“By the way, is that President Shen really your ex-girlfriend?”
The phone vibrated. Jiang Yi raised her hand and glanced at the screen, her calm eyes rippling slightly. Song Niannian’s voice came through with a faint, resentful accusation: “You called me so many times in one night. You really won’t let me get a good night’s sleep, will you?”
The corner of Jiang Yi’s lips curved. “And yet you still slept until now.”
Song Niannian shot back, half-blind with sleep: “Sis, the time zones in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are different. It’s four in the morning over here.”
Even the horses at their family estate didn’t get up as early as she had to.
Jiang Yi fell silent. Song Niannian sensed something was off and thought back to last night. “No way. No way. There’s someone even President Jiang can’t handle? Don’t tell me you and that President Shen really…?”
“She’s the vice president,” Jiang Yi emphasized. Her lashes cast shadows like a small brush, her voice flat.
Song Niannian gave a “tsk.” Honestly, she saw no difference.
Jiang Yi continued, “Right, about the partnership negotiations with Baige and Aurora, I’m taking you off this project. Someone else will handle it.”
That was what she’d decided last night. The Baige project was important, but Shen Siyao clearly didn’t want to see her, so switching to someone else might still salvage things. But if she showed up again, there was no telling what would happen.
She’d heard some of the rumors circulating internally. Things weren’t what people imagined, but one thing was true: Shen Siyao hated her now.
Song Niannian bounced up from bed, opened her laptop, and checked the email that had just come in, her expression somewhere between a smile and a smirk. “Nope. It has to be you.”
Jiang Yi looked at the forwarded email with mild surprise. “An evaluation period?” It stated that while Baige was interested in Aurora’s project, they required a risk assessment as a safeguard in other words, a period of observation. During this time, the two companies would arrange an exchange to get to know each other better.
And Jiang Yi was the project lead specifically requested by Baige. The reasoning was simple: she had been in charge from the start, so naturally she understood best how the technology should be assessed. The review period was three months.
Jiang Yi didn’t know whether this was Shen Siyao’s deliberate humiliation or something else. It was called an evaluation period, but she was to go over under the guise of an exchange student which meant that for this stretch of time, she would be under Shen Siyao’s authority.
Song Niannian set a trap for her: “Well, it’s understandable that they don’t trust our Aurora. We’re newly established and lack deep roots domestically, while their group has centuries of history foundations built over generations. And you should know, you’re my right hand. I trust you one hundred and twenty percent. If I’d known you really had some history with Baige’s president, I’d have found someone else to take over long ago.” Though she was abroad, her ears were still sharp.
“But the fact is, this has already happened. At the end of the day, shouldn’t we solve the problem?”
Jiang Yi’s mouth twitched. “Yes.” If she’d known Baige now belonged to Shen Siyao, she would have steered clear from the start. Jiang Yi hadn’t wanted any of this to happen either.
Even knowing Song Niannian had set her up, three months was neither long nor short, but too many things could change in between.
Song Niannian was satisfied: “Setting everything else aside, the other side has specifically requested that you be the one to handle this project, and stressed that no one else will do, just as I expected. So naturally, Aurora has to show our attitude and sincerity in accepting Baige’s evaluation, and do everything we can to make this collaboration happen.”
Personal matters aside, Jiang Yi represented Aurora, and once Song Niannian had put Baige and Aurora on the table as official business, Jiang Yi wouldn’t refuse.
Song Niannian said, “Aurora isn’t just your labor of love, it’s a project I’ve always valued.” It was rare for her to get this earnest and serious for once; she was honestly a little impressed by her own coolness.
Jiang Yi fell silent.
Seeing her go quiet, Song Niannian said, “Hey, hey, hey Jiang Yi, are you listening?”
She spoke up. “I’m listening.”
Song Niannian reverted to her slacker demeanor. “I’ve said everything there is to say. If it doesn’t work out, worst case, we just pack things up and keep developing overseas. I trust your judgment.”
“Oh, and by the way that President Shen, Miss Shen is she really your ex-girlfriend?”
Jiang Yi hadn’t expected her to know even about that. She had never intended to hide it, but she hadn’t gone out of her way to bring it up either. “Mm.”
Song Niannian’s interest was piqued. “Well, well. No wonder, back in college you had so many people chasing after you, yet you never took a fancy to a single one. You sly thing, you were hiding this deep, huh? I hear that President Shen isn’t just gorgeous, she’s also from…”
Jiang Yi listened to her babbling on and on through the phone, her expression helpless. “President Song, if there’s nothing else, I need to get to work.”
Staring at the disconnected call, Song Niannian gave a mischievous little laugh. She was all the more curious about who this Miss Shen really was some divine being, or some demon monster. In her heart, she quietly schemed: once her schedule cleared up, she’d find some excuse to see for herself.
Jiang Yi couldn’t see through this matter as clearly as she did, but Song Niannian wasn’t actually worried, she knew perfectly well. This was never any evaluation period for Aurora. What the other side had specifically named was her old college friend of many years Jiang Yi herself. But that being the case, now that she’d gift-wrapped Jiang Yi and loaned her to the other side, she couldn’t just give for free without skimming a little interest off the top. Song Niannian tallied the accounts.
That email was only three short lines. With her memory, she could memorize things at a glance, yet she’d stared at it for a long while, brows drawn tight, as though facing some enormous problem.
She didn’t mind Shen Siyao taking her revenge, she’d known from their meeting last night that the woman wouldn’t let things go so easily. But right now, she represented Aurora.
Whatever. She’d deal with trouble as it came. Jiang Yi had never been one for sentimentality.
She pressed the button at her right hand, telling Aurora Assistant to contact Zhou Zhengguang.
Aurora Assistant was a voice-activated summoning system much like a certain major company’s, but with far more precise transmission and it could truly project a person’s image onto the screen. Since this technology had yet to launch on the market, only Aurora’s internal core members were using it in beta testing.
Jiang Yi’s image appeared on the projection, and Zhou Zhengguang picked up instantly. “Jiang Yi, what are your instructions?”
Jiang Yi lifted her eyes slightly. “Have Zhao Zhao and Zhang Tingting come to my office.”
Zhao Zhao’s voice shot up. “A business trip?”
Zhang Tingting had no real objections herself, but seeing how strongly Zhao Zhao reacted, she asked, “Is there a problem, Zhao Zhao?”
“No, but doesn’t this business trip feel different from our usual ones?” Although Jiang Yi had taken them on business trips before, the nature of this one was different. Even as an exchange arrangement, Jiang Yi was already a vice president sending her like this sounded like a waste of her talents, almost a demotion.
Zhang Tingting was a beat slow to react, but it seemed Zhao Zhao’s question made sense. Did they really need Vice President Jiang to go as an exchange student? That didn’t seem right.
Zhao Zhao just felt it was like a company director going to another company to work as an intern. Even if it was an exchange program, it was a bit humiliating. Yet their President Jiang seemed so good-natured about it, not sensing anything wrong at all.
No, was this right? It definitely wasn’t. Even if a whole team went, their combined value wouldn’t match Vice President Jiang’s alone. If nothing else, they could have sent a supervisor or a relevant department manager even Zhou Zhengguang going would have been less absurd.
Oh, she was the supervisor.
Jiang Yi knew she was blunt, and a hint of a smile crossed her face. “Everyone starts from the bottom, don’t they?” She didn’t mind herself; it was just a probationary period, and she hoped these three months would pass without incident.
Zhang Tingting thought of something and lowered her head.
Zhao Zhao made up her mind: no matter what, she had to protect Vice President Jiang and not let the people at Baige look down on them. When you’re away from home, respect is something you earn yourself especially since they represented Aurora.
Over at Baige, they had already sent people the following afternoon, a grand procession of more than twenty. It looked like they were genuinely there for the technology handover.
Jiang Yi negotiated to delegate part of her current work, mapped out the general technical areas for them, and had team members from each group lead the way. Some people, hearing that exchange students from Baige had arrived, were curious about their real technical strength after all, this was a collision between a new tech power and an established research field.
Of course, that was a matter for later. Jiang Yi made another trip to the hospital, and after returning, cleared her schedule for these three months. Zhou Zhengguang had wanted to apply to go along, but Jiang Yi refused him, he was suited to socializing, but not to AI data R&D work.
So Zhou Zhengguang stayed behind to oversee the company, and Jiang Yi promoted two assistants who usually handled things reliably to help him.
Meanwhile, Aurora’s side with Jiang Yi herself included was a team of only seven. Apart from the relevant data files on the laptops carried by Zhang Tingting, Zhao Zhao, and Chen Hangliang, they traveled light.
Jiang Yi had her own considerations. These were members drawn from research in different departments, and compared to an exchange, they looked more like a group of tourists. But not a single person at Aurora truly held that attitude, no matter how much they joked around internally, they were absolutely united when facing outsiders.
Their flight landed in the early hours of the morning. Cheng Le was waiting at the airport, and seeing Miss Jiang striding confidently with her team behind her, he took her luggage. Zhao Zhao felt considerably more at ease Assistant Cheng’s attitude represented Baige.
Jiang Yi apologized, “Sorry to trouble you so late at night.”
Cheng Le replied, “It’s only right. Everyone’s had a long, tiring journey tonight. President Shen has arranged accommodations and a meal for you all. We can discuss any matters tomorrow.”
Jiang Yi nodded and walked forward with the crowd.
Cheng Le called out to stop her: “Wait, Jiang.”
Jiang Yi turned her head.
Zhao Zhao turned her head, Zhang Tingting turned her head, and the people behind them slowed their steps as well. Seeing that Assistant Cheng seemed to have something to say to her, Jiang Yi said, “You all go on ahead.”
Zhang Tingting took Zhao Zhao’s arm and walked forward, with the people behind them gradually moving on as well.
Until their figures shrank to a mere dot in the distance and the surrounding cars had all dispersed.
Cheng Le, his expression unchanged, gestured toward that dazzling car. “Jiang, please ride in this one.”
The car was black all over, yet its glossy finish shimmered in the night. Black should have meant understated and restrained, but the overall impression it gave was bursting with power, like a mammoth charging into the land of the midnight sun.
Seated inside the car, Zhao Zhao looked at Zhang Tingting with evident confusion. “Why did you pull me along just now?”