Chapter 4

After Intelligent Tax and Finance finished rolling back the emergency version, Shen Siyan, that troublemaker, found new work for Wei Xiaolu again.

Wang Chen came to the office to report to Shen Siyan. He had barely finished his first sentence when Wei Xiaolu, quick of wit as ever, already caught the scent of danger.

“CEO Shen, it can run normally for now, but the latest data hasn’t been imported yet. There are still some missing clauses in the system.”

Shen Siyan nodded. “Put other work aside and restore the data.”

“We can’t put it aside, CEO Shen,” Wang Chen said awkwardly. “We still need to harden the firewall, and we have to write the incident report. The group headquarters is urging us to submit it...”

Knock, knock. Shen Siyan tapped the desk twice with her knuckles.

“Xiaolu.”

Wei Xiaolu knew there was no escaping it. She forced a smile and said, “What can I do for you, CEO Shen?”

“You’ll follow up on this task and coordinate with Engineer Wang.” Shen Siyan’s tone was gentle, but it left no room for argument.

Just as she’d expected; there was no such thing as an easy day when you were following Shen Siyan.

A female boss with no backing and no connections, still on the rise in her career, was the most terrifying kind. She worked herself hard and made her employees work hard too; the big oxen bullied the little oxen.

On the surface, Wei Xiaolu accepted the assignment cheerfully, but as she followed Wang Chen out, she was already thinking about whether she should change her workplace persona.

“Smart sycophant” attracted all the odd jobs. Maybe she should just switch to “idiot brown-noser” instead; then she could show Shen Siyan just how useless she was and be promoted to a sacred being immune to actual work.

That plan quickly became reality when Wang Chen explained the task to her.

Faced with an unfamiliar backend system, complicated procedures, a mountain of data, and a mess of tiny steps, Wei Xiaolu’s smile vanished on the spot. With a cold expression, she scratched her head and said, “Engineer Wang, can you show me one more time? I still haven’t learned how to import.”

“No problem.” Wang Chen quickly did the whole thing again.

She still only understood half of it.

But there were still a few other employees waiting in line to discuss technical issues with Engineer Wang, so Wei Xiaolu couldn’t keep delaying him. She managed to summon a sliver of confidence and said, “I think I’ve got the general idea.”

“It’s fine; try importing a few when you get back first,” Wang Chen said, opening his phone. “Oh, Xiaolu, let me add you on WeChat. If anything doesn’t make sense, you can ask me directly.”

“Okay.” Wei Xiaolu hurried to add this big brother’s contact, just in case.

Back in the office, after logging into the system backend, the complicated interface in front of her made her want to complain to the heavens.

She complained inwardly; her face gave nothing away. Shen Siyan was here, and she still had to present an upbeat, sunny office image.

Anyway, self-proclaimed idiot dog and actually discovering you’re an idiot dog are two completely different concepts.

She poked here and clicked there, but after ten minutes she still hadn’t imported anything. Frustrated, Wei Xiaolu stopped fumbling around and went to Wang Chen for help.

[Wang Chen: Oh, right, I remembered. There’s an instruction document. I’ll send it to you.]

Why didn’t you send it earlier?

Wei Xiaolu felt like this guy was a little strange too. If a document could solve the handoff, why insist on dragging her out to teach her for ten minutes in front of everyone, even cracking jokes about the leadership meeting?

With the instruction document in hand, Wei Xiaolu immediately felt her intelligence return.

But as she studied the document and worked through the operations, she was still nowhere near as proficient as the other colleagues she’d just seen in action.

She did not want to work overtime.

She was worrying over how to speed up and finish before the end of the workday when another message from Wang Chen came in—

[Wang Chen: Thanks, Xiaolu.]

Heh. He dumped the hot potato on me, so of course he has to thank me properly.

She was just about to reply, You’re welcome, when the other side sent another line.

[Wang Chen: Thanks for helping me out before the meeting today.]

Help him out? What was he talking about? Was he even in trouble?

Wei Xiaolu stared at the message, confused, dumbfounded, and speechless in sequence. She thought back carefully and only then remembered that after Wang Chen’s awkward remark had killed the atmosphere, she was the one who said CEO Shen was coming and everyone should get ready.

So he’d mistaken that for her helping him out?

Wow. One sentence had earned her a favor.

At this rate, being Shen Siyan’s “secretary” actually seemed pretty profitable.

Wei Xiaolu was always delighted whenever she picked up a little advantage or received a bit of goodwill, so she immediately played along with enthusiasm.

[Wei Xiaolu: You’re too polite, Engineer Wang. We’re all colleagues, so of course we should look out for each other.]

Nice. Another workplace connection added to the roster.

After happily setting down her phone, Wei Xiaolu looked up and found Shen Siyan turning her head slightly in her direction. With black hair framing a pale face, she looked like a camera lens in an instant; terrifying as all hell.

Wei Xiaolu quickly reined in her smile.

The smile had moved onto the beautiful camera-face beside her.

“Watch your efficiency,” Shen Siyan said, sweeping the hair in front of her chest back over her shoulder. “If you finish before work ends, I can give you a ride home.”

That sounded both good and bad.

Wei Xiaolu wanted the ride, yet strongly resisted going with Shen Siyan. But since her leader was looking out for her, how could she not be grateful? After a brief pause, she instantly flashed a sycophantic grin and said, “Oh my god, CEO Shen, that’s basically an offer no one could refuse. I’ll have to risk my life and finish before work ends.”

Ugh.

Even she thought that sounded disgusting. But Shen Siyan’s tolerance was pretty high; after hearing it, she said nothing more, just gave a slight nod and turned back to her work.

Wei Xiaolu also shifted her attention to the task at hand.

At first she’d had plenty of motivation while importing the data, but the sheer volume was overwhelming; on top of that, it was repetitive, mind-numbing work. Halfway through, she already knew she would not be getting off work on time today.

She should never have made a blanket promise to Shen Siyan. Now, even if she risked her life, she still wouldn’t finish.

Not that she was very eager to risk her life.

Forget it. Slow was slow. Wei Xiaolu’s standard was to be relaxed rather than tense; overtime felt a little more approachable than high-intensity work.

And what a coincidence; Shen Siyan was also working overtime. Granted, she was being forced to, since headquarters had sent someone to question her about this catastrophic online incident.

The sudden event had caused huge damage. By the time Wei Xiaolu had dawdled her way through importing all the data, Shen Siyan was still in the meeting and hadn’t come out yet.

With that half-muttered promise to go home together still hanging in the air, it would be pretty shameless for Wei Xiaolu to leave first now. But the cafeteria was about to close, so she decided to go eat dinner first.

Eating in the company cost nothing; they had a daily meal allowance of five yuan, and cafeteria meals were entirely self-service. Breakfast was one yuan, lunch and dinner were two yuan each, leaving her no room at all to improve her Engel coefficient.

She grabbed two meat dishes and one vegetable dish, then had some fruit and a bowl of congee. Just as she was about to make a graceful exit from the cafeteria, Wei Xiaolu had another flash of inspiration. She pulled out her phone and sent Shen Siyan a message.

[Wei Xiaolu: CEO Shen, the cafeteria is about to close. Do you want me to bring you dinner～]

Very quickly, Shen Siyan replied.

[Shen Siyan: Two dishes and one serving of rice, thank you.]

After taking a photo and letting Shen Siyan choose the dishes, Wei Xiaolu dutifully played the supporting role most stories reserved for the one who carried the boss’s bag and fetched her food.

There was no such thing as a free lunch. Since Shen Siyan was willing to give her a ride home, she would bring her dinner.

With that thought, Wei Xiaolu carried out the act of flattery with perfect self-consistency.

Carrying the packed dinner in a plastic bag, Wei Xiaolu also smoothly convinced herself on the way back that she should repay the breakfast favor, so she stopped by and bought Shen Siyan a milk tea.

She didn’t know what Shen Siyan liked to drink, but from what she’d observed, Shen Siyan liked blue things and loved yogurt. So buying a milk tea with blue packaging and especially high milk content ought not to go wrong.

When she crouched in the office waiting for Shen Siyan, Wei Xiaolu felt a faint sense of moral collapse.

She had never cared so much about anyone in her life. The first person to enjoy this kind of treatment, at the level of an unspoken crush, was actually her boss.

This sort of forced workplace affection was hard to describe. Wei Xiaolu sighed deeply, reflecting on the hardships of being a wage slave.

Shen Siyan still hadn’t come out after a while, so Wei Xiaolu replied to a few chat messages she’d missed during the afternoon. Her mood was still calm when she suddenly saw Wei Jialuo send her photos of food.

She instantly got annoyed.

When she opened Wei Jialuo’s voice message, his sleazy, shameless tone set her blood boiling. “Dad’s pig tripe and chicken soup this time is amazing. Too bad somebody isn’t home, but don’t worry; I’ll eat the portion that somebody else won’t get to have too.”

“Absolutely infuriating,” Wei Xiaolu said, holding down the voice button. “Shut up. No need to report your existence to me.”

Wei Jialuo replied, “Can’t shut up; I’m eating.”

“Then don’t eat,” Wei Xiaolu said, already picturing that shameless look on his face. “One meal won’t kill you.”

“True, skipping one meal isn’t a big deal,” Wei Jialuo said lazily. “Anyway, Dad said he’s making it again tomorrow.”

When would Wei Jialuo stop being such a bastard?

“If you want to eat, then eat. If not, get lost already. What sense of superiority are you looking for from me?”

Wei Xiaolu was the combustible type; once she saw Wei Jialuo acting smug, she wanted to fire back. She was about to start a full online fight with him when, before they’d even exchanged two insults, the office door creaked open.

“...” The rest of Wei Xiaolu’s sentence shattered halfway through the voice message.

Shen Siyan smiled with her lips pressed together and spoke first. “Talking to your family?”

She’d been caught looking bad again by Shen Siyan. Wei Xiaolu had already forged an ironclad skin, and surprisingly she didn’t feel all that embarrassed. She tucked her phone away and leaned in. “I’m teaching my brother a lesson.”

Shen Siyan let out a faint murmur and raised a brow. “So our Xiaolu is actually such a fierce little sister.”

“Ah, I’m nowhere near as impressive as you, CEO Shen, being able to keep a meeting going for so long.” Wei Xiaolu grinned, showing her teeth.

Shen Siyan smiled. “It’s fine. The scrutiny up there is pretty detailed.”

“Then that makes it even harder, CEO Shen. Meetings are tough.” Wei Xiaolu held out the milk tea. “I brought you a milk tea. Have a rest.”

“For me?” Shen Siyan took it with one hand. “How thoughtful.”

“It’s only right. I just really wanted to bring you a milk tea.” Wei Xiaolu clasped her hands behind her back and watched Shen Siyan insert the straw, take a sip, and then let a satisfied expression appear on her face.

Turns out the boss wasn’t that hard to read after all, Wei Xiaolu thought.

“Thank you.” Shen Siyan tucked her hair behind her ear, lifted her long lashes, and looked at her with a smile.

“You’re welcome, gorgeous.” Wei Xiaolu replied on reflex.

Shen Siyan took another sip of milk tea, then turned to pick up her bag and keys from the desk. She crooked a finger at Wei Xiaolu. “Come on. The gorgeous one’s taking you home.”

Wei Xiaolu quickly picked up the boss’s dinner and followed behind Shen Siyan. “Going home with the gorgeous one it is.”