Chapter 21   – Innocent Bystanders (1)

And just like that, Chen Jing had adopted the stance of an innocent bystander. She operated as normal in front of the big boss and silently admitted to the fact that Yan Shuyu had resigned. At the end of the day, it was Manager Xu who approved the resignation. This had nothing to do with her.The adult world was rarely ever just black and white. The conservative way of thinking was just another stance, nothing about right or wrong. That’s why when Chen Jing decided to pretend that she knew nothing about the incident, everything was calm and normal around her. With some observation, it wasn’t difficult to notice how well the big boss was able to remain calm in the face of events.

He was, indeed, a big boss in the corporate world. The female employee who had been taking care of his daily chores, who has had lots of interactions with him, and most recently, interaction outside the realm of her job responsibilities had just up and left. Most people would at least ask about it, but their big boss didn’t even blink, as though this person had never existed.

For a while, Chen Jing had to wonder if the matter had already been blown over. Just when she was feeling ashamed of herself, and thinking that she really should try to learn from her big boss and stop sweating over small things, he suddenly broached the subject out of the blue.This morning, Chen Jing had just finished up her night shift and had planned on taking off and heading home after she saw the big boss out. Inside the elevator, as though they were just randomly chitchatting, the big boss asked in the most casual of all tones, “Manager Chen, it seemed your other colleague hadn’t been here for the last couple of days.”

They were inside the VIP-only elevator at the time. It wasn’t exactly super fancy, but it was definitely more spacious than a normal elevator. Inside this not-so-small space was their entire group of five. Naturally, Boss Zhou wasi n the middle. His special assistants, Louis and Robin, flanked him on both sides, with Chen Jing and the lobby manager in the far back. Even standing just next to the back corners of the elevator, Chen Jing felt incredibly exposed because, in perfect coordination, everybody turned and looked at her immediately after Boss Zhou finished asking his question.

She could ignore the lobby manager who was oblivious to the truth, but even Louis and Robin had put on their innocent looks to enjoy the show. Chen Jing felt a sudden onset of a headache.

The “other colleague” that Boss Zhou had mentioned was obviously referring to Yan Shuyu. As Chen Jing was worried about other “incidents”, she never took on another assistant since Yan Shuyu had quit. It had only been just her and Xiao Lin covering everything the last couple of days. Truth be told, she didn’t have a good reason, otherwise, she would even let Xiao Lin go. Once bitten, twice shy. She’d rather suck it up and take on the responsibilities herself.

And the big boss had to bring this up. Chen Jing moaned silently. Luckily, she had emulated the scene of the big boss interrogating her the two days following the incident, so she was no stranger to this. With a look of sudden realization, her acting e0very bit rival that of the two special assistants, she said, “Oh! Boss Zhou must be referring to Xiao Yan, Yan Shuyu, right? I forgot to mention, she had resigned.”

“Resigned?” Zhou Qinghe turned around and looked at her. A slight smile on him, as though amused, he asked, “When did that happen?”

“Last Wednesday, exactly a week ago.” What Chen Jing wanted to add was: that’s the day of the event, and our Xiao Yan had promptly and unequivocally made the decision to quit on the spot.

Of course, one as brilliant as the big boss didn’t need any reminders from her. He figured it out almost immediately. Chen Jing seemed to have noticed him licking his back teeth, then slowly a smile appeared on him and he said, “Is that so?”

Chen Jing felt a bit anxious. What’s “is that so”? Whatever did he mean by that?