Chapter 13
New Beginnings
Ye Wenxuan speculated that this room should be the place where Xing Yuan would normally hold his video conferences.
The ceiling overhead was covered in warm soft light, Xing Yuan was sitting in the exact middle of the room, still wearing the suit that he was in when they met earlier.
Because he was not in the public eye, his sitting posture was much more casual than in the pictures that Ye Wenxuan had seen before. He folded his right leg over the knee of his left leg, his eyes looking indifferently at the screen in front of him.
The bottom of the round table was a hollow design, Ye Wenxuan could clearly see his long legs casually arranged, not a bit of dust stained his brown leather shoes. Because his right leg was tilted, the trousers rose up a bit naturally, revealing a pair of clean dark blue socks.
Xing Yuan folded his hands in front of his body, his elbows resting on the armrests of his chair. Leaning against the back of the chair, he seemed very leisurely.
But even if he revealed such a leisurely posture, his temperament was still incomparably cold and hard, and gave people a strict and unsmiling yet unreasonable, inherent image.
Thinking of those portraits and photos that had deliberately softened his temperament, Ye Wenxuan cried some bitter tears in his heart for the designer who had previously helped retouch Xing Yuan"s images.
How long did he have to retouch the image in order to photoshop a domineering Bengal white tiger into a haughty yet harmless Siamese cat?
And after this, he was afraid that this might also turn into one of his jobs, just thinking about it his heart would tremble.
As he was sighing, he looked up, and just happened to meet up with those blue eyes of Xing Yuan.
Ye Wenxuan: "……”
"Chief Xing…Chief Xing are you listening?”
Xing Yuan glanced at him, and then turned his eyes back onto the screen, faintly saying: "En.”
Ye Wenxuan hesitated a bit, he didn"t know whether this occasion was suitable for him to work or not. After all, some meetings may involve commercial secrets, if he ignorantly went in to listen on the side, it might create some difficulties, which would be rather unpleasant.
Who knew that just when he was hesitating, Xing Yuan suddenly said in his direction: "Come here, work.”
Ye Wenxuan: "…Ah? Oh.”
"Chief Xing…is someone else there?”
"No matter." Xing Yuan had no expression on his face, saying to the person on the screen: "Continue.”
"But…”
Xing Yuan tapped on the table: "At 9:30 I still have to meet some other people, if you still do not mention the main subject, I"m afraid we will not have enough time.”
That person immediately said: "Okay…all right, Chief Xing you listen to me…”
Ye Wenxuan carefully walked in, he tried his best not to make a sound and walked to a place three meters away from Xing Yuan, and first took a picture of his side profile.
There was a light "ka cha" sound, leaving the other person"s extremely handsome right profile in the camera.
Xing Yuan was completely unaffected, he listened silently to the other person"s lengthy speech, not making any comments.
After another ten minutes, that person finally finished his speech, and Xing Yuan also opened his mouth: "Sorry, my next meeting is about to begin. I have heard your general overall plan for your investment project, later I will contact the project manager who had worked with you. Before their results come out, please first wait patiently for a week.”
"Ah…good, good, thank you very much for taking the time to listen to our project plan, then…I will not disturb you any longer, Chief Xing.”
"Well." Xing Yuan nodded. "I look forward to seeing you again.”
With that, he reached out a hand, picked up the the remote control on the table, and pressed a b.u.t.ton. The video window was closed and the screen returned to the desktop.
Ka cha.
His blue eyes squinted slightly, the nose bridge was high and straight, the thin light-colored lips hooked out a slight smile that had not yet been retracted, revealing a slight taste of disdain and contempt.
That smile had not been erased, and was fixed in the camera lens.
Xing Yuan heard the sound and lightly glanced at the new photographer standing beside him.
Ye Wenxuan froze: "Er…I"ll delete it immediately.”
Xing Yuan took back his line of sight and continued into his second video conference.
After he had finished listening to another partner"s project plan, Xing Yuan turned his head to look at Ye Wenxuan: "The following call might not be suitable for you to listen in on, we will end here today. Tomorrow at noon there will be a lunch with the top levels of the Leiyin company, you can accompany to shoot. Afterwards, report your work tomorrow afternoon, I hope to see photos of acceptable quality.”
This meant that he was kicking him out, Ye Wenxuan put away his camera and simply nodded to Xing Yuan, and then walked out of Chief Xing"s private meeting room with a normal expression.
It was only when he had gotten to the entrance of the office that he discovered that the main door was locked. Ye Wenxuan was helpless, so he had to turn back.
He should already have started another round of video calls in the conference room, Ye Wenxuan didn"t know whether or not there were cameras in here, so he could only pretend that he was embroiled in a dilemma. He dithered around in the room for a few minutes, secretly looking through the structure of the office, and finally approached the side door only after dawdling around for half a day.
"Xing ge, are you really not bringing xiao Yi together this time?”
Ye Wenxuan dawdled outside the door and heard a quite flamboyant male voice coming from inside.
Xing Yuan"s voice tightly followed.
"Well, his legs aren"t good, even if he went he also would not be able to go around crazily with you all. In the end not only would you all not have fun, he himself would also not be happy." Xing Yuan replied.
"That"s not a problem, that cheap elder brother of mine would definitely help take care of him.”
Xing Yuan: "Liu er, he is not going.”
"Xing ge…”
The two seemed to be relatively good friends, and were not engaging in some sort of unspeakable business dealings.
Ye Wenxuan pondered a bit, and then still gently knocked on the door.
The inside was quiet for a moment, and then Xing Yuan said: "Ye Wenxuan?”
"Hey." Ye Wenxuan opened the door a crack and stuck his head in: "Chief Xing, can I trouble you to open the door?”
He saw that the gaze that Xing Yuan shot over seemed to be sizing him up, or it could just be an illusion. The next second, Xing Yuan picked up the remote control at his side and casually pressed a b.u.t.ton.
"All right." He said: "You have one minute to leave my office.”
Ye Wenxuan waved his hand: "I"ve bothered the boss, see you later!”
Then he dashed out the door at an astonishing speed. He was afraid that if he was a second late he would be locked in the office by Xing Yuan again.
60 seconds later, Xing Yuan punctually pressed the b.u.t.ton, and the main door was closed tightly again.
Liu er who was sitting on the sofa speaking with him casually said: "Xing ge, who was that, he can actually come into your private meeting room?”
"My new employee." Xing Yuan had no expression on his face: "Previously he was a new designer at SFLS, don"t know if he had a brain fart, he actually ran over to be my personal photographer. However, the work that he photographed before actually looked quite good.”
"A designer ran over to become a photographer?" Liu er was very interested, he instantly sat up on the sofa: "Xing ge, I say why you don"t seem the least bit wary ah! I heard that your group would frequently have problems, at this time you shouldn"t be recruiting some strangers in. What if the other person is harboring evil intentions, he"s still a what…what kind of photographer?”
"My personal, private, exclusive photographer." Xing Yuan spoke to him while turning on another screen beside him. He opened the company mail and looked at several messages about work from his a.s.sistants.
"Wo kao, f*k that"s a lot of prefixes, this kind of job sounds a bit awesome ah…" Liu er opened his mouth wide: "Wrong ah, Xing ge didn"t you just quit the previous one, you found another suitable one so quickly? And this position, that old chap before only got the "private" two words ba.”
He said this, and suddenly a lightbulb flashed in his mind.
"Hey, I got it, I know, I know. This is…for fun, right?" Liu er revealed a tacit smile, lewdly saying: "Ai ya worthy of Xing ge, you know how to play! Xing ge is your new photographer male or female, how does he look, is he the super attractive kind? Hehehe, how about tomorrow I can also go find one…”
Xing Yuan faintly said: "Liu er.”
He only said two words, but the opposite Liu er immediately shut his mouth.
"You seem to be very interested in my new photographer?" Xing Yuan held his chin in his hand, sitting in his chair and squinting at him.
His posture at this time had already completely changed from when Ye Wenxuan had been shooting at his side.
The deep blue eyes were full of coldness and arrogance, the cold and serious temperament normally present had scattered. At this time, Xing Yuan was far from the meticulous and awe-inspiring appearance he showed in public.
His smile even brought a trace of wickedness, with his legs folded sitting on the chair and one hand holding his chin, he said kindly to the man on the other side of the screen: "Liu er, when I do not express my opinion, it would also be best for you to shut your mouth.”
Liu er obviously shrunk up a bit, he again nested back into the sofa and swallowed: "Er…all right, I will shut up.”
Xing Yuan added: "Xiao Yi will not be going to Princess Emma"s birthday banquet, don"t make me repeat it a third time.”
Liu er: "I, I, I know!”
Xing Yuan: "Then what else do you want?”
Liu er said, feeling wronged: "It"s just this, my lao zi told me to ask you, the Xing family recently keeps on having problems, do you need our family to help out a little?”
"Thank your father for me, we don"t need to bother the elder for these little things."Xing Yuan happened to open the information sent from a.s.sistant Ruan.
His a.s.sistant told him that the 15 special police officers dispatched by the Special Affairs Department had been stationed in two teams in the Xing family company and residence. On the company side, the security personnel were dealing with them, and the bodyguards at the residence had also kept them outside and did not allow them to go in, as per his orders.
The SWAT team seemed to also have been informed in advance, and after being stopped they didn"t clash with them, only staying somewhere close by and installing several cameras with their clearance.
a.s.sistant Ruan asked him whether he wanted to deal with the Special Affairs Department and ask them to withdraw.
Xing Yuan thought a bit and responded with a sentence: Let them do as they please.
In his ears Liu er was still quietly mumbling some nonsense, a.s.sistant Ruan returned his response within ten seconds: Ok.
Then she sent another email, this time it was about the new photographer.
Ruan Yushan sent an investigation report that was made as detailed as possible, the person investigated was named Ye Wenxuan. Xing Yuan carefully read through each page, until he had finished looking through all of the content, he had already basically known Ye Wenxuan"s work capability, temperament preferences, as well as his att.i.tude about life and society.
Within the constraints of the law, Xing Yuan let people check Ye Wenxuan"s family situation, his work situation and friend group status were also checked. Until he read through the last page, he could already write a summary comment for this investigation report.
[Family is clean, learning ability is exceptional, clean-living and honest, his friend circle is mainly designer colleagues and company clients, work capability is outstanding, no problem.]
Obviously, because of some intervention from the Special Affairs Department, this detective was unable to find those concealed information about Ye Wenxuan.
For example, his superpowers, and his other ident.i.ty.
## Ye Wenxuan"s daily work ##
Business partner: "About this project…”
Ka cha ka cha——
Ye Wenxuan: "Chief Xing, trouble you to raise your head a bit, and make your expression a little more arrogant.”
Xing Yuan: "En. (/= _ =)/~┴┴”
Ye Wenxuan: "Not bad.”
Business partner: "Cough cough…this time we hired many superstars who will specifically help promote our project…”
Ka cha ka cha——
Ye Wenxuan: "Chief Xing, please make an expression of contempt for mortals.”
Xing Yuan: "En. (￢_￢)”
Ye Wenxuan: "Perfect.”
Business partner: "…Uh, and…about the budget…”
Ka cha ka cha——
Ye Wenxuan: "Chief Xing, make a "you this group of sc.u.m" look.”
Xing Yuan: "En. (▼ _ ▼)”
Business partner: "……" Are you both really not here to make me miserable?
Translator Notes:
[1] strict and unsmiling – 正言厉色, idiom, literally means solemn in word and countenance
[2] unreasonable – 不近人情, also means not amenable to reason, which might make more sense than unreasonable in this case
[3] domineering – 蓄势待发, means to wait for action after having acc.u.mulated power or energy, but I can"t really think of a good term for this??
[4] Liu er – 柳二, basically means the second son
[5] harboring evil intentions – 包藏祸心, idiom, also means concealing malice
[6] wo kao, f*k – 我靠, 尼玛, yes there are two different cuss words right after each other
[7] meticulous – 一丝不苟, idiom, literally means not a single thread loose
[8] clean-living and honest – 洁身自好, idiom, keeps his hands clean
Random Notes:
A bit over one hour: 5:30 pm – 6:45 pm, for 3.3k characters to 2.4k words. This chapter was difficult, y"all. Describing people"s temperament and fashion is just so difficult. Why was the MTL so unreliable. There are quite a few terms in this story that I am unable to find on MDBG, likely bc they"re too new and modern to be there. I"m not up with the times, man.
Edit (3/2): Wow I have not been translating for a while…this chapter was translated at least a couple months ago. I"m now all out of 100kV translated chapters in stock, I really need to get back on track w this one. Hopefully I can get one out by next week.