What Lies Within

安知我意

what-lies-within

Chapter 10

Compared to the simple and dull decorating style of the thirtieth floor, Zhang Yiming's office floor was much more flamboyant and cozy. He was also more lenient with his secretaries' attire, even requiring them to wear more eye-catching colors.
A Christmas wreath hung on the office door, with one of the pinecones already loose, likely to fall off before long. The room was brightly lit, with a light brown rattan round chair beside the deep brown leather sofa, and a few square throw pillows casually placed on the sofa and chair, inviting one to curl up for a nap.
Zhang Yiming sat behind his desk reviewing reports from his subordinate departments, with quite a few trinkets scattered on the desk. Not just on the desk, but wherever decorations could be placed, there was no empty spot. He liked to buy little gadgets when traveling, some to give away, but most piled up in his office.
The secretary brought in next week's work schedule. Without looking up from the documents, Zhang Yiming asked, "Any activities tonight?"
The secretary replied, "Dinner is scheduled with Mr. Li from the International Cooperation Department of the Securities Regulatory Commission."
Zhang Yiming said irritably, "Notify Mr. Qi to go in my place."
Speak of the devil. Qi Shi'an dropped by in a spare moment, just in time to hear Zhang Yiming assigning him work. After the secretary left, he sat down on the sofa without explaining his purpose or agreeing to attend the dinner.
Zhang Yiming understood. He picked up his phone and dialed a number. When it connected, he gently said, "Miss Meng, we didn't finish discussing the critical illness insurance last time. Shall we meet tonight?"
Qi Shi'an frowned at him. As the call ended, he couldn't help but ask, "What a coincidence, surnamed Meng?"
You can never imagine the hunting range of a womanizing expert. Zhang Yiming looked at Qi Shi'an with disdain and heartache, feeling that a well-fed man mocking a starving man's hunger was quite lacking in quality. He spun half a circle in his chair to face the sunlight outside the high-rise and said, "Although I have no bottom line when it comes to relationships, I'm not so low as to be a third party."
No wonder he investigated Shen Duoyi and indirectly inquired about the reason for his resignation. Qi Shi'an asked unhappily, "What, are you at ease now?"
"Trying to pry information?" Zhang Yiming turned back around. "Meng Ping's daughter previously joined an insurance company and was mentored by Shen Duoyi. The two even went on a blind date, and people at the insurance company said they were well-matched. So I had to clarify things to avoid ruining it for them."
Who knew investigating the consulting company would bring this all out in the open, allowing them to prevent future problems.
Qi Shi'an had come to ask about Zhang Yiming's reasons for meddling in the first place. Now that everything was clear, he didn't linger. He stood up, smoothing the creases on his trousers, and said as he walked out, "Send me the address for the appointment with Mr. Li. I'll go this round."
The long corridor was filled with sunlight, but broken up by the shadows of geometric pillars, likely dizzying if stared at for too long. Qi Shi'an strolled leisurely towards the futures investment department at the other end of the corridor. Passing the beverage machine, he suddenly wanted a cup of juice.
The sound of liquid dripping masked approaching footsteps. He turned his face a bit late to look towards the futures department entrance and saw Shen Duoyi gracefully walking over with a stack of documents. As he reached him, the juice had just filled the cup.
"Having a drink?"
"Yeah, I chatted with colleagues from the futures department for a while and got a bit thirsty." Shen Duoyi went to get a cup, sensing Qi Shi'an wanted to give him the filled one, so he preemptively said, "Their department is quite cold. I'll have something hot."
The two stood in the corridor, each holding a cup, admiring the view. Qi Shi'an still had things to take care of, so he asked concisely, "Did you have business with the futures department?"
Shen Duoyi handed over the documents and replied, "It's a plan for Mr. Xu's personal account. He wants to try futures trading. I put it together and went to get opinions from colleagues. Take a look?"
Qi Shi'an took it and flipped through. Shen Duoyi continued beside him, "I selected contract varieties. First, they have a relatively clear direction, making them easier to handle. Second, the cycles are short, with many taking shape within a few months. If the timeline is too long, Mr. Xu may lose patience."
"You understand him well?" Qi Shi'an asked while looking at the documents.
"Pretty well. We've dealt with each other before." Perhaps because he started working early on, Shen Duoyi was very good at accommodating others' working styles. Elegantly put, he had "high EQ". More colloquially, he could "read the room". He flipped to the next page for Qi Shi'an and said, "These are the few items screened, not finalized yet. There are both main and non-main contracts."
Qi Shi'an ran his fingernail across the paper until it left a mark before stopping. He said, "With short cycles, the patterns need to be grasped in a timely manner, together with short-term intentions. The trends of main contracts are slightly more stable, not prone to extremes. As for the others, a few require maintaining caution. I expect the futures department's few 'pastries' have already advised you."
Shen Duoyi took back the documents and finished the last sip of his drink. He said, "I'll keep these few suggestions in mind. Thanks. I'll go back to work then."
After walking a few steps, he stopped and turned around. Qi Shi'an asked, "Anything else?"
Shen Duoyi asked in confusion, "Did I mishear? What pastries?"
Qi Shi'an smiled smugly, "Useless pastries, can't even play stocks well."
The two parted ways. Qi Shi'an entered the futures department, planning to work there until going directly to dinner with Mr. Li from the Securities Regulatory Commission. Shen Duoyi hurried towards the consulting department, amused the whole way by the phrase "useless pastries".
They had previously agreed that he would give Meng Liang advice, but he kept getting delayed by other matters and never got around to it. Now that the misunderstanding was cleared up, everything proceeded on track, and life completely returned to normal.
They met at the restaurant. Meng Liang arrived early and studied the menu intently, wanting to treat Shen Duoyi to a good meal. Shen Duoyi had accompanied Grandpa Shen to the park to listen to amateur Peking opera singers. Stuck in traffic for over an hour, he arrived late to find the restaurant nearly full.
"Senior, why don't we move to a private room? I originally thought the open hall was nice and bright, but with so many people now, it's inconvenient to discuss matters." Meng Liang picked up his bag and stood up, signaling to the waiter.
Shen Duoyi glanced around. "A private room would be better, but are there any available at this hour?"
The waiter led them to an upstairs private room. Meng Liang said, "My eldest female cousin likes it here. She and the boss seem to be neighbors, so we're going through the back door."
Entering the private room, they didn't rush to order, only asking for a pot of tea. Documents and materials were spread out all over the table. Meng Liang opened his laptop and explained, "The core data is on the company computer, so the materials are a bit messy."
The weather was already quite warm. Shen Duoyi was wearing a light-colored linen shirt with the sleeves rolled up, forming several creases. He leaned forward against the edge of the table, the button on his chest rubbing and making a "click-clack" sound.
"It's somewhat similar to the platinum plan Uncle designed. I wanted to show it to him, but he's been in meetings lately." Meng Liang circled a few important parts with a pen. "There should be several products with minor differences surrounding each type of insurance for people to choose from. Once the core products are made, the others can be slightly adjusted, so I found this quite boring to do."
Meng Liang didn't know that the "platinum plan" was actually designed by Shen Duoyi. Without realizing it, he started chatting about interesting things in the company again. Shen Duoyi looked at the materials, listening and laughing. After hearing it, he said, "I've emailed you the analysis and revision suggestions for each point. You can refer to them. Since you find it boring, don't waste too much energy on it. Low efficiency is meaningless."
Meng Liang said happily, "Senior, it would be great if you were my leader. You really understand the people."
Shen Duoyi casually picked up the menu. "I'm not telling you to be idle. Shift your energy to other areas, like the children's growth segment. I think demand in this area will increase in the coming years."
After circling three or four appealing dishes, Shen Duoyi began to tidy up the documents on the table unhurriedly. He was about to continue speaking when he was interrupted by a ringtone. Meng Liang answered, "Cousin? I'm about to eat with Senior. What, you haven't eaten either?"
Ten minutes later, Meng Lan arrived, carrying seven or eight bags, apparently just finished shopping.
After sitting down, she also called out "Senior" to Shen Duoyi.
Shen Duoyi, holding his chopsticks, said, "See if there's anything else you want to eat and order some more. It's my treat today."
"No way, he should pay since you're helping him." Meng Lan ordered two more dishes, then handed a bag to Meng Liang. "I bought two, one for my dad and one for yours. So, with Senior's help, is the problem solved?"
Meng Liang replied, "It's solved. Oh right, Senior hadn't finished what he was saying earlier."
Shen Duoyi had forgotten where he left off. Recalling, he said, "Regarding children's growth... Now that the two-child policy is relaxed, demand for this type of insurance will definitely increase significantly. On the contrary, the elderly insurance market is basically saturated, and many Chinese people have the concept of raising children to provide for their old age, believing that children are more reliable than insurance."
Meng Lan laughed, "That's what my mom says too, urging me to get married and have a baby soon."
Not long after their blind date, Shen Duoyi had resigned. It would normally be awkward seeing each other again, but the atmosphere was quite relaxed. When he had nothing to say, he still had a faint smile, always looking attentive, making people feel very comfortable.
Since the past had been tacitly turned over, there was much more to chat about as friends. Meng Lan took a sip of hot tea and said, "Senior, did you know I had dinner with your boss the other day?"
Meng Liang asked in surprise, "Did they know you two know each other?"
"Yes, I said we used to be colleagues." Meng Lan nodded to Shen Duoyi. "He said a lot of mushy nonsense under the pretext of consulting about critical illness insurance. I almost had a breakdown. I feel dating that kind of playboy would really test one's mental fortitude."
A tornado swirled in Shen Duoyi's mind. Connecting it with the company's previous investigation of him, as well as Qi Shi'an and Zhang Yiming's inquiries, he suddenly seemed to understand something.
But while he hesitated, Meng Liang asked first, "Which boss at Ming'an?"
Meng Lan said without emotion, "Zhang Yiming."
When his girlfriend had a traffic accident, he was on a date with an employee after a dinner party. Now he had a new pursuit. Shen Duoyi's mind buzzed, feeling like his nerve center was feeding him ridicule, but the siblings just wouldn't stop.
"I said Ming'an's bosses love to play around. Turns out I was right."
"When he asked me out, he even got a check-in call. It was quite interesting, a man's voice."
"He really doesn't discriminate between men and women. Are all rich people like that?"
"The other boss isn't, right? Senior, do you know?"
Only when addressed did Shen Duoyi snap out of it. He stammered, "I don't know."
Meng Liang recalled for a moment. "There seems to be only one legend about the other boss. In five months, he turned a principal of 5,000 into 250,000, in US dollars. I remember it was foreign exchange. He's a top-tier master. Don't know if he's the most formidable senior trader on Central Street."
Qi Shi'an didn't know he had become a snack topic for tea break chats. He hadn't left the bed since waking up in the morning, hugging his computer to watch the market and stare at charts. Lunch was tossed out of his mind.
When busy with work, he could take a breather on his own. But when busy with private matters, he didn't dare to be careless.
His phone vibrated and fell to the floor. He reached to pick it up and answered reluctantly, "Mom, I'm watching it for you guys. Can you and your girlfriends not always make me work overtime..."
"What do you mean hire me? Do you know how much I make per hour?" Qi Shi'an pinched the bridge of his nose, then heavily hit the space bar. "The stock market also has dealers and players. Don't just believe everything you read in the news. Most of it is hype by the dealers to boost stock prices. It's still miles away from the pressure line."
Reluctantly doing hard labor for most of the day, Qi Shi'an only drove out to find food in the afternoon on an empty stomach, eating one portion and packing another, saving the trouble of going out again tomorrow.
Before bed at night, he checked his email one last time and found an unread one from Shen Duoyi. His heart skipped a beat, first brewing some joy, then gently clicking to open it.
But the first sentence starkly read: "Mr. Qi, I'm sorry."

What Lies Within

What Lies Within

Chapter 10 - Chapter 10

Leafy