Chen An rushed as fast as he could, following the navigation to the so-called “Taida KTV.” It actually wasn’t a proper KTV at all, but rather an abandoned residential house deep in an alley that had been converted into a leisure and entertainment space. The decor was neither here nor there—the cement walls were covered with edgy graffiti, with skulls here and pesticide bottles there, completely lacking any corporate team-building atmosphere. He had no idea how they had settled on this place.
As soon as Chen An entered, a blond-haired young man asked him, “From the cinema?”
Chen An nodded. The blond guy led him inside, saying as they walked, “You’re the only group here today.”
Seeing this person’s extraordinary bearing and estimating he was here to pay the bill, the blond guy said ingratiatingly, “Your manager is really good at bargaining. I’m making no profit at all. Remember to introduce customers to me later, okay?”
Chen An nodded with an expressionless face and was led to the outside of a room. The room had no door, only a curtain. Chen An slightly lifted it and heard shrieks from inside alternating between “I love you” and “shameless.”
The blond guy said, “They’re playing a game.” Having brought him there, he left.
Chen An lifted the curtain and saw a group of people sitting in a circle like kindergarteners, clapping their hands. Then when it was someone’s turn, they’d say “I love you” to the person on their left. The next person whose turn it was would continue saying “I love you” to the person on their left, and then the next one would turn to the right and say “shameless.”
Chen An didn’t understand the specific game rules. However, he saw Cheng Lele sitting with her back to him, saying “I love you” to the employee on her left particularly loudly.
What kind of vulgar program was this? It completely didn’t align with the company’s corporate culture.
Chen An cleared his throat with a dark expression.
Those young people immersed in the game atmosphere finally snapped out of it. Seeing the boss had arrived, they all stood up one after another: “Boss Chen, you’re here. Please sit, please sit.”
Chen An cleared his throat again, his gaze looking toward the seat on Cheng Lele’s left.
Sitting on Cheng Lele’s left was Shen Dafeng. Seeing Chen An’s sharp gaze, his mind hadn’t caught up yet, and he still stood rooted in place without moving.
Chen An thought to himself, this group of people had no concept whatsoever of Chinese seating arrangements. Shouldn’t the boss sit next to the manager?
It wasn’t that he wanted to take advantage. Traditionally, the left side was the place of honor. According to workplace rules, the seat to Cheng Lele’s left belonged to none other than him.
Under Chen An’s stare, Shen Dafeng’s rear end involuntarily lifted up, but was pressed back down by Cheng Lele.
How could she dare let little brother join this game? Saying “I love you” to him would be heartless, and saying “shameless” to little brother would be insinuating something. No matter how you looked at it, it was a death trap question.
She waved her hand: “Alright, alright, we’ve warmed up enough. We’re not playing this anymore.”
The blond guy came in holding a drinks menu: “Is everyone here now? Can we order drinks?”
Shen Dafeng raised his hand: “Are we drinking alcohol?”
The other few chimed in jokingly: “When we play games later, whoever loses drinks.”
Chen An glanced at Cheng Lele. With her intelligence, she would definitely lose at games. He immediately said, “No alcohol.”
“Why not?” Shen Dafeng asked.
Chen An sat down and said seriously, “I’m very opposed to China’s drinking table culture.”
Shen Dafeng didn’t understand: “What drinking table culture? There’s no drinking table…”
Cheng Lele also felt this was making too big a deal of it. At a relaxed team-building occasion, having the employees drink a little was harmless. She tried to smooth things over: “Boss Chen, drinking a bit is fine. As long as everyone doesn’t overindulge.”
Chen An’s thin eyelids lifted, and he said as if nothing was wrong: “Being a boss isn’t that easy either. The cinema business is so poor, and I still have bank loans to repay. Everyone should be frugal and weather these difficult times together.”
After Chen An finished speaking, the entire place fell silent. The atmosphere that had finally warmed up instantly froze into a hospital morgue.
Was this supposed to be team-building or boot camp? The boss came over without offering encouragement, but first poured a huge basin of cold water on everyone.
Cheng Lele was dumbfounded. Little brother had always been generous with money. For him to say this now, it must be because circumstances forced him to. She just hadn’t expected Chen An’s financial situation had deteriorated to the point where even drinks for employee team-building had to be cut.
But more dumbfounded than her was that blond boss. He was counting on making some money from drinks tonight. He had finally waited for the person paying the bill to arrive, only to find that despite being dressed so well, he was even stingier than the most miserly person.
Cheng Lele was so embarrassed she could practically dig out a three-bedroom apartment with her hands and feet. However, Chen An remained calm and composed with excellent psychological fortitude, as if as long as he wasn’t embarrassed, the embarrassed ones would be everyone else present.
She licked her lips and smoothed things over: “Boss Chen is joking. Everyone drink if you want to. I’ll pay the bill, okay? Let me say upfront, I have a cold and took cephalosporin, so I can’t drink alcohol.”
Chen An looked up at her complexion. She did indeed look a bit pale. Displeased, he said, “You have a cold, yet you’re still attending a welcome party?”
Cheng Lele was terrified Chen An would say something bizarre like “Since the guest of honor isn’t feeling well, today’s welcome party is canceled—we can save what we can.” She secretly pressed down on Chen An’s hand and gave him a look, saying, “What else would you like to drink?”
Chen An lowered his eyes. Cheng Lele’s hand was the same as before—soft and cool, like precious silk.
He thought to himself, did this count as a subordinate seducing her boss?
Cheng Lele, who was supposedly seducing her boss, shook her hand again: “What are you drinking?”
Chen An asked the blond guy, “Do you have milk?”
The blond guy said, “No.”
Chen An frowned.
The blond guy added, “But we can have some.”
Chen An asked Cheng Lele, “Is he imitating Xiao Shenyang?”
Cheng Lele’s head was full of troubles, but hearing this, she couldn’t help but lower her head and smile.
Chen An hadn’t seen Cheng Lele’s smile for too long—pure and clean like a flower blooming, the kind that made him unable to resist wanting to ruffle her hair and call her “good girl.”
Chen An was certain this was completely unconscious seduction on her part, the trap he most needed to guard against vigilantly. So he withdrew his hand, averted his eyes, and said to the blond guy: “Since the manager insists, then bring the alcohol. Also bring some juice and milk, and some snacks and fruit. You can decide the combination based on the headcount. Ah, the fruit and milk must be fresh.”
The blond guy said irritably, “Fresh stuff is expensive.”
Seeing him being perfunctory, Chen An wasn’t very reassured. He stood up and said, “Forget it, I’ll go out with you to take a look.”
This place looked like an unlicensed black market establishment no matter how you looked at it. At the very least, he needed to confirm whether the milk Cheng Lele would drink was fresh. Cheng Lele had once accidentally drunk expired milk and had vomiting and diarrhea for two days, her little face turning wax-yellow. That’s why before feeding Cheng Lele anything, Chen An would always check the expiration date of the food.
Only after walking outside did Chen An realize he had overstepped his bounds. Some habits were carved into his DNA. He consoled himself that caring about a subordinate’s physical health was also part of a boss’s good cultivation. Moreover, he warned himself that this was the last time—it wouldn’t happen again.