Chapter 15

Shen Siyan’s wardrobe was expansive. After more than an hour of trying things on, and with CEO Shen’s exacting commentary and matching suggestions, Wei Xiaolu had more or less figured out a commute style that suited her.

Just when she thought the fitting session was about to end, a dress hanging deep in the closet suddenly caught her eye.

—It was a dusk-blue silk camisole dress, simple in design, with a faint, almost deliberate hint of sensuality barely visible beneath the surface.

So... alluring.

Shen Siyan actually wore something like this!?

That strange contrast instantly excited Wei Xiaolu. Her shock lasted only a second before she was already imagining what Shen Siyan would look like in it.

“Like this one?”

She heard Shen Siyan laugh, her tone calm.

Wei Xiaolu turned back, her voice practically overflowing with curiosity and longing. “The style is really different from what you usually wear.”

“Mm-hm. I bought it and never wore it,” Shen Siyan said, lifting one shoulder strap with a finger and holding the dress up against Wei Xiaolu for comparison. “It won’t suit you.”

“I’ve never tried anything like this.”

Shen Siyan’s hand, just about to put it back, paused slightly. Her brows rose, and a smile curved her lips as she encouraged her. “Then try it?”

Wei Xiaolu’s eyes widened a little.

“You have to wear silk like this against your skin; you don’t need a bra.” Shen Siyan handed the dress to her, then walked straight out.

Try it, then.

Wei Xiaolu, a vigorous young member of the new generation, was never one to back down.

However... when she changed and stood in front of the mirror, no matter how she looked at it, she was now getting goosebumps from sheer embarrassment.

The person in the mirror looked so strange.

The soft fabric fit her waist perfectly; above the clean line of her collarbones were delicate straps that seemed to disappear into nothing, and between her collarbones and her waist was a low neckline she had never experienced before, bringing a cool touch to her chest and the area beneath her heart.

It took her a century of mustering courage before she finally opened the door and walked out.

Shen Siyan was on the phone. Hearing the sound, she turned her gaze over, then simply froze.

Half a minute later, after hanging up, Shen Siyan folded her arms and studied her. “Turn around and let me see.”

Wei Xiaolu was too shy to think straight; the turn she gave was less a proper spin than a small, mischievous twirl in place.

At that moment, because she had stepped on one end of the silk ribbon tied at the waist as decoration, it was tugged loose and fell to the floor by her feet.

“Ah.” She almost reflexively bent down to pick it up.

The instant she moved, Wei Xiaolu clearly caught sight, out of the corner of her eye, of Shen Siyan turning her head away to look off to the side.

A rush of heat shot straight to her head. Wei Xiaolu hurriedly looked down at her chest, then went completely blank at what she saw...

She was exposed.

...She really wanted to burrow into a crack in the ground.

Her face was burning.

Picking up the ribbon, Wei Xiaolu awkwardly tugged at the neckline. “It really does seem a little, a little unsuitable...”

Shen Siyan was still as composed as ever; her voice revealed very little. “It is a bit unsuitable for you. Go change out of it.”

Wei Xiaolu bolted back into Shen Siyan’s bedroom.

The moment the door shut, she leaned back against it, her heart still pounding, her mind replaying the way Shen Siyan had quickly looked away.

Calm down!

If I don’t say anything, who would know I saw her see me get exposed?

After taking a deep breath, Wei Xiaolu felt that the brain of her advanced, developed mind had already learned how to sort out priorities on its own. The most urgent task right now was—change clothes.

After putting herself back into her pajamas, Wei Xiaolu thanked Shen Siyan earnestly, then decisively locked herself back in her room.

To avoid embarrassment, she swore she would cut off all contact with her boss for the entire weekend and focus on cultivating her own spiritual world.

But Shen Siyan didn’t really have much of a chance to interact with her either. Headquarters launched a new project, and the weekend vanished without a trace; even on Sunday, she went back to the company for a full day of overtime.

The boss spent the weekend working overtime; the subordinate spent the weekend lying in bed playing games.

As for this, Wei Xiaolu’s mindset had already matured. She no longer let her superiors affect her and then felt guilty that she wasn’t working as hard as they were. She had reached mastery now; when Shen Siyan came back, she simply turned off the lights and pretended to be asleep, not even bothering to greet her.

Her guilt was gone, at least when it came to that evil capitalist. But when she thought of her parents, Wei Xiaolu felt regret all over again for how she had wasted her weekend.

A new week arrived.

This week, she would be a new woman; work hard, strive upward, and live up to heaven and earth as well as herself.

That ambitious resolve shattered to dust the moment Shen Siyan announced the launch of the “Dawn Project” at Monday morning’s meeting.

To put it nicely, the Dawn Project was a data brain that would provide core support for all intelligent products within the group. In reality, it was just cleaning up decades of accumulated raw product data and rebuilding a new data pool.

One part of the plan was the standardized cleaning and integration of historical data.

Wei Xiaolu was still idly wondering which poor soul would end up with this massive job.

Then Shen Siyan assigned it to the technical team. The technical people immediately started yelling about not having time; then, for some reason, someone with a rotten mouth blurted out, “Didn’t the smart finance and tax data entry used to be done by interns? For this kind of stuff with no technical content, just let the interns do it.”

What the hell had this person eaten to make their mouth smell that bad!

Before Wei Xiaolu could even get angry enough to fight for her rights, she saw Shen Siyan’s gaze move toward her. “Xiaolu, can you handle this work?”

The little person in her head who had been roaring furiously suddenly went obedient.

“No problem, CEO Shen.” Wei Xiaolu tried her best to sound sincere.

“Good.” Shen Siyan nodded, then turned to the others. “One more thing. The Dawn Project is a key task initiated by the group. Data is the foundation of our products; if the foundation isn’t stable, everything will shake. So every task in this project will count toward personal performance.”

The conference room fell silent.

Wei Xiaolu keenly noticed that the few people who had just been shouting about not having enough time now had increasingly distorted expressions on their faces.

Shen Siyan looked around the room once, then her gaze landed on Wei Xiaolu. “However, Wei Xiaolu is an intern and does not take part in performance evaluations. For fairness, her portion of the work will be converted into an additional project allowance and paid separately.”

Suddenly made the subject of discussion in the meeting, Wei Xiaolu was still trying to recover when she saw the people on the technical team across from her practically turning green with regret.

“Any objections?” Shen Siyan asked.

After receiving unanimous agreement, Shen Siyan let the matter drop and continued arranging the rest of the Dawn Project.

Once everyone learned that it counted toward performance, the remaining assignments went extremely smoothly.

Watching Shen Siyan work with such efficiency, Wei Xiaolu sat below the stage feeling like she was basking in a spring breeze.

Right now, everyone looked handsome and beautiful to her. So it really was true; once a person had money, the whole world around them became kind and beautiful.

That feeling lasted until the moment she received the historical raw data from previous years.

No one had told her this data set ran into the tens of millions!

At this point, there were only four words to describe the situation: too much, and she was dumb.

Admittedly, she had learned some convenient methods for cleaning data, but it was still monotonous, mechanical, repetitive work. So was she, a proper college graduate, here to be a human data-cleaning machine?

Painful. Torturous.

But for that allowance, Wei Xiaolu endured it; she buried her head and started battling the dense wall of data on her screen.

The first day of cleaning data was still bearable.

The second day was still manageable.

By Sunday morning, she could barely hold on.

But by the afternoon, Wei Xiaolu could clearly feel her enthusiasm had burned out. Now there was only a mess of black lines in her heart.

With Shen Siyan around, she couldn’t go crazy. Only after Shen Siyan finally went out did Wei Xiaolu grab the Biji doll and slam it hard against the desk.

“What use is this internship to me?” she wailed. “Is my life really just about serving this pile of data that has nothing to do with me? What’s the point!”

She hadn’t even shouted twice before the door suddenly opened.

Wei Xiaolu instantly went mute.

Zeng Cui poked his head in, saw that someone was inside, and stepped back out. But then, as if he had remembered that the person sitting there was his old employee, he very naturally walked in with his hands behind his back.

Zeng Cui had been dropping by fairly often lately; Wei Xiaolu was used to it by now. She busied herself with her own work and pretended not to see him.

But some leaders were just terribly lacking in awareness and boundaries. He pulled over Shen Siyan’s chair and sat down beside her. “Xiaolu, Product Interaction Department is doing the Dawn Project too, right? What exactly do you all have to do?”

Wei Xiaolu pointed at her screen. “Manager Zeng, just this.”

“That basic, huh.” Zeng Cui seemed to be making fun of her; he looked quite pleased.

Wei Xiaolu was annoyed and didn’t want to deal with this ex.

“Just integrating data? Nothing else?” Zeng Cui asked again.

Wei Xiaolu was fed up. “Just this alone won’t be finished anytime soon.”

Maybe he still had a shred of conscience. Seeing Wei Xiaolu buried in work, Zeng Cui lectured her a few more times, telling her to maintain a good work attitude. After finishing his lesson, he wandered off with his hands behind his back.

She was already annoyed; now she had to be lectured too, which only made it worse.

Wei Xiaolu immediately opened WeChat and went to vent one by one to several old high school classmates she had recently started chatting with about her miserable job.

Her keyboard was still clacking furiously beneath her hands when, amid the dense barrage of typing, Shen Siyan returned to the office.

She didn’t look up.

But Shen Siyan walked straight toward her.

“Still battling the data?”

Wei Xiaolu hurriedly switched screens and looked up, forcing a weak smile. “Yeah, CEO Shen. Still digging through the mountain.”

“The data mountain?” Shen Siyan seemed to find the metaphor amusing. She laughed, then took a pack of sandwich cookies from behind her back and placed it in front of Wei Xiaolu. “I grabbed these from the lounge. Digging mountains is hard work; have some energy, little sister.”

Wei Xiaolu looked at the blueberry sandwich cookies and, perhaps because she was truly too tired, went blank for a moment.

“Oh, right.” Shen Siyan took the shoulder bag from the wall hook and pulled out a bottle of yogurt, setting it on Wei Xiaolu’s desk. “I brought this for you this morning.”

Holding cookies in one hand and yogurt in the other, Wei Xiaolu felt the petty irritation inside her dissolve. What she held now felt a lot like the name of this project.

“Ah,” Wei Xiaolu suddenly realized she had been spacing out and quickly refocused. “Thank you for the feeding, gorgeous. I haven’t even eaten yet, and I already feel full of energy.”

“Does doing this work still feel stifling?” Shen Siyan asked.

Wei Xiaolu gave a half-smile and nodded. “With the beautiful lady’s concern, it feels much better.”

“If you still feel gloomy doing this, then think about your allowance,” Shen Siyan said, leaning against the desk and bending slightly toward her to let her in on a secret. “It’s enough to buy more than thirty new outfits.”

“Re-really?” Wei Xiaolu blinked.

“Do I look like I’m lying to you?” Seeing her expression freeze, Shen Siyan laughed instead, then raised a hand to pat Wei Xiaolu on the shoulder. “I never make empty promises. You can trust me.”

Wei Xiaolu looked at Shen Siyan.

Light, easy smiles; calm, confident words; a natural warmth from the inside out; and powerful, unwavering decisiveness.

Only then did she belatedly realize exactly what kind of perfect superior she had met.