Chapter 5: Chu Fuxuan was exhausted, “Desperate to marry.”

South of the San Francisco Bay Area, this region is located in the Santa Clara Valley. It boasts warm weather and abundant sunshine year-round, and has a universally known alternative name—Silicon Valley.

The city Chu Fuxuan lived in was known as the heart of Silicon Valley, gathering numerous smart tech industries, with most of the people coming and going being tech nouveau riche.

Unlike the dazzling luxury of New York, this place could be called pragmatic and monotonous. Street fashion consisted entirely of T-shirts paired with backpacks, with not much emphasis placed on material consumption.

An Aston Martin suddenly popping up in the underground garage stood out sharply among the low-fuel consumption and pure electric cars. When Chu Fuxuan saw it, it looked like a glittering, money-squandering toy.

But considering his family was Hongni, and their financial report last year stated revenues of over 700 billion, driving this tier of car on a business trip was probably just pocket change…

Seeing Qi Yingzhu take the sticky note, Chu Fuxuan realized things were terribly wrong. But he noticed it too late; almost the instant his heart leaped into his throat, the symphony rang out.

What was even more terrifying was that because R&D sometimes encountered midnight error reports and inevitably needed emergency handling, Chu Fuxuan worried about missing notifications. Therefore, he had set his ringtone quite loud, ensuring he could be woken up even from a deep sleep.

Over time, he had gotten used to the volume. After resigning, he had been too lazy to adjust it, and now this familiar noise was exceptionally piercing.

Even if he immediately muffled the speaker hole tightly, the clashing sounds of the instruments still leaked out through his fingers. Even as Chu Fuxuan quickly switched it to silent mode, the various violins and clarinets had already transmitted over to Qi Yingzhu’s side.

Not far away, Qi Yingzhu caught sight of that small hatchback and already had a feeling.

The pepper-white paint was well-maintained, and a small peace amulet could be seen hanging inside. The car owner had stuck a traceless sticky note on his window.

The handwriting was very beautiful. The paper warmly explained that he had an urgent matter and was about to be late but there were no parking spots, and he had even drawn a simple stick-figure crying cat next to “Sorry.”

Qi Yingzhu secretly ground his back teeth. He wanted to turn his head to search for Chu Fuxuan’s figure but held himself back, deciding to pull out his phone to make the call.

Soon, messy footsteps came from behind him. Chu Fuxuan was very regretful: “How did I block you? Had I known, I would have just abandoned it by the side of the road and taken a ticket!”

Qi Yingzhu deliberately put on airs: “Paying a 100-dollar fine for making a trip out is too much of a loss. If the nouveau riche wanted to challenge his driving skills and just drove straight out, scraping you, you could even collect some pocket money.”

Chu Fuxuan shook his head at him: “No, no, no, it’s fine if it gets hit! If you’re willing…”

“I have no intention of scraping you,” Qi Yingzhu interrupted. “Hurry up and drive away. HR will push forward with the work follow-ups.”

Chu Fuxuan pressed his palms together, making a pleading gesture: “You can also call me, I’ll pick up anytime.”

Subsequently, with a clear mind and open eyes, he moved his car and parked it properly. He waited until Qi Yingzhu left before slowly driving out of the garage.

Chu Fuxuan had to attend a dinner banquet in the evening, so he simply didn’t go home, casually finding a secluded beach to park by.

Rolling down all the glass windows, the damp breeze blew gently across his cheeks. Chu Fuxuan narrowed his eyes slightly, gazing at the sparkling sea.

The result of the meeting would probably come out very soon. How would Qi Yingzhu write his evaluation in the system?

Looking back, their entire interaction was equivalent to a mudslide disaster. He probably wouldn’t be able to squeeze out a few good words from start to finish. After all, the moment he walked in the door, he had mistaken a serious business negotiation for a blind date.

Thinking of this, a shudder ran down Chu Fuxuan’s back, and every cell in his body rejected the idea.

Playing matchmaker with the boss—even if you gave him ten times the courage, he wouldn’t do such a thing, or rather, he would absolutely never consider it.

In Chu Fuxuan’s view, office romances were categorized as horror movies, and must come with a trigger warning for the thriller and bizarre genres. It was already like this between colleagues, let alone with a superior; if you swallowed it, you would definitely choke to death.

Chu Fuxuan’s Adam’s apple bobbed slightly as he deduced: If I’m already this particular about it, then Qi Yingzhu, who holds a high position with heavy authority and has his every move watched by so many people, is probably even more taboo about these things, right?

He just hoped Qi Yingzhu didn’t take it to heart. The President was a busy nobleman; who knows, maybe he would quickly toss it to the back of his mind? He was just one of many candidates; compared to the business affairs passing through his hands, he didn’t hold much weight.

Chu Fuxuan consoled himself, but was still a bit annoyed, scratching the windowsill with his bent fingers.

Qi Yingzhu was so bad that black water practically bubbled from the top of his head. Even if he didn’t hold a grudge over the misunderstanding at noon, if they worked together in the future and got into a dispute, he definitely wouldn’t spare the cold ridicule and stinging sarcasm about his standards for finding a partner.

What “the acceptance condition is just being able to breathe,” what “a survivor who can withstand a husband-cursing fate,” what “Prince Charming’s groom”…

After his brief interaction with Qi Yingzhu, Chu Fuxuan believed the man had every capability to spout such mean-spirited words.

After letting his imagination run wild for a while, feeling his future was plunging into deep waters and scorching fire, he sighed with a lack of interest. He then unlocked his phone to distract himself, and the homepage recommendation happened to be a salary exposure post for the internet industry.

For Hongni to become a top-tier company, it wasn’t just because their cash flow profits were substantial and platform resources were abundant; the benefits and compensation they distributed were also in a league of their own.

Scanning the numerical comparisons on the spreadsheet, Chu Fuxuan perked up again. He believed he wasn’t that squeamish; deep waters and scorching fire were conducive to career tempering.

After tossing back and forth internally like this for a round, he leaned on the window, feeling not a little annoyed, wishing he could rush into Qi Yingzhu’s hotel room to see exactly what his interview evaluation was.

Dou Can: [How was it bro, how was the date?]

The chief culprit remained unaware of the truth, asking him with beaming joy if the male guest suited his appetite.

Chu Fuxuan’s pupils dilated as he typed: [Didn’t dare have an appetite.]

Upon receiving this, Dou Can was very puzzled: [Although David can’t compare to an earth-shatteringly handsome guy, his looks definitely aren’t scary.]

Chu Fuxuan’s heart hurt: [Was the person you arranged the real David? Why did his business card say “Qi Yingzhu” after I asked him about getting married?]

After dropping this sentence, both ends fell dead silent. Dou Can mourned for three seconds and concisely summarized: [Fuck.]

Immediately after, he called, saying with a heavy tone that he had made a momentary mistake and implicated Chu Fuxuan in losing face.

“This isn’t your fault to bear. I’ll ask around to find out where Qi Yingzhu is staying these few days and go clarify in person,” Dou Can said.

Chu Fuxuan replied: “Don’t bother. If he’s disgusted by this matter, even if we hold hands and kowtow to him, it won’t be of any use.”

Dou Can prayed: “Please don’t let it affect your job. His capacity for tolerance shouldn’t be this small!”

Tired of sitting, Chu Fuxuan got out of the car to walk around and stretch his legs a bit while listening to his friend heave long sighs.

There was hardly anyone on the beach. He stepped over the shadows of the palm trees, then kicked the crushed stones by his feet.

“Didn’t you say his temper is quite terrible? He might just turn around and blacklist me,” he said.

Dou Can answered: “In official business, his reputation is actually genuinely good. His leadership abilities are outstanding, and he’s not the type to play with personal emotions. Even those who jumped ship respect him a lot.”

If the management layer’s style was too harsh, he wouldn’t have recommended it to Chu Fuxuan. In all fairness, Qi Yingzhu acted sharply and steadily, and gave the team ample room to grow, making it very suitable for Chu Fuxuan’s development.

Now that things had turned into a messy paste, Dou Can had a headache: “I know their HR manager. Wait a bit, I’ll go probe their attitude. Let’s hope Qi Yingzhu didn’t fill in any negative impressions.”

Chu Fuxuan said: “I don’t expect him to say any good words anymore, just don’t stick that kind of label on me.”

Dou Can hesitated: “What kind of label?”

Chu Fuxuan, completely exhausted: “Desperate to marry.”

·

Qi Yingzhu had never seen someone so eager to start a family. What was the word for it again? Right, desperate to marry.

Facing the blank interview feedback system, Qi Yingzhu resistantly refrained from typing on the keyboard, not having thought of how to describe it yet.

He had looked at Chu Fuxuan’s portfolio. It wasn’t just a hasty skim; from his first indie game to his commercial works over the last two years, he had basically browsed through them all.

The other party was very talented. Not only did he have a natural sensitivity for games, but with the accumulation of experience, he was also highly proficient with industrialized R&D models.

No wonder the executives in the group chat were being so picky and choosy yet failed to point out any shortcomings in Chu Fuxuan.

Perhaps Chu Fuxuan’s biggest flaw was that his seniority wasn’t deep enough. Compared to seniors who had mixed in the industry for over ten years, he lacked some experience and polishing.

However, this also symbolized that the outside world could look forward to his potential; after all, he was only twenty-five years old this year.

Qi Yingzhu pondered for a while, and typed the word “Pass” in the ability section.

Before he had time to fill in the rest, the HR Director came menacingly, impatiently calling his communicator.

“You’ve met. Was it a nice surprise?” The Director greeted him right on the clock.

Qi Yingzhu forced the corners of his mouth up. Because it involved Chu Fuxuan’s privacy, he didn’t share this bizarre encounter.

He said: “I will upload it to the system today. I haven’t quite figured out how to write some parts. You coming over to rush me now, isn’t it a bit anxious?”

“For such a good assignment, there are plenty of people who are anxious. I’ve received several internal applications here, all thinking of taking the post to share your burdens,” the Director said.

He added: “Besides, this Supervisor position has been vacant for too long. The project team will have problems over there. The Producer wants to finalize it this month, otherwise his workload is too heavy and he won’t be able to bear it.”

Hearing this, Qi Yingzhu said: “How many candidates do you have on hand that you’re comparing?”

The Director replied: “If you have no intention towards him, I’ll just pick from the other five.”

Being able to reach this final stage, there was no substantial difference in their levels. Picking any one of them randomly could take up the post. If you had to specify a screening metric, it was probably entirely reliant on fate.

Qi Yingzhu instructed the Director to send over the information of the other four candidates. In less than five minutes, his inbox received the zipped files.

For the Lead Planner, as the core figure of the R&D module, he wouldn’t consider transferring internal personnel. As the company’s business grew larger, factions inevitably became intricately intertwined. Closing the doors to pick someone from inside could easily result in choosing a connection with a complex backing.

External recruitment didn’t seem much better. Qi Yingzhu looked at the information; the other four were all familiar faces in the circle, with very deep interpersonal networks, to the point they could even be called smooth operators.

Normally, Qi Yingzhu wouldn’t care much about these things. Let the people around him fight back and forth; when it came to his desk, they all obediently did their jobs.

But the current juncture was delicate. He hadn’t been promoted for long, and he wasn’t sitting completely stably in his boss’s chair yet. Naturally, he needed to avoid having old foxes mix into his core team, who would feign compliance while acting in opposition, and live off of one while secretly helping another.

Wanting a clean candidate to take the opportunity to clear the atmosphere, Chu Fuxuan was the best choice. Qi Yingzhu closed those files, his gaze shifting back to the feedback page.

[Candidate stability assessment result, whether suitable for long-term cultivation (If you have any doubts, please call the HR Center)]

Qi Yingzhu stared at this line of text, suddenly remembering Chu Fuxuan resolutely saying he was going to get married. Wasn’t this too dangerous?

Scams were so rampant these days. Looking back at Dou Can’s unreliable way of handling things, how long could Chu Fuxuan’s fragile, abnormal marriage that bursts with a single poke be maintained?

If he met a scammer and was taken to the cleaners, would his emotional trauma really not affect his work? What if his partner had an infectious disease?

Given Chu Fuxuan’s stubborn state, he probably hadn’t considered these things. Yet looking ahead, they were entirely hidden dangers.

Connecting the dots to this point, an image appeared before Qi Yingzhu’s eyes: banners pulled up at the company’s main entrance furiously cursing a scumbag, and gossip PDFs flying everywhere. He felt as if the PR department’s resignation letters were going to be handed to his desk the very next second.

Subsequently, he sent a message to the HR Center, first looking up the headhunter’s directory, and then went to contact Dou Can.

After connecting, the other side sounded listless: “Hello, who is this?”

It was dusk, and the horizon was dyed orange-yellow. Qi Yingzhu lowered his eyes and stated his name.

Dou Can immediately said nervously: “The mix-up this time is entirely my responsibility. If you have any doubts, you can come to me anytime.”

The sun was clearly almost gone, yet Qi Yingzhu put on sunglasses and a baseball cap. It was completely superfluous for blocking UV rays, but more than sufficient for acting as a stalker.

He turned his head to press the phone against his ear, happening to have a doubt that needed to be answered on the spot: “Where is Chu Fuxuan’s blind date tonight?”

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(Author’s Note:
Last Chapter Qi Yingzhu: “The company doesn’t care about your personal issues.”
Next Chapter Qi Yingzhu: (Stalking) (Pacing around anxiously))