Huo Yunzhen saw Xing Yu staring at him expressionlessly. The smile at the corner of his lips gradually faded, as if he realized Xing Yu was being serious.
“Really… you actually reacted?”
Xing Yu looked at him without speaking, his gaze cold.
“Isn’t that a good thing? I thought you liked men…”
Feeling the warning in Xing Yu’s eyes, Huo Yunzhen coughed lightly. “What medicine are you even asking for? If you react to women, then just get a girlfriend. Holding it in is bad for your health.”
As Xing Yu’s childhood friend and close buddy, Huo Yunzhen had no idea that Xing Yu had dated someone in college—nor that he had already lost his first time.
He only knew that many girls had liked Xing Yu since he was young, yet he had never seen him take a liking to any of them. It could be said that he kept his distance from women.
There had only been rumors during his university years.
Xing Yu ground his molars slightly, his craving for a cigarette kicking in.
“How did you even become a doctor?”
Huo Yunzhen, a well-known playboy among the capital’s elite, had a notorious reputation. He had too many girlfriends to count.
Naturally, he couldn’t understand why Xing Yu would choose to remain so restrained.
“Xing Yu, honestly, there’s no such medicine. Even if there were, it would harm your body. You’d better just get a girlfriend. If you don’t like her, then change.”
Xing Yu: “…”
He stood up and looked down at Huo Yunzhen. “Sleeping around like that—aren’t you afraid of getting sick?”
With that, he turned and walked out of the office without looking back.
Huo Yunzhen: “…” Was his mouth poisoned or something? Couldn’t he at least wish him well!
When Xing Yu found Wen Yao, she had already finished seeing the doctor and was buying medicine.
“What did the doctor say?”
Wen Yao replied, “The doctor said it’s nothing serious.”
The doctor had suggested a blood test, but she refused, afraid it would take too much time.
After the consultation, they returned to the car.
Wen Yao fastened her seatbelt when a bottle of water appeared in front of her. She turned her head toward Xing Yu, who said, “Take your medicine.”
“Thank you, President Xing.” Wen Yao took the water, opened the bag, and saw that the doctor had prescribed two kinds of medicine. She unwrapped the fever reducer and took it according to the instructions.
“If you feel unwell, go back and rest this afternoon,” Xing Yu said.
Wen Yao paused for a moment upon hearing this, then politely declined. “Thank you for your concern, President Xing, but I’m fine.”
Hearing her voice turn hoarse from the fever, Xing Yu frowned slightly. Seeing her insist, he said nothing more.
At 2 p.m., the meeting began on time.
The department heads and managers all looked somewhat nervous.
Wen Qi distributed the documents detailing the meeting contents to everyone.
Then he turned on the display screen in the conference room and presented the jewelry sample designs for everyone to see.
“These samples are the main featured products for this quarter.”
Xing Yu looked toward Zhang Wenbin. “Manager Zhang, after reviewing the samples, do you have anything to say?”
Zhang Wenbin recognized at a glance that more than half of the designs on display were created by Wen Yao.
He hadn’t expected that her designs would become the featured products.
One of them was even a Dragon Boat Festival limited edition.
He glanced at President Xing, whose expression remained unreadable, his eyes deep and inscrutable.
“President Xing, the designs are quite distinctive—very good.”
Xing Yu let out a cold chuckle. “Oh, really?”
Zhang Wenbin grew nervous, even stuttering slightly. “Y-yes… If they’ve become featured products, they must have gone through multiple rounds of selection.”
Xing Yu gave a low laugh, then his tone turned cold. “So Manager Zhang isn’t blind after all. Then why were designs good enough to become featured products blocked by you at the initial review stage?”
“President Xing, I’ve been reviewing too many designs lately—my eyes got overwhelmed, so I missed such excellent work. That was my mistake. It won’t happen again,” Zhang Wenbin said, cold sweat forming on his forehead.
Xing Yu continued, “The designs you see here were all repeatedly revised after being stuck at the initial review stage. Missing them once is understandable. But twice? Three times? That makes me question your competence. As the manager of the design department, if you can’t identify outstanding work and end up burying good designs, leading to declining sales, then I think you can pack up and leave.”
Zhang Wenbin gripped the document in front of him tightly. He felt both fearful and humiliated being criticized so openly.
“And one more thing,” Xing Yu added. “There have been rumors in the company that you and Wen Yao are in a relationship. But in reality, aside from being superior and subordinate, there is nothing between you. I have every reason to suspect that you deliberately made things difficult for her out of personal spite. Someone with such a twisted mindset and poor character has no place in Shenghua.”
Xing Yu swept his gaze across everyone present, as if his words were meant for all to hear.
“Manager Zhang, I’m formally informing you—you are fired from Shenghua.”
The moment his words fell, the conference room went completely silent.
No one had expected that what was supposed to be an ordinary meeting would begin with the dismissal of the design department manager.
Zhang Wenbin looked unwilling to accept it. “President Xing, I’ve worked at Shenghua for seven or eight years. You can’t just fire me like this.”
Xing Yu replied, “I understand what you mean—you want N+1 compensation.”
Zhang Wenbin hadn’t expected him to say it so bluntly. Being suddenly dismissed, N+1 compensation was only normal.
Xing Yu let out a cold laugh. “Let me be clear—there will be no compensation. If you want to go to labor arbitration or file a lawsuit, Shenghua will accompany you all the way.”
Zhang Wenbin’s expression turned ugly. People said President Xing had a military background. Though he hadn’t been in the position long, he acted decisively and ruthlessly.
But giving up compensation? That was something he couldn’t accept.
“Then I’ll go to labor arbitration.”
With that, Zhang Wenbin stood up and left.
Xing Yu turned his attention to the publicity department. “The Dragon Boat Festival limited-edition bracelet needs to be promoted in the form of a short drama. Do you have any good ideas?”
“There are only a little over ten days left before the Dragon Boat Festival. Wouldn’t producing a short drama be too rushed?”
Xing Yu said, “To be precise, you only have eight days.”
The publicity department felt like the sky had fallen.
After taking fever medicine, Wen Yao spent the entire afternoon dozing off, so sleepy that she could barely keep her eyes open.
Suddenly, someone tapped her shoulder. She jolted awake and looked up to see Li Shu.
“What’s wrong?”
Li Shu whispered, “Did you hear? Manager Zhang got fired.”
Wen Yao froze for a long moment. “Did you get it wrong? Manager Zhang has been at Shenghua for seven or eight years—how could he suddenly be fired?”
“I heard from girls in other departments that his character wasn’t good, so he got dismissed. Earlier, when I went to the pantry for water, I passed by the manager’s office and saw him packing his things. Now there’s no one inside—it’s basically confirmed,” Li Shu said.
Wen Yao still found it hard to believe, so when she went to the restroom, she deliberately glanced at the manager’s office and saw that it was indeed empty.
Even the things on the desk had mostly been cleared away.
It seemed Li Shu was telling the truth.
After buying groceries, Wen Yao looked down at Xin Xin, who was clinging closely to her.
There were still half a month left before summer vacation.
With her work schedule, she really didn’t have time to take care of Xin Xin.
Leaving Xin Xin home alone worried her.
But sending her back to their hometown—she couldn’t bear it.
Xin Xin tugged at her hand. “Mom, what’s wrong?”
Wen Yao smiled slightly. “Mom bought chicken wings. How about I make cola chicken wings for you tonight?”
At the mention of cola chicken wings, Xin Xin’s bright, watery eyes sparkled.
“Okay! I love cola chicken wings the most!”
After they got home, while Wen Yao was washing vegetables, she saw Xin Xin holding a mop and cleaning the floor.
“Xin Xin, I’ll mop later. Go play.”
Xin Xin said seriously, “If I mop, then you won’t have to. Teacher said we should start with small things.”
Wen Yao felt warmth in her heart and let her be. After dinner, she could mop again anyway.
Xin Xin was still young—she thought that just going over the floor once with a mop was enough.
After putting the mop away, she looked at her busy mother in the kitchen and suddenly thought of Uncle Xing.
Using her smartwatch, she called him. “Uncle Xing, my mom made cola chicken wings today. Do you want some?”
Xing Yu had just left the company. Seeing Xin Xin’s call, he answered without hesitation.
“I haven’t had dinner yet. I’d like to try your mom’s cola chicken wings.”