Chapter 128: Care from the Leadership

"Tian Qi, you take Youyou and the others back first; I have a meeting. Also, see who is free right now and put together this project team," Chen Xujia said, glancing at his phone before stopping Yang Tianqi. "Zhao Mian, you come with me."

Lin Luyou watched as Chen Xujia and Zhao Mian walked off in the other direction.

Honestly, she actually quite wanted to go with them. Lin Luyou felt a pang of envy.

"Stop looking and hurry back to work!" Yang Tianqi said as she took Lin Luyou's arm, and the two walked forward side by side.

"Tian Qi! You two, hurry up!" Before they were even a few steps closer, they heard He Suzhen waving and calling out loudly to them.

"What’s with the excitement?" Yang Tianqi looked at He Suzhen, unsure of what she was up to.

"Quick, see what you want to order!" He Suzhen said, handing over her phone.

Unsurprisingly, it was another afternoon tea delivery order.

"When did you become so generous? Did you have a change of heart?"

Faced with Yang Tianqi's teasing, He Suzhen waved her hand, just about to show off, when Su Zhenxin mercilessly exposed her:

"Her? If you’re waiting for her to treat us, you’ll probably have to wait until she rotates to another department. But as I see it, she’s basically latched onto our team and has no intention of leaving."

He Suzhen's status was actually somewhat similar to Zhao Mian's. She had joined as a management trainee during campus recruitment, and management trainees were required to rotate through various departments for the first three years to understand how each functioned.

However, for some reason, she hadn't moved since she arrived in this team in January. This had become a running joke among colleagues, who called it "the ultimate level of not wanting to treat people to a meal."

"Tch, I clearly just like you all, okay? My affection is so obvious, yet you fail to see it. I'm so heartbroken." He Suzhen said, putting on an exaggerated expression. No matter how much she squeezed, however, not a single tear fell, prompting Su Zhenxin to tease her further, offering to buy her a bottle of eye drops.

Once everyone finished joking around, Tan Fang explained that this afternoon tea had been "extracted" from Wang Shi by the group earlier.

"Old Wang has been spending way too much these past two months," Yang Tianqi said after making her selection, handing the phone to Lin Luyou.

"Not at all. This time, he’s merely offering Buddha flowers borrowed from someone else."

The old saying that one shouldn't criticize those whose food they are eating didn't really apply to He Suzhen, especially when it came to Wang Shi’s food. After all, that miser was so stingy that every bit they could squeeze out of him was a win.

It turned out that Liu Enming, seeing how hard the operations department colleagues had been working overtime on weekends—and with no decent weekends in sight for the next several weeks—had issued a subsidy of 100 yuan per person to each team. The only catch was that the money had to be spent today.

The Second Commercial Operations Team, with their keen interest in food, decided to use the subsidy for a proper meal.

Lin Luyou finished her selection and returned the phone to He Suzhen.

"Does anyone else want to order anything else? We’ve only spent less than 300 so far! We have a 700-yuan subsidy for the team, we haven't even used half of it yet," He Suzhen said, pondering what else they could get for afternoon tea.

"Why don't we just go out for a meal instead? You can't possibly eat that much with just afternoon tea," Tan Fang suggested from the side.

He Suzhen looked around, and seeing that no one had any objections, she made the executive decision:

"Alright, then we’ll go grab a feast nearby! As for Xujia and the new kid today... the minority will just have to bow to the majority!"