Following

Ye Shuang arrived at the troubled department only to find Chen Hai already sitting in a chair. His condition was terrible, even somewhat pathetic—the wounds from his last fight with Ye Shuang hadn't even healed yet, and now he had several new bruises.

He was leaning his arms on his knees, and his glasses had fallen to the side, left unpicked.

"What happened?!" Quite a few people were gathered around, and they all fell silent the moment Ye Shuang appeared.

It was President Ye.

The crowd instinctively parted to let Ye Shuang through.

"President Ye, two new hires got into a fight…" An employee began explaining the incident—basically, an argument between the two had escalated into a physical altercation.

Hearing this, Ye Shuang frowned slightly and looked at the other person who had fought with Chen Hai. He found this person somewhat familiar—tall and skinny, like a bamboo pole.

"Huh?"

Why did he look so familiar? It was as if he knew him.

[Character: Feng Xiaowei

Your high school love rival. Oho, oho, the show's about to begin.]

Ye Shuang: "..."

Feng Xiaowei.

During high school, Ye Shuang's impression of this person was faint, almost non-existent. Wait… shouldn't he have known him, since he was a love rival?

Love rival…

Could it be related to that girl named Zhao Mengyao?

"…" A sudden sharp pain in his head made Ye Shuang fall silent for a moment. He then glanced at the condition of Feng Xiaowei and Chen Hai and said calmly,

"Both of you, come to my office first."

Chen Hai stood up and followed Ye Shuang without a word.

Feng Xiaowei, on the other hand, looked at Ye Shuang with confusion before asking, "You… are Ye Shuang?"

"It's President Ye. How can you casually address the Vice President by name?" a colleague immediately whispered beside him.

A subtle expression appeared on Feng Xiaowei's face, showing hesitation, as if he didn't want to leave with Ye Shuang.

"I-I'm not feeling well!" Feng Xiaowei blurted out,

"My stomach hurts!"

However, An Shiyu, who was standing nearby, suddenly handed something over. Feng Xiaowei was taken aback and looked at the girl with puzzlement, "This… what is it?"

And why was this young girl wearing a maid outfit?

"This thing is called glue, so you don't have to go to the bathroom," An Shiyu said with dot eyes.

Feng Xiaowei didn't understand the connection between the bathroom and glue until An Shiyu said with a look of disdain, "To glue your asshole shut, duh. Don't you get it, you idiot?"

Feng Xiaowei: "..."

Huh?

“Follow me for now,” Ye Shuang's calm tone carried an air of undeniable authority. Feng Xiaowei unconsciously followed him into the elevator.

The quiet elevator ascended slowly.

Ye Shuang glanced at Chen Hai beside him. Although he very much wanted to ask about his injuries, they didn't seem serious for the time being.

Just a few more bruises.

Back in the office, Ye Shuang had Kou Kou pour them both a glass of water and then asked about the details of what had actually happened.

Feng Xiaowei looked at Ye Shuang and chose to remain silent for the moment. Chen Hai, however, sneered at him a few times, "You dumbass, weren't you all high and mighty just now? Even blabbering about Ye and Zhao Mengyao. What's wrong, cat got your tongue now?"

Hearing Chen Hai's voice, Feng Xiaowei shot him a venomous look, "..."

"Hahaha, dumbass, didn't expect Ye Shuang to be your boss, did you? Hahaha!" Chen Hai was amused.

He actually hadn't expected to run into Feng Xiaowei on his very first day at work. The few of them had never gotten along back in high school, especially after Ye Shuang started dating Zhao Mengyao—this Feng Xiaowei had secretly caused plenty of trouble back then.

Chen Hai had originally thought that bygones should be bygones. Who knew this Feng Xiaowei would still have a nasty mouth? That's how the two ended up fighting.

"Heh, guess I'm out of luck then," Feng Xiaowei decided to drop all pretense now and looked at Ye Shuang,

"President Ye, is it? Never thought you'd do so well for yourself, even becoming a Vice President here."

To be honest, Feng Xiaowei was naturally extremely jealous. He had gone through five rounds of interviews to get in here. Who would have thought that after finally entering this company, he'd find his former love rival as his direct superior?

This feeling…

It was as if he were the protagonist of a novel, just waiting to awaken a system and put the other guy in his place.

But this was reality. Feng Xiaowei could only fantasize.

Hearing this much, Ye Shuang roughly understood what was going on.

It was probably Feng Xiaowei running into Chen Hai, and with both of them having sharp tongues, they just ended up fighting.

"Each of you will write me a two-thousand-word self-criticism essay, receive a formal demerit, and have one month's commission deducted. If there's a next time, you'll be fired. Any problems with that?" Ye Shuang didn't have time right now to dwell on high school romantic entanglements.

To be honest, he didn't care about what happened back then anymore. Or perhaps, because his memories were gone, Zhao Mengyao simply wasn't important to Ye Shuang himself.

After Ye Shuang said this, both Feng Xiaowei and Chen Hai were stunned.

One was surprised that Ye Shuang wasn't firing him; the other was confused why he was being punished for standing up for his buddy.

"You… you're not firing me?" Feng Xiaowei looked at Ye Shuang in astonishment.

Having just dropped all pretense, he had already prepared himself to leave.

"I'm handling this according to regulations," Ye Shuang said slowly.

Feng Xiaowei: "..."

For a moment, his own behavior of tearing off the facade made him feel suddenly ashamed. He could even sense that Ye Shuang hadn't taken him to heart at all, as if dealing with some stray dog that had wandered in.

After Feng Xiaowei left in a daze, Ye Shuang now looked at Chen Hai, only to find him looking very displeased.

"I got into a fight for you, bro, and you still punish me," Chen Hai said gloomily.

"Although fists can be effective, in the workplace, it's the lowest form of behavior. You're aiming for a promotion in the future—don't leave such a black mark on your record," Ye Shuang said, looking somewhat helplessly at Chen Hai.

"And, although I told you to hand in a self-criticism, you could just not write it, couldn't you? After all, I'm the one who'll be checking it."

"Oh, got it. Just going through the motions," Chen Hai said, suddenly understanding, but then he winced in pain, holding his face, "Damn, that bamboo pole really packs a punch."

"Head back now. Chen Qin will definitely find out about this," Ye Shuang continued. "Lay low for a while. If you want Uncle Chen and the others to truly trust you, don't let something like this happen again."

Chen Hai muttered, "About Chen Qin…"

"I'll talk to her."

"Alright, as long as the old man doesn't find out."

After Chen Hai left, Ye Shuang slowly let out a sigh.

He shouldn't have had to handle this sort of thing, but since it involved Chen Hai, Ye Shuang couldn't just ignore it.

"Speaking of which, what time is it?"

Ye Shuang checked the time and saw it was almost time to get off work.

"Time to leave." The clock hit five, and Ye Shuang announced.

"Packing up," An Shiyu, who was nearby, chimed in.

And so, An Shiyu followed Ye Shuang home.