After taking a shower and drying her hair, Li Zhen sat down at the dining table.
Facing the sumptuous meal, she hesitated and asked, "Mr. Lu, is this what you call a simple late-night snack?"
Was it her who misunderstood the word "simple", or was it him?
He even steamed crabs.
Lu Yanming took out an empty bowl, filled it halfway with soup, and placed it next to Li Zhen, "My cooking skills are decent. For me, this is a simple late-night snack."
This is a bit too extravagant!
Li Zhen sipped the soup in small gulps. Her taste buds were instantly conquered. No longer minding her image, she started eating vigorously.
After eating about seventy to eighty percent full, she finally looked up at Lu Yanming.
He had barely touched his chopsticks. His cufflinks were spotless as he calmly and steadily peeled the crab.
Then, he scooped the crab meat into her bowl with a small spoon.
His actions were skilled and natural.
Only then did Li Zhen realize that unknowingly, she had eaten a lot of crab.
Li Zhen's mind was instantly filled with three words: husband material.
Handsome, successful career, good at housework, and willing to lower his status to peel crab for her.
He was just too perfect!
Were the standards for a good family man modeled after him?
"Mr. Lu, do you cook often? Your culinary skills are just too good," Li Zhen gazed at him with her clear eyes.
"Occasionally," Lu Yanming picked up another crab.
"You..."
"Stop," Lu Yanming's movements halted. His eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses were indifferent, "Don't use honorifics. I'm not much older than you."
"Oh," Li Zhen nodded.
So he cares a lot about his age.
Did he think she wanted to use honorifics? It was just company culture that everyone used honorific titles for managers.
Li Zhen switched very naturally from "you" to "Lu".
"Mr. Lu, you just took office. Your work must be very busy. Do you not need to work overtime every day?"
Lu Yanming continued peeling the crab, his movements elegant, as if handling a finely carved piece of beautiful jade.
He glanced at her briefly, "Eight hours during work hours is more than enough. Why would I need to work overtime?"
Li Zhen: That makes complete sense, I have no rebuttal.
With Li Zhen's remark, Lu Yanming was reminded that he had not checked the chat messages in the executive group chat today.
Lu Yanming took off his disposable gloves and took out his phone to open the voice messages.
The first one was Wang Peng's voice.
Wang Peng: 【We have a video call with the headquarters of Country M at 11 pm tonight. Everyone be on time.】
Li Zhen was instantly curious and took a peek.
She could actually hear the voice messages from the executive group chat. It felt quite novel.
But then she heard Yu Sheng's voice in the next message.
Yu Sheng: 【Received. The marketing department has prepared relevant materials.】
Li Zhen lost interest in listening further.
Then there were messages from various high-level executives confirming receipt.
Li Zhen glanced at the group chat interface on Lu Yanming's phone. The executives were now actively discussing the content of tonight's meeting via text.
Lu Yanming had just said he didn't work overtime, but as it turned out, he still had video conferences.
As expected, in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, tears mean nothing; in JinCheng, the labor law means nothing.
After listening to all the voice messages, Lu Yanming pressed the voice message button. His low voice was emotionless, 【It's after work hours. I won't be attending.】
Li Zhen was shocked and abruptly raised her head to look at him.
He pressed the voice message button again, 【Don't arrange work after work hours from now on. Improve efficiency. Departments that work overtime will have pay deductions.】
The previously vibrant executive group chat with a strong work atmosphere now had zero activity.
It was as quiet as a still lake, without the slightest ripple.
Li Zhen: ......What did I just hear?
Pay deduction for overtime?
No way. There must be something wrong with her ears!
After an unknown period of time, the executive group chat, now as silent as chickens, "ding"-ed once.
Finally there was a voice message in the group.
Lu Yanming clicked to open it.
Wang Peng: 【Cough cough, Yanming is right. Let's try not to work overtime after work from now on, everyone.】
Wang Peng: 【Tonight's meeting is cancelled. Everyone go to bed.】
The executive group chat, just dead silent a second ago, now became lively in an instant, with everyone quickly replying "Received".
Lu Yanming turned off his screen. As he raised his head, he met Li Zhen's shocked expression.
There was a bit of food residue on her delicate lips. Along with her current expression, she looked silly and cute.
He reached out and wiped her lips with his warm fingertips, "Why did you stop eating? What are you spacing out for?"
The sudden warmth on her lips sent an electric tingle through Li Zhen.
She was jolted back to her senses and jerked her head back to move away from him, blurting out inexplicably, "Mr. Lu, nice!"
Lu Yanming retracted his hand and seemed to scoff, "Didn't someone go around saying I'm useless?"
Li Zhen's phone happened to ring then.
She didn't hear his last remark.
"Xiya," Li Zhen answered the call, but her mind was still processing Lu Yanming's words about deducting pay for overtime work.
Zhang Xiya's voice on the other end was simply earth-shattering, "Little Zhen Zhen! Why haven't you joined the Husband Material Group yet! Do you know, the group exploded again just now!"
Li Zhen glanced guiltily at the man across from her and covered the headset, "I haven't had a chance yet. What happened in the group?"
"After so many years, a true working-class hero finally appeared in HongHai! Just now Mr. Lu rejected overtime in the executive group chat, and screenshots were sent to our group. Mr. Lu has been deified!" Zhang Xiya was exceptionally excited, "I won't say more, I'll just send you the screenshots directly."
Zhang Xiya hung up the call and immediately sent over a few screenshots.
Li Zhen actually wanted to say no need.
She was fortunate to have the best spectator position, okay!
One of the screenshots was of Lu Yanming's voice message converted to text in the executive group chat.
The other few were screenshots of everyone in the Husband Material Group going crazy in worship.
【I proclaim that this year's most touching figure in HongHai is HongHai Executive Vice President, Mr. Lu Yanming.】
【If Lu Yanming was not born, the workplace would be endless dark nights.】
【No one knows of such beauty in prosperous times, but rejecting overtime makes headlines across the land... Hahaha, in just a few minutes, Mr. Lu is already famous across all the companies on Tianfu Second Street.】
【My friend from the company next door also messaged to ask me about it. You're our role model!】
【However chaotic the workplace, Brother Lu has the final say!】
【Overtime pay deduction? I'm uneducated. I just want to say: Mr. Lu, you're awesome!】
"What are you looking at?" Lu Yanming gave Li Zhen more peeled crab meat.
Li Zhen put down her phone, "Mr. Lu, you're trending now! All the workers around our company area know about you!"
"Does the informant dislike me that much? Something that took five seconds has spread this far?" Lu Yanming watched her leisurely.
Li Zhen: ......
What five seconds?
The conversation took a sudden turn. She was stunned for a moment before she finally realized!
He knew about that incident!
When he said "informant", his tone was sarcastic. So he also knew it was her who spread it?
Li Zhen touched her nose and smiled, "Haha...what five seconds? I don't know..."
Lu Yanming: "In psychology, touching your nose is a sign of lying."
Li Zhen almost wanted to find a crack in the floor and burrow in.
She touched her nose when she was nervous?
Don't panic. He has no evidence. As long as she doesn't admit it, what can he do, drag her to the police station?
Wait...
He probably could.
Li Zhen calmed herself down and decided to mesmerize him with her beauty, and get her main agenda done at the same time.
She got up and walked over to Lu Yanming, sitting softly into his arms,
"Mr. Lu, what does it matter if it's five seconds or not? No matter how fast you are, I won't despise you for it."
"It's late, Mr. Lu... time to get down to business..."
