But she bought ingredients in portions just for herself, and since there wouldn’t be enough for Gu Huaizhi, she agreed to the idea.
Gu Huaizhi: "But what exactly are you thanking me for?"
Shen Mianyin: "Today, Lin Yunan came to the company in person to apologize. I was surprised. I'm just a small person, why would he come all the way to apologize to me? But before he left, he asked about our relationship."
Gu Huaizhi: "So, you thought of me?"
Shen Mianyin: "Yes. Lin Yunan didn’t hide anything; he just said that you had mentioned this matter to him. Even though you didn’t say anything directly, just the fact that you knew about it and still made a point to mention it made him realize that you cared about it. Naturally, he didn’t dare to be negligent."
Gu Huaizhi: "Sorry, I should have told you about this."
Shen Mianyin: "Why are you apologizing? I should be thanking you. If it weren’t for you, even with Lin Jinshen backing me, I would still be in a tough spot. Without your involvement, even though the responsibility lies with Zhilan, it would have affected Zhilan’s reputation, and Lin Yunan might have stopped cooperating with us."
Shen Mianyin continued, "Thanks to you, Zhilan didn’t dare to turn against us, and Lin Yunan even came to apologize. I was able to take advantage of the situation and get promoted to general manager."
Gu Huaizhi: "You got promoted to general manager, but it seems like we haven’t celebrated that yet."
Shen Mianyin had actually already celebrated with Lin Wanran, but she hadn’t mentioned it to Gu Huaizhi.
Of course, Shen Mianyin wasn’t going to tell him that, so she typed: "Then let’s celebrate together today."
***
That afternoon, in the Su family’s office, there was an additional person in Mr. Su’s office, it's Zhou Jicai.
"Why are you giving me this information?" Mr. Su asked, his voice tinged with suspicion.
"I don’t want Shen Mianyin to have it easy." In just a short period, Zhou Jicai had lost much of his former vitality. His eyes now had dark circles, his energy visibly drained.
He had repeatedly faced setbacks in his job search and was growing more anxious by the day.
On top of that, his mistress had taken his money and run off with her child.
Now, his wife was constantly arguing with him and even threatening divorce.
He was still paying off his mortgage, and his daughter was studying abroad—he was on the verge of being unable to afford her tuition.
"It’s all because of her. I even lost my job because of her," Zhou Jicai said in a low voice. "I won’t hide it from you, I’m really struggling and need money."
"I want to exchange this information for money. That’s not too much to ask, is it?" Zhou Jicai said, not hiding his intentions.
"As long as you can ruin Shen Mianyin’s business, she won’t have it easy in the company." Zhou Jicai sneered.
"Shen Mianyin has offended a lot of people in the company, and they’re all waiting for the chance to kick her while she’s down."
***
In the evening, after work, Shen Mianyin purposely stayed later to avoid the rush hour crowd, as it would take some time for Gu Huaizhi to drive over from Gu Corporation.
About forty minutes later, she received a call from Gu Huaizhi and packed up her things to leave the office.
Gu Luo'an's blue Panamera was parked by the roadside at the entrance of Jincheng.
As soon as he saw Shen Mianyin come out, he immediately opened the car door for her.
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