“I… I’ll go to HR to handle the resignation procedures,” Lin Yanbei said, her voice still carrying a slight nasal twang from holding back tears, as she turned to head out.
“Wait,” Jiang Ran said, only now realizing the ambiguity in her earlier words. She had simply meant for her to go back to her desk to calm her emotions.
“Never mind… don’t go out just yet. Take a seat.”
She really wasn’t in any state to step outside looking like that. Jiang Ran motion Chapter 6
“I… I’ll go to HR to handle the exit procedures.” Lin Yanbei’s voice was still thick with a nasal tone as she turned, preparing to head out.
“Wait,” Jiang Ran realized the ambiguity in her own words. She had merely wanted her to go back to her workstation to calm her emotions down.
“Forget it… You shouldn’t go outside just yet. Take a seat for a moment.”
Looking like that, she wasn’t in a suitable state to be seen outside anyway. Jiang Ran gestured with her eyes toward the seat opposite her, unobtrusively pushing the tissue box a little closer to Lin Yanbei.
“…Oh.”
Lin Yanbei looked at the tissues in front of her and realized she had misunderstood earlier, feeling a bit embarrassed. The anger she felt earlier had mostly been scattered by this sudden scare. Hearing Jiang Ran’s softened tone, she obediently sat down across from her.
Both of them were a bit awkward; one was secretly rubbing her neck as the delayed soreness kicked in, while the other sat with lowered eyelids, pondering how to soothe her subordinate.
“What work arrangements do you have for today?” Jiang Ran finally broke the silence, her tone very gentle.
Lin Yanbei replied, “None yet.”
“Who did HR arrange to familiarize you with the work?”
“Sun Wen.” Lin Yanbei spat out the two words through gritted teeth.
“What’s wrong? Communication isn’t going smoothly?” Jiang Ran could hear the barrier in Lin Yanbei’s tone.
“No, we haven’t had a chance to communicate yet.” Lin Yanbei subconsciously knitted her brows. The thought of having to hand over work with Sun Wen later gave her a headache.
Jiang Ran’s gaze swept over the space between Lin Yanbei’s eyebrows. She pulled the desk phone toward herself, dialed the front desk number, and asked, “Carry, is Sun Wen in the office?”
Carry replied, “Engineer Sun has a renovation project today that requires a site visit, so she has already gone out.”
“Was this pre-arranged, or is it a temporary itinerary?”
Carry answered, “It’s temporary. She submitted the field visit application this morning.”
Jiang Ran went silent for a moment, her brows also knitting together in a lock.
She could see that Lin Yanbei felt resistance toward Sun Wen, even though the two hadn’t been in contact for very long.
Having worked at D&A for so many years, she was by no means a superior who kept her head buried in the sand. With her understanding of Sun Wen, the source of the conflict wasn’t difficult to guess.
“Carry, after Sun Wen returns, tell her to compile the project materials she has completed over the last two years and deliver them to me. As soon as possible, give them to me today.”
She thought that since she had decided to take on an assistant, it was better to mentor her personally.
Jiang Ran put down the phone, retrieved several project proposals and document folders from her office cabinet, and pushed them all over to Lin Yanbei.
“These are the projects currently underway in my hands. Later, I’ll send you an electronic set of completed projects. You already have a year of practical experience, so you should be able to understand basic architectural design standards, policies, and regulations, right?”
“Yes, I can.” Lin Yanbei nodded and answered earnestly, feeling a bit touched as she accepted the documents.
Truthfully, regarding the difficulties of handing over the work, she hadn’t intended to tell her boss. Yet Jiang Ran had noticed it and immediately set about helping her resolve it. This caused the foul mood she had been bottling up to instantly dissipate into thin air.
Seeing her look back with bright, sparkling eyes, Jiang Ran felt a bit amused inside.
She noticed that although this kid wore her feelings on her face and wasn’t big on talking, her facial expressions were remarkably rich and easy to read. Just like a moment ago, when she clearly still had an aggrieved, resentful expression, after just a few words, the moved emotion was almost overflowing from her eyes.
Quite interesting, really. Jiang Ran leisurely raised her eyebrows and continued, “Read as much as you can to adapt to and get used to D&A’s style and processes; it’s different from where you were before. If there’s a new project, I’ll bring you along so you can understand it from start to finish. At this stage, focus on studying previous project materials. Give it half a month, and don’t rush for quick success. If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask me directly; no need to go through anyone else. Give me your phone.”
Jiang Ran extended her hand toward Lin Yanbei, her fair wrist and long, slender fingers making a slight beckoning gesture. Lin Yanbei unlocked her phone and handed it over. Jiang Ran tapped out a string of digits on the screen, hit dial, and hung up right as her own phone rang before handing it back. “That’s my number, and it’s also my social media account.”
Lin Yanbei entered the number to add the contact, and Jiang Ran’s profile page popped up. Her avatar was a quiet view of the city at night, with the Century Center standing serenely within it. Her nickname was simply two characters: Jiang Ran.
Send friend request.
Jiang Ran’s phone chimed with a crisp alert, and a profile picture showing a night sky with a polar star popped up under the name: N. Jiang Ran casually changed the name to Lin Yanbei.
Lin Yanbei looked at the new chat window, feeling quite happy. This meant she no longer had to be held back by Sun Wen or anyone else. With the care of her direct superior, her work would go much smoother.
Carrying this bit of happiness, when she returned to her cubicle hugging a stack of project materials, her colleagues were clearly a bit surprised.
Lin Yanbei noticed the sidelong glances from around her and the crackling sound of keyboard typing that had noticeably accelerated.
She was undoubtedly today’s fresh source of office gossip, so much so that she even accidentally overheard her own name while in the restroom.
“Hey, hey, I heard Engineer Jiang lost her temper this morning? I was out on field duty this morning and wasn’t around; what was it for?”
“You don’t know? I even heard it over in the Engineering Department. A practical assistant named Lin Yanbei brought her a cup of coffee.”
“Brought it to whom? Brought Engineer Jiang coffee?! Holy cow, she must be tired of living,” a female designer gasped in a low voice.
“How would she know about that? To me, it looks like she was set up by…” A woman from the Engineering Department lowered her voice even further.
The female designer suddenly understood. “Eight or nine out of ten it was; Sun Wen has plenty of little tricks up her sleeve. What happened later? Was the newcomer fired?”
“Nope.”
“Nope?”
“Yeah, we were all super curious. Logically speaking, with Engineer Jiang throwing such a huge tantrum, the intern definitely should have been fired.”
The woman from the Engineering Department changed her tone and continued, “But nope! And after Sun Wen came back, she packed up a whole pile of project materials for Engineer Jiang. Before lunch, I deliberately walked past to take a look, and the materials were all piled up on the newcomer’s desk. You know what that means…”
“This feels a bit… familiar,” the female designer let out a quiet giggle.
The woman from the Engineering Department laughed along as well. “Right, right! Protecting her cub again…”
The female designer asked, “She couldn’t have reported Sun Wen, could she?”
“It’s not like no one has reported her before. You know she has plenty of tricks; she’s driven away so many people through overt and covert means, yet she’s still sitting firmly in the Design Department,” the woman said with a somewhat sour tone.
“She’s capable, aggressive, and pushy. Nobody is stupid; everyone knows that staying by Engineer Jiang’s side for a year is worth several years of figuring things out on your own. Before Engineer Jiang hired an assistant, Sun Wen was the helper she used the most. Originally, she was the most likely candidate to follow Engineer Jiang. Now that a fresh graduate suddenly dropped out of nowhere, how could she not be anxious?”
“A fresh graduate? Could she have a background/connections? The company hasn’t hired undergraduate fresh graduates for years,” the woman from the Engineering Department asked out of curiosity.
“Who knows? We’d have to pry it out of Carry. I saw her taking the newcomer to the meeting room yesterday.”
“Gosh, who would dare pry information from Carry? She looks like a front desk receptionist, but she’s actually President Qin’s niece. The news of President Qin’s divorce was known to her first.”
“President Qin got divorced? When did that happen?”
“They’re already handling the paperwork. Are you living under a rock or what? Your news is way too outdated. How about I invite you to our gossip group?”
Lin Yanbei had been sitting in the innermost stall until her legs had gone completely numb. Finally hearing the footsteps fading into the distance, she turned around and pressed the flush button, thinking to herself:
That’s right, I clearly have a ‘background’ connection. Why bother guessing? Asking directly would be so much better.