Chapter
97.1: Passed the Exam
The night after the on-site inspection, Chu Qianmiao was
working on a work report. She'd been sleep-deprived lately, and while working
on the report, she was groggy and groggy, completely oblivious to what she was
writing. After washing her face with cold water, she took her laptop to the
café downstairs, intending to order a cup of coffee to wake herself up.
She chose the table where she and Ren Yan had sat before.
After sitting down, she noticed a water stain on the tabletop, so she reached
for a tissue from her drawer and wiped it.
After wiping, she casually placed the tissue on the table.
The coffee arrived quickly, and as she sipped, her eyes
flickered to the tissue she'd wiped the tabletop with. She paused, holding the
cup. Her hazy sleepiness vanished, and images raced through her mind.
She thought tonight would be a deadly night, her heart
pounding with tinkering.
She put down her coffee cup, pounded her chest, and began to
work.
That evening, she submitted her work report for the current
phase as scheduled. The next morning, Ren Yan sent the report to the company
and informed Qian Siji that the on-site work phase had officially concluded and
that the project team would return to Beijing to prepare the application
materials. He had Li Ya provide two commercial vehicles, one to transport the
personnel and the other to carry the project documents.
The two vehicles roared through the blistering autumn air of
August in the north, heading straight for Beijing.
Next came the most exciting and physically demanding part:
preparing the application materials.
Company representatives and project team members from
various intermediary agencies gathered at Litong for meetings to review the
materials. Chu Qianmiao had previously worked as a lawyer, and coming to Litong
to review the project materials was an outsider, with no other responsibilities
besides preparing the materials. But now she was a member of the brokerage
firm, a true host. Beyond fulfilling her duties, she also had an unspoken,
implicit responsibility: to consider the needs of other intermediary members
and coordinate relationships with them.
She knew that the documentation process was the most testing
of a person's temperament; even the most good-tempered people would
occasionally turn into a fire-breathing dragon at this point.
As they began reviewing the documents, Ren Yan hurled cold,
counter-questions at them. No matter how familiar they had become, she and Qin
Qianyu were still afraid of his retorts.
She thought this was perhaps another of Ren Yan's personal
charms. He had an aura that commanded respect, and his emotions made them feel
valuable and powerful. His approval brought joy, making one feel that this was
the greatest happiness in life: receiving the approval of Ren Yan. His
disapproval, on the other hand, could make one feel guilty, wanting to slap
oneself in the face, and then vow to oneself to never make the same mistake
again, never to disappoint him again.
In addition to Ren Yan, Tang Jie's supervisor from the
accounting firm also showed up, coming to Litong to help review the materials.
Chu Qianmiao thought they were both leaders, but he was completely different
from Ren Yan. He was impatient and would often clash with other agencies over a
single issue.
Privately, Ren Yan told her that she would be the one to
smooth things over when such situations arose in the future, adding that this
was the time for her to demonstrate her skills.
Ren Yan asked her to first calm the emotions of both parties
involved with the argument with subtle flattery, then shift the issue they were
arguing about to him, allowing him to resolve it.
Ren Yan also explained the reason for this. If he had spoken
directly during the exchange between the two factions, saying, "Actually,
I think this problem can be solved this way," he would have offended both
sides. We're already arguing fiercely, and you're just showing off your skills.
So, he needed Chu Qianmiao's eloquence to play a role. After
calming the troops, he could then take command.
Chu Qianmiao performed her task with exceptional skill. She
always defuses arguments, bringing both sides to a state of comfort, even to
the point of causing them to question whether they deserved the praise.
"For the sake of this praise, I can't argue so rudely."
So everyone backed down.
Then, Chu Qianmiao asked, "Leader, how do you think
this problem should be handled?"
Ren Yan then presented his solution, which delighted
everyone.
Afterwards, Qin Qianyu pulled Chu Qianmiao aside and said,
"Qianmiao, your words—really? I really want to copy them down, frame them,
and hang them on our wall for blessings. You're so quiet, yet your words
captivate everyone."
After watching her and Ren Yan collaborate, he added,
"Qianmiao, you're such a clever shrew! I've been with the leadership
longer than you, but I just can't match your rapport and coordination. I really
think this review of the materials is so different from the past. You and Mr.
Ren worked so well together. The atmosphere was unprecedentedly harmonious, and
the efficiency was unparalleled."
Under the intense and high-pressure work environment, memory
capacity became limited. Chu Qianmiao only remembered four words from Qin
Qianyu's words: 'rapport.'
After reviewing the materials at Litong, everyone moved to
Rongda University to begin the final steps before the official application
process.
Familiar scenes, familiar steps, familiar printer. This was
Chu Qianmiao's third project at Rongda. The printer had become familiar with
her, even boldly asking if she had a boyfriend.
When the printer asked her this question, Liu Lifeng and she
were standing together by the printer, waiting for materials. Liu Lifeng
immediately answered, "She does. It's too late to ask."
As Chu Qianmiao walked from the printing room to the
upstairs office, carrying the printed materials, she asked Liu Lifeng,
"Who told you I have a boyfriend?"
Liu Lifeng gave her a sidelong glance. "Why, you didn't
tell me you have a boyfriend? You were waiting for the printer to add you on
WeChat."
Chu Qianmiao thought about it and realized that this saved
her an unnecessary social headache.
Chu Qianmiao gradually noticed a change in Ren Yan during
his time at Rongda.
In the past, when Ren Yan was working on materials at
Rongda, he would always smoke, and the more difficult the situation, the more
he smoked.
When those thin, white cylinders burned and were inhaled
into his lungs, they felt like grass; when they were exhaled, they felt like
the pressure of the entire project he was carrying.
He relied on those thin, white cigarettes to relieve stress.
But this time, Chu Qianmiao hadn't seen him smoke, not even
once. When stressed, faced with a problem to solve, he'd actually asked her for
a piece of gum. That was her way of relieving stress.
He imitated her, relying on a piece of gum that he couldn't
chew, no matter how hard he tried, to refresh himself and relieve stress. This
was something she had never imagined before. Ren Yan, a prominent investment
banker, would chew gum. He chewed with his mouth closed, then suddenly looked
up and told her, "Change the first paragraph on page 85 of the
prospectus."
As he spoke, the peach flavor of the gum drifted from his
mouth and into her nostrils.
Back then, he was Ren Yan, who tasted like peaches. Ren Yan
who chewed gum and tasted like peaches.
That scene was truly rare, and the smell, along with it, is
something worth remembering.
While she was working on her application at Rong University,
her twenty-seventh birthday quietly arrived. It was the most intense and
demanding time of the year, as everyone had to ensure the application was
completed and submitted to the China Securities Regulatory Commission by the
end of September, otherwise they would face another round of review.
Everyone was on the verge of hysteria, so Chu Qianmiao
didn't take her birthday seriously, deciding to let it pass quietly. After
leaving home that morning and getting busy at Rong University, she completely
forgot that it was her birthday.
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