Chapter 84: Don't Mind Your Own Business
Chu Qianmiao planned the rest of
her time very clearly. She worked diligently during the day and studied
diligently at night, striving not to waste a single minute. After all, Ren
Baopi had said she had to pass the insurance agent exam this year; if she didn't,
she'd be fired.
Although she wanted to protest, the
forced causal connection between the two, which made no sense, was a completely
unreasonable one. But he was the department boss, his arrogance was undeniable.
He held the power of life and death over personnel matters, not in her own
hands. Furthermore, Chu Qianmiao felt that Ren Yan's announcement didn't sound
joking at all. On the contrary, it seemed more ruthless than any other
announcement he'd made before.
So, she didn't dare neglect it at
all.
Later, feeling time was running
out, she simply sacrificed her lunch break, abandoning her rambling paths to
explore the beauty of the countryside and instead hunkering down in the due
diligence office to study for the insurance agent exam.
Her scrambling for time and her
drive to distribute resources quickly irritated Liu Lifeng, who also developed
a sense of urgency.
One evening before leaving get off
work, Liu Yifeng grabbed Chu Qianmiao and angrily said, "Wait, stop
studying on your own. Tell me what book you're going to read tonight and how
many pages you plan to read."
Chu Qianmiao turned to look at Liu
Lifeng, who was clinging to her laptop bag with a relentless look on his face.
Behind her, she heard Qin Qianyu
ask Ren Yan, "Boss, why are you frowning so suddenly? Is there something
unexpected happening on our project?"
She didn't turn around; she had to
deal with the man in front of her first.
Pulling a book from the clutches of
books, she plopped it onto Liu Lifeng's desk, unfolded it, and flipped to the
middle. "I'm going to start here," she said, then grabbed a stack of
pages. "I'm going to read this much."
Liu Lifeng stared intently,
memorizing the page numbers, and loosened the straps of Chu Qianmiao's laptop
bag.
As Chu Qianmiao walked out, she
heard Qin Qianyu say again, "Boss, you look better without frowning. That
frown just now scared me. I thought I'd have to work overtime again
tonight."
As she walked, she thought to
herself, Ren Yan seems to be making a lot of facial expressions lately,
especially those eyebrows, which he alternately raises and furrows. If eyebrows
had a life, they'd probably be nearly exhausted by Ren Yan these past few days.
Chu Qianmiao successfully finished
studying the entire stack of pages she was supposed to study in one night.
The next day, when she entered the
due diligence office, she saw Liu Lifeng sitting at his desk with dark circles
under his eyes. Everyone else was there too.
Seeing her come in, Liu Lifeng
raised his head, glaring at her with dark-rimmed eyes. "Have you finished
learning everything from yesterday?"
Chu Qianmiao nodded,
"Yes."
Liu Lifeng's expression was grim.
"I don't believe it."
"Then test me."
Liu Lifeng tested Chu Qianmiao on
several key points, but he couldn't hold a candle to her.
After a pause, he asked
unwillingly, "What time did you go to bed yesterday?"
"Twelve o'clock," Chu
Qianmiao told him.
Liu Lifeng immediately went
berserk. "That's impossible! Stop bragging! I watched it until three in
the morning, so how could you finish it at twelve?"
Qin Qianyu, watching the show from
the side, chuckled, "You're just stupid!"
Cui Xijie also chuckled and advised
Liu Lifeng, "Lifeng, you're no match for Qian Miao. She's so amazing!
She's even defeated your PhD classmate. You might as well give in and become
Qian Miao's underling, haha."
Chu Qianmiao felt that if there had
been no bad blood between her and Cui Xijie, she would have thought his words
today were just a joke. But knowing Cui Xijie's character, his words seemed to
carry a deeper meaning, as if he were deliberately trying to provoke Liu
Lifeng's hostility.
Thankfully, Liu Lifeng had moved
past the point of defending his PhD classmate. He had failed Cui Xijie's
efforts, failing to discern the hidden meaning in his words. He was simply
unwilling to give in. "She wants me to give up? She's wishful thinking."
Chu Qianmiao immediately retorted,
"Not only am I wishful thinking, I'm also beautiful."
Liu Lifeng's face flushed with
anger. "You, I say, you're so shameless!"
Behind them, there was a thumping
sound on the table—three hard, hard thumps.
"Back to work," the three
cold words sounded, as if the speaker had endured their trivial quarrels for a
long time and finally couldn't take it anymore.
On the Liya project, Chu Qianmiao
once again witnessed how deceptive first impressions can be. If Qian Siji's
crocodile tears during their initial meeting were merely hypocrisy, then as the
project progressed, the entire management team's behavior was exposed as
peculiar.
Among them, Dou Shan, the secretary
under Assistant Director Ke Mingjun, was the epitome of this peculiarity. Ke
Mingjun instructed his secretaries to ensure they met with the intermediary
agencies daily and to demand project progress reports, fearing they would take
the money and shirk their duties.
Dou Shan's specialty was that even
though she had nothing to do all day, she would launch into a barrage of phone
and email attacks after 10 p.m.
If the phone call didn't go
through, she would keep calling, sending emails simultaneously until she got a
response. She wouldn't listen to your explanations, like why she hadn't taken
her phone with her because she'd gone to the bathroom, or why she was in a
meeting and couldn't answer the phone. In her view, she represented the
business, and since the business paid for the intermediary's services, the
business was the customer, the agency was the server. If the server failed to
respond promptly to the customer's needs, it was a dereliction of duty.
Lately, Dou Shan's late-night
attacks had become more frequent. Often, after 10 p.m., she would send an email
to Chu Qianmiao's inbox, copying Qian Siji, Ke Mingjun, and the other
intermediary agency heads. The email indicated that her assigned work had been
completed, and requested the brokerage firm to complete their portion as soon
as possible, hoping for a summary by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.
After seeing this email so many
times, Chu Qianmiao felt like cursing.
She quickly understood Dou Shan's
tactics. She and Ke Mingjun wanted to impress Qian Siji. They'd worked all day
until 10 p.m., and now they were working overtime to finish the work. If the
brokerage firm couldn't finish it by tomorrow afternoon, it would be the
brokerage firm's fault for its slackness.
Chu Qianmiao often endured her
frustration and worked overtime until late at night. Dou Shan sent these emails
to Ren Yan. If she didn't work overtime quickly to complete the tasks, it would
seem like a slap in the face to Ren Yan, after all, he was her boss. Dou Shan
had completely squeezed out her study time for a while.
Besides her frequent late-night
work emails, Dou Shan was particularly annoying with her demanding phone calls.
Whenever she needed any materials from an agency, she would call non-stop until
Chu Qianmiao answered. That night, Chu Qianmiao was showering late and didn't
answer the phone in time. Dou Shan started sending emails like crazy, copying
Li Ya's supervisor and the heads of various agencies on every call.
The emails ranged from
"Manager Chu, please call back. I have important work to hand over."
to "Why hasn't Manager Chu called yet?" to "Why is Manager Chu
always so slow to respond whenever there's work to be done?" to "Our
employees work overtime until 10 or 11 PM every night. We also urge the
agencies to be more diligent and responsible. Thank you." And then there
was "Manager Chu hasn't called or replied to my emails yet. This is
dereliction of duty and is simply unacceptable."
As Chu Qianmiao emerged from the
bathroom, drying her hair, she saw over twenty missed calls from Dou Shan on
her phone. Then, looking at the emails from Dou Shan on her computer, she was
so angry she nearly fainted.
She had never met someone so
capable of making such unreasonable arguments.
She wasn't going to tolerate it
anymore. She was going to write a response, even if Ren Yan would criticize
her.
She snapped her fingers together
and began typing furiously.
She had to ask Dou Shan, what are
you doing during the day? The few times I'd come to see you, I'd caught you
painting your nails, talking about TV dramas, or looking at clothes on Taobao.
You push work that could be completed during the day until 10 p.m. to make it
look like you're working overtime. Are you really working, or just putting on a
show?
Also, you're throwing work in at 10
p.m. and demanding it be due the next day. We've been up all night revising
documents and still being labeled dereliction of duty.
She grew increasingly angry as she
wrote. When she finished, before hitting send, she suddenly calmed down.
She remembered Gu Miaoyu's advice:
Don't make decisions when you're angry, because you'll regret it.
She released her finger from the
send button and took a deep breath.
Gradually, she calmed down.
Looking back at her replies, she
was glad she hadn't sent them. She'd been so impulsive. Arguing with Dou Shan
over email had made her look really petty.
She thought for a moment, then
picked up her phone and texted Ren Yan, "Mr. Ren, I didn't neglect my
duties. I was just showering. I wanted to email to explain myself, but I felt
like Dou Shan would be petty. And I couldn't even apologize because I don't
think I did anything wrong. So, what should I do now?"
Ren Yan immediately texted back,
"I've seen the emails. Don't worry about this; I'll handle it."
Chu Qianmiao felt relieved after
receiving the message.
Ren Yan possessed this magical
quality as a leader; he was worthy of the trust and reliance of every
subordinate.
Soon, the computer beeped,
signaling a new email.
She clicked on it. It was from Ren
Yan, sent directly to Qian Siji, and he also copied the people Dou Shan had
copied.
Ren Yan bluntly stated in the
email, "I hope the people working with corporate liaisons will be more
professional and not deliberately delay emails until 10 PM for work that can be
completed during the day. This only makes the sender appear diligent, but it
doesn't contribute to the project and only delays the normal work of other
intermediaries."
As for Chu Qianmiao, she hasn't
committed any dereliction of duty. On the contrary, even though Secretary Dou
often postpones emails that should have been sent during the day until 10 PM,
Chu Qianmiao works overtime without complaint to complete the work. Her
progress reports are kept in our work group, and she's often up until 2 a.m. If
this is dereliction of duty, then there are no qualified employees in this
world.
Also, our company has three levels
of senior managers, and Chu Qianmiao is the highest-ranking one. As Secretary
Dou's secretary, I hope you will treat Manager Chu with sufficient respect
during the liaison."
Chu Qianmiao's eyes welled up as
she read the email.
This is so manly!
The next second, the work group
went viral.
Qin Qianyu: "Leader, what a
leader! I love you! I've had enough of Dou Shan. If she weren't a woman, I'd
really like to send her an email to scold her."
Cui Xijie: "This email is best
sent by the leader. If we send it to Dou Shan, it's subordinates fighting with
subordinates, which is unwise and unconvincing, and our defenses are
unconvincing. If we send it to Qian Siji, it's subordinates fighting with
superiors, which is just complaining, and Qian Siji might not pay attention.
Only if the leader sends it to Qian Siji, with a neither servile nor
overbearing yet convincing message, can Qian Siji face these problems
squarely."
Chu Qianmiao felt that Cui Xijie's
cunning was no match for Qin Qianyu and Liu Lifeng doubled. Although she
disliked him, she had to admit that what he said was quite right.
Liu Lifeng also sent a message at
this time. "Old Cui, you're always showing off your knowledge. Why are you
talking so much? The other party is being unreasonable. I just wrote an email.
If the boss hadn't sent it, I would have sent an email to that Dou Shan. She's
a bit too much. She's pushing it too far. Does she really think we're all
sheep? No matter how annoying Chu Qianmiao is, only we can criticize her."
Chu Qianmiao:………..
Ren Yan also sent a message a long
time later.
Ren Yan: "Chu Qianmiao, you
don't need to do any work tonight. Go to bed early. If you have any questions,
let the company tell me directly tomorrow."
Qin Qianyu was the first to send a
crazy applause emoji, and the others followed suit.
"Boss, cool!" they all
sent.
Chu Qianmiao pounded her chest to
slow her racing heartbeat, then replied, "Thank you, boss."
0 Comments