After Becoming a Full-Time Employee, I Signed a Romance Contract with My Ice-Cold Boss - Chapter 12

Stirrings of the Heart

“Do I have a gift too?”

“Of course. I worked on it for a long time; open it and see if you like it.”

After becoming clear about her feelings for Jiang Fengyi, Xu Que took action quickly. Before choosing a gift, she had specifically consulted the “romance master” Wan Juanshu for advice.

Only after receiving a positive response and a blessing did she finally decide to give this gift, which she had spent several consecutive nights crafting.

At the final moment, Xu Que actually hesitated. She both wanted to watch Jiang Fengyi unwrap the gift personally and feared she wouldn’t like it; these two complex emotions intertwined in her mind.

“I—I’m going to go give the children their gifts.”

Xu Que fled.

The more the heart is moved, the more timid one becomes.

All the cardboard boxes had already been moved off the car. The escaped Xu Que clapped her hands, calling out to the group of children who were lying exhausted in their chairs after burning off their energy: “Everyone come over, it’s time to hand out gifts!”

“Yay! What kind of gifts?”

“Sister Xu Que, what good things did you bring us this time?”

“Sister Xu Que, can you come every day?”

“Yuanyuan, walk faster, or we’ll be at the back of the line!”

The director, Su Mei, also walked out. Seeing Xu Que, she advised: “Why did you buy so much for the children again? Save some of your salary for yourself.”

Xu Que hurriedly said, “Director Su Mei, I did save some. This is from an extra bonus.”

Director Su turned her head and saw Jiang Fengyi nearby: “And this is?”

“She is my boss.”

Xu Que had wanted to escape but failed; Director Su had unintentionally brought the two people, who had just separated by a short distance, back together.

Jiang Fengyi stepped forward and reached out her hand: “Hello, Director Su. You can just call me Xiao Jiang.”

Director Su’s hair was white, and she wore a pair of reading glasses. Her clouded eyes could no longer see the person opposite her clearly, but hearing the voice, she discerned that Xu Que’s boss was very young.

She reached out and shook hands.

The old lady began to praise Xu Que as vigorously as an ordinary elder praising their own child: “Boss Jiang, our Xu Que is an excellent girl. She’s been smart since she was little. Please look after her more at the company.”

“She is sharp, can endure hardship, and knows how to be grateful. If you give her a promotion and a raise, she will definitely remember your kindness for a lifetime.”

Standing to the side, Xu Que felt so embarrassed she could curl her toes.

“Director, please stop talking. Let’s distribute the things to the children first. Look, they can’t wait any longer.”

Jiang Fengyi looked into Director Su’s eyes and said seriously, “Xu Que is very good. Please rest assured, I will definitely not mistreat her.”

“Yes, my boss is very good to me. Director, don’t worry about it.”

After dealing with Director Su, Xu Que opened the cardboard boxes one by one, distributing gifts to the children lined up.

Picture books, colored pens, snacks, toys, shoes, new clothes…

Everyone got a share.

The children who received gifts all had beaming smiles on their faces. Yuanyuan rushed over to hug Xu Que’s leg, her face radiating a brilliant smile.

When Xiao Hua opened her mouth, one could see she was missing a tooth. Ever since she started losing her baby teeth, she usually smiled with her lips pressed together, but now she didn’t care and laughed out loud.

Emotions are easily contagious; the smiles on the children’s faces grew more fervent one after another.

Jiang Fengyi sat to the side, holding the unopened gift in her hand, but her mood was as joyful as the children who had received their presents.

She looked down at what she held.

A gift handmade by Xu Que? What could it be?

The gift box wasn’t small; Jiang Fengyi had to use both hands to support it. Though it was large in volume, it wasn’t heavy.

Since she was a child, Jiang Fengyi had received many expensive gifts, but a handmade gift—it seemed this was the only one.

Her fingertips brushed over the bow, which wasn’t perfectly neat. It was easy to see that the person who tied the knot wasn’t very skilled; the ends of the ribbon were of uneven lengths, looking as clumsy as if it were their first time wrapping a gift box.

But it was exceptionally heartfelt.

There wasn’t a single wrinkle on the wrapping paper or the ribbon. It wasn’t the standard classic packaging chosen by a shop assistant, but a unique combination carefully selected by the person themselves.

Cream-white solid-colored wrapping paper tied with a bright orange ribbon; it was eye-catching and vibrant, as if she were holding a passionate sun in her arms.

Jiang Fengyi felt a bit more anticipation for the gift.

Her cool, white fingers gently pulled at the tied bow and tore away the outermost layer of wrapping paper, allowing the item inside to reveal its true form.

It was a hand-knitted sunflower bouquet!

No.

The bouquet unfolded, flattening into a golden-yellow handmade blanket, as if sunlight were spilling over it, radiating a warm harmony.

Jiang Fengyi couldn’t bear to stop touching the sunflower blossoms at the top of the blanket. The sunflowers, also outlined with knitting, were linked together one by one around the perimeter of the blanket.

Stitch by stitch, who knows how much thought and effort were spent?

The most precious gift from an adult is time.

Jiang Fengyi gathered the unfolded blanket back together, folding it back into the shape of a bouquet. She held it in her arms as if she were cradling a bunch of sunflowers.

When Xu Que returned after finishing the distribution to the children, she saw this scene.

Her light footsteps suddenly became clumsy. She asked tentatively, “Do… do you like this gift?”

“Thank you. I like it very much.”

In that instant,

Ten thousand sunflowers bloomed together in the depths of Xu Que’s heart, each one turning toward her with a passionate, smiling face. Even her own corners of the mouth couldn’t help but turn upward.

Jiang Fengyi looked at her while holding the flowers: “It must have taken a lot of work, right?”

“It… it was okay.”

“Did you work during the day and stay up late at night to knit this?”

Xu Que spoke truthfully: “I didn’t stay up that many nights. At first, the knitting was slow, but once I got the hang of it, I picked up speed.”

After learning that Xu Que had stayed up late to knit, Jiang Fengyi felt a momentary complexity of emotions.

Before Jiang Fengyi could sort out what that emotion sprouting from her heart was, the short weekend passed, and Monday arrived.

The day working people hate the most.

He Shuyi was listless; her body was there, but her soul was still at home. She had to pour coffee into her mouth sip by sip just to barely resist the urge to sleep.

Her lifeless state formed a sharp contrast with the vibrant Xu Que next to her.

He Shuyi was puzzled: “Did you win the lottery this morning? Why are you so energetic?”

Xu Que grinned foolishly: “Don’t you think working is very happy? I feel like my life is enriched, my existence is complete, and I’m gaining happiness all at once.”

“You child… you haven’t been driven crazy by work already on a Monday, have you?”

The smile on Xu Que’s face never faded. Her smile was so brilliant that He Shuyi almost couldn’t keep her eyes open.

“What good thing did you actually encounter?” she speculated. “You didn’t really win the lottery, did you?”

“Sister, if you get rich, don’t forget me!”

“I really didn’t. I just think working is fun.”

Xu Que had just come out of Jiang Fengyi’s office. She saw the blanket she had gifted neatly draped over a corner of the sofa; it immediately added a touch of warmth to the cool-toned office.

Just thinking about Jiang Fengyi sitting on the sofa to rest while covered by the knitted blanket she sent made the joy in her heart uncontrollably bubble up.

Ding—

The elevator rose to the twenty-second floor.

Xu Que’s beautiful mood came to an abrupt end.

Zhao Ruxuan stepped out of the elevator and headed straight for Jiang Fengyi’s office. Having worked here for a period of time, she still remembered the way clearly.

After finally bypassing the security gate by sneaking in behind someone she knew, she was determined to vent her grievances today.

Zhao Ruxuan was no longer refined. Her frizzy hair ends told of the recent hardships of their owner; she had no heart to groom herself properly, being exhausted by a pile of broken affairs at home.

And the culprits were Jiang Fengyi and her new assistant named Xu Que.

“Where is Jiang Fengyi! How has our Zhao family ever wronged you! Why must you be so ruthless!”

Before reaching Jiang Fengyi’s office, one had to pass through the CEO’s suite—the office area for the assistants and her former workplace.

Zhao Ruxuan was acting manic, turning into a “desk-clearing master,” throwing and tossing the files piled on the workers’ desks. She was crying and smashing things, causing havoc wherever she went.

After a chaotic rampage, she charged straight toward Xu Que’s workstation.

“And you! Ungrateful wretch! Today I’m going to show you what I, Zhao Ruxuan, am capable of!”

She moved extremely fast. As soon as she finished speaking, a slap swung toward Xu Que’s face.

Fortunately, the moment Xu Que saw her rushing over, she was on guard. With a quick dodge, she evaded the slap.

But Zhao Ruxuan was relentless, continuing to reach out her hand to grab the other’s collar. How could Xu Que let her have her way? She immediately pushed the woman away with force, while she herself kept backing up.

In her focus on evading, she didn’t notice the desk behind her. Xu Que accidentally slammed her thigh against the corner of the desk, and a dull pain radiated from the impact site.

At this time, the employee whose files had been thrown by Zhao Ruxuan also chased over. She was even more frantic than Zhao Ruxuan, shouting in a shrill voice: “Where is security! Where is security! There’s a lunatic here!”

“I spent so much effort organizing those files, you’re going to pay me back!”

Having said that, she was about to rush up and fight it out with Zhao Ruxuan, but unfortunately, she was held back by a more rational colleague next to her the next second.

The security guards hired by Jingjiang were not old men but strong young people, and their work efficiency was high. Just as Zhao Ruxuan was planning to smash a second desk, two security guards had already stepped forward to restrain her, dragging her toward the elevator.

“I’m not leaving! Jiang Fengyi, if you’re a woman, come out and face me!”

She clawed at the edge of the desk, grabbed the money tree, and lunged at any object her hands could reach, shamelessly refusing to leave.

The employee whose desk had been trashed by Zhao Ruxuan grabbed her leg and wouldn’t let go, shouting: “I don’t want to let you go that easily either!” She yelled at the security guards: “Don’t just let her go, at least make her help me reorganize my files.”

Stuck in a stalemate, the two security guards had miserable looks on their faces: “My dear ladies, please stop messing with us. Encountering this right after starting work on a Monday—I’m seriously going to go crazy.”

When Jiang Fengyi returned after finishing the Monday weekly meeting, what she saw was a scene where the CEO’s office suite was in total chaos.

Documents were scattered all over the floor, a money tree had been uprooted, and her company’s employees were either lying on the floor or hugging people’s legs.

The dutiful security guards were slowly moving a string of people toward the elevator.

“What… what is going on here?”

“President Jiang,” the newly hired security guard, Xiao Li, greeted politely.

“It’s just a small matter, I can handle it.”

“Please go about your business; I will take the unrelated personnel away immediately.”

No matter how crazy Zhao Ruxuan was, two hands were ultimately no match for four. The two security guards, intending to prove their competence in front of Jiang Fengyi, worked even harder to haul the person into the elevator.

Wu Qi gave a brief overview of everything that had just happened.

“Zhao Ruxuan sneaked into the company to assault people and throw a fit. Fortunately, she has been restrained.”

“No employees were injured, right?”

Wu Qi paused for a moment, hesitating whether to mention the embarrassing incident of Xu Que hitting the table while dodging Zhao Ruxuan. Finally, she said vaguely: “Little Xu seems to have been hurt.”

The Jiang Fengyi who had been calm just a moment ago felt a roar in her head, as if all sound had been drained from her ears.

“I—I’ll go check on her.”

Her body made the decision before her brain could; Jiang Fengyi rushed toward Xu Que’s workstation with urgency.