Zhu Zhangyang called Zhu Ling to the company. To keep an eye on her, he set up a fixed workstation for her, added a computer, and required her to clock in and out like the other employees. He also instructed, "This Miss Qian studied abroad in Japan—she's been steeped in foreign learning—and worked for several years in the compliance department of a major bank like Mitsubishi. Her knowledge of compliance is extensive. If you stick close to her, you'll learn a great deal."
Unfortunately, Zhu Ling couldn't even last two months. One day, she left without a word and ran back to school on her own. At first, he thought she'd finally had a change of heart, straightened out, and was willing to study properly. But it turned out she'd rented a small place off-campus and refused to come home. Not long after, he was called in for a meeting with her teacher and learned that although she'd returned to school, she frequently skipped classes and played truant, living with two or three dropout delinquent girls. When he ordered her to move back home, she refused to the death.
The consequences of Zhu Ling's consecutive years of suspension and rebellion in her junior and senior years of high school were that her college entrance exam scores were appalling. In the end, she entered a private university that accepted anyone willing to pay, and chose a completely impractical major: art and design.
At that time, Zhu Zhangyang was busy with company affairs and equally busy courting romance in search of a second spring. He had no energy to restrain or discipline his daughter. At his wit's end, he resorted to cutting off her tuition and living expenses as leverage. Knowing full well she was unwilling, he still forced her to come to the office for half a day each week. Since she was out playing truant and running wild anyway, she might as well come help with some clerical work—even if she did nothing, she had to come sit there. If she failed to show up, he'd cut off her living allowance and pocket money.
Zhu Zhangyang did this for several reasons: first, to make sure she was safe and sound; second, to show those around him that he was a qualified father who hadn't simply let his rebellious daughter run wild. There was also a third purpose: to familiarize her with the company's operations early on. No matter how rebellious she was, this small company would eventually be passed down to her.
The Zhu family had once been wealthy and prominent. In their heyday, they occupied an entire floor of panoramic offices in the Hong Kong Port concession across the way, with fifty or sixty employees. But since the previous boss, old Mr. Zhu, had passed away, and with the economic downturn in recent years, things had gone from bad to worse. The company had moved twice. Although Zhu Zhangyang stubbornly refused to relocate out of the Xuhui district center, the offices kept getting smaller and the staff kept dwindling.
Occasionally, Zhu Zhangyang would feel a flicker of ambition, dreaming of restoring past glories. But his abilities were truly limited—he could watch the front but not the back, fend off external threats but not maintain internal harmony. He had a wide social circle, and outside, his friends were happy to flatter him. But back at the company, his employees didn't respect him much. Even before his wife passed away, they'd been sleeping in separate rooms for years. Had things gone normally, he would have received divorce papers by the time his daughter came of age. He counted himself lucky that he'd become a widower before becoming an ex-husband, saving face.
In short, the few veteran employees at the company harbored considerable resentment toward him over shrinking salaries and benefits. The company's business relied entirely on these old hands. He depended on them, yet couldn't keep them in check. He vaguely knew they looked down on him, always muttering that he was stingy and incompetent. This humiliating, suffocating situation persisted until Qian Xinyi arrived.
Just when he was feeling most stifled and vexed, the company happened to hire a personnel manager, Qian Xinyi. This woman was strict about discipline and attendance. She brought in some kind of KPI evaluation system from who-knows-where, covering everyone—office staff, delivery drivers, cleaning ladies, and even the Zhu family's old nanny. Under the assessments, the poor were penalized, but the good got no rewards. Within a few months, employees quit in waves, cleaning ladies came and went several times over, and the old nanny who'd served the Zhu family for half a lifetime packed her bags and went back to her hometown.
Several employees couldn't take the evaluations and threw in the towel one after another. New replacements were hired, but they'd quit within days too. In the gap between the old and new, their original work had to be distributed among the remaining staff. Qian Xinyi herself, the initiator of the evaluation system, was forced to take on some piecemeal accounting work. Her workload doubled overnight. She spent every day dealing with tax authorities and banks, drowning in various reports she couldn't even understand—her head ached, her feet hurt. She hastily called a halt to the KPI evaluations.
This woman was born in the 1980s, a Monkey year, just past forty—getting on in years, but she maintained herself well and didn't look her age. She had a fair, oval face with a sharp little chin, and a large beauty mark on that chin that lent her an extra touch of charm. Though those colleagues who'd witnessed her words and deeds would say that face was the very picture of sharp-tongued severity, Zhu Zhangyang found her beautiful. Having her in the company as window dressing made him feel immensely proud, so he doted on her, cherished her, and treasured her. He even went so far as to appoint her as grand tutor to his only daughter, Zhu Ling, charging her with educating the girl. Unfortunately, under her tutelage, within less than two months, Zhu Ling rebelled outright and ran away from home.
Since HR Qian Xinyi joined the company, the office atmosphere had changed completely—no more jokes, no more complaints, and no more arriving late or leaving early. Zhu Zhangyang was quite satisfied with the office environment that his beloved Qian Xinyi had created for him. At over fifty years old, this second-generation heir had finally grasped this truth: internal friction and suspicion were the best corporate management methods in the world.
In short, he and this woman shared the same values, had compatible temperaments, and were bound by fate, which led to a resonance of souls. He quickly promoted her to logistics manager, and whenever he went out to run business or seek entertainment, he would have her oversee all office affairs.
Zhu Ling sat down, and Qian Xinyi called over the two new employees to introduce them to the young miss, Zhu Ling. One of the new employees was the general manager's assistant, surnamed Zhu, named Yan, in his fifties, quite tall, elegant, and refined. Word had it he had just resigned from a biotech company in the US and, by a stroke of luck, had been headhunted by Zhu Zhangyang at a hefty price. The other was a finance sister, around her thirties, plump and round, smiling before she even spoke. Both had heard how everyone addressed Zhu Ling, so they also called her "Young Miss."
After the pleasantries, Qian Xinyi said to Zhu Ling with a smile, "Young Miss, you didn't reply to any texts or answer any calls all day today, and you didn't attend the welcome luncheon at noon. It's quite rude of you to treat our Vice President Zhu like that, you know?"
Zhu Ling hadn't spoken a single word to this woman since she ran away from home without a word in her sophomore year of high school, three or four years ago. She simply ignored her and went about her business.
Qian Xinyi had a particular fondness for the newly hired Mr. Zhu Yan. His official title was general manager's assistant, but she called him Vice President Zhu, constantly chatting with him, asking if he was satisfied with his office environment, whether he needed any help, and so on. When the other new finance sister came over to ask her something, she was interrupted and showed a hint of displeasure, but the next second, she smiled, looked the finance sister straight in the eye, and said softly, "I'm talking with Vice President Zhu right now. You didn't see that, did you?"
The finance sister blushed, quickly apologized, and turned away.
Vice President Zhu also took a liking to this logistics manager, Qian Xinyi. Set against a room full of frumpy, overweight older women and a rebellious young miss with outrageous fashion choices, Qian Xinyi's finely made-up features appeared even more beautiful, her demeanor more elegant and composed, her every smile and frown more charming, and her every gesture possessed the beauty of a southern belle.
A colleague who had returned from a business trip came around to hand out specialty dried pork slices brought back from out of town. When he reached Qian Xinyi, she took them but said with a smile, "Oh dear, today is the first day of the lunar month, and I eat vegetarian. I'm afraid I can't have any."
Vice President Zhu asked her why, and she explained, "Oh, I'm a Buddhist. I eat vegetarian on the first and fifteenth of each month." She placed the dried pork slices on her desk, looked up, and gave him a charming, coquettish smile.
Vice President Zhu's gaze toward her unconsciously gained a bit more fondness.
After chatting with Vice President Zhu for quite a while, Qian Xinyi came to make a suggestion to Zhu Zhangyang: "Vice President Zhu will want afternoon tea this afternoon, so we should prepare some refreshments and set up a tea break time. What do you think? If there's no problem, I'll go ahead and apply for the procurement budget."
Although this Mr. Zhu Yan was someone Zhu Zhangyang had hired at a hefty price himself, Qian Xinyi's obsequious attitude toward Vice President Zhu reminded him of how she had once fawned over him. He frowned, looking somewhat reluctant: "The company has never had a precedent of providing self-serve refreshments for employees."
Qian Xinyi knew he was being both suspicious and stingy again, so she said, "Vice President Zhu just came back from the US. He's used to Western ways, not like our domestic companies!"
Zhu Zhangyang pinched his nose and approved it.
Qian Xinyi took the opportunity to add, "Vice President Zhu's office is a bit bare—there's nothing in it but a desk. If a guest comes, where would they sit? So we need to get him a sofa and a coffee table for receiving visitors. I plan to go to IKEA tomorrow to take a look."
Zhu Zhangyang's brows knitted into a knot: "Why are you so enthusiastic?"
Qian Xinyi feigned anger and spoke coquettishly: "I've always been an enthusiastic girl!"
When she acted coquettish, Zhu Zhangyang had no way to deal with her, so he had to approve: "Fine, fine, fine. Find some time and go make the purchases."
Zhu Zhangyang turned to ask Zhu Ling, "Are you eating at home tonight?"
Zhu Ling shook her head. Zhu Zhangyang was used to it and didn't think much of it. He asked again, "What are you working on now?"
Zhu Ling replied, "The personnel information management table."
She came in for half a day each week when she had no classes. The time was short, and she had no particular skills, so she couldn't do any important work—just helping out with odd tasks here and there to show willing. What she was working on now was a personnel information management spreadsheet that the sales lady had handed over to her. The company wasn't large, and there weren't many employees to begin with. On top of that, a few people had left earlier and had never been fully replaced, so everyone was juggling multiple roles—the sales lady was also handling administrative duties. Over the past year or two, some had resigned, some had divorced, and several new employees had joined one after another. The information was outdated and needed updating.
Zhu Ling sent out an email asking everyone to refill and resubmit the forms. The information sheet was simple, requiring only household registration address, emergency contact, and family members.
Within ten minutes, submissions came in one after another. Everyone filled in one household registration address as required, except for Qian Xinyi, who added an extra line and filled in two addresses. One was on Fahuazhen Road in Changning District—her maiden home. The other was on Huqingping Highway in Qingpu District—her husband's family address. Worried that people might not realize the Huqingping Highway address was located in a villa area, she specially added a note after the house number in bold black font: Lakeside Villa.