My Boss Always Flirts With Me - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Overtime

Fang Ci sat at his desk and turned on his computer. Cheng Wen leaned over when he heard the noise and said, “Chen Yu’s looking for you in the group chat.”

Chen Yu had updated a proposal, but his words were still harsh. Fang Ci didn’t mind, but Cheng Wen, from his screen, fired back a few retorts, sighing, “You really have a lot of patience. How can you stand this?”

Fang Ci smiled without responding. After a quick scan, he sent his feedback: “The coefficients are wrong. You can’t sacrifice some effects to boost the parameters.”

Chen Yu’s side predictably blew up. He called over: “There’s no way this version of the parameters can be changed again.”

Fang Ci couldn’t be bothered to argue with him and threw out a phrase: “If you think there’s a problem, you can go directly to CEO He.”

He was purely using a feather as an arrow, betting that Chen Yu wouldn’t dare to go argue with He Chi. He Chi’s demands would only be more stringent.

Cheng Wen said from the side, “Good one, saved you a lot of breath.”

The R&D stage of a product was always the most tedious. A project manager had to interface with five or six departments, especially regarding various product parameters, which would be constantly changed until just before launch. Once, several departments debated a single marketing point more than 40 times. Cheng Wen went through it once and immediately gave up the idea of switching to project management.

This industry was highly competitive and demanding. One had to have passion and patience. Cheng Wen was in awe of Fang Ci’s daily work hours, which often exceeded ten hours, not to mention that 90% of that time was spent communicating.

This wasn’t the scariest part. As an operations manager, Cheng Wen’s biggest fear was having a proposal sent back for revisions. The strictest person to deal with was He Chi:

“Chen Yu’s got it easy. I remember on the last product, we already had five temperature sensors, but CEO He insisted on adding two more, which led to a complete hardware redesign and took six months to sort out.”

“Are we going to have a major overhaul on this product now that it’s in CEO He’s hands?”

What could Fang Ci say? “There’s nothing we can do about it.”

Cheng Wen: “Forget Chen Yu, even I’m afraid of CEO He.”

Xiao Zhu, who had just sat down, heard this and slid his chair over to join the conversation. “I agree.”

The two men looked over. Xiao Zhu shrugged and shivered. “Do you know that two days ago, a channel partner was glared at by CEO He until he cried over the issue of inventory distribution? My God, the pressure was so intense no one in the room dared to make a sound.”

Fang Ci had been with He Chi those two days and had no idea this had happened. He was stunned. “It was that exaggerated?”

This time it was Xiao Zhu and Cheng Wen who turned to look at him. Xiao Zhu said, “It’s not the first or second time. Don’t you feel a lot of pressure around CEO He? Look, Assistant Yuan is practically bald now.”

Fang Ci occasionally read the complaints on the company forum, but he had worked at the company for four years and never felt that way. When He Chi was expressionless, it would at most make him feel a bit tense and unable to guess his thoughts, but it wasn’t enough to make him break down.

Cheng Wen chewed on his pen. “Our Fang is a god. Don’t compare yourself to him.”

Xiao Zhu bowed his hands in respect. “I am impressed! Truly impressed!”

With that, the three of them went back to their own work.

Fang Ci pulled up the materials he needed to review today. They were filled with He Chi’s annotations. The shared document showed both of them were reading it, with his and He Chi’s avatars side by side in the top right corner.

The comments were as clean and sharp as He Chi himself, accurately highlighting key points and problems. One part seemed particularly unsatisfactory, marked only with a question mark.

Fang Ci reread the few lines highlighted in red multiple times, his mouse hovering over the text. After several minutes, he still couldn’t figure out what the specific issue was. He stopped, jotted down the section number, and decided to ask about it later during feedback.

Just as he was about to move on, he saw He Chi’s avatar flash. A new cursor appeared on the page, quickly adding text. A message next to it read: “He Chi is modifying the document.”

He stared blankly as text was deleted and rewritten, feeling as if he was watching a teacher grade a test paper online.

After two minutes, He Chi’s cursor stopped, and he conveniently deleted the question mark from the annotation next to it.

Fang Ci held his breath and saw a few new words in the note: “Are there any other issues?”

Fang Ci replied: “None for now, thank you, CEO He.”

He Chi’s cursor flashed again and deleted both lines of their conversation.

Fang Ci’s heart pounded. They were using a shared document as a private WeChat chat. Luckily, it was still early, and no one else had the document open.

He leaned back in his chair, unable to stop the smile from spreading across his face.

Sure enough, CEO He wasn’t that scary after all.

He Chi’s eyes left the screen. Assistant Yuan Cheng placed contracts on his desk. “CEO He, these are the contracts from several suppliers waiting for your signature.”

He Chi took them, signed them, and said to Yuan Cheng, “Organize the meeting minutes and materials today.”

Yuan Cheng was taken aback. “Tonight?”

He Chi: “Yes.”

He saw the difficult expression on Yuan Cheng’s face and asked, “Do you have other plans?”

Yuan Cheng quickly replied, “No.”

He Chi: “If you have something going on at home, you can do it there and email it to me.”

Yuan Cheng: “Okay.”

The morning passed with a lot of work. He Chi ordered a simple lunch and was on his way to the break room to make coffee when he heard Yuan Cheng’s voice from around the corner. “You and my sister-in-law should go ahead and eat. I’ll be working late.”

He Chi stopped outside the door. The person on the other end of the phone seemed to be complaining.

Yuan Cheng said helplessly, “Brother, you know how my job is. Even if I go home, I can’t really relax. It’s not right for me to be sitting there with my computer working overtime while we’re eating. It’s better if I finish up at the office and then go back.”

“Tell my sister-in-law to go have something good to eat.” Yuan Cheng’s phone call was short. He hung up and turned around, bumping right into He Chi. He instantly became nervous, almost spilling hot water on his hand.

“CEO He.”

He Chi stepped aside, standing by the coffee machine. Yuan Cheng sighed in relief and was about to leave in a hurry but was stopped by He Chi.

“Why don’t you work from home?”

Yuan Cheng’s heart nearly stopped. He thought back, and it didn’t seem like he had said anything out of line.

“I prefer to get things done at the office.”

He Chi glanced at him. Yuan Cheng was very familiar with that expression—it meant He Chi didn’t understand and wanted him to continue. Yuan Cheng licked his dry lips and explained his thoughts:

“Home is a place for rest. I’m used to separating work and life. Of course, this varies from person to person.”

He Chi nodded. A moment later, he said, “Leave early tonight. You can give me the materials tomorrow afternoon.”

Yuan Cheng was stunned. He knew He Chi must have overheard his phone call. But he couldn’t be happier not to work late, so he said, “Thank you, CEO He.”

The coffee machine was loud, and steam rose from it, obscuring He Chi’s face.

Yuan Cheng’s steps were noticeably lighter as he left.

In the break room, He Chi leaned against the table and took a sip of his coffee, his eyes lowered as he thought about what Yuan Cheng had said on the phone:

“‘It’s not right for me to be sitting there with my computer working overtime while we’re eating. It’s better if I finish up at the office and then go back.'”

Even his assistant, who was on call almost 24/7, didn’t like to bring work home.

He Chi’s eyes deepened. The stirring spoon clinked against the cup, and he walked out.

Fang Ci noticed He Chi was working very late today. He looked at his watch; it was almost 10:30 p.m. Most of the floor had cleared out, and only the lights in He Chi’s office and his own row of cubicles were still on.

He started organizing his files out of boredom and also scrolled on his phone for a bit.

“Why haven’t you left yet?” He Chi’s voice suddenly appeared.

Fang Ci’s screen went dark, and he stood up to ask, “Are you done with work?”

He Chi said, “I’m done. What about you? Do you have anything left to finish?”

Fang Ci paused. “No, I just saw you were still in a meeting, so I waited.”

So he was waiting for me. He Chi’s heart stirred slightly.

“In the future, if it gets too late, you can just go back first. You don’t have to wait for me.”

Fang Ci didn’t say yes or no. He just asked, “Is there a lot of work? You seem very busy today.”

He Chi replied, “I want to get things done at the office.”

Fang Ci touched his nose. “Oh, you know, you can do it at home too. Meetings and stuff, can’t they all be done remotely?”

He Chi was silent.

“Let’s try not to bring work home.”

Fang Ci: “Huh?”

He Chi looked at him. “Home is a place for rest. Let’s finish our work at the office.”