Gu Ning Yuan, visibly upset, shoved her. Caught off guard, Shen Xi Fan tumbled down the stairs. Just as she was about to hit the ground, a pair of hands caught her. Looking up, she saw it was He Su Ye.
He frowned and scolded her. “You little fool, how can you be so careless?”
Yan Heng stood at the top of the stairs, shoulder-to-shoulder with Gu Ning Yuan, his voice cold and emotionless. “Shen Xi Fan, we’re already over. Stop clinging to me.”
She woke up with a start, her body drenched in cold sweat. Her bangs clung to her forehead, damp and sticky like needles against her skin.
At that moment, her phone rang. The caller was from the engineering department, and the frantic voice on the other end shouted, “The Zhong Yu promotional banners and advertising boards have been damaged by the wind. Some equipment has been wrecked. Manager Ding needs to come immediately!” Before she could explain, the call ended abruptly.
Sighing, she resigned herself to handling the issue. Though she knew nothing about the collaboration, Ding Wei’s secretary was still around and helped her retrieve some documents. Without time to layer up against the cold, she read through the files as she hurried to the site. By the time she arrived, she had a decent grasp of the situation.
Rain continued to pour, and the wind howled relentlessly. Shen Xi Fan’s face was pale and bloodless from the cold. Her waist ached, and she felt as though she might collapse at any moment. The pounding in her lower abdomen echoed the flow of her blood, a dull, persistent pain.
The rain battered her body as the cold seeped insidiously into her bones.
She felt like she might pass out and almost wished she would.
When Manager Zhang from the engineering department saw Shen Xi Fan, he was surprised. She had to explain that Ding Wei was unwell. Truthfully, she didn’t particularly care whether the setup could be fixed in time for the next day’s presentation. What she cared about were the discrepancies in the project’s blueprints.
Sure enough, within half an hour, Zhong Yu’s marketing director arrived in a whirlwind. She was a woman in her thirties, exuding authority. As soon as she entered, she said in a sharp tone, “Manager Zhang, I must express my absolute lack of confidence in your hotel’s construction standards!”
The marketing director watched as the workers reinstalled the advertisements and meticulously inspected everything. Shen Xi Fan, equally tense, joined Manager Zhang in repeatedly climbing up and down to check and confirm the installations.
During this process, Yan Heng arrived in person. His conversation with Manager Zhang was curt and exacting. He barely glanced at Shen Xi Fan before quickly averting his gaze, leaving no room for emotion.
She knew that when Yan Heng worked, he never let personal matters interfere. If today’s mistakes had been hers, he would have reprimanded her just as harshly, showing no mercy.
Yet, she still felt a pang in her chest—not because of the scolding, but because Yan Heng seemed so distant. He was physically close yet emotionally unreachable, oblivious to her visible discomfort and pain.
Finally, by 6 p.m., the venue was restored, with the advertising boards repositioned and appearing far more secure.
Shen Xi Fan exhaled in relief, touching her face, now numbed from the cold. Even lifting her foot was a challenge—not just from the chill, but from the stabbing pain that left her on the brink of collapse.
But she had to endure.
In the office, Zhong Yu’s marketing director adamantly blamed the engineering department for the damages. Shen Xi Fan, biting her lip and pale-faced, spoke firmly, almost word by word: “Did Manager Zhang not inform Zhong Yu of the construction specifications beforehand? For instance, the height of the advertising boards and the methods for securing them? Manager Zhang has overseen this hotel’s engineering projects for years. It’s unlikely he would make such a mistake over such trivial matters.”
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