Early Tuesday morning, when the festival had come to an end, Yin and Lu Zheng woke up quite early from their sleep. After refreshing, they packed their bags and left the hotel with an aim to reach the offices on time.
Their plan was to have all their bags delivered to Lu Zheng's place upon arrival in Naerang and just walk into the district offices straight away. There were many drivers Lu Zheng was familiar with regarding delivering their bags, and there was no need for them to worry about the safety of their belongings, much of which were still new from the purchases they had made at the festival.
That morning, all the way to Naerang, Yin was so full of confidence in Lu Zheng, she lay on his chest as they conversed about their time in Balo, the festival, the hotel, the night sleep, and the exhaustion all the activities had left them with,
After that, Lu Zheng changed the topic towards Yin's performance at work, which had greatly fallen short of his expectations. It had been a week only, but she was not even able to draw a simple budget plan or balance the stock in their storage facility, even with some daily training from other staff.
Yin had held his left hand and before he could say more words, he slightly leaned over her and gave her a smile and told her what was on his mind regarding her work.
"By the end of this month, I want you to start handling some projects and pick up the budgeting and implementation skills fast," Lu Zheng said to her, rubbing her arm. While he sounded serious, his voice remained calm, soothing her and making her adhere to him.
Understanding where he was coming from, Yin sat up and looked at him and gave him a promise. "I will try my best. Maybe you can give me some projects that I can brainstorm on while at home," she suggested, and he agreed, seeing her eagerness to catch up with the work.
She laid back on his chest, and he allowed her to feel warmth, but his mind was elsewhere, even when he kept his attention on Yin visually.
After years of struggle, being disliked, challenged, and resisted by most of his peers, Lu Zheng had become thick-skinned and had got the courage to aim for the Revenue office of Naerang.
This office was always under tough competition in every election but was crucial for his next move in his career.
He was aiming for it at the national elections of that year in November. The revenue office would allow him to have more control in the project management of Naerang and possibly smaller districts with time.
With full support from his father and a few friends, Lu Zheng was prepared to win the elections.
Everything had already been laid out. Rain or shine, whoever liked him or not, it had already been decided by him and his father that they were going to take on the role of revenue and project acquisition for Naerang.
The plan was to have Yin take on the role of assistant project manager at the district offices, and Lu Zheng together with his father, would continue to control the district offices through her.
And Mr. Bangwan would assume the role of financial advisor of Naerang, promised by the regional commissioner in the November elections citing his great management of the district offices.
The driver who was riding Yin and Lu Zheng did his best to ride the carriage well, ensuring they would arrive fast in Naerang. They paid him on arrival and picked up another regular driver to deliver their bags. Then they went straight to their offices and resumed their duties. Mu Rong had not yet arrived, and neither had many people.
Lu Zheng, upon reaching his office, returned to his professional demeanor. He checked his file for pending projects and found one he was not interested in working on.
He called Yin from his office, and when she stood in front of him, he gave the file to her. It was a small local farmer's project that she was supposed to complete on her own and submit to him after two days.
"Take it home, brainstorm on it, and let me see the results afterward. We need it this Friday."
"Yes, sir," Yin replied, receiving the file from his hands, and walked towards the door, pulling it open to go back to her desk.
Rama arrived a few minutes after them, having come directly from the festival. As usual, he would first inspect everywhere, excluding Lu Zheng, Mr. Sai, and Mr. Bangwan's offices, before starting any of his other duties.
Upon arrival, he first went to his office and put his bag beside his table and checked his schedule list.
With a few staff starting to arrive, he had to go around checking all the property, especially the main building which housed all the main offices, where a lot of maintenance happened too.
As he walked into the main building to have a look around, he encountered Yin coming out of Lu Zheng's office with a file in her hand.
Yin, already disgusted by his presence, gave him a cold, despising look and went to her desk, sitting without saying anything.
However, Rama, calculative and generally calm in nature, maintained his composure and approached her to offer his "respects."
"Good morning, miss," he greeted her, but Yin bothered not to reply.
She continued reading her file, shifting her attention from page to page. His eyes stayed fixed on her for a while with a pretentious smile, but Yin paid him no attention.
After a while of being ignored, he walked closer to her and whispered something in her ear before continuing with his inspection.
"He is going to use you for his political success," he said to her and then walked away to start his inspection, leaving her with a mark of doubt in her heart.
The words, though easy to be discarded, went deep into Yin's heart.
Lu Zheng had rarely discussed politics though at one time he had joked about joining politics, so where was all this coming from?
In those fleeting minutes, Yin's internal equilibrium was disrupted by Rama's unsettling words. The project assigned by Lu Zheng, initially a task to be tackled with diligence, now carried an increased burden.
Doubts began to infiltrate her thoughts like unwelcome guests, casting shadows of uncertainty on whether she really knew Lu Zheng.
After half an hour, Mu Rong arrived at the offices.