Chapter 18: He Hates You, Maybe Because You Didn’t Pay Enough
“Do you have a membership?”
“No…”
“Who invited you here?”
“Is it your girlfriend?”
“…Why must it be a girlfriend?”
“Then it’s a man.”
Qi En couldn’t answer. He was cornered, and Cheng Xun’s height blocked most of the light, preventing him from even seeing the other’s expression clearly.
“Stop asking, it’s none of your business…” Like a chick forced to the edge of a cliff, he could only flap his nonexistent wings, his scolding voice thin and soft.
Unexpectedly, the initiator of all this was actually “bluffed” by the chick-like Qi En and stopped forcing him to answer.
But he still didn’t walk away, standing in front of Qi En and staring at him.
His gaze lingered on the pocket of Qi En’s shorts for a while, his aura gradually softening.
He had thought…
Qi En didn’t notice Cheng Xun’s emotional change at all. He only felt that Cheng Xun’s terrifying level was no different from Dai Mu’s description.
His scalp tingled. Under such a gaze, his whole body was stiff.
But he still mustered the courage to raise his hand and push Cheng Xun. “Go away, I’m leaving, you’re blocking me.”
He didn’t push Cheng Xun away, but Cheng Xun stepped back on his own.
Cheng Xun asked a question Qi En didn’t expect:
“Do you hate me?”
Qi En didn’t know how to answer for a moment, and his daze gave Cheng Xun an opportunity.
Cheng Xun bent down slightly, his hand going down.
He grabbed Qi En’s pants pocket and felt it.
What is that?
Warm fingers lightly grazed Qi En’s leg. Even through the pants, that extremely weird sensation could be felt.
Qi En almost jumped up. He suddenly pushed Cheng Xun away violently. “Hate!”
Cheng Xun was stunned.
When he came back to his senses and turned around, he only saw a pair of rabbit ears disappear quickly around the corner.
.
The social engagement ended. Returning to the company in Zone S at night, Cheng Xun still hadn’t recovered from what happened in the afternoon.
Hate?
Qi En said he hated him?
He never expected to hear this word from Qi En’s mouth one day.
What about when he was tipping him? Did he hate him then?
He was still waiting for the elevator in the first-floor lobby. At this time, several employees who were working overtime to rush a project came back after eating outside, running right into Cheng Xun reeking of alcohol.
Cheng Xun didn’t even remember his own company’s rules; smoking is prohibited in non-smoking areas of the office building.
But he didn’t smoke either; he just held the cigarette in his mouth, as if he forgot to light it.
He just focused on looking at his phone.
Employees passing by one after another greeted Cheng Xun, but Cheng Xun didn’t even lift his head.
At first, he could respond with a few sentences, but later he ignored them directly.
He didn’t even know the cigarette in his mouth was about to be bitten in half.
His own employees didn’t know when the boss started liking to eat tobacco.
Is the pressure too great? Is he going crazy?
The General Assistant often liked to gossip about the boss with the managers and supervisors underneath, after all, work is so boring, one has to find some fun.
Several people squeezed onto the employee desk furthest from the boss’s office, shoulders touching shoulders, voices lower than the sound of typing on keyboards.
“The boss didn’t have such a big phone addiction before, right?” Someone held a mug in one hand, pretending to drink water, but eyes kept glancing towards the office door.
Seeing the manager start the topic, they chimed in one after another:
“Did the boss find a partner?”
“Doesn’t look like it from the expression.” Someone tutted. “If he really found a partner, that would be great. He wouldn’t have to guard the company every day. Dedication is good, but it’s not good for the employees.”
“Salary raise?”
“Fat chance.”
“Not necessarily, he used to watch livestreams at night often before too.” The General Assistant leaned against the table. The spot he stood in was the widest, and no one dared to crowd him. He covered his thermos cup with his hand, tapping the table with the bottom of the cup as he spoke.
Acting mysterious.
His words indeed aroused the interest of a small intern.
The intern had no other skills, but was particularly good at listening to gossip.
“The boss watches livestreams too?”
The intern almost stood up from the workstation, wanting to integrate into the atmosphere of the old timers with this topic.
“Eh, the intern is working overtime too.”
“Keep it up, what we’re saying isn’t suitable for you to hear.”
“Work hard, go back and rest quickly after finishing, there won’t be a shuttle bus if it gets later.”
“Okay, brother.” The intern smiled awkwardly and sat back down.
The old timers didn’t lose interest in gossiping just because of the intern’s sudden interruption. Instead, after dismissing the intern with a few words, they continued chatting about their stuff.
The voice remained the same.
Not loud nor small, just the right volume for the whole office area to hear, but not hear clearly.
A department supervisor urged: “Hurry up and say, what stream?”
The General Assistant said lightly: “Livestream.”
“Assistant Chen, you don’t seem to have mentioned this before. Does the boss watch livestreams too? Which platform? Which streamer? What level?”
“I said it, but none of you believed it.”
“Now that you mention it, I remember. Last time the senior executives came to the company for a meeting at eight o’clock on a weekend night. In the middle of the meeting, the boss started looking at his phone and ignored what we were saying.”
“Remember?”
“Oh, seems to have an impression. But wasn’t the boss handling matters? I saw him looking resentful, frowning, with deep hatred, thinking which partner pitted him.”
“Maybe he was pretending. Someone like the boss looks like he knows how to act.”
“Assistant Chen, you are too daring. If the boss checks the surveillance and finds you talking about him like this, you will be fired tomorrow for stepping into the company with your left foot first.”
“Don’t curse me.” The General Assistant finally revealed a different expression.
“I believe the boss still encountered a tricky matter. After all, the whole company relies on the boss alone to feed us.”
“Saying that, you aren’t putting my technical department brothers in your eyes?”
“Hey, what do you think the boss is doing in the office now?”
“You go look.”
“You go look.”
“You go look plus one.”
“What? I’m asking you guys, why are you all asking me to go in?”
“General Assistant, you are the biggest outside here.”
Assistant Chen shouldered a heavy responsibility.
But he was just an assistant following the boss, handling miscellaneous things occasionally. Where would he get the chance for intimate contact with the boss?
It could only be said that this boss liked to do things himself too much, and didn’t feel at ease handing over many things to the people below.
The General Assistant didn’t know if it was his lack of ability that prevented the boss from entrusting him with important tasks, or if the boss just liked doing things himself.
Over time, he felt that bad-mouthing the boss during work hours, pfft, during overtime hours, was immoral behavior.
He felt guilty; he felt helpless.
But since everyone wanted to know what the boss was doing, he had to try asking.
“Then I’ll go ask.”
“Wait, you ask directly?”
“Serious?”
“How do you plan to say it?”
“Say it’s you guys who want to know.”
“What else? Isn’t it?”
“Assistant Chen, you disappoint us.”
“We decided to kick you out of the group chat.”
The General Assistant’s phone rang at this time. Hearing this ringtone, he knew he had to work overtime again.
He sighed, asking with the attitude that even if he died, they wouldn’t have it easy: “You mean which group?”
They froze for a while, looking at each other:
“How many groups did you guys build behind my back?”
“I should be the one asking this sentence.”
“Private group chat, isn’t there only one?”
“Are you stupid? Do you still remember who the previous client manager was? Old Second, didn’t we form a separate group chat with him?”
“What are you guys talking about? Why can’t I understand?”
“Oh right, Old Huang was parachuted in at that time, so naturally he didn’t enter our old group.”
“You’re out.”
“I only have one group chat, and the boss is in it too.”
“Wait, you mean, you entered with the previous batch of interns, the group they created for food delivery pooling, you aren’t in it either?”
“And the takeout ordering group for the restaurant outside the company’s east gate, you aren’t there either. That place is cheap and big portions, what a pity.”
“Shall I pull you in now?”
The General Assistant exited their chat, and no one noticed.
Or perhaps knowing the General Assistant was summoned by the boss, they all pretended not to see, but in reality, they were all secretly observing the General Assistant standing at the boss’s office door.
The General Assistant suddenly turned his head, scaring the group of old timers behind him into immediately pretending nothing happened and looking away.
The General Assistant sighed, knocked on the door, and walked in.
Cheng Xun’s computer was on, displaying the chat box with “General Assistant Chen.”
The content Cheng Xun sent him was very simple, two lines of words—
: I heard everything.
: You come in for a moment.
The General Assistant felt his career seemed to be coming to an end.
He prepared to turn over a new leaf and self-reflect. As soon as he entered the door, he began to read affectionately:
“President Cheng, it was my dereliction of duty. Although it is off-duty time now, everyone is working overtime to rush work because tasks are not completed, but I didn’t know how to read the situation and was still chatting with them, leading the company atmosphere astray…”
Cheng Xun raised his hand.
General Assistant Chen shut up immediately.
Before Cheng Xun put his hand down, he pointed lightly at the documents on the table opposite him.
“This is the content of the tentative cooperation project with Photosynthesis Enterprise. Organize it, send it to Lawyer Wang, let him re-draft a contract according to their requirements above, and then send it to me.”
“Okay.”
Fortunately, it was just work.
General Assistant Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
He organized the materials and prepared to go out, suddenly remembering the “instructions” from the old timers outside.
And Cheng Xun now, was also looking at his phone.
And very engrossed.
It seemed Cheng Xun was like this all day yesterday too.
Could it really be as they said?
President Cheng is in love?
“President Cheng, is there anything else you need me to do?”
Cheng Xun raised his head, looking at him coldly.
Cheng Xun’s eyes had always been like this. Even if there was no emotion, it was easy to make people feel he looked unkind.
Therefore, when socializing outside and meeting clients, he always deliberately put on a kind and amiable appearance.
However, the kind appearance Cheng Xun thought he had was far from what he actually showed.
Others saw him as young and promising, young and frivolous, capable, wealthy, bold, decisive, and the core of the team.
There was also a saying that would get one arrested by the police if said out loud:
Looking like he stepped on quite a few lives to get to the top.
General Assistant Chen said truthfully: “Because President Cheng’s state recently hasn’t been very good…” Work efficiency is also very poor.
As an assistant, how could he say such words.
Therefore, stopping at the right point was enough. It wouldn’t make Cheng Xun feel too offended, nor would it hurt Cheng Xun’s pride.
Cheng Xun quieted down, his whole person motionless, not speaking either.
General Assistant Chen immediately stood straight, as if the words just now didn’t come from his mouth.
“Let me ask a question,” Cheng Xun said.
“Okay, you ask.” (Note: Chen switches to respectful ‘You’ – ‘Nin’)
The honorific changed from ‘you’ to ‘respectful you’.
“Do you have people you hate?”
“Yes…” General Assistant Chen’s expression became cautious.
“Under what circumstances would you start to hate someone?”
General Assistant Chen’s pupils quaked. “President Cheng, do, do you have employees you hate?”
“You speak first.”
Cheng Xun propped up his head. Although talking to the General Assistant, his eyes were still staring at the phone.
The General Assistant said: “There are many reasons, for example, sal—oh no, money wasn’t given enough. How does that saying go? The best and fastest way to show your personal charm is to spend money on someone. President Cheng, think about it, having money is also your advantage. Besides, money is also a hobby. If the other party likes you because of your money, you should feel happy, because for you, this is the lowest cost way to change someone’s impression of you.”
“It’s not me being hated,” Cheng Xun said.
“I know, I was just giving an example, President Cheng, this will make it easier for you to empathize.”
“Continue.”
“Continue? Oh oh, there is another reason, that is, that person didn’t like you to begin with. If so, it’s more troublesome. Even if you show your money in front of him, it’s useless; the other party will feel you are very superficial. The only way is to change his impression of you…”
“Forget it, you go out.”
“Okay, President Cheng. I’ll go get busy first. If this document isn’t urgent, I’ll finish it tomorrow and send it to you.”
“Not urgent.”
“Then I’ll go out first, President Cheng.”
Recommended Reads
