The delivery courier finished organizing his equipment. “Thank you both for choosing Ruxin Private Kitchen. We wish you a pleasant life. Goodbye.”
Although Qiuyun had never ordered from a private kitchen delivery service in the modern era, her muscle memory kicked in, and she handed the man a five-hundred-yuan tip. “All right, take care. Thanks for your hard work.”
The courier left completely satisfied. Qiuyun picked up her phone and counted the people in the president’s office. Including herself and several secretaries and assistants, she ordered afternoon tea for everyone.
She had just placed the order when Pei Cizhou called. Qiuyun rose and walked over to the window. “Hello?”
“I heard Miss Qiu recently took three days off. Was it personal leave or sick leave?”
On the shadowed side of the school building’s rooftop, Pei Cizhou leaned his elbow against the railing, letting the breeze ruffle the hair over his forehead.
Qiuyun narrowed her eyes and muttered inwardly, Slave Driver. “President Pei, aren’t you being a little strict as a boss? You even keep tabs on your employees when they take leave?”
“Can’t be helped. Miss Qiu is the most capable employee in the company, so naturally I have to show a little extra concern.”
Qiuyun leaned against the pillar beside the window. “And what happens if it’s personal leave? What if it’s sick leave?”
Pei Cizhou chuckled. “If it’s personal leave, I’d be extremely curious to know what kind of troublesome matter could make our outstanding and exceptional Chief Artist Qiu take three whole days off. If it’s sick leave, then I’ll have to ask the school for leave and make a special trip to visit you, the excellent employee who has devoted herself wholeheartedly to the company and performed her duties with unwavering dedication.”
If she hadn’t been holding her phone, Qiuyun genuinely would have applauded him.
No wonder he had managed to become a boss at such a young age.
Even the way he urged people back to work sounded so fresh and pleasant.
Qiuyun didn’t want to listen to him ramble any longer. “President Pei, didn’t you see the news?”
“What news?” He took out his Bluetooth earphones and connected them. As he flipped through his phone, he reminded her, “Miss Qiu, you do know I’m a senior in high school, right? I can only use my phone to call my parents around noon every day.”
Of course, he never called them. He spent the entire two and a half hours of lunch and the midday break handling work instead.
That was why he had only learned about Qiuyun’s leave from the night before—three minutes ago, at noon today.
Qiuyun said, “Take a look. Once you’ve seen it, you’ll know why I took leave.”
Two minutes later, Pei Cizhou quickly finished reading a condensed version compiled by a blogger, covering everything from the initial eruption of the nine-grid photo scandal to the reversal involving the edited images.
He asked, “Are you at the Jiang Group building right now?”
?
Qiuyun stood by the window and looked around in disbelief, scanning left, right, up, and down. “Are you nearby too?”
Pei Cizhou gave a low chuckle. “I’m at school, of course. That’s five to eight kilometers away from you.”
“...??”
Qiuyun was astonished. Had Pei Cizhou installed some kind of radar on her?
“No, how did you know?!” She couldn’t figure it out.
He sounded completely confident. “From that one-billion-yuan announcement. Everyone around President Jiang has worked for years and is highly experienced. How could they possibly propose such an aggressive solution in the middle of a storm like this? Only someone like you, fresh out of the gate and fearless, would dare to make such a bold move. I’m guessing the solutions they came up with were all cautious and gradual, basically designed to avoid taking any blame, right?”
He was right.
The six people yesterday had proposed quite a few ways of handling the situation, but in Qiuyun’s eyes, they were all far too conservative—so conservative that they would have almost no effect on the current crisis.
They would incur neither credit nor blame, while ensuring that no one could pin the blame on them.
How could the secretaries and assistants trusted enough to work beside the president of the Jiang Group be incompetent? It was simply that the situation was unusual and the consequences far-reaching. Unlike Qiuyun, they didn’t have the nerve to gamble everything and were unwilling to stake their careers on a single bet.
“Impressive.” Qiuyun sincerely praised him. “President Pei really does have a sharp eye.”
Pei Cizhou coughed lightly, desperately suppressing the corners of his mouth from turning upward. He said in an air of nonchalance, “It was just a matter of using a little common sense. You flatter me.”
Qiuyun took her time. “Then why don’t you take another guess, President Pei? What do you think I’ll do next?”
“Hmm?”
Pei Cizhou raised an eyebrow. “This person is greedy and never satisfied, trying to scam money with fake photos. Naturally, the next step is to contact the platform, obtain the IP address, trace it all the way to Canada, and arrest the culprit so they can be brought to jus—no, wait. Could this person really be that stupid?”
“Wrong.” Qiuyun curved her lips. “Obviously, the next step is to pose as the victim and conduct a little fishing expedition. I’ll deliberately act foolish and throw a tantrum online, baiting the other party into logging into the account to recover it. Then we can pinpoint their location.”
Brat. She’d only praised him a couple of times, and he was already getting cocky.
Did he really think he could outdo her twice in a row?
“...”
Pei Cizhou was left speechless. Unwilling to concede, he grumbled, “If Miss Qiu had given me two more minutes, I definitely would have noticed something was off.”
Qiuyun gave a light snort and enunciated every word. “You don’t have the chance anymore.”
“Pfft—”
!!??
Qiuyun looked down in shock and discovered that, at some point, Miss had taken advantage of her short stature and had been eavesdropping nearby for quite a while.
“What was that sound?” the person on the phone asked.
Qiuyun immediately answered, “Nothing. I slipped in my high heels.”
Pei Cizhou pressed her. “You didn’t fall, did you?”
“No. The heels aren’t high—only three or four centimeters.” Qiuyun glared reproachfully at Miss, who was still laughing. “I have something to deal with here. I’ll hang up first.”
Pei Cizhou frowned slightly. Thinking of the Jiang family’s current situation, he didn’t ask any more questions. “All right. See you next time.”
“Mm.”
After hanging up, Qiuyun deliberately planted her hands on her hips and pursed her lips as she glared at Miss.
Jiang Chuling came over and acted cute. “Oh, come on, Big Sister Qiu. I only wanted to listen because I heard you call President Pei and realized it was Brother Pei~”
Qiuyun was helpless. “What’s so interesting about listening to me talk to him?”
“There wasn’t anything particularly interesting.” Jiang Chuling blinked. “But listening to the two of you bicker was pretty fun.”
Qiuyun fought back the urge to roll her eyes in front of a flower of the motherland. “He’s the one who’s asking for it. I just can’t stand him.”
Jiang Chuling blinked rapidly. “Huh? Why do I feel like Brother Pei might actually like you?”
??
Having already been struck by that blow once, Qiuyun was now able to accept it calmly. “And what makes you say that?”
The two of them walked over to the sofa and sat down. Jiang Chuling hugged a cushion to her chest. “The Brother Pei I used to know was so arrogant! Once, my brother took me to watch them play basketball. Several older girls nearby wanted to talk to him, but Brother Pei scared every single one of them off with his icy expression!”
Qiuyun patted Miss on the back of the head and said with great affection, “Next time you finish your tutoring class, I’ll watch a few more documentaries with you.”
She needed to watch fewer romance dramas.
They were going to rot her brain.
“?!” Jiang Chuling pouted. “What? That’s honestly what I think!”
Qiuyun sat up straight. “Then let me ask you this, Miss. Do you think the little boy in your class who pulls your braids likes you?”
Jiang Chuling looked startled. “Brother Pei pulled your braid?!”
“...Not exactly.” Qiuyun offered the example of what had happened at the birthday banquet. “But in the adult world, what he did that night was no different from deliberately picking a fight.”
“Oh.” Jiang Chuling frowned, troubled. “But no one at school has ever pulled my braids. I don’t have anyone to use as a reference.”
“...”
That was true. No one would dare.
