Chapter 2

translated by astrid83

oh god i’m so slow with this AHHAHA I feel bad >< if there’s anyone reading this I’ll ping you all on discord when I’m completed with this

Mid-August.

Ni- jie resigned.

Only six short months have passed since the resignation of the previous Finance Manager.

On the one hand, she couldn’t stand Wu Lin’s sweet-talking and discord sowing.

Every day, like a housefly, she hovered in circles around the HR Supervisor.

On the other hand, the General Manager did not trust her.

Thinking that the data in the statements she produced were questionable, he specifically found a relative who dealt with financial affairs to supervise her.

Before she left her job, Ni- jie said the following words to Cheng Yanqing.

This company won’t be open for long, so you should also make plans early.

Cheng Yanqing did not say anything, but in his heart, he agreed.

The General Manager had taken office for two years, and he was hidden away in his office all year round, not following the progress of orders, the payment slips were signed very slowly, and he liked to get to the bottom of matters. The company collaborated with hospitals to provide newly developed pharmaceuticals. Once the payment is late, there would be a lack of supply of raw materials, and with it, slow shipments of goods. Because of this, they had to compensate a lot of money and even lost quite a few customers.

Coupled with the usual inattention to maintaining the relations they had between customers, and that he did not agree to grant the Sales department hospitality expenses, over time, the Sales department was neglected, and they turned in their resignation one after another.

The General Manager didn’t feel that he had a problem.

Wu Lin gossiped by the HR Supervisor’s ear again, saying that it was Manager Li’s inaction; if he couldn’t even keep their customers, then what was the point of the company spending so much money on a Sales Manager?

The HR Supervisor listened to it and ran off to complain to the General Manager.

The General Manager accepted it as truth.

During a meeting, the General Manager casually mocked Manager Li for his uselessness and cautioned everyone present in passing that all the computers in the office contained monitoring systems. So if you were busy, do something; if you were not busy, find something to do yourself. Don’t think of doing the same as Ni- jie who resigned, who watched the stock market for two to three hours the moment she had nothing to do.

Cheng Yanqing was also in the conference room.

He froze after listening to what was said.

It turns out that it was not Manager Li who reported Ni- jie for looking at the stock market.

Rather, it was the company that had secretly installed monitoring systems on the computers.

A wave of guilt and remorse surged through him.

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He stole a glance at Manager Li.

Manager Li’s suit was well-ironed, his back tall and straight; he looked at the General Manager indifferently and did not get angry.

But the light in his eyes went cold.

A bit fierce; a bit scary.

It seems that he was not gentle and soft in every situation either.

True; if he was gentle and soft in every situation, how could he have taken up the position of Sales Manager at such a young age?

……

After this incident, Cheng Yanqing very carefully selected a lighter.

He was constantly suspicious of Manager Li, and the person in question wouldn’t have not felt it.

If he gifted something, at least he would feel a bit more at ease in his heart.

Manager Li did not smoke often, but Cheng Yanqing was lucky enough to see it happen once.

He already had a unique aura, broad shoulders with a narrow waist, and a slender build; the curling smoke gave a hazy and indistinct feeling, setting off an image of asceticism and crispness, just as if he was a nobleman who was born in a castle.

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Manager Li opened the gift box, “A Zippo lighter?”

Cheng Yanqing nodded his head repeatedly 1 , then cautiously looked at his expression.

“Why did you gift me this?”

“Well…… Because……” Cheng Yanqing blinked, unable to say the words of apology, “……it suits you.”

The design was an ordinary one, it was also not any limited edition model. In fact, it was because he could not afford to buy anything more expensive. The last time he saw Manager Li’s car, an Audi, with its price way more than a million 2 ; the clothes he usually wore were also priced at thousands; he should be the relatively rich kind of people.

If he bought something cheap, the other party would look down upon it.

If he bought something expensive, he would not be able to afford it.

He could only find a compromise.

The corners of Manager Li’s mouth rose, outlining a shallow curve, then asked again, “Do you know the implication of gifting a Zippo?”

Cheng Yanqing was at a loss: “What implication……?”

Accepting the lighter, Manager Li said, “Look it up online yourself.”

Cheng Yanqing wanted to look it up but forgot about it when things got busy in the afternoon.

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Later, on the advertising lightbox sign at the subway, he saw Zippo’s advertisement.

—If you love him, then gift him a Zippo.

T/N: Haven’t visited this work in a long time, I changed the way I would phrase some stuff and decided to take more liberties with this as the author was quite sparse with their words (this story was written to get over her writer’s block). It also serves as some practice for me when I tl. Hope anyone reading this short fic would enjoy it nonetheless!

do leave a comment or reaction if you enjoyed reading this tho! dropping my kofi here too:

cheerios! ~astrid83

Footnotes

original line was supposed to be: nodded his head like a garlic masher 1 million yuan = ~156,277 USD