CH 3

Lin Hui didn’t expect to meet He Jianshan at the company. He clearly remembered that He Jianshan’s schedule was free this weekend. He could’ve rested at home.

If it was as usual, Lin Hui would have stood up straight and greeted He Jianshan. Then, he’d ask him if there was anything he needed. However, after speaking with Luo Ting, he realized that he was indeed a little tired. Pretending to be full of energy was tiring. Pretending to do everything with ease was tiring. Pretending to not like He Jianshan was also very tiring. So, Lin Hui simply nodded at He Jianshan and quickly told him about his plans.

He Jianshan didn’t say anything. It seemed that he was just passing by the company. Lin Hui thought that he would leave after a while, but, instead, he sat down in his office. Lin Hui looked at the closed door and felt a little dumbfounded. Just how much did this guy love his job? However, before he had any more time to think about it, Liu Hongrui from Yuntai arrived.

Lin Hui plastered a smile on his face as soon as he saw him. “Mr. Liu, I’m truly sorry. I’ve been so busy these past couple of days. Thank you for coming all this way.”

Liu Hongrui wasn’t very old, but his way of speaking was very seasoned. “Oh, Mr. Lin, you’re too polite. Once you have a chance, you have to join me for a meal. I’ll call up my uncle, and we can get together.”

Liu Hongrui was an electrical contractor. His uncle was the director of the city planning department. He’d given his greetings to He Jianshan before, hoping that Wanzhu would take extra care of his nephew. The real estate company under Wanzhe had developed a lot of land in several cities within the country. It had an excellent reputation, and everyone wanted a piece of the pie. He Jianshan agreed to his request, but he didn’t really take it to heart. He simply handed the matter over for Lin Hui to deal with.

Liu Hongrui was here for this exact reason. Wanzhu’s real estate company had been holding back its payments to Yuntai. Over the course of half a year, he repeatedly asked about when the payment would arrive, but the reply from the administration department was always the same: “Hello, Mr. Liu. We are currently working through the process of getting the payment to you.” Liu Hongrui was too embarrassed to call his uncle over something so trivial, so he had no choice but to meet with Lin Hui himself. He’d only met with Lin Hui once before. He didn’t think that there was anything special about him. However, he was one of He Jianshan’s people, so he still needed to give him some face.

Lin Hui knew what he was here for. He slowly poured Liu Hongrui a cup of tea and started making small talk. They hadn’t even had two sips of tea when Liu Hongrui couldn’t take it anymore and said, “Mr. Lin, it’s like this. The real estate company has been in the process of getting our funds to us for a while now. Do you have any idea when it’ll be sorted out?”

Lin Hui nodded. “I’m truly sorry, Mr. Liu. We’ve been dealing with a problem on one of our projects. This might have caused a delay. I’ll make sure to get the process sped up for you.” Then, he sighed once more. “Oh, you probably don’t know. One of our suppliers made a mistake. We ended up having to readjust our plans, increasing our workload by several times.”

When Liu Hongrui saw how agreeable Lin Hui was, he breathed a sigh of relief. The smile on his face also became much more genuine. “I understand, I understand. This is how these kinds of projects are. If even the slightest thing goes wrong, the entire project gets delayed. I completely understand. It’s not easy to get things done.”

“Yes, we’ve also been rather troubled. Apparently, the materials were supposed to be delivered on the second of last month. However, it ended up getting postponed by an entire month. The product we received wasn’t very satisfactory either. We’ve been working on getting new product, but that’s been dragging on for a while. President He’s temper isn’t very good. He was furious and immediately contacted the legal department in order to terminate the contract. We managed to persuade him not to in the end, but that company will definitely be blacklisted. We won’t be cooperating with them again.”

Liu Hongrui’s expression suddenly became a little awkward. “T-that’s definitely not good. However, does President He really care about something so trivial?”

Lin Hui said calmly, “Mr. Liu, you probably don’t know this, but Wanzhu first started out as a commercial enterprise. Although the corporation has now extended into several different fields, President He has always been very strict whenever it comes to real estate projects, regardless of its importance. Even if it isn’t a major project, President He will still put a lot of effort into making sure there aren’t any slip-ups. He really won’t show you any mercy if you touch his bottom line. For instance, we helped develop some real estate for tourism purposes in cooperation with Yunzhou’s municipal government a couple years ago. At the time, there was a person that didn’t follow the rules and kept messing around blindly. He insisted on changing suppliers, yet the products we received were subpar. In the end, the issue got so big that the government had to step forward and mediate. Pretty unbelievable, isn’t it?”

Lin Hui was good-looking, and he had a clear voice. He spoke in a gentle manner, and his voice had a sort of convincing quality to it. Liu Hongrui had a bit of a guilty conscience. Lin Hui’s sincerity didn’t seem to be fake. As a result, what was originally a half-truth became the full truth once it passed through his ears. A faint layer of sweat appeared upon his forehead. He gaped at Lin Hui for a bit. Finally, he quietly said, “In that case, President He must have a lot of work.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Lin Hui put on a helpless expression. “Yeah. All we can do is do our best to cooperate with him. Everything related to the project has to go through him.”

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Liu Hongrui waved his hands again and again. “It’s fine, it’s fine. You don’t need to bother over something so trivial. I’m not in a rush.”

“President He is very strict. He wants everything to be done as perfectly as possible, so the procedures naturally tend to be a bit cumbersome. Even some of his old business partners say that he’s too nitpicky, let alone us. So, I hope you can understand. ”

Liu Hongrui nodded again and again. “Of course. It’s because of President He’s high standards that Wanzhu is able to create such high quality results. You don’t need to bother President He with this trivial matter. It just so happens that I have a little bit of business with Mr. Li from the real estate side of things. Just do whatever you need to do.”

“If only everyone was as agreeable as you are, Mr. Liu. Wanzhu has a lot of projects in progress. We seem to work together well, so let’s cooperate more in the future. We’ll be able to rest assured as well.”

“Definitely. To be honest, I actually came here today because I wanted to invite you to a meal. Everything else was secondary. It’s normal for a big company to have a lot more formalities that they need to go through. We’ll do everything we can to cooperate. No rush.” After saying this, he looked at his watch and stood up. “It just so happens that I have another appointment. I won’t bother you anymore.”

Lin Hui quickly stood up as well. He extended a hand to see him off and said, “I’m the one who’s bothered you. You must be busy. In that case, I’ll just do as you said. Would that be alright?”

Liu Hongrui nodded earnestly. “Everything can be done according to Wanzhu’s procedures.”

Lin Hui smiled. “Happy cooperation.”

After sending Liu Hongrui away, Lin Hui let out a long sigh. He didn’t want to move, so he just sat on the sofa and scrolled through his phone. He didn’t even notice when He Jianshan walked in. By the time he noticed someone was sitting across from him, He Jianshan had already piped up. “Nitpicky?”

Lin Hui was taken aback for a moment. Then, he realized that He Jianshan had heard the conversation just now. He Jianshan’s tone was calm. For a moment, Lin Hui didn’t know whether he was joking or actually asking a serious question. He just felt super embarrassed. He was caught talking shit about his boss. What level of social death was this?

“I was just saying that to convince him.” Lin Hui put on a calm face.

He Jianshan still had more to say, but then he caught a glimpse of Lin Hui’s red ears. He suddenly remembered the first time he took Lin Hui to a dinner party. He had been exactly like this, accepting toast after toast with those red ears of his.

At that time, Lin Hui was really too young and too inexperienced. He didn’t know anything. When Lin Hui saw He Jianshan taking cold medicine, he worriedly asked him not to drink alcohol. Then, He Jianshan walked out of the bathroom and saw Lin Hui taking a phone call by the emergency exit. He was getting a quick, last-minute lesson on drinking etiquette. He Jianshan had been standing in just the right position to see Lin Hui’s solemn face. Everytime the person on the phone said something, Lin Hui would repeat after him. “…Uh-huh. Uh-huh. When you’re toasting someone, your wine glass needs to be lower than the other person’s…”

The person on the phone seemed to have said something, and he laughed. “I’m afraid of embarrassing our school, okay? In any case, I’m a graduate from a famous university. Plus, this is a really big company. I don’t want to be looked down upon because of a little mistake.”

The people at the dinner table were all well-respected and prestigious individuals. They weren’t going to force people to drink or cause trouble. No one was going to say anything if He Jianshan didn’t drink. However, Lin Hui must’ve read one of those articles on drinking etiquette or something. He was afraid that it’d be impolite if a minor employee such as himself didn’t drink either, so, as soon as he got off the phone, he went and made a round of toasts.

After the first glass, Lin Hui’s face immediately started burning up. He Jianshan could see it clearly. He wanted to get him to come back,but, once the toasts started, they couldn’t be stopped. After a round of toasts, Lin Hui’s head was still pretty clear, but his face was beet red. He didn’t really think it was a big deal. On the way back from the dinner, he even comforted He Jianshan, “It’s okay, President He. I drank with my classmates before. I’m just like this. The alcohol always goes straight to my face.”

He Jianshan glanced at him but said nothing. He simply told the driver to go a little slower. Lin Hui, on the other hand, slowly fell asleep amid the flickering city lights.

Once He Jianshan pulled himself out of his memories, he realized that he seemed to have paid a lot more attention to Lin Hui recently. Maybe it was because Lin Hui had been with him for too long. Maybe it was because he had been a lot freer lately, so he had the time to think about these kinds of things. He glanced at his phone, ignoring the previous topic of conversation, and instead asked, “Do I have any plans for next Friday night?”

Lin Hui straightened up right away. “You have a business trip to Lucheng next Wednesday. The return flight is scheduled for 10:40 AM on Friday. You currently don’t have any arrangement for Friday evening.”

“Schedule a dinner with President Min for 6:00 PM, Friday.”

The President Min that He Jianshan mentioned was the CEO of Yijia Entertainment, Min Jia. She was a talented and beautiful career woman. Successful business women had always been a focal point. Furthermore, Min Jia was incredibly attractive. She was also someone who fought her way through the entertainment industry. This made her even more eye-catching. It was often joked that Min Jia had even more paparazzi following her than the artists in her company. Wanzhu often cooperated with Yijia’s artists. After working together time and again, He Jianshan and Min Jia slowly became familiar with each other as well. Their relationship had always been good. There were rumors that Min Jia had feelings for He Jianshan. It was true that she had publicly expressed her admiration for hardworking men on multiple occasions. There was once a meddlesome reporter who had asked He Jianshan about it. He Jianshan had declined to comment.

Lin Hui paused. Then, he swiftly pulled out his notepad. “Alright. Will you be eating at Little Nanxuan like last time? How many people in total?”

“Garden Dining. Just the two of us.” He Jianshan hesitated for a moment. Then, he added, “Help me book two movie tickets as well.”

Lin Hui’s hand froze.

It took him a few seconds to realize what it was that He Jianshan had said. Garden Dining was the most famous restaurant for dates in Beijing. The movie tickets were for after dinner. He Jianshan was inviting Min Jia to dinner. Then, they would watch a movie together .

This wasn’t a business invitation. This was a date.

Over the course of his career as He Jianshan’s assistant, Lin Hui helped him arrange many personal itineraries, many of which were private dinners with women. He had secretly wondered whether one of them would become He Jianshan’s girlfriend or whether He Jianshan actually had a sex friend like the rumors said. However, nothing of the sort ever happened.

He was exactly how Lin Hui had described him to Luo Ting, He Jianshan didn’t have a lot of free time. The only thing in his heart was his job.

After Lin Hui fell in love with He Jianshan, he was actually rather happy to see it. Work was like a bubble, enveloping the two of them inside. It allowed an ordinary little assistant like himself to openly have this man all to himself for a little while. Sometimes, Lin Hui would also get anxious. It was as if he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. He didn’t know when the bubble was going to pop.

Now, was it finally time for the other shoe to drop?

Lin Hui was a little at a loss. He thought of what Luo Ting had said. “He might even ask you to arrange his wedding ceremony for him.” Lin Hui couldn’t help but blurt out, “What … flowers would you like at your wedding?”

“Excuse me?” It took a while for He Jianshan to realize what Lin Hui said. He suspected that he had heard him wrong.

Lin Hui felt like his IQ had suddenly dropped several percentage points. His brain reminded him that he needed to shut up immediately, but his mouth couldn’t seem to listen. He stammered, “I visited the eighth floor a couple days ago and heard a group of girls talking about what kind of flowers they’d like at their wedding. I-I was just curious, so I thought I’d ask—”

He Jianshan felt that this situation was a bit strange.

Within this reception room, he and Lin Hui had discussed the corporation’s means of operation and management, they had discussed billion dollar projects, and, just a few minutes ago, they had discussed business arrangements for the next quarter. They could discuss anything in this reception room, anything except wedding flowers.

This was a personal and untimely question.

However, his assistant looked very eager to know the answer.

“White roses.” After a long silence, He Jianshan responded.

Lin Hui tightened his grip on the pen. He couldn’t help thinking, “This is great. I also like white roses.”

Then, he took a deep breath and revealed an impeccable smile that belonged him only.

“President He, I’ll arrange everything for next Friday.”