Chapter 20.1

Newan’s(Nu’an’s) HR system was mature. Wen Yi was a newcomer taking up the post, so the difficulty was not too great.

Yet the content of the work was completely different from before. In the past, coming to the company meant meetings and training, and the rest of the time she stayed at the hospitals. Now from nine in the morning to six in the afternoon, her range of activity was only the company and the restaurants near the company. Tian Jia sent a message asking how the new work was. Wen Yi replied: [I am almost stifled to death.]

After one week Wen Yi gradually adapted and even felt this work was rather interesting. On Friday the four BPs sent her the sales attendance and performance within their regions for review. After she approved them, the SSC side calculated the wages. In the afternoon, after Wen Yi logged into her own account she got a fright. Good heavens, she could see the wages of everyone below middle management!

No matter which industry one was in, salary confidentiality was a basic principle. For their sales team it was even more so. Transparent wages brought a hundred harms and not a single benefit.

She first looked at Tian Jia and Yan Fu, who were at the same level as her. Tian Jia was about the same as her. Yan Fu was far behind. The performance column was only one third of theirs. Wen Yi scoffed a few times. If Li Wei still promoted him to regional manager with this, then Newan was beyond saving.

Less than an hour after the transfer email had been sent out, the furious Yan Fu had called her and asked whether she had been behind it. Wen Yi said nothing and told him to produce evidence. Of course Yan Fu could not produce any. There were never too few people who wanted to take down someone whose virtue did not match his position.

A couple of days ago at work she had also run into Wei Yuan. Wen Yi could not be bothered to communicate with this kind of person and simply turned and left. When one played the smiling face too much, everyone thought one was easy to bully.

Then she looked at Song Qingqing and a few of her apprentices. They were all quite good. They truly deserved to be the people she had trained with her own hands.

It was a pity she did not have the authority of higher-level leaders. Who would not be curious about wages? Wen Yi felt regret while checking, and after checking she clicked confirm again.

At half past three there were still two and a half hours until the end of work. It was truly long.

Wen Yi stared blankly at the computer. Her work was roughly like this. At present there were temporarily no training arrangements. Performance management already formed its own system. For the time being there were no employee relations that needed maintenance. What was about to come was only the campus recruitment on Jiang Yu’s side. If she wanted to coast, it would be easy and relaxed.

Wen Yi did not want to coast. She propped her chin and thought, using six years of sales experience to feed back, seeking work content and methods that could be improved, breaking through from the inside outward.

She thought for a full two hours. Two pages of the notebook on the desk were filled.

In the last half hour Wen Yi collected her thoughts and prepared to leave work. The office was also filled with the excitement of the approaching weekend.

Jiang Yu came over, leaned on the railing of her desk, and asked, “Manager Wen, what are you doing this weekend?”

“Nurturing the pregnancy.”

“…” Jiang Yu rolled his eyes to show speechlessness. “Next week the spring recruitment starts and I will be busy. Before the crazy overtime I plan to go out and play properly. Want to come along?”

Wen Yi found it funny. “With so many young girls around, why find a pregnant woman like me?”

“More people make it more fun.”

“Really no time. You all play.” Wen Yi refused. She did not know whether they needed to go back to Qin Nanshan’s home for a meal this weekend. She also had no mood for extra fuss and only wanted to sleep well for two days.

At six Wen Yi clocked out on time.

There were many cars on the road. It took half an hour to reach home. At home there was only Xia Tian, no Qin Nanshan.

What met her eyes was emptiness. The living room was clean and tidy. The spring breeze blew the white gauze on the balcony, lifting it lightly. Inside it was silent. Only the lively noise of children playing outside came in freely.

She stood at the doorway for a while and for a moment actually felt a bit unaccustomed.

Wen Yi fed the dog who had been hungry for a day. When she touched her own belly she felt hungry too. After a brief thought she sent him a message: [When are you coming back? Do you want me to go buy groceries first?]

This week the two of them had a husband-and-wife relationship of only two or three hours of meeting in the evenings.

He went to work before eight in the morning. When Wen Yi woke she only saw breakfast on the table and Xia Tian under the dining table wagging his tail at her. In the evenings her off-work time was not fixed. This week, newly arrived, there were also many social obligations. By the time she got home it was already eight or nine.

Qin Nanshan would come out of the second bedroom to look twice. After getting the information that she had already eaten he would go back into the room. Wen Yi was tired from work and, being pregnant, was sleepy. After finishing the live class she would lie on the bed and fall straight asleep.

If he came back early the two of them could still exchange a couple of sentences. If he came back late they were truly no different from strangers. Even the pregnancy oil she applied herself.

Today was Friday. She had finally managed to come home early. He was actually not there?

Wen Yi sat on the sofa. The more she thought the angrier she became. She had pushed away colleagues’ invitations, yet he himself had gone off to enjoy himself?

She angrily called him. Until the ringing ended automatically no one answered. Wen Yi patiently dialed a second time. Very good. The second one also went unanswered.

Wen Yi suppressed the rise and fall in her chest and spoke to her daughter. “Baby, when you look for a partner in the future, never find a man who does not answer his wife’s calls, hear me?”

“Do not believe him if he tells you he is in a meeting or has something and cannot answer such nonsense. If he cannot answer he will still reply to your message.”

She patiently waited another five minutes. There was no message.

She touched her belly again. “You see, he did not reply.”

Wen Yi picked up her phone and typed rapidly. After typing she continued talking to herself. “We do not care about men. Mom will take you to play with Aunt Qiao En.”

Wen Yi went back to the bedroom, changed into a pretty dress, carefully put on light makeup, picked out the bag she usually could not bear to use, and happily went out.

Just as she sat in the car someone’s call came. She waited until the ringing had passed halfway before answering, her tone very sharp. “What is it?”

Qin Nanshan’s voice was steady. “Have you arrived home? I have a lecture tonight. Just now I was preparing the courseware. The phone was on silent so I did not see it. Have you eaten?”

“Not yet.” Wen Yi hummed. “What lecture? How come I did not know?”

A pleasant laugh came from the other end of the phone. “You go to sleep early every night. There was no chance to tell you. Just a routine lecture. It ends in one and a half hours.”

“Oh.”

Qin Nanshan glanced at his watch. “I will probably only get home around nine. There are vegetables in the fridge. Can you cook? If not, wait for me to return. Eat something first. The snacks are in the drawer of the desk in the second bedroom.”

These few sentences of his made it sound as if he could not live without her. Wen Yi muttered, “You are so long-winded. I am going out to eat with Qiao En.”

“All right.”

The call ended. Wen Yi sat in the car for two minutes, then sent a message to Qiao En: [I am going to listen to Qin Nanshan’s lecture. Let’s make plans next time.]

Qiao En replied instantly: [Wen Yi! I was already preparing to go out! You are too forgetful of loyalty at the sight of beauty!]

And she kept complaining: [Have you forgotten who came through wind and rain to accompany you through so many springs and autumns? Now not even half a year into marriage and your heart has already run off with someone!]

Wen Yi: [Run off what? You have not even left the house yet. Fine, it is my fault, my fault. From now on I will let my daughter call you Mom. Is that all right?]

Qiao En: [Hmph. At least you know what’s good for you.]

Wen Yi put away her phone and drove toward University A.

…

The school did not allow outside license plates to enter. Wen Yi parked outside and walked in.

On the way she casually found a student and asked where there was a lecture tonight. The student pointed her toward the small auditorium. The campus of University A was unusually large. Wen Yi turned a corner and forgot the way. She did not want to call Qin Nanshan, so she found another student to ask.

The student said, “Turn left. When you see a lake, then go right. Walk to the second intersection and turn left. Keep going to the end.”

Wen Yi’s head spun just listening. She could only walk step by step and look as she went.

The campus around six was lively, full of youthful energy. Wen Yi walked slowly and was infected by some young atmosphere. She was no longer annoyed.

Yet she never expected to run head-on into an unexpected person. Qin Nanshan’s younger cousin, Qin Tan.

Qin Tan also recognized her. After a small surprise she politely greeted, “Cousin-sister-in-law.”

Qin Tan was not born of Zhong Lan. One could imagine what the past ten-plus years of life in the Qin family had been like. The small and gentle girl had been raised with a personality that… to put it nicely was obedient, but in essence a bit timid, with too much repression in her character.