The new boss came over and was suddenly inspecting their work. Everyone just kept their heads down and focused on doing the work at hand.

Luo Qi walked around once, then again a second time.

At the work station she just passed, several people silently looked at each other. They all felt like they had gone back to being students, studying at school in the evening; they were eating snacks when the dean came in from the back door of the classroom unannounced, then—without saying a single word— picked them up by the collar of their school uniform, instantly causing fear in their hearts.

Luo Qi turned on the camera on her phone and said to them, “You guys just continue to keep your heads down, I’ll take a photo of the workstation layout to see how to rearrange it better.

“Don’t you feel that this is not good? Working like this every day?”

She didn’t know who answered, “It’s boring and too crowded.”

But they have all become accustomed to it, and no one actually dared to complain to the team leaders about the unreasonable layout of the office area. After all, it wouldn’t be surprising for the team leaders to reply with, ‘You’re here to work and not enjoy it.’

Everyone was relieved when they heard that Luo Qi was here to see about adjusting the layout of the office area and not to monitor their work.

Once someone started it, everyone soon had something to say. There were many people and many ideas. Luo Qi wrote them all down one by one, “I will consider matters comprehensively.”

She took photos, recorded a video of the whole thing, then went back to her office.

… …

It would cost more if she were to find someone to do the design, so Luo Qi could only trouble her mother.

Jiang Yifang finished watching the video Luo Qi sent her and texted: [I’m still at Professor Liang’s villa. I’ll help you later when I go back in the afternoon. I’ll give you the design plan tomorrow at the latest.]

For her, it wasn’t really coming up with a new design; it was just a reasonable re-arrangement of space to make it visually brighter and more comfortable.

[Mom, I also want a multi-functional area that can not only receive customers but also display our products. I want to add more green plants to the open office area. The budget is within 50,000 yuan. The company is relatively poor for now, please give me the lowest price for the design fee (covering face)].

Jiang Yifang: [It’s not a big workload. If a familiar old client came to me with this, I wouldn’t even charge them. I can’t possibly ask for your money. Mom knows you are interested in 3D printing and this is my way of giving you a gift on your promotion.]

Luo Qi sent a coquettish emoticon.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

First, it was the suggestion box; now, it was a plan to re-design the office area. After Shu Rui listened to his secretary’s report, the iced Americano in his mouth turned into hot Americano.

It was that painful.

What on earth did she want to do!

With anger in his gut, Shu Rui went to find Luo Qi.

Luo Qi didn’t give him a chance to take the initiative and vent his anger, “Mr. Shu, are you here to show support for my work?”

“… Isn’t the office area already good? Why are you making trouble?”

Shu Rui was angry, but he always had a smile on his face, “Ms. Luo, you don’t have to do everything yourself, just leave it to the administrative department.”

“It’s alright, I have nothing to do anyway.”

“…”

Shu Rui didn’t want to have too many arguments with her over trivial matters. “Even if we simply clean it up, it will still cost hundreds of thousands.”

“We don’t need so much, fifty thousand is enough.”

Luo Qi changed the subject, “Even if it’s more than a hundred thousand, can’t the company not afford it? It’s so distressing to have an insignificant idler who has nothing to do, yet we pay for their food and accommodation, need to entertain them for several days in a row, and they never get back on the road. I don’t seem to see Mr. Shu hurting for money.”

Shu Rui was speechless because Cui Peng still hadn’t gone back today.

Cui Peng didn’t mention Luo Qi again in the past two days, and the conversation was all about Ruipu. 

Occasionally, she would ask him about the difficulties he encountered when starting a business. He was not used to sharing his past joys and sorrows with others—at least, no one has yet made him want to share them.

When Cui Peng asked him, he would only explain it briefly.

“Ms. Luo, if there is any conflict between you and Cui Peng, I don’t want to get involved. Try not to bring your emotions to work. It will affect my relationship with you as a colleague.”

Luo Qi seemed to smile but said, “What if I need to bring it?”

“…”

Shu Rui didn’t expect that she would be one to hold on to a broken pot.¹

If it were anyone else, they would be saying a few words to appease the situation.

“Someone keeps jumping in front of me and disgusts me under the false pretense of company welfare, and they still want me to distinguish between company and private affairs. Does Mr. Shu think this is appropriate?”

Luo Qi sat in front of the computer and looked at the photos she had just taken. She wanted to allocate a multi-functional area on the right side by the windows, but the space didn’t seem large enough. She didn’t know how her mother would design it.

She ignored Shu Rui completely.

He took off his glasses, remembered that he had no soft cleaning cloth on hand, and put them on again. She was obviously muddled.

He kindly reminded Luo Qi, “If you mess with the canteen and the office area, you can indeed win over the employees’ hearts, but Ms. Luo, it’s not the employees who will decide whether you have real power over the core business.”

The power to decide was in his hands.

His and the senior management’s.

“Even you understand that ordinary employees can’t bring me any benefits. Wouldn’t I also know that?” Luo Qi raised her head, “If I said that I’m not doing this for my own benefit, I just want to do something for Ruipu, would you believe it??”

Shu Rui looked at her silently.

Luo Qi asked the question and answered it herself, “Of course, you won’t believe it.”

She was too lazy to talk nonsense with him. He really didn’t have the power to restrict her regarding administrative matters. 

“When the application for renovation funds is submitted to you, you can just approve it. If you are busy receiving distinguished guests, I will approve it myself.”

“…”

The phrase ‘distinguished guests’ was full of ridicule.

Seventh Year of My Secret Love for You translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: In case you forgot, Shu Rui and the rest of the senior management as a bloc are the second largest shareholders. Shu Rui stepped down as Ruipu CEO but retained the power to decide over R&D and market strategy. Administrative matters are under Luo Qi—so, yes, she can just approve this renovation herself hehe. 

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A list of all advance chapters is HERE.

FOOTNOTE:

1. Hold on to a broken pot; an idiom where one has shortcomings but instead of correcting them, one allows them to go on and worsen. ↩︎