Song Xiao looked at His Majesty the emperor, who was starting to speak nonsense once again, and his lips curled up. “Don’t cause trouble. If there’s nothing for me to do, I’m going back to sleep.”
“Not allowed!” Yu Tang overruled him without hesitation. “Come here and read the memorials for zhen.”
He had been looking at files the entire time since coming to work, to the point of becoming bleary-eyed. Yu Tang leaned back in the leather chair and kneaded the space between his eyebrows.
Song Xiao sat down across the table and pulled over a stack of documents to read.
Yu Tang was currently the chairman of the entire Chinese region and had to handle a massive jumble of matters. Moreover, a few companies had just started working together, so many regulations had yet to be finalized, and the submitted documents weren’t organised by priority.
Lifting his hand, Song Xiao categorised the documents accordingly: he placed the finance approval forms that required Yu Tang’s signature together, then the contracts that also needed to be signed, then the project materials that had to be reviewed for understanding; meeting minutes that weren’t urgent were tossed to one side. Song Xiao placed the property endorsements in front of Yu Tang first, beginning with the ones that involved the largest financial sums. He then began to read the contracts that required Yu Tang’s signature and marked out the key points with a pencil.
Yu Tang looked at him and picked up his pen again to start signing documents. After signing for a while, he raised his head and looked at Song Xiao.
‘A fair hand grasped a pen and painted red strokes, concentrating on cataloguing the country with furrowed eyebrows’ This was what he saw.
Because of his outstanding memory, Song Xiao read very quickly and was able to swiftly grasp the rough gist of each business agreement and pick out the important sentences.
The legal department had gone through each contract and circled the key points, but there were too many of them. Reading every point would waste a lot of Yu Tang’s time. Thus, Song Xiao only indicated the points that Yu Tang needed to pay attention to, and then gave him the contract for a look.
They absent-mindedly returned to the imperial study from a thousand years ago, when Yu Jintang, who had too many memorials to go through and wanted to slack off, seized the empress to review the memorials with him.
One read the memorial first and underlined the key points with a blue brush while the other used a cinnabar brush to comment on it. When they came across a complicated matter, they discussed it together.
Dugu An silently dragged his little desk over to a blind spot behind the sofa before he continued to busily tap tap tap away.
The two of them working together was a lot more efficient. Song Xiao looked over everything, and after more or less understanding how Dayu was involved, he couldn’t help sighing. The Yu family had more power than he had imagined. There were no less than twenty major companies which bore the ‘Dayu’ sign, to say nothing of joint ventures or companies where Dayu held the majority of shares.
“These can be given to those below to handle later.” Song Xiao gathered some of the materials together.
Yu Tang was silent for a moment, then waved his hand to indicate for Song Xiao to come over to his side of the table.
Of course Song Xiao wouldn’t foolishly go over; he looked at Yu Tang with a raised eyebrow. “Chairman, we’re currently at work. Don’t disrupt things.”
“What disrupting will there be?” Yu Tang crossed his long legs and looked at him with cold eyes.
“If your subordinates saw us…” Song Xiao turned his head to look at Dugu An, only to discover that the loyal secret guard had mysteriously disappeared along with his desk.
Yu Tang stood up, walked around the table to Song Xiao’s side, and lowered his head to bite his ear. “This room is soundproof; no one will notice, even if you cry yourself hoarse.”
This was clearly a line out of a script, and Song Xiao felt particularly ashamed as he elbowed Yu Tang. Yu Tang grabbed his arm firmly and twisted it behind Song Xiao’s back. “Disrespecting the lord; you dare attack zhen?”
“Wu…” His wrist twinged, and Song Xiao groaned with a furrowed brow.
“Does it hurt?” Yu Tang quickly loosened his grip. Pulling up Song Xiao’s sleeve, he saw the red circle around the latter’s wrist.
“It’s sprained.” Song Xiao twisted his wrist, his fingers feeling like there was no strength in them.
Yu Tang grabbed his hand and slowly massaged Song Xiao’s wrist with two fingers as he quickly realigned it.
“Chairman, the lunch me… nu…” Secretary Jin knocked on the door and pushed it open right away. Seeing this scene, she reflexively stepped inside and shut the door. Only then did she realise that she had shut herself inside the room as well, and was witnessing the chairman touch his assistant’s hand in broad daylight.
As a qualified secretary, she had to possess the… special ability… to instantly turn a blind eye to what shouldn’t be seen.
Secretary Jin took off her gold-rimmed glasses, and calmly placed the menu on a small table next to the door. “This is today’s menu. Take a look and see what you want to eat; should I book a table?”
“Book a table on the second floor, and order Chinese food,” Yu Tang replied as he glanced at the secretary and took note of her tactfulness, before unhurriedly letting go of Song Xiao’s hand.
There were a few high-end restaurants on the second floor of Yinyu Building that served Chinese and Western food, and which belonged to Dayu. These places were mainly free of charge for internal staff, and used to entertain guests.
At the news that the chairman was coming to eat, the best seat was naturally left for him.
Song Xiao originally wanted to eat in the canteen on the middle level, and get acquainted with company staff at the same time. Unfortunately, the chairman daren tyrannically said, “Accompanying the chairman to eat is also part of an assistant’s job.”
“Then Anyi…” Song Xiao wanted to say that Anyi was also an assistant, so why didn’t Yu Tang have Anyi accompany him. Who knew that when he turned around, Dugu An had already come along on his own accord, and was sitting at an adjacent table, staring at them expressionlessly.
Song Xiao’s protests were in vain, and he was bullied into having lunch with the chairman. It had to be said that the dishes here were very good. The garlic shrimpwas tender and flavourful, while the fried chicken wings were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The most delicious was the fried pig skin, which was crispy and oily without being greasy. With a single bite, Song Xiao’s mouth filled with the flavour.
Song Xiao ate very happily, and the matter of developing a good relationship with his colleagues was tossed to the back of his mind.
Dugu An also ate very happily. He ordered four pork meatballs and gulped down three bowls of rice.
During lunch, many employees came to the second floor to have a sumptuous meal or entertain guests. From time to time, they would glance at the booth which faced the window, and the secret guard would stare back at them as he chewed on his meatballs.
After one meal, the entire company knew that the chairman had a new assistant whom he especially doted on.
It was said that this new assistant was especially like a character in the novel. They were late on their first day of work, and took the chairman’s exclusive elevator — they were even staying at the chairman’s house. It was said that the administrative department had already ordered a new table that would be moved into the chairman’s office. This meant that the new assistant would be permanently stationed inside the chairman’s office!
“Unexpectedly, a seductress caught the first worm, sob sob sob!” The female colleagues in the company all bit their handkerchiefs.
“I heard that it’s a white lotus!” a beauty from the PR department said through gritted teeth.
“No ah… It’s a hot guy…” the person who spread the word said with a sigh.
“Ah… ah?”
The incredibly excited crowd instantly quieted down. Since it was a guy, then perhaps, it really was the chairman’s… relative ba.
A young, handsome, and extremely capable chairman, and a fair, delicate, and ditzy new assistant; this was clearly the opening of an idol drama, but given the gender, it instantly turned into a local story of coming to the big city to work by relying on a relative.
“Heh, young people.” The HR department chief shook his head and took a slow sip of his coffee.
“What, you have a different view?” The head of financial affairs snatched the coffee out of the HR chief’s hand and slapped the man’s beer belly with the back of his hand.
“This chairman of ours is very skilled.” The HR chief smiled mysteriously. “Who is Dugu An? He’s the foster son of the Yu family. In this situation, the chairman certainly has to be wary of him.”
The head of financial affairs was stunned. “Are you saying…”
“I saw that new kid today. He doesn’t look like a student at all, and he speaks flawlessly.” The HR chief narrowed his eyes. “The chairman is playing a game of checks and balances!”
Little Theater
Fish Tang: The path to an emperor lies in checks and balances
Didi: Imperial brother, what are checks and balances?
Fish Tang: It means to control the empress and measure his depth
Didi: (￢_￢)
Baobao Notes
What he’s saying in the very last sentence is that Yu Tang brought in Dugu An to keep an eye on him. Since he’s a ‘foster brother’, Dugu An might have a right to the Dayu business. The ‘new kid’ seems pretty skilled, and the chief assumes Song Xiao was brought in to keep Dugu An in check.
I’m… assuming it’s not physical depths(Jules: Are you sure it’s not? (￢_￢))?? And I’m very sure that’s NOT how checks and balances are played. Yu Tang’s just being silly again.