Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Two: Business Trip

Nan Wei’s grip on his chopsticks became rather unsteady.

Looking at the noodles in front of him, he felt that the price for these noodles was a little too high.

Everyone around him felt the same.

The general mood that had only just been soothed became extremely awkward again. But that only applied to the other interns; Nan Wei himself didn’t feel any awkwardness. Instead, he felt relaxed from head to toe.

At this moment, Nan Wei realized that there had been another benefit in requesting Yan Jin to hire Zhou Mang.

It was too difficult to stay angry with such a blockhead around.

It was about time to bring an end to this. The final result was that Nan Wei and Zhou Mang would be converting to full-time. The others packed up all their belongings with all kinds of complicated feelings after receiving their internship certificates.

It was fitting that in the end, the month-long farce had an equally absurd ending.

……

“I have a business trip coming up soon.”

Yan Jin gently patted Xiao Yu, whose eyes were almost entirely shut.

Xiao Yu’s drowsiness instantly vanished.

In the past, Xiao Yu had been very disdainful of Yan Jin’s habit of holing up in the office all year round. At the same time, he felt very fortunate that Yan Jin didn’t like to socialize. If he had a personality like that of Zhou Jinrong’s, it would work well for his role as chairman, but not well at all for his role as Xiao Yu’s lover.

Nevertheless, when it came to their face-to-face farewell, Xiao Yu would have preferred that Yan Jin stay in the office from day to night.

“Where are you going?”

“Overseas. I might be gone for a while, but it won’t be for more than a month. It’s for… YL’s future development.” Yan Jin played with Xiao Yu’s curly bangs. He was extremely calm, not at all like someone who was lying.

Irritated, Xiao Yu swatted Yan Jin’s mischievous hands away. His unwillingness seemed like it was about to spill over.

“But what’ll happen here then?”

“I’m not worried about the company. I’m more worried about you.”

It was true that the company didn’t need worrying for. Yan Jin knew that this wouldn’t be his first time dropping the ball. Despite him abandoning his duties time and time again, YL was currently still fine. Shao Yue was probably already accustomed to taking over interim duties at a moment’s notice. He probably wouldn’t have any complaints this time.

“I’ve already arranged for several people to come take care of you. You already know one of them: Chu Ge. No need to be modest if you’re asking him for anything.” Yan Jin’s tone was like that of someone selling cabbages.

More accurately, it was like that of someone simply browsing around.

Xiao Yu’s mouth was raised into an unhappy pout.

There wasn’t anything that Yan Jin could do other than to think of a different way to console Xiao Yu. “It’ll just be this once, and I won’t be leaving immediately. It’ll probably be… after the end of the Summer Exhibit.”

“That’s this weekend.” Xiao Yu’s mind raced. “Hmph. Don’t try to trick me.”

“Okay, okay. I made a mistake,” Yan Jin admitted to a false wrongdoing.

“Forget it. Just go. Come back soon.” Xiao Yu wasn’t an entirely unreasonable person. Leaving was an inevitable occurrence. He was just throwing a small temper tantrum. There was no way he’d really ban Yan Jin from business trips.

“Great thanks to His Fishiness’ generosity.”

“…What’s that supposed to mean?”

Xiao Yu pushed Yan Jin away and got up. Grabbing his clothes, he headed for the restroom. “I’m going to go change. I need to talk to the human resources department in a bit about Nan Wei.”

Yan Jin gestured his assent.

……

Xiao Yu was quite surprised that only two interns were selected for full-time conversion. However, because he wasn’t in charge of the intern program and didn’t know their situation, he didn’t question the decision too much.

Plus, he was never someone to think too deeply, especially when it came to company matters. He still had his bad habit from SI of accepting decisions without question, even if they were quite negative for him.

But even if Xiao Yu didn’t explicitly raise any doubts, it didn’t mean he wasn’t curious. In a roundabout manner, he asked Yan Jin some questions somewhat related to the incident, hoping that Yan Jin would reveal something. He’d never heard of a company only converting two out of twelve interns to full-time, especially since one of them had already been predetermined. Yan Jin had frankly told him that he wasn’t too clear on the exact details. He’d only followed the reports given to him by the intern managers. The main reason seemed to be that most of the interns did not meet the hiring bar. In the near future, YL would reopen their recruitment applications with some adjustments.

As a result, Xiao Yu was very curious about the other intern with “astonishing talent” aside from Nan Wei.

On the second day after Nan Wei and Zhou Mang had finished moving their desks, Xiao Yu personally went to go pay Zhou Mang a visit.

“Mr. Mystery! Could you give me an autograph?”

Zhou Mang was pleasantly surprised to see Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu calmly gave him an autograph. He’d long become accustomed to this sort of behavior.

“Haha, I need to go frame this. My classmates are going to be so jealous of me.” Zhou Mang celebrated for a while and then asked Xiao Yu, “Sir, you’re looking for Nan Wei, right? He just stepped out, but he should be back very soon.”

“No, I came here to talk to you.”

Ever since Xiao Yu entered, he’d been evaluating Zhou Mang. His appearance… well, Xiao Yu wasn’t someone to judge based on appearance, so he didn’t pay too much attention to it. But, his impression of Zhou Mang rose when he saw Zhou Mang’s neat and orderly desk. When Zhou Mang had turned around to check Nan Wei’s seat after receiving Xiao Yu’s autograph, Xiao Yu saw Zhou Mang’s computer screen around the side of Zhou Mang’s large body.

There was a design draft in progress on the screen.

Just from this glance, Xiao Yu already determined Zhou Mang’s style.

For designers, the best way to communicate was through their designs.

Although it was perhaps hard for others to politely describe his appearance, Zhou Mang’s designs were very meticulously drawn. From the way he handled each detail, it was clear that Zhou Mang had gone through professional training and a standard education. It matched up perfectly with the caliber of the number one design student from University S.

This might be all that a seasoned veteran of the industry could tell from one glance, but Xiao Yu could see even more.

For example, Xiao Yu had a very fuzzy feeling that Zhou Mang’s style was very similar to Lin Zhou’s. It was just his intuition though; Xiao Yu couldn’t explain it.

It wasn’t a criticism. Although Lin Zhou didn’t have strong morals, Lin Zhou’s abilities were at the top of the industry. Even though he worked on designs much less frequently now as a Director, it was clear that Lin Zhou was still extremely capable just from the fact that he’d become chief designer after Xiao Yu had been fired.

Of course, with Xiao Yu’s experience and talent, it was acceptable for Xiao Yu to look down on Lin Zhou’s respectably rigid adherence to the core rules. It also stemmed from a bit of professional pride. Every designer had their own style. If Xiao Yu were to follow Lin Zhou’s style, he definitely wouldn’t be as good as Lin Zhou.

For the style that Zhou Mang followed, Zhou Mang’s work was already quite representative. Xiao Yu wasn’t able to provide him with any tips that a veteran of that style could have.

From Xiao Yu’s perspective, Zhou Mang was certainly more suited for SI. For all intents and purposes, Zhou Mang would receive much better guidance under Lin Zhou’s leadership.

But…

“Huh?” Hearing that Xiao Yu had come looking for him, Zhou Mang didn’t even know where he should place his hands and feet.

“You’re very skilled. If you have any problems in the future, feel free to come find me. However, I might not be able to dedicate too much time to you since I still have to take care of Nan Wei too. How about this: I can introduce you to any other senior designer you like at YL. Having a mentor will help you to improve faster.”

Gold shined no matter where it was. Even if Xiao Yu couldn’t personally teach Zhou Mang, he certainly didn’t want to send him to Lin Zhou.

“No need, no need. The person I admire most is you. I’ve always wanted to become a designer like you.”

“Ah, okay then. Continue to work hard.”

Xiao Yu’s original intention had been to build a one-on-one relationship between Zhou Mang and another senior designer. Initially, he dropped this idea after hearing what Zhou Mang said. But, after thinking about it more carefully, he gave it another try. “There’s many other talented designers at YL…”

“No way. Of course they can’t match up to you.”

“……”

Just as their conversation fell into an awkward silence, Nan Wei returned.

“Master, you don’t need to worry about him.” Nan Wei had overheard their conversation from outside. Fortunately, he’d already become accustomed to Zhou Mang’s peculiarities and propensity for derailing conversations. He was able to bring the conversation back to the main point. “Just do things however you see fit. He won’t reject it.”

Xiao Yu wordlessly nodded in acceptance.

Zhou Mang looked around in apparent confusion and laughed foolishly.

……

On the day before the exhibition, when it was time to tour the exhibition hall and facilities, Xiao Yu finally came across Lin Zhou.

After coming to YL, Xiao Yu hadn’t needed to personally do many trivial tasks like inspecting the exhibition hall. Sending any assistant to do them would have been sufficient, but Xiao Yu still personally went in order to increase his chances of running into Lin Zhou. He’d finally achieved his wish.

Lin Zhou had long known that Xiao Yu was looking for him. He wasn’t surprised at all to see Xiao Yu here.

“Let’s talk elsewhere,” Lin Zhou said.

“Sure.” Xiao Yu nodded his head lightly.

They went to a nearby cafe. It was Xiao Yu’s first time here.

“I pretended to be ill for so long. Now I’ve run into you on my first day out. Must be fate,” Lin Zhou mused.

Lin Zhou seemed to be looking far away. Instead of his once amiable personality, he now seemed completely foreign to Xiao Yu.

“It’s not. I’ve been paying attention to SI’s matters for a while now. There was no way you wouldn’t show up to such a big event,” Xiao Yu said.

“Very true. As expected of you.” Lin Zhou didn’t pursue the topic. Instead, he bluntly asked, “Why are you looking for me? If you’re talking about the car accident, I didn’t personally do anything. As long as I don’t admit to anything, you don’t have any proof at all. Isn’t that right?”

“No,” Xiao Yu coldly responded.

The negative reply clearly wasn’t in response to Lin Zhou’s last question, but rather his first question.

Xiao Yu continued, “I didn’t come find you to talk to you about the car accident.”

Lin Zhou was startled.

After a while, Lin Zhou said, “Then, I believe that between us, we don’t have much else to talk about.”