Chapter 29

“Xiaoyun-jie, you’re here so early?” A colleague looked surprised. “And you brought breakfast? Treating us?”

Xiang Xiaoyun waved her hand impatiently. “None for you. Go on, get to work.”

These guys really had sharp eyes.

She shooed them away, tucked the bag with the breakfast deeper inside, and continued waiting for the person.

It was almost time to clock in, but the person she wanted to see still hadn’t arrived. Xiang Xiaoyun was starting to get restless.

She opened her phone and tapped into the chat interface. Their last conversation was from last Friday; her final message hung there unreplied, all lonely and isolated. It was hard to think of a new topic to spark things up.

Should she ask why she hadn’t come yet?

Forget it. She might not even reply. Xiang Xiaoyun gave up in just a second.

She had never imagined Fang Nianchen would suddenly get angry. Though she had politely held it back, for someone who was always gentle and smiling, even a slight downturn of the corners of her mouth was obvious—not to mention that day, when she had looked outright pissed.

Thinking back on it now, it still felt scary. She hadn’t said a single harsh word, but the pressure she released was suffocating.

For a split second, she felt like she was facing President Yu’s piercing gaze.

Fang Nianchen was always the first to arrive, but it was nearly time to start work and she still hadn’t shown up. Full of doubts and anxiety, Xiang Xiaoyun grabbed the person next to her. “Have you seen Fang Nianchen? Why hasn’t she come yet?”

“She hasn’t?” Hearing that she was looking for Fang Nianchen, the colleague was surprised too and craned her neck to look around. “Isn’t that her right there?”

Just as she entered the door, Fang Nianchen felt an intense gaze locked on her.

It was scrutinizing, conflicted, and even a bit eager. She didn’t need to guess who it belonged to—Xiang Xiaoyun.

She kept her eyes lowered, her steps quickening a little as she headed inside.

Xiang Xiaoyun followed behind her, bustling along and kicking up a gust of wind that scattered the papers on the desk. She panicked immediately. “Sorry!”

While she was busy apologizing, Fang Nianchen bent down to pick up the scattered papers, looked at her for two seconds, and smiled. “What’s up?”

She was back to being the friendly Fang Nianchen, without a trace of darkness.

“Um…” Xiang Xiaoyun was momentarily stunned but quickly snapped back. “I brought you breakfast. Sorry, I pried into your business so much and made wild guesses about your relationship with President Yu…”

As she spoke, she furtively raised her eyes, cautiously observing Fang Nianchen’s expression.

She wasn’t sure which words had hit her sore spot, so she covered all the bases to be safe.

“Oh… It’s fine. I’m not angry.”

Was she really not angry? Fang Nianchen admitted there had been a bit, but she’d gotten over it quickly.

After all, she and Xiang Xiaoyun weren’t close. There was no need to force harmony; they were just ordinary colleagues.

If she was unhappy, she could just ignore it.

Of course, ignoring it didn’t just mean brushing off the annoyance—it meant distancing herself from Xiang Xiaoyun as well.

She kept up a calm facade on the surface while quietly pulling away inside. That was always how she handled things.

But Xiang Xiaoyun didn’t know what she was thinking.

At that moment, she felt extremely uneasy, to the point where every word from Fang Nianchen sounded like lingering anger to her.

Xiang Xiaoyun hesitated, then stubbornly added, “I was really just curious. I didn’t know it would offend you. I promise I won’t say anything like that again.”

She had already said it was fine, but harping on it like this was wearing down her patience.

Fang Nianchen could only take the bag. “Thanks.”

“No problem, no problem.” Xiang Xiaoyun let out a huge sigh of relief.

The surrounding colleagues were packing up their things, heading to the conference room in twos and threes.

Fang Nianchen glanced at them, then turned to Xiang Xiaoyun, her eyes lighting up a bit. “Shall we? Time for the meeting.”

“Sure.” She hadn’t expected to be invited along, so Xiang Xiaoyun happily agreed.

Last week, with Director Yu stretched thin running around on business, there hadn’t been a single meeting the whole time. She hadn’t even done the usual check-ins from a few weeks ago. Without the whip cracking, everyone’s state had loosened up.

If there was any change, it was just reverting to the state before Director Yu arrived.

Before Yu Wan took over, the HR department had a poor reputation among the company’s employees. Low work efficiency, dragging their feet on recruitment approvals for ten days or half a month. Various departments often faced talent shortages, and the new hire training plans were incomplete—a fatal flaw for a big company like Yunqi.

Things had improved slightly after Yu Wan arrived, but the ingrained bad habits hadn’t been rooted out. It was still treating the symptoms, not the disease.

Fang Nianchen arrived a bit late today. When she entered the conference room, she saw Yu Wan was already there.

Yu Wan was focused on giving instructions to her secretary and didn’t notice her come in.

Fang Nianchen wanted to take her usual seat, but it was taken. Today, everyone was desperately squeezing to the back; the front-row seats were all empty.

For a moment, it felt like being back in a university classroom. The excuses for sitting in the back varied, but this time, everyone’s reason was obvious: to hide.

No matter the occasion, Yu Wan’s presence brought a tense atmosphere.

It seemed everyone had reached a consensus: the farther away, the safer.

But the room was only so big, and the chairs were fixed in number. Someone had to sit up front—like the late arrivals Fang Nianchen, Xiang Xiaoyun, and Qiao Yan, who was one second from being tardy.

When Qiao Yan pushed the door open, President Yu was just about to start speaking, interrupted by her entrance. Everyone in the room instinctively looked her way.

Stared at by dozens of eyes, Qiao Yan wanted to just knock herself out on the door. Gritting her teeth, she walked to the right front seat, right next to Fang Nianchen, and sat down.

Yu Wan glanced at her watch but said nothing, continuing her opening remarks from before. “Everyone worked hard last week. Even when I wasn’t in the department, you still completed your tasks on time. That surprised me.”

Submitting work on time was just the basic duty of department staff. For Yu Wan to praise them for it felt like she was dealing with kindergarten kids, treating them like low-IQ children.

Everyone present could tell it wasn’t praise. They stayed silent.

“But what concerns me is…” Yu Wan’s hand rested on the files on the table, her fingertips tapping a few times. “You did submit them on time, but did any of you check them beforehand?”

The people below exchanged silent glances, heads lowering in tacit understanding as they sensed what was coming.

“The proposal’s formatting was a mess, not even numbered properly, and you just sent it to my email. The CC’d emails had no subjects—I had to open each one to figure out what was what.” As expected, Yu Wan’s tone turned serious in an instant, laced with irritation. “I can point out ten such low-level errors, or even more.”

“If this is how you all work, I could fire the whole lot of you.”

“Knock knock—” The conference room’s glass door was rapped, cutting through Yu Wan’s anger but still drawing attention.

“Come in.” Even in the heat of anger, Yu Wan maintained her usual courtesy, steadying her voice to let the person in.

The male employee poked his head in nervously. He’d already heard President Yu losing her temper from the doorway, but being late, he had no choice but to enter. He looked extremely awkward.

Running into the crossfire, he could only grin foolishly, his smile tinged with flattery. “Sorry, President Yu, I…”

Yu Wan checked her watch and asked him, “What time is it now?”

“N-Nine… nine-oh-five?” The male employee panicked, stammering. “President Yu, my… my car broke down halfway.”

“Then you don’t need to come.” Yu Wan’s lips parted slightly as she ordered, “Out.”

“Ah… O-Okay.” The man scratched his head in bewilderment, meeting Yu Wan’s sharp gaze. He backed out clumsily, looking utterly pathetic.

It was the first time anyone had seen someone kicked out for being late. Everyone deeply felt how unapproachable President Yu was, speculating that she must be on her period to be in such a foul mood. They all drew in sharp breaths.

Not just them—even Fang Nianchen was seeing Yu Wan this angry for the first time.

That said, these people’s work attitudes really weren’t great. That male employee was a chronic tardy offender; it had nothing to do with his car.

One by one, slacking off—she didn’t think someone in Director Yu’s position would want subordinates without any sense of time or responsibility.

The morning meeting continued, everyone tense and on edge, more exhausted than in the past decades. President Yu ruthlessly called people out in front of everyone to reprimand them, but she was logical and factual, leaving no room for rebuttal.

Qiao Yan kept sneaking peeks at her phone, watching the clock, desperately hoping this hellish thirty minutes would end soon and set her free. She hadn’t eaten breakfast and was starving.

Fang Nianchen’s attention was completely drawn to her colorful phone wallpaper; she glanced at it a couple times too.

“Fang Nianchen.”

Hearing her name called out of nowhere, Fang Nianchen came back to herself. “Yes?”

She was still very naive, responding confidently and righteously.

“Is President Yu…” Qiao Yan nudged her with her elbow, reminding her through gritted teeth without fear of death, “President Yu is calling you—get up quick.”

Hearing that it was Yu Wan calling her, Fang Nianchen shot to her feet like she’d been pricked by a needle, her eyes wide with panic.

Seeing her like this, Yu Wan’s lips twitched slightly before she steadied herself. “Come to my office.”

“Okay.” Fang Nianchen nodded hurriedly.

She knew there were no issues with her work and wasn’t afraid of being alone with Yu Wan, so she felt perfectly upright.

Well… not that afraid.

But the way the people around her were looking at her was a bit strange. Some pitied her, some were just watching the drama—everyone figured President Yu hadn’t gotten her fill of scolding during the meeting and was dragging a few unlucky souls back for more.

And once you entered the office, that was stepping into the hall of Yama himself—whether you’d live or die would be up to fate.

It wasn’t just Fang Nianchen; two other employees were called out by name too, heading to the director’s office together.

Aside from her, the other two were new interns, unfamiliar with the work and without anyone to guide them. Their first week had been grueling, and it was no surprise they’d made mistakes.

“Don’t let this happen again. Rewrite the meeting minutes for me.” Back in the office, Yu Wan was still stern-faced as she pointed out their errors and tossed the printed materials onto the desk—not too lightly, not too heavily. “You can go.”

“President Yu…” One of the new girls was thin-skinned; after just a couple of words, her face was flushed red enough to drip blood. When she opened her mouth, her voice trembled. “I’m sorry, I just started… I don’t know anything…”

It was like she had a condition for uncontrollable tears—teardrops the size of soybeans fell, and she quickly wiped them away.

Yu Wan frowned slightly, reining in her tone. “Don’t cry here. I’m not your parent—I won’t sympathize with you just because of that.”

“Got it.” The girl nodded and sniffed. “Thank you, President Yu.”

The two left together, leaving only Fang Nianchen in the office.

Just moments ago, while listening to Yu Wan speak to the girls, she’d been nodding along in agreement internally. Now that it was her turn, she instantly grew tense.

It was like going back to school after graduation and instinctively dodging the dean. At the company, theirs was purely a superior-subordinate relationship, but her fear of Director Yu was instinctual.

Fang Nianchen stood ramrod straight, holding her breath in concentration, watching as Yu Wan spread out a document, signed it with a flourish of her pen, and handed it over.

“It’s not to scold you.” Yu Wan smiled. “Here—your department transfer application.”

So that’s what it was. She’d been swept up in the tense atmosphere and hadn’t even considered it.

Fang Nianchen accepted it with both hands. “Thank you.”

She sighed inwardly once more at President Yu’s trustworthiness—she always kept her word.

Yu Wan held her pen horizontally under her chin. “Next week, you’ll be heading to the planning department.”

This was based on her years of experience; with payroll processing, updating all sorts of records in finance, and so many people in the company, it’d take about a week before it was her turn.

“About then. Group Leader Su said she’s already coordinated with the other departments—at the latest, I can start on Monday.”

“Mm. Let me know when you’re going.” Yu Wan paused, choosing her words. “I’ll see you off.”

Geographically speaking, HR and planning were on the same floor, separated by just a few doors at most. The way Yu Wan put it made it sound like she was handling resignation paperwork.

And hearing her say it like that really sounded like an elder giving last-minute reminders to a junior before they set off—did that mean she was supposed to symbolically give her a farewell gift?

She was just letting her imagination run wild. Hearing someone just a few years older say something like that always felt a little strange no matter what.

Fang Nianchen smiled helplessly. “Why do you need to see me off?”

“It’s not like I’m going to kindergarten…”

“Not heading to kindergarten?” Yu Wan seemed to know what she was about to say and finished for her.

“It really does feel like it.” Yu Wan chuckled lightly, her gaze toward her softening with warmth. “Because I’m really reluctant to let you go.”