Chapter 25 Gao Yan’s Scheming

Chapter 25: Gao Yan’s Calculations

The silent exchange between Lu Yingxiao and Gao Yan went unnoticed by everyone else—even Xia Huaimeng, who sat right beside Lu Yingxiao. Only Manager Zhang observed it. He had brazenly asked Tian Tian to invite both him and Gao Yan to the Secretarial Department’s dinner, hoping to gauge the nature of Gao Yan’s relationship with Lu Yingxiao.

Previously, he’d thought the two didn’t seem as clingy as other couples; now, however, he sensed the unspoken understanding—the *mòqì*—of a long-married pair.

See? President Gao didn’t utter a single word.

With just a tap on his phone and a glance, Lu Yingxiao grasped his meaning—and picked up the phone she’d just set down, apparently sending a message to someone.

Whatever that silent exchange had been about, that *mòqì* alone left Manager Zhang envious.

He and his wife were a genuine long-married couple—over twenty years together—but their *mòqì* had never reached this level.

His wife even disliked his silence, saying, “People have mouths for speaking.”

That argument was so ironclad he couldn’t counter it, and over the years, he’d grown accustomed to discussing everything openly with her. Yet watching Gao Yan and Lu Yingxiao interact now, he felt an absurd urge to change. So, seizing Friday afternoon—when workloads were light—he went to chat with Special Assistant Chen.

Manager Zhang: “Tell me—why do some couples, who’ve been together far less time than actual long-married pairs, share such *mòqì*?”

Special Assistant Chen was utterly baffled.

As a lifelong bachelor, how could he possibly understand such things?

Still, seeing how troubled Manager Zhang appeared, he tried to help: “Perhaps they’re simply more compatible.”

Manager Zhang: “So you’re saying my wife and I aren’t compatible?”

Special Assistant Chen: “…Every couple has its own dynamic. Why fixate on this?”

“Couple?” The word seemed to flip a switch in Manager Zhang’s mind—his eyes suddenly widened.

Special Assistant Chen grew suspicious. “What’s with that reaction?”

His tone sharpened, edged with wariness—suddenly sensing Manager Zhang’s visit wasn’t merely about venting marital frustrations.

Manager Zhang patted Special Assistant Chen’s shoulder, probing, “Why so nervous? What—you look single on the outside, but are secretly married?”

Special Assistant Chen brushed his hand away. “Boring!”

Manager Zhang pressed on: “Then how do you know every couple’s dynamic differs?”

Special Assistant Chen: “Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘Even if you’ve never eaten pork, surely you’ve seen a pig run’?”

Manager Zhang: “True enough. As special assistant, you’re close to the action—you naturally see more.”

That confirmed it for Special Assistant Chen: Manager Zhang’s visit definitely had another motive.

He stopped responding altogether and simply said, “I’m extremely busy. Stop bothering me while I’m working.”

Having gotten the answer he sought, Manager Zhang didn’t press further. Smiling, he replied, “Alright, alright—you’re busy, you’re busy. I won’t disturb you.”

Leaving Special Assistant Chen’s office, he ran into Lu Yingxiao, who was returning to her office after delivering documents.

Manager Zhang greeted her warmly: “Secretary Lu, good afternoon.”

Lu Yingxiao: “Good afternoon, Manager Zhang.”

With no intention of chatting, she offered the greeting and walked on.

Manager Zhang watched Lu Yingxiao walk away.

Sensing someone's eyes on him from behind, Manager Zhang turned around and saw Special Assistant Chen.

Special Assistant Chen stayed silent, just looking at him.

Manager Zhang understood his meaning and said, "After working together for so many years, you still don't trust me? I know what I'm doing."

Special Assistant Chen knew Manager Zhang usually knew where to draw the line, but sometimes when he tried to flatter those above him, he could lose that sense, exaggerating to the point of being jaw-dropping. Just now, hearing Lu Yingxiao pass by the office door from inside, his heart nearly jumped into his throat. He was worried sick that Manager Zhang's overly enthusiastic flattery would tip Lu Yingxiao off that he already knew about her relationship with President Gao.

Seeing Special Assistant Chen so tense, Manager Zhang patted his shoulder again and said, "Why do you think I dared to come to your office to verify my hunch? Naturally, I was given the green light."

If President Gao had intended to hide his relationship with Lu Yingxiao, he wouldn't have made a point of ordering steamed sea bass at the secretary department's lunch gathering, even after guessing Manager Zhang's intentions.

And he certainly wouldn't have engaged in that silent communication with Lu Yingxiao while noticing Manager Zhang constantly observing them.

What did that mean?

It meant President Gao had no intention of hiding it from him at all.

But why was President Gao willing to reveal it to him?

Trust?

It didn't seem like that was the only reason.

With this question in mind, Manager Zhang took the elevator back to the tenth-floor HR department.

Seeing him return, a young man from HR eagerly approached. "Manager Zhang, you went to the top floor?"

Manager Zhang glanced at him. "What's up?"

The young man poured Manager Zhang a glass of water. "Nothing, just thinking... you're so busy, Manager Zhang. Next time you need to go to the top floor, you could send me. I can run errands for you."

Manager Zhang chuckled lightly. "Since when did you become so diligent?"

At Shengzao Construction Company, some employees were particularly driven, eager to seize any opportunity, while others were content to just do their own jobs well.

The young man before him belonged to the latter category; he usually paid no attention to anything unrelated to his own work.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Manager Zhang felt this young man was definitely after something.

The young man scratched his head and smiled sheepishly. "Manager Zhang, I'll be straight with you. I think the new secretary, Secretary Lu, is really nice."

"Secretary Lu?" Manager Zhang looked at the young man with surprise. "You aim high, don't you?"

He actually had his eye on the boss's wife!

Manager Zhang warned him, "I advise you to drop those little thoughts of yours as soon as possible. You're not in her league!"

Unwilling to give up, the young man tried to argue. "But I feel like it's fate."

Counting on his fingers, he detailed how he and Lu Yingxiao were connected. "She's only been working here for two days, but we've already crossed paths three times. Once was yesterday at lunch in the cafeteria, once was this morning taking the elevator to work, and the third time was at lunch in the cafeteria again. When we were in the elevator this morning, Xia Huaimeng even said spring was in the air for Secretary Lu. I think that spring might be me."

Manager Zhang: "...Does Secretary Lu know she's crossed paths with you three times?"

Young man: "Probably not. She doesn't even know me."

Manager Zhang: "Then what are you daydreaming about? By your logic, we must be fated too—we meet at the company every day, face to face."

He paused, then asked sharply, "What, are you going to hit on me too?"

The young man: "...Huh??"

Manager Zhang said with a stern glare, "You do remember the first rule in our Shengzao employee handbook, don't you?"

The young man blinked, trying to recall.

Manager Zhang barked, "The first rule is zero tolerance for harassing colleagues! Anyone caught will be written up and fired on the spot!"

The young man went pale and stammered in protest, "Manager Zhang, I haven't harassed anyone, I haven't. I haven't even said a single word to Secretary Lu!"

Manager Zhang: "Since you haven't actually done anything, I'll give you a warning this time. If there's a next time, you're fired!"

The young man immediately ducked his head like a turtle and scurried back to his workstation.

Manager Zhang was still seething. He had the entire HR department pause their work so he could read them the riot act. After all, every rule in the Shengzao employee handbook had been hammered out by the HR department and Gao Yan. If someone from HR violated the handbook first, how would that look for the department?

But giving them a talking-to wasn't enough. Manager Zhang also made them recite it on the spot.

Those who recited fluently passed.

Those who stumbled would have their performance pay docked double.

The results of the recitation were quite satisfying to Manager Zhang—most people had the handbook memorized backward and forward.

Manager Zhang nodded in approval.

He then instructed his assistant to send a notice to the company-wide chat: next week, there would be impromptu recitations of the employee handbook for all departments. They'd pick people at random, and it could happen anytime.

As the HR department, after tightening their own discipline, they had to do the same for other departments.

If anything went wrong, HR would be on the hook too.

It was at this moment that Manager Zhang suddenly understood why the boss was willing to reveal Lu Yingxiao's identity to him.

Special Assistant Chen outranked him, but Special Assistant Chen was an eligible bachelor. If someone admired Lu Yingxiao, Special Assistant Chen's reminders wouldn't be nearly as effective as his own. The other party would only see Special Assistant Chen as a competitor, and his reminders might even egg them on, thinking, *If I can't match Special Assistant Chen in work ability, can't I even surpass him in pursuing a woman?*

Winning her over would prove they were better than him after all.

Some men were just plain weird like that.

As the HR manager, married, older, and famously respectful of his wife, plus this matter being part of his job, it was perfectly normal for him to address it.

Just like that, the young man was sorted out neatly.

And no one would think anything else of it.

Manager Zhang felt he was a genius.

He just had to share this feeling with someone. He immediately sent a WeChat message to his wife.

Manager Zhang: "Honey, I think I'm really clever. What do you think?"

After a while, a reply came on WeChat.

Just one word: "Scram."

Manager Zhang replied with a smile, "I'll listen to my wife. I'll scram right away, far, far away."

There was no further reply, but Manager Zhang's good mood didn't fade.

He was happy, but after the recitation notice was sent out, many people were moaning and groaning in private.

It wasn't that they couldn't memorize it—it was just the anxiety of not knowing if they'd be selected or when the recitation would happen, which kept them on edge and it was all they could think about.

Some sharp individuals smelled a rat and quietly asked HR colleagues if someone had violated the employee handbook rules.

This was considered HR's dirty little secret. Even though the young man hadn't taken any actual action, adhering to the principle of not airing dirty laundry in public, HR staff kept their mouths shut. They uniformly said it was an order from above and they didn't know the details. They even kindly advised others to spend the weekend at home memorizing the employee handbook, as failing the recitation would result in doubled performance deductions.

Every secretary in the secretarial office was completely unfazed by the recitation—they had long since memorized the handbook inside out. The only exception was Lu Yingxiao, who had just joined the company.

Xia Huaimeng looked at her sympathetically, "You're really unlucky, running into this right after joining. I won't ask you out shopping this weekend—stay home and memorize the employee handbook properly."

When she went to HR yesterday to complete her onboarding, Manager Zhang had given her a copy of the employee handbook and told her she needed to memorize it.

She hadn't paid it much mind.

Back when she was a workplace newbie, HR had said similar things, but she noticed that none of the seasoned employees took the employee handbook seriously—some even acted contrary to it.

She never expected that at Shengzao, memorizing it was actually enforced.

Fortunately, Shengzao's employee handbook wasn't particularly thick, and her memory was decent. She could definitely memorize it over the weekend.

Just then, her phone vibrated.

She glanced at it—it was a message from Gao Yan.

Gao Yan: "Should we reschedule tomorrow's trip to the flower and bird market?"

Lu Yingxiao knew Gao Yan was being considerate.

But this kind of consideration annoyed her.

It was just memorizing the employee handbook—she could handle it in one evening.

Lu Yingxiao: "No rescheduling!"

Gao Yan held his phone, looking at Lu Yingxiao's reply on the screen, which carried strong emotion. The corners of his lips involuntarily curled upward.

He replied: "I knew you were a woman of your word. I asked for nothing."

Lu Yingxiao snorted lightly, flipped her phone face down on the desk, and focused on her work.