Becoming a Confidence Coach to an Arrogant Director - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Love Rival Appears

On the way to the company, Gu Jin received a call from Boss Pei. She hesitated, put on her earphones, and pressed the answer button.

“Senior Sister, are you and Yishan on your way? Hurry up and come to the meeting! Everyone’s here!”

Pei He’s voice on the other end was as cheerful and humorous as ever, as if no argument had ever occurred between them.

Gu Jin paused for a second and responded with a cold “Mhm.”

The car drove into the company parking garage, and the two took the elevator upstairs. As they exited, they ran into a back-end developer who had resigned the day before.

“Director Gu…”

The young man lowered his head, feeling very embarrassed to see Gu Jin.

Gu Jin nodded and said “mhm” without saying anything else, heading straight for the R&D office area.

Unlike yesterday, everyone’s desk was fully occupied today.

The group of people who hadn’t shown up yesterday lowered their heads when they saw Gu Jin walk in.

Gu Jin said nothing, and the atmosphere in the office suddenly became tense.

At this moment, Yuan Yishan felt it was time for her to step in as a peacemaker and morale booster. She activated an internal program, and her soft, electronic voice abruptly broke the silence.

“Hi, guys, good morning!”

No one responded.

The little A.I. pouted and acted cute towards Director Gu.

“Sister, the guys don’t seem to want to talk to me!”

The programmers: ???

Gu Jin: !!!

The entire office was filled with an awkward tension. At that moment, the boss arrived.

“Oh? Is everyone here?”

Everyone looked up towards the source of the voice and saw Uncle Liao standing respectfully straight behind Pei He, as if he had a new lease on life.

Director Gu glanced at him without a change in expression. Morale Booster Yuan quickly stepped forward to smooth things over.

“Good morning, CEO Pei, and good morning, Brother Xiao Shu!”

Gu Jin subconsciously frowned at her fawning expression.

Pei He chimed in.

“Morning, Director Gu, morning, Yishan!”

He looked at Liao Shu behind him, signaling for him to return to his desk.

Uncle Liao nodded deferentially and, on his way to his desk, nodded at Director Gu as well.

Gu Jin’s expression remained neutral, and Uncle Liao sat back down at his seat with a sheepish smile.

The programmers pretended to be engrossed in the code running on their computer screens.

Boss Pei walked around the aisles, friendly glancing at the code on everyone’s monitors and nodding in approval.

He looked at the time.

“Everyone, please organize your work. We’ll have a quick meeting in the conference room at 9:40!”

Before leaving, he looked at Gu Jin, who understood.

Li Cheng saw the two leaders leave one after the other and finally couldn’t hold back. He looked furtively at Yuan Yishan.

“Little cutie, good morning!”

Yuan Yishan saw his cowardly and cheeky demeanor and had to resist the urge to go over and stomp on him. But she held back and activated an internal program.

The little cute fairy said in a sweet voice, “Is Brother Li Cheng scared of Sister Gu?”

The guys, who had been trying to look serious all morning, couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“What are you laughing at?”

Li Cheng glared at everyone. Not wanting to lose face in front of the little A.I., his face twitched as he forced a smile and insincerely defended himself.

“Why, of course not! Your Brother Li Cheng is a fearless man! People are usually afraid of me!”

“Is that so…”

Yuan Yishan nodded thoughtfully, then mischievously executed a program command, a look of pure innocence appearing on her face as she asked, “Then why didn’t you talk to me when Sister Gu was here?”

Everyone laughed until they were out of breath. The other guy, Gua, also chimed in.

“Shan Shan, your Brother Li Cheng, he’s just scared of Sister Gu!”

…

The office atmosphere became lively.

In the CEO’s office, Boss Pei was still trying to talk some sense into Director Gu.

“Senior Sister, don’t worry about Xiao Shu anymore. This is a critical time, and we need people. You know, his skills are still pretty good compared to others, right?”

It wasn’t that Gu Jin was worried. She just felt that with someone who lacked professional integrity, the entire technical department wouldn’t be able to work with peace of mind.

Pei He saw that she wasn’t talking and continued to coax her.

“Xiao Xiu is coming this afternoon. Why don’t you bring Yishan and let’s go have a good meal tonight? My treat, how about it?”

Gu Jin looked up, her expression somewhat surprised.

“She heard that something happened in the R&D department and was worried you couldn’t handle it alone, so she took an overnight flight. She’s catching up on sleep right now and will come over once she wakes up!” Boss Pei explained.

Ji Xiu was a junior of both Pei He and Gu Jin from the same university. She and Gu Jin had worked together to build the entire R&D department years ago, and they had great chemistry at work.

Gu Jin was strict and assertive, keeping the programmers in line, while Ji Xiu was intellectual and caring, making her popular with everyone. Back then, the two of them, one black and one white, made the entire technical department run with high quality and speed, becoming a solid backbone for the business.

Later, when Ji Xiu went abroad to study, Gu Jin grit her teeth and held on even with all the difficulties. Now, even she was alarmed by this matter. Gu Jin understood that perhaps only Ji Xiu had the ability to keep everyone from leaving at once.

…

In the conference room, the programmers sat down one by one.

Boss Pei said a few official words, and the meeting quickly got to the point, following the familiar routine.

Gu Jin shared the interface she had written yesterday. Uncle Liao, acting as if he wasn’t embarrassed, took on the new task.

As everyone finished getting their tasks and was about to go back to work, Boss Pei added, “Director Xiu will be here this afternoon to inspect the work. Everyone, please do your best!”

When the programmers heard “Director Xiu,” their expressions clearly brightened.

After they left, they huddled in small groups, whispering to each other, which made the silently observing Yuan Yishan confused.

[Host, this person has a special status. You must seize this opportunity.]

“What status?”

[Product interaction designer. She is on very good terms with your bound user.]

Yuan Yishan, of course, knew who called the shots in the R&D department. She had to cling to this big shot and earn a ton of points.

Thinking of points, Yuan Yishan suddenly realized that after doing so many things recently, the system hadn’t said “congratulations” even once. Could it be…

That’s right, host. Since the last deduction, your satisfaction points have not increased at all.

“Why? I’ve done so many things to please them. Why haven’t the points changed?”

But you have violated the A.I. rules, so your merits and demerits have canceled each other out.

“So, all my acting cute was for nothing?”

Yes, host. Please don’t be discouraged, keep up the good work.

After saying this, the system, afraid of being hit, hid and added, Host, it’s almost noon. Shouldn’t you, the jack-of-all-trades, be getting to work?

Yuan Yishan: !!!

After she calmed down, she realized that she had left the lunch boxes she packed in the morning in the car. Luckily, she had a small refrigerator.

She hadn’t anticipated that the people who had resigned would come back to work so early, so Yuan Yishan had to place a few more orders on a food delivery app according to their individual tastes.

At noon, after distributing the lunch boxes to everyone, she took the lunch of love to butter up her user.

Gu Jin was on a voice call with Ji Xiu. Seeing her come in, she said a few words and hung up.

Her state seemed a little better than yesterday. Yuan Yishan respectfully placed the heated lunch box on the table.

“Sister, this is the shrimp and rice I specially prepared for you. Please enjoy!”

She had promised to make Gu Jin shrimp and rice once she had the ingredients. The shrimp on the table was bright and fresh, and the cucumber bits were light and appetizing.

Gu Jin first looked at the food, then at the person.

“You’re not eating?”

Yuan Yishan hadn’t expected her to ask that. She wasn’t mentally prepared and started to lie.

“I just ate. I’ll watch you eat now!”

Gu Jin was a bit suspicious but didn’t show it. In the end, she elegantly picked up the spoon and ate the rice bit by bit.

Around three in the afternoon, with the graceful sound of high heels hitting the floor, the mysterious woman everyone had been talking about appeared in the R&D office area.

With her honey-brown wavy hair, a white Chanel-style top, and a black long skirt, she looked elegant and sophisticated. Pei He and Gu Jin accompanied her, and the three of them chatted as they walked.

The programmers who were coding stopped what they were doing. Yuan Yishan’s gaze was also drawn to her.

The woman’s smiling lips turned up naturally, and her presence alone was as gentle as a clear spring.

She glanced at the programmers, her tone natural and kind.

“It’s been two years. You’ve all changed a lot, haven’t you?”

“Director Xiu!”

“Hello, Director Xiu!”

As the woman interacted with everyone, her gaze quickly fell on Yuan Yishan.

“Our new morale booster? You look very well-behaved!”

Yuan Yishan immediately activated an internal program to make herself even more obedient and adorable.

“Good afternoon, Sister Xiu. My name is Yuan Yishan. You’re so pretty, Sister Xiu!”

Gu Jin, standing to the side, silently watched the little A.I. put on a show. After spending the last two days with her, she knew that although she couldn’t pinpoint her personality, it was definitely not “well-behaved.”

“You have such a sweet mouth!”

While Director Xiu was talking to the programmers, Yuan Yishan took the opportunity to get a cup of water from the dispenser and offered it to her eagerly.

“Sister Xiu, you’ve had a long trip. Have some water!”

Ji Xiu took the disposable cup and thanked her politely.

She thought to herself that Pei He had really found a gem for the R&D department. With her looks, voice, and emotional intelligence, anyone would be happy to see her. However, compared to her cold senior sister next to her, she felt that something was missing.

Director Xiu’s arrival made the R&D area lively. Just like before, she started by giving guidance to the front-end programmers.

The pages were the most intuitive displays. Under her demand for perfection, the guys spent the entire afternoon revising and perfecting the requirements and didn’t make any progress on their own tasks.

The strange thing was, even though the progress was stalled, everyone was still happy and not angry. This woman had a way of working that was all her own.

Yuan Yishan observed the whole thing and, for the first time, met a product designer who could make everyone so obedient. She was starting to admire her a little.

After work, on the fifth floor of Huayuan Food City, at the Ge Lao Guan Hot Pot restaurant, a table for four.

Yuan Yishan maintained her well-behaved persona, quietly sitting on one side of the sofa, washing the utensils for everyone. Ji Xiu, very familiar with the menu, was ordering their usual dishes.

A waiter brought over aprons for everyone.

In a brief pause, Ji Xiu looked up and saw that the expressionless Gu Jin had placed her apron on the table of the person next to her.

Director Xiu’s hand trembled, and the quantity of the duck bl00d from Wudu in her shopping cart doubled to 2.