Dawn of Life

Lin Yue felt a little uncomfortable under Su Ling's gaze, so she introduced him before Su Ling could ask any questions: "President Xiao, this is a consultant at our company. When I received your message tonight, we were having dinner together discussing work, so I just happened to come along." Lin Yue emphasized the words "discussing work" and "just happened to come along."

Su Ling had met Xiao Feng a few times at the company, but the one-on-one interviews only went up to the manager level, so as a supervisor, Su Ling hadn't had any work-related contact with Xiao Feng. Lin Yue, on the other hand, had mentioned to her their encounter with Gao Ming and had also heard some snippets of Xiao Feng's probing remarks about her. Seeing the two of them together today, she roughly understood that this man was pursuing Lin Yue.

So, Su Ling winked at Lin Yue, let out a silvery laugh, and said, "An explanation is just a cover-up, and a cover-up is the beginning of a lie. Aren't you two doing great? You're both single, so being together is perfectly reasonable and legal."

Su Ling was naturally delighted that Lin Yue had a suitor who could outshine Gao Ming in every way. She was furious with Gao Ming, a man who had cheated on his wife; with her personality, she'd long ago wanted to slap him. At this moment, she could even picture herself and Lin Yue dragging Xiao Feng to Gao Ming's side, swaggering around in his presence.

Faced with Su Ling's bluntness, Lin Yue was momentarily speechless. After a few seconds of stunned silence, she said, "Are you drunk? You're just talking nonsense." As she spoke, she opened the back door of the car and shoved Su Ling inside.

Su Ling laughed even harder, and deliberately put on a wronged expression, drawing out the last syllable as she said, "Now I've been reduced to only being able to sit in the back row."

Lin Yue ignored her and got into the driver's seat. As she started the engine, she said, "Let's take President Xiao back to the hot pot restaurant to get his car first, and then take Su Ling home." As she spoke, she glanced at Xiao Feng's expression and saw that he looked smug. Lin Yue felt a surge of inexplicable annoyance.

Then, she heard Su Ling and Xiao Feng chatting incessantly in her ear, which was very noisy.

As expected of someone in sales, her eloquence was remarkable. Su Ling spent the entire journey promoting Lin Yue, praising her excellence and describing her as a treasure of a girl, from her work abilities to her hobbies. Xiao Feng, ever the obliging gentleman, chimed in with his opinions. When the conversation turned to specific topics, he would ask questions, and Su Ling would then vividly describe them to him.

Lin Yue felt both innocent and helpless. The two were clearly talking about her, yet she felt like an outsider, unable to join the conversation. Several times she tried to change the subject, asking Su Ling about her evening's social engagements, but Su Ling interrupted her, saying she'd tell her later. Twenty minutes later, Lin Yue dropped Xiao Feng off at the hot pot restaurant.

After Xiao Feng got out of the car, Su Ling sat in the passenger seat. Lin Yue glanced at her, thinking how quickly this girl's expression changed. Just a moment ago she was so excited, but now she looked like a exhausted kitten, slumped limply in the passenger seat. This made Lin Yue too embarrassed to complain, so she changed the subject and asked, "What did Shi Potian talk to you about this afternoon?"

Su Ling, her eyes half-closed, said weakly, "What can we talk about? It's always the same old stuff, saying the team's performance hasn't been good lately, that I can't stay with the old clients all the time, that I need to go out and explore new markets. He knows the market situation perfectly well. If we could develop new markets, why would he need to tell us? Everyone on our team relies on existing clients, so why does he have to come to me and spout this nonsense?"

Lin Yue didn't detect anything unusual in his words. Shi Potian seemed genuinely anxious about the team's poor performance. Perhaps she was overthinking it; he hadn't taken out his disagreement on her best friend, nor was he deliberately slacking off. The poor performance might not be due to his ability, but rather the unfavorable market environment.

She turned the steering wheel and comforted him, "Don't take it to heart. It's normal for Shi Potian, as a manager, to be anxious about the performance of his team and subordinates."

Su Ling curled her lips and snorted, "I think he's deliberately making things difficult for me. My performance is considered good in the team, and the renewal rate of old clients is the highest. Moreover, I always feel that Shi Potian's behavior has been very strange lately. He used to only look at the results, but now he cares a lot about the details of every client. The client tracking forms we submit are returned again and again, asking us to supplement the details. He wants to understand every conversation with the clients, especially mine."

Lin Yue frowned slightly. Her intuition told her that if someone's behavior suddenly changed drastically, there was definitely a problem. But she couldn't quite put her finger on what the problem was. She thought she needed to push forward with the performance appraisal project as soon as possible, and perhaps she could find some clues when she did the performance review later.

As she was pondering how to quickly advance the performance project, Su Ling suddenly spoke up, "How far have things progressed between you and Xiao Feng?"

Lin Yue rolled her eyes at her and said, "Xiao Feng and I are from completely different worlds. I wouldn't dare to mess with him, and I certainly don't want to become a fish in his pond. I just want to finish the consulting project peacefully and get promoted to the position of HR Director smoothly."

Su Ling shook her head and said, "A woman your age should enjoy the present. Whether he's sincere or not, you should at least give yourself a chance to try. Besides, in my eyes, you deserve someone better. Xiao Feng is excellent in every way. If you two really get together, you'll gain both face and substance. In worldly terms, you can even achieve upward social mobility."

Lin Yue knew that Su Ling genuinely cared for her, but given her current situation, she couldn't afford to gamble. She wanted something she could see, touch, and control.

As for how this matter will ultimately end, she isn't worried. The "Competency Model" project has already defined the job levels for all employees, giving each person a clear job level and competency label. Next, she just needs to deploy personnel according to the new strategic goals following the acquisition, and then use tools like salary adjustments and performance reviews to retain the people the company wants and eliminate the unsuitable ones.

After about two months, once the personnel and organizational structure are clear, the merger and acquisition project can be completed smoothly, and Xiao Feng's consulting project with the company will also come to an end. In that case, she and Xiao Feng will no longer have any connection.

Or perhaps they won't even have to wait until then. After all, a man like Xiao Feng certainly doesn't lack women. He's just having a passing fancy right now, and as long as she doesn't express her feelings, his initial excitement will quickly fade, and their relationship will naturally come to an end.

Humans are indeed complex creatures, and Lin Yue understood the situation quite well regarding Xiao Feng. But having such an outstanding man pursuing her occasionally caused her to have some illusions or feelings of identification. For example, when Liu Cuiying complained that she couldn't find a boyfriend, she felt more confident than before, no longer subject to her mother's manipulation, and no longer feeling inadequate.