Dawn of Life

Lin Yue used to think it was rather shabby for a director to be crammed into a small cubicle with his employees, but now she thought the arrangement was quite nice. Shi Potian was a proud man, and her grand gesture of bringing the coffee over and placing it on his desk drew the support of several colleagues, who all said that Lin Yue was too kind to Shi Potian, even remembering the coffee flavor so clearly.

Because Shi Potian had supported Lin Yue during the last training session, everyone assumed they had a good relationship.

As the saying goes, one doesn't hit a smiling face, especially with everyone watching. Shi Potian couldn't show his displeasure from the meeting, otherwise he would be seen as ungrateful. So he forced a smile and thanked Lin Yue, who then took the opportunity to invite him to the meeting room for a chat.

As soon as he entered the conference room, Shi Potian's face fell, completely abandoning the pretentious demeanor he had displayed outside.

Lin Yue sat facing Shi Potian and sincerely apologized to him, saying, "Brother Shi, I'm sorry about the meeting just now. I was forced by circumstances and had no other choice."

Shi Potian knew perfectly well that Lin Yue was using her assertiveness towards him to demonstrate her loyalty to Shengxing. He thought to himself, "Everyone knows they belong to different camps, so why bother with this?"

Shi Potian raised an eyebrow: "I didn't take it to heart at all. This is your job, and we're still friends in private. But I have a meeting soon and have to rush off. Thanks for the coffee, I'll treat you next time."

After saying that, he stood up and walked out of the conference room on his own, his "disagreement" practically written all over his face.

Lin Yue felt that Shi Potian's word "friend" was even more hypocritical than her behavior. What real "friends" are there in the workplace? The two of them were just cooperating at the beginning, but now they have become adversaries.

However, there are exceptions. For example, she and Su Ling are different. They have a history of supporting each other through difficult times and have a foundation of mutual appreciation.

It seems she and Shi Potian have officially begun their battle, and Su Ling has ultimately been dragged into it. Although Su Ling initially claimed she didn't care at all, the more she said that, the more guilty Lin Yue felt.

Or perhaps she had already implicated Su Ling. Just now at the meeting, she saw on Shi Potian's performance evaluation form that Su Ling had been rated as a mid-level supervisor. Although Su Ling hadn't been a supervisor for long, her business skills were very strong. She had a carefree personality and a touch of chivalry, and clients and team members all liked her. Her performance had consistently ranked among the top.

Su Ling is fully capable of securing a senior position.

Lin Yue had discussed this with Su Ling before, and Su Ling said that she didn't care about it at all, and repeatedly told Lin Yue not to try to help her.

Su Ling said casually, "I don't want to stand out, and I certainly don't want to drag you into this. Zhang Wei has been saying everywhere that I'm not working hard enough, and I'm sure Shi Potian and the other two big bosses have heard about it too. Right now, I just want to maintain good relationships with my major clients. Compared to the small increase in base salary from a higher position, the commission from just one client can make up for it."

Su Ling's point was a wake-up call for Lin Yue: the sales team's salary structure consisted of a low base salary and high commission. Was Liu Zheng's efforts to secure a promotion for Shi Potian truly to give him a raise, or did he have another motive?

After Lin Yue finished talking with Shi Potian, it was already past closing time when she left the meeting room. She slumped into her chair and reflexively picked up her phone, seeing a WeChat message from Xiao Feng sent half an hour earlier: "I helped you in the meeting just now, so would you do me the honor of having dinner together?"

Ever since Xiao Feng witnessed Gao Ming's incident, the relationship between the two has become somewhat complicated.

Lin Yue felt embarrassed by the exposure of her privacy and became more wary, as if he had something on her. So she started to deliberately keep her distance from him, but Xiao Feng seemed to completely ignore her signals and instead became more proactive, even somewhat attentive.

For example, he would take the opportunity to chat with her about work on WeChat, but after a few sentences, the conversation would drift to personal matters. He would also send her emojis that didn't quite fit his image, starting with small ones and gradually escalating to larger ones, becoming increasingly cute. In addition, he liked to schedule meetings with her around mealtimes, and after the meeting, he would pretend it was a coincidence and invite her to dinner together.

He would also find various opportunities to showcase his abilities in front of her, like a peacock displaying its plumage, constantly trying to attract her attention. Lin Yue soon learned that he graduated from a prestigious university, came from a wealthy family, had a wide range of interests, had a brief marriage, and was currently single.

He laid bare his somewhat forced and clumsy tactics to Lin Yue without reservation. A woman of Lin Yue's age, of course, understood that this was a man testing her.

Perhaps due to her long-term experience with sophisticated PUA tactics and betrayal, she has a particularly low sense of "worthiness" in relationships and absolutely does not believe that love at first sight could happen to her. Therefore, she feels that the signals Xiao Feng is sending her are either because he thinks she has value in the counseling project, or it's just a whim of his as a seasoned player in the dating game.

But she quickly dismissed the first possibility, because it was obvious that he and Shengxing had a personal relationship. Based on that relationship, he could have given her direct instructions on the project without having to go through such a roundabout way.

If it was just a spur-of-the-moment decision, Lin Yue had to be even more careful; she didn't want this kind of thing to affect her work. But she couldn't refuse too obviously on the surface, because she wasn't sure about this man's personality yet. Who knew if she displeased him and he might retaliate? Therefore, after careful consideration, Lin Yue decided to maintain a distant relationship with Xiao Feng. If she could also use Xiao Feng to gain Sheng Xing's trust, that would be even better.

She replied, "Where are you? I'm so sorry, I was busy and didn't check my phone."

After the incident with Yin Jie's team working overtime, Shengxing abandoned its policy of mandatory nighttime overtime within the company. Later, Lin Yue found an opportunity and used some persuasive tactics to get Shengxing to cancel the HR department's "996" work schedule. Originally, he implemented this policy to establish his authority when he first took over the department, but now that there were more important things to do, there was little point in enforcing it.

Xiao Feng quickly returned her voice call, his tone cheerful and upbeat: "I've been waiting for you in the parking lot downstairs at the company. Come down quickly. I know an authentic Sichuan hot pot restaurant; let's go try it together."

Lin Yue wanted to find a reason to refuse, but when she heard Xiao Feng's cheerful voice, she gave up the idea. After all, he had been waiting for her for half an hour. Refusing at this time might make Xiao Feng unhappy and thus break the principle she had set for getting along.

So Lin Yue replied, "Send me your address, I'll drive there myself, and we'll meet at the restaurant later." It was right after get off work, and she didn't want to run into her colleagues in the parking lot, since in their eyes she was still "married."

When Lin Yue arrived at the hot pot restaurant, she saw Xiao Feng and a group of people standing at the entrance from afar. He was wearing a black casual suit today, looking down at his phone while occasionally glancing up towards the intersection.

It has to be said that this man was indeed very good-looking. The dim lighting and the crowd queuing at the door could not dim his radiance in the slightest. She couldn't help but feel a little sad. She thought that if she were ten years younger, just for his good looks, she might also have the urge to fall in love. Unfortunately, she had long passed that age of being reckless.

Lin Yue stepped forward and asked softly, "Do we have to wait in line?"

Xiao Feng looked up and said, "No need, I was waiting for you. The owner here is a friend of mine. I called him when I left and asked him to reserve a private room for us."