Zhao Bin glanced at the document he had picked up. “Is Manager Lu in charge of the banquet for Mr. Yang?” 

Lu Nan smiled and shook her head. “It’s actually Brother Pei who’s in charge. I’m just here to follow up on the details.” 

“Manager Lu is being too modest,” Zhao Bin chuckled. “I’ve seen your ability to stay calm under pressure, like when the wine cabinet issue came up.” 

Do we have to keep this business flattery going? Lu Nan sighed inwardly. “You’re too kind, Manager Zhao. It’s because you were willing to allow us to adjust the display that the issue was resolved smoothly.” 

As they were talking, the elevator arrived. Lu Nan gathered the scattered papers and said, “I’ll be on my way now. See you later.” 

Zhao Bin stepped into the elevator before her and pressed the button for the floor. “Coincidentally, I’m heading to the lobby too. Let’s go together.” 

Lu Nan smiled politely. 

“Manager Lu, would it be alright if we exchanged contact information?” Zhao Bin asked politely inside the elevator. 

Lu Nan thought she’d need to work with the hotel for a few more things in the next two weeks, so she exchanged WeChat with him. 

When the elevator door opened, Zhao Bin held the door for her. After she exited, he instructed the concierge to call a taxi. Once everything was taken care of, he extended his hand to her. “As for the banquet on the 15th of September, if there’s anything that needs adjusting or any assistance, please feel free to contact me.” 

“Alright, thank you, Manager Zhao.” 

After getting into the taxi and telling the driver to head to Xingguang Yipin, Lu Nan finally called Meng Lusi back. “So, what happened with the training session this morning?” 

“I was just hoping you’d come back quickly! Your colleague was just reading straight from the PowerPoint; it was so boring I almost fell asleep. And it’s not just me—Mr. Yang also used to love hearing you train on wine knowledge and stories, but today, he left the meeting room after just ten minutes.” 

“Come on, I wasn’t doing stand-up comedy.” 

After joking around, Meng Lusi’s feedback was exactly what Lu Nan had expected. After Dong Hui joined the company, she didn’t learn much except how to slack off from Wang Xiaoxue, so there was no way her training would be anything useful. 

Lu Nan felt better after hearing Meng Lusi’s words. 

Meanwhile, Dong Hui, who had been the subject of their discussion, was having lunch with Zhou Lei—feeling very upset. 

“I’m telling you, Lu Nan totally set you up with those key account managers at Feixiang just to embarrass you,” Zhou Lei said with absolute confidence. 

This was exactly what Dong Hui wanted to hear. “I knew it! How could she suddenly be so nice and let me meet someone from Feixiang? You have no idea; those two key account managers were so rude from the start. At the end, they even sarcastically said they preferred Lu Nan’s training style.” 

“That’s outrageous!” Zhou Lei was visibly angry. “But don’t worry, at least you got a chance to meet Mr. Yang directly… did you manage to get his contact details?” 

Dong Hui shook her head in regret. “Mr. Yang was too busy, he only appeared for a few minutes at the beginning. I didn’t have the chance to exchange phone numbers with him.” 

Zhou Lei was also a bit disappointed but comforted her, “It’s always hard at the beginning, things will get easier later on.” 

“Thanks for the encouragement.” 

“Don’t be so down, how about I treat you to a movie this afternoon?” Zhou Lei carefully suggested. 

Dong Hui thought for a moment—she didn’t have anything planned for the afternoon—or to be precise, she didn’t have much going on these days—so she nodded. “Sure, are there any new movies out recently?” 

Their relationship took a significant leap during this movie outing, just as Lu Nan had predicted earlier that morning. 

… 

It was clear to Lu Nan that Dong Hui had been more active than usual—using subtle, deliberate moves to retreat in order to advance. No need to guess, Zhou Lei had been giving her advice. 

However, neither Dong Hui nor Zhou Lei posed any trouble for Lu Nan in terms of work, so they began to cause trouble in other ways. 

Like spreading rumors about her. 

It wasn’t long before rumors started circulating in the boys’ dormitory that the new employee, Lu Nan, had a messy personal life, always returning to the dorm very late, and that someone might even be giving her money. Implying… well, exactly what it sounded like. 

When this reached Yan Kai’s ears, he confronted them one by one and finally pinpointed the two sources of the rumors: Xia Qiang and Yi Wei. 

Yan Kai lost his temper in the dormitory, scolding them for backstabbing a woman and tarnishing someone’s reputation. He told them they weren’t acting like men at all. 

Xia Qiang and Yi Wei looked embarrassed but knew they were in the wrong. 

Yan Kai did his best to suppress the rumors, but he had no control over the girls’ dormitory. Lu Nan only heard fragments of the rumors from Chen Lu and Xiang Feifei. She smiled and thanked the people who genuinely cared about her, then went back to work as usual, unaffected by it. 

On Saturday morning, Pan Sasha complained to Lu Nan while sipping on her drink. “I’m so bored here in Fengyun County. Turns out, working too close to home means no freedom. By the way, is there anything fun going on at the office lately?” 

“There’s a large tasting event, does that count?” 

“Ah, you’re just making me jealous! No matter what, next year I’m making my father fight for a budget so we can hold a large tasting event in the city office, too.” 

“Mm, good luck with that!” 

Pan Sasha pouted. “Hey, you’re not being sincere! By the way, I heard there’s some ‘kept woman’ at the city office—who is it? That annoying Dong Hui? No way, she’s not even worth it. Could it be Manager Zhou?” She whispered the last part. 

Lu Nan rubbed her forehead. “Most likely, they’re talking about me.” 

“Ah?!” Pan Sasha’s eyes widened. “What happened?” 

Lu Nan briefly explained the situation and shared her guesses about the people spreading the rumors.  

Pan Sasha was furious after hearing it. “Yi Wei, that idiot who talks nonsense all the time. Is his brain full of crap? He believes anything people say? And Xia Qiang, with that sly look, you can tell he’s no good.  

The worst of them all is Zhou Lei. I’ve always felt something was off about him. He talks in such a strange way, like he’s always implying that any disagreement at work is someone else being unreasonable. I could never put my finger on it, but now that you mention it… he’s tea! A full-grown man meddling in women’s business like this? Does he have no shame?” 

“He could still do worse things,” Lu Nan said after taking a sip of lemon water. “I recently found out that the bathroom upstairs is being used by a man.” 

It was easy to tell, given the cigarette butts that mysteriously showed up in the trash can, whether the toilet lid had been lifted, and if there were any urine stains splattered around. But honestly, Lu Nan didn’t even need these clues. As soon as she stepped into the bathroom, she could smell if someone had been there recently. 

“That’s so disgusting! And you’re just letting him get on your nerves like that?” 

Lu Nan shook her head. “Of course not. I’m just waiting for him to dig his own grave.” 

Pan Sasha became interested. “What’s your plan? Do you need my help?” 

Lu Nan looked all innocent and said, “How could I have a plan? Of course, after they mess up, I’ll step up as the victim and speak out. I’m the righteous one here.” 

“Ah, you’re so ‘hypocritical,’ I love it,” Pan Sasha emphasized. “Make sure to tell me if there’s any new rumors. I need to know everything!” 

“Sure, I’ll make sure you get the freshest rumors.” 

… 

Things generally follow a predictable course, and most of the time, they progress slowly. 

Lu Nan was waiting for an opportunity to arise, and it didn’t take long for that moment to come. 

A few days later, the weather station issued a typhoon warning, declaring that the strongest typhoon of the year would hit Hailin city around 9 PM tonight. The authorities urged residents to stay indoors, park cars in higher areas, close windows tightly, and so on. 

That morning, Lu Nan had gone to Feixiang and later went to Shangri-La with Pei Xuedong. They left the hotel around 3 PM, and by that time, the wind and rain outside had already picked up. 

When she got back to the dorm, it wasn’t surprising to see Zhou Lei sitting in the living room playing Mahjong. 

The table had four people: Zhou Lei, Dong Hui, Wang Xiaoxue, and Hong Danni. 

When Hong Danni saw Lu Nan, she greeted her, “Is it raining heavily outside?” 

“Quite a bit,” Lu Nan replied. “I used an umbrella, but by the time I got into the neighborhood, my shoes were soaked below the knees.” She put the umbrella in the bucket by the door, bagged her dripping shoes, and was preparing to take them upstairs to clean. 

Around 5 PM, Jiang Xiaoyun was the last to return to the dorm. She had walked back from the office, drenched. As she entered the living room and felt the cold air conditioning, she sneezed several times. 

Xiang Feifei immediately grabbed a large bath towel and wrapped it around her. “Go take a hot shower, don’t catch a cold.” 

Jiang Xiaoyun struggled to speak. She handed her bag to Xiang Feifei, and went straight to the bathroom. “Can you help me bring in my clothes later?” 

“Sure, hurry up. I’ll also make you some ginger soup,” Xiang Feifei said, wiping the water off Jiang Xiaoyun’s bag while asking, “Zhou Lei, Wang Xiaoxue, with the rain so heavy outside, do you want to head back now? It’ll be harder to walk once it gets dark.” This time, her suggestion was purely out of kindness, not trying to rush anyone. 

Because the air conditioning was on, the double-glazed windows had been closed, creating a perfect soundproof environment. The people playing Mahjong hadn’t even noticed how bad the storm was getting outside. 

Wang Xiaoxue rushed to the balcony, cracked the window, and immediately got hit with a wall of rain. She gasped and quickly shut it again. “This rain is insane. Now it’s too late to leave.” 

Zhou Lei frowned too. 

Dong Hui responded with a sigh, “Isn’t the typhoon’s eye supposed to hit the city around 9 PM? I remember studying geography, the eye of the typhoon is calm. You can go later.” 

The girls from Yunan province had only experienced a typhoon once before, and since the last one in Wanghai City hadn’t been too bad, they figured Dong Hui, who studied in Hailin, probably knew best. 

Just then, Lu Nan came out of her room to use the bathroom. She heard Dong Hui’s comment as soon as she opened the door and quietly closed it again, leaning against it with a silent smile. It was just like in her past life. 

If the typhoon’s path had even the slightest deviation, the weather forecast would need to be updated in real-time. Are you saying the predicted path is always 100% accurate? 

Wait until the eye of the storm passes before you leave? What kind of nonsense is that? Is the typhoon controlled by your remote or something? 

Around 9 PM, Wang Xiaoxue and Zhou Lei went to the balcony to check the weather again. 

As soon as they opened the window, they were shocked. The wind and rain were howling, and it looked even worse than earlier in the evening. 

They both turned to look at Dong Hui. 

Dong Hui casually said, “If it doesn’t stop tonight, you two can just stay here.” She said it so casually. 

Xiang Feifei, who was playing Mahjong, immediately looked upset. 

Zhou Lei quickly spoke up. “That… might not be so convenient. After all, this is a girls’ dorm, and it wouldn’t be right for me to stay here. How about we just have Wang Xiaoxue stay and not risk going out in this weather? I’ll borrow a raincoat and head back now, while it’s still early.” 

The more he said this, the more Dong Hui insisted. 

After all, they’d just started dating, she felt bad about him having to walk home in this weather. So, she turned to Xiang Feifei and said, “A typhoon is beyond our control. Tonight, Wang Xiaoxue could share a bed with you or Lu Nan, and Zhou Lei can take the sofa. What do you think? Please, please.” 

Wang Xiaoxue also folded her hands in a pitiful manner, pleading with the girls from Yunan Province. 

Dong Hui continued listing all the dangers of going out in a typhoon: billboards, glass windows, trees by the roadside, exposed power lines, missing manhole covers, and so on. 

The four girls from Yunan Province usually followed Xiang Feifei’s lead, and now they all turned their gaze toward her. 

Xiang Feifei furrowed her brow and thought for a moment: “If they force them to leave and something happens on their way back…” 

“Since this is a six-person dorm, we should check with Lu Nan first,” Xiang Feifei said, knowing she wasn’t fully aware of the typhoon’s risks, so she wanted Lu Nan to make the final decision. 

Xiang Feifei called Lu Nan downstairs. After hearing the whole story and giving Dong Hui a quick glance, Lu Nan addressed everyone, explaining that Dong Hui’s concerns about the secondary dangers of the typhoon were not exaggerated. 

Xiang Feifei sighed. “So… Zhou Lei and Wang Xiaoxue will really have to stay here tonight?” 

“That’s settled then. Zhou Lei will sleep on the sofa,” Dong Hui decided, then turned to look at Lu Nan and Xiang Feifei. “As for Xiaoxue… where should she sleep?” 

To be honest, Wang Xiaoxue didn’t want to squeeze in with either of the two for the whole night. 

Dong Hui suddenly had an idea: “Oh, there’s a small, empty study upstairs with a foldable bed. Xiaoxue, how about you sleep in there?” 

Lu Nan nodded. “You guys do what you want. I’m fine with anything.” 

Once they decided, Dong Hui and Zhou Lei stepped out to the balcony to chat in private. “Do you think Lu Nan is being unusually agreeable today?” 

Zhou Lei chuckled. “Well, we’re the ones with the valid reason, and we have the numbers. She’s just going along with the majority, right?” 

“Right! Zhou Lei, you’re so smart!”