Chapter 7

translated by astrid83.

CW: some dubcon, but it fades to black!

Once Wu Lin left, the office returned to its former calm on the surface.

The colleagues did not say it explicitly, but in truth, they knew it all.

——Wu Lin was right, the General Manager did not know how to manage a company.

He was keen to escape from the old Chairman’s grasp, hence he had made a lot of decisions of his own initiative, unfortunately, the results did not meet their expectations.

Of all the clients the company had accumulated for over twenty years, in less than two years in office, he had already driven away half of them.

In the long run, the income did not cover the expenditure, and in the end the company had to eat into its assets.

But how much assets were there to eat into?

……

Before the National Day holiday, the formal company dinner was held as usual; it was the General Manager’s treat.

Everyone was gathered together. On the surface they seemed joyous and harmonious, however, it was all hypocritical shows of affection, how lively .

Wu Lin was only the most eloquent of all the flatterers, and also the one who could best make the General Manager happy. Without her, everyone was vying for attention, each showing off their skills, praising and cooing, all fighting to be the number 1.

It was pretty silly to fight to be the number 1.

Most of the people already had the vague sense that the company was going to collapse soon.

——Without the Operations Manager, although the company was running normally, it could only barely hold up. Wu Lin was sloppy in her handover, although the assistant Xiao Liu had been with her for some time, after all, she was young and unable to keep up with regards to her competence and experience, often making a mess of things.

The HR Supervisor wanted to recruit someone, but who would be willing to be a secretary, handle operations, and even handle procurement at the same salary?

They could not recruit anyone, yet they would not relax their terms.

After repeated delays, several old customers could not receive their goods, and after hearing frequent complaints from the frontline staff, they had the intention of changing business partners.

Originally, Manager Li had applied for entertainment expenses, thinking of securing onto the business partners.

This application was submitted mid-September, but it was not even vetted and approved when it was close to the holiday. 1

The business partners did not receive any invitation to dinner, let alone a gift, even though Manager Li had put word out, causing both sides to be unhappy.

However, Deputy Manager Huang of the Sales Department, had been unusually lively recently.

“General Manager Cai, don’t you worry, this order will definitely be settled before next month.”

“Haha, our Manager Huang wouldn’t need to apply for any entertainment expenses of one or two thousand……”

Insinuating 2 again.

Cheng Yanqing snuck a glance at Manager Li.

He was calm and collected, completely unaffected.

Instead it was Cheng Yanqing who watched all of the fakeness in front of him, as if he could not blend in.

His position in the company belonged to the lower category, it would never be his turn to make a toast and flaunt his merits in front of the higher ups. It was peaceful, yet at the same time, seemed extremely boring.

Unconsciously, Cheng Yanqing took one glass after another and drank a lot of alcohol, his face turning flushed.

He was not someone with high alcohol tolerance.

Very soon, he became dizzy and dazed, relaxing as if he was floating.

Gradually, half of the colleagues with families indicated that they would go home first; the other half who were single and conscious were still playing games. He slumped on the table, his consciousness cloudy. After an unknown amount of time, the noisy sounds faded away from his ears; he felt his head throbbing, his stomach upset. It appeared that there was someone who was supporting him to the washroom to wash his face.

From the voice, it seemed to be Manager Li……

Cheng Yanqing’s legs were wobbly as he stumbled along, and his words were spoken in a daze: “You…… Aren’t you angry…….”

“What do I have to be angry about?”

In Cheng Yanqing’s subconscious, he had already included Manager Li under people he could speak his heart out to. He then let out a silly laugh of heheh , leaned onto his shoulder and asked unrelentingly: “Why are you not angry… Huang Ning is going against you, his subordinates have even mocked you…… He- he actually took kickbacks before too……”

Cheng Yanqing’s stature was not tall, but his skin was pale.

The alcohol had caused his face to flush slightly red, as if he was a little deer who had let its guard down.

University students who had just graduated were really interesting.

Pure like a blank sheet of paper.

It obviously had nothing to do with him, yet he had gotten angry on behalf of someone else so easily.

Manager Li swept him into his arms: “You’re drunk.”

Cheng Yanqing mumbled to himself, “……I’m not.”

“I’ll send you back bah .”

Cheng Yanqing rested against him, acting shamelessly: “I don’t want to go back……”

The two of them tugged at each other, when a “creak——” came from outside the toilet.

Manager Li wrapped an arm around Cheng Yanqing’s waist and brought him into the cubicle.

He was not tall and was wearing a long-sleeved dress shirt; one could feel warmth seeping through the material. From his slightly open mouth, a sticky sweet scent from the alcohol assailed his nose. The back of his neck was fair and unblemished, he did not know what the taste would be like if he bit into it, if it would have the same slight sweetness of candy.

“Chengcheng.” Manager Li’s throat went dry: “Have you ever kissed someone?”

“ En ?”

“I’m asking, have you ever kissed someone before?”

“Nn…… never……”

Cheng Yanqing was confused and muddleheaded, flashing a silly smile at him.

After that, his lips were met with a soft, cotton-like thing. Just that his brain was in chaos, left without time to think. The cotton was faintly sweet, keeping it in his mouth, it was like he was sinking into a candy house.

A little later, his state of mind became even more clouded.

His entire body felt like it was floating in the air.

He then knew nothing more.

Do consider dropping me a kofi!

Footnotes

China’s National Day is on 1st October. 含沙射影 — lit. hold sand (in the mouth) to shoot at shadows. It is often used to describe someone secretly harming or framing someone else.