Lin Pinzhi watched without saying anything, then returned to his desk and started working.
Lin Pinzhi hadn’t been in the office for half an hour when a flamboyantly dressed female staffer knocked on the door and informed him that the Chief Editor wanted to see him. He stood up and left.
The female staffer didn’t depart immediately. She stood at the door, glancing at Liao Feifei and Nanxi.
Especially when she saw Nanxi, her eyebrows flickered sharply, and she said, "What? Is there a new employee? Feifei, why didn’t you introduce her?"
Nanxi stood up, nodded to her, and said, "Hello, my name is Gu Nanxi."
The female staffer smiled, "Gu Nanxi, that’s a nice name! You just graduated, right? Let me introduce myself. My name is Cao Lili, I’m the Chief Editor’s Assistant Secretary. As a senior employee, I feel obliged to remind you to be realistic and not overextend yourself thinking that your youthful beauty gives you certain privileges. Don’t go about undermining the work ethics of our Agency. Never imitate those actions!"
Nanxi’s smile stiffened, "...I won’t."
"Good, focus on work! I have to go," said Cao Lili, She left without looking back at the others.
"She’s such a phony! " Liao Feifei stuck her tongue out at her retreating figure.
"What happened?" asked Nanxi, puzzled.
Liao Feifei explained, "That Cao Lili, she only got into the Magazine Agency because her mother is friends with our Chief Editor. Not only did she enter through the back door, but she also always plays the high and mighty and picks on others indiscriminately. She’s odiously despised! And she dresses so extravagantly, it’s hard to tell whether she’s there to work or to participate in a beauty contest! Especially, when it comes to senior employees, she can’t help clinging on to them, like a piece of annoyingly sticky plaster!"
She cleared her throat. "Feifei, are you really not interested in the senior staff?"
Liao Feifei: "Why do you keep asking me this?"
Nanxi shrugged, "Because you are acting suspicious." ╮(╯_╰)╭
Before leaving work in the afternoon, Nanxi received a call from Lu Yinchu telling her he would pick her up after work.
Nanxi wanted to refuse, but decided it would be pointless because he wouldn’t listen anyway. So she just went along with it.
She hung up the phone as Lin Pinzhi came back to the office. Seeing she was alone, he asked, "Where’s Feifei?"
"She went to the Publicity Department. She said she won’t be coming back to the office, she will just leave straight from there. If you’re looking for her, you should call her and let her know in advance!"
Lin Pinzhi nodded and settled down at his own desk.
When leaving work, they happened to leave together, which was somewhat awkward for Nanxi, but it was a quick trip down from the third floor.
As they left the Magazine Agency, it was still light outside. Lin Pinzhi checked the time and then offered Nanxi a ride home, "Where do you live? I’ll take you home!"
Nanxi quickly waved her hands to refuse, "No need, someone’s...someone’s coming to pick me up!"
Lin Pinzhi pressed his lips together, "Alright, be safe. See you!"
Nanxi nodded, "See you!"
"Oh, one more thing," he added.
"Hm?" Nanxi looked at him curiously.
Lin Pinzhi took a couple of steps towards her, extending his fairly long, pale hand. His eyes looked at her warmly, "I realized I forgot to say: Welcome to the team!"
Nanxi was taken aback, then smiled. They shook hands, "Thank you, I am honored!"
When Lu Yinchu called to manage a meeting with Nanxi, he happened to be having tea with Han Shaojing in a place near the Magazine Agency.
After the call, he prepared to leave, which surprised Han Shaojing. "Where are you going?" He asked.
"To pick up my wife!"
He grumbled as he watched his friend leave, "You’re ditching your friends for a girl!"
Lu Yinchu disregarded his comment and took the elevator down.
Ditching friends over a girl, huh? He smirked while standing in the elevator.
He remembered when he was eighteen, once chatting with Han Shaojing and Tu Yanming about the tale of Daji from "Investiture of the Gods" causing a huge calamity.
At the time, he thought King Zhou was foolish to be infatuated with Daji. She was only a woman, after all, nothing big.
Han Shaojing laughed, "I’d love to see if there will come a time when you’ll break your principles and lose your rationality for a woman, turning into a modern version of King Zhou!"
He laughed it off then, reassuring, "Don’t worry, I won’t!"
Now, more than a decade has passed. Looking back at that conversation and his determined gaze then, he couldn’t help but find it amusing!