The Fading Away of Our Youth (So Young) Volume 2 Chapter 16 Part1

Hey guys, update here! Extremely sorry for the hiatus but here is the next installment!

I’d just like to say that in this chapter, my view of Chen Xiao Zheng has just dropped to an all-time low. I’m disappointed in you, Xiao Zheng. Why’d you have to up and sudden act like an absolute b*tch? ARGHHHH this is so frustrating…. he’s like that petty coworker who   has a snide remark for everything…

Happy reading!

Chapter 16, 1/2

In the morning, when Zheng Wei was waiting at the entrance of the paper-printer room she met Aunt Li from the labor union (could this be like personal relations department?). Aunt Li, who had always cared about her life and her feelings, beamed as she said, “Zheng Wei, this morning when I was coming to work, I saw your boyfriend going to the garage to get his car. That young man is pretty good, looks pretty handsome and has manners too. Seeing this old Aunt looking him up and down, he still laughed and waved at me.”

This already wasn’t the first time that Aunt Li had asked about matters regarding Lin Jing. Zheng Wei couldn’t really say anything, and could only smile a universal smile. (as in, a smile that can be used in multiple circ.u.mstances).

Seeing her not saying anything, Aunt Li said understandingly, “Why are you being so shy, you’re not that young anymore, having someone by your side is normal. It isn’t the same now as it was when I was young, before getting married even just holding hands made our faces go red (get embarra.s.sed). Now, society has changed, living together is normal. Aunt isn’t some old relic (as in, someone super old fashioned and unaware of current trends). But, you already found someone so great so soon, you should’ve told me from the start, and saved me from blindly worrying for you and from pulling strings for you… …” (Like setting up blind dates).

The door of the small meeting room next to the printing room was gently opened, and Chen Xiao Zheng stood in the doorway as he offered Aunt Li polite greetings. “Chairperson Li, could you two try to be a little quieter, there’s a meeting going on inside.” After he finished speaking he closed the door again, returning to inside the meeting room.

Aunt Li was the veteran in their work group (so I think she’s part of their project team?), and all of the young generation company leaders, including Zhou Qu, were very courteous towards her.  Even though these few words from Chen Xiao Zheng were polite, but the unspoken implication made it hard to take for people.

Zheng Wei also felt a bit awkward, so she went back in the printing (copy) room to check if her doc.u.ments were finished photocopying. This was so that she could leave this place as quickly as possible, and avoid the quarreling/irritated people. Aunt Li pulled on her sleeve, and lowered her voice, a bit embarra.s.sed, and pointed at the closed meeting room door. “Have you seen his publicity on the company’s internal website? Young people climb (up the ranks) quickly, but this temper/personality… … Never mind, he’s going to become a leader, we’ll endure a bit.”

Zheng Wei returned to her own office, and just after she finished binding over 20 copies of the printed doc.u.ments, she picked up a call coming from Chen Xiao Zheng’s office phone. “Secretary Zheng, please send over the doc.u.ments that I need.”

Zheng Wei inwardly rejoiced as she had just finished organizing the doc.u.ments he wanted, so she quickly picked them up into her hands and walked over to his office door and knocked. The door was open, and he was sitting behind his office table. Hearing a sound, he lifted his head and looked up at her.

Zheng Wei hesitated a bit when addressing him, unsure of whether she should still call him a.s.sistant Chen, the office’s notice had already been posted, and if nothing unusual happened, in seven days he would be Er Fen’s a.s.sistant Manager. So, she chose like the majority of people would and corrected herself quickly. “Mr. Chen, your files are right here, please take a look.”

She placed them in front of him with both hands, yet he seemed to not even spare her a glance. Zheng Wei hurriedly restrained herself, waiting for him to look them over and say there weren’t any problems, then she could smoothly withdraw.

Zheng Wei heard the sound of Chen Xiao Zheng slowly turning the pages, and time seemed to pa.s.s extremely slowly. She wasn’t sure if it was because he was looking at them very carefully or if it was just her. But because he didn’t speak, she didn’t have any reason to leave without permission. The process took too long to wait for, and when she finally couldn’t endure it any longer and looked at his progress, she discovered that he was closing the files at that exact moment, and had just heaved a sigh. He then pushed the entire stack of files towards her with one hand.

“Mr. Chen, are there any problems?” Zheng Wei was a bit confused.

Chen Xiao Zheng calmly said, “Secretary Zheng, work with computer files doesn’t require much skill, the most important thing is precision, you should understand this.”

Zheng Wei quickly picked up a copy and took a look. Sure enough, the sixth and seventh pages, because the photocopier got jammed, of the double-sided files were copied twice. Inside, she was upset that she hadn’t had the time to carefully check it over once, and quickly admitted her mistake. “I’m sorry, I’ll immediately redo it.”

Chen Xiao Zheng smiled coldly, “Redoing it is a small issue, I’m just reminding you again, if you were willing to invest just some of the time you use for personal feelings into your work, this mistake definitely could’ve been avoided.”

This sentence made Zheng Wei feel both angry and ashamed. Even since Zhou Qu had let her start helping Chen Xiao Zheng, she had a week where she stayed at the office for over 12 hours every day. The things he asked for were often sudden and couldn’t be delayed at all. If he didn’t wait and make it so rushed, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen. And now, he was even scolding her for letting her personal life delay her work, this was simply and obviously just trying to find fault in her.

He leaned back in his chair, as if waiting for her to get angry. Zheng Wei did indeed have an impulsive urge to push the entire stack of files right into his face then rage at him while pointing her finger at his nose saying, “Chen Xiao Zheng, what do you think you are?”

But she restrained herself. Aside from the fact that his position was above hers, she could also see that he just wanted to infuriate her. The more she lost her self-control, the more satisfied he would be, and she stubbornly didn’t want him to succeed. So, she respectfully gathered and organized the messy pile of files he had pushed and said apologetically, “I’m sorry, Mr. Chen, I didn’t sleep well last night, so I wasn’t focused while I was checking [the files]. It won’t happen again.”

Zheng Wei successfully saw the serene peace in Chen Xiao Zheng’s eyes shatter, and even though his face was still indifferent, even though the tiny changes could trick other people, he couldn’t trick her. When she left, she heard him ask quietly: “Do you dream at night.”

She recalled how she had awoken from her dreams covered in a cold sweat the night before, the moment when he had dropped, as the degree of pain she had felt was that clear. But was the person in her dreams the same as the one before her eyes? The real Chen Xiao Zheng would never take a wrong step and be a centimeter off for his personal life (emotions).

Zheng Wei smiled slightly as she replied: “I slept very well.”

At noon, Zheng Wei descended floors to go to the cafeteria for lunch and happened to see the office cleaning lady rushing up to the sixth floor. Zheng Wei had always been friendly with the cleaning ladies and other workers, and they could be considered to know each other well. At this time it wasn’t her shift, so she asked, “Aunty, what are you rushing to do right now?” The aunty quickly checked if no one was there, then secretly told Zheng Wei, a.s.sistant Manager Chen broke a gla.s.s. I don’t know how it fell, but I heard that his entire palm was covered in blood. Right now, he’s at the infirmary getting it wrapped up.”

Zheng Wei said, “oh,” then calmly went to eat her meal.

Sooner or later, there would be a day when the visible scar recovered completely.

A week later, Chen Xiao Zheng was smoothly getting through his work. Starting from the day he was appointed, he officially became Zhong Jian Er Fen’s Deputy Director. He was also the second person under thirty to become a deputy of a department in Zhong Jian’s history after Shi Jie. His career was flat (smooth? easy?) throughout, no wind stirring up the sails, and there are naturally only a few people who can add to what is already perfect. But this time, no one had any thoughts of a huge celebration because the police had officially suspected a person from a company under Er Fen, San Chan, of illegal business; Manager Feng De Sheng of Cheng Tong was suspected of job-related crimes as was going to be officially investigated. (OK so this part confused the HECK out of me and I don’t think I got any of the names right because I can never tell if they’re names or something else. So, basically, all it is is that Feng De Sheng got accused of doing something illegal, so no one wanted the celebrate CXZ’s promotion).

It is said that during the few days before the investigation, Feng De invited Deputy Bureau Chief Liang of the anti-corruption department out to eat in order to survive. At the table they talked happily and peacefully. This time the police attacked before hand with no warning, and the investigator in charge this time was no longer Deputy Bureau Chief Liang who had always been in charge of this part of Zhong Jian. It was new chief who had just been relocated from a different district, and his last name was Liu. Bureau Chief Liu had no dealings with Er Fen and Cheng Tong, and his character was distant too, nothing like Deputy Bureau Chief Liang who was much more helpful. Cheng Tong was caught unprepared when they got investigated, and like a hot knife through b.u.t.ter, they were just like an apple which had already been rotten at the core; one slice of the knife and devastation occurred.

Feng De Sheng had been well regarded for many years, but behind him he had his accounts in a terrible state. Giving and accepting bribes, illegal bidding, these were only small problems. The police’s focal point was placed on the suspicion that Cheng Tong had illegally transferred state-owned a.s.sets. As soon as they were charged with the crime, the number [of people implicated] was huge, not only would Feng De Sheng be unable to do anything, even Er Fen couldn’t escape being affected.

Feng De Sheng was already kept in custody, and even though the police’s investigation scope had only looked into Cheng Tong so far, but Er Fen and even the other branches of Zhong Jian would one after another be in danger. Zhou Qu made the property department work overtime many nights in a row retaking the stock of all of the items in the accounts, reorganizing all kinds of files, records and archives, working the hardest in sorting out the relationship between them and Cheng Tong. However, Cheng Tong was like an empty sh.e.l.l, completely attached to Er Fen. Among all of their [Cheng Tong] countless connections, everyone knew that in such a short period of time, there was no way they could claim innocence (as in say, I have no relationship with this person). Er Fen’s relationship with Cheng Tong really wasn’t anything special, it was only that Feng De Sheng had flaunted it these past few years. The police’s actions definitely weren’t sudden, they were bound to be for some specific reason, or because they wanted to make an example out of Cheng Tong (to warn others by showing how they would be punished).