Chapter
107.1: You're Too Much of a Distraction
The day after Chu Qianmiao returned to Tiantian Food, Li Si
wandered into Ren Yan's office. Kuangsha Literature Network
He sat in a chair across from Ren Yan, crossed his legs, and
said with a smile, "As soon as Qianmiao returned to the project, I
instantly felt quiet. No one called me with questions anymore. Once a problem
reached her, she solved it instantly."
Ren Yan put down the documents he was working on, looked
up, and chatted with him for a moment.
"Is she really that accomplished?" he asked
casually.
In reality, he wasn't being casual at all; he just wanted to
hear her praise.
"That's quite impressive! Comrade Chu Qianmiao is now
handling the project site with absolute ease," Li Si said to Ren Yan.
"Her professional skills are solid, and you can tell she was brought up by
you. She's been a real help to me. I've never met such a beautiful and
hardworking girl."
Li Si then unknowingly fell for Ren Yan's trick. Under Ren
Yan's seamless facilitation, he continued praising Chu Qianmiao one after
another.
"You asked me how Qianmiao helped me. Let me put it
this way: the company's CFO is quite a difficult person. She's stubborn and
unyielding, yet incredibly combative. The accountants and lawyers working on
the project have all battled her, and all ended in defeat. The heads of the two
intermediary agencies even made two trips to the company to resolve the issue.
But Qianmiao managed to smooth things over with the CFO, saving me the trouble
of having to go to the site. I heard the CFO is very close to her now and has
great respect for her."
"Oh, that company has an independent director who
already serves on the board of five companies and is also going to serve on the
board of Tiantian Foods. He omitted one on his resume, so including Tiantian
Foods, it makes a total of five. Others who looked at his resume didn't notice
anything wrong. But Qian Miao was incredibly diligent. She didn't just rely on
the directors, supervisors, and senior executives' resumes. She carefully
checked each one and discovered that the independent director already served on
the board of five companies. If he were to serve on the board of Tiantian Foods
as well, that would exceed the limit. The company quickly replaced him."
"The company also has off-site inventory. The
accountant had already issued an audit report stating it was fine. Qian Miao
thought she should personally conduct an on-site inventory check, so she did.
And what happened? There was actually an error in one place. Qian Miao, she's
incredibly diligent and perceptive. She's a natural for investment
banking."
Ren Yan listened to these stories, appearing calm, but
secretly delighted and relieved.
The little girl he had personally nurtured has grown up.
He heard Li Si suddenly sigh, "I now feel like when I
interviewed Qian Miao for you, I should have assigned her directly to my team.
How could I be so selfless as to hand over such a talented talent to you?"
Ren Yan smiled. "Since you're so optimistic about her,
if she gets a promotion in the future, please recommend her for me."
Li Si smiled back. "That's no problem. I'm willing to
recommend her. She's certainly capable and has potential." After a pause,
he added, "I do want to recommend her, but she's your subordinate, so it's
your job to recommend her, not me."
Ren Yan smiled again and changed the subject, not saying any
further on the matter.
When he left, Li Si's recommendation would be needed.
He hoped that before he left, anyone who could help her in
the future would have the opportunity to see her abilities.
Chu Qianmiao returned to the Tiantian Food project. After
addressing all issues, she and the other project team members returned to
Beijing to prepare the issuance application documents.
Although she returned to Beijing, Ren Yan was on a business
trip to work on the project, so they were still separated.
In the past, during the pre-application phase of each
project, Ren Yan would lead everyone through the application process, bit by
bit. When everyone was nearly exhausted, the project would finally be realized.
At that time, Ren Yan shouldered everyone's anxiety and the pressure of the
entire project, leading the entire team with unwavering command.
Although Li Si was the signing agent and overall project
manager for the Tiantian Food project, Chu Qianmiao was the one who followed
through from beginning to end. She knew the project best, and she had every
detail memorized. So now it was her turn to take on the role of commander,
leading the project team, company representatives, and other intermediary
agency members through the application process.
Putting herself in Ren Yan's shoes, Chu Qianmiao truly
understood the pressure he had shouldered for everyone. While each person on
the project only focused on their expertise and ongoing follow-up, Ren Yan was
responsible for the entire project.
As she shouldered the entire burden, she felt immense
pressure. She imagined what Ren Yan had done. One day, after a disagreement
with her accountant and lawyer about a matter, she asked Ren Yan on the phone
that evening, "Did you ever feel like you were on the verge of collapse
when arguing with the heads of other agencies?"
Ren Yan, his voice softened specifically for her, replied,
"Yes, many times, especially when their approach was clearly flawed and
they refused to listen. I've thrown my documents and walked away in situations
like this before." A hint of a deep smile crossed his voice. "Not in
recent years."
Chu Qianmiao was stunned. She hadn't imagined Ren Yan
throwing documents. She quickly asked, "How have you been able to overcome
this emotion in recent years?"
Ren Yan was silent for a moment, his voice slightly hoarse
when he spoke again. Like every man in the heat of passion, his vocal cords
tremble with emotion. He said, "Because I've had a junior college student watching
over me these past few years while working on the project. I want to be as
perfect as possible in front of her."
After Chu Qianmiao reacted, a thunderclap exploded in her
ears, making her blush and her heart beat fast.
She wondered why this man was like this, catching her off
guard and throwing a powerful move at her. How could she possibly handle it?
After hanging up the phone, when faced with the same problem
again, Chu Qianmiao told herself to hold on, not to collapse, and to do it
perfectly to impress him.
Under such high pressure, missing him became the best way to
relieve stress. When she encountered problems she couldn't solve, she thought
of him, and how they hadn't seen each other for so long, and how they were
still doing well. Suddenly, those problems didn't seem like a big deal.
For someone who could endure the torment of a long-distance
relationship during the height of their love, there was no obstacle they
couldn't overcome.
The project was finally successfully submitted before the
end of the year. Chu Qianmiao felt like she had shed a layer of skin.
She then helped out for a while on the IPO project Ren Yan
was working on.
During the day, they worked diligently, each unrelated, and
at night, they'd sneak off like thieves, to faraway places to kiss, hug, and
indulge their romantic urges.
With so much going on at the end of the year, Ren Yan
couldn't stay on the project much longer. He began flying around, sometimes to
Beijing, sometimes to Shanghai, sometimes to Shenzhen. This led to another
long-distance relationship, characterized by infrequent time together.
Chu Qianmiao sometimes even felt that investment banking was
a job specifically designed to combat romantic desires. However, it also had
one good thing: it always created a heartwarming feeling of rekindled
separation, preventing them from quickly slipping into the trap of an old
married couple.
To this day, every time she saw Ren Yan, her face flushed
and her heart beat faster, like a little fan meeting her beloved idol.
After the Lunar New Year, everyone temporarily withdrew from
Lei Zhenzi's relative's company and worked for Huilitong Securities for a
while. Lei Zhenzi's relative's company had some internal issues, and they
needed to resolve them for a while before the intermediary agency could
re-enter the market.
Soon after, two pieces of good news arrived simultaneously.
The first was that Liya had passed the review and
successfully went public. Qin Qianyu had registered as the official sponsor
representative for this project. The second was that Tiantian Food's share
issuance project had been successfully completed, and Chu Qianmiao had also
registered as the official sponsor representative for this project.
Ren Yan applied for promotions and salary increases for both
of them, and also arranged for them to share an office. From then on, when they
left this office, one was known as President Chu, and the other as President
Qin.
This was the fifth year since Chu Qianmiao graduated, and
this was the year she added "President" to her title.
What was her next goal?
The next goal was to become a managing director with her own
office by the time she turned twenty-ninth next year. That was the achievement
Ren Yan had achieved when he was twenty-nine when she and he met again on the
Hanhai Home Textiles project.
After moving into the office, Chu Qianmiao's direct contact
with Ren Yan became increasingly rare.
Ren Yan seemed intent on training her, telling her that he
hoped she would be independent and self-reliant in future projects and other
endeavors. This would prevent gossip from spreading if their relationship
became public, claiming she had only gotten to where she was today thanks to
her boyfriend, a high-ranking official.
On this point, Chu Qianmiao's attitude coincided with Ren
Yan's. She also hoped to develop her future career through self-reliance. Ren
Yan could assist her, but not become dependent on her.
Chu Qianmiao reached out to everyone she had met on projects
and everyone she could think of who she had met through them. She let them know
about her current position and the possibility of collaborating on future
projects.
Ren Yan privately praised her, saying she knew how to build
connections at work and leverage them to identify potential project
opportunities, which was a good thing. He also asked Chu Qianmiao, "Do you
need me to help you with a project?"
Chu Qianmiao shook her head, "Wait until I'm really
stuck. Let me figure it out first."
Ren Yan let her figure it out. He knew she was the type who
would find her way out the more she tried.
Chu Qianmiao and Ren Yan were now adept at separating their
interactions at work from their private lives. Chu Qianmiao felt that her
greatest reward from this secret relationship was a significant improvement in
her acting skills.
Her acting skills were so good that Qin Qianyu couldn't help
but worry about her.
Qin Qianyu once asked her in a low voice in the office,
"Has something upset President Ren again? I think since the Spring
Festival, President Ren seems even more distant from you than before."
Chu Qianmiao couldn't bear to tell another outright lie, so
she told Qin Qianyu, using the truth that sounded like a lie, "Maybe I'm
too pretty, and President Ren thinks he should avoid me."
If Liu Lifeng had heard her, he would have been furious and
ridiculed. But Qin Qianyu sighed, "Oh, that's true. You've been in your
prime these past two years, as beautiful as a flower. If President Ren gets
close to you, it's really easy to get gossiped about. Then, any achievements or
successes you achieve will be seen as relying on your good looks to impress the
boss."
At this, Qin Qianyu sighed, "Ah, so the workplace isn't
as inclusive and fair to women as it is to men."
Chu Qianmiao wondered how someone like Qin Qianyu, both
innocent and yet more insightful than anyone else, could exist. His wife, the
school beauty, must have had good taste to find such a gem.
Ren Yan privately gave Chu Qianmiao a suggestion. He told
her to style her hair to look more mature. Her usual long, straight black hair
or ponytail made her look too youthful. She'd have to be addressed as
"President Chu" whenever she went out, so she needed to have a
commanding presence to hold her own.
Chu Qianmiao sacrificed her private time with Ren Yan over
the weekend and got a perm, creating long, shoulder-length waves. Gu Miaoyu
gifted her a bright red lipstick to match her look.
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