After Accidentally Sending a Text Message to My Cold Boss - Chapter 2

1:40 PM.

When Mai Suisui walked into the ZS General Trade Building again, Shen Qingqing, who had been waiting in the first-floor lobby for a while, had just finished eating an apple.

After letting out a physically and mentally refreshing burp, she followed Mai Suisui onto the elevator with a brisk pace.

“Aya, I was wrong. Who could have guessed she was right next to you at the time? But look on the bright side—doesn’t this feel like the start of an idol drama? According to the plot, you’re about to start an unforgettable romance with President Yu Nian.”

Standing side-by-side in the elevator, Shen Qingqing nudged Mai Suisui’s shoulder with her elbow, wearing the expression of someone watching a high-stakes drama unfold.

Mai Suisui gave her a helpless look. “Stop being ridiculous.”

Shen Qingqing laughed. Watching the numbers change on the elevator door, she leaned toward Mai Suisui’s ear and whispered in that familiar, mysterious tone: “According to a reliable source, I’ve obtained another piece of vital intel regarding this year-end summary meeting!”

At this, Mai Suisui finally turned to look at her, utterly speechless.

“Where are you getting all this intel? Do you secret agents like to make contact this frequently? Just what is your relationship with this ‘reliable source’ anyway?”

“Hey, where is your mind going?”

Shen Qingqing immediately declared with firm resolve: “That lady and I are just the kind of people who bump into each other on the street and walk to the company together because we’re headed the same way!”

Ding!

The elevator arrived.

The two stepped out together.

“That lady?”

The look Mai Suisui gave Shen Qingqing became meaningful. “Are you talking about Jin Enna?”

Jin Enna—a woman whose name sounded Korean but was actually Chinese—wasn’t much older than the two of them, perhaps in her thirties.

The reason she was called “The Big Sister” was because that was her literal nickname. She was the secretary to the president, and describing her as “under one person, above hundreds” was no exaggeration.

It made sense; if it weren’t for someone of Jin Enna’s caliber, Shen Qingqing wouldn’t be so invested.

“If I remember correctly, the two of you are neighbors?”

“What neighbors? We live two units apart.”

Shen Qingqing did her best to distance herself from Jin Enna.

Mai Suisui glanced at her but said nothing.

The two walked straight to their workstations. “Speak then. What ‘amazing intel’ did you get this time?”

Shen Qingqing’s expression turned serious: “Alright, no more messing around. Let’s talk business. The news I got is… I heard that Old An treated Xu Wenliang to dinner yesterday.”

Mai Suisui seemed to freeze for a moment. She glanced at Shen Qingqing, and a frown naturally creased her brow. “Old An treated Xu Wenliang to dinner?”

“Yes!” Shen Qingqing frowned as well, meeting Mai Suisui’s gaze. “It was Old An. He took the initiative to invite Xu Wenliang!”

Mai Suisui fell silent. Sitting in her chair, she crossed her arms and stared at the computer screen, her thoughts unknown.

“I’m telling you, I have a really bad feeling this time.”

Shen Qingqing leaned closer to her. “As the saying goes, ‘Doing well isn’t as good as being the boss’s favorite.’ If Old An has already decided on Xu Wenliang for that position, it won’t matter how good your PPT is or how eloquently you speak during the meeting. That old man isn’t the type to change his mind easily because of others.”

“How did those two get in contact?”

“How would I know?”

Shen Qingqing spread her hands.

“Didn’t your ‘reliable source’ tell you?”

“Hey.”

Shen Qingqing dropped her hands, her face falling.

“Alright, alright…” Mai Suisui turned back, a faint, nonchalant smile appearing on her lips. “It’s Old An’s freedom to invite whoever he wants to dinner. What can we do? We can only influence the process; the result is out of our hands.”

With that, she reached into her bag, pulled out a USB drive and a stack of documents, then opened the office door and walked out.

“Hey! Wait for me!”

Shen Qingqing hurriedly grabbed a few files and followed her.

“I’m telling you, Suisui, as the saying goes, ‘heaven helps those who help themselves.’ You can’t lose heart.”

“You’re the one saying the good things and the bad things. What exactly are you trying to say?”

“Don’t say it—it’s rare to see you looking a bit exasperated. Don’t bother denying it, don’t I know you? Aren’t you thinking that there’s still the path involving President Yu? Too bad you seem to have offended her. A new official sets three fires when they take office; you’ll be lucky if she doesn’t use you for the first one.”

“If she uses me for the fire, you won’t be spared either. After all, the words came out of your mouth for her to hear.”

“…She doesn’t know my name.”

“Heh, one quick inquiry into who my best friend is, and she’ll know. Thank you, Qingqing. Having you by my side through everything—how loyal!”

“…”

After being lightly rebuffed by Mai Suisui, Shen Qingqing looked stunned. Then, her eyes caught something, and she stopped in her tracks.

Simultaneously, Mai Suisui stopped as well.

In their field of vision, several people were approaching.

Yu Nian was in the lead, with Old An and several others following closely behind. One could tell the hierarchy just by their posture.

The other party clearly saw them too. After a brief pause, the group glanced at them with various expressions before pushing open the door to the #1 Conference Room.

“Hey! Did you see that? That kid Xu Wenliang just had a sinister smirk on his face, didn’t he?”

Shen Qingqing frowned deeply. “I knew something was fishy.”

Rumble!

At that moment, a sudden crack of thunder sounded in the previously clear sky outside the hallway windows, startling many.

“Whoa… it can thunder in this season?”

Standing by the window, Shen Qingqing was also startled. She poked her head out to look; the sky outside was rapidly turning gray, with large patches of rolling dark clouds and occasional peals of thunder.

“Is a storm brewing?”

Mai Suisui glanced sideways and said calmly, “Maybe it’s just the wind picking up.”

Though she said that, for some reason, looking at the heavy sky outside, a layer of unknown gloom seemed to settle over her heart.

She truly felt that something was wrong.

Recalling the strange expressions Xu Wenliang and the others had made before entering the meeting room, Mai Suisui’s brow furrowed slightly…

…

Several hours later.

The conference room doors swung open. A large group of middle and high-level managers poured out, with Mai Suisui and Shen Qingqing trailing at the very back.

Thump!

Once they reached a deserted hallway, Shen Qingqing suddenly kicked the wall beside her.

A small footprint was left on the pristine white surface.

“Should we write an anonymous report to the headquarters?”

She turned to Mai Suisui, teeth clenched.

Mai Suisui simply asked back expressionlessly, “Would it be useful?”

Hearing this, Shen Qingqing took a deep breath.

If it were useful, An Yingchuan wouldn’t have stubbornly chosen Xu Wenliang’s group during the meeting, despite the fact that most people had applauded Mai Suisui.

“Then what do you say we do?”

“Nothing to be done.”

Standing there dazed, watching Mai Suisui’s receding figure, Shen Qingqing rubbed her temples as if she had a headache.

She then noticed something, looked out the window, exhaled heavily, and muttered to herself:

“Is it still not going to rain? It’s just been wind…”

…

“So, it’s about to rain on your end, Sis?”

In the top-floor office of the company, Yu Nian sat at her desk, having just finished a document. A lazy question came from the laptop in front of her.

She organized the approved files and said calmly, “It’s just wind for now.”

On the other end of the video call, Yu Qiu couldn’t help but shrink her neck, muttering cutely, “Wow, I feel like you’re exactly like a ‘dominant CEO’ in an idol drama, Sis. Even your speech is full of metaphors.”

“They’re going too far over there, aren’t they?”

Yu Peilan’s face drifted into the edge of the screen. she looked at her daughter in the video with heartache, her tone quite dissatisfied: “Even if they were going to transfer you, they should have discussed it with you properly beforehand, right? And why on earth would that person transfer you to some branch company?”

Regarding Mrs. Yu’s inquiry, Yu Nian maintained a normal smile and said, “Didn’t I tell you guys this already? I’m not entirely sure what they’re thinking over there. Anyway… looking at it this way, I’ve technically been promoted, so it’s a good thing, right?”

“You don’t have some sort of dirt being held over you, do you?” As expected, a mother knows her daughter best. Seeing that Yu Nian didn’t seem to want to talk about it, Yu Peilan keenly sensed something unusual. “Given your personality, how could you be this quiet after being slapped on the back of the head?”

“Yeah, Sis, your behavior this time is a bit strange,” Yu Qiu echoed from the side.

Fortunately, at that moment, a smiling, steady female voice came from the other end, bailing Yu Nian out.

“That’s enough. She’s not a child anymore. She can make her own decisions about these things; we just need to respect her choice.”

Under Yu Nian’s smiling gaze, a middle-aged woman carrying a teacup walked into the frame.

The woman was wearing rimless glasses today. She wasn’t in formal attire; a simple knit sweater and a pair of casual pants had completely stripped away the formidable aura she usually wore in public.

This was Zhang Yueqing’s habit; her family knew she didn’t like to act serious at home.

Indifference could be feigned for others, but warmth must be given unconditionally to family—this was the principle she always upheld.

“Speaking of which, I’m actually a bit sad.”

Sitting down on the sofa space cleared by the mother and daughter, Zhang Yueqing smiled at Yu Nian in the video, teasing, “I was just listening silently from the side for a while. I only heard you ask about the home situation, about your mom and your sister, but what about me? Don’t you care about me at all?”

“If you’ve fallen to the point of needing me to care for you, wouldn’t your status at home be far too miserable?” Yu Nian’s retort was equally sharp. She looked at Ms. Zhang Yueqing, and a faint smile appeared on her face.

Seeing the mother and daughter bickering the moment they met, Yu Peilan patted her partner’s arm, half-annoyed and half-amused, then turned back to ask her daughter, “Now that you’ve changed cities for work, do you have a place to stay? Do you want Ms. Zhang Yueqing to arrange an apartment for you?”

Before Yu Nian could speak, Zhang Yueqing nodded as if realizing something: “Speaking of which, I really do have something to give Xiao Nian in Suzhou.”

Yu Nian sighed. “Go ahead, what kind of trouble is it this time?”

“As a stepmother, tossing your troubles to your stepdaughter—don’t you find that behavior embarrassing?” Yu Nian continued her merciless roasting.

Yu Nian’s words made Zhang Yueqing freeze for a second, then she shook her head and laughed, shrugging. “Even though what you said is true, since our family’s relationship doesn’t have official recognition, it’s not that embarrassing when you think about it.”

Yu Nian looked at her, speechless.

“Alright, alright.” Zhang Yueqing waved her hand hurriedly, taking off her glasses and saying with a chuckle, “Business first.”

“Let’s get this straight: I just started a new job and I’m already overwhelmed. If you give me something too troublesome, I might just quit.”

“I really don’t have any trouble to give you this time. It’s just that I have a private kitchen in Suzhou. I’ll give you the address and hire a teacher to teach you how to cook. You should take better care of yourself while you’re away.”

Yu Nian hesitated for a moment but finally gave in under the gaze of the three pairs of eyes on the screen. “Fine, fine, I agree. Let’s stop here; I still have work to handle.”

After ending the video call with her family, Yu Nian rubbed her temples and fell into thought while looking at the documents on her desk.

Thinking back to the situation in the conference room just now, she narrowed her eyes and finally gave instructions to Secretary Jin, who had entered to refill her tea:

“Tell that Mai Suisui to come see me.”