The Art of Teasing - Chapter 162

Chapter 162

Wen Zhengyu was so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open. After getting into the car, she sent Sun Yuan a text message about preparing breakfast, then closed her eyes and fell asleep. The roads weren't congested at night, so the drive home took about thirty to forty minutes. She got home, washed up, fell into bed, and slept. The next morning she rose early, beat the rush hour traffic through the worst stretch, and arrived at the company by eight o'clock.

Seeing that everyone was already working, she realized the company's hours didn't start at nine. She had no choice but to walk through the office hall under everyone's gaze, with Zhuo Yao carrying the food containers, heading to Ye Ling's office.

She knocked on the office door and found Secretary Chen tidying things on Ye Ling's desk; Ye Ling was not there. She took the food containers from Zhuo Yao and said to Secretary Chen, "Secretary Chen, I brought breakfast for Ye... Chairman Ye. Where is Chairman Ye?"

Secretary Chen saw the food containers in Wen Zhengyu's hands, set down the documents she was holding, and went over to take them. The containers were quite heavy. Looking down, she noticed they were carved from solid wood; the intricate, exquisite carving and the luster of the wood suggested they weren't cheap. She gave Wen Zhengyu a surprised glance, placed the food containers on the coffee table, and said, "Chairman Ye is in the lounge."

Wen Zhengyu knew Secretary Chen wasn't fond of her, but with Ye Ling sick, she wouldn't feel at ease without seeing her personally. So, disregarding Secretary Chen's opinion, she went straight to Ye Ling's lounge. She opened the door and saw Ye Ling lying in bed, staring at a laptop while typing rapidly. An IV stand was set up by the bedside with a drip bottle hanging from it; Ye Ling was receiving an infusion.

Ye Ling looked up and saw Wen Zhengyu staring at her in surprise. She said, "What are you standing there for? Come in."

Wen Zhengyu went over and checked the IV bottle, which was nearly empty, then felt Ye Ling's forehead; it was still burning hot. She said, "Take a couple of days off and rest." Ye Ling was this sick yet still working; no amount of money was worth her health.

Ye Ling laughed, "It's not that serious." She added, "You think I'm like you?" Then she asked, "You brought me breakfast?"

Wen Zhengyu responded with an "Mm," and said, "It's on the coffee table outside."

Ye Ling asked, "You haven't eaten breakfast either?"

Wen Zhengyu said, "No."

Ye Ling closed her laptop, put on her shoes, stood up, and walked out while holding the IV stand herself.

Wen Zhengyu hurried to help her, only to find Ye Ling managing fine on her own.

Despite the IV in her left hand, Ye Ling's right hand was unimpeded as she took things out of the food containers. There were two containers—two servings of food, with soup, meat porridge, light side dishes, and pastries.

Wen Zhengyu ladled out some porridge into a bowl and placed it in front of Ye Ling.

Ye Ling was genuinely hungry, but afraid of passing her cold to Wen Zhengyu, she didn't continue her usual feeding routine. They ate breakfast quietly together, then called Secretary Chen to clear the dishes. Ye Ling removed her own IV, got up, and went back to work.

Wen Zhengyu returned to the secretarial department to continue doing odd jobs with Secretary Ji.

Their tasks basically consisted of sending and receiving faxes, copying and binding documents, serving tea and water, and running errands.

Different industries are like different worlds; Wen Zhengyu knew absolutely nothing about Ye Ling's business. Now that she was assigned to the secretarial department, she simply did whatever was asked of her, learning from the most basic, bottom-rung tasks.

At noon, Secretary Chen sent her and Ji to the cafeteria to prepare the meal. She didn't demand that Ye Ling's food include spicy dishes this time, just told Wen Zhengyu to use her own judgment.

She disliked the plastic takeout containers, worrying that they might be unhealthy if used frequently, and wanted the kitchen to switch to porcelain. The cafeteria staff told her that all takeout meals were uniformly packed in disposable containers, and even if you ate in the cafeteria, the tableware wasn't porcelain.

Secretary Ji explained that porcelain was costly due to breakage and would require cafeteria staff to wash more carefully, slowing things down. Using disposable containers for takeout was company policy; otherwise, after delivering meals, they'd have to collect the dishes, and people like the chairmen sometimes got so busy they wouldn't eat, leaving lunch sitting out until evening—it was just too much trouble. Disposable containers were convenient: just toss them in the trash after eating.

Wen Zhengyu said, "You could bring your own reusable containers."

Secretary Ji glanced at Wen Zhengyu and said, "Don't say that, or Secretary Chen will hate you to death. Though, if anything, the dishwashing might fall on us. We're already so busy every day, and we'd have to wash dishes on top of that."

Wen Zhengyu stared blankly at Secretary Ji, deeply suspecting they were just using plastic to save themselves work. But then she thought, since these were the company's rules, as an intern who knew nothing, she shouldn't be offering unsolicited advice or sticking her nose in.

By the time they delivered lunch for Ye Ling and the secretarial department to the office, it was already quitting time.

Compared to Secretary Chen and the others, Wen Zhengyu and Ji, as general gophers, had it much easier; they still had a lunch break.

That afternoon, Ye Ling still had guests in her office discussing matters, so Wen Zhengyu didn't feel comfortable napping in Ye Ling's room. She sent Ye Ling a text, then went to a nearby business hotel to book a room and rest, planning to return to work afterward.

When she woke from her nap and returned to the company with Zhuo Yao, Ye Ling had already gone out with the chief secretary, Secretary Xu, Secretary Qi, and others. Only Secretary Ji and Secretary Chen remained in the office.

Seeing Zhuo Yao follow Wen Zhengyu inside, Secretary Ji leaned on Wen Zhengyu's desk and whispered, "Hey, is that your bodyguard?" Every time Wen Zhengyu went in and out of the elevator, Zhuo Yao was right there; now that Ye Ling's bodyguards were all gone, only Zhuo Yao stuck to her, making it glaringly obvious.

Wen Zhengyu smiled but said nothing.

Secretary Ji was quite curious about Wen Zhengyu—an intern secretary having her own bodyguard.

Seeing the look in Secretary Ji's eyes, Wen Zhengyu thought for a moment and offered an explanation: "I was nearly kidnapped before the new year and then beaten, giving me a concussion, so I was assigned a bodyguard."

Secretary Ji let out an "Oh," and said, "You do need to be careful. Just looking at you, I can tell your family is wealthy."

Wen Zhengyu didn't see it that way; she thought of herself more as a minor landlord. Her main income came from collecting rent and stock dividends. Her maternal grandmother had given her ready-made assets, but she couldn't keep them straight. Managing a single company was beyond her; she couldn't even get through the ledgers and statements, and piling everything together only made it more chaotic. She was like a poor person sitting on a mountain of gold, not knowing how to use it.

With Ye Ling gone, Secretary Chen was nonstop busy; after chatting a bit, Secretary Ji got snapped up by Secretary Chen to do work.

By the six o'clock quitting time, Wen Zhengyu hadn't seen Ye Ling return, but she did receive a text from her telling her to go home and rest early.

Seeing that Ye Ling was this sick yet still not resting, Wen Zhengyu felt embarrassed to keep being lazy herself. After work, she went to a gold shop to commission gold tiger and gold sheep ornaments. During her recovery period, all the family's social obligations and customs had been handled by Ye Ling and her Second Aunt; she couldn't keep handing these things to Ye Ling, so she took charge of what she should manage herself.

With her maternal grandfather having just passed away, and the forty-nine-day mourning period not yet over, Wen Zhengyu couldn't visit others for celebratory events. She prepared gifts and had Zhan Cheng deliver them, to fulfill the proper courtesies.

After returning from the gold shop, she ate dinner, then went to take stock of her storeroom. She needed to restock some items; the storeroom hadn't been organized in ages, and with all the gift exchanges during the New Year, it was quite a mess. She drafted Zhuo Yao as manual labor; after organizing the storeroom, she listed what was missing. Some she had Zhan Cheng procure, others she ordered directly from suppliers for home delivery. She also prepared gifts for social obligations. Her teacher's wife's birthday was coming up, so she needed to prepare a gift in advance. Though she couldn't help organize it in person this year, she still had to attend on the birthday itself.

Once Wen Zhengyu took up the household responsibilities, she realized she had a lot to do as well.

She went to work at Ye Ling's company during the day, and at night came home to manage these matters. Although it was tiring, her days felt meaningful. Ye Ling was so busy she practically lived at the office, yet they could see each other daily and often nap together. That was far better than going a whole week without meeting, only connecting by phone or text.

But Wen Zhengyu never expected that her napping in Ye Ling's office would spark rumors in the company.

When she went to the restroom to wash her hands, two colleagues were by the sink. One of them gave her a white eye and said, "Thought she was some big-shot connected person; turns out she slept her way up. Even after crawling into bed, she's still just a gofer."

The eye-rolling glare and sarcastic tone made it abundantly clear to Wen Zhengyu—unless she were deaf and blind—who they were talking about.

Given her and Ye Ling's relationship, not sleeping together would be abnormal.

Wen Zhengyu wasn't familiar with these two, so naturally she didn't explain. She pulled out a paper towel, dried her hands, and left.

In the afternoon, she ran into a few more colleagues in the restroom. They came in not to use the facilities but to stand around chatting loudly, showing off their jewelry and clothes. One said, "She's already climbed into the chairman's bed, yet she doesn't know to buy herself some decent things and still parades around in last year's old styles. Come to think of it, with that clueless, dazed look of hers, she was probably just fobbed off with some cheap junk."

Secretary Ji's voice came from the restroom entrance: "Aren't you spreading this a bit too harshly?"

"Hey, standing up for her, or do you want to sleep your way up too?"

"People with no ability, even if they climb into bed, still can't get anywhere."

They traded barbs back and forth until Secretary Ji could barely get a word in.

---

Wen Zhengyu understood now: these people had come to the restroom specifically to say all this to her. She was utterly astonished. How bored could you be to come all the way to a restroom to gossip, not even minding the smell?

Secretary Ji, unable to contain her anger, said, "Saying all that, and you're just relying on being Vice Chairman Xu's relative."

"Mine's a family connection, not like some shameless people."

Having learned from Ye Ling's thick skin, and always being teased for being thin-skinned, when Wen Zhengyu suddenly heard someone call her shameless, she almost thought it was a compliment. She opened the stall door and went to the sink to wash her hands, only for someone to squeeze next to her and say, "I'll say it right to a certain fox spirit's face."

Fox spirit? Her? Suddenly, her foot stung; looking down, she saw that woman stepping on her toes, and the provocative look in her eyes was clearly deliberate. Her scalp tightened, and she immediately called out, "Zhuo Yao!"—afraid it would turn into another incident like with Cen Xun, where a prank went too far and caused trouble.

The restroom door burst open, and Zhuo Yao rushed in like a gust of wind, plowing past the women, sending the three of them either crashing against the sinks or slamming into stall doors. He positioned himself protectively around Wen Zhengyu, quickly assessed the situation, and asked, "Miss Zhengyu, are you all right?"

Wen Zhengyu said, "I'm fine, I just accidentally got my foot stepped on."

The three women inside the restroom all exploded instantly.

They yelled, "What's a man doing in here?!"

"What's your meaning, grab the pervert."

"Security! Security!"

Zhuo Yao looked at Wen Zhengyu, saw her give a slight shake of her head, and then shielded her, calling for Secretary Ji as they all left the restroom together.

Secretary Ji didn't regain her composure until they were outside. She hadn't seen Zhuo Yao when she first went to the restroom, but the moment Wen Zhengyu called, he charged in, seemingly from nowhere. She was angry and said to Wen Zhengyu, "You're just going to let them spread slander like that? If rumors go on long enough, even fake ones become true."

Wen Zhengyu said, "It doesn't matter." She actually thought it was an eye-opening experience. The shareholders' meeting hadn't even started, and the big bosses still acted all cordial when they met, but the small fry at the bottom were already at each other's throats.

Shortly after they returned to the office, people from the Security Department arrived, saying there was a complaint about a man barging into the women's restroom and they needed to take Zhuo Yao in for questioning.

Secretary Chen stood up and blocked the security staff, not allowing them into the secretarial department. She asked Secretary Ji and Wen Zhengyu what had happened.

Secretary Ji briefly explained the situation.

Secretary Chen said, "Bodyguard Zhuo was acting within his duties; he didn't do anything wrong. It's the ones making trouble and spreading rumors in the restroom who need to be questioned about their intentions."

The head of Security said, "Secretary Chen, we also received a report and confirmed there's truth to it. A man barged into the women's restroom and deliberately knocked people over—what will the female employees think?"

Secretary Chen replied, "I'll report this to Chairman Ye and contact the HR director to explain the situation for a thorough investigation."

Zhuo Yao lazily crossed his arms and said, "Buddy, if you're looking to throw your weight around, you've got the wrong guy. Get lost!"

The head of Security's face darkened. "What kind of talk is that?!"

Zhuo Yao swept his gaze over him and said, "Exactly that kind of talk!" He stood up, stretched, his bones cracking audibly. With a darkened face, he said, "You let them start trouble and lay hands first, but you won't let me rush in to save someone. You couldn't see they started it and struck first—are you blind?" His voice wasn't loud, but there was a menacing fierceness in his tone.

When Ye Ling returned to the office, she saw the Security Department people and Zhuo Yao standing at the secretarial department door with daggers drawn, and asked, "What's going on here?"

The head of Security said, "Chairman Ye, HR reported that this gentleman barged into the women's restroom and caused trouble."

Zhuo Yao said, "They trapped Miss Zhengyu in the restroom, hurled abuse, and got physical. Miss Zhengyu called for help, so I rushed in to rescue her."

Upon hearing this, Ye Ling first went to the secretarial department to see Wen Zhengyu. Finding her still sitting there, looking at her innocently, she let out a long sigh of relief, then gave her a slightly exasperated glare and asked, "You okay?"

Wen Zhengyu said, "I'm fine."

Zhuo Yao added, "Her shoe got wrecked from being stepped on."

Ye Ling bent down to look at Wen Zhengyu's feet and indeed saw that the toe of her left shoe was flattened. So they really had gotten physical.

She went over, took off the shoe from Wen Zhengyu's foot, walked to the door, turned, and slapped it against the head of Security's face. "Instead of investigating the ones who laid hands, you come to investigate the bodyguard who was protecting someone! Before quitting time, if you haven't found out who did it, you're out. Don't bother coming to work tomorrow."

Then she said to Secretary Chen, "Secretary Chen, go to my lounge and get a pair of shoes for Miss Wen. We're the same size. Pick a pair with lower heels; her sense of balance isn't great."

Secretary Chen acknowledged and went to Ye Ling's office to fetch shoes for Wen Zhengyu. In all her years of working, she'd seen countless company bosses and their secret mistresses or assistants, but never one as grand as Wen Zhengyu. The big boss's own bodyguards called Wen Zhengyu's bodyguard "Brother Zhuo," and Zhuo Yao shadowed Wen Zhengyu everywhere, even sticking to her in close protection. Her own boss, with all her wealth, didn't even have a bodyguard standing guard while she went to the bathroom.

The head of Security was stunned. He caught the flat shoe that had been slapped across his face, saw Ye Ling's livid expression and the look in her eyes that seemed ready to slap him with the other shoe, and without another word, took the shoe and went to work.

Ye Ling coldly spat out one word: "Shoe."

The head of Security turned back, saw Ye Ling still glaring at him, his scalp tingling in confusion. Then, noticing her gaze on the shoe, he realized: the shoe had come off someone's foot, and although the chairman said she'd give another pair, maybe she had just wanted to smack his face with it and hadn't intended for him to take it away. He handed the shoe back to Ye Ling with both hands.

Ye Ling took the shoe, saw the footprint on the toe, and ground her teeth in anger. She'd placed Wen Zhengyu right under her nose, surrounded by bodyguards, with a whole team watching over her, and yet she still got cornered and bullied in the restroom. She turned, walked over to Wen Zhengyu, sighed, and said, "From now on, use my office's restroom."

Wen Zhengyu glanced at Ye Ling but said nothing. She figured they were using her to slap Ye Ling's face—metaphorically.

The chairman standing at the secretarial department door and slapping the head of Security in the face with a shoe was witnessed by the entire office hall.

The three who had cornered Wen Zhengyu didn't need to be investigated; they'd already been loudly making a scene themselves.

The head of Security took them and brought them to Ye Ling's office.

Of the three, one was a distant niece of General Manager Zhang, one a relative of Vice Chairman Xu, and the third someone currying favor by riding coattails.

Ye Ling picked up the internal phone and called Human Resources to fire the three.

The relative of Vice Chairman Xu said, "Chairman Ye, firing me won't be easy to explain to my uncle."

Ye Ling gave her a cold look and said, "Then have your uncle come find me."

The relative shot Ye Ling a defiant look and promptly called Vice Chairman Xu, claiming Ye Ling was throwing her out, that she'd been hit by Wen Zhengyu's bodyguard while Wen Zhengyu falsely accused her, and that Ye Ling was using the incident to get at her.

Ye Ling couldn't be bothered with her and picked up the documents on her desk to read.

While that one called, General Manager Zhang's niece also busied herself calling Manager Zhang to slander Ye Ling and Wen Zhengyu, including the shoe-to-the-face incident.

Both ended up getting scolded and told to pack up and go home, then the calls were hung up.

Immediately afterward, Ye Ling received apology calls in succession from Vice Chairman Xu and General Manager Zhang.

Shortly after, HR personnel arrived.

Ye Ling had HR dismiss the three troublemakers along with the head of Security.

The head of Security said, "Chairman Ye, I was just acting on a report, doing my job. It's not my fault." As soon as he spoke, Ye Ling's glance swept over him, and for no particular reason he shivered, then dejectedly walked out.

Chairman Ye's furious outburst—taking off Wen Zhengyu's shoe to hit the head of Security, then firing the relatives of Vice Chairman Xu and General Manager Zhang—immediately caused a huge uproar among the staff. Everyone chattered, thinking the top executives were fiercely battling, and each person was more terrified than the last of becoming collateral damage.

The senior management didn't bat an eyelid. To them, Ye Ling merely shoving a shoe into someone's face and firing a few low-level employees was nothing—a mere drizzle.

What most exasperated the senior management was that the chairman had been absent from the company for months, hadn't convened shareholder or board meetings on time, and yet rumors were swirling below. While the main players remained calm, the lower ranks had already started fighting, picking sides and causing trouble.

Ye Ling firing those four people was privately spun in the company as proof that the shareholders were locked in a life-or-death struggle; Ye Ling had taken out one each of Zhang's and Xu's relatives. Some even speculated that Zhang and Xu would surely team up first to oust Ye Ling from the chairman position, then fight each other for the seat.

This rumor reached Secretary Ji's ears, and she, of course, told Wen Zhengyu.

Wen Zhengyu couldn't hold back; she went to ask Ye Ling if she needed help. She even asked if Ye Ling could find a way to increase her shareholding to over fifty percent. If Ye Ling lacked funds, she'd figure out how to raise the money for her, and she rattled off all her available liquid assets and assets that could be used as loan collateral. Although she didn't understand business matters well, she was clear about how much she owned.

Ye Ling stared at Wen Zhengyu, stunned for a long moment, moved, amused, and exasperated. She heaved a heavy sigh and said, "With last year's profits and my current momentum, even they wouldn't try to replace the chairman."

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