KC | Chapter 3

Chen Xi was one of the thousand employees at Lanhai, with no outstanding work achievements, no impressive negotiation presence, and no extensive social connections, just an ordinary little salesperson.

If one had to pick a bright spot on Chen Xi, then maybe it was his looks. Chen Xi belonged to the kind of type that people remembered at first glance, not because he was especially good-looking, but because he looked very soft and very easy to bully.

His face could not be called exquisitely sculpted, it was just that his facial lines and contours were relatively harmonious. His features were not as outstanding as Lin Yiran’s either, but at first glance he gave people a refined, clean feeling, looking like a sunny, youthful college guy, and some people even mistook him for a high school student. Because he had hardly any flesh on him, yet his face was chubby with baby fat, he really did look much younger than his actual age.

For someone in sales, it was taboo to look young and unprofessional. Although Chen Xi had been trying hard for the past half year to dress more maturely, wearing suits and ties, clients’ first impression of him was still: a soft persimmon that was easy to pinch.

There was no table in the small conference room, the projector had not been turned on for half a year and even the remote control could not be found, the seats were plastic, shabby and crude, completely not matching KA’s style. But no one mentioned changing to a new conference room, after all, KA did not hold meetings more than a few times a year, the good conference rooms should still be left for the business department, which liked to hold meetings often, to brainwash people.

“Xiao Chen!” Zhang Yuanji waved to Chen Xi and patted the empty seat beside him. The two of them often ate lunch together, Chen Xi had asked him to help find someone, and he had let Chen Xi handle the contract signing process, so their relationship was pretty good.

Chen Xi had walked too fast just now and accidentally twisted his waist again. Clenching his teeth, he shuffled over, trying his best to make his posture look normal.

The plastic chair in the small conference room was much harder than the rubber one in the large conference room. Chen Xi’s expression changed the moment he sat down. His skin was very fair, and the ambiguous red marks left on his neck were very conspicuous under his collar. Zhang Yuanji tilted his head and asked him, “What happened to your neck?”

“Bit by a dog.” Chen Xi raised his collar, trying to cover it up.

The mark was not there yesterday, and it showed up after one night. Where would you find a wild dog in the middle of the night? Zhang Yuanji saw through it but did not say it outright, and changed the topic in understanding: “Were you late this morning?”

“No, I was just a little late, so I sat in the back.”

“You still haven’t recovered?” Seeing that Chen Xi’s expression was off, Zhang Yuanji thought, Getting that wasted and still going at it, kid, you really play pretty wild.

Last night was KA’s celebration banquet, more precisely, Lin Yiran’s celebration banquet. After months of struggle, the formidable negotiation expert finally secured tens of millions in advertising and marketing fees from the client side, and Yucheng KA also received Lanhai Group’s incentive bonus because of this deal.

Lanhai had a rule that incentive bonuses had to be used within one week and reimbursed with invoices. Since Lin Yiran had been running projects all the way until the end of the month, it was not good for the others at KA to spend the money while the main character was not around, so they could only wait. At last, they waited until the first weekend of the month, and this celebration banquet was held yesterday.

On the reimbursement receipt, it was written as: celebration banquet, read as: a banquet to spend the money at the maximum limit.

After the group finished drinking at the banquet, they went to KTV to continue drinking, deliberately ordering the expensive liquor, determined to spend all of the incentive amount. A few of the girls could not hold on and left midway, and the few men left behind rolled up their sleeves and drank bottle after bottle.

With the girls gone, the boys spoke without restraint, spouting all kinds of dirty jokes and filthy words, and the scene was once chaotic beyond reason. In the end, Zhang Yuanji drank too much, blacked out, and could not remember a lot of things clearly. This morning when he woke up at home, he found his lower body completely empty. He reached down and touched it, and, damn it, his outer pants were still on, but his underwear had been drunk away!

As a KA connected insider, what Zhang Yuanji cared about most was face, so of course he could not ask Chen Xi, “Did you see my underwear?” and Chen Xi also could not take the initiative to bring up, “You had diarrhea yesterday, how did you get home afterward?”

Some things, once seen through, could not be said out loud. The two of them, based on the principle of “you know, I know, we all know nothing,” cleverly maintained their friendship.

Chen Xi suddenly thought, If it were not for your being useless and getting diarrhea, Lin Yiran and I definitely would not have rolled onto the bed.

It was all your fault, you pig teammate!

There were too many coincidences and too many accidents last night. Even now, whenever Chen Xi thought back on it, he still felt it was unbelievable.

He forgot how many bottles he had drunk, only remembering that he had vomited twice in total, in complete darkness and chaos. After coming out of the restroom the second time, Chen Xi rinsed his mouth at the sink, and Lin Yiran handed him a stick of chewing gum from beside him. Chen Xi said, “Thanks,” and reached for the gum, but no matter how he grabbed, he could not catch it. He felt the pieces of gum swaying, Lin Yiran swaying, the whole world swaying.

Chen Xi grabbed nothing and crashed into Lin Yiran’s arms. In July, neither of them wore much. Through the thin shirt, their hot body temperatures pressed against each other, and Chen Xi’s heartbeat went chaotic.

The moral exemplar, who still had some reason left, pushed Lin Yiran away in one motion and leaned against the sink, breathing heavily.

Lin Yiran was pushed a little dumbfounded, and for a moment did not figure out why Chen Xi suddenly made such a big movement to shove him away. He thought, Isn’t it just that you’re too drunk to stand steady, so what if you fall? It’s not like anyone would laugh at you.

Zhang Yuanji happened to come into the restroom and mumbled, “What time is it now.”

Chen Xi did not have the habit of wearing a watch, mainly because he could not afford one. Lin Yiran glanced at his wristwatch and said, “11 o’clock.”

“Oh. Brother Lin, Li Hua just vomited until he could not get up, I opened a room for him upstairs, 1603.” Zhang Yuanji walked crookedly, clearly also drunk. Only after taking a roundabout path into the restroom did he remember, “Brother Ma seems to be pretty out of it too. If he can’t walk, just open another room, the money will be spent enough, then we can leave.”

Lin Yiran was also somewhat drunk. He washed his face with cold water and replied, “Okay, I’ll go downstairs to open a room for him and settle the bill as well. You can just leave directly after a while.”

“Alright.” Zhang Yuanji went into the restroom after speaking.

Chen Xi held the sink and said, “Brother Lin, I’ll wait for Brother Zhang to come out and leave together.”

A taxi ride home from here would cost about 40, Zhang Yuanji would definitely call a designated driver, I can ride with him.

Lin Yiran gave a “mm” and went downstairs to settle the bill.

Chen Xi waited for a while, but Zhang Yuanji still did not come out, so he went into the restroom and called for him.

Zhang Yuanji answered from the toilet stall, “You leave first, I have diarrhea.”

Chen Xi: …

If I could walk, would I still need to wait for you to leave together? Forget it, I might as well make do with Li Hua and sleep here for one night, not going home today. Tomorrow I can take the subway from here to the company, and save some money.

Chen Xi dragged along his two legs, which were not listening to him, and went upstairs.

After settling the bill, Lin Yiran went back to KTV to dismiss the others. Ma Longfei insisted that he was fine and wanted to go home, and the newly opened room upstairs had no one staying in it. Lin Yiran could not be bothered to refund it, so he went upstairs.

So, if Zhang Yuanji had not had diarrhea yesterday, Chen Xi and Lin Yiran probably would not have had the chance to come into close contact.

The big shots of KA sat in a row. People always said fewer people were easier to manage, but these 20 people were very hard to manage. Every person had their own personality, specialized in different key clients, and were good at unique fields. It was like each planet had its own orbit, very hard to gather together. Take meetings for example, for some KA staff, it was already good enough if they showed up at the company a few times a month, and in this half year it was the first time so many people were all here.

Maybe it was because they had held the celebration banquet yesterday and drank too much, today they had no energy to talk about clients, so they all came to the meeting.

The employees were all here, but the leaders were not. The newly appointed director Wang Shuang had a high-profile way of doing things, and should probably have been holding a farewell meeting in business, after all business placed a lot of importance on “ritual sense.” The only one left who could preside over a KA meeting was Lin Yiran.

“Are we still waiting for Brother Lin to open the meeting?” Zhang Jiyuan asked.

(⊙o⊙)…

The coworkers looked at each other wide-eyed, not knowing whether they should wait. After all, the person opening the meeting for them was the typical absentee representative of KA, Lin Yiran, who showed up at the company only a few times a month.

“Is President Lin gone to talk to a client?” Liu Xueying asked.

“Hahaha, possible. Earlier, Brother Lin attended my client’s launch event, and halfway through he received a call from the client side, so he went to talk to a client. After the launch event ended, I searched for him all over the venue, and in the end he said he forgot about me.” Li Hua teased.

Lin Yiran had resources in the real estate and home furnishing industry, and often helped Li Hua negotiate clients. Several major real estate projects that Li Hua could name were all won with Lin Yiran’s help. Li Hua had been working under Lin Yiran since he joined Lanhai, he was the one among the KA staff present who had worked with Lin Yiran the longest, and also the only one who dared to tease Lin Yiran.

Just as Li Hua finished speaking, Lin Yiran pushed the door open and came in, saying, “Everyone stand up.”

KA instantly fell silent and stood up in unison. Chen Xi broke free from the hard plastic chair, and his complexion recovered a little.

Lin Yiran said indifferently, “Recite the corporate culture.”

(⊙o⊙)…

The coworkers were dumbfounded again. Since when had KA ever recited corporate culture? That was all brainwashing work done by business.

Zhang Yuanji shared the corporate culture in the company WeChat group, and everyone muddle-headedly read down the lines, showing none of the enthusiastic, positive atmosphere they had just had when meeting together with business in the large conference room.

This little group inside the old and shabby conference room truly could not be called glamorous. KA seemed to be isolated by Lanhai.

They did not have high enthusiasm, did not say workplace pleasantries, did not have the professional quality of business, and even some employees often could not make full attendance… The only thing KA knew how to do was sign clients.

The value of KA’s existence was to sign key clients.

Lin Yiran on the stage had eyes like stars in the night sky, staring straight at Chen Xi, as if he could easily see through all the fog.

Chen Xi did not dare raise his head, he stared at the phone screen, opened Enterprise WeChat and read the corporate culture word by word.

Private WeChat rang, unread message +1.

「易燃易爆：The anti-inflammatory and fever-reducing medicine was just put in your drawer, remember to take it.」

He could not continue reciting the corporate culture. Chen Xi raised his head and bumped into Lin Yiran’s deep eyes.

The first time Chen Xi met Lin Yiran three years ago, he had thought: This person’s eyes are really beautiful. Being looked at by a pair of deep eyes, Chen Xi always developed the illusion of “being cherished,” even though he knew it was unrealistic.

Lin Yiran took advantage of everyone lowering their heads to recite the corporate culture, and mouthed two words at Chen Xi: Does it hurt?

Chen Xi lowered his head and did not look at him, cursing inwardly: A refined scum!

That day’s KA morning meeting lasted only 10 minutes, and the whole thing was held standing up.