Chapter 38

Translator: Abo Dammen

Arriving at the Qin Corporation, Chen Lu got out of the car with Qin Guchuan and clearly felt numerous gazes from unknown sources falling upon him.

However, this time he didn’t immediately bolt like he had at the “Hundred Brawls” celebration banquet. After all, he still had to be escorted into the building by Qin Guchuan later. Doing that would be too much like the proverbial ostrich hiding its head in the sand. It was better to act as if this situation was completely normal as that would actually attract less attention. 

Chen Lu properly followed behind the two men, properly entered the elevator, and then properly followed Zhou Ji to the Finance Department. He listened as Zhou Ji explained the part-time arrangement to the Finance Director, properly introduced himself to the Director, and expressed that he would complete any work assigned to him properly.

Just like a normal person (?).

The Finance Director, seeing the person assigned by top leadership being so well-behaved, breathed a slight sigh of relief. He pointed out Chen Lu’s workstation and indicated he could start working there. Chen Lu obediently acknowledged this, then turned to look at Zhou Ji, a question in his eyes as if saying, ‘Why are you still here? Don’t you have real work to do?’

Zhou Ji, who actually had a mountain of work: “…” 

“Don’t you have anything you’d like to… express?” Zhou Ji looked at Chen Lu with some unease, trying to indirectly suggest that Chen Lu could act a bit more ‘normally’. This proper behavior was making him nervous.

He hadn’t met Chen Lu many times, but the few encounters had left Zhou Ji with thoroughly intense impressions.

Without a doubt, this was a lawless, very boisterous individual who seemed incapable of staying quiet for even a second. Zhou Ji had actually prepared himself to clean up a mess. Yet, from the moment they got out of the car, Chen Lu seemed to have become rule-abiding, not causing any trouble, so well-behaved and compliant that it felt wrong to Zhou Ji.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that Chen Lu was brewing some big move. 

After hearing Zhou Ji’s words, Chen Lu looked at him with an expression of shock, seemed to hesitate, and finally reached into his pocket, pulling out a pitiful-looking small, sealed packet containing a biscuit. He placed it in Zhou Ji’s palm. “This is the little biscuit Uncle Sun gave me. I’ll give it to you. It’s all I brought. It’s really tasty. Can this count as an ‘expression’?”

Zhou Ji looked at the small biscuit in his hand, processed what Chen Lu giving him something meant, and deeply contemplated why the old butler of the Qin residence would give Chen Lu such a thing.

He clearly remembered Chen Lu was 22, not two years old. Why was he being given specially made, portable little biscuits?

And… he felt Chen Lu should watch less TV. His words really wasn’t meant as a hint for a bribe… 

Zhou Ji felt a sense of helplessness. Lifting his head, he saw the colleagues around the Finance Department looking at him and the biscuit in his hand with weird gazes due to Chen Lu’s words.

Zhou Ji, feeling like he couldn’t clear his name even if he jumped into the Yellow River: “…”

“That’s not what I meant,” Zhou Ji attempted to explain to Chen Lu, but before he could get the words out, he saw Chen Lu laugh and wink at him.

Zhou Ji: “…..” This familiar feeling. 

“Don’t worry, Assistant Zhou. The company is a proper place to work. I know my limits. Please go attend to your busy schedule. I’ll be fine.” Having completed his prank, Chen Lu waved at Zhou Ji, turned, and walked towards his workstation.

Shortly after, the finance staff member assigned by the Finance Director to give Chen Lu the check-writing task also stood up and approached Chen Lu with the materials.

Watching Chen Lu seriously listening to the finance staff’s instructions and seriously starting to work, a flicker of surprise passed through Zhou Ji’s eyes. He genuinely hadn’t expected Chen Lu to be capable of working seriously. However, Zhou Ji didn’t say much more. It was a good thing, after all. He quietly exited the Finance Department and returned to the top-floor CEO’s office.

“How is Chen Lu?” Qin Guchuan asked, working while Zhou Ji entered, not looking up. 

Zhou Ji recounted everything that happened truthfully.

After listening, Qin Guchuan twirled his pen, chuckled, shook his head, and said to Zhou Ji, “Don’t believe Chen Lu’s ‘good behavior’.”

“I think Mr. Chen seemed to be telling the truth,” Zhou Ji said after a moment’s thought, following his instincts.

Qin Guchuan looked up at Zhou Ji, at this assistant who in the original plot would only say ‘Yes, President Qin,’ ‘Understood, President Qin,’ ‘It’s been handled, President Qin.’ He felt that Chen Lu was truly first-rate at ‘winning people over’. 

In the original plot, Zhou Ji and ‘Chen Lu’ had practically no personal interaction at all.

But thinking of Fang Qizhi, Qin Guchuan felt he should probably stop thinking about these character setting collapses.

“Telling the truth is useless. Sometimes things aren’t within his control,” said Qin Guchuan, who had experienced a lot in just a few months. Just as the protagonist is the center of the world, the protagonist is also the center of incidents.

Qin Guchuan no longer wanted to speculate about what unexpected things might happen around Chen Lu. 

After speaking, regardless of whether Zhou Ji understood the meaning behind his words, Qin Guchuan put down his pen and reached out his hand to Zhou Ji.

The omni-competent assistant rarely failing to understand his boss’s meaning: “?”

“Give me the biscuit, then you may leave,” Qin Guchuan said.

Zhou Ji: “.” 

“Understood, President Qin,” Zhou Ji respectfully presented the small biscuit.

The boss is still a damned miser today. Serves him right for always getting bullied by Chen Lu.

Down in the Finance Department, Chen Lu, unaware that the little biscuit he’d gifted had changed hands upstairs, was conscientiously working, albeit frantically writing checks.

Actually, the task of writing checks wasn’t complicated in theory. The key was not making mistakes. Because anything related to money didn’t allow for any corrections. There were numerous requirements, and the slightest error meant starting over completely. For a beginner, it was a torturous task. 

It was also torturous for veterans.

Recalling Qin Guchuan’s fluid, effortless motion while signing checks in the car, Chen Lu suddenly felt a sense of admiration.

Anyone who could write a check correctly in one go, without pausing, was a true big shot.

The Qin Corporation, as the world’s largest international conglomerate, handled money flows in the billions daily at its headquarters. Even though the checks Chen Lu was responsible for were only a small fraction of the company’s expenditures as most monetary transactions were done via transfers, the volume Chen Lu needed to write was still not insignificant. 

After writing over a dozen checks, Chen Lu discovered he was actually developing a desensitized feeling towards these slips of paper.

Chen Lu mumbled internally, and then noticed that one of the checks he needed to fill out was for investment funds for a certain project. And the amount…

“This business seems pretty good, right? Why is the investment only five hundred thousand?” Chen Lu muttered to himself.

He wasn’t clear on the specific details of this project, but the project name was very similar to that ride-hailing app that later became essential for everyone in his original world. Five hundred thousand for project development seemed a bit… low. 

However, Chen Lu only muttered this under his breath. As a streamer, talking to himself was almost instinctual. But as a temporary worker only here for a few days, he had good self-awareness and didn’t intend to meddle in things that weren’t his business.

Besides, this was the Finance Department, not the Projects Department. Even if he had ideas, voicing them here was useless.

After his internal monologue, Chen Lu didn’t think much more of it and prepared to lower his head and continue working. However, another finance staff member who had overheard him looked up, glanced at the project name displayed on Chen Lu’s desk, and chimed in, “That project? Initially, the project lead wanted to secure ten million in investment during the meeting, but it was rejected for being too high. They said that currently, you can just hail a taxi by waving, so this thing isn’t really necessary.”

Chen Lu, who had experience with app-based ride-hailing in his world, refuted, “Maybe it’s convenient here in the North City business district, but in slightly more remote areas, you might wait an hour and not get a cab. Taxis might not even know someone needs a ride at that location. Also, the pricing isn’t transparent. There are unlicensed cabs…” 

Chen Lu chattered, listed some features of the apps he knew about, explaining them to the finance staff member.

Listening, the staff member found it quite reasonable, especially Chen Lu’s point about being able to book a ride from the office and only going downstairs when the car was almost there, beautifully saving time without any hassle.

Actually, more than one person was secretly listening to Chen Lu.

Chen Lu had been parachuted into an important place like the Finance Department, personally brought in by the CEO’s assistant, Zhou Ji, and seemed chummy with him. It all seemed very unusual. Some well-informed individuals even knew about the previous night’s events at the banquet. 

They’d heard their President had been holding and comforting a wailing beauty! And today, a great beauty was brought by the head assistant to report to Finance. Tsk tsk tsk.

In this kind of family-run enterprise, everyone knew what it meant when someone was suddenly parachuted into Finance. Without a doubt, nine out of ten times, it was the future boss lady!

While no one spoke up when Chen Lu arrived, that was just professional decorum. Everyone in a big company was privy about these things. Quite a few people were paying attention to Chen Lu behind the scenes.

So, after Chen Lu finished his chatter while writing checks, the Finance Director, who had also been eavesdropping, pondered for a bit and said to Chen Lu, “Xiao Chen, your ideas are quite good. When the project was discussed in the meeting before, these functions weren’t mentioned. I’ll have Engineer Wan come up since he’s responsible for this project. You two can chat later. If it’s feasible, it’s not impossible to have another meeting to discuss increasing the investment.” 

Chen Lu looked up in surprise at the Finance Director. Wasn’t he just having an ordinary office chat with a colleague? How did his workload just increase?

Seeing Chen Lu’s expression, the Finance Director added smilingly, “For functional planning contributions to company projects, you can receive a two percent commission on the project’s profits for two years.” As for whether Chen Lu was the actual functional planner or just a temp… it didn’t matter.

Someone personally assigned by the President and brought in by Zhou Ji didn’t need to worry about such details.

Chen Lu, who didn’t know the exact profits of ride-hailing apps in his previous world but knew they must be substantial given their longevity: “……” 

If the annual profit was, say, a hundred million, wouldn’t that mean two million in earnings?

“Actually, earlier I saw some other projects and had a few thoughts about them too,” Chen Lu said very solemnly to the Finance Director. “I might have a tiny bit of thoughts about some other projects as well.”

The civilian technology in this world was actually slightly behind compared to Chen Lu’s original world. Otherwise, “Hundred Brawls” wouldn’t have just been released here, while Chen Lu had been playing similar battle games for years back home.

Chen Lu might not know how to build these things or understand the specifics, but that didn’t stop him from having heard of or encountered them. In project development, the one percent of inspiration is always rarer than the ninety-nine percent of perspiration. 

Three hours later, Zhou Ji pushed open the door to Qin Guchuan’s office and reported in a heavy tone, “President Qin, Mr. Chen has already held three meetings downstairs. The projected financial expenditure for this month is estimated to increase by one hundred twenty percent.”

Qin Guchuan’s pen paused slightly. He looked up at the time, confirming it wasn’t past twelve yet. Not twelve days, but twelve o’clock. Only three hours had passed since Chen Lu entered the company.

Qin Guchuan could easily guess why Chen Lu had so many ideas. Differences between worlds were normal, nothing particularly novel.

But recalling the check he had signed for Chen Lu in the car, and then thinking about the Qin Corporation’s monthly financial expenditure, especially since the month was only half over, Qin Guchuan: “…” 

He had overstepped when signing that check.

Such a small amount truly wasn’t worthy of Great Master Chen’s attention.

He could probably waste more money with a bit of effort. Qin Guchuan rubbed his forehead.

This familiar headache. 

At the end of the workday, Chen Lu tidied his workstation, happily bid farewell to his colleagues, took the elevator to the top floor, and briskly entered the CEO’s office.

“Mr. Qin, you were so right! After working here at the corporation, I really can feel nothing towards five million now!” Chen Lu’s voice was full of uncontrollable joy. “I calculated, if all the projects I suggested get developed, forget five million, I think I could get fifty million! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!”

Qin Guchuan looked at the pile of documents on his desk, which was already three times thicker than usual, then looked at the ecstatic Chen Lu: “…..”

That night, the entire Qin Corporation building remained brightly lit. The domineering CEO Qin and his subordinates spent an unpleasant night in the building. Meanwhile, the temporary worker Chen Lu, after making his ecstatic declaration in the CEO’s office, was escorted back to the Qin residence by bodyguards called by Qin Guchuan, enjoyed his delicious dinner on time, cheated three or five streamers in his livestream, and fell into a peaceful sleep accompanied by the agonized howls of other streamers. 

The next day.

Chen Lu slept until 10 AM. No one came to drag him to work, because the person who could drag him to work was still at the corporation, holding meetings with a group of people, all sporting dark circles under their eyes.

What a wonderful work experience.

Chen Lu put his hands together piously.

Translator’s Feed:

Good night, Chen Lu. I hope you’re sleeping on behalf of QGC lmao.

Advanced chapters for this novel will become available soon!