Love Has Fireworks - Chapter 79

Chapter 79: Yao Jingjing's Side Story (Part IV)

On their third date, Lu Ze asked Yao Jingjing a very serious question—he asked what her actual profession was.

Yao Jingjing told him, "I originally studied finance, but after my manager discovered my special talents and gifts, he decided that those who are capable should do more work. So, he had me help him manage two other departments on the side."

Lu Ze asked, "What work?"

Yao Jingjing said, "Sales and human resources."

Lu Ze raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realize you were a triathlon athlete in the corporate world."

Yao Jingjing mimicked him by raising her eyebrow. "Do not easily trust what your naked eyes see. They will deceive you, causing you to mistake a great person for someone insignificant."

Lu Ze looked at her twitching eyebrows and narrowed his eyes. "What exactly did you mean when you said your manager discovered your special talents and gifts?"

Yao Jingjing mimicked him by narrowing her eyes too, and said, "In the words of my manager, I have a great temper and incredible endurance. I am like an slippery piece of thick meat that can handle both the righteous and the wicked across the board."

Lu Ze formed a fist with one hand, placed it in front of his mouth, and cleared his throat.

Standing beside him, Yao Jingjing asked, "Do you want to laugh? You definitely want to laugh! I've already figured you out. Whenever you want to laugh but are desperately holding it in to maintain your aloof, stone face, you clear your throat! But mister, can you tell me what's so funny so I can share in the joy too?"

Lu Ze lowered his hand, his face completely expressionless. "It's nothing. I just think your manager understands you very well."

After a brief pause, he spoke up again. "Let me ask you a question. Let's see what you would do if you encountered this situation."

Yao Jingjing blinked her eyes and asked, "Are there any rewards if I answer correctly?"

Lu Ze raised an eyebrow. "What kind of reward do you want?"

Yao Jingjing thought about it and said, "My best friend was cheated on by her ex-boyfriend. I need to go teach that guy a proper lesson!"

Lu Ze frowned. "You want me to help you teach him a lesson?"

Yao Jingjing wagged her finger. "No, no, no! I have to do it myself to experience the pleasure of self-reliance! I plan to go yell at him, but I don't know what words would be the most powerful and effective. I figured that since you're a man, you could help me come up with some harsh words from a male perspective!"

Lu Ze's gaze went unfocused for a split second. When he refocused, he raised an eyebrow and asked, "You want me to help you compile insults to yell at him?"

Yao Jingjing nodded and snapped her fingers. "Exactly!"

Lu Ze stared at her for a long while, then let out a sharp chuckle with a curl of his lip. "Your manager was right. You truly possess the special talent and gift of a slippery piece of thick meat."

Yao Jingjing said with a beaming smile, "So that means you agree, right? Great, now go ahead and ask me your question!"

Lu Ze looked at her and asked, "Suppose you join a new company and are not yet familiar with anything. A colleague of yours frequently assigns their own work to you. You are exhausted, but this colleague holds a higher rank than you, so you cannot refuse. Over a long period of time, what would you do in this situation?"

He had asked this exact question to many job interviewees before. Everyone gave different answers, but there had never been one that made him particularly satisfied.

Some answered that they would report the situation to the manager and let the manager handle it fairly. Some said they would endure it, waiting until they reached a higher rank than that colleague, at which point the person wouldn't dare boss them around anymore. Still others said they could assign some of the work to people of an even lower rank than themselves; if there were no lower-ranked employees, they would assign it to the interns, because one had to follow the rules of the corporate world, where the weak must obey the strong.

Lu Ze really wanted to hear what kind of answer Yao Jingjing, whose brain worked differently from ordinary people, would give.

"Oh, please!" Yao Jingjing slapped the table. "You call that a problem? If it were me, I would directly build a great relationship and become friends with his manager. I would get close to his manager every single day, talking seamlessly and chatting smoothly. Let's see if he still dares to boss me around to do his work then!"

Lu Ze looked at her, momentarily dazed.

Her answer certainly blazed a completely new trail. It was simple, raw, and direct, but he had to admit it was indeed an effective and brilliant method.

He thought about it and raised a doubt. "But can you guarantee that you will definitely be able to become friends with his manager?"

Yao Jingjing said, "Whether I actually can isn't really important. I will find a way to make him believe that I have already become friends with his manager. If I can't form the substance, I can manufacture the illusion. In short, as long as I can intimidate him, my goal is achieved!"

Looking at her, Lu Ze began to feel that her manager did indeed possess an excellent eye for talent.

Yao Jingjing asked him, "Is my answer considered passing?"

Lu Ze answered with something completely unrelated. "In a short while, I will be going to Dalian to prepare for the opening of a branch company."

Yao Jingjing let out an "oh" and asked, "And then? Do you intend to hand over the Beijing business for me to take care of?"

Lu Ze cleared his throat and said, "I am more inclined to use a versatile talent like you, who understands finance, sales, and human resources, to conquer new territory."

Yao Jingjing froze for a moment. "Meaning, you want to take me with you?"

Lu Ze nodded. "I will be staying in Dalian for a long time. Are you interested in coming along to help me?"

Yao Jingjing laughed. "Don't tell me you were interviewing me just now?"

Lu Ze raised an eyebrow. "You can look at it that way."

Yao Jingjing laughed even more cheerfully. "Which means my interview results were pretty good?"

Lu Ze raised his eyebrow again. "Yes, pretty good."

Yao Jingjing smiled like a blooming flower. "Then how much money do you plan to hire me for?"

Lu Ze said, "Name a price yourself."

Yao Jingjing thought about it. "Don't give me the chance to open a massive mouth like a lion! I might not be able to stop or control my desires, and I'll end up naming an astronomical price!"

Lu Ze lightly cleared his throat. "You don't have to control them."

Yao Jingjing slapped the table. "Then if I say an annual salary of five hundred thousand currency units, will you give it to me!"

Lu Ze looked at her and said in a calm tone, "I'll give you double."

Yao Jingjing froze, her mouth stretching into the shape of a large tea egg. "Wow? Double?" Immediately after, she slapped the table again, her face wearing a grand expression of serving the people. "Director Lu, I'll go back right away to check the weather forecast for Dalian. Just say the word on when we depart, and I'll immediately grab my suitcase and go whenever you say!"

●︶3︶●

Before heading to Dalian with Lu Ze, Yao Jingjing really did run over to the headquarters of Qiansheng Group, cornered Wang Ruohai, and gave him a fierce and savage yelling.

Lu Ze didn't help her come up with the words, but he acted as her driver. Driving his flashy Ferrari, he pulled up right in front of Wang Ruohai, allowing her to make a magnificent entrance.

During the confrontation, Wang Ruohai was pushed into a corner with criticisms, so he pointed at the Ferrari and snapped at Yao Jingjing, "Look at you! Aren't you leaning on a wealthy sugar daddy yourself? Aren't you also pursuing a better life? Don't you also want to treat yourself a bit better? Then what right do you have to accuse me?"

At that exact moment, Yao Jingjing was practically exploding with rage. She never expected to be bitten back by Wang Ruohai in this place.

While she was trembling with pure anger, Lu Ze stepped out of the car.

He walked straight over, stood firmly in front of Wang Ruohai, and said in an incredibly dominant manner, "Let me correct your words. She is not leaning on me; I am headhunting her with a high salary. Furthermore, if you are a man, don't compare yourself to a woman like this. It lowers your worth."

After speaking, he guided her back into the car.

When Yao Jingjing looked back, she saw Wang Ruohai standing on the exact same spot with a deathly pale face, inhaling the exhaust fumes from their car. She instantly felt an immense, satisfying wave of relief surge through her entire body.

●︶3︶●

Two weeks later, Yao Jingjing packed her bags and accompanied the wealthy Lu Ze to head quickly north, going to a city she had never been to before to conquer new territory and cut through thorns.

During the days spent working under Lu Ze, Yao Jingjing put in her absolute best effort with full dedication. Sometimes when things got busy, while she was working herself to the bone, she would completely lose track of what her original purpose for coming here had been.

In reality, she hadn't come to be a tiny corporate hero; she had come to conquer a wealthy man...

She felt as though she had received a new lease on life in the corporate world. Lu Ze gave her ample space and freedom in her work, allowing her to fully unleash and display her wildly creative ideas and talents.

Lu Ze gave immense validation to her working capabilities and placed heavier responsibilities on her shoulders as time went on.

Yao Jingjing's life was more powerful and smooth-sailing than ever before, but for some unknown reason, she still felt quite displeased about something at times.

She felt there was a certain attitude about Lu Ze that was exceptionally annoying. He never made it clear to her whether they had a deeper layer of connection beyond being business partners. His attitude remained completely ambiguous and vague, as if he were stringing her along to play games with her.

This annoying behavior of his ignited an infinite fighting spirit within her. During a break, she walked out into the corridor to make a phone call to Qian Fei.

●︶3︶●

Yao Jingjing spoke to Qian Fei through the phone with gnashing teeth. "Curse it all, isn't he just playing games with me? Fine, I'll play games with him! Let's see if I don't tame him completely!"

Qian Fei fell silent on the other end of the line for a moment before asking, "So you're getting fired up now?"

Yao Jingjing said, "Yes, I'm fired up! I refuse to believe that with my rich experience navigating the romance scene since kindergarten, I won't even be able to manage a single stone-faced grown man!"

Qian Fei asked her with a face full of dark lines, "Since you're competing with him like this, do you actually like him or not?"

Yao Jingjing thought about it and said, "I feel that the question of whether I like him or not isn't important right now. What's important is that I must salvage my disadvantage of constantly being in the lower position!"

Qian Fei asked, "Then how do you plan to salvage your disadvantage?"

Without the slightest hesitation, Yao Jingjing answered, "I've decided that I'm going to play games with him too!"

Qian Fei silently wiped away her sweat, wished her good luck, and said goodbye.

However, when Yao Jingjing hung up the phone and turned around intending to head back to the office, she received a massive fright.

Lu Ze was standing expressionlessly barely two paces away from her.

She shuddered violently. How much of her phone conversation had he just overheard?

She asked tentatively, "Handsome, how long have you been standing here waiting to scare people?"

Lu Ze looked at her, his face looking as though it had been injected with an overdose of Botox, completely rigid without a single trace of warmth. "Just arrived."

Yao Jingjing breathed a sigh of relief.

This man was overbearing, arrogant, and cold; he never disdained to speak anything other than the absolute truth. Since he said he had just arrived, he definitely hadn't had the time to hear the contents of her phone call.

She walked back to the office with relaxed steps, firmly resolved to implement her "play games with him" strategy exactly as planned without wavering.

●︶3︶●

Lu Ze sat in front of his executive desk, fiddling with a small square box. Inside it was a necklace, which he had originally intended to find an opportunity to give to that heavy-eating woman.

He had always been bad at using his mouth to express his emotions, but he felt that the heavy-eating woman should be able to sense that he treated her differently from everyone else.

He had originally planned to give her this gift tonight, treating it as a clear statement to tell her exactly what his attitude toward her was.

Consequently, during the afternoon, he had overheard her saying to her best friend on the phone that whether she liked him or not wasn't important, that what was important was salvaging her disadvantage of being in the lower position, and furthermore, that she was going to play games with him too.

Hearing her say these unreliable words, he really wanted to go over and rap her on the head to see if he could knock some sense into her.

She had asked him when he appeared behind her. He had wanted to say it had been a very long time—long enough to hear the entire contents of her conversation.

But on second thought, he felt that doing so might take away a lot of the fun.

He actually really wanted to see what kind of ridiculous schemes she would pull off next to "play" with him.

Therefore, he said, "Just arrived."

After playing with the necklace box for a while longer, he put it away inside a drawer.

He decided not to rush into giving it to her. He wanted to see exactly how she was going to deal with a stone-faced grown man like him.

●︶3︶●

Yao Jingjing exhausted all her abilities, dressing up glamorously every single day to sway back and forth right in front of Lu Ze's eyes.

She felt that Lu Ze must have overindulged his desires in his past life, which was why in this life, he could remain perfectly calm, composed, and entirely unexcited in a celibate state when facing her—who was sometimes enchanting, sometimes pure, sometimes as quiet as a virgin, and sometimes as active as a fleeting rabbit.

Faced with his reaction, which mirrored that of a monk, she felt somewhat frustrated at times. Fortunately, it wasn't as if she had gained absolutely nothing. Although Lu Ze showed no signs of excitement toward her, she began to receive fresh flowers sent by other men. Among these men, some were clients, some were bosses of cooperating companies, and some were even newly recruited young talents from her own company.

Whenever she held bundles of fresh flowers, her internal feelings were exceptionally complex. She looked up at the sky and lamented that she must have misdirected her efforts—the person who was supposed to have a reaction showed none at all, while people who weren't supposed to have reactions were flooding the place with hormones one after another.

However, starting from some unknown day, strangely enough, she never received flowers from those men ever again.

During that period of time, she stared into the mirror with all her might to see if she had suddenly turned hideous.

Yet, no matter how she looked at it, she was still glamorous and beautiful. How had she suddenly lost her attribute of attracting bees and butterflies?

She was truly puzzled, depressed, and thoroughly suffocated.

●︶3︶●

Lu Ze watched Yao Jingjing sway back and forth in front of his eyes in glamorous outfits every single day, finding it exceptionally pleasing to the eye.

He coldly appreciated her racking her brains every day to flaunt her charms in front of him in various ways. Although he remained expressionless on the surface, he was feeling secretly ecstatic in his heart.

He increasingly felt that this heavy-eating woman was exceptionally interesting, and he increasingly didn't want to pierce that thin layer of window paper between them so quickly. Watching her change her styles across cold, hot, sweet, and sour notes every day, exhausting all methods just to attract his attention, made him feel exceptionally comfortable and amused.

However, his comfort and amusement were quickly replaced by annoyance and displeasure.

She had actually started receiving flowers from other men, and it wasn't just a single bundle either.

Looking at those flowers, a wave of rage belonging to the feeling of having his own property eyed by others surged up in his chest.

He told the front desk that if anyone sent flowers to her again, they should deliver them directly to his office.

Then, taking advantage of moments when no one was looking, he threw every single one of those flowers away.

From then on, he recovered his comfortable and secretly ecstatic life.

The rather annoying part, however, was that before he could enjoy it for many days, his troublesome ex-girlfriend actually came to find him.