The Ceo Of The Company Next Door Seems To Have A Crush On Me Chapter 15

Marriage and Divorce

After some internal struggle, Yan Xucheng still chose to tell him the reason. Although it was abrupt, it had to be abrupt.

Yan Xucheng was not one to hold things in. After typing out a long paragraph and sending it, he immediately put the matter out of his mind, leaving Lu Zhijian to let his imagination run wild over the message.

Unlike Yan Xucheng, Lu Zhijian was a person whose mind was constantly full of things. Every action would be re-interpreted. This habit was excellent in the business world, helping Lu Zhijian avoid many pitfalls, but in daily life, it was a burden.

For example, right now, Lu Zhijian was agonizing over why Yan Xucheng had bothered to explain himself. If he truly wanted to explain, why didn’t he do it yesterday?

Lu Zhijian couldn’t figure it out, so he could only tuck the question away in his heart.

When he arrived at the company building, there weren’t many people left in the lobby. Lu Zhijian disliked being in the same space as a crowd; crowding was one thing, but excessive population density made him uncomfortable. So, he usually arrived at the parking lot around nine o’clock, when the lobby was less busy. Today was no exception.

With so many people at Juefei Media, there were always a few latecomers. For instance, two people were anxiously waiting for the employee elevator. Lu Zhijian glanced at the number on the elevator—15, with an upward arrow. Behind him, the tapping sound of high heels on the marble floor announced a short-haired girl sprinting toward the elevator.

Lu Zhijian found her somewhat familiar; she was a habitual latecomer whom he had often seen here before his trip.

He hoped they didn’t have a morning meeting.

Lu Zhijian showed no awareness that his own employees were running late. He skillfully walked past them as if he hadn’t seen anything, leisurely heading toward the private elevator on the side.

“Ding.”

Lu Zhijian walked into the elevator with a calm, expressionless face, pressed 36, and waited for the doors to slowly close.

The two men outside the elevator exchanged glances, then immediately rushed toward the recently opened elevator door, only to be stopped by the girl who had just arrived: “What are you two doing? Get back here.”

By now, the elevator had ascended to the second floor. The two returned to their original spot: “We wanted to sneak onto that elevator…”

The girl expertly pulled a compact mirror from her bag: “Don’t you know that’s the private elevator?”

“We know, but if we just ask him…” one man said. He still looked a bit like a naive student, his suit looking slightly like a child wearing adult clothes. He wasn’t completely clueless; anyone taking the private elevator was clearly senior management. But this senior manager hadn’t scolded them, so he must be someone who could empathize with the working class. If they asked, he would probably agree…

His thoughts were abruptly cut off by the girl: “Forget it. That’s the boss.”

They didn’t know what the boss looked like, but they knew his name. The other man was startled: “What if General Manager Lu saw us being late? In the future—”

“It’s fine,” the girl’s confident voice gave them a shot of adrenaline. “General Manager Lu won’t care about this kind of thing, and he won’t remember you. You would only have trouble if you had actually tried to share the elevator with him just now.”

“Why? Does General Manager Lu think we’re challenging his authority?”

“No, he just doesn’t like being crowded.”

Once they were in the elevator, the two men finally remembered to ask, “How do you know so much?”

The man who looked slightly older said, “You don’t look like you’ve been working here for very long.”

The girl put the compact mirror back in her bag and said nonchalantly, “Of course, it’s because I’m often late and often run into General Manager Lu.”

“So,” she reassured them, “you see I’m still working just fine, right?”

That was true. With such a living example right in front of them, the two instantly relaxed. They had been quite worried, but now they felt much lighter.

However, they didn’t expect to be caught by their team leader the moment they reached their workstations: “Where have you two been? The morning meeting started five minutes ago!”

Lu Zhijian was completely unaware of their conversation, and even if he had known, he wouldn’t have said anything. Lateness was recorded by the time clock at the entrance, and there was a manager for the department; he didn’t need to worry about such things. “Mo Hui, send a cup of tea to my office.”

“Understood.” Mo Hui’s long hair was tied in a high ponytail, and she looked sharp and energetic in her professional attire.

Since ancient times, marriage, funerals, and weddings have been major life events. Divorce is also a “marriage” event, and thus, it must be treated with solemnity. However, divorce doesn’t involve a ceremony like a wedding. Over time, an unspoken consensus formed: to dress elaborately on the day of the divorce, striving to prove through action that one could live better without the other person.

Generally, we call this kind of unwritten consensus a custom.

But this custom is now facing a major challenge: if one spouse still harbors feelings, seeing the other looking so radiant might cause them to regret the divorce and back out. Because this scenario has played out many times, a new custom has emerged.

The logic of the new custom is simple: if I can’t make myself look too good, then I’ll make my friend look excellent, letting my friend dominate the scene.

As Jiang Mingyi’s best friend and the most attractive person she knew, Yan Xucheng naturally accepted this crucial, face-saving mission. He armed himself fully, aiming to blind Yan Zhu on the day of the divorce.

In truth, Jiang Mingyi was a little uncertain about this. Although she acknowledged Yan Xucheng’s beauty, she carefully recalled Yan Zhu’s friends she had seen that day. She extracted their appearance from her limited memory, thinking that if they cleaned up well, they might have a surprising effect.

Moreover, Yan Xucheng had been secretive, and she still didn’t know what kind of look he had put together.

Jiang Mingyi folded her arms and let out a long breath. The Civil Affairs Bureau parking lot was open-air. After parking, she stayed there, waiting for Yan Xucheng.

A silver Audi drove in, its lights flashing before it stopped beside Jiang Mingyi. The driver’s door opened, and the first thing that came into view was a head of vermillion long hair, like a fully bloomed rose or a burning flame.

Yan Xucheng’s hair on the right side was tucked behind his ear, revealing a four-pointed star ear cuff. A small golden diamond in the center served as the striking stamen. He winked at Jiang Mingyi and smiled, “What’s wrong? Don’t recognize me?”

“Wow! Wow—” Jiang Mingyi was so excited she was incoherent. “Yan Yan, you, wow! You look so good!”

Yan Xucheng was already fair-skinned, but paired with the intensely red long hair, his skin was snow-white. He raised an eyebrow at Jiang Mingyi, his smoky-blue eyes full of proud confidence. He was clearly extremely satisfied with himself. “Shall we go?”

“Let’s go!” Jiang Mingyi’s eyes were practically glued to Yan Xucheng’s hair. After watching for a moment, she finally noticed, “Yan Yan, did you get a perm too?”

“Of course. Does it look good?”

“It looks great!”

Just as Yan Xucheng accompanied Jiang Mingyi to the Civil Affairs Bureau, Yan Zhu had called upon Lu Zhijian.

Seeing the message in Yan Xucheng’s chat window, Lu Zhijian had actually wanted to find an excuse to avoid it, but Yan Zhu suddenly mentioned, “Yan Xucheng will be there.” Lu Zhijian changed his mind and agreed. Besides, he believed in seeing things through to the end. Since it was the final step anyway, he might as well come.

Lu Zhijian stood with Yan Zhu on the steps. He had woken up early for a cross-country meeting and came straight here afterward, so busy that he even forgot to take off his glasses.

From a distance, Lu Zhijian saw two figures, one tall and one short, walking side by side. Yan Zhu’s expression instantly changed.

At this moment, Yan Xucheng’s hair was as red as Yan Zhu’s face was dark.

Yan Xucheng wore a look of provocation. Yan Zhu angrily ignored him, pretending not to see the person, and said to Jiang Mingyi, “Shall we go in?”

Taking advantage of the moment Yan Zhu was speaking to Jiang Mingyi, Yan Xucheng, who had seemed oblivious to Lu Zhijian until then, suddenly turned his head and winked at Lu Zhijian, waving discreetly while shielded by his sleeve.

Lu Zhijian couldn’t help but smile, secretly greeting Yan Xucheng back. Suddenly realizing his expression was inappropriate, he quickly tried to suppress the upturned corners of his mouth.

Jiang Mingyi and Yan Zhu were completely oblivious to the exchange between the two. Both held a document bag, their faces expressionless. Anyone who saw them could guess they were here for a divorce.

In contrast, Lu Zhijian and Yan Xucheng, with smiles in their eyes, looked more like they were here to get married.