"Mm." Wen Shaoyu hung up, placed his phone face down on the desk, rubbed his brow, and put his glasses back on.
"Come in."
"Xiao Wen." It was his assistant of several years, Jiang Xin, who pushed the door open. "Manager Li and Manager Fang are looking for you."
Wen Shaoyu nodded, signaling Jiang Xin to leave, then said to the two people before him, "Have a seat and tell me."
"It's nothing urgent."
The first to speak was the young woman on the left, with long hair cascading down. She was dressed in a royal blue Chanel-style suit, and the badge hanging around her neck bore a refined, beautiful photo and her name. Fang Jinshu, Marketing Department Manager—young, pretty, a rare sight in an internet company. "I happened to run into Manager Li's conversation with the documentary crew arranged by the Planning Bureau. Seeing that a tech guy really isn't good at interpersonal communication, I came along to ask you together."
Hearing that, Wen Shaoyu had a rough idea. He turned to Li Xin, who had been silent all along. "The part of the shooting plan sent by the Planning Bureau has already been approved for cooperation, hasn't it? What's the problem?"
Li Xin, with his typical tech-geek appearance, was actually not bad at speaking as a product manager. He explained the purpose of their visit in a few sentences. "Today, the producer brought the director along. It's not about the shooting schedule. They said the final cut will likely include digital building models, which will be a challenge for their existing team. So they want to discuss whether our company can provide technical support."
"In other words, they want to freeload our technology." Fang Jinshu couldn't help interjecting. "Shaoyu, I think we can talk to them, but we shouldn't agree too easily."
"I looked into it. This documentary mainly focuses on urban architecture, leaning toward humanities. Even if it airs, it won't give our company much of a boost. And now they want to freeload our technology..."
Fang Jinshu was in charge of product marketing. Her father was the second largest shareholder of Tuowei, and she had been smooth sailing since joining the company. Naturally, her personality was a bit more assertive.
Wen Shaoyu rotated his wrist, not speaking, his gaze lowered, fixed on some unknown spot on the desk. His cold expression, combined with those beautiful eyes, exuded a strong presence.
Li Xin's heart raced. He added softly, "You are the main developer of the Smart Streetscape project on the technical side. I thought maybe you could talk to them and see exactly what they need before we decide whether to agree."
Fang Jinshu nearly jumped up at that. "Manager Li, that's not appropriate! They only need a display, but our high-precision digital models can achieve interactivity. We're definitely above their requirements. What's there to talk about? And if I may say, what's their title, and what's Shaoyu's title? For a basic collaboration, there's no need for Shaoyu to negotiate with them personally. That would lower our status and make it look like our company has no one else!"
"But..." Li Xin hesitated, clearly wanting Wen Shaoyu to talk directly.
Wen Shaoyu finally spoke. "Who came today? When did they arrive? Are they still here?"
"They're still here. The appointment was at 3 PM. They just got here not long ago. I've arranged for them to rest in the meeting room." Li Xin let out a breath. "President Shen, the producer, didn't come. It was the executive producer and the director. I haven't met the director before. She seems to be of Chinese descent. Producer Ji called her Stella."
"Shaoyu..." Fang Jinshu saw Wen Shaoyu hesitate and started to speak again.
Wen Shaoyu tapped the table with his fingertip. Seeing his expression sharpen, Fang Jinshu swallowed the rest of her words.
The company had many matters. Both from an operational and talent development perspective, Wen Shaoyu really didn't need to concern himself with such a trivial matter.
But he had to show courtesy to the partner. He looked at Li Xin. "Don't agree hastily, but don't refuse directly either. Model presentation is a post-production matter. They haven't even started shooting yet. You can discuss it with them further."
Li Xin frowned slightly, as if a bit troubled, but verbally agreed. "Okay, President Wen."
Wen Shaoyu gave a slight nod. "Manager Fang, assist. You can handle the small issues yourselves and report the final results to me."
"Okay!" Fang Jinshu's previously disappointed expression instantly brightened. "Don't worry. I'll assist Manager Li well."
"Mm. Go ahead." Wen Shaoyu raised his hand and turned his gaze back to his computer screen.
From the executive president's office to the meeting room, they had to go down one floor. Li Xin pushed the door open and entered. Ji Shuhe quickly looked up. When she saw that the person behind him was a young woman in exquisite attire, she couldn't help but feel disappointed.
They all sat down. Manager Fang spoke first, using her practiced words, expressing their expectation for cooperation and a smooth shoot, but never giving a definitive answer about whether they would collaborate or not.
Ji Shuhe had a soft personality and tended to comply in work matters. She was really not good at persuasion, and with her mind on Wen Shaoyu, she was clearly no match for Fang Jinshu.
But luckily, there was Stella, a social expert.
After exchanging a lot of polite but empty words and seeing no results, Stella couldn't keep up the act. As she followed Li Xin on a tour, she secretly nudged Ji Shuhe's arm, signaling that she wanted to escape.
She had come to see the little bamboo horse, but he was putting on airs and wouldn't even show his face. With shooting about to start and her free days numbered, Stella had plans for the evening and didn't want to waste time on hypocrisy.
Standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, they could see the dusk. Stella pulled Ji Shuhe into the elevator, finally relieved. Fang Jinshu and Li Xin followed, as if determined to play the hosts and see them out of the office building.
"You both came to Xinhai from London, so you probably don't have a car yet. Where are you going? How about I have the company car drive you?" As they walked out, Fang Jinshu suddenly spoke, as if determined to be polite to the end.
"It's pretty convenient to take a taxi. The ride-hailing apps here are much better than Uber," Stella said, shaking her phone. But before she finished, Ji Shuhe reached out and lowered her hand.
"Our next stop is not work-related, so we won't bother you two. We're almost done with the preliminary preparations. Once shooting starts, we'll definitely have to trouble your company. I hope we can stay in touch, Manager Fang and Manager Li."
"Of course." Fang Jinshu shook Ji Shuhe's hand. "If our company ever expands overseas, you two will be our connections."
Stella also shook hands in turn, silently mocking how Ji Shuhe's polite banter was exactly like someone she knew.
But Ji Shuhe was younger, and her face looked more sincere, without the blatant ambition that characterized Shen Xing.
"See you next time."
"See you next time."
Fang Jinshu and Li Xin watched the guests leave. Seeing them walk off, Li Xin turned to go back inside. Both of them were lightly dressed and could feel the chill in the wind.
But when he turned, he saw Fang Jinshu frowning at the car Ji Shuhe and the others were heading toward. Curious, he asked, "Manager Fang, what are you looking at?"
Fang Jinshu snapped back to reality, tossed her long hair, and smiled. "Nothing. That car just looked familiar."
It looked a lot like the car of their company's regular legal counsel who had gotten in through connections...
"It's normal to find it familiar. There are only a few economical models. Everyone buys pretty much the same ones." Li Xin was shivering from the cold. "Let's go back. It's freezing out here."
"Mm." Fang Jinshu agreed but didn't move. She looked up, trying to find Wen Shaoyu's window among the dozen identical panes of glass above.
Upstairs at that moment, Wen Shaoyu was feeling restless.
He tried to force himself to focus on work, but after typing a few random letters, he stopped. His thoughts began to drift. Fortunately, Wen Cheng had at least left him the title of "Xiao Wen," so no one noticed his absentmindedness for now.
Unable to sit still at his computer, Wen Shaoyu unbuttoned his shirt collar and got up to walk to the window.
He knew Ji Shulang was right, and he admitted he was sensitive. He just couldn't get over those eight years apart. The new people, the unknown everything, and the version of himself that no longer held a place in her heart.
Maybe... they could sit down and talk. Not too deliberately arranged, preferably a chance encounter, preferably making it look like he didn't care.
If that night had been all in his head, then he could pretend he was just angry at her.
But... wasn't that Ji Shulang's car?
Wen Shaoyu's gaze happened to sweep across an Audi parked opposite the office building. The white car was so clean he almost didn't recognize it. For a moment, he thought Ji Shulang was still trying to find him. But then he saw two slender figures walk straight to the car, open the doors, and get in. The car immediately merged into traffic and drove away.
The silhouettes were very familiar.
His brow twitched violently. Suddenly realizing something, he walked quickly back to his desk and called Li Xin on the internal line.
The phone rang several times. Wen Shaoyu was about to hang up when the call was suddenly connected.
Li Xin, having rushed over, was out of breath. "President Wen, you're looking for me?"
Wen Shaoyu was brief: "What's the full name of the executive producer for that documentary?"
Li Xin didn't understand but answered honestly: "Producer Ji's full name is Ji Shuhe. Books' Shu, seedlings' He."
Author's Note: First day of my period. Thankfully, I have Fenfen and saved drafts [Please]