He Married Him for Love, Then His Assistant Became His Husband in Probation novel · Chapter 2 of 24
Chapter 2: Vice President
Su Yu's first morning in the vice president's chair: Lu Chen refuses to be his hands, tells him the truth about a bad draft, and discovers that the harbour tender Su Yu must sign off has Shu Fan's company bidding.
The vice president's office had a leather couch, and Su Yu was lying on it by twenty to nine.
"Vice President," Lu Chen said from the doorway. "Your first board meeting is at ten."
"Mm," Su Yu said into the cushion.
Lu Chen put a one-page schedule on the desk and stood beside it with his notebook, and did not leave.
Su Yu rolled over and looked at him.
The grey suit was pressed, the glasses were clean, and the pen was clipped inside the notebook exactly where it had been yesterday.
"Can you read me the tender summary?" Su Yu asked. "Aloud. I think better with my eyes shut."
"It's forty pages."
"Then read the interesting parts."
Lu Chen opened the folder, read the title in a level voice, and closed it.
"That is the title," he said. "The rest is yours."
Su Yu sighed and sat up.
If he could not make Lu Chen read it, he would sign it and say he had.
"Sign this for me, then. It's only a first initial. Nobody checks."
"Forging another person's signature is a crime," Lu Chen said. "I would be your accomplice and your lawyer, and I would lose both cases."
"You're no fun."
"I'm correct," Lu Chen said. "It's a different department."
Su Yu stared at the ceiling for a while.
Then he picked up his phone and started on the third plan, which was to call people.
He called his father's secretary, who said to ask the board.
He called the head of procurement, who said he was in a meeting until two.
He called an uncle who had once sold him a camera, and who sent back a thumbs-up and nothing else.
At eleven o'clock Su Yu put the phone down, worn out.
Lu Chen, who had stood by the whole time, slid the folder an inch toward him.
"The summary is on page one," Lu Chen said. "Page one is one page. You have spent two hours avoiding a task of four minutes."
Su Yu looked at the folder.
He picked it up and read page one.
It took him four minutes.
Lu Chen wrote something in the notebook.
"Was that a point?" Su Yu asked.
"It was a start."
"I want a recount."
"Denied."
The board meeting was already running late when Su Yu finally wrote his opening remarks.
He showed them to Lu Chen in the corridor.
Lu Chen read the page and the corners of his mouth went flat.
"This is bad."
"Everyone says my writing is great."
"Everyone wants something from you," Lu Chen said. "Your second paragraph apologizes for existing. Your third thanks the board for tolerating you. Cross those out and say what you want to happen."
Nobody had told Su Yu a thing was bad in a very long time.
Not Shu Fan, who only said he was tired.
Not his friends, not the board, not even his father, who sent orders instead.
"What if I don't know what I want?" Su Yu said.
"Then say that, and say when you'll know."
Lu Chen handed the page back with two paragraphs crossed out.
The page was shorter and clearer, and the jokes he had hidden behind were gone from it.
Su Yu found he did not mind.
He stopped at the boardroom doors.
His collar had folded over on one side from the couch.
Lu Chen saw it, stepped in without a word, and fixed it.
His fingers were cool and brisk, and for one second the backs of them rested under Su Yu's jaw.
Su Yu stopped breathing.
Lu Chen's ears had gone red.
"It's the air conditioning," Su Yu said.
"Yes," Lu Chen said, and took his hands away. "It's very cold."
It was not cold.
Su Yu pushed the door open before he could think about that.
The meeting took forty minutes.
He said what he wanted in three sentences, and the board, who had expected a clown, looked at one another and nodded.
In the corridor afterward Lu Chen put a small tick in the notebook margin and turned a page.
He went through the tender list for the afternoon with a pencil, line by line, and then his pencil stopped.
"Vice President," he said. "Come and look at this."
Su Yu leaned over his shoulder.
The harbour logistics tender was the biggest contract the Su Group had put out in five years.
It had nine bidders, and the sign-off was Su Yu's name on the dotted line.
Lu Chen laid his pencil under bidder number seven.
It was Shu Fan's company.
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