Ninety. Sowing Discord

After the meeting, she was so angry she could have flipped the table over, but Li Zichun still rushed over to the business division and pressed every manager she could find, asking once again why fixed pay had to be raised. Whether she ever got a definite answer, no one knew. In any case, after she came out of Yu Yan’s office and reported back, she still wore a dazed look.

For her obedient but relentless persistence, Pang Qi and Yang Xiaojun naturally mocked her again. But this time Li Zichun had clearly been stumped by something and had no mind to bite back.

Later, even when Zhang Liling dragged her and Chen Ruowen into the small conference room to rehearse for the new employee exchange meeting, Li Zichun still seemed a little absentminded.

“Are you still thinking about why they changed fixed pay?” Seeing her distracted, Zhang Liling could not help feeling helpless. “What’s there to think about? Their bosses just don’t want to raise salaries. It’s that simple.”

“But it’s strange… Even if fixed pay goes up, total pay goes down, doesn’t it? And also…” Li Zichun shook her head, her expression troubled.

“They’re just stingy,” Zhang Liling said carelessly.

Seeing that Li Zichun was still stuck on the problem, Chen Ruowen shook her head. “This is very simple.” She smiled at Li Zichun, who was looking at her. “Because your company’s business isn’t doing well.”

Li Zichun looked puzzled.

“What do you mean?”

Chen Ruowen gave a brief explanation. “Because fixed pay is a guaranteed expense, and the increase it brings is also a fixed increase. As long as the person is employed, that salary has to be paid. But commissions are uncertain expenses. When you ran the estimates, you used last year’s numbers, so it looked like commission costs under the new system went down. But what if performance this year is poor? Will that expense still be there?”

“Oh, I see.” Enlightenment dawned on Li Zichun.

“Oh, I see.”

A male voice suddenly sounded behind them.

Li Zichun and Zhang Liling were both startled. They turned around quickly and saw the handsome man they knew and did not know, standing at the conference room door.

“It’s you! The handsome guy who came last time!” Zhang Liling greeted Gao Tang warmly. “How did you appear behind us without making a sound? You scared me.”

Gao Tang waved at Zhang Liling, then looked at Chen Ruowen.

“I came to find you. Your colleague said you were here.” He gestured toward the conference room door, then smiled at Zhang Liling and Li Zichun. “If you’re discussing company secrets, it’s safer to lock the door.”

“We were just chatting, not discussing any company secrets.” Zhang Liling quickly denied it, then enthusiastically ushered Gao Tang in. “Handsome guy, do you want to come in and sit, or go out with our Miss Chen Ruowen?”

Gao Tang pointed to his watch. “It’s getting late. Aren’t we going to eat?”

At that, Zhang Liling and Li Zichun instinctively looked at their phones.

“Oh! It’s already twelve. Let’s go eat first, Zichun!” She dragged Li Zichun outside as she spoke, teasingly saying, “I’ll leave the space to you two. Talk!”

“Thanks.” Gao Tang nodded to the two of them, then walked over to Chen Ruowen and held out a hand to her. “Want to go eat?”

Chen Ruowen glanced at him. “Go by yourself.”

“You’re not eating?”

“I’ll eat on my own.”

“And why is that this time?” Gao Tang put a hand into his coat pocket. “Don’t tell me you’re in a bad mood.”

Chen Ruowen shook her head. “No. It’s just that if I go out with you, my darling Yan will get jealous, so forget it.”

“Jealous?” Gao Tang could not help letting out a cold laugh. “You’re sure he’s jealous? Is Bai Jingyan that strict? He doesn’t even let you have friends of the opposite sex? What is he, some antique from the last century?”

“Of course not.” Chen Ruowen rolled her eyes at him, though she did seem a little puzzled. “He doesn’t mind anyone else. It seems like he’s just especially jealous of you.”

Gao Tang muttered something about childishness.

“You two still aren’t together, are you? And you listen to him that much? Whatever he tells you to do, you just do it?”

“I like it. What’s it to you?” Chen Ruowen shot back without politeness.

Gao Tang was almost furious to death. In his heart he cursed Bai Jingyan from head to toe, then suddenly calmed down and even smiled at Chen Ruowen.

“You like Bai Jingyan, right?”

Chen Ruowen gave an “mm.”

“Then does he like you?” Gao Tang asked again.

“What are you trying to do?” Chen Ruowen was displeased.

“I just find it a little strange.” Gao Tang looked at her, his handsome face wearing an expression as though he were truly puzzled. “If Bai Jingyan doesn’t like you, then he seems to be controlling a lot. But if he does like you…” Gao Tang shook his head.

“Why are you shaking your head?”

“He should never have told you he likes you, right?” Gao Tang spread his hands. “Otherwise, you’d already be together.”

Chen Ruowen’s mood abruptly soured.

“That’s what’s strange. If I liked a girl, even if I were too shy to confess, I’d still be very proactive, always finding reasons to get close, showering her with attention every day, practically wanting to tie her to my side, right?”

Gao Tang watched Chen Ruowen’s expression, which was already clearly unhappy, and delivered the final blow.

“But why do I feel like it’s always you being more proactive with him? Of course, maybe he doesn’t show it in public, but is more proactive in private. I don’t know the details.”

Chen Ruowen’s face had gone completely black.

She shoved Gao Tang straight out of the conference room and, in a fit of irritation, kicked him in the shin.

“Mind your own business! You’re such a busybody! Didn’t you want to eat? Then hurry up and get lost!”

“I was just saying whatever came to mind. Don’t take it to heart.”

“Get lost!”

“Fine, fine! I’m leaving first. Remember to eat.”

“Get lost!”

Gao Tang cheerfully got himself out of Lightstream and could not help throwing his head back in laughter.

Light the fire and run, that’s the thrill.

Let’s see how you put out the blaze this time, Bai Jingyan! I’m going to bury you alive in trouble, hahaha!

“Ah-choo!”

Far away at South City No. 1 High School, Bai Jingyan, who was working through practice problems, suddenly sneezed.

He wrapped his thin school uniform tighter around himself. “A spring cold snap.”

...

After Gao Tang left, Chen Ruowen gloomily took out her phone.

The last time she and Bai Jingyan had been in contact was yesterday. She scrolled through their chat history.

Hmm. It was her who had taken the initiative to find Bai Jingyan.

They had also been in touch the day before yesterday, and again she had sent him the message first.

The day before that... still the same.

As for the last time Bai Jingyan had taken the initiative to contact her...

Chen Ruowen pulled up every chat app and record on her phone, then thought through their most recent in-person meeting in which Bai Jingyan had been the one to initiate things. In the end, she fixed the time on Monday night.

He had come to see her, and the reason... was because she had gone out shopping with Gao Tang over the weekend?

Chen Ruowen kept scrolling back through their records, and the more she looked, the uglier her expression became.

Out of every ten times she and Bai Jingyan communicated, at least nine times she had initiated contact.

So she really had been throwing herself at him all along, while Bai Jingyan simply could not be bothered to pay her any mind?

Chen Ruowen’s face darkened. She locked the screen, then walked to the window and forcefully hurled her phone from the sixteenth floor.

Infuriating.