Sighing, Debbie put the first-aid kit away and said, "Let's go. Let Evelyn be. She had a busy day at work, and I'm sure she's tired."
Carlos nodded and stood up from the sofa. "You wanna know what I think?" he asked Evelyn. "I think you need to play harder to get. String him on for a couple years if you want. If you get with him too quickly it might make you look desperate."
He turned to Debbie. "Honey, why are you staring at me? I mean it. We need to let Sheffield know that Evelyn's not that easy. Otherwise, he won't think she's worth keeping."
Debbie tried her hardest to drag the man out of the room as he prattled.
Carlos didn't want to leave the room yet. "I haven't hugged Gwyn yet!"
"Let the baby sleep now. You can see her tomorrow! Out!" Debbie insisted.
"Okay, okay." Carlos dropped the idea of hugging his granddaughter, but he was still angry with Sheffield. He continued, "Look, Evelyn. See this bruise? That was Sheffield. Tell him if he tries anything like that again, I'll beat the shit out of him every time I see him."
Carlos' voice trailed off when the door finally shut.
Silence reigned in the bedroom once more. Evelyn felt her head ache. She missed the calm, cold, decisive Carlos Huo. What happened to him? How did he manage to lose his cool?
Sighing helplessly, she tucked her sleeping daughter in and kissed her forehead before heading to the bathroom for a shower.
The next morning, at ZL Group
Evelyn called Nadia in and said, "Contact Theo Group and set up a meeting. I want to talk to Mr. Tang about his research projects." Actually, Evelyn didn't want to talk to him directly, so she asked Nadia to do it.
Nadia nodded, "Yes, Miss Huo."
Right then and there, Nadia dialed the phone number of the assistant to the CEO of Theo Group. "Hello, this is Nadia from ZL Group. My boss wants to meet with yours. When would be a good time to do that?"
Two minutes later, Nadia hung up the phone. "Miss Huo, they said...Mr. Tang is not in the office now. They'll call when he's back in."
Inexplicably, Evelyn heaved a sigh of relief. "Okay, thanks."
Nadia nodded with a smile.
"By the way, the managers are supposed to be conducting a tour of the company. Sort of a check-up on how things are running, right? Have they started that yet?" Evelyn shifted her attention back to work.
"They will start in three minutes, Miss Huo."
"I think I'll join them." She hadn't been involved in the day-to-day business of the company in a long time.
"Yes, Miss Huo! I'll arrange it right away." Then, Nadia left the office.
Once a month ZL Group's senior management would inspect each department. Evelyn wasn't on the list, despite her regional CEO title. But Carlos hadn't assigned her much work and she'd been there early that morning, so she decided to join the inspection tour.
Without notifying anyone in advance, Evelyn quietly joined the senior leaders and followed them around the company. It was good to have a chance to see who she was working with, and to get a chance to stretch her legs.
She was quiet during the whole inspection tour. She just took extensive notes. When she found a problem, she put it on the list so she could address it later. Or put someone else on it.
On the way to the financial department, Evelyn felt a stomach ache coming on. Handing Nadia the file in her hand, she said, "Don't mind me. I need to hit the ladies' room first. You guys can continue the tour and I'll catch up in a bit."
"Yes, Miss Huo."
Evelyn found the bathroom on that floor and walked in.
A few minutes later, Evelyn left the stall, washed her hands and was about to leave when she heard someone crying.
She turned off the faucet and walked toward the source of the sound.
At a corner diagonally opposite the bathroom, a girl in her early twenties was crying while complaining over the phone, "Boo...hoo...it sucks! I'm under too much pressure! I can't stand it here anymore. My supervisor is a hellish bitch! She always chews me out. I felt pretty good walking into work this morning, but then she yelled at me out of the blue. She's just a department supervisor! Did she have to treat me like that? I haven't been here even a year, but I work very hard every day, you know? Ugh! I'm so pissed. I need the paycheck, so I can't quit. I would have left a long time ago if it weren't for that. That's not cool to treat me like that. No one would put it up with it..."
Standing where she was, Evelyn silently listened to the girl's complaints. She more or less figured out what was going on from her rant.
Apparently the supervisor yelled at her every day. It made working here a living hell.
The girl sobbed. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to put this on you." She paused, waiting for the person on the other end of the line to say something. "I have to put up with her. I have to pay off the house loan. I see. I'll let you get back to work. Bye!"
The girl hung up the phone and wiped her tears with a tissue. When she turned around and was about to throw the tissue into the trash, she found an elegant woman standing behind her.
Instead of wearing working attire, the woman was clad in a long, brown dress with an asymmetrical hemline, silk scarf about her neck. On top of that, she had a pair of black high heels. She was wearing a set of tourmaline earrings, and a watch on her wrist.
She stood with arms over her chest, staring at the girl.
Evelyn gave off an aura of cool, and one of power, of a woman used to getting what she wanted. The other girl couldn't look her in the eye, and was frightened. She wanted to ask Evelyn who she was, but she couldn't bring herself to do so.
Since the woman didn't wear a work uniform or any work badge, she probably wasn't an employee.
The female employee threw the tissue into the trash and was ready to walk past Evelyn.
But the young CEO stopped her with a word. "Wait."
The girl stopped and turned around. She asked cautiously, "Who are you?"
"Not happy at work?" Evelyn asked.
"What did you hear?" The girl was frightened to death and thought she was canned for sure. 'Oh crap! If she goes to the department supervisor, I'm so fired!'
At ZL Group, even a team leader had some power, not to mention a department supervisor. If the supervisor decided to fire her, she could do nothing about it.
Evelyn replied honestly, "I heard everything, but..."
"Why don't you get to work instead of hiding in here?" A domineering female voice suddenly rang behind them.
The female employee's face turned even paler. "I'm really done this time." She immediately greeted her supervisor respectfully, "Hello, Miss Chi!"
The sound of high heels came closer and closer, and a woman stalked up to the pair. "Slacking off? Lily Xu, do you want to lose your job?" The indignant supervisor turned on Evelyn next. "And who are you? Where's your uniform— It's you?!" The woman was taken aback the moment her gaze landed on Evelyn's face.
They hadn't seen each other for two years, but they recognized each other at once.
Gillian was stunned, while Evelyn was expressionless.
"You also work here?" Gillian didn't think anyone who had nothing to do with the company would be here at this hour.
Evelyn nodded indifferently.
"Which department are you in? Why aren't you wearing your uniform during working hours? And you're just chatting away with a co-worker? Why aren't you at your desk?" Gillian scolded Evelyn arrogantly as if haranguing a subordinate.
Lily Xu quickly denied everything. "No, I don't know her. We weren't talking. I just... I had to use the restroom. I'm going back to work now." Lily Xu hadn't seen Evelyn before, so she tried her best to disassociate herself from her.
Although Evelyn didn't start at the bottom, she understood how things worked here. She didn't want to get Lily Xu in trouble. "First, I don't have a work uniform, and don't need to wear one. Second, we weren't in here talking. Please let her get back to work."