Chapter 42#

At lunch time, Yan Zishu went to the cafeteria. As usual, many people greeted him along the way: “Director Yan.” “Assistant Yan.”

Yan Zishu responded to each one. He had just put down his tray when Fu Jinchi sat opposite him: “Eat together?”

Yan Zishu smiled, said “Hmm,” and did not refuse.

In the company, in public, the two didn’t communicate much and finished a lunch in silence.

When they each put their trays in the return area, Yan Zishu hesitated for a moment: “You…”

Fu Jinchi asked faintly: “What’s the matter?”

Yan Zishu shook his head: “Nothing.”

Fu Jinchi casually stuffed a mint candy, which was provided free of charge in the cafeteria, into his hand, turned around, and left.

Detached yet close, seemingly affectionate yet heartless.

It had been a week since the conspiracy in the car that day, and Yan Zishu hadn’t met Fu Jinchi privately since.

This statement is relatively neutral; a more emotional expression would actually be—Fu Jinchi no longer took the initiative to find him.

Wondering if it was an illusion, no, definitely not, Yan Zishu knew in his heart: after that, except for occasionally chatting a couple of sentences on the messaging app, Fu Jinchi’s attitude toward him suddenly became much colder, as if he had turned on the “strangers keep away” mode.

Yan Zishu had to recall which sentence of his triggered this switch.

The unfortunate conclusion was that every sentence was possible.

He surrendered to the other party, but the other party slammed the door on him.

Fu Jinchi’s heart was simply like a mystery, impossible to guess, and no one knew how they offended him.

Yan Zishu couldn’t lower his dignity to pester him for an answer; that would be too unsightly.

It could also be that what is obtained doesn’t need to be cherished. He simply lost interest in the person he had gotten and switched to the next hunting target.

Ji Chen?

Although Yan Zishu didn’t know what Fu Jinchi considered after going back, on the surface, Fu Jinchi didn’t go to pester Ji Chen anymore.

However, it might just be a lack of opportunity, because Ji Chen asked for leave again due to his final term paper and hadn’t come to the company for several days.

Of course, this was just a guise; in reality, it was still because of the farce of Fu Weishan’s blind date.

As for privately, whether Fu Jinchi took the initiative to seize the opportunity to show favor, he had no way of knowing.

Recently, the one who maintained close contact with Yan Zishu was actually Miss Zhu.

His phone kept flashing during meals. Checking afterward, they were all messages from Miss Zhu, and Yan Zishu replied to her patiently.

His mindset had indeed changed; he was no longer so strictly guarded. As they chatted, they became more like friends.

Perhaps because of Miss Zhu’s near-indifferent rationality, she unexpectedly got along well with him.

“How are things between President Fu and his boyfriend later?”

“Probably went back and had a quarrel, currently in a cold war.”

“Did they break up?”

“It shouldn’t be that easy.”

“Then is it convenient for him to continue the blind date?”

“I will confirm with him again.”

“If I tell my dad that President Fu lost interest in me first, will it affect your subsequent business?”

“Rest assured, it shouldn’t come to that.”

“Okay, then if necessary, I’ll say it like that.”

“Okay, I will convey it to him.”

“Don’t blame me; your President Fu acted a bit unethically first.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Is it weird that I treat a blind date like a business deal?”

“No, everyone has their own difficulties.”

The other side showed “typing” for a while, and Miss Zhu sent another message: “Actually, you are also quite handsome and talented. Do you want to have a blind date with me? Stick to it for half a year or a year, depending on your convenience, and break up when the time is about right. I can pay you.”

“Your father has seen me several times; he probably won’t believe it.”

“True, almost forgot.” Miss Zhu paused for a moment, then typed again, “My life will probably just be like this.”

Yan Zishu replied: “You are still young; don’t be so pessimistic.”

He paused for a long time, then added: “When it’s time to resist, you can also try resisting.”

Miss Zhu quickly replied: “Hmm, thank you.”

*

Recently, the bidding announcement for the “Treasure Pavilion” cultural relic and artwork official trading platform project had been posted.

Due to Fu Weishan’s connection, Yinghan Group showed a determination to win this project.

In the conference room, the relevant heads of the Appraisal Department, Strategy Department, Finance Department, and Information Department gathered together, seriously studying and interpreting the bidding document clauses, discussing intensely. Yan Zishu listened quietly, occasionally offering a few opinions.

As Father Zhu said, the clauses of the bidding document were unsurprisingly harsh.

Just the preliminary qualification review stage was extremely strict, requiring very complete qualification conditions. The bid evaluation stage adopted the comprehensive evaluation method, with technical bids and commercial bids scoring 60% and 40% respectively, completely a confrontation of comprehensive strength.

“So I said, this commercial bid uses the average value full score method. Only by being closest to the average quote can we get a high score. Whether we quote too high or too low, the gap will be widened immediately. There is no need to blindly lower the price!”

“But you have to consider that this is a public tender. Anyone can enter as long as they pay a little money. Many small companies will maliciously quote unreasonably low prices to disrupt the market. The average line may be pulled lower. This is also a fact.”

“No, no, look at the qualification conditions. How can small companies have so many qualifying conditions? They will definitely be filtered out in the preliminary stage. To put it bluntly, those who can compete with us on the same stage are still those old friends in the industry. Who doesn’t know whom?”

For this bid, Yan Zishu temporarily put aside many other tasks at hand and handed them over to Zhang Yan.

The internal discussion was heated, but no one expected that a “traitor” had already appeared in the conference room.

Yan Zishu appeared serious on the surface, but hidden behind the high-light reflection of his glasses was absent-mindedness.

“Leaving aside other things, the score proportion of the technical bid is the bulk. The focus should still be on cases and plans…” Someone turned to ask for his opinion, seeming to seek support, “Director Yan, what do you think?”

Yan Zishu nodded: “We have an advantage in terms of the technical bid.”

He looked at the bidding document in his hand and roughly calculated it himself. The several government projects previously facilitated by Father Zhu indeed showed their advantages at this time. If all were put into the cases, at least 10, no, 15 points could be added?

But if one knew in advance that this bid would not succeed in the end, who would spend so much effort?

Corresponding to the heated bidding work was the continuous rainy weather in the relationship between the protagonist “gong” and “shou.”

However, Yan Zishu deliberately made himself look engrossed in work, busy every day, working overtime frantically, so as to have a reason not to pay attention to Fu Weishan’s emotional state, nor to watch the melodramatic drama of his breaking up and getting back together with Ji Chen.

He was just an assistant; performing as a working machine that strictly executed Fu Weishan’s orders was enough.

Except for the necessary emotional scenes he had to participate in, he lacked interest and just wanted to let the two protagonists solve it themselves.

During the discussion break, Yan Zishu secretly glanced at his phone and subconsciously clicked on the familiar app.

Blank.

After the meeting, Yan Zishu met Helen on the way back to the office. Helen asked him if he had a date on Christmas Eve.

Only then did he realize that it was near the end of the year, time flew so fast, and Christmas Eve and Christmas were coming soon.

For corporate slaves, December always meant preparing work summaries, solving backlog tasks, and attending the company annual meeting.

Not Jingle Bells, and red and green Christmas trees and Santa Claus.

There were really too many things to be busy with to get away.

Yan Zishu jokingly said of course with work, and Helen also laughed, saying it was indeed his characteristic answer.

But to be honest, Yan Zishu originally thought Fu Jinchi would come to find him.

Obviously, he took it for granted.

Fu Jinchi didn’t seem to have this plan.

Between lovers, is there an obligation, right, or custom to celebrate holidays together?

Even if not celebrating Western holidays, New Year’s Day follows closely. New year, new atmosphere; it’s a normal expectation for people to want to cross the year together, right?

In the secretariat office, Amy happily called people to arrange shopping. After a while, even Ben came to ask for half a day off, saying he had private matters. Yan Zishu approved it without asking what it was; everyone has their own life.

A week later, Christmas arrived as expected. Yan Zishu kept his word and really spent it working overtime.

Because after returning from the New Year’s holiday, besides the intense bidding work, the company annual meeting would be held immediately, and they had to go to the hot spring resort for team building—the place Yan Zishu hated the most, but helplessly it ranked first in the collective vote.

Anyway, he planned to catch up on as much work at hand as possible before that.

Just like that, in the blink of an eye, he was busy until the New Year.

On New Year’s Day, because during this holiday, most employees longed to go home more than overtime pay, he finally didn’t risk his life for the company anymore. He returned to his apartment, fell onto the bed and slept, wishing he could make up for all the sleep he owed at once.

But after waking up, he had only slept for a few hours. Suddenly feeling idle, he looked out from the balcony. The opposite building flashed “Happy New Year” lights and a huge heart shape. Someone was cheering loudly in the distance, which instead made people feel empty.

Or perhaps mixed with some loneliness.

In this world, he had no relatives and no friends; he only interacted with colleagues daily.

Colleagues knew he was a person who disliked wordiness and useless messages, so they even specifically unchecked him when sending mass blessings.

Miss Zhu, however, sent him a “Happy New Year.”

He moved his fingers and replied: “Happy New Year.”

Actually, with just such a sentence, whether sincere or not, it couldn’t be told.

But there was still no movement from Fu Jinchi’s side; there hadn’t even been a message for these two days.

Even without considering the issue of celebrating holidays, did he really not care about the bidding for the Treasure Pavilion project either?

Yan Zishu wasn’t sure if it was necessary to send him a blessing too; that kind of person would probably find it vulgar.

He thought for a moment and tentatively made a phone call, receiving a cold mechanical voice prompt that he was not in the service area.

Yan Zishu frowned, feeling strange. He found an excuse and sent another message, which also sank into the sea without a response.

Then there was no way.

Yan Zishu realized that Fu Jinchi had suddenly disappeared.

And he had no clue about this, didn’t know what the other party went to do, and had absolutely no way to contact the other party.

The next day, Yan Zishu even made a special trip to the Jinfengtai Hotel, and the reply he got from the lobby manager was that the boss hadn’t shown up recently.

The lobby manager politely asked Yan Zishu what was the matter, saying he could convey the message when the boss returned.

Yan Zishu smiled and said it wasn’t important, knowing his behavior was too abrupt.

Judging from the other party’s reaction, it seemed nothing bad had happened, which relieved him. But since Fu Jinchi was unwilling to tell him proactively, he should also understand the unspoken meaning and couldn’t search the other party’s properties one by one like checking posts.

The holiday lasted for three days. Yan Zishu harbored doubts but could only suppress them and continue his life.

These few days, Yan Zishu didn’t order takeout and cooked simple meals at home by himself. Although his skills couldn’t compare to Fu Jinchi’s, a normal adult with normal intelligence following a recipe wouldn’t make something inedible, just a matter of taste being a bit better or worse.

The only pity was that it was hard to gauge the amount of food for one person, and he accidentally cooked too much.

When he placed the white porcelain plate on the dining table, Fu Jinchi was in a cemetery in a neighboring city.

The gray marble tombstone had been there for some years, bearing traces of age from wind and rain. A black and white photo of a young woman was embedded in the frame. Fu Jinchi looked at it coldly. The woman was extremely beautiful, his mother, but she was already fragmented, contaminated into a patch of red.

Because someone had shockingly sprayed two large characters on the tombstone with red spray paint:

“Bitch”—