L&H - 7

Fu Ji Chen being narcissistic was one thing, but he also indirectly criticized her for having no taste.

Yu Qing got out of bed again and picked up the bag, examining it carefully.

Aside from the missing iconic logo, what was wrong with it?

The size was perfect, it went with any outfit, was stain-resistant, durable, and had multiple functions.

If he was going to be so nitpicky, she’d just assume he was jealous and annoyed.

In his eyes, this bag and Qian Cheng’s bag were part of a couple’s series.

She understood men’s deep-seated possessiveness.

“Let’s sleep,” Fu Ji Chen urged her as he turned off the bedside lamp.

Only the wall lamp on Yu Qing’s side remained lit, casting a soft, warm yellow glow.

Yu Qing set the bag down and climbed over to his side.

Fu Ji Chen wrapped one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders, then rolled over.

Yu Qing was underneath, and he was on top.

He lowered his head and kissed her lips.

Yu Qing wrapped her arms around his neck, trying to lift her leg but couldn’t. “Move over a bit—you’re sitting on my nightgown!”

Fu Ji Chen shifted his knee and pulled out the hem of her dress. “Can’t you change into a different style?” He had also noticed that there were four identical nightgowns hanging in the closet, differing only in color.

He couldn’t understand her mindset. “Why do you insist on buying the same style of clothes?”

Yu Qing clung to his waist. “Because I like it.”

This habit had started when she collected perfumes and bags.

For the latest seasonal collection of bags, she would buy every size, every color, and every material variation.

Fish Demon had once said it was a kind of disorder—one that couldn’t be cured.

Fu Ji Chen reached up and turned off the wall lamp.

Their breaths intertwined.

The next day, Yu Qing was woken by the 6 a.m. alarm.

The person beside her had already gotten up.

Fu Ji Chen was probably already at the company, and she would have to take the subway again.

Yu Qing lingered in bed for two minutes, painfully struggling to sit up. Getting up early was as life-sapping as her dwindling bank account balance.

She hurriedly washed up, applied her makeup quickly, got ready, grabbed her bag, and went downstairs.

In the downstairs dining room, Fu Ji Chen was eating breakfast.

How rare.

Apart from weekends, he never ate breakfast at home.

Yu Qing placed her bag in the living room and walked leisurely. “I thought you’d already be at the office.”

Fu Ji Chen: “The driver got home around one o’clock last night.”

Yu Qing nodded and hummed in acknowledgment.

There was nothing wrong with that statement—the driver needed enough rest, or else driving safety could be compromised.

She had thought he was waiting especially for her.

After breakfast, the two went downstairs together.

Yu Qing wore flat shoes and walked with light steps.

In Fu Ji Chen’s eyes, even if she were so poor she could barely make ends meet, she still brimmed with vitality every day.

She turned her head and asked Fu Ji Chen, “Today I’ll treat you—how about we take the subway? Want to try it?”

Fu Ji Chen had no interest in that—he pressed the elevator button. “Take my car to the office.”

“Forget it—it’s a bit late today. If someone from the company sees us, it won’t look good.”

“I’ll drop you off one stop earlier.”

Yu Qing didn’t really want to squeeze onto the subway either, so she decided to hitch a ride with him.

Every second of waking up early, Yu Qing made full use of—even while in the elevator, she didn’t forget to check the latest financial news. Opening her phone, she saw a deposit notification message.

Her salary for the month had arrived.

Seeing her account balance increase, her mood instantly became incredibly joyful.

“Hey, how much is your monthly salary?” She looked up and asked Fu Ji Chen—just a sudden curiosity.

Fu Ji Chen: “I don’t know—I never pay attention.”

Yu Qing was momentarily speechless. “But surely you glance at your bank transfers, right?”

“Money comes in every day—I don’t know which part is my salary.”

“...”

Yu Qing clutched her chest in exasperation. Talking to rich people was the most ruthless form of self-torture.

Fu Ji Chen turned his face and chuckled quietly to himself.

On the basement floor, the driver was already waiting at the elevator exit.

Yu Qing headed straight for the front passenger seat, her hand not yet touching the door handle.

Fu Ji Chen reminded her, “Where do you think you’re going?”

Yu Qing turned her face. “I felt pretty good sitting here yesterday—the view was great.”

Fu Ji Chen ignored her, opened the car door for her, and walked around to the other side.

Yu Qing gave up on sitting in the front and got into the backseat.

Once inside the car, she quickly took out her phone and began studying yesterday’s futures market trends, striving to earn more today.

Fu Ji Chen rested his elbow on the car window, propping his chin up, looking at her profile and then at the front passenger seat she had just tried to sit in, lost in thought.

--

Arriving at the company, Yu Qing was swamped with work, not even finding time to drink a glass of water.

After the department’s morning meeting ended, she took her cup to the pantry.

The women from the administrative department might not have been too busy today. Using the excuse of getting water, they started chatting casually at the entrance of the pantry.

“You guys haven’t heard yet? The news has already spread on the fifteenth floor—Director Zhao Shuqun from Dixin and their Jing-Jin-Ji Regional Manager were seen coming out of a hotel in broad daylight.”

“Maybe they were just discussing business.”

“Mm, possible. They might have been negotiating market share strategies while lying in bed.”

A burst of teasing laughter followed.

The twenty-eighth floor housed both the legal and administrative departments of their group. With more women came more gossip, and the pantry was always the epicenter of rumors.

Yu Qing had already reached the entrance of the pantry. A few of them nodded to her as a greeting, showing no hesitation, and continued their gossip.

A colleague who had recently transferred to the group headquarters asked, “Hey, is Zhao Shuqun really that handsome in person? I’ve only seen photos from company events online, never met him in person. He seems average in the pictures.”

“Zhao Shuqun doesn’t photograph well. Describing him as dashing wouldn’t be an exaggeration.”

Another chimed in: “Not only is he handsome, but his demeanor is also impressive, and his abilities are exceptional. Under his leadership, Dixin managed to firmly establish itself in the beverage industry within two years. Just think about it.”

“Although Dixin is just a small subsidiary of Fu Corporation, Zhao Shuqun has been rated as the second most attractive man in our Fu Corporation.”

The first place for attractiveness naturally went to their president, Fu Ji Chen.

Suddenly, one woman spoke with excitement, “If you hadn’t mentioned this, I almost forgot! My younger sister works as a secretary to a subsidiary’s president. She said that during a meeting this morning, the boss probably forgot to button his shirt all the way up, and a hickey on his neck was exposed.”

“Holy crap, really?!”

“Why would I lie to you?”

As Yu Qing poured sugar into her coffee cup, her hand trembled slightly, and some sugar spilled outside.

After tidying up, she tore open another packet of sugar.

After the initial shock, they felt they were overreacting. It wasn’t strange for the boss to have a woman in his life; it was just true that he hadn’t publicly revealed any relationships.

“I heard that the Deputy Director of Finance is involved with the boss, and that hickey was left by her.”

“I’ve heard rumors from the finance department for a long time that the Deputy Director of Finance and the boss are a couple.”

“We don’t know if it’s true or not, but there’s no smoke without fire.”

“Eighty percent of it must be true. Otherwise, why would the Deputy Director be so arrogant, looking down on everyone? She often takes the boss’s private elevator. Once when I was working late, I saw them both come out of the private elevator together.”

They were used to referring to Fu Ji Chen as “the boss” and Qiao Yang as “the Deputy Director of Finance,” which made gossiping easier and avoided unnecessary trouble.

Yu Qing took her hot coffee and quickly left this hub of gossip.

“Take a break before getting back to work.” Someone invited Yu Qing to join the gossip session.

For a newcomer, this was undoubtedly a great honor. Being invited to join the chat meant she was being integrated into the group.

Yu Qing had never been interested in these topics, considering them a waste of life. However, she couldn’t refuse too directly. “I haven’t finished reviewing the contracts yet, and they need to be signed soon.”

Several sympathetic glances were cast her way. They understood what she meant—a newcomer had a tough time adapting, dealing with piles of hard and tedious work without the slightest complaint.

They had gone through the same struggles themselves.

“No matter how busy you are, you should get up and move around more. Your body belongs to you.”

“Hey, that’s right, Yu Qing. Don’t be naive and blindly do whatever you’re told.”

“All right, stop talking for a bit and let the young beauty get back to work.”

Yu Qing smiled and quickly turned the corner to leave.

When she returned to the legal department, she didn’t immediately sit at her desk but stood by the window to cool off while waiting for her coffee to cool down.

She thought about why they were relatively friendly toward her.

First, her appearance might have helped. Second, her position didn’t conflict with any of their interests. Third, she rarely spoke and never gossiped about anyone behind their backs.

She took a light sip of her coffee. She had added one and a half packets of sugar—it was a little sweet.

During her short trip to the pantry, she had overheard two pieces of gossip.

One was about Zhao Shuqun’s extramarital affair with the regional manager. Zhao Shuqun was thirty-eight years old, married, and his wife was a full-time homemaker.

As for Fu Ji Chen’s hickey, it was accidentally caused by her last night.

At that moment, upstairs in the president’s office.

Pan Zheng was waiting for the boss to leave together. This morning, they had an appointment with another bank president. To acquire land, the boss had personally been handling relationship-building and financing during this period.

Last night, the boss and Qiao Yang had dinner with President Zou, and things went well.

Fu Ji Chen stacked all the signed documents together and closed the pen cap. “Is the other car arranged?”

Pan Zheng: “It’s arranged.”

Today, besides him and the boss, Qiao Yang was also going to the bank.

The private elevator stopped at the finance department office floor, and the doors slowly opened.

Qiao Yang was on the phone, “Uncle, I’ll talk to you later. The elevator’s here, and I’ll visit you this weekend. Mm, please don’t stay up too late. Bye.”

She stepped into the elevator.

Fu Ji Chen asked with concern, “How’s Teacher Qiao doing lately?”

Qiao Yang put her phone away in her bag, “Same as usual, busy every day.” After a pause, “Uncle just mentioned you, asking if you have a girlfriend.”

Fu Ji Chen chuckled and replied evasively, “What kind of fool am I to want a girlfriend?”

Qiao Yang pondered the subtext of his words—he didn’t need a girlfriend, just a woman to maintain a casual relationship that could start and end at any time.

With Pan Zheng present, whether it was Fu Ji Chen’s personal feelings or her uncle’s recent situation, she didn’t elaborate further, and the topic ended there.

Her uncle was Fu Ji Chen’s tennis coach when he was young, teaching him for many years before resigning to go into business.

Uncle had a business mind and earned his first pot of gold in the second year of his venture. Within five years, his company grew significantly.

When Fu Ji Chen started his business, Uncle was his angel investor. Both the Series A and Series B funding rounds were facilitated through Uncle’s connections.

Uncle and Fu Ji Chen shared a mentor-student bond as well as friendship.

However, due to Qin Moling’s malicious competition, setting up traps behind Fu Ji Chen’s back, it eventually led to Fu Ji Chen’s entrepreneurial failure.

Later, Fu Ji Chen returned to Fu Corporation to help his father manage the company.

In recent years, Uncle’s company had been declining. For a period, the cash flow was interrupted, and at its lowest point, the company nearly declared bankruptcy. Fu Ji Chen injected additional investment, reviving Uncle’s company.

Lost in thought, the elevator stopped at the underground parking lot.

Two black sedans were waiting in sequence.

Qiao Yang hadn’t driven today because of license plate restrictions.

She habitually followed behind Fu Ji Chen, heading towards his car.

“Manager Qiao,” Pan Zheng quickly called out to Qiao Yang.

Qiao Yang turned around, “Secretary Pan, what is it?”

Pan Zheng pointed to the rear car, “We’ll take this one.”

“...Oh, okay.” Qiao Yang didn’t understand but still changed direction and walked back.

She thought Pan Zheng might have something important to discuss with her or convey the boss’s opinion, and it might be inconvenient to say it in front of Fu Ji Chen.

Until the car left the underground parking lot, Pan Zheng showed no intention of speaking, focusing instead on reading the financing plan.

Even after the morning rush hour, the bustling roads were still congested.

Qiao Yang rested her chin on her hand, absent-mindedly looking out the window, wondering if Fu Ji Chen had an important call to take that she shouldn’t overhear, which was why she was riding with Secretary Pan.

The next second, she dismissed this reason herself.

This explanation simply didn’t make sense.

In the past, whenever they went out for business entertainment, regardless of any business calls Fu Ji Chen received, he never avoided her or Secretary Pan because any business project required financial support from them.

Perhaps it was a personal call.

She thought to herself.

The car moved intermittently, and when the traffic jam came to a standstill, the driver glanced at Qiao Yang from the rearview mirror, “Manager Qiao, for future business trips with Mr. Fu, you’ll ride in my car. I’ll be exclusively at your service.”

The driver’s sudden statement interrupted Qiao Yang’s thoughts. Her reaction was slower than usual, and she smiled, “Sorry, I was thinking about work. Please repeat that.”

The driver repeated, “For future business trips with Mr. Fu, you’ll ride in my car. I’ll be exclusively at your service.”

Qiao Yang forced a smile, “Thank you for your trouble.”

“It’s no trouble at all. It’s my duty.”

Even if Qiao Yang was slow to catch on, she now understood what was happening.

From now on, she would no longer enjoy the special privilege of riding in Fu Ji Chen’s private car.

In the front passenger seat, Pan Zheng gently turned another page of the financing plan.

This car had been arranged by him just an hour ago.

Early in the morning, before work hours, the boss sent him a message: [Whenever I go out for business entertainment in the future, arrange an extra car to follow. I have Yu Qing now, and I need to avoid suspicion with other members of the opposite sex.]