After clarifying the situation with Aunt Zhang, she felt a great deal of regret, but knowing that the supermarket was not the best destination for this young Alpha, she offered her congratulations instead.
Returning home, Zou Yuqing took off his shirt and dress pants, quickly washed them, and hung them out to dry. He would need to wear this decent outfit for his official internship tomorrow. He could not possibly enter a big corporation dressed in casual sportswear. Looking at himself in the small mirror, Zou Yuqing felt utterly pathetic.
It would get better, right? Once he started his internship at Shuangming, he could pay back the fifty thousand yuan to Zou Yuyang within a year. After that, he would leave Shuangming and completely cut ties with the Zou and Wei families.
One year, neither too long nor too short, with countless unpredictable variables along the way. Zou Yuqing sighed, slipped on a sleeveless undershirt, and walked into the kitchen to start cooking.
That evening, Wei Mingjue sent him Director Cui’s WeChat contact. After Director Cui briefly informed him about work hours and arrangements, she went offline. Early the next morning, Zou Yuqing got up bright and early.
Shuangming Pharmaceuticals was very far from Weimin Street. A single-way commute took an hour and a half, and with the morning rush hour, it required at least two hours. Work started at nine, so to be safe, he left the house at six-thirty and finally arrived at the company by eight-twenty.
Naturally, a few people had already arrived at the company by this hour. Upon seeing Zou Yuqing, they stared at him with curiosity for a moment before looking away. Zou Yuqing knew most of them were curious about him, yet felt somewhat intimidated because of Wei Mingjue.
“You’re here so early? Go ahead and sit over there to rest for a bit. Once work hours start, I’ll go over the work arrangements with you.” Ten minutes later, Director Cui walked in. Seeing Zou Yuqing, she paused visibly, then pointed toward the innermost desk.
Following Director Cui’s gesture, Zou Yuqing saw a desk that looked quite different from all the others. Ordinary workstations were equipped with triangular swivel office chairs, but the one prepared for him was a high-backed genuine leather sofa chair, much like the one Wei Mingjue used.
He didn’t even have to guess to know this was Wei Mingjue’s arrangement. Zou Yuqing frowned instantly, his heart full of complex emotions.
“Can I change desks? I can just sit in one of those.” He pointed toward the rows of desks in front of him and asked Director Cui.
However, Director Cui wore a troubled expression and smiled at him. “Zou Yuqing, right? I’ll just call you Little Zou. Little Zou, just sit here. It’s all President Wei’s thoughtful gesture.”
President Wei’s thoughtful gesture? Goosebumps broke out all over Zou Yuqing’s skin. Suppressing the urge to vomit, he twitched the corner of his mouth. “Director Cui, you’ve misunderstood.” He knew quite a few people up and down the company suspected he had some shady relationship with Wei Mingjue, and in truth, they did have a physical connection, though he had been forced.
Yet looking at the middle-aged woman’s perplexed expression, not knowing what to do, Zou Yuqing pressed his lips together and sat down at the workstation arranged by Wei Mingjue, pulling out his phone. Before nine o’clock, once most of the office staff had arrived, the supervisor wanted to hold a quick welcome meeting. Just as everyone stood up, a tall, familiar figure walked in.
Zou Yuqing frowned, staring at Wei Mingjue, who walked over with a warm smile. Accompanied by choruses of “Good morning, President Wei,” Wei Mingjue nodded and then looked straight at Zou Yuqing. “You’re here? Is the work okay?”
This question left Zou Yuqing completely speechless. “I just started work, do you need something?” Showing up the exact minute work began just to ask if his work was okay, he had no idea what this man was trying to pull.
“Nothing, just came to see you. Well, you guys carry on, I’m heading back up.” With that, Wei Mingjue walked away with a smile on his face.
The office was quiet. Zou Yuqing observed his colleagues’ reactions. They still hadn’t quite recovered from the shock. Wei Mingjue had probably just come down to establish his presence and mess with his head. Zou Yuqing finally figured it out.
“Umm… excuse me, are you and President Wei in that kind of relationship?” After a moment, a very young-looking girl blinked curiously as she looked at him.
The people around the girl were startled, hurriedly patting her arm and casting apologetic glances toward him. But the girl didn’t mind and continued. “It’s just that this is the first time I’ve ever seen President Wei bring someone in, and he even came specifically to see you, so I was a bit curious! You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to!”
“Mu Yun, don’t ask about things you shouldn’t,” Director Cui scolded the girl, stopping her. “I’m sorry, Little Zou. You don’t need to answer Xiaoyun’s question.”
“It’s fine. President Wei and I aren’t in the kind of relationship you think. We’re just…” Right, what kind of relationship were they? Zou Yuqing suddenly froze. He and Wei Mingjue were nothing to each other. Wei Mingjue was simply pestering him unilaterally, though he had no idea what the man wanted to get out of him. And as for himself, he was merely asking a favor of Wei Mingjue. “An ordinary relationship.”
He truly didn’t know how else to describe it. Calling it ordinary felt too simple, yet it was deeply complicated.
“Oh, I thought you and President Wei were a couple. You look great together!” Mu Yun nodded with a smile.
Great together? Zou Yuqing felt too awkward to say anything. He figured his smile right then must have looked terribly forced and ugly, because he really didn’t want to hear such praise.
After a brief welcome orientation and departmental meeting, Director Cui fetched a historical employee roster from the HR department and asked him to sort it. It was a very easy task. He just needed to arrange the resigned personnel list in alphabetical order by name. For Zou Yuqing, it was effortless, and he finished sorting it in less than half an hour.
After handing the sorted spreadsheet back to Director Cui, she told him to go ahead and busy himself with his own things. Yet while everyone else was clearly swamped, he was left completely idle. Zou Yuqing felt a bit guilty and opened up the spreadsheet to double-check it once more.
He suddenly noticed that the employee turnover rate in this company was quite high, especially in the quality control and pharmaceutical departments, where a large batch of people left every year. The reasons for leaving were mostly left blank, with a few marked with an X. Curiosity sparked a desire to know why, so when everyone else looked slightly less busy, he raised his head and looked at Director Cui. “Director Cui, our company’s turnover rate seems pretty high, doesn’t it?”
He had always assumed that for a massive corporation like Shuangming Pharmaceuticals, anyone who managed to get in would never want to leave, given how countless people outside dreamed of securing an opportunity to work here.
This question stunned Director Cui for a moment. She adjusted her glasses. “Actually, it’s alright. In departments like ours, the turnover rate is very low. Basically, nothing changes.”
“I noticed the turnover is mostly in the pharmaceuticals sector. I actually thought a department like that would be more stable.” Zou Yuqing smiled, intending to end the topic there, but the talkative Mu Yun leaned over and whispered something else that left Zou Yuqing completely baffled.
“The pharmaceutical department? That place is a total mess. Some of the bad reputation our company gets comes from that department, you know.” With that, Mu Yun glanced around and signaled Zou Yuqing to lean closer. “The people in there, once they walk down the wrong path, they just…”
“What are you talking about?”
Before Mu Yun could finish, a familiar voice sounded from the doorway. “It’s time for lunch. Everyone goes grab lunch. Zou Yuqing, you’re eating with me.”
Looking at Wei Mingjue standing at the door and raising an eyebrow at him, Zou Yuqing gritted his teeth. He glanced at the time on his computer. It wasn’t even lunch break yet, and nobody else had left. As an intern, it was even less appropriate for him to leave.
“Want me to come over and pull you along?” Seeing that Zou Yuqing remained seated, Wei Mingjue actually walked over with a smile.
“No need, don’t come over.” Knowing full well that Wei Mingjue was entirely capable of doing just that, Zou Yuqing could only curse inwardly, stood up, and walked out of the office floor alongside Wei Mingjue under everyone’s watchful eyes.