Director Xiang dropped Chen Xiao and Lu Nan off at the office building. Both he and Manager Wang headed home afterward, having had a bit too much to drink at the table. 

Would the subordinates dare to ask if the leaders were going back to rest or to work? Of course not. 

Could getting drunk due to official business count as rest? Certainly not. 

After getting out of the car, Lu Nan immediately opened the sun umbrella she had prepared in her bag with a snap. 

Chen Xiao glanced at the umbrella, then at Lu Nan standing beneath it. 

Lu Nan showed no intention at all of sharing the umbrella with Chen Xiao. 

Chen Xiao, slightly tipsy, chuckled, “I think I’ve had a bit too much to drink.” 

Walking briskly towards the lobby, Lu Nan was about to press the elevator door close button when she saw a group of young people dragging their suitcases into the lobby, so she turned to press the open button instead. 

Chen Xiao noticed this detail again. 

The girl who entered the elevator first greeted Lu Nan with a thanks, and Lu Nan smiled back, “You’re welcome. We should be colleagues in the future.” 

The wheat-skinned girl with short hair checked the floor address on her phone. Seeing the number ’19’ already lit on the elevator panel, she smiled and said, “Hello, I’m Xiang Feifei. I was transferred from southern Yunan Province. They’re with me; we all came by train from there.” 

A dozen or so young men and women, all dragging their suitcase, entered the elevator, which was packed to the brim. 

As Lu Nan stepped back to make space for those entering the elevator, she accidentally stepped on someone’s foot. She barely avoided twisting her own ankle and quickly apologized softly. Even though her heels were only five centimeters, stepping on someone’s foot must have hurt a lot. 

Chen Xiao helped Lu Nan to prevent her from falling, “It’s okay, just be more careful.” 

Lu Nan glanced down at Chen Xiao’s foot and thought to herself, Oops, he’s wearing white sneakers. 

She smiled somewhat embarrassedly at Chen Xiao, then stood steady with the support of his arm. 

The elevator reached the nineteenth floor and the door opened with a ding. 

Lu Nan finally felt alive again. She had mild sinusitis and was particularly sensitive to various odors in the air. In the elevator just now, there was a mix of alcohol, sweat, various body odors, and a slight foot odor, which irritated her sense of smell. 

However, Lu Nan absolutely couldn’t show it. After all, her new colleagues with their luggage had just exited the elevator. She discreetly pretended to adjust her bangs while subtly sniffing her wrist—she had sprayed some “Liu Shen” this morning, a local “perfume” with a long-lasting scent, which should still have some lingering fragrance. 

“But the scent doesn’t seem quite right…” Lu Nan thought. She remembered that when Chen Xiao helped her just now, she might have caught a faint smell of ink from him, which wasn’t unpleasant. 

“Are you okay?” Chen Xiao was the last to exit the elevator. 

Lu Nan shook her head and apologetically chuckled, “I’m fine. It’s just… uh, Brother Chen, your shoes…” 

“It’s okay, I’ll clean them up.” 

With work pressing, Lu Nan waved to Wu Fang as she hurried into Chen Xiao’s office to get to work. 

Half an hour later, they received the stamped contract from headquarters. Chen Xiao said, “Should I go deliver the contract myself?” He glanced down at Lu Nan’s shoes. 

“Brother Chen, your complexion right now…” With a flushed face, he didn’t look like he could handle the official business. 

Chen Xiao used the front camera of his tablet to take a picture of himself, then glanced at Lu Nan, whose face remained unchanged. “It’s still better for you to make another trip. Call me after delivering the contract, then you can leave for the day.” 

“Thank you, Brother Chen.” 

With a round trip by taxi, the task was completed in less than an hour. 

When Lu Nan returned to the dormitory, she found that four female students had already moved in. 

Apart from Xiang Feifei, who had already greeted Lu Nan in the elevator, the other three were Lin Yan, Jiang Xiaoyun, and Hong Danni. 

Sure enough, they had no objections to Lu Nan occupying the attic stargazing room first. 

In total, there were four of them. Whether it was by discussion or drawing lots, they all ended up living downstairs. Lin Yan and Jiang Xiaoyun took the master bedroom, while the remaining two, Xiang Feifei, took the room with a balcony, and Hong Danni took the children’s room. 

Lu Nan wasn’t surprised by this allocation. 

Now, three rooms were occupied by one person each. The last person to report, who would she choose to room with? 

Lu Nan was curious. 

… 

The last female student to report arrived the next day. 

“Hello everyone, my name is Dong Hui. ‘Dong’ from Dong Yong, ‘Hui’ from wisdom. I graduated from Qianjiang University with a major in International Economics and Trade. During my time at school, I served as the president of the student union and actively participated in various activities. I have been honored with the following awards…” 

Because the new person arrived yesterday, someone sat on Lu Nan’s left — Xiang Feifei. Starting from Lu Nan’s left, Xiang Feifei and the other three sequentially took their seats downwards, with Dong Hui standing at the end to introduce herself. 

Lu Nan saw Xiang Feifei writing something in her notebook. 

It was a wild guess that she might be doing a personality analysis for Dong Hui, who had a strong desire to perform. 

After the new employees finished introducing themselves, Director Xiang, who occasionally participated in the morning meeting of Hailin City Office, turned to Li Li and Zhou Tian and said, “There are several new girls who have joined the company, today you should conduct their onboarding training.” As for the male employees? They should be directly assigned to physical work. 

After the morning meeting ended, Lu Nan apologized to Sasha, “Sasha, I can’t go with you today.” 

“No problem, maybe next time.” Sasha casually packed up her things and turned to say, “Chen Xiao, since Feixiang has already signed, are you going to treat us?” 

Because the contract had been finalized, Director Xiang couldn’t wait to share this good news with everyone during the morning meeting. 

“If there’s treating to be done, it should be Director Xiang and Manager Wang treating, not me.” Chen Xiao smiled. His phone vibrated while he was talking. He looked at the incoming call, nodded to Sasha, turned around and answered the phone, and walked to his office, “Director Tong…” 

“Brother Xiao is too stingy. He didn’t even treat us to a meal after signing such a big distributor,” Yi Wei whispered to Sasha, who was sitting next to her, as if hoping to lessen Chen Xiao’s impression on Sasha. 

Sasha replied irritably, “You call yourself generous? What do you know?” After that, she ignored Yi Wei, grabbed her laptop bag and purse, and stormed out. 

Dong Hui whispered to Hong Danni beside her, “Her Chanel bag is genuine.” 

The new girl didn’t have any more chances to gossip quietly. Li Li arrived with her laptop. 

Among the six girls present, except for Dong Hui who just started and didn’t know much about Yuan Chuan’s corporate culture and products, Lu Nan was able to learn new things by reviewing the past. The others got transferred from Yunan Province, so they had all undergone local onboarding training. 

Li Li spoke quickly. After finishing in the morning, she let them have lunch break and said they would return to the office at 2:00 pm to complete the questionnaire. 

Dong Hui linked her arms around Hong Danni and said she was still staying with friends and would only move in tonight but couldn’t wait to see the dorms. 

So, Hong Danni warmly invited her to have a meal together — yes, the four of them went to the market to buy groceries and also bought rice and oil. The dormitory was now ready for cooking. 

Last night, Lu Nan had already had a meal with them, and drinks were on Lu Nan. 

Today Lu Nan decided not to participate—she knew that Xiang Feifei and their group split the cost of groceries and cooking equally. They were from the same hometown, naturally they’re close, so Lu Nan didn’t need to get involved. 

If there’s one thing that has changed the most since she turned ten years older, it’s that she has learned to enjoy living alone. She’s no longer immature and doesn’t always need companionship for everything. 

As expected, upon arriving at the dormitory, Dong Hui praised the pleasant environment and subtly suggested that the current room allocation might be unfair. “I tend to speak frankly, so my words may not always sound pleasant. We’re all newcomers, so shouldn’t I also have a chance to choose? It wouldn’t be fair if I missed out just because I arrived last. That would be quite unfair to me…” She said it with a smile, as if joking, but that opening line left her room to maneuver. 

Xiang Feifei replied, “Why wouldn’t you have a say? There are three rooms, each occupied by only one person, and the upstairs study room is still empty. You have plenty of choices.”