I Want a Lifetime with You
Chapter 228

"Yes, please keep it safe. Everyone only gets one number tag." Mai Qi smiled and put away her personnel list. "I still need to go to other departments." "See you later, Ms. Mai!"

After Mai Qi left, Yuan Jia could no longer contain her excitement and wanted to gossip with Shi Nuan. But before she could say anything, Director Lin shot her a look and chided, "No discussing of personal matters during work hours." Ling Yu handed a folder to Shi Nuan, "Go ahead with this first. Ask me if there's anything you're not sure about."

"Yes, sir." Shi Nuan took the folder and waited until Lin Yu left before going back to her seat. She placed the number tag in her bag and prepared to review some documents.

Yuan Jia rushed to Shi Nuan's side and whispered to her, "Shi Nuan, aren't you even a little bit curious about what the numbers are for? I asked Mai Qi, and she would only say it's some kind of a reward." "Oh!" Shi Nuan nodded. "Okay!"

Yuan Jia noticed that Shi Nuan wasn't too interested in this so-called reward. "Aren't you curious at all?"

"I am. But you said it's some kind of a reward, and we'll replace out soon enough at the annual meeting. I still have work that I need to finish." Shi Nuan pointed to the papers and the datasheets in front of her. Yuan Jia sighed, "What am I going to do with you?"

Previously, Yuan Jia had plenty of misunderstandings towards Shi Nuan. She thought that she was someone who had gotten the job by pulling strings and had no skills other than just looking pretty. But after working together for a while, Yuan Jia realized how wrong she was. Shi Nuan was a complete workaholic, just like Lin Yu. "Get going then."

After Yuan Jia left, Shi Nuan spaced out for a bit before she took the number tag out to have a look again. She grabbed her phone and sent Fu Chengyan a message via WeChat. "You had Mai Qi give out number tags?"

A reply quickly arrived. "Yes."

"It's a kind of reward?" Shi Nuan didn't want to gossip, but she had a hunch that there was something suspicious about it. Why on earth was he giving out number tags?

"Guess!"

Fu Chengyan looked at his phone and grinned.

Zhou Zheng was standing stiffly in front of Fu Chengyan's desk, holding papers with one hand and pinching his leg with the other.

Fu Chengyan looked up and reverted back to his stern expression. "What were we talking about?"

"Oh. We were discussing the guests and partnerships for the annual meeting. Mr. Fu, are we still inviting those we invited previously?"

"Yup," nodded Fu Chengyan. "You can go ahead and make these decisions yourself. Anything else?"

"Oh, Mr. George told me yesterday that he might have to make a trip back to France soon."

Fu Chengyan paused before looking up. "Why?"

"Mr. George's mother is sick, so..." Zhou Zheng continued, "There won't be anyone working during the New Year anyway, and he promises there won't be any delays when he goes back." "Okay." Fu Chengyan raised his hand, but before he was able to say anything else, Shi Nuan's reply came in. "I don't want to guess. I'll replace out at the annual meeting anyway."

Fu Chengyan grinned, "Okay, then don't."

Fu Chengyan continued to text with Shi Nuan when he realized Zhou Zheng was peeking at him from across the table. Fu Chengyan glared, "Anything else?"

Zhou Zheng rubbed his palms together and laughed sheepishly, "Mr. Fu also uses WeChat?"

Fu Chengyan glanced at his phone screen then at Zhou Zheng. "And?"

"No-nothing." No wonder Zhou Zheng thought the image on Fu Chengyan's screen looked familiar. Who knew the usually disinterested Mr. Fu would one day use WeChat too. But he also noticed that his WeChat page looked rather blank. “Mr. Fu, don't tell me you only have your wife as your only contact?"

Fu Chengyan put his phone away. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No, no problem at all! Why would I have a problem?" Zhou Zheng hurriedly denied it. "But WeChat is used to connect people with each other. Don't you want to add a few more contacts?"

"Like whom?"

"For example Mr. Li, Mr. Su, and me!" Zhou Zheng pointed at himself. "Don't you think the apps nowadays are great? And it's so easy to get in touch with someone. If Mr. Fu sent me a message on WeChat, I promise I'll reply to it right away."

"What Mr. Zhou is saying is... you can reply to me instantly even when it's during working hours?" Fu Chengyan propped one hand under his chin and tapped the table with the other, while slyly observing Zhou Zheng.

Zhou Zheng hadn't yet caught on to what Fu Chengyan was implying, so he nodded and guaranteed, "Yes! As long as Mr. Fu texted me, I will always reply to you instantly, regardless of where I was or what I was doing."

"Oh really," Fu Chengyan smirked. "What you're saying is, you're always on your phone even when you're working?"

Zhou Zheng could feel the room temperature suddenly drop a few degrees. Only then did he realize that Fu Chengyan had tricked him. He fervently shook his head. "Mr. Fu, you misunderstood. That's not wha I meant. That's absolutely not what I meant."

Fu Chengyan snorted, "You're dismissed."

"Yes, I still have plenty of things I need to do. I'm leaving. Right away."

In the meantime, Song Jingyu had also gotten a number tag. She knew about the reward, so she sought out Mai Qi to get a number for herself and even personally chose number 13, a number she found to be lucky. Song Jingyu had heard from Mai Qi that Fu Chengyan's number was fourteen. Hence, the two numbers together would be 1314, which in Chinese, sounded similar to 'forever and always'. Song Jingyu felt really good about her number.

Not long after, all staff members in Shengyuan Group had gotten their number tags. Everyone was feeling very excited about this upcoming annual meeting. Everyone had heard about the special 'reward' and that there would be a special event. They were all making guesses as to what the reward could be. They were also excited they would get a chance to see the rarely seen boss that night.

The day before the annual meeting, Shi Nuan was fretting over what she was going to wear.

Usually, she would just pick something simple. However, Fu Chengyan had asked her to wear something nice, and it would also have to keep her warm.

Shi Nuan thought his request was rather contradictory, and she was getting a headache just thinking about it. She stood in front of her wardrobe for a long while, but she just couldn't replace something that would match Fu Chengyan's expectations.

At the same time, Fu Chengyan was in the study discussing work matters with Fu Heng. And when he went to replace Shi Nuan, the first thing he saw was her pouting in front of the wardrobe.

He took a gown from Shi Nuan, looked at it, and placed it back. "What's wrong?"

Shi Nuan glared at Fu Chengyan and whined, "It's all your fault! You wanted me to dress nicely, and you also wanted it to keep me warm! Think about it, where would I replace such a dress like that? I'm completely lost!"

"Look at you, losing your marbles over a dress." Fu Chengyan chuckled. "How about this? It looks nice."

Fu Chengyan took out a basic buttoned-up shirt then picked another white knitwear.

Shi Nuan looked on as Fu Chengyan took piece after piece of clothing from her wardrobe and couldn't help but facepalm. "These aren't gowns, they're..."

"Hmm?" Fu Chengyan raised an eyebrow, "They're what?"

"Nothing." Actually, those really would keep her warm. In fact, they're no different from what she usually wears.

The difference was how Fu Chengyan had matched the different pieces. Together, the black and white styling looked chic and sophisticated. With a black coat, it would definitely be warm and would also be appropriate for a formal setting.

Most of the clothing in Shi Nuan's wardrobe could be mixed and matched easily, so she didn't have to worry about wearing clothes that didn't match.

"So when you said you wanted me to dress nicely, you meant for me to just wear my usual clothes?"

"Your usual clothes are nice!" Fu Chengyan continued, "It's just an annual meeting. You don't need to dress too flashily like the others. You're different from them."

"Yes, yes, yes. Alright, I'll wear this." She was too lazy to think about it further anyway. "Where is the annual meeting at?"

"Prosperous Dynasty." Fu Chengyan placed the clothes against Shi Nuan's body to check how they looked. "It was supposed to be at Shengyuan, but Shengyuan has a rather hectic schedule lately, so we didn't want to add to that by having the annual meeting there."

"That's true." Shi Nuan smiled. "Oh, and the number tag? You have one too? Yuan Jia from our department is a little tattletale. She's been asking me what the secret behind it is."

Shi Nuan put the clothes back into her wardrobe, then went to Fu Chengyan to massage his temples.

Fu Chengyan leaned against the sofa and chuckled when he heard Shi Nuan's question. "Are you sure it's your colleague asking and not yourself?"

Shi Nuan wasn't bothered that Fu Chengyan had seen through her little ploy. "Okay, I want to know. Are you going to tell me?"

"It's a secret. You won't be surprised if you replace out now." He took hold of Shi Nuan's hands and pulled her towards him, seating her in his lap. "Either way, I'll make sure Mrs. Fu will be very pleased." "Please don't," rejected Shi Nuan quickly. "Don't forget, hardly anyone knows we're married. If people see us at Shengyuan's annual meeting, then that won't be good." Knowing the truth was one thing, but having them misunderstand and make wrong assumptions would be troublesome.

And there was a Song Jingyu too. Just thinking about her gave Shi Nuan a headache.

"Don't worry. I know what to do." Fu Chengyan placed Shi Nuan's hands to his lips and kissed them. "Tomorrow, you'll go with the rest of your colleagues from the project management department. Lin Yu will look after you."

"I know," laughed Shi Nuan. "I'm a grown-up, and I can take care of myself. You'll surely be busy tomorrow, so I promise I won't cause you any trouble."

Shi Nuan reached to fix Fu Chengyan's collar then patted him on the shoulder. "I have this feeling that you're hiding something from me. You're not planning something for tomorrow, are you?"