Upon reaching his desk, he opened his WeChat in his mobile phone. Then he created a group chat. He added Mo Wenbin, Xue Guangxi and Xue Jinxu. He renamed this group, 'Neighbors'. Then he sent a message.

Chen Linyun : "Let's celebrate tonight. I'll cook a feast."

Xue Jinxu : "What's the occasion?"

Mo Wenbin : "He got promoted."

Chen Linyun : "Yeah."

Xue Jinxu : "Congratulations!"

Mo Wenbin : "Congratulations. I'm in charge of booze."

Xue Guangxi : "Congratulations, Teacher. But I cannot drink yet. I'll just eat."

Xue Jinxu : "Good thing you know, young lad. What else can I bring?"

Xue Guangxi : "I'll take care of entertainment. Movies? Games?"

Chen Linyun : "Thanks everyone. No need to bring anything. Just yourselves."

Xue Jinxu : "What's your position now?"

Chen Linyun : "Director.

Xue Jinxu : "Congrats again! We'll be there tonight."

Chen Linyun : "Has your problems been solved? From last Sat.u.r.day?"

Xue Jinxu : "50% solved."

Xue Guangxi : " My sister's so cool."

Xue Jinxu : "Got to go."

'AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!' He was shouting inside his head. He was ecstatic. He was happy of the promotion, but he was happier because of the positive progress he was having with his woman. Wasn't it just a fortnight ago that he was faced with her most cruel rejection? Wasn't it that same night that he was curious where she lived? And wasn't it the very same night that he was quite bothered by Butler Lee's extremely timely presence to pick her up that he was not even given the slightest chance to send her home?

Now he could let Butler Lee to send her home, all he wanted. Because he could simply meet her at home! Haha! He did not know that he was black bellied [1]. Well, he's just stating facts.

He remembered the past Sat.u.r.day they had spent together – how she was so unguarded in the living room. She was wearing baggy home clothes and even her movements were casual. He remembered how she was sprawled on his couch all day and even went into slumber. She was extremely relaxed in his home, around him. It was already a great leap of progress.

Of course he was happy with his promotion. Because it also means that he's closer to her in terms of status. Although, it was still far far away, any inch closer was still a progress.

Around the office his promotion spread like wildfire.

He received congratulatory remarks everywhere.

However, in any workplace there were people who were incredulous, who were envious of him.

"He's the one who just arrived a few months ago from Country D right? How come he got promoted that easily?

"I heard he's close to the top management that's why. I heard he requested for it as a condition for the transfer."

Other employees were not discreet enough to relay their message to him. Some even increased the volume of their voices and taunted him while he was pa.s.sing by.

In actuality, his promotion had already been in the talks months ago by the top management, even before he was transferred to Beijing. One of the company's trusted directors were facing retirement. The top management had decided for the replacement in the vacant director position to be coming from the younger generation. They wanted to diversify their executive portfolio and to slowly introduce the younger generation into it. They believed that the younger ones were more pa.s.sionate, aggressive, yet still idealistic. They may lack experience but they had all the youthful vigor and outrageous ideas that might be risky, but might be worth a shot.

And of course, the best candidate was Chen Linyun.

However, in the current office, the long-time employees in the Beijing branch were slighted. They were working for a longer tenure compared to Chen Linyun yet they were not considered. Without him, compet.i.tion had already been harsh. Then he came into the picture. It's as if all their hardwork were disregarded, because of Chen Linyun.

He had been a.s.signed in the Beijing Office for only over a few months. His bond with the employees was not stable yet. Honestly, with this shaky relations.h.i.+p with his co-workers, and the news of his promotion, he was a getting quite nervous. He's having a bad inkling that a tempest of a storm is brewing from a distance, and that sooner or later something bad will happen.

Unless it really happened, it could not do anything. It's even useless to worry about something unsure as it is. It wouldn't even help him if he would be wary of his co-workers. What he could do as of the moment is to improve whatever relations.h.i.+p he had with them.

So that night, he had arranged food takeaways for all his officemates. He made sure that everyone had their share. He made it as discreet as possible, but also told people within his circle his intention of working well with others. Those people would know what to do. After all, those kinds of things travel through word of mouth fast. Soon enough all the co-workers who received the takeaway also knew the reason for such gesture.

After taking care of his work and office relations, at around half past five in the afternoon, he left the office for some grocery shopping. He was preparing for the celebratory dinner with his neighbors. He was glad that at least outside of the office, he had a strong support system which he trusted and which he could extract energy from.

For tonight, he had postponed the tutorial session he had with Xue Guangxi. It was fine with Xue Guangxi because he knew about the dinner since he was also invited. He even asked if there's anything he could do to help, which Chen Linyun graciously declined.

Soon enough, he was done with the grocery shopping and had arrived in his home apartment. He parked his car at the bas.e.m.e.nt of their apartment complex.

[1] cunning