Chapter 25: Focus on Work, Not Love

o young, I can’t just wither away like this, taking care of the family bit by bit.”Her mother had also been innocent and carefree in her youth, though now her image as a middle-aged woman was far remo..."What do you want to talk about Work" she asked.

In her view, whether it was her first time or not didn't matter when it came to Zhuo YUAN. She also believed Zhuo YUAN wasn't a conservative person. In this day and age, why should she be responsible for him being a first-timer

Zhuo Yu'an: "Shu Tinglan!"

After a day of intense, demanding work, Shu Tinglan was truly exhausted. Before he could continue speaking, she fell asleep. The next day, she woke up and glanced at her phone. There was one unread message from Zhu Yu'an, sent three hours after the last one.

"Work hard, don't fall in love."

This tone...it's exactly the same as what her parents used to tell her: study hard, don't fall in love too early.

Shu Tinglan was even more certain that he had seen Lin Zihe and Cheng Chen interacting yesterday, seeing Lin Zihe talking about Zhou Lao Shi chasing after her.

Where does she even have the heart to talk about romance right now Besides, what does it matter to him whether or not she dates anyone

Shu Tinglan didn't reply, casually deleted the chat history, and, with work keeping her busy, she pushed this little incident aside.

Zhou Ming was invited to give training to newcomers at an industry association. Before leaving, he gave Shu Tinglan another round of guidance before leaving with peace of mind. Shu Tinglan is organized and efficient. During the week that Director Xiao was abroad, she mainly collected information about Zhuoyuan Technology and Shengp Rui Intelligent online, as well as industry information related to mergers and acquisitions, and compiled a detailed report for Director Xiao.

Zhou Ming also revealed to her that Xiao Zhu's代理 concept product had been stolen, and the progress was going smoothly. As long as she gained Zhu Yu'an's trust, she should be able to get an invitation to bid for the acquisition of Zhu Yuan Technology later on. So Zhou Ming told her that she could try to put together a bid over the next week and have Xiao Zhu review it after he returned home.

Shu Tinglan immediately began preparing, although the project hadn't progressed yet, she felt very fulfilled with the busy work. This was her first time writing a bid proposal, just the content structure and priority distribution made her head spin. So when she saw Zhuo Yu'an again in front of her own house, she thought for a moment that she had seen things.

Isn't he in a foreign country with Director Xiao

Given their current relationship, Shu Tinglan knew exactly what he was after when he showed up unannounced again. However, after the intense work she'd been through, she simply craved relaxation and a good night's sleep; she wasn't in the mood for any "intense activities."

Zhuo Yu'an was already familiar with her home, and as he walked in, Shu Tinglan noticed that he was carrying several shopping bags from nearby supermarkets, each one brimming with goods.

Seeing the confusion on her face, he changed into slippers and walked toward her kitchen.

"The refrigerator is in space."

Cherishing words as gold, yet his movements were very fluid. His shopping bag contained vegetables, fruits, and meat; he sorted them carefully and placed them in the refrigerator for her.

“I don’t usually cook, it would spoil in the fridge,” Shu Tinglan said.

"I'll do it!"

Zuo Yu'an always plays cards out of the ordinary, Shu Tinglan can't figure out what he's trying to do The two are just ordinary sleeping buddies, he always shows up uninvited, that's already against the rules, okay

"I'm a bit tired today, and I'm not up for it tonight." She made her intentions clear, refusing to have sex with him again tonight. It was also a way of letting him know she wanted him to leave her house.

"Tired Take a rest, I'll have everything organized before you leave."

Shu Tinglan nodded and said thank you. She originally wanted to take a shower, but since Zhuo Yu'an was also at home, she didn't want to send any ambiguous signals tonight, so she just went to the bedroom and changed into a plain and ordinary house robe.

Her kitchen had a wall-mounted sliding door. The door wasn't usually closed, making it an open-plan kitchen. Shu Tinglan could immediately see Zhuo Yu'an cooking noodles at the stove.

Though they were strangers, perhaps because of their past intimate relationship and the two times he had helped her—once with a leaky kitchen and once by helping her on the subway—being in the same space felt surprisingly natural and harmonious.

Just like he appeared at her doorstep out of nowhere, and in her kitchen without any explanation, and even more inexplicably made her a bowl of noodles, it wasn't jarring at all. Instead, it felt perfectly natural.

The noodles are simple, with a few green vegetables, a poached egg, and some chopped scallions. But the color is glossy and it looks delicious.

Zhuo Yu'an passed her chopsticks: "You need to stop skipping dinner."

Shu Tinglan: "How do you know I didn't have dinner"

"Does your kitchen look like it's been used"

He hit the nail on the head, and Shu Tinglan fell silent. Since they bought this house, the kitchen had only been used once. It was when they first moved in, his mother had cooked a meal to celebrate, and after that, it had remained untouched.

When she was alone, she really didn't eat dinner. Occasionally, Lin Zhixiao would drag her out to play after work, and she would eat a little, but Lin Zhixiao's nightlife was rich and he didn't often take her with him.

Having gone without dinner for a long time, my stomach had shrunk. I thought I wouldn't be able to eat much, but perhaps because the taste was so good, I unconsciously finished the whole bowl of noodles, including the soup.

Zuo Yu'an filled himself a bowl as well and sat across from her, eating slowly.

"Why did you come back so early Did our Director Xiao return with you"

"I'm not sure, her itinerary isn't required to be shared with me."

"Have the cases involving stolen concept products been solved" Shu Tinglan still mustered her courage to bring up work matters again, hoping to subtly gauge his attitude towards Director Xiao.

Zhuo Yu'an glanced at Shu Tinglan, put down his chopsticks, and said seriously:

"Shu Tinglan, your director Xiao wants to try and acquire Zhuoyuan Technology, right"

"Yes."

"This project, she'll personally take you through it and have you gather related materials beforehand"

"Yes." Shu Tinglan answered truthfully, not knowing what he wanted to say. Ever since he had rejected her last time, she hadn't brought up any work matters with him again.

But you seem to be completely unaware of the latest developments at Zhuoyuan Tech, which makes me question your expertise. He said this nonchalantly, then went back to eating his noodles.

Shū Tīnglan was stunned. This week, she had been collecting information about Zhuò Yuǎn Technology.

Zuo Yu'an took out his phone and showed her the tech news from the science section.

"That solves it," he said in answer to her question.

The tech version of this news was posted this afternoon, Zhuyuan Technology won the case about their conceptual product being stolen, and in an inconspicuous line, it mentioned the lawyer Xiao Junhua.

Shu Tinglan happened to not be paying attention to the news today because she was busy with a bidding process and missed this information.

"Learn well from your Xiao director."

Zuo Yu'an always spoke to her in a calm tone, even when he said she wasn't professional just now, his tone was still calm and you couldn't tell his attitude. However, the implied meaning of this sentence should be an acknowledgment of Director Xiao. Her heart relaxed slightly.Gu Ruandong originally wanted to have the driver take her back to the Xu family. He was going to stay at the film and television base, but seeing the media chasing after them outside, he knew he could...