He Xiaoyuan was sitting at his workstation, using his computer to go through the Subject One question bank, when he received a call from Barre.
The moment he realized the caller was from Barre Technology, He Xiaoyuan immediately gestured to Chang Bei at the neighboring desk. When Chang Bei looked over, He Xiaoyuan pointed at his phone and silently mouthed: Barre, Barre.
Chang Bei immediately stood up and leaned over, putting his ear close to listen.
Barre’s message was that President Xu had quite a strong intention to cooperate with SpiritPress, and wanted to set up a time for both sides to meet and talk about collaboration.
He Xiaoyuan and Chang Bei exchanged a look: impressive. Earlier, Chang Bei’s side had practically worn out Barre’s doorstep, but now Barre was talking as if they had never had any contact with SpiritPress before.
After hanging up, Chang Bei cursed, “Damn it.”
He Xiaoyuan: “Should I go to Barre by myself?”
Chang Bei returned to his desk and sat down. After thinking carefully for a moment, he said, “You go alone first. Treat it as if I never went there before, and you should also act as if I don’t exist on our side.”
He Xiaoyuan didn’t understand. “Does President Xu really not know that we’ve been in contact with their company for a long time?”
Chang Bei: “Do you believe that? I don’t. Xu Guangming might not know where Liu Kang lives, but could he really not know which companies his people are taking their own games to talk to?”
So he was pretending not to know.
He Xiaoyuan grew even more confused. “So President Xu listened to me talk that night and then felt cooperation with us was possible? But if he already knew from the start that we were in contact with their company—and SpiritPress isn’t a small company—why would he let Liu Kang string us along?”
Chang Bei said quietly, “Only they themselves know what’s really going on in their heads.”
He turned to look at He Xiaoyuan. “Who knows what they’re plotting.”
He Xiaoyuan thought silently, trying to sort out the logic, but got nowhere. He couldn’t figure it out.
Before long, after making preparations and bringing everything he needed, He Xiaoyuan went to Barre Technology at the agreed time, riding in Chang Bei’s car.
When they arrived and He Xiaoyuan was about to get out, Chang Bei reached over and patted his shoulder. “Big handsome guy, don’t be nervous. You’ve got this.”
It was his first time doing something like this after all, so he was inevitably a bit tense inside. Hearing Chang Bei say that, he joked to lighten the mood: “If only President Chang had been this encouraging at the hotel that day.”
Chang Bei immediately clasped his hands together with a loud smack and said the sentence men were best at saying: “It was all my fault.”
He Xiaoyuan smiled, pushed open the door, and said, “I’m going.”
Chang Bei cheered him on: “Good luck.”
With a slightly uneasy heart but a calm expression, He Xiaoyuan walked into Barre Technology.
Originally, he thought the one receiving him this time would be some product manager or operations director, but that wasn’t the case. President Xu Guangming himself was there.
Where? In the conference room, leaning back in his chair. When he saw He Xiaoyuan enter, he smiled slightly but did not stand up.
He Xiaoyuan was far more composed today than he had been that night at the hotel. He wasn’t awkward, his face wasn’t red, and his demeanor was open and natural. He walked in, nodded to Xu Guangming, and said, “President Xu.”
Other people entered the conference room, taking seats one after another beside Xu Guangming.
Xu Guangming still did not move. He looked at He Xiaoyuan, smiled again, his expression carrying the steadiness and seasoned composure of a mature businessman, with a hint of deliberate reserve. After a few seconds—almost as if he had just reacted—he finally extended his hand. “Xiao He.”
He Xiaoyuan had no choice but to lean forward to shake his hand. In his heart, he was already certain: this man was an old fox.
Not wanting to show any weakness, He Xiaoyuan sat down directly after the handshake, doing his best to steady his emotions and keep his expression composed.
Xu Guangming then said, “Xiao He, have you been here before?”
Hm?
He Xiaoyuan lifted his gaze.
Xu Guangming gestured toward the people beside him. “A few of my colleagues said it seems they’ve seen you at the company before.”
With a puzzled look, he continued, “So you came to the company earlier?”
He smiled. “Your looks really stand out—it’s no wonder my colleagues all remember you.”
He Xiaoyuan had come prepared and on guard. Hearing Xu Guangming say this, he weighed it silently in his mind, quickly considering whether there was some hidden meaning behind President Xu’s words.
Fortunately, he had prepared for this in advance and had already discussed it with Chang Bei—treat it as if they had never had contact with Barre before.
So when he heard President Xu’s comment, He Xiaoyuan reacted quickly and asked instead, “Did I?”
He smiled as well. “Could it be that your colleagues remembered wrong?”
Xu Guangming hid the depth in his eyes behind his expression. “Someone as handsome as you—hard to imagine they’d get it wrong.”
He Xiaoyuan’s palms were starting to sweat, but his face remained calm. “Good-looking people all look more or less the same. Bigger eyes, a higher nose bridge—it’s normal to mistake one for another.”
In short, he refused to acknowledge having been to Barre before.
He didn’t want things to look like his side was rushing forward too eagerly right from the start, putting themselves in a passive position.
Besides, wasn’t Barre pretending as well? If they were going to act, then everyone could act. As long as the cooperation could be discussed, that was what mattered.
Facing them alone, He Xiaoyuan silently adjusted his mindset.
Bring it on.
…
When He Xiaoyuan walked out of Barre Technology, two full hours had passed.
The moment he stepped out of the office building and squinted against the orange-red light of the setting sun, he felt a hazy sense of returning to the human world—he had truly exhausted every ounce of energy he could muster that entire afternoon.
Back in the car, Chang Bei asked, “How did it go?”
He Xiaoyuan was a bit tired. He let out a breath, still cautious and unwilling to boast. “I did my best.”
Chang Bei followed up, “Did they look at the letter of intent?”
He Xiaoyuan nodded. “They kept the contract.”
YES!
Chang Bei clenched his fist.
“Not bad, not bad. You fought this battle beautifully.”
He praised him.
He Xiaoyuan himself wasn’t sure. “Is it really okay?”
Chang Bei was delighted. “It is! Very much so.”
Starting the car, he said as he drove, “This direction is way better than when I was handling it alone before.”
“As long as Barre is willing to consider our side, we have a decent chance.”
After spending the entire afternoon talking with Barre, He Xiaoyuan found his own thinking becoming clearer instead.
He twisted open a bottle of water and took a sip. After thinking for a moment, he asked, “President Chang, our advantages really aren’t small. So why does it still feel like we’re the ones clinging to Barre, instead of them coming to us?”
Chang Bei was driving, still grinning like an idiot, and it wasn’t clear whether he had even heard He Xiaoyuan.
He Xiaoyuan had finished speaking and Chang Bei was still grinning. Only when He Xiaoyuan stared at him did he snap back. “Huh? What?”
“Oh, that.”
Chang Bei pondered for a moment, then replied vaguely, “Well, between companies, it’s always give and take. It’s not necessarily one way or the other.”
But He Xiaoyuan didn’t think that was it.
His thinking was very clear now, and the more he considered SpiritPress and Barre together, the more he felt that SpiritPress held a strong advantage. If cooperation were truly being discussed, it shouldn’t look like this.
Something felt wrong.
Over the next few days, whenever He Xiaoyuan had free time, he was either grinding through the Subject One question bank or following up on the Barre case. Barre had assigned a Vice President Zhang—someone neither He Xiaoyuan nor Chang Bei had dealt with before—to handle communications with He Xiaoyuan’s side. As for their own side, Chang Bei also “withdrew behind the scenes” and stopped showing up.
The entire process went smoothly and normally, but He Xiaoyuan still had a strong intuition—
Something was wrong. There was definitely something wrong.
When He Xiaoyuan couldn’t figure it out on his own, he told Chang Bei about this uneasy feeling. Chang Bei said nothing was wrong, told him not to overthink it, and just to follow the case through.
He Xiaoyuan still felt something was off. After thinking it over again and again, he reached out to Yang Yun on WeChat.
Yang Yun replied: 【Doing a project is sometimes like dating. Guy chasing girl versus girl chasing guy; you chasing me versus me chasing you—the process is different, and the outcome is different too.】
After the analogy, Yang Yun added: 【Think about it. If Barre had a game and actively wanted to cooperate with us, would the negotiation process and result look like this?】
He Xiaoyuan reread Yang Yun’s words over and over again, many, many times. Finally, he understood what felt wrong—
Chang Bei said they could be proactive but shouldn’t be a bootlicker, but damn it, what they were doing now—wasn’t this exactly what a bootlicker did?!
Every single step felt like they were begging Barre to cooperate.
He Xiaoyuan: “……”
He Xiaoyuan immediately went to look for Chang Bei. Chang Bei seemed to know exactly what He Xiaoyuan was going to say—he turned and bolted the moment he saw him.
He Xiaoyuan pushed open the office door and hurried after him. “President Chang!”
Chang Bei jogged away, not even turning his head. He waved behind him with one hand. “Bye-bye! Call me if it’s important!”
He Xiaoyuan: “……” ⊙v⊙
On the weekend, at the top floor of Yanlan Bay, He Xiaoyuan leaned against the armrest of the sofa, one leg bent up on the cushion, holding his phone and scrolling through the Subject One question bank.
Whenever the topic turned to Chang Bei and the case, He Xiaoyuan was at a loss for words. He couldn’t understand why Chang Bei clearly knew that what they were doing was a bit—no, very, very—bootlicking, yet still refused to face that fact directly.
Lu Chen sat nearby at the tea table, dressed in loungewear, long legs stretched out. He patiently explained, “Because Chang Bei is just that kind of person.”
He Xiaoyuan turned his head and lifted his eyes. “Hm?”
Lu Chen said, “When Chang Bei runs projects, he likes to keep a tight grip on them. He’s someone who cares more about the result than the process. As long as it gets done, he doesn’t care much about his personal gains or losses, his pride, or even how much the company gains or loses in the middle.”
He Xiaoyuan quietly digested Lu Chen’s words.
Lu Chen continued, “Once you work more with people in project teams, you’ll understand. Everyone has their own style. Chang Bei is exactly like what you’re seeing now.”
He gave an analogy. “Say I have a budget of fifty to one hundred, and I want to buy apples. The more ‘correct’ way to buy them would be to spend as little as possible to get as many apples as possible, with good quality. With Chang Bei, he might spend around ninety—buying a quantity that’s not too much or too little, and apples that aren’t bad, but also not especially great.”
He Xiaoyuan was stunned.
Lu Chen went on. “If it were someone else, and the timing wasn’t right or there weren’t any apples they were satisfied with, they might hold onto the money and wait, temporarily not buying anything. Chang Bei wouldn’t do that. He would make a move early and be the first one to bring apples back.”
“You won’t think the apples he bought are amazing, because you know he basically spent all the money and what he brought back is just okay. But you also won’t think he did a bad job, because when you compare him to others, you’ll realize that his results always have a very high cost-performance ratio.”
He Xiaoyuan listened in a daze, and only then did he begin to have a concrete sense of Chang Bei’s working style.
At the same time, he thought of the day he first joined the project team, when Lu Chen showed up and mocked Chang Bei, saying something about holding thirty million in intended funds.
From that, He Xiaoyuan understood something else: Lu Chen—toward Chang Bei, or rather toward Chang Bei’s project style—understood him very well. In fact, he likely understood every single person on the project team.
He Xiaoyuan quietly absorbed all of this.
Lu Chen continued, “You’re not Chang Bei. You won’t keep pushing the project forward according to Chang Bei’s style. You can think about it yourself—how do you actually want to move the Barre case forward?”
He Xiaoyuan held his phone in his hand and thought silently: if he didn’t want to be that accommodating…
Lu Chen said at that moment, “From the moment both sides start making contact, the negotiation has already begun.”
He Xiaoyuan: negotiation…
In the new workweek, Monday morning, He Xiaoyuan had just finished answering two Subject One questions at his desk when his phone started buzzing.
His eyes stayed on the questions on the computer as his hand reached over, picked up the phone, and he lowered his gaze. It was Vice President Zhang from Barre Technology.
He Xiaoyuan rested the phone in his palm, focused, thought it over—then thought again. He put the phone back on the desk. He neither answered nor rejected the call, and continued looking at the Subject One questions on the screen—
Since the “negotiation” had already begun, how would he know whether there was a more cost-effective option if he didn’t try?
—
He Xiaoyuan deliberately did not answer Barre’s call like this. He had his own ideas, but the case wasn’t his alone, and he wouldn’t make unilateral decisions.
When Chang Bei came by, He Xiaoyuan told him his thoughts. Chang Bei stood there, leaning back against a workstation, arms crossed, his face serious and thoughtful.
After a while, Chang Bei said, “I can understand that you want to change the current negotiation dynamic, but our ultimate goal is still to make the cooperation with Barre happen.”
Chang Bei looked at He Xiaoyuan. He didn’t say much, but his flat, unreadable expression already made his disapproval clear. “Don’t get clever and end up messing it up.”
He Xiaoyuan felt a little unsettled inside. He was also hesitating—or rather, he was still too young. The case wasn’t his, and he didn’t really have the standing to insist on his own ideas. As far as work was concerned, his inner resolve wasn’t strong or firm enough yet.
What he had, at most, were two things: first, a gut feeling that the current situation wasn’t quite right; second, a desire to try making some kind of change.
What he needed most right now was support—but that was precisely the hardest thing to get.
Because the case belonged to Chang Bei, and Chang Bei clearly had his own project style and way of doing things.
He Xiaoyuan had already prepared himself to be refuted, even to be rejected or criticized.
However—
Chang Bei didn’t take any stance at all. He simply lowered his crossed arms, shrugged, turned around, and went back to his workstation to sit down. In an even, ordinary tone, he said, “Right now, I’m not showing up for this project, and you’re the one interfacing with them. How you handle the contact is up to you.”
He emphasized, “Just remember, I only want one result—get the cooperation done.”
The tightness in He Xiaoyuan’s chest suddenly eased. He turned back to his computer, though he was actually confused by Chang Bei’s reaction.
He had never expected Chang Bei to give in like this. He thought Chang Bei would insist strongly on his position and control over the project.
He had even thought Chang Bei might get angry.
But none of that happened.
He Xiaoyuan couldn’t help wondering why Chang Bei was being so “magnanimous.”
At lunch, while eating with Qin Chengfei, Qin Chengfei’s words gave He Xiaoyuan a new way of thinking. “What he said isn’t wrong. Right now, you’re the one dealing with Barre. How you want to do it is up to you. You’re not a puppet in his hands—just because he tells you to go east, does that mean you absolutely have to go east? Isn’t it still that he thinks his thoughts, you think yours, and in the end you’ll act according to your own ideas? He definitely knows that, so he only asks you for the result and doesn’t force the process.”
He Xiaoyuan was jolted awake by that single remark.
Wasn’t work just like this?
Between colleagues, wasn’t this kind of boundary exactly how work interactions were supposed to be?
Why had he been so worried that Chang Bei wouldn’t agree or wouldn’t allow it?
Because he had treated Chang Bei as his superior.
But the truth was, aside from being a higher level, aside from being a “formal” project team member rather than seconded staff, in terms of position and role, Chang Bei and he were actually the same.
He and Chang Bei were colleagues.
Just because he called Chang Bei “President Chang” didn’t mean Chang Bei was truly his boss.
Only then did He Xiaoyuan realize this with exceptional clarity.
And what made him even more vividly and accurately aware of his own work identity was what happened not long afterward—Administration delivered his freshly printed business cards—
White, square cards. On them were SpiritPress’s logo, his contact information, and in a prominent position near the center, his name. After his name, in slightly smaller font, were four words:
Project Manager.
On Chang Bei’s business card, his position was listed clearly as Project Manager.
Previously, He Xiaoyuan had thought the bosses in the project team were mysterious and impressive, always calling them President Chang, President Yu, or President Xue. Today, he finally realized clearly that, in terms of role and position, he was actually the same as Chang Bei, Yu Xun, and Xiao Qi.
Sitting at his workstation, holding the card in his hand, his heart thumped rapidly as this realization sank in.
Just then, Chang Bei’s assistant walked past, carrying a cup of water. Noticing He Xiaoyuan staring motionless at something, she peeked over curiously and caught sight of the card. “Ah!” she exclaimed. He Xiaoyuan looked up, puzzled, “?”
The assistant paused, holding the cup in one hand and her phone in the other, muttering to herself as she tapped on the screen: “Mr. He, sorry, I’ll remove you from the group chat right now.”
[You have been removed from the group chat.]
He Xiaoyuan: ?
After removing him, the assistant hurried back, silently thinking: Scary… I almost misjudged the true identity of the handsome guy. Good thing I caught it early—otherwise, it would have been like leaving a wolf among the sheep.
That evening, He Xiaoyuan and Lu Chen had their first video call since they met—yes, a video call, not just a voice call.
On the video, He Xiaoyuan sat at his desk, holding up his business card to the camera, and said to Lu Chen: “Manager… really a manager.”
As he spoke, he pointed at the two words “Project Manager” on the card, eyes wide and shining with astonishment and delight. His expression made Lu Chen on the other end laugh.
Lu Chen, smiling, asked, “Happy, Mr. He… Manager He?”
He Xiaoyuan didn’t dare to embrace the “Mr. He” title, but the three words “Manager He” genuinely thrilled him.
He tried not to grin so broadly, tried to keep his mouth under control—but he couldn’t help it. He laughed so widely his mouth almost stretched to his temples.
The sheer joy of it made him tilt his head back, laughing uncontrollably, oblivious to Lu Chen’s gaze on the other side of the screen.
Lu Chen, in turn, couldn’t help but laugh along.
“Wow, this happy?” Lu Chen asked, still smiling.
He Xiaoyuan laughed out loud, saying, “It’s like my ancestors’ graves just smoked green incense!”
Lu Chen broke down laughing, his shoulders shaking with it.
Even while laughing so hard, He Xiaoyuan asked, “Lu Ge, why are you laughing?”
Lu Chen replied, “Why do you think I’m laughing?”
He Xiaoyuan raised his hand to cover his mouth, trying to regain composure. “Alright, alright… no more laughing.”
He paused, then, with a sudden pffft, burst into laughter again, tilting his head back.
For a while, the only sound over the call was the laughter of the two of them.
After a while, Lu Chen’s voice came through: “Just one manager and you’re this happy?”
He Xiaoyuan honestly replied, “Because I just joined the company.”
He was even still in his probation period—hadn’t been officially confirmed yet!
Lu Chen also spoke frankly: “This kind of manager isn’t that type of manager—it’s more like a bank’s account manager. Just sounds nicer.”
He Xiaoyuan didn’t care. “It’s still a manager.”
He raised both hands and waved them in celebration, as if marking some great event.
Lu Chen loved this kind of genuineness, watching He Xiaoyuan through the screen with a smile in his eyes.
After a moment, Lu Chen said, “You can’t be satisfied so easily. If one day you get to an even higher position, won’t you be overjoyed?”
He Xiaoyuan didn’t really understand what “even higher” meant. He had no real concept—so far, the highest position he knew of was Lu Chen himself.
He asked, “Your position?”
Sitting at the top of the project team, commanding the room, everyone calling you “President,” taking the executive elevator, having your own office, participating in top-level company decisions, traveling with a driver, living in a luxury apartment, driving an X7?
He Xiaoyuan asked and immediately started laughing again, tilting his body back, laughing harder than before, unable to stop.
Seeing this, Lu Chen couldn’t help but laugh too.
“Alright, alright,” He Xiaoyuan finally managed between laughs. “If I could reach your position, Lu Ge, I’d wake up laughing even in the middle of the night.”
Lu Chen asked, still smiling, “Even higher?”
Even higher?
He Xiaoyuan waved his hands repeatedly. “I wouldn’t dare dream that. Absolutely wouldn’t dare.”
He covered his mouth and laughed again.
In his vast mansion, Lu Chen could hear the full-hearted laughter, feeling it flutter in his chest like feathers brushing against him. Late at night, it was ticklish and irresistible—he had a sudden urge, as if grabbing his car keys to rush out and meet the joyful boy on the other side of the call.
He restrained himself, but a thought occurred to him, one he had long harbored but never acted on—
If only it weren’t through a phone.
If only the person were here in front of me.
Meanwhile, He Xiaoyuan, after intentionally letting Barre wait for two days, had made Vice President Zhang increasingly restless.
Instead of arranging a meeting elsewhere, the next appointment was set directly in the SpiritPress building, in the project team’s conference room.
In the conference room, after being led in by department administration, Zhang sat alone for a while, repeatedly checking his watch.
On the sixth glance, He Xiaoyuan finally appeared, slightly late, pushing open the glass door, smiling as he walked in: “Vice President Zhang, sorry, sorry—just finished a meeting. Thank you for waiting.”
Vice President Zhang looked up, nearly blinded by the young man’s handsome, composed, and spirited appearance.
He couldn’t exactly describe it, but He Xiaoyuan today seemed even more extraordinary than in previous meetings, radiating an aura he hadn’t noticed before.
He suspected he might be imagining it.
Perhaps it was because today he was not on Barre’s turf, but in SpiritPress’s space?
He Xiaoyuan handed over the water, and along with it, a business card.
Vice President Zhang didn’t stand, but politely took it with both hands. As he looked down at the card, his eyes widened.
Project Manager?
Manager?
He had assumed that this young, handsome guy he was meeting with was at most an assistant or some other junior role. And yet, he was a full-fledged manager?
Vice President Zhang certainly didn’t think this title was just a flattering label.
After all, as a VP himself, he knew exactly what a “Manager” title meant in a large company like SpiritPress.
Besides, the Chang Bei they had dealt with previously—also a Project Manager by business card—had set a precedent.
Instantly, Zhang felt a tightening in his chest. He didn’t dare slack off and quickly stood, extending his hand toward He Xiaoyuan with utmost courtesy: “I’m at a loss… truly at a loss! So this is Mr. He!”
He Xiaoyuan remained calm and collected. Accepting the “Mr. He,” he shook Zhang’s hand and said, “Vice President Zhang, you’re too polite. Please, have a seat—we’ll talk while seated.”