Chapter 20 – President’s Wife Comes to Inspect

After Zhou Ziyi’s injury no longer hindered his movements, he continued to stay busy.

Just the wedding banquet alone had a bunch of things that needed to be finalized, such as the on-site layout, catering, procedures, and personnel. Zhou Ziyi even personally went to the hotel twice to oversee the arrangements. One time was to remember his and Yan Xiuzhi’s timing and actions, and the other was to coordinate with the hotel’s lighting test.

The second lighting test didn’t start until 9:30 in the evening. There was nothing they could do because there was a banquet scheduled in front of the hotel, so they had to wait for it to finish before adjusting the lighting for Zhou Ziyi’s side. If it weren’t for Yan Xiuzhi’s influential status, the luxury hotel wouldn’t have bothered to cooperate with the lighting test so late.

In any case, by the time Zhou Ziyi’s side finished, it was already past 10:30 in the evening.

As Zhou Ziyi was about to open the app to call for a ride before leaving, he glanced at the time and had a change of mind. Instead, he sent a message to Li Fei: [Sister Fei, is the boss ready to go home?]

Li Fei recently felt that the relationship between her boss and this contractual partner was probably quite good, so she replied simply: [Almost.]

“Sure enough…” Zhou Ziyi remembered that these past few days, Yan Xiuzhi usually arrived home around 11 o’clock. After calculation, it was about this time when he finished work. After thinking for a moment, he made up his mind and sent a message to the CEO: [Ge, are you getting off work soon? I’m at the hotel. Can I ride a Bluegogo(Small Blue Bike)^[1]Bluegogo (Chinese: 小蓝单车) was a bicycle-sharing system based in Tianjin, China. The station-less bicycle-sharing system used a mobile app to unlock bicycles. over and hitch a ride with you?]

After a while, Yan Xiuzhi replied: [Sure.]

Zhou Ziyi asked again: [Should I wait inconspicuously in the lobby on the first floor, or should I openly go to your office to pick you up after work?]

Yan Xiuzhi didn’t answer immediately.

Just when Zhou Ziyi thought he was going to reply with “Go wait in the underground parking lot,” Yan Xiuzhi’s response came late: [Contact Li Fei.]

Zhou Ziyi: ??? Contact Li Fei? What does that mean?

After pondering for a minute, Zhou Ziyi decided to interpret it as “Ask Li Fei to take you to my office” and left excitedly.

As he was leaving, the hotel duty manager saw him and asked, “Mr. Zhou, hasn’t your car arrived yet? Do you need me to call a car for you?”

Zhou Ziyi waved her hand. “I’m going to pick up Lao Yan after work.”

“…,” the duty manager maintained a calm demeanor. “Alright, Mr. Zhou, goodbye.”

As soon as Zhou Ziyi left the hotel, the manager on duty immediately took out his cell phone and sent a message to his superior:
[Hua Hao’s CEO, Mr. Yan’s absence from the wedding preparations shouldn’t be because he doesn’t pay attention to the wedding, it should be because he is too busy! Mr. Zhou just said that he would pick him up from get off work, which proves that the two have a good relationship! ]

The superior replied: [Don’t neglect Mr. Zhou. When he comes to review the arrangements next time, offer him a reception champagne.]

Duty manager: [Understood!]

After sending the message, the duty manager put away his phone and sighed, “He’s about to ‘marry into a wealthy family,’ yet he’s so hands-on. It seems they value this wedding a lot…”

We should treat this job more seriously!

On the other hand, Zhou Ziyi had no idea what chain reaction his casual display of affection had caused. He rode his small blue bike(Bluegogo), enjoying the night breeze for ten minutes, until he finally arrived at the entrance of Hua Hao Group’s headquarters… fifty meters away from the roadside.

Zhou Ziyi parked his blue bike on the side of the road, but instead of hurrying towards the entrance of the building, he tidied up his hair and clothes. Then he took out his phone and called Li Fei: “Fei, I’m downstairs, I’ll be entering the building soon.”

Li Fei replied, “I’ve informed the security guards. Just introduce yourself, and they will take you to the elevator. I’ll meet you upstairs.”

Zhou Ziyi thought to himself, why would anyone need assistance to find the elevator? Just point in the right direction, and that’s it. But he still responded, “Alright, see you later.”

After hanging up, the young man walked towards the first-floor entrance of Hua Hao Group.

It was already late, and the reception desk had long closed. There were only two security guards on duty in the lobby of the first floor of Hua Hao. The security guards were dressed in black suits, white shirts, and white gloves. They wore single-sided earphones and held walkie-talkies, giving them a particularly stylish appearance. Zhou Ziyi entered, and one of the security guards approached him, asking, “May I help you with something?”

Zhou Ziyi thought for a moment and decided not to mention anything fancy. He simply introduced himself, saying, “I am Zhou Ziyi.”

“Mr. Zhou,” the security guard quickly understood, nodding and gesturing, “Please follow me.”

Zhou Ziyi had already seen where the elevator lobby was. There were eight elevators facing each other, and only a blind person wouldn’t be able to see them. But the security guard dutifully led him to one of the elevators and spoke into the walkie-talkie, “Mr. Zhou has arrived, granting him access to the top floor of elevator D.”

As soon as the words fell, elevator D’s doors opened. The security guard gestured for Zhou Ziyi to enter, but he didn’t follow, nor did he press a floor button. Zhou Ziyi was about to ask on which floor Yan Xiuzhi was, but the security guard, as if reading his mind, directly explained, “The elevator will go directly to the top floor, Mr. Zhou, you don’t need to press anything anymore.”

Zhou Ziyi smiled and said, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” The security guard stood in place, watching the elevator doors close and go up before returning to his post.

While in the elevator, Zhou Ziyi took the opportunity to discreetly adjust his hair in front of the mirror.

When the elevator doors opened, Li Fei saw a fresh and smiling young man.

She couldn’t help but think, “If this person were to enter the entertainment industry, they might easily earn thirty million…”

“…Follow me.”

Li Fei regained her composure and led him into the corridor. They passed several offices along the way, all with glass walls, but most of the blinds were closed, making it impossible to see inside. Only when they passed a relatively large office, the blinds were raised, revealing several occupied workstations.

Zhou Ziyi glanced at the sign by the door—the President’s Secretary’s Office.

He averted his gaze.

Little did he know that the people in the office were also quietly sizing him up.

Li Fei and Zhou Ziyi stopped at the end of the corridor.

There was a double wooden door with a sign hanging on it that read “President”.

This was the entrance to Yan Xiuzhi’s office. Unlike the other offices on the floor, this one had solid walls. Judging from the depth of the secretary’s office, Yan Xiuzhi’s office was expected to be quite spacious.

When Li Fei knocked on the door and led the person inside, Zhou Ziyi confirmed: it was indeed spacious.

Yan Xiuzhi’s office was on the right side after entering the door. There was a deep red solid wood desk, along with a matching series of bookshelves, display cabinets, and so on. Zhou Ziyi wondered if Yan Xiuzhi, who disliked redwood furniture, was happy with it. On the left side, there was a closed door, which Zhou Ziyi guessed was the CEO’s lounge and restroom.
Inside the office, there were also sofa sets, coffee tables, a 100-inch TV, a projector, an all-in-one machine, a water dispenser, and so on, in abundance. Directly opposite the door was a floor-to-ceiling window, through which one could see the dazzling night view of the commercial district.

Zhou Ziyi couldn’t help but think: the number of lights on in these buildings represents the number of workaholics still working overtime.

“Sit there and wait.” Yan Xiuzhi didn’t pay attention to Zhou Ziyi’s curious glances and pointed to the sofa. “Ten more minutes.”

Zhou Ziyi asked, “Are you still working? Should I wait outside? I won’t disturb you.”

Yan Xiuzhi replied, “It’s okay.”

“Oh,” Zhou Ziyi nodded, then went to the water dispenser and poured water into a paper cup. Li Fei discreetly glanced at Yan Xiuzhi and asked, “Mr. Zhou, would you like coffee or tea? Shall I pour you a cup?”

Zhou Ziyi asked, “Do you have black tea?”

“Yes, we do. I’ll go brew it for you,” Li Fei replied and left.

Zhou Ziyi didn’t dare to wander around the office and obediently sat on the sofa. He looked around and his attention turned to the display cabinet. Inside the cabinet were various trophies, medals, and commemorative photos. Zhou Ziyi stretched his neck, trying to read the words on them.

Suddenly, Yan Xiuzhi spoke up, “If you want to see, go ahead.”

Zhou Ziyi actually went over to take a look. He noticed that besides the honors of Hua Hao Group, there were also personal honor of Yan Xiuzhi. Most of them were related to charitable activities, including commemorative plaques and photos of donating to primary schools.

Looking at the golden words on the photos, Zhou Ziyi exclaimed, “President Yan, you’ve personally donated to primary schools.”

Yan Xiuzhi replied calmly, “Rural primary schools don’t require much money.”

“Even so, you’re a great person!” Zhou Ziyi glanced at the name of the school. “ ‘Jishi Primary School’… President Yan, could it be named after you?”

Yan Xiuzhi looked up and met his gaze. Zhou Ziyi felt a sense of delight in his heart. “Really? Did you donate buildings that were named ‘Jishi’ just like how every university has a Shaw Building?”

“No,” Yan Xiuzhi interrupted him. “I don’t ask for names. They can come up with their own.”

“Oh, I see!” Zhou Ziyi nodded. “That’s good then. I was just thinking, if they all had the same name ‘Jishi,’ someone might have to address you as ‘Ji Gong’(Buddhist monk) in the future. Hahaha…”

Yan Xiuzhi gave him a stern look.

Zhou Ziyi made a gesture of zipping his mouth shut and raised his index finger in front of his lips, indicating that he wouldn’t say anything further.

After drinking tea in the CEO’s office and waiting for a while, Yan Xiuzhi finally finished his work and got up to leave.

Zhou Ziyi quickly caught up with him. “I haven’t finished my tea…”

“Somebody will take care of it,” Yan Xiuzhi replied.

“Alright,” Zhou Ziyi followed him out of the door. As he looked at the spacious secretary’s office, he took a step forward and grabbed Yan Xiuzhi’s arm.

Yan Xiuzhi frowned.

“Hold on! President Yan!” Zhou Ziyi whispered, encouraging him. “I came to ‘pick you up from work in a high-profile manner’!”

Yan Xiuzhi could instantly confirm that these were the exact words Zhou Ziyi had just messaged him.

Initially, when President Yan saw this sentence, he instinctively wanted to deny it. But upon further consideration, there were still many supporters of Yan Wenwu in the company, and “showcasing” the wife of the CEO in the company was a way to express his stance. So, having Zhou Ziyi come over wasn’t a bad thing.

However, Zhou Ziyi’s joking tone was quite annoying.

Yan Xiuzhi wanted to correct him, but he felt that specifically addressing this matter through a text message would be a bit overbearing. But if he didn’t correct it and simply replied with “come to the office,” it would seem like he was agreeing with Zhou Ziyi’s statement, which the CEO couldn’t accept psychologically. After going through various thoughts, Yan Xiuzhi’s final response became “Contact Li Fei.”
God knows how shocked Li Fei, the secretary, was when she received Zhou Ziyi’s message saying, “I’m planning to come to your company. President Yan asked you to take me to his office!”

In this world, who doesn’t know that when the CEO’s wife appears in the company, it signifies sovereignty and a public display of affection? Does anyone not know that?

So, is Zhou Ziyi actually going to go to such lengths? Did President Yan agree to it?

Didn’t they agree that Zhou Ziyi shouldn’t interfere with President Yan’s work???

Even though she personally escorted Zhou Ziyi into Yan Xiuzhi’s office and even brought him a cup of tea, Li Fei was still sitting at her desk in a daze, finding this whole situation unbelievable.

The next second, she saw Yan Xiuzhi and Zhou Ziyi walking hand in hand, talking and laughing (?) as they passed by the secretary’s office.

The entire secretary’s office: !!!

Actually, Zhou Ziyi was just talking about the situation of trying out the lighting tonight. He walked with Yan Xiuzhi to the elevator and pressed the button: “Speaking of which, your security here is too exaggerated. They insisted on escorting me into the elevator, as if I couldn’t see where the elevator is…”

The elevator door opened, and Yan Xiuzhi walked in, bringing Zhou Ziyi with him: “The top floor can only be accessed with a card. Since you don’t have one, the security department needs to authorize your access.”

“No wonder!” Zhou Ziyi suddenly realized, then suddenly remembered something, “Oh, by the way, the day after tomorrow is the wedding photo shoot… I mean, the engagement photo shoot. We have to go to the suburban hot spring resort early in the morning. Do you remember?”

Yan Xiuzhi pressed the button for the B2 floor: “I remember.”

Zhou Ziyi continued, “Can you leave work early? It takes over an hour to drive there, and I’m afraid we’ll be too tired if we arrive too late.”

Yan Xiuzhi replied, “Sure.”

Zhou Ziyi asked, “How about 8 o’clock?”

Yan Xiuzhi answered, “I’ll leave work on time.”

Zhou Ziyi said, “What time does your company finish? I’ve never seen you come home early.”

Yan Xiuzhi replied, “At 6 o’clock.”

Zhou Ziyi nodded, “Oh, I see. Then you can have dinner at home after work, and then we can go together…”

The young man was babbling about tomorrow’s arrangements when the elevator reached B2. Yan Xiuzhi took a step forward, the pulling force on his arm causing him to turn his head.

“Oh, I forgot!” Zhou Ziyi suddenly remembered that he was still holding onto him and instantly let go. “Sorry about that.”

Yan Xiuzhi turned back and was the first to exit the elevator.
In fact, the CEO just turned his head to say one thing.

—“Why are you just standing there like a fool?”

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Bluegogo (Small Blue Bike)