**Chapter 8: Indeed, Neither Poverty Nor Singleness Will Be Betrayed…**
In this cramped space with thin air, Lin Siyi and Cheng Yixiu found themselves momentarily speechless.
Lin Siyi felt like she could dig a hole beneath her feet deep enough to bury herself in the ancient tombs of Zhongnan Mountain, and maybe even run into Yang Guo!
To think she initially found this guy so handsome and charming. Now, she just wanted to advise all her sisters, whether they knew him or not, to wake up quickly!
This kind of dangerous and suffocating mysterious narcissism, even if he were a 24K money-printing machine that couldn’t stop, is not something an average person could handle.
As the elevator approached the 25th floor, Lin Siyi was just about to bend down to pick up the box and be ready to leave when her boss’s voice came from beside her, “Hold this for me.”
Then Cheng Yixiu handed over his briefcase, and Lin Siyi, under the pressure of her boss’s authority, had no choice but to take it. She watched as he effortlessly picked up the box, waiting for the elevator doors to fully open.
Lin Siyi pretended to be polite, “Boss, how could I let you do this? I can handle it myself.”
Cheng Yixiu bluntly refused, “You go open the door, I’ll put it in for you.”
Internally, Lin Siyi sighed, acknowledging that despite his narcissism, her boss was still considerate, understanding the struggles of a young female subordinate.
“Oh, oh, wait a moment, let me find the key first. Hey, boss, just leave it on the cabinet by the door, it’s too inconvenient for you to change shoes and come in.”
Cheng Yixiu glanced at her entryway, indeed spotting a pair of women’s slippers on the floor, so he put the box down and turned to leave.
By the time Lin Siyi changed into her slippers and realized it, Cheng Yixiu was already gone. She leaned halfway out the door to thank him, “Thank you, boss. Goodnight, boss!”
In response, Cheng Yixiu waved his hand with his back to her, then opened and closed the door in one smooth motion without pausing.
After taking a shower, Lin Siyi came out of the bathroom, and it was almost 10:30 PM. She picked up her phone and saw a low battery warning, so she dug out her charger from her bag and plugged it into the socket.
At this moment, she noticed several unread messages on WeChat. Opening them, she saw they were from her best friend, Song Yunxiao.
Lin Siyi suddenly remembered that she hadn’t told her about starting work at Cheng Yixiu’s private equity firm today because she got back late from next door last night. She hadn’t even listened to the unread voice messages yet, so she sent her a text message.
Song Yunxiao quickly initiated a video call, as if she had been waiting for her.
“Yiyi, are you saying you officially started today and just got back from a welcome dinner? Boohoo… Your company’s benefits are really good, I’m officially envious and jealous. Look at me, every time I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t sleep, I ask myself how I managed to mess up both my love life and career. Indeed, neither poverty nor singleness will be betrayed.”
Lin Siyi kindly comforted her, “You’ve just started working, how can you so quickly conclude there’s no future?”
“And your ex-boyfriend cheating on you was a long time ago. We sincerely wish him eternal life and impotence!”
“As a modern career woman, you must look forward and earn more.”
Song Yunxiao said, “Yiyi, I feel like after joining a big company, even your confidence in speaking has changed. Before, when you were delivering takeout all over town from dawn till dusk, you looked like you had no will to live, completely different from the way you speak now.”
Lin Siyi chuckled, “To be honest, my wallet is so tight now that I could fry an egg on it. Before, delivering takeout for a month only earned me four or five thousand yuan, which really wasn’t enough.”
“How come? Doesn’t your dad send you money every month?”
“Well, I haven’t used his money in a long time. He keeps transferring money to me, and I see the bank balance notifications, but I haven’t touched it. I always feel like he’s trying to make up for his guilt towards my mom with money, but I won’t use his money.”
“Sigh, I don’t know what to say to you. Maybe parents express their emotions in their own ways, and they might not know if they’re doing it wrong.”
“But no matter what, my mom is gone now… I don’t have a mom anymore. It’s also true that he remarried quickly after the divorce, and that little brother isn’t much younger than me, I’ve seen him.” Lin Siyi choked up.
Song Yunxiao said, “Hey, don’t cry. It’s rare that you’ve finally found a decent job, this should be something to celebrate.”
“I just can’t help it. Whenever I think of my mom, I get really sad.”
“Let’s talk about something happy. By the way, how much did you negotiate for your salary?”
“For now, it’s a six-month probation period with fifteen thousand. If I successfully pass the probation, we’ll renegotiate, but it will definitely be more, not less.”
Song Yunxiao screamed, “Wow, that’s an amazing deal for a newcomer! Is your company hiring? I’m tempted just hearing about it.”
Lin Siyi said, “One position for one person. I heard from my colleagues that it’s rare for newcomers to join. In such a large private equity firm, those who get in either have their own resources or, as they say, have someone backing them. I just happened to get lucky, but I still have a long way to go before I pass the probation.”
“But let me tell you, our boss Cheng Yixiu is really narcissistic, it’s hard to describe. Maybe people with his level of talent always have a unique personality, hahaha…”
“I heard from a senior this morning that our company has more men than women, all thanks to the big boss Cheng Yixiu who ‘persuaded’ most of the female colleagues to leave. But I didn’t know he was so amazing before. They say he used to be the top guy in the public fund industry! To earn such a title, the funds under his management must have a scale of at least hundreds of billions, that’s incredible!”
Song Yunxiao said, “That’s not surprising. Many fund managers leave public funds to start their own private equity firms after achieving good performance, but often their performance is mediocre after the transition. Public fund teams usually have a large number of research and investment staff with clear divisions of labor, while private equity firms require employees to multitask and think quickly, which actually hones personal skills. If you work hard, you might manage your own products one day.”
“In my opinion, the success of public fund performance is mostly due to the team’s efforts, not just the fund manager’s.”
Lin Siyi couldn’t help but defend Cheng Yixiu, “But I heard from a senior that the products issued by Yiyang Capital have consistently performed well, with annual maximum drawdowns controlled at around 5%, which is much stricter than what’s typically agreed upon in private equity fund contracts. Indeed, excellent people tend to remain excellent.”
“Is he really that amazing? My stock investments have been in the red for years, it’s driving me crazy. I can accept being in the red myself, but I can’t accept my stocks being in the red all the time!” Song Yunxiao couldn’t help but pound her chest in frustration at her poor investment skills, yet she couldn’t stop herself every time. In reality, her investment returns had been negative for years.
“I remember the threshold for private equity investment is having personal financial assets of no less than three million or an average annual income of no less than five hundred thousand over the past three years, right? Oh, and there’s another one, the investment in a single private equity fund must be no less than one million. Can you ask if your company is launching any new products? I want to see if my dad has any money to invest.”
Lin Siyi felt troubled, “I heard the company has raised the threshold for investors to select higher-quality high-net-worth individuals. On top of the existing requirements by the fund industry association, they now require personal financial assets of no less than thirty million…”
Song Yunxiao couldn’t help but sigh, “Rich people are indeed impressive. I’m being persuaded to leave based on my abilities. I guess I’ll just go back to my brick-moving job and stop dreaming.”
Lin Siyi tried to encourage her, “Believe in yourself, woo woo woo…”
Song Yunxiao wasn’t comforted at all and pretended to laugh coldly, “You can go get your beauty sleep, Ms. Lin.”
Lin Siyi smiled, “Instead of staying up passively, why not pull an all-nighter actively? Dear Song Song, join me in working overtime online! I just got a message from the boss next door saying a target company just released a new announcement, and he wants me to write a review for him to see in the morning.”
Song Yunxiao complained, “Is your boss serious? Making you work overtime at home at night, that’s just inhumane!”
“Sigh, what can I say, capitalists hold the means of production, they’re here to exploit the working people. I was curious why he told me to keep my phone on 24/7 in the morning, turns out he was waiting for this!”
“I guess this will happen often in the future, since many listed companies choose to release announcements at night. Looks like I really need to buy a power bank online as a backup, so my phone doesn’t run out of battery and shut down automatically.”
Song Yunxiao said, “I suggest you just get a new phone, it’s more reliable.”
Lin Siyi lamented, “But I can’t bear to. I need to work hard to earn money and save up.”
“Big sis, if I remember correctly, the money you save is all spent on various high-tech gadgets, right?”
“Well, you can’t say it like that. Life is about daring to try, don’t you think?”
Song Yunxiao sighed, “You should hurry up and write your report, finish it early and continue dreaming your grand dreams.”
After Song Yunxiao finally hung up the video call, Lin Siyi reluctantly opened her computer, logged into the news website to check information, and after a quick browse, started typing rapidly on the keyboard.
In the quiet of the night, with all the hustle and bustle faded away, Lin Siyi sat alone at her desk on the 25th floor, looking as if she was writing not just a routine report, but her own future plan.
After about twenty minutes, she finally finished. Lin Siyi clicked save and forwarded the file to Cheng Yixiu’s work email. Only after doing all this did she feel at ease to lie down and prepare for a good night’s sleep.
Of course, if it weren’t for what happened next.