Chapter 3

After settling Gu Yuetong in her room to rest, Qi Baizi went out to find out which floor the conference room was on.

This time, she was more cautious. She specifically reviewed the document titled “President Gu’s Personal Preferences” that her training manager had given her before she started. She learned that Gu Yuetong had an unusually high standard for the cleanliness of conference rooms.

So, Qi Baizi gave the cleaning staff a voucher she had received when paying at the Western restaurant and asked them to clean the entire conference room again with disinfectant. Even the tables and chairs were arranged in an orderly fashion, aligned with the lines of the floor tiles.

Looking at the reflective floor, Qi Baizi assured herself that this time, Gu Yuetong would definitely not be able to find any faults.

Unexpectedly, halfway through the afternoon meeting, Gu Yuetong suddenly shot her a glare.

As she was considered non-essential personnel, Qi Baizi stood at the back of the conference room at the end of the long table, directly opposite Gu Yuetong.

This way, not only could she not hear the content of the meeting clearly, but she could also ensure she had a clear view of Gu Yuetong’s every move.

But she didn’t understand why she had earned that glare.

After standing for four hours, the meeting finally ended. Qi Baizi took the initiative to find Gu Yuetong and ask if she had done something wrong.

Gu Yuetong sneered, told her to figure it out herself, and then strode back to her room.

Everyone else had left, and Qi Baizi stared at the vast conference room in silence.

She really couldn’t figure it out.

When she returned to the room, Gu Yuetong was in her bedroom. Their room was a suite with three separate bedrooms. After they landed, when booking the hotel, Gu Yuetong had graciously allowed her to stay in the guest room opposite the master bedroom. This was convenient and saved money… otherwise, Qi Baizi would have had to pay for this seven-star hotel herself. She had already been prepared to use her credit card.

Gu Yuetong’s bedroom door was tightly shut. Qi Baizi assumed she had no further arrangements and sat on the soft mattress in her guest room to make a phone call.

She called the manager who had trained her and told him what had happened during the meeting. The manager on the other end was also dumbfounded, asking her one by one if she had done something wrong. “Did you prepare tea in advance? Was the tea concentration and water temperature appropriate? Were the tables and chairs in the conference room clean? Was the air conditioning temperature adjusted? Did you control the sound of your breathing?”

After receiving affirmative answers to all his questions, the manager fell silent.

To be fair, the fact that Qi Baizi had lasted this long and was even accompanying Gu Yuetong on a business trip had already nearly broken the records of her several predecessors.

That “President Gu’s Preferences” document was full of lessons learned from those who came before her. There was one who was fired for stepping into the company with his left foot on the first day, and another who was escorted out of the office by security for putting too much tea in the pot… For an outsourcing company, such a wealthy and demanding demon was indeed a difficult problem.

“If all else fails, why don’t you ask someone close to her?”

“I…”

“I have a former colleague who used to work in the Gu Corporation’s Administration Group. I’ll give you his contact information.”

Qi Baizi switched to inquiry mode again. The person on the other end was easy to talk to and got straight to the point. “You’re having a meeting at a hotel? Were the patterns on the paper cups all the same?”

Qi Baizi was stunned for a few seconds, then recalled, “They seemed a bit different, but the base color was white, so the difference wasn’t obvious. A normal person probably wouldn’t notice that, right?”

“Let me put it this way, this woman studied at an art academy before she was eighteen. She can see every pattern and texture with perfect clarity,” a scoff came from the other end of the line. “Pay attention to the details. I learned that the hard way.”

Complaining about Gu Yuetong seemed to be a black hole of a topic, endless and inexhaustible. The person on the other end complained to her for nearly ten minutes without repeating himself, ending with the line, “Guess why I’d rather work for an outsourcing company now.”

After hanging up, Qi Baizi almost couldn’t catch her breath. She remembered what the recruiter at the job fair had told her: “If you’re not even afraid of getting hit, then you’re perfectly suited for this job!”

Qi Baizi: How about you just hit me directly?

Just as she caught her breath, there was a knock on her bedroom door. Qi Baizi’s heart skipped a beat. Was Gu Yuetong here to fire her? It was only her first day! She hadn’t even seen a shadow of that eighteen thousand! And the outsourcing company hadn’t started paying off her student loan yet…

“Are you there?”

“Y-yes!” Qi Baizi braced herself for the bad news. She opened the door, only to see Gu Yuetong standing outside in a tracksuit.

Unlike her indifferent aura in professional attire, this black and purple tracksuit made Gu Yuetong look somewhat playful—if you didn’t look at her face.

“Going to eat?”

“Yes.” Qi Baizi immediately grabbed her phone, ready to accompany her boss to dinner.

But Gu Yuetong paused, looking her up and down. “You can ask the hotel manager for some more casual clothes.”

Qi Baizi was taken aback. Did the hotel even offer that service?

However, it was best to follow the boss’s suggestions. To save time, Qi Baizi went straight downstairs and got a white T-shirt and long pants from the manager.

After changing, she went to the restaurant to find Gu Yuetong and discovered that the chair opposite her was pulled out.

Qi Baizi sat down timidly.

“President Gu, I’ve figured out the problem with the conference room.”

A plate of pre-dinner dessert was placed in front of Gu Yuetong. The waiter had only brought one serving since he had seen she was alone earlier.

“Let’s hear it.”

Qi Baizi didn’t know where to look, so she just stared at the dessert.

“The problem was the paper cups. It was my oversight. I should have paid attention to the patterns on the cups.”

“Mm, be mindful next time.” Gu Yuetong seemed to be in a good mood and surprisingly let it slide. “I’m going for a swim later. You can come with me and hold my things.”

After speaking, she pushed the dessert plate forward, gesturing for Qi Baizi to eat.

This time, Qi Baizi was truly flattered.

After the main courses were served, Gu Yuetong said, “I don’t know what you like to eat, so I only ordered my own portion.”

Qi Baizi would never dare to expect her to order for her. She called the waiter over herself and ordered a meal one tier lower than Gu Yuetong’s.

After dinner, Gu Yuetong went to the swimming pool by herself, leaving Qi Baizi to nibble on her “grass” alone.

Gu Yuetong had ordered a Spanish ham and vegetable salad. Qi Baizi’s was half the price, a pure vegetable salad. She felt like her face was turning green from all the grass-nibbling.

Not long after Gu Yuetong left, she also got up and went to the pool.

As Gu Yuetong came out of the changing room, she saw her and handed over her phone and wristband before diving into the fast lane.

If she hadn’t called out to Qi Baizi, Qi Baizi wouldn’t have recognized her at first glance. She wore a one-piece swimsuit, with a matching swim cap and goggles. Her skin was as white as snow, and her legs were long, slender, and well-toned.

Gu Yuetong… really did fit Qi Baizi’s fantasy of someone of her status.

Qi Baizi put on a pair of disposable slippers and sat by the pool, her pant legs rolled up.

There weren’t many people in the pool, so no one paid her any attention.

Gu Yuetong swam back and forth for what seemed like countless laps, apparently still wanting more. Qi Baizi was bored, occasionally looking at her phone. Gu Yuetong’s phone was in her other hand.

Suddenly, Gu Yuetong’s phone screen lit up. Qi Baizi swore she didn’t mean to look—it was just a subconscious glance.

A few large words on the screen caught her eye:

Ex-wife Sister: Thank you, love you!

There were a few emojis after that, but the screen was locked, so she couldn’t see them.

Qi Baizi was grateful for the lock screen. Thank goodness she couldn’t see them!

She snapped her head up, pretending nothing had happened and looking around, but her palms were sweating slightly.

On her first day of work, under the command of the wealthy demon Gu Yuetong, she had personally stumbled upon her gossip!

Just as she was getting excited, Gu Yuetong had somehow gotten out of the pool and was walking over, calling her name.

Qi Baizi quickly stood up straight and handed over the phone and wristband. “President Gu, are you finished?”

Gu Yuetong took the phone and tapped it a few times, her brow furrowing slightly.

Qi Baizi pretended not to look at her, lowering her gaze to her toes the moment Gu Yuetong’s eyes swept over her.

“Let’s go back.”

“Yes.”

Gu Yuetong walked ahead, and Qi Baizi followed slowly. Suddenly, Gu Yuetong pulled off her swim cap, and her waist-length black hair cascaded down.

Qi Baizi stared in a daze. President Gu… had long, straight black hair?

Back in the suite, Gu Yuetong’s bedroom door was tightly shut.

Since it was already past seven when they got back from the pool, and Qi Baizi hadn’t eaten much all day, she was starving. So she ran to a nearby convenience store and bought a few buns.

Munching on a bun, she returned to her bedroom and checked her phone. There were several messages from her roommates in the group chat, many of them tagging her. Li Yi had sent the most. After scrolling up, she saw that it was a photo Zheng Xiaoxiao had taken of her with the luggage at the airport.

She even asked her: You’re in downtown Donglin too? Is that Gu Yuetong in front of you?

Then Li Yi and a few other roommates started to show their concern: How come you have a business trip on your first day of work?

Li Yi: How is it? Is she easy to get along with?

When Qi Baizi saw this message, she let out a cold laugh. Easy to get along with?

Had they even gotten along?

Could you even call that getting along?

To Gu Yuetong, she was just a walking robot, okay?

She briefly vented about her precarious situation of being on the verge of dismissal in the group chat, swallowed a mouthful of bun, and collapsed onto the bed.

Everyone had already entered the workforce, so it wasn’t good to complain too much. Who wasn’t having a hard time?

Li Yi alone had been cursing all day, saying she was reminded to buy milk tea for her department colleagues right after starting her job. The whole group chat was filled with resentment.

Qi Baizi thought for a moment, then logged into her alternate Weibo account, which served as her diary. Ever since her mother fell ill, she had been recording the unspoken bitterness in her heart on it.

Recording it also served as an outlet, preventing her from bottling up too much.

Occasionally, a few words of comfort from strangers were more effective at soothing her mood than venting to the people around her.

In the opposite bedroom, Gu Yuetong came out after a shower and happened to hear the sound of a door closing outside.

Although they were staying in the same suite, she wasn’t concerned about when Qi Baizi came and went. After all, it was already after work hours.

Her phone was still occasionally buzzing with one or two messages from the person labeled “Ex-wife Sister,” who was asking to borrow money and urging her to transfer it.

Gu Yuetong had just transferred sixty thousand yuan to her before the meeting in the afternoon, with a message to reduce contact. In the time it took to go for a swim, she had sent another request to borrow money, confidently assuming she would lend it to her. In Gu Yuetong’s eyes, this was utterly ridiculous.

After blocking her for years without contact, the first thing she does when she reappears is ask for money. Did she think she was a money tree?

Gu Yuetong opened her phone, typed two words, and sent them: “Not lending.” Then she added the person to her blacklist.

It was rare for her mother, Gu Hezhu, not to call and check up on her today. She probably knew she was on a business trip and not in Jingzhou. Gu Yuetong dried her hair, put on a face mask, and opened a sketchbook she carried with her, casually picking up a pen to sketch a draft.

Only after she finished drawing did she realize she had drawn the scene of Qi Baizi in the office wearing her cut-up trousers.

For years, she had a habit of doodling, recording people or events she encountered in her daily life. It seemed that the one who had left the deepest impression on her today was Qi Baizi.

Closing the sketchbook, Gu Yuetong relaxed her neck and leaned back against the headboard, opening her phone.

The first post on her local Weibo feed was local news from Donglin. The second was a random recommended post.

Little Baizi: She has such a cold and stunning face, yet she’s so petty that she can’t even tolerate different patterned paper cups in the conference room!

Gu Yuetong paused, clicked on “Little Baizi’s” profile, and saw a new post: She actually has waist-length hair? I never noticed since she always has it up in a bun! That face of hers needs long hair to be truly satisfying!

Gu Yuetong: ?

She slowly turned her head, looking in the direction of the door.

Is this… my assistant Qi Baizi’s account?