Chapter 34

The next morning.

Wei Xiaolu woke to a bright strip of sunlight slipping through the curtains and landing on the quilt over her.

She turned slightly and glanced at Shen Siyan, who was still sleeping soundly. Last night’s blurred boundaries and surging intoxication rushed back into her mind at once, and her face heated with them.

Shen Siyan had only bought her a gift.

Only... a gift?

But what did that gift mean? Was it really just a reward?

It had only been because she guessed the result of a competition correctly; it wasn’t even something she’d achieved through work. That was already beyond what a superior-subordinate reward should be, and Wei Xiaolu found it hard to deny that there was some personal feeling in it.

She couldn’t think too deeply about it. If she did, she wouldn’t be able to face Shen Siyan anymore.

She’d better just treat it as the boss getting drunk and acting up.

She got out of bed as quietly as she could. While she was washing up in the bathroom, Shen Siyan got up too.

“Hungry?”

Standing at the bathroom door, Shen Siyan had already returned to her usual composure and calm; she asked naturally about breakfast arrangements.

Wei Xiaolu told her that the hotel included breakfast. Shen Siyan picked up her own toothbrush and stood beside Wei Xiaolu, smiling at the mirror. “I was a little drunk last night. Felt a bit dizzy.”

So she was explaining herself?

Wei Xiaolu looked at Shen Siyan’s eyes in the mirror.

“I forgot to ask whether you liked it after I finally bought it,” Shen Siyan said casually as she squeezed toothpaste onto her brush. “If you don’t like it, tell me.”

Wei Xiaolu’s brushing paused.

She was just saying it so openly?

She steadied herself, then gathered her courage and quickly leaned toward Shen Siyan’s shoulder before retreating again.

“As long as it was bought by you,” Wei Xiaolu said, “I like it.”

Shen Siyan looked at her through the mirror, her gaze warm. “When I was choosing, I kept thinking the one with the crooked antlers looked especially like you.”

“Then when I get back, I’ll hang this on my bag.”

“Little deer hanging a little deer.” Shen Siyan smiled.

Wei Xiaolu never let a leader’s words go unanswered, so she immediately followed up, “Beauty with beauty.”

Shen Siyan covered her mouth and laughed.

“Girl,” she said, shaking her head, “that mouth of yours...”

Before she could finish, Wei Xiaolu didn’t dare keep tossing things back at her. She just grinned foolishly twice.

This kind of open banter seemed to make everything feel more natural. After that, when Wei Xiaolu went to eat breakfast with Shen Siyan, she was completely at ease. On the flight back, they both tacitly focused on summarizing their inspection of Qiding Technology, and that suggestive atmosphere was diluted a lot.

Once they were back at the company, they had to throw themselves back into the pressure of work.

On Monday morning, at the workgroup meeting, Wei Xiaolu noticed that the atmosphere in the team had become a little strange. Chen Yuran’s proposal to adopt an external system was gaining more and more supporters, especially Qian Longyue, who even pulled Wei Xiaolu aside to prepare her mentally.

“Xiaolu, I know your idea of using the Xingdun system is really insightful,” Qian Longyue sighed and complained, “but have you thought about it? If we use an external system, how much trouble can our technical team save? The underlying structure and maintenance are all someone else’s problem; the launch cycle gets cut in half right away!”

Wei Xiaolu looked at everyone and asked in a low voice, “But... wouldn’t that go against the original purpose of our integration project?”

“Huh?” Qian Longyue frowned.

“Wasn’t the point of integration to merge the three internally developed products, build on their strengths, and distill our own core competitive product?” Wei Xiaolu said, not very confidently. “If we use someone else’s system, wouldn’t our own technical accumulation go to waste?”

“Ah, what technical accumulation? If our technical team had any real ability, we wouldn’t be looking for outsourcing every day,” Qian Longyue said, waving it off. “Right now just don’t worry about so much. The workgroup is under so much pressure; getting results quickly is what matters.”

Wei Xiaolu still didn’t agree.

But then in the meeting, no matter how unwilling she was, she didn’t dare speak up. The entire workgroup, centered on Chen Yuran, supported choosing a powerful external system that had already been proven in the market.

They had even already done market research and selected a flagship system used by many major companies, saying that by using it, they could focus their energy on upper-layer business innovation; it was the choice most beneficial to the company.

Little by little, at some point, Wei Xiaolu even felt that what they were saying made a lot of sense.

But that wavering disappeared quickly. She had put in so much effort back when she pushed for the Xingdun system; now it was being vetoed with a single vote, and she felt a little unbalanced.

Still, in the end, this matter had to be decided by Shen Siyan.

Shen Siyan was reasonable; she definitely understood the harm of weakening the company’s own core technology.

So Wei Xiaolu didn’t bring it up to Shen Siyan.

On Tuesday, the department integration event Shen Siyan had promised arrived as scheduled. It was not quite what Wei Xiaolu had imagined; instead, it was a relaxed outdoor team-building activity and picnic.

Because the point was integration, everyone sat and chatted wherever they wanted. Wei Xiaolu was called over to Ai Jin’s group, and after sitting down she glanced toward Shen Siyan’s side. When she saw Chen Yuran sitting next to CEO Shen, alarm bells immediately started ringing in her head.

Chen Yuran and Shen Siyan soon started talking.

Wei Xiaolu watched from a distance, feeling blocked up inside; even the sandwich in her hand didn’t taste good anymore.

“What are you looking at?” Ai Jin tapped her shoulder.

“Nothing...” Wei Xiaolu turned back.

“Oh,” Ai Jin said as if she had seen through her, handing her a meat roll. “There’s been some gossip lately, so don’t sit right next to CEO Shen. Just relax and have fun over here.”

“Mm.” Only then did Wei Xiaolu remember there was still the matter of avoiding suspicion.

She didn’t know if it was because she was naturally careless, but the things that made her angry usually couldn’t even last two days before falling into some ditch in her brain and being completely forgotten.

The same went for Wang Chen spreading rumors after she rejected him. It had only been a week, and now—she looked up; Wang Chen was at the next stall exchanging glances with some young female employee—and she felt no emotional fluctuation at all.

Near the end of the picnic, Shen Siyan got up to get fruit. Wei Xiaolu seized the chance and pretended to go get more food too, edging over to Shen Siyan’s side.

“CEO Shen.” She lowered her voice.

Shen Siyan was holding a piece of cantaloupe; hearing her, she turned her head and looked over, the corner of her mouth still carrying a trace of the smile left from chatting with an old network department employee.

“What is it, girl?”

The sudden realization that CEO Shen would smile at everyone like this left Wei Xiaolu feeling a little blocked up. After a second or two, she finally came back to herself. “It’s about the workgroup choosing a system. Sister Chen seems to be leaning more toward an external system..."

“She told me some things about it,” Shen Siyan said as she picked a few blueberries and strawberries into Wei Xiaolu’s bowl. “It would indeed solve a lot of our current pain points.”

Wei Xiaolu’s heart tightened.

Shen Siyan glanced at her again and changed the subject slightly. “But the procurement budget isn’t low.”

“So then we won’t consider it?” Wei Xiaolu looked at her in confusion.

“The department’s funds are limited. We’ve just merged, and money is needed everywhere,” Shen Siyan said calmly. “And Qiding Technology’s data tools are also a considerable expense. I need to weigh it again.”

Wei Xiaolu grew a little anxious. “Why do we still need to weigh it? Didn’t we already choose the Xingdun system—”

She didn’t get to finish. When Shen Siyan lifted her eyes to look at her again, Wei Xiaolu promptly stopped herself.

Realizing what kind of tone she had used with Shen Siyan, her breathing caught.

Leaving aside whether she had the right to contradict her boss, this was clearly not the right place to argue about it.

“Enjoy the activity first,” Shen Siyan told her softly.

Wei Xiaolu gritted her teeth, swallowed her words, and nodded.

Only when she turned back did Wei Xiaolu notice the several coworkers standing behind her.

She immediately understood why Shen Siyan had looked at her with such a cool, unsentimental gaze just now.

Maybe because the relationship between them had been too close these past couple of days, she had started to get a little carried away, even bold enough to challenge her boss without restraint.

But Shen Siyan was the head of the whole department. Managing the department required not only personal ability, but also a certain level of authority.

To openly push back against Shen Siyan in front of so many people was practically... a challenge to authority.

Wei Xiaolu irritably scratched at her hair.

Work was so annoying; it made people grow eight hundred little schemes just to survive.

You also had to pay attention to so many details; one careless slip could offend someone. This time it had been Shen Siyan, but if it had been a petty boss, she probably would have been shoved right back into the talent pool to lie there.

Then again, if it had been a petty boss, she probably wouldn’t have gotten along with them well enough to dare publicly object in the first place.

Wei Xiaolu was down in the dumps. She picked up her phone and idled on it for a while.

Since Shen Siyan still had things to do after the event, Wei Xiaolu went back to the apartment by herself first.

After thinking for a while about whether she should apologize to Shen Siyan, Wei Xiaolu decided it really wasn’t necessary for something so small. She might as well pretend not to understand and let it pass.

So when Shen Siyan came back, Wei Xiaolu still ran out to welcome her with the same bright enthusiasm as always.

“CEO Shen, you’re back. Want something to eat?”

Shen Siyan hung up her coat, changed into slippers, and looked at her with that familiar smile again. “I’ve already eaten. What about you? Did you get full at the picnic this afternoon?”

Wei Xiaolu giggled twice and touched her stomach. “I’m a little hungry, actually. I was just about to stuff myself with some snacks.”

“If you didn’t get full, then you didn’t have enough fun,” Shen Siyan said as she walked to the sofa and sat down, rubbing her neck. “Have you been thinking about the project integration all this time?”

Wei Xiaolu blinked.

She realized Shen Siyan was really good at bringing things up directly, never letting them sit around. What was more impressive was that she could introduce the topic she wanted at just the right moment and in just the right way.

“Yes... CEO Shen,” Wei Xiaolu said, feeling more at ease because of that. “I feel like if we use an external system, wouldn’t our own locally developed system go to waste?”

“It was noisy and full of people at the event this afternoon; some things couldn’t be said plainly,” Shen Siyan said, her gaze settling on Wei Xiaolu’s face with the indulgent helplessness of an older sister looking at her rash little sister. “Using an external system would give the technical team an excuse not to work hard. If the core team starts slacking off, how are we supposed to develop this department?”

Hearing the same line of thought she had, Wei Xiaolu instantly lit up and raised her thumb high. “CEO Shen is brilliant.”

“You thought the same, didn’t you?” Shen Siyan chuckled, pressing down the thumb Wei Xiaolu had lifted. “But did you think about why Chen Yuran is so eager to push a seemingly easy solution?”

“Why?” Wei Xiaolu asked.

“She’s very close to Chen Dongqi. I found out she privately registered a technical services company, and Chen Dongqi’s daughter is a silent shareholder in that company.”

Wei Xiaolu subconsciously didn’t want to hear any more and moved back a few centimeters; still, under CEO Shen’s frank gaze, curiosity got the better of her, and she guessed, “Could she be... still doing things for Chen Dongqi?”

“It’s hard to say. I’ve been watching. There may be other people in the department too who don’t truly want this integration to succeed,” Shen Siyan said, tapping a rhythm against her leg with her fingers. “Let’s suppress it with the budget for now. Once I figure out what to do, I’ll deal with it all together.”

This time Wei Xiaolu finally understood, and quickly chimed in agreement. “So that’s how it is.”

She was only offering a single line of support, but Shen Siyan still let out a soft laugh.

“This time, do you really agree with my view?”

Wei Xiaolu bashfully shrank her shoulders. “Of course. Everything the beautiful woman says is right.”

Shen Siyan leaned back. “That sounds pretty perfunctory.”

“Come on, CEO Shen,” Wei Xiaolu said as she moved to sit beside her boss, openly admitting it. “I was just anxious this afternoon. The moment I thought about our own system sitting there unused, I couldn’t stay calm. You’re the one who can keep your composure; that’s why you’re our boss.”

As she spoke, she deliberately made a fist-and-palm salute, then blinked. “I’ve learned my lesson. From now on, I’ll definitely learn more from you about being steady.”

Shen Siyan smiled.

Then she picked up the bag beside her, opened it toward Wei Xiaolu, and said, “You’ve learned very well. Here; a reward.”

Wei Xiaolu looked down—and saw lots of little deer lying in Shen Siyan’s bag.

The one with the crooked antlers was unmistakably among them, along with other styles that were either playful or gentle, like an entire family of little deer waiting to be claimed.