Chapter Thirty-Seven: He Took Zhou Zhizi’s Side Again

As soon as Zhou Chenyan arrived, Zhou Zhizi seemed to have found a dependable refuge, hurtling straight into his arms like a swallow returning to the woods, sobbing softly.

Her tears spoke louder than a thousand words.

Zhou Chenyan patted her shoulder, his gaze sweeping across me and Cui Lu.

"Director Zhou, she set up a colleague and handed in a substandard design draft, infuriating President Zhang and almost ruining—"

"Say no more, I know."

Cui Lu awkwardly cut herself off.

Zhou Chenyan looked at neither of them, simply saying in a calm tone, "Now is not the time to assign blame; we must urgently give President Zhang an explanation."

Not a single word mentioned Zhou Zhizi, yet every sentence was dripping with protection.

How could Cui Lu not understand? She glanced at me, her eyes seemingly carrying a hint of apology. "I understand, I will arrange it right away."

"Let her be responsible for this matter."

Zhou Chenyan's gaze swept over me.

Cui Lu certainly had no objections, but I was extremely displeated. "No matter how you look at it, this responsibility shouldn't fall on me, should it?"

Meeting Zhou Chenyan's dark, profound gaze, I felt no fear at all.

"If President Zhou doesn't believe me, you can have someone investigate. Online records are very easy to check—"

"Is there any need for that?"

He suddenly spoke.

I fell silent, feeling as though a basin of icy water had been dumped over my head from above, calming me down completely and making me instantly understand his meaning.

So what if we found the IT technicians?

So what if we actually uncovered what Zhou Zhizi had done?

With a single word from him, everything could be covered up and whitewashed into a peaceful facade.

My throbbing temples twitched abruptly. I massaged my forehead, suddenly losing all strength to argue.

"It seems I was just wishful thinking."

It wasn't a day or two that Zhou Chenyan had been shielding Zhou Zhizi. Why on earth would I think he would allow us to expose her mistakes?

"Supervisor, I'll go back to work now."

I exchanged a word with Cui Lu, turned around, and left the meeting room.

There was no point in arguing over this matter. Continuing any further would only bring humiliation upon myself, but I wasn't going to swallow this loss quietly either.

Zhou Chenyan could shut the supervisor's mouth and pretend nothing had happened.

However, he couldn't shut the mouths of more than a dozen employees.

Dejected, I returned to my workstation. Cancan immediately came over to ask what had happened, and my colleagues looked at me with concern.

I kept my head down. "Zhizi submitted the wrong draft and gave the preliminary version to President Zhang. He was extremely dissatisfied, and the supervisor lost her temper. She originally wanted to punish her, but President Zhou..."

I stopped right there, leaving the rest unsaid.

While everyone was burning with curiosity, Zhou Chenyan and Zhou Zhizi walked out together.

Normally in the company, the two of them knew to avoid suspicion by walking one after the other, but given my deliberate pause just now, their current pretense of keeping a distance looked completely hypocritical.

The colleagues all pretended to be busy, but when Zhou Zhizi came over to greet them, one could clearly sense their perfunctory and cold attitude.

Just like when I had first arrived and everyone disliked people getting in through the backdoor, Zhou Zhizi was obviously a connected hire, which easily sparked widespread resentment.

Most importantly, today she could use Zhou Chenyan to make me take the fall.

Tomorrow, it could be someone else.

Who could feel safe working as a colleague with someone like that?

I watched coldly as Zhou Zhizi tried her old tricks to win everyone over, but while people played along on the surface, they no longer opened up to her the way they used to.

Yet my head still throbbed mercilessly. As soon as quitting time arrived in the evening, I left the company.

Who would have thought I would be intercepted midway by Zhou Chenyan?

"What on earth do you want now?"

Forced into the backseat, I looked at the man beside me, wanting nothing more than to press myself flat against the car door.

He yanked me back to my original spot with a single pull. "Behave. I'm taking you to meet someone."

"I'm not going. Stop the car."

He ignored me.

The driver paid me no heed either.

My face froze in anger; I felt like calling the police right then and there. This man was simply out of his mind!

He dragged me off to meet an eccentrically dressed stylist. The moment the stylist saw me, he began to make a huge fuss, declaring that I was wasting a natural gift by having such potential yet knowing nothing about grooming.

Then, he shoved me into a chair, styled my hair, and made me change into an evening gown.

Dizzy and disoriented, I finally managed to break free, only to be whisked away by Zhou Chenyan to a banquet.

There were many people present, and quite a few were familiar faces.

Of course, it wasn't that I knew them personally, but rather that these people frequently appeared in financial news, and a few I had seen in the documents Zhou's father had given me.

They were all corporate partners of the Zhou Group.

Every single one of them was a heavy hitter.

I re-evaluated Zhou Chenyan. "What on earth are you trying to do?"

"Introducing someone to you."

Noticing my hand trying to slip away, Zhou Chenyan firmly pinned it down, forcibly linking my arm with his, and led me to a quiet resting area.

There was a set of sofas here, and a man was sitting on one of them.

President Zhang was sipping his wine. Seeing Zhou Chenyan, he looked somewhat surprised. "Director Zhou, what brings you here? I thought you never liked attending banquets like this?"

"I usually don't, but I had to come today."

A faint smile hung on Zhou Chenyan's lips.

President Zhang's gaze shifted, landing on me, and the smile on his face faded slightly. "Director Zhou, I'm here to attend a banquet today, not to talk about business."

He politely excused himself, set down his wine glass, and made to leave.

"President Zhang, the matter with the design draft was just a minor misunderstanding. I know that if I mention it now, you'll think I'm just shielding an employee, so why not let her explain it to you in person?"

Zhou Chenyan stood right in front of him, blocking his path.

His intention was crystal clear.

No leave without giving it a chance.

President Zhang hesitated for a moment and sighed. "Fine, I'll do it for your sake, Director Zhou."

However, this place was clearly unsuited for a conversation, so we moved to a private room on the second floor.

Standing before President Zhang, I glanced at Zhou Chenyan, who was seated not far away. Regardless of what his underlying motives were, this opportunity had been delivered to my doorstep, and I couldn't afford to miss it.

President Zhang looked highly impatient with me, barely even willing to pretend to listen.

I didn't mind, nor did I feel any need for polite small talk. The moment I opened my mouth, I went straight to the point, first using a striking, core concept to spark President Zhang's interest, and then elaborating in detail on my vision for this design.

From initial impatience, President Zhang gradually became engrossed in listening.

"Did you bring the design draft?"

"I don't have—"

I couldn't help but mentally curse Zhou Chenyan. If he had given me a heads-up beforehand, I wouldn't have shown up completely unprepared.

A laptop was placed before President Zhang. It was Zhou Chenyan.

"Please have a look."

President Zhang had completely lost interest in him by now, examining the design draft with utmost concentration. Once he finished reviewing it, he was immensely excited. "Good! This is precisely the effect I've been looking for!"

He finished lingering over the details, then shifted his gaze back to me.

"You're very talented. It's just that business from earlier today..."

Zhou Chenyan chimed in, "That was merely a misunderstanding—a minor lapse by an employee. I've already severely reprimanded them."

Glossing over the issue entirely, he stubbornly refused to acknowledge Zhou Zhizi's wrongdoing.

I said to President Zhang, "As long as you are satisfied."

President Zhang chuckled warmly. "Of course I'm satisfied! If you had sent this to me a bit earlier, today's incident wouldn't have happened at all."

I smiled silently without replying.

Zhou Chenyan looked at me, then at President Zhang, and suddenly pulled me close to his side. "It seems President Zhang thinks very highly of my wife."

I stared at him as if looking a ghost.

had he lost his mind?

President Zhang looked enlightened. "So this lady is your wife. No wonder you specially brought her to see me. It was I who was blind and failed to recognize a person of importance. Mrs. Zhou, please don't take what happened today to heart."