A day later, Chen An was listening to a business introduction from a high-performance computing company when Shen Dafeng called twice in succession with voice calls, as if he had urgent matters to report.

Chen An walked to the corridor and answered. The matter was indeed urgent, but it wasn’t about Cheng Lele—it was about Huang Wei.

According to Shen Dafeng’s description, a few days ago, a handsome guy had come to the cinema, expecting to encounter a beautiful woman who had once sat next to him. After waiting for six or seven days straight, the handsome guy brought his original ticket stub to consult the customer service center staff, asking whether they could look up the membership information for the adjacent seat sold for that showing, and if so, could they tell him. The employee on duty at the customer service center at that time was Huang Wei.

At first Huang Wei refused, but that handsome guy told her a lot about how he fell in love with the woman at first sight, how he was haunted by her, and how recently he’d been feeling dejected—his whole emotional journey. Huang Wei was moved by the handsome guy’s devoted feelings and disclosed that beautiful woman’s phone number to him. She even privately promoted how she’d helped bring about a good match, acted as matchmaker, and in the future when they got married, they might even come to Xingchen to book the whole cinema, and so on.

This matter reached Cheng Lele’s ears. She first called that beautiful woman to apologize. Fortunately, that woman didn’t make an issue of it, but as soon as Cheng Lele hung up the phone, she had Huang Wei change clothes and leave.

Huang Wei cried so hard she couldn’t catch her breath. She admitted her mistake and begged, but Cheng Lele never relented and lost her temper badly.

Chen An asked Shen Dafeng: “How bad is ‘badly’?”

He’d seen Cheng Lele fire people at staff meetings, directly confront the company in emails, and even curse when under too much pressure, but none of that reached the level of losing her temper badly.

Shen Dafeng said: “Like when Yiping said farewell to Shuhuan, that badly.”

Chen An was silent for two seconds. Shen Dafeng supplemented his explanation: “Sis got so angry she smashed a cup and cut her hand.”

Chen An was infuriated by Shen Dafeng’s belatedly arriving main point and asked: “How serious?”

“Not too bad actually. Just a very shallow cut. A band-aid was fine.”

After hearing this, Chen An’s heart settled somewhat: “When did this happen?”

“Yesterday evening.”

“Why are you only mentioning it now?”

At this, Shen Dafeng had a lot to say: “My sis wouldn’t let me tell you. She said if I told you, she’d fire me too. Brother-in-law, if I get fired, you’ll protect me, right? Sigh, I know my sis wouldn’t really fire me. If you ask me, Huang Wei did do something wrong. She should be punished or criticized, but when the customer herself didn’t say anything, isn’t firing too extreme? My sis treats Huang Wei like a younger sister, blocked cola for her, always thinks of her for good things. Why was she so harsh this time? Brother-in-law, don’t you think my sis’s reaction was too intense?”

Chen An said: “She did something that crossed a red line. If we don’t fire her, should we wait for her to cause a bigger disaster next time? This time, have Huang Wei thank that female customer for not making trouble. Otherwise, firing would be getting off light.”

“Huh? What kind of trouble could happen?”

Chen An impatiently pointed out: “A stranger keeps pestering to get a girl’s phone number. What things do you think could happen?”

“It wouldn’t go that far, right? I’ve seen that guy. His face looked quite gentle.”

“I see your face looks quite punchable. Does that mean I can punch you?” Chen An said with displeasure, “I won’t plead for Huang Wei in this matter. She’s eighteen years old and doesn’t even have basic judgment of right and wrong or professional ethics. She’d better go back to school and study some more.”

After hanging up, Chen An went into the meeting room to apologize, then continued listening to the other party’s explanation, but his mind was obviously not as focused as before.

Someone like Cheng Lele who took the professional woman route could calmly handle even being splashed with cola—she should be very good at controlling her emotions. This time, perhaps it was harsh criticism born of deep love that made her lose her temper so badly. However, getting angry to the point of smashing cups—even he was somewhat surprised.

After the meeting ended, Chen An carefully chose his words to send Cheng Lele a WeChat message:

[I heard from my undercover that your little volcano erupted yesterday? When employees make mistakes, handle them as needed, but don’t get angry.]

After waiting several minutes without receiving a reply, he called Cheng Lele. It rang for a while before she answered.

“Little Brother.” Her voice sounded spirited enough.

“You got so angry yesterday you smashed a cup?”

Cheng Lele said as if annoyed: “Shen Dafeng tattled? I didn’t hold it steady and dropped the cup. Don’t listen to his nonsense.”

“Last night before bed during the video call, you didn’t mention this.”

“Do I need to report to the boss about firing a part-time employee?”

Chen An said: “Work doesn’t need to be reported, but when you encounter unhappy things, you should let your boyfriend know. If you’re feeling upset, why keep it bottled up inside by yourself?”

“I’m not upset…”

“You smashed a cup and you’re not upset?”

“I said I didn’t hold it steady and dropped it.”

“The office is carpeted. Try dropping one for me to see. Never mind breaking the cup—I’ll be impressed if you can even crack it.” Chen An’s tone wasn’t good: “Cheng Lele, why do you always report good news but not bad news to me? When did you develop this bad habit? Last time you said your knee didn’t leave a scar. Do you think I’m blind and can’t see for myself?”

“That scar is so faint, can it even be called a scar? Wrinkles are bigger than it…”

“To me, that’s called a scar!” Chen An had originally called to advise Cheng Lele not to be angry, but within a few sentences he’d accumulated a bellyful of anger himself. He took a deep breath and issued a serious warning to Cheng Lele: “Cheng Lele, you can hide good things from me, but when bad things happen, you must let me be the first to know. I don’t like you whitewashing everything.”

Cheng Lele was silent on the other end of the phone for a moment, then her tone became deliberately light: “What bad things could happen? If there really were any, they’d be trivial matters.”

“Your matters are all big matters to me.”

“Okay, I get it. From now on I’ll tell you even when I choke on water.”

Someone on the other end of the phone could be heard talking to Cheng Lele: “Manager Cheng, someone’s here to see you.”

Cheng Lele said “Mm, coming out.” Chen An temporarily suspended his educational work and hung up.

After contemplating at his seat for a while, Chen An sent a WeChat message to Chen Xiaomu, whom he’d just added a few days ago: [Old classmate, last time in Taixi we didn’t have time to properly get together. Are you busy these days?]

Chen Xiaomu was sitting on set basking in the sun. When she received the WeChat message, her hand shook. She took a screenshot and sent it to Cheng Lele, asking: [Your Little Brother, such a busy person, is suddenly asking if I’m busy. Should I say I’m busy or not busy?]

Cheng Lele was about to go outside when she saw the WeChat message and replied: [Just say you’re busy.]

[Has Chen An figured something out?]

[Probably.]

[With your Little Brother’s capabilities, if he really wanted to investigate you, it would take minutes. He doesn’t need to beat around the bush asking me for information. He respects you, so just pick and choose what to tell him. You’re getting married—you can’t avoid the Qin family. Stop trying to cover it up.]

[Mm, after I finish this busy period I’ll talk to him about Qin Rui.]

[Okay, then I’ll wait a bit before replying to him, to look like I’m very busy.]