Chapter 37

Wei Xiaolu kept coming back, over and over, to what it meant when Shen Siyan had said they couldn’t be coworkers anymore over that dinner she’d personally cooked.

Unfortunately, by then all her emotions had been snuffed out. She hadn’t pressed Shen Siyan for the reason, hadn’t asked right away what the “want” in “want it too much” meant.

Maybe she hadn’t dared.

But she really had forgotten.

She had stood frozen in place until Shen Siyan told her to help wash the vegetables. Only then did it feel as if her limbs finally came back to life, and she went back into the room to set down the potted plant before returning to help the chef prepare the meal.

Shen Siyan’s cooking couldn’t exactly be called exquisite, but it was delicious beyond words. By the time the meal ended, Wei Xiaolu’s happiness had risen bright and warm inside her.

Then, before she’d even finished a half-burped sigh of contentment, that happy kite snapped its string—“Xiaolu, how’s the progress on your workgroup?”

Swallowing back the rest of the belch, Wei Xiaolu launched into her report. “The overall framework is almost finished, and the main modules have basically been divided up clearly. It’s just that there are still a few key interfaces we haven’t sorted out yet.”

Shen Siyan wiped her hands and picked up her phone. “You can ask the technical coordination office at headquarters for the archive on this. I’ll send you the person in charge. Just tell them I asked for it.”

Wow. A connection had just dropped into her lap.

“Okay, CEO Shen!”

Wei Xiaolu immediately perked up. That same night, she contacted the person in charge, but unfortunately, the manager had already been transferred to another department and told her to go to the office in person.

So the next day, Wei Xiaolu showed up at the technical coordination office carrying both the former manager’s name and Shen Siyan’s.

She hadn’t expected to run straight into a wall.

At first they said they’d “look into it”; later it became “it’s still going through the process”; and in the end, they couldn’t even get hold of anyone.

The result was that Wei Xiaolu ran to headquarters three or four times in a single day, only to come back empty-handed each time, so anxious she felt like she was about to foam at the mouth.

Just as she was staring gloomily at messages that had been read but not answered, Chen Yuran came over with a water cup and sat down beside her.

There was no one else in the break room at the moment, so Chen Yuran’s voice sounded especially loud. “Xiaolu, you’ve looked worried all day. What’s going on?”

Wei Xiaolu was a little deflated. “Sister Chen, I’m having trouble coordinating with the other side.”

“Which side?” Chen Yuran asked.

Wei Xiaolu was already full of irritation from being ignored, and since someone was willing to listen, she vented without holding back. “I wanted to ask the technical coordination office at headquarters for the archive from the previous version, but they just keep kicking the can down the road. No one will deal with me.”

“Oh, that,” Chen Yuran said with a faint smile. “They’ve been busy lately. Didn’t they just get a new person in charge over there? They’re probably trying to boost their performance right now. Otherwise, in a couple of days at the quarterly earnings meeting, if the new boss doesn’t have any results to show, the company will definitely issue a public criticism.”

“Oh... no wonder they don’t have time to deal with me.” Wei Xiaolu could understand that, but she was still angry.

“This is easy,” Chen Yuran said. “Don’t send messages. Send an email. I’ll give you the emails of a few of their supervising leaders; copy them all and say the project progress is urgent, so you’re asking their supervisors to help push it through.”

Wei Xiaolu thought that was a little rude. She was only asking for an archive; it wasn’t some huge matter. Did it really need such a big production?

And besides, Chen Yuran wasn’t exactly a trustworthy person.

Would this make the other office think their department was putting on airs?

But in the end, Wei Xiaolu still followed the advice.

Because Qian Longyue was also in urgent need of it, and to guarantee the project’s progress, Wei Xiaolu had no choice but to do as instructed.

But it worked.

In less than two hours, she received all the historical archives.

The problem solved, thanks in part to Chen Yuran’s suggestion, Wei Xiaolu went to wash some fruit and bring it over as thanks.

Chen Yuran refused the fruit and said magnanimously that they were all just trying to move the project forward together; everyone had the same goal.

Same goal, my ass. She and Chen Dongqi were the two Chens on the production side, and by now their elbows were already bent toward Zhaolan, weren’t they?

But even if their positions weren’t aligned, while being helped, Wei Xiaolu could still sense Chen Yuran’s public-mindedness, her willingness to take responsibility for the project and help a colleague out of a jam.

It was just that Wei Xiaolu didn’t know whether this reliable, dependable side of her was real or merely an act.

At dinner that night, Wei Xiaolu wanted to report on what had happened that day; however, Shen Siyan barely ate a few bites before going back to her room to work, and there was simply no chance to talk.

What was going on? She wasn’t even eating properly.

After dinner, Wei Xiaolu went back to her room and lost interest in whatever she tried to do. Her mind kept circling back to the fact that Shen Siyan hadn’t eaten properly. She waited for two hours and still heard nothing from outside, so she ordered some grilled skewers. When the delivery arrived, she carried them to Shen Siyan’s door.

“CEO Shen,” Wei Xiaolu knocked. “I bought some late-night snacks. Do you want to come eat with me?”

The door opened, revealing a plain, quiet face.

Not far behind it, on the desk, the computer screen was clearly showing a report page, still scrolling through the latest project list and department performance figures.

This was...

“You eat it,” Shen Siyan said with a faint smile.

Wei Xiaolu came back to herself and lifted the takeout bag higher, bringing out her trump card. “But you barely ate anything tonight. Just treat it as keeping me company, okay?”

As she swayed the bag, the aroma of barbecue drifted out at just the right moment.

Perhaps moved by her sincerity, Shen Siyan finally let her expression soften. “Okay. I’ll keep you company and eat a little.”

Delighted, Wei Xiaolu went to the table, unwrapped the food, and casually started talking. “By the way, CEO Shen, didn’t you give me a contact yesterday?”

Once the floodgates were open, the complaints poured out.

By the time they finished the last of the discounted skewers, Wei Xiaolu had finally finished recounting the events of the day. “Today really did depend on Sister Chen’s help coming up with the idea. Otherwise, I really wouldn’t have gotten it.”

Shen Siyan stood, poured two glasses of water, and brought them over. Holding the cup in both hands, she slowly rubbed the side of it, thoughtful. “She’s capable, and very responsible.”

After drinking half a cup, she suddenly brushed the hair at her temple aside. “What do you think?”

“I think...” Wei Xiaolu recalled it carefully. “I think Sister Chen usually... aside from that time she insisted on using the external system, she’s actually done a pretty good job.”

“That’s right,” Shen Siyan said with a nod. “I’ve noticed it too. When she’s in work mode, she’s very energetic; on the other hand, when she’s outside of work, her mood tends to be a bit low.”

Wei Xiaolu paused for a moment.

“That does seem true.” Looking at it from this angle, even if Chen Yuran was two-faced, it was still a high-energy kind of two-facedness; at work, she was very good at rallying people and pushing execution forward.

“So,” Shen Siyan said, folding her arms, “my guess is that the company previously registered under Chen Yuran’s name was actually set up by Chen Dongqi. Chen Dongqi is the one who really controls the technical service company. Given Chen Yuran’s attitude toward work, she may not actually want to keep obstructing our project, but she has leverage or personal ties with Chen Dongqi, so she’s forced into acting like this.”

Wei Xiaolu’s eyes gradually widened.

After the realization hit her, she also felt a touch of sympathy for Chen Yuran.

“No wonder you kept Sister Chen on the workgroup.” Wei Xiaolu clenched a fist and thumped the table.

“Use people for their strengths, and then you have to tolerate their shortcomings,” Shen Siyan said, holding the water glass between two fingers and gently rocking it. “Actually, I wanted to use her to find out which people in our department are still in contact with Chen Dongqi.”

“Why would anyone still be contacting Mr. Chen?” Wei Xiaolu had only just asked when she realized how stupid the question sounded.

Shen Siyan gave a relaxed little smile, her tone even. “There are a lot of accounts in the department that don’t add up.”

Wei Xiaolu was suddenly alarmed and clapped a hand over her mouth in panic, not daring to say anything reckless.

“For example, the last Dawn project was allocated 600,000 yuan. There’s still 100,000 yuan left on the books, but if you add up all the small expenditures that were actually put into practice, it only comes to a little over 200,000.”

“The rest of the money...” Wei Xiaolu felt cold all over.

“And it’s not just this one project,” Shen Siyan said, tapping the table once with her index finger. “A lot of the projects from before I came were like this.”

She paused, looked at Wei Xiaolu, and said, “Money has been flowing out all along.”

Wei Xiaolu felt her throat tighten.

Only then did she finally understand why Shen Siyan was always working overtime late into the night, why there was always that unshakable weariness hidden beneath her seemingly calm and composed brows.

What she had to face wasn’t just the obvious work in front of her, but a black hole lurking in the dark, quietly draining the department dry.

Hearing that so much money had slipped away, Wei Xiaolu became deeply anxious. “Was all this done by Chen Dongqi?”

Shen Siyan shook her head. “It’s too early to say.”

“Then should we talk to Sister Chen? I feel like she might know something.” Wei Xiaolu said.

“No rush,” Shen Siyan said, waving a hand. “This takes time.”

Wei Xiaolu nodded, only half understanding.

The two of them sat in silence for a while longer, each lost in thought.

“All right, little sister,” Shen Siyan said, pressing a hand to her shoulder. “I still have to prepare the presentation PPT. Go to bed early.”

“You too, CEO Shen,” Wei Xiaolu followed after her step by step. “You worked hard during the day too, so you should rest early at nigh—”

When she escorted Shen Siyan to the bedroom door and saw the presentation page once again trapped on the computer screen, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.

“Are you also going to that quarterly earnings meeting?”

The hand Shen Siyan had on the doorknob paused slightly.

She turned around, wearing that familiar smile of hers, the kind that put people at ease.

But Wei Xiaolu could no longer ignore the flash of fatigue in her eyes. Shen Siyan, who had carried on until now, had finally shown the marks left by work even through the perfection of her appearance.

“Yes,” Shen Siyan said softly, so softly it sounded like a sigh. “I have to go.”

Wei Xiaolu looked at Shen Siyan’s mask-like smile, and her chest suddenly tightened; even her breathing turned damp.

But Shen Siyan remained unchanged, still smiling as if unscathed, though every slightly raised muscle in her face seemed to carry an indescribable exhaustion.

“CEO Shen...” Wei Xiaolu frowned, her face crumpling like a bitter melon. “Our department’s books don’t add up anyway. If you go to that meeting in this condition, won’t they criticize you?”

“There are plenty of things they can criticize me about,” Shen Siyan said with a light smile. “They could spend two hours on the online incident involving Smart Finance and Tax alone.”

“Huh?” Wei Xiaolu felt even worse. “They can’t do that to you...”

Shen Siyan leaned against the doorframe and looked at Wei Xiaolu for two seconds.

Then she leaned forward slightly and came closer.

When their eyes met, even without seeing her mouth, Wei Xiaolu knew she was smiling.

“Our Xiaolu gets rewards for watching matches,” Shen Siyan said. “I wonder if I get any mental compensation after my meeting?”

Wei Xiaolu froze for a second, then immediately blurted, “Yes! Yes, you do. There’ll be plenty of it!”

“With that sentence from little sister,” Shen Siyan said with two soft laughs, bringing her fingertips together in a small gesture, “then there’s nothing to worry about at the earnings meeting. I’ve got it completely under control.”