The meal was still very restrained. Tao's mother vigorously played the role of a friendly neighbor aunt, while Tao Xinrou just lowered her head and ate, saying nothing. Everyone had their own hidden agenda.
After dinner, just as Ying Jingsheng was about to clear the table, Tao Xinrou was quick-eyed and quick-handed, almost snatching the dishes and chopsticks, saying, "I'll do it, I'll do it! Ying... Fang Rong, you go rest. Leave this to us!"
Seeing this, Tao's mother chimed in, "Yes, yes. How can we let a tenant clean up? Just leave it. We'll do it ourselves."
Mother and daughter moved swiftly as if fleeing from something, wanting only to quickly send this unfathomable president roommate back to his room.
But Ying Jingsheng didn't leave. Instead, he let Tao's mother go rest in her room. After settling her, he came out to find Tao Xinrou already washing the dishes.
There was a window between the kitchen and the living room. Tao Xinrou saw Ying Jingsheng standing in the living room looking at something, then he turned back and asked, "When I first moved in, I noticed Auntie was very devoted to her offerings. I thought she might be a Buddhist, but today I saw Uncle's photo."
Her hand wiping the plate paused, and her heart sank heavily. Only then did Tao Xinrou realize that Ying Jingsheng had been looking at the Buddha shrine. A small portrait of her father had always been placed there, hard to notice without a careful look.
Over the years, they had lived cautiously. Even her father had to be careful along with them.
She lowered her head, forcing herself not to stop moving, and steadied her thoughts to answer, "Of course."
After offering incense, Ying Jingsheng came to the kitchen and said casually, "I never heard you mention Uncle. Actually, I was hesitant before about whether it would be inappropriate for a man to move in. I wanted to ask, but I didn't expect Uncle had already passed away."
"Mm, my father died very early, 15 years ago. My mother's health is also not good. She raised me alone. It hasn't been easy."
Tao Xinrou wiped the plates and put them in the cupboard. She didn't look at Ying Jingsheng, but from the corner of her eye, she thought she saw his tall figure looking sorrowful. She thought she must be mistaken.
"I see. I'm sorry," Ying Jingsheng said apologetically.
"It's nothing. It's been a long time. We've gotten used to it." Tao Xinrou turned off the faucet, dried her hands with a towel, and looked up, already adjusting her face to a calm expression that said "no need to dwell on the past." She even smiled at him. "The previous tenants didn't like it either. They thought it was unlucky. If it makes you uncomfortable, I'll ask Mom to take it down tomorrow."
"No need. It's fine if Uncle stays with us every day. I'm not scared."
Tao Xinrou looked up at him, not detecting any sarcasm, but still said directly, "You don't have to pity us. We're used to it."
"That's not what I meant..." Ying Jingsheng wanted to explain, but the air fell silent. Neither knew what else to say.
Until Tao Xinrou finished tidying the kitchen and turned off the light, she hurried past him as if remembering something: "Um... I still have some work materials to organize. I'm going to my room now."
Watching her enter the room, Ying Jingsheng remained standing there. He thought of the message he received that afternoon and the "keep it up" coffee he saw in the break room. His gaze returned to the quiet shrine, and he mentally bowed three times in reverence.
This thoughtful girl had borne 15 years of grief.
15 years... That timeline seemed to match some vague clues.
She hadn't mentioned details, but her instinctive guardedness seemed more like vigilance than sadness.
Ying Jingsheng's mind quickly flashed to the secret message Wang Anran had sent in the afternoon:
[President Ying, it's confirmed that Tao Haizhen is Tao Xinrou's father. Tao Haizhen worked in the Logistics Department of Yunlu Group from 1997 to 2009, then transferred to the Southwest Branch, where he died in a sudden accident, officially recorded as a car accident. Tao Xinrou joined our company's City Garden Hotel housekeeping department in July through regular recruitment channels. Background check showed no abnormalities.]
Tao Haizhen's daughter, a Yunlu Hotel employee who tried to access historical archives, and now her sensitive avoidance of questions about her father. Some connections were forming in Ying Jingsheng's mind.
She had clear goals and precise direction. This case definitely hid an unusual truth. The reason he chose not to move out was also to investigate the truth about her.
Ying Jingsheng returned to his room and walked to the window. The night was deep. Outside were the scattered lights of ordinary homes, and this small rented room seemed like a peculiar observation post.
He recalled that when Tao Xinrou said "don't pity us," what flashed in her eyes was not fragility but a hard obsession. It wasn't just a daughter's nostalgia for her deceased father; it looked more like a desire to find some truth.
He lowered his head and sent a message to Wang Anran: [Speed up the sorting of Southwest Branch business. Also, check Tao Haizhen's network in the Southwest Branch.]
[Yes.]
That night, separated by a wall, both slept uneasily.
*
After yesterday's rollercoaster experience, today everyone seemed wound up, working hard. When Tao Xinrou entered the office, no one spoke, only the clatter of typing and the hurried sounds of communicating with clients.
Ying Jingsheng's spot was empty, no one had come yet. His things had all been taken away, and the spot had been polished clean by the cleaning staff. No one dared look in that direction, as if it were a sacred place.
Since she had more opportunities to interact with the president than others, Tao Xinrou decided to make good use of it. Maybe she could get more information about her father from Ying Jingsheng.
But the archive sorting was over. Tao Xinrou needed a new excuse to enter the archives. The VIP floor service summary became her best pretext. She remembered the department submitted monthly summaries, previously reported to Zhang Hongbin. Now she wasn't sure if they reported to Ying Jingsheng, but she could try, since today was the monthly summary deadline. If she could get Wei Hao's approval for the summary, she might be able to show her face to Ying Jingsheng and smoothly obtain the branch's seal.
But whether she'd get Wei Hao's approval depended on luck.
First, she decided to act. Tao Xinrou typed up her report quickly and knocked on Wei Hao's office door.
At that moment, Wei Hao was frustrated with some documents in hand, muttering, "Why don't these data formats match again? The admin department is really something. They didn't even send the full instructions for the new system."
Tao Xinrou's heart stirred. She glanced at the spread-out document in his hand—it was a monthly analysis report on guest room supplies loss, requiring a three-way check with financial and warehouse data, with complex format requirements.
"Supervisor Wei, are you having trouble with the report format?" she asked.
Wei Hao was annoyed and didn't think much: "Yeah, the admin department wants all these analysis reports standardized. They gave a template, but it keeps having issues connecting with the old system's exported data. I have to adjust manually, and it needs to be submitted to admin for consolidation this afternoon."
Tao Xinrou's eyes lit up. First, help Wei Hao solve a problem, then it would be easier to bring up her own idea.
"Well, when I was sorting the VIP archives before, I had to deal with a lot of historical data categorization. I figured out a few Excel formulas and templates specifically for matching data in different formats. I don't know if they'd be useful for you? I could help you take a look."
Wei Hao, anxious, immediately grabbed at the straw: "You know how to do this? Great! When Fang Rong was here, I mean, President Ying, he helped me handle it a few times. Oh, if he finds out I can't do it now, that'll be bad. Quick, help me check this out. This pile of numbers is giving me a headache."
Tao Xinrou quickly imported the data into her template, and the originally messy data became clear and orderly.
Wei Hao looked at the refreshed report, overjoyed: "Good job, Tao Xinrou! I didn't know you had this skill. You've been a huge help."
Tao Xinrou smiled modestly, but inside she was calculating: Great! Leadership approval +1! Time for step two.
"Thank you, Supervisor Wei! Actually... I also worked out a summary and optimization proposal for VIP floor service. I thought, since President Ying just took office, he must be very concerned about core business, and since he was in our department before, he'd definitely want to understand core business. If we could proactively report something constructive, it might also bring credit to the housekeeping department."
Wei Hao took the report, flipped through a few pages, and his eyes grew brighter: "Not bad, Xiao Tao! Well written. Coincidentally, I have to report monthly work this afternoon. Come with me and explain your ideas in person."