Chapter 2: Your entry into China Construction has nothing to do with anyone else

  The resilience of humans is a wonderful thing, no matter how difficult the days are, there will always be a day when you get used to it. After working on the construction site for a while, Zheng Wei gradually felt that this life was not so bad after all. The colleagues on the construction site were mostly straightforward, and Zheng Wei followed them in using the local dialect to shout loudly, and even started to enjoy herself. In fact, every university graduate majoring in architecture or civil engineering, if they haven't really practiced on a construction site, can't claim to have mastered professional skills. The experience gained over the past few months may be more practical than four years of theoretical knowledge in college. Another reason she liked this life was that after being exhausted like a beast during the day, she would return to her dormitory at night, take a bath, and as soon as her head touched the soft pillow, she would fall into a deep sleep, without even needing to dream, and welcome a new day.

  Just as she thought she had adapted to this life, the six-month internship was coming to an end. These fresh graduates from various project departments would have to return to headquarters and wait for formal work arrangements. According to China Construction's convention, after the internship ended, a gala evening entirely directed and performed by these graduates would be held, which would be attended by company leaders from headquarters and responsible persons from various functional departments and branch companies. It was said that in previous years, many outstanding newcomers were poached by good departments after their performances, so everyone regarded this performance as a stage for personal display, and they all worked hard to rehearse, striving to make a stunning appearance on that day.

  A literary evening with only two female performers and over 70 male performers, the level of brilliance can be imagined. Under the premise that time is arranged to come, Zheng Wei and Wei Shao Yi basically have to participate in every program, as for Zheng Wei, she has a solo singing, a group singing, and two dance arrangements on the same day. Just rushing to rehearse made her busy like a spinning top. According to the teacher's suggestion, she also had to take on the important task of being a female host, everyone thought that with her standard Mandarin, sweet voice, and lovely appearance, standing on stage would be a delightful thing. However, Zheng Wei repeatedly refused, saying that hosts need to be dignified and serious, she was afraid that as soon as she stood on stage, she would laugh and affect the mood of the leaders watching the performance, which would be a huge mistake. Familiar male classmates secretly said that Zheng Wei is narrow-minded, being a host can attract attention, this is the best opportunity to show herself in front of the leaders. Zheng Wei thought about it and still felt that it didn't matter, as long as she graduated with a job, she wouldn't be unemployed.

  The day before the performance, rehearsals continued until late at night. After finishing, Zheng Wei went to have a midnight snack with several boys who were close in age and had similar backgrounds, having just graduated from a well-known domestic university of science and technology. They quickly became familiar with each other. Zheng Wei was already an eye-catching girl in college, and now she was even more popular in her new workplace, where everyone was male. The young men who trained and interned together, including the young engineers in the project department, all showed their interest in her openly or secretly. She pretended to be oblivious and just smiled and laughed it off.

  She returned to the residential compound of her work unit, humming a tune as she went upstairs, but inadvertently bumped into a couple embracing in the stairwell. The man was a stranger, and the woman was none other than Wei Shaoyi.

  Zheng Wei slowed down her pace, and as she passed by them, she deliberately blew a loud whistle and muttered to herself, "I'm invisible, I'm invisible..." Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Wei Shao Yi's awkward and twisted expression, and she couldn't help but feel secretly pleased - so you have your day too.

  When she was looking for the key to open the door, Wei Shaoyi had already managed to shake off the boy's entanglement, pushing him hard with a force that almost made the boy roll down to the bottom of the stairs. However, not only did Wei Shaoyi not show any signs of panic or pity, but he also pointed at the boy and said word by word, "I hope this is the last time you come looking for me!"

  As soon as she entered the room, Zheng Wei heard the sound of her heavily closing the door, followed by the urgent knocking on the door. Zheng Wei's curiosity was piqued, and she couldn't help but sneak a peek by opening her own door slightly. Wei Shaoyi's door was tightly closed, and the knocking caused the door to shake violently. The boy's voice, tinged with tears, faintly came through, "Shaoyi, what I said is true, won't you even give me a chance to explain?"

  Zheng Wei muttered to herself, "Making a movie?"

  The knocking sound lasted for more than 20 minutes before it finally stopped, and the infatuated person outside the door probably left in despair. Throughout this process, Wei Shaoyi's door didn't budge, and even Zheng Wei tiptoed to her door, listened carefully with her ear against the door, but there was complete silence inside.

  Zheng Wei sighed and looked at her tightly closed door. This guy was indeed ruthless, with a cold face and an even colder heart. It seemed that the man had definitely been in a relationship with her before. No matter what he did wrong, his attitude had become so low. He had pounded on the door for twenty minutes, and even if his hand wasn't crippled, it would be basically unusable for a while. Yet she didn't respond at all from start to finish. A woman as heartless as this was truly one of a kind.

  The next morning was the big day of the performance. If she followed her usual habit, Wei Shaoyi would normally get up more than half an hour earlier than Zheng Wei, get herself ready and leave early. But on this day, she almost opened the door at the same time as Zheng Wei. Zheng Wei quickly grabbed the opportunity to occupy the bathroom first, and after feeling pleased with herself, she accidentally saw that Wei Shaoyi's face looked a bit haggard, with two red and swollen eyes like they had been stung by a bee.

  In the background waiting for the performance gap, the company's general manager was still giving a lengthy speech on stage. Zheng Wei's dance was the first program, and she was lost in thought when a boy next to her lightly bumped her with his elbow and whispered, "Hey, Zheng Wei, have you heard that Wei Shaoyi broke up with her boyfriend?"

  Zheng Wei glanced at the face beside her that was completely transformed after makeup and exclaimed, "Wow, Mr., you're so well-informed!"

  That boy pretended to be dizzy, "I'm XX, didn't you recognize me just because I put on some lipstick? How could I not know that Wei Shaoyi and her boyfriend are both graduates of our school, they've been together for almost two years, the guy treated her very well, their feelings were also good, but just because he had dinner with a female classmate from junior high school yesterday, deceiving her by saying it was a work gathering, as a result, she saw through him. I heard that actually, they only had one meal, Wei Shaoyi knew about it too, but still proposed to break up, without any intention of reconciliation, her boyfriend regretted it so much that he wanted to hit the wall."

  Zheng Wei stroked his chin and looked at the boy with great interest, asking, "Is there a relative in your family surnamed Li?"

  That guy was inexplicable, "Not surnamed Li, but many people say I look like Leon Lai."

  Zheng Wei rarely didn't smile, she took a glance at Wei Shao Yi who was sitting alone in the corner of the backstage waiting area, thinking to herself, surprisingly there are people as stubborn as this, today is really an eye-opener, simply an extreme perfectionist. She also remembered Wei Shao Yi's unusually red and swollen eyes from that morning, why make life so hard for oneself, how pitiful? But now she also knew, how could someone on the outside possibly understand another person's emotional world?

  The opening dance was very important, and Zheng Wei and his team had put in the most effort on this dance. Everything started smoothly, with a dozen young boys and two girls dancing elegantly to the music, accompanied by occasional applause from the audience. Just as the dance was about to reach its climax, the male performers temporarily retreated offstage, leaving only two female Red Army soldiers standing majestically in the center of the stage, jumping and spinning. At this moment, the music suddenly stopped, followed by a piercing, ear-piercing feedback scream from the speakers. The sound engineer on one side of the stage was frantically busy, but unfortunately, the two female Red Army soldiers were left frozen in their most heroic poses - Wei Shao Yi with one knee bent and her body leaning back 45 degrees, Zheng Wei with both hands raised high and her body leaning forward, her left foot stretched out behind her. As two professional performers, they both knew that when the music stopped, their movements should also freeze in place.

  I don't know what's wrong with the sound system, it's been a while. There's no way to recover normally, even though Zheng Wei has been practicing dance since she was young and has a solid foundation, it's still a bit difficult for her to maintain this elegant and independent posture. She secretly glanced at Wei Shao Yi again, Wei Shao Yi's body remained perfectly still in a kneeling backbend position, like a wax figure. Zheng Wei gritted her teeth in secret, if she can hold on, I can too, why should I lose to her in front of everyone!

  Then, Zheng Wei took a deep breath and pulled in her stomach, sinking her energy into her dan tian. She didn't let her body waver even slightly. Time passed second by second, and the audience below had already started to get restless. She felt her face turn from red to white, and a pea-sized drop of sweat slid down from her hair, causing her to inwardly curse that damned sound engineer. Her feet hurt, her waist ached, her neck was numb... she couldn't hold on any longer. If she continued like this, she would eventually stiffen up and die, letting the perfect stage etiquette go to hell! She thought of it and did it, first slightly moving her feet, then making a standard ballet closing pose, smiling and turning around in a circle, continuing to dance according to the predetermined arrangement while quietly moving towards the back of the stage.

  The people under the stage were silent, and suddenly someone started laughing, then laughter erupted. Wei Shaoyi was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted and followed Zheng Wei to retreat while jumping.

  As soon as he returned to the backstage, Wei Shaoyi found Zheng Wei who was arguing with the sound engineer, his face full of indignation. "What's wrong with you? Why do you always do inexplicable things?"

  Zheng Wei snapped back, "You're the one who's being mysterious. I've been standing there for so long that I'm about to die of exhaustion, and you're still pretending to be dead, not even letting me move."

  "Make it clear, I won't move unless you don't. Wei Shaoyi curled his lips, "You lazy people can do it, why can't I?"

  The show ended and Zheng Wei had just removed her makeup and walked out of the backstage when she heard someone call out to her from behind. She turned around, looking at the person who called her.

  "Director Zhou?" She blushed slightly.

  It's not unreasonable for such embarrassment, Zhou Qu, the man who left his resume at the recruitment fair, is also the director of the marketing department and assistant general manager of China Construction Headquarters, and is also in charge of this year's college graduate recruitment. It's likely that she was successfully recruited thanks to his help, but he decided to keep her resume mainly because he cherished Chen Xiaozheng's talent and didn't want to separate the young couple. Who would have thought that later the big fish slipped away, but this little crab stayed behind.

  On the first day of reporting to headquarters, Zheng Wei also met Zhou Qu once. He still remembered her name and took the initiative to greet her, even handing her a business card. This was the first time in Zheng Wei's life that she had formally received someone else's business card. She still remembered what her etiquette teacher had taught her, so she pretended to carefully look at it for a few seconds before putting it in her bag, and didn't forget to flatter him with a few words: "Director Zhou, I've long admired you."

  At that time, Zhou Qu smiled and asked her, "When have you 'admired' me?"

  "That day during recruitment, Manager Zhou's demeanor left a very deep impression on me."

  "Really?" Zhou Qu's smile deepened, "Well then, since this is our second meeting and you've been 'admiring' me for so long, do you still remember my name?"

  Zheng Wei thought this question was also too strange, he had just given her his business card. But the key to the problem was that when she took the card, she pretended to look at it very seriously, but in fact, she was not paying attention at all, and only remembered that his surname was Zhou, what assistant and marketing director, but couldn't remember his specific name no matter how hard she tried. The business card was still in her bag, but she couldn't possibly take it out to look now.

  What was his name again? Zheng Wei stood there with her mouth agape, her right hand subconsciously scratching her head, but no matter how hard she racked her brains, she just couldn't remember.

  Looking at her like that, Zhou Qu couldn't help but burst out laughing. "You see, it's really 'longing to meet', you've been longing for so long that you can't even remember my name."

  Zheng Wei's face turned bright red, feeling ashamed and embarrassed, she could only follow with a silly smile, it seemed that the flattery had gone too far. For the next half month of training at headquarters, she occasionally ran into Zhou Qu a few times, each time feeling guilty and extremely awkward, this time unfortunately running into him again, how could she not be worried.

  A headache is still a headache, after all, he is the department head of the organization and also an assistant general manager. China Construction is a state-owned enterprise with tens of thousands of people, and those who can climb to the headquarters are all influential figures. Moreover, he is the director of the crucial marketing department. What else can this small fry do but obediently stay put and wait for instructions?

  "Director Zhou wants to see me about something?" She started subconsciously putting one hand on her head again.

  Zhou Qu's smile began to play on his lips again. Why did this guy always make her laugh?

  Finally, when he put away his smile and said: "Zheng Wei, do you know why I kept you here?" Zheng Wei only then realized that his serious face was even harder to deal with.

  She thought for a moment, looking down at her toes with some disappointment, and said in a low voice, "I know. It's because you want to hire my ex-boyfriend."

  "That's right." Zhou Qu said expressionlessly.

  Zheng Wei suddenly felt a pang of sadness and argued: "But I didn't know he was going to leave when I interviewed, I didn't cheat you guys..."

  Zhou Qu said, "Zhongjian does not recruit female students, and it is not gender discrimination. This year, we are focusing on recruiting engineering and technical personnel. Based on our experience in previous years, many girls cannot adapt to the work on construction sites, which is detrimental to both the company and the female employees themselves. You should know that Zhongjian is a company mainly engaged in building construction, and management positions in the headquarters and branches are extremely limited. The vast majority of college students still have to go to the grassroots level. Therefore, for the stability of our workforce, we try not to recruit female engineering and technical personnel, especially girls from single-child families in big cities who look like you."

  "I know." Zheng Wei raised her head, "But maybe I'm not as weak as you think, I also have my own strengths."

  He looked at her with a profound gaze, "Your strengths, well, aren't nonexistent. The architecture engineering college of G University is pretty good, and you're a genuine civil engineering graduate, but in my opinion, your professional knowledge isn't top-notch, at best, you'd be a barely qualified technician; looks like you have a clever appearance, unfortunately, it's just petty cleverness; you've got quite a bit of guts, but lack stability; at least you look decent, though not particularly beautiful..."

  "Ah, Director Zhou...", Zheng Wei knew it was impolite to interrupt a superior, but hearing someone so bluntly point out her shortcomings made her feel embarrassed and somewhat unbearable. "Successful people's time should be very precious, right? You're wasting so much time just to analyze an insignificant person like me? I'm a bit uneasy about that..."

  "You say I'm not steady enough, you don't believe me, and I haven't even finished speaking." Zhou Qiuhan's face fell, and Zheng Wei finally saw another side of him behind his smile, which was a bit frightening. She couldn't help but immediately shut up and listen obediently.

  "I'm telling you this for one reason only. You may not be ideal in every aspect, but you need to understand that even if we initially kept your resume because of that excellent guy, China Construction never hires useless people. You call him your ex-boyfriend, which means he's already a thing of the past. So, tell yourself that getting into China Construction has nothing to do with anyone else or him. That's all I have to say, now go."

  Being a leader is great, after scolding someone, you can just pat their butt and let them go. Zheng Wei looked at Zhou Qu's back, she asked herself, really, did I really get into Zhong Jian on my own?

  Before she could figure it out, the young man who seemed to be a close relative of Li Wei Juan walked over and asked her in a familiar tone, "Zheng Wei, so you know Director Zhou from the marketing department? No wonder..."

  "What was that? He just asked me where the restroom is." Zheng Wei said with a lack of confidence.

  Fortunately, the boy did not continue to investigate this matter and walked with Zheng Wei outside while saying, "Alas, have you ever thought about where you will be assigned?"

  Zheng shook her head vaguely, "And you?"

  "I didn't know, but staying in the headquarters is impossible, I can only pray to God and Buddha that I'll be assigned to a slightly better branch company," the boy said.

  "Are there good and bad branch companies?"

  "Are you really clueless or just pretending to be? China Construction has 14 subsidiaries scattered all over the country, and just like how some kids are born smarter than others, their performance varies. Who wouldn't want to stay in a good one? Being able to work in a subsidiary is already something, at least it's still the main business. I heard that if you're unlucky, you might even be sent to do tertiary work, which is basically equivalent to being abandoned."

  "You're so knowledgeable." Zheng Wei made a cartoon-like gesture with sparkling eyes.

  "It's about the future, don't be a fool... I'm not referring to you." The boy looked somewhat worried. "I heard that some branch companies' project departments are in remote areas like Tibet and Gansu, some people live on construction sites and can only enter the city once a month. Alas, we're all without any background, probably can only be picked at will, if we could get into the second division it would be great."

  "Two halves?"

  "Second Division is the second branch company, located in our G city, it's a genuine headquarters direct lineage. It's said that every day the most profitable projects and the best equipment are all in Second Division, and most of the company leaders were promoted from Second Division."

  "Oh." Zheng Wei suddenly realized.

  "But we can't get into the second division, most of the staff inside are leaders' relatives and so-called elites, the general manager's son is also said to be in the second division."

  Zheng Wei listened and thought to herself, she had gained more experience, society was indeed complicated, even within a single unit there were so many complexities, she didn't understand anything, and couldn't help but feel that she wasn't a clever child after all.