The Creator's Grace - Chapter 27

Chi Yu coming to be her assistant—especially without a single word of prior discussion and having already transferred her current assistant away—made her intent to infiltrate the Chi Group feel very aggressive.

However, Ran Jin showed little resistance. After hanging up her coat and scarf, she walked over to the desk. “Sure. If you want to be my assistant, that’s no problem. But this job may look simple, yet it’s actually quite tedious. Xiao Zhang wasn’t just an assistant; she handled several secretarial duties as well. It won’t be easy to do well.”

Chi Yu had expected Ran Jin—who had been deliberately acting in a way to make her hateful—to try and keep her distance. She hadn’t expected her to agree so easily.

Just like that? Without any obstacles, she was simply allowed to be the assistant?

Ran Jin was far too contradictory.

This sense of contradiction made Chi Yu realize there were still many unsolved mysteries. She looked at Ran Jin and said, “I like a challenge.”

Ran Jin sat at the computer. “I’ve known you were smart since you were little. As long as you set your mind to it, there’s nothing you can’t achieve. If you’re going to be my assistant, you can use my computer directly.”

Chi Yu was somewhat puzzled. “An assistant is allowed to use your computer freely?”

Aren’t you afraid I’ll take every trade secret on your hard drive?

Ran Jin said, “Others can’t, but you can. Besides, you already know the password; it’s convenient.” Ran Jin had Xiao Zhang hand over the work and instructed HR to create an email account for Chi Yu. The handover files were sent to Chi Yu’s work inbox.

“If you want to set up a separate computer, that’s fine, or you can use mine,” Ran Jin said. “You can work at the desks outside, or if you find the noise out there too much, we can add a station here in my office. Once you decide, I’ll find someone to set it up.”

Chi Yu thought to herself: Naturally, the closer I am, the better I can monitor her.

“Add a station in your office.”

“Alright.” Ran Jin’s eyes didn’t leave the screen. “Wait a moment. I’ll make the call after I reply to this email.”

Chi Yu stayed by her side throughout, seeing every word of the email exchange between Ran Jin and a shareholder regarding a partnership with Tomorrow Tech.

But even with it all in plain sight, some of the business terminology was foreign to her, a person who had spent her life buried in a laboratory. In an instant, she understood why Ran Jin was so defenseless—why she let her be the assistant and promised her use of the computer.

It was because she knew Chi Yu didn’t understand these things.

Furthermore, Ran Jin’s computer was full of documents related to the interests of the Chi Group. Chi Yu’s goal was to reclaim the Chi Group, not destroy it, so she wouldn’t do anything to harm the company’s interests.

Only then did Chi Yu realize that Ran Jin didn’t seem to take her threat seriously at all.

“Is there anything you don’t understand?” Ran Jin looked up after finishing a paragraph and spoke with complete sincerity, devoid of any mockery. “If there’s anything unclear, you can ask me directly.”

Chi Yu, immediately stopping her internal grumbling: “…”

Though every profession has its specialty, Chi Yu’s mind was still very sharp. Ran Jin managed to straighten out Chi Yu’s confusion in just a few words.

Chi Yu reviewed Xiao Zhang’s handover files and found the workload was staggering. Just the preparation for Ran Jin’s various meetings and handling various appointments required a massive amount of time for communication and planning.

Ran Jin left for a meeting, and Chi Yu sat in Ran Jin’s seat temporarily, using her computer to check emails.

Knock, knock, knock. Someone was at the door.

“Young President Chi,” Xiao Zhang entered. “The tasks I emailed you are quite tedious, and Monday is a very busy day. Let me work on them with you.”

Chi Yu knew Xiao Zhang meant well, fearing she would struggle as a newcomer. But if Ran Jin found out she needed help with a job she had demanded herself, Ran Jin—whether she said it or not—would surely laugh at her incompetence in her heart.

Chi Yu had Xiao Zhang help her prioritize the tasks and asked a few questions about things in the emails she didn’t understand, then sent her back.

Xiao Zhang asked tentatively, “Eh? Can the Young President Chi really do this alone?”

“I can,” Chi Yu smiled at her. “I’ll try to finish it myself. If I really can’t, I’ll ask you for advice.”

Xiao Zhang was three years older than Chi Yu and had been under high pressure since she started working. Back when Chi Li was in charge, she was a low-level employee who grew up hearing stories of President Chi’s ruthless methods. Later, working beside Ran Jin, she felt like she was walking on thin ice every day due to the frostiness surrounding her. Naturally, she assumed the Younger President Chi was just as difficult to deal with.

She hadn’t expected the Younger President Chi’s smile to be so refreshing—as comfortable as a bite of sweet ice cream in the middle of summer. Her voice was pleasant, she was beautiful, and she even used polite honorifics.

Xiao Zhang didn’t understand why she was blushing, and her speech became unintentionally stuttered. “Okay, okay! Thank you for your hard work, Young President Chi!”

Xiao Zhang was indeed quite capable. Through her organization, Chi Yu was able to push half of the tasks to the next day. Chi Yu propped up her chin and did a rough scan of Ran Jin’s schedule for the day.

From ten in the morning until ten at night, there was almost no rest except for lunch. It was the same for today, tomorrow, and the day after. Looking at the schedule for the whole week, it only got busier. It didn’t look like the workload of a mature corporation’s chairperson; it was more like the frantic pace of a small startup owner.

Chi Yu frowned slightly.

There was actually this much work to do? And this was just the schedule organized by the assistant; it didn’t include the people she had to meet or the things she had to do privately. Did she even have time for entertainment? Time to rest? Where was the time to go out and flirt with people?

Chi Yu looked back through the entire month and found that compared to the month right after her sister’s passing, the current schedule was actually light.

Chi Yu understood. Because of her sister’s sudden death, after Ran Jin took over the group, she needed to re-establish contact with all previous partners and projects to prevent any changes due to her sister’s absence. It looked like Ran Jin was impatiently grabbing the Chi Group for herself, but Chi Yu noticed a sense of dissonance.

She remembered the Ran Jin in the surveillance footage entering her sister’s lounge—decisive in arrival and composed in departure. it was a planned murder. But if she had planned to kill her sister long ago, why was the subsequent schedule so chaotic and urgent? It didn’t look planned; it was somewhat contradictory.

Chi Yu spaced out for a moment until Ran Jin returned from her meeting. She didn’t speak as she passed by, only glancing at the computer screen. The progress of the work was a bit concerning.

The side of Chi Yu’s face that met Ran Jin’s gaze felt a bit hot.

“Let’s have lunch first,” Ran Jin said to her. “Eating is the most important thing. You’ll work twice as fast once you’re full.”

“Fine,” Chi Yu said. “I’ll go check the cafeteria.”

Ran Jin knew she was actually quite a picky eater. Her willingness to go to the cafeteria showed she really wanted to integrate into the company’s atmosphere.

“Alright,” Ran Jin said. “I’ll take you.”

“No need, you’re too conspicuous. I’ll go by myself.” Chi Yu took her phone to leave, then paused and turned back to ask, “The assistant usually prepares your meals, right?”

Ran Jin gave an “Mhm” and asked, “Are you going to bring something back for me?”

Chi Yu saw that she looked a bit expectant. Before leaving, she said in a stiff tone, “Since it’s the assistant’s job, of course I will complete it.”

Ran Jin gave her a faint smile. “Thank you.”

Chi Yu pushed the door open and left.

The tower’s cafeteria was on the 16th floor. When Chi Yu arrived, it was already crowded and somewhat noisy. There were a vast number of people in the corporation, and the cafeteria was almost full. Everyone was having lunch with their close colleagues, chatting and relaxing.

Many people noticed Chi Yu. After all, she was tall and striking, and after the massive scandal with President Ran, it was impossible not to recognize her face. But no one dared to make a scene.

Chi Yu hesitated for a long time before the twenty-odd stalls of different cuisines. Finally, at a Sichuan stall, she ordered four dishes, two soups, and two servings of rice to go. Chi Yu figured they’d each have two dishes and a soup—it should be enough.

She hadn’t expected that once it was packed, carrying a bag in each hand would be incredibly heavy. She squeezed through the crowd, waiting for the elevator back up. She thought to herself that since it was only two floors up, the elevator should be fast.

Instead, Chi Yu hit the lunch peak. All four elevators were packed. Every time the doors opened and Chi Yu came face-to-face with the people nearly overflowing from the car, her expression darkened another degree. After being passed several times, Chi Yu decided to take the fire stairs.

It’s just two floors!

As she turned, soup that had leaked out from the takeout boxes at some point stained her clothes. Chi Yu looked down at her outfit, which cost several thousand dollars, now defiled.

Chi Yu: “…”

“Xiao Yu.”

Chi Yu was heading toward the fire stairs with a face that could kill when she passed by Ran Jin’s private elevator. The doors opened, and Ran Jin called out, “Come in.”

“Why did you come down?”

“I was busy and forgot—at this hour it’s too crowded; you might not be able to catch an elevator.” Ran Jin omitted the second half: So I came to pick you up.

Chi Yu instinctively wanted to say “thank you,” but she forced herself to swallow the words.

“You bought so much?” Ran Jin reached out to help her take the food.

Chi Yu didn’t let her. “No, I’ve got it.”

The two fell into silence. Fortunately, it was only two floors, and they were soon back on the 18th floor. A few people were scattered in the office area, all suffering from post-lunch drowsiness.

Back in the office, Chi Yu’s desk and chair were ready—they hadn’t been set up when she left. Her desk was almost identical to Ran Jin’s, set at a slight angle to each other by the window. Chi Yu placed Ran Jin’s portion on her desk and sat at her own station.

“Will you use my computer or the new one?” Ran Jin asked.

“The new one is fine.” Chi Yu knew how much work data was on Ran Jin’s computer; if she used it, Ran Jin would have to spend ages reconfiguring and copying files.

Wouldn’t that be a hassle? Chi Yu thought.

Then again, Ran Jin never seemed to find her a hassle. Before Chi Yu went abroad, or when she came home for breaks, whenever she wanted to eat something but felt lazy, if Ran Jin was there, she would immediately wash and cut it for her, being even more diligent than Auntie Su.

“Alright, use this laptop then. There’s also a tablet for you; it shares an account with the laptop—your work email. All files are synced in the cloud so you can access them anytime,” Ran Jin said patiently as she placed the laptop and tablet on the desk.

“Mhm, I know.”

Hearing her say that, Ran Jin felt she was over-worrying. Chi Yu could calculate the most precise values in the world for complex trans-lunar orbits; surely she could handle office supplies. She was just unfamiliar with business operations.

“Then eat.” Ran Jin glanced at the stain on Chi Yu’s clothes before sitting back down. She messaged Xiao Zhang on WeChat to ask if she had any grease-removing wipes. Xiao Zhang told her they were in the third drawer of the lounge cabinet.

Ran Jin brought over the wipe and knelt beside Chi Yu to clean the oil from the edge of her clothes. This series of actions was entirely out of habit; she had always done things like this in the past.

Chi Yu froze for a moment, then took the wipe and said, “I’ll do it myself.”

Ran Jin also froze, remembering the unbridgeable abyss that now stood between them. She remembered that the current Chi Yu no longer needed her.

Ran Jin gave her the wipe and said, “This wipe is very effective. A few rubs will take it off without leaving a mark.”

“Mhm.”

Chi Yu actually didn’t have much of an appetite, and even less so after a bite of the cafeteria’s shredded pork with garlic sauce. She took one bite and then returned to looking at files on the computer. She began adding everyone on the “Work WeChats for Partners’ Secretaries and Assistants—Must Add as Friends!” spreadsheet Xiao Zhang had given her.

As she added them, she peeked at Ran Jin and found her eating seriously. Two dishes and a soup, along with the rice—she actually finished it all in a slow, steady manner.

Chi Yu: “…”

She must be really hungry. After all, she’s busy from morning till night.

After finishing, Ran Jin sat up straight and quietly felt her nearly protruding stomach, her expression a bit solemn. She looked back at Chi Yu’s meal—only one bite had been taken.

Chi Yu leaned back in her chair with her phone, muttering under her breath, “…Who’s a liar? I’m not a liar!”

“Why aren’t you eating?” Ran Jin said. “It’s getting cold.”

“I’m not hungry.” Seeing that Ran Jin was finished, Chi Yu put down her phone and fulfilled her duties as an assistant, preparing to pack up the containers to throw away.

“I’ll go,” Ran Jin quickly tidied them up. “I happen to have to step out for a bit anyway. You keep working.”

Chi Yu did indeed have a lot of work to do, so she let Ran Jin take them.

When Ran Jin went out to throw away the trash, she happened to run into Xiao Zhang. Xiao Zhang had already become friends with Xiao Yang from the Planning Department, and the two were heading downstairs for coffee arm-in-arm. Seeing the takeout containers in Ran Jin’s hand, she said in surprise:

“Eh? President Ran, don’t you never eat from that place?”

After saying it, a bolt of lightning flashed in Xiao Zhang’s brain. I’m so stupid! It must have been bought by the new ‘assistant,’ Young President Chi!

Ran Jin smiled at Xiao Zhang and didn’t take the bait. “Heading down?”

“Mhm! Yes, yes, yes!” Xiao Zhang dragged Xiao Yang and vanished rapidly.

Ran Jin took out her phone and called Manager Xu of the Planning Department: “Sister Xu, I need to trouble you with something.”

Chi Yu was buried in work the entire afternoon. She didn’t even notice when Ran Jin left for another meeting. When she finally snapped back to reality, her stomach was growling with hunger. Going to the mall at the bottom of the building felt like too much effort; she planned to just endure it.

“Young President Chi!” Xiao Yang from the Planning Department suddenly knocked on the door.

Chi Yu said, “Come in.”

Xiao Yang peeked her head in, holding a dessert box. “Manager Xu is treating us to afternoon tea today. I brought some for you!”

Chi Yu’s stomach happened to be rumbling loudly. She said thank you and took it. It was actually desserts from L’s. Upon opening it, it was her favorite—canelés.

What a coincidence.

Chi Yu’s appetite returned, and she happily ate all four canelés in one go.