"..."
Following that, for the latter half of the meeting, everyone consciously lowered their voices when speaking, fearful of disturbing the "mysterious guest" outside the screen.
The meeting officially ended half an hour later, and at the moment the video conference was closed, Qin Jijing's face disappeared. In the headquarters' meeting room, everyone breathed a sigh of relief as if a weight had been lifted from their shoulders.
A few colleagues exchanged glances as they leaned back in their chairs, visibly restless.
"I didn't mishear just now, did I? Was that a girl?"
"...I heard it too."
"I thought I was having auditory hallucinations due to my age."
"Was it an assistant from the president's office?"
"It shouldn't be. The assistant who delivered documents this afternoon was Xiaoqi, and he's a guy."
"Is that so?" The other person ruffled their hair, lacking confidence as they said, "Then maybe it was a maid from the family."
"..."
Just hearing that felt somewhat guilty.
Meanwhile, Qin Jijing finished signing the documents and stacked them to the side, to be brought to the company by Assistant Yu first thing tomorrow morning.
After finishing up, he unabashedly began to observe the figure that was sound asleep across from him. It didn't take him long to slip the so-called meeting minutes from beneath her arm, which she had been using as a pillow.
Jiang Ni's handwriting, much like her appearance, contradicted expectations; her script was not round or cute, but rather firm and authoritative with a sharp flourish, indicating she had carefully practiced her penmanship.
For some professional terms that she probably couldn't recall in Chinese right away, she had reluctantly substituted with English, and had even drawn a quick sketch on the side—a little crying face emoji.
Qin Jijing chuckled softly. He remembered when he had seen her speak English, which was in the halls of the Cambridge School of Economics. At that time, she and Bai Shu were seated in the front row, chatting with a Caucasian man sitting behind them.
As soon as she opened her mouth, fluent and authentic English with a British accent flowed out, more pleasing to the ear than Bai Shu's careless American twang.
Picking up a pen, he made some corrections to her meeting minutes, to help her gain experience.
Jiang Ni remained oblivious to all this, deeply asleep.
When she woke up again, more than an hour had passed.
The moment she opened her eyes she was momentarily disoriented, her gaze sweeping over the bookshelf against the wall as she slowly came to her senses. For reasons unknown, the study's light had been turned off, casting shadows all around, and without the sound from outside the window, she couldn't tell if it was still raining.
The only thing in her ears was the faint sound of a mouse button being clicked, which would have been imperceptible had the room not been so silent, amping up the noise. It was this that made her realize Qin Jijing hadn't yet left the study.
Jiang Ni quietly lifted her head from the crook of her arm, looking towards the other side.
A desk lamp was switched on, its light intentionally avoiding her side, with only the fringe of the glowing halo touching her arm.
The man hadn't noticed she was awake and continued to work with his head down.
Different from during the meeting, now he was wearing a pair of rimless glasses with an expression of stern concentration, eyes fixed on the screen.
Through the reflection on the glasses, Jiang Ni guessed he was browsing some documents and was still working.
She sneaked a peek at the wall clock and realized that so much time had passed. The sky outside had thoroughly darkened, the lights in the courtyard were lit one by one, and warm colors quietly dispersed in the rain like a hush.
For quite a while, Jiang Ni's gaze returned to its original spot. She peered from behind the computer and glanced at Qin Jijing again.
The next second, she accurately met a pair of eyes that were dim and indistinct behind the glasses.
"..." Jiang Ni paused, still slow to react from just waking up, and silently made eye contact with him for quite some time before remembering to speak, "Um, when did the meeting end?"
Qin Jijing closed his eyes and took off his glasses, placing them beside him.
"An hour ago."
"Ah."
Jiang Ni felt awkward, the meeting had ended later than she had thought.
"Sorry I was so sleepy, I thought it was almost over and then I fell asleep."
"I didn't manage to take a nap today, so…"
She asked softly, "I didn't delay your work, did I?"
"No."
Jiang Ni breathed a sigh of relief, yet upon further thought, she wasn't a formal employee—what did it matter if she took a nap?
They can't deduct her salary, right? She doesn't have any to begin with.
"I've looked over the meeting notes."
Jiang Ni had barely caught her breath when she heard him say that.
"Ah?"
Bowing her head, she shuffled through the documents on hand, but couldn't find the record she had written. Finally, she discovered it had been pressed under the files next to him, Qin Jijing.
While he wasn't paying attention, she reached out stealthily, trying to grab the piece of paper.
Only for him to snatch it away first.
Jiang Ni: "..."
The beginning was written with concentration; that should be fine, but as she grew increasingly tired later on, she couldn't remember what she had written towards the end.
Seeing him scrutinizing it seriously, Jiang Ni began to feel uneasy.
She had never been this anxious even during exams.
Her grades had always been good, and she had faced the dean with confidence.
But now, handing her "homework" to Qin Jijing, she surprisingly lacked confidence.
She was terrified she had written something wrong and would get a thorough lecturing.
"Nervous?"
Her emotions were written all over her face.
Jiang Ni stayed silent, unwilling to admit it.
Qin Jijing put down the paper, "I'm not your mentor, and you're not my employee."
Jiang Ni nodded, "It's just that..."
"Just what?" he urged her to continue.
Hesitating, she spoke timidly, "I've just graduated, and I'm worried that this might not meet your expectations."
In plain terms, she feared his sharp words would wound her pride.
"This kind of thing is inherently not difficult, within your abilities you should find it easy," Qin Jijing told her to ease her mind, "Moreover, you indeed did very well."
The paper was pushed towards her, "Any slight shortcomings are merely due to a lack of work experience."
"Just... like that?"
His smile was enigmatic, "Otherwise? Thought I would scold you a bit?"
By her reaction, that was precisely what she had thought.
"I usually don't have a habit of scolding people. If you have a particular liking for it, I can accommodate that in the future."
"..." He seemed to be hinting at something.
Jiang Ni feigned misunderstanding, "No, I just thought... maybe you would provide a bit of guidance." She tried to be as tactful as possible.
Characters like him, who hold high status, always like to preach from their lofty positions. Even if you do the job perfectly, you can't escape a few words of criticism, as this is the one way they can emphasize their distinguished status and satisfy their need for a feeling of superiority.
But Qin Jijing didn't need to do that.
"It's not about providing guidance, but rather offering the experience of someone who's been through it."
Jiang Ni's breathing hitched slightly, and her gaze at him changed subtly.
As their eyes met, she hastily looked down, dodging, her eyes unable to find a focus and landing randomly on the paper.
To her surprise, she found that he had taken seriously what she had written just for fun and had even marked it up.
It was as if she had truly submitted an assignment to him.
He had corrected it diligently, showing no sign of perfunctory work.
He was so attentive that he translated a few words back into Chinese.
In a daze, she heard his voice slowly telling her, "You don't need to be too fixated on others' evaluations of you; those so-called well-intentioned preachings are useless to you."