Chapter 44

When Li Shaoze finished reminiscing about yesterday's fishing story, he pursed his lips and continued to process another document.

Li Junfeng saw the leisure in his brother's reaction and kept his quiet when he thought Li Shaoze should have an idea to deal with the subsequent investigation from their father. And it wasn't that Li Shaoze being a core member of Quze Industries would be forever a secret.

'It should be fine then,' he thought to himself as he shrugged.

Soon, dusk came and the entire company building began to light up. Li Shaoze finally put down his pen and closed off the documents he was reviewing. He shut down the computer and called for Zhu Zijin. As his assistant, Zhu Zijin got a special treatment which was his own office that he shared with Mu Ziyi side by side.

Two minutes later, Zhu Zijin came inside the office to report for the next day's itinerary and to summarize today's flow of work.

"Is that all?" Li Shaoze asked after he confirmed the schedule.

"Yes, sir,"

"Move all the meetings for this week to tomorrow and the day after. Cram them all up back-to-back. Just tell everyone involved that there's no need to chase the deadline. I just want to free some time off in the weekend," Li Shaoze instructed.

"Sure, sir," Zhu Zijin said his affirmative and saw Li Shaoze leaving the office as he bowed.

Today, he had to work for another hour to finish up on his mountainous tasks before he could go and have a date with Mu Ziyi. He was also going to introduce her to his parents tonight.

When Li Shaoze was out of sight, Zhu Zijin received a notification on his phone. He looked it up and smiled. It was a text from Mu Ziyi that wrote 'I'm going to send the boss back and then go home to dress up. Come pick me up after you're done. Flying kisses~"

Zhu Zijin immediately sent a flying kiss back as he walked towards his office room, feeling the urge and motivation to finish his work quickly.

***

For the next two days, Li Shaoze was even more busy with back-to-back meetings. From morning until late afternoon, all he did was sit in the meeting room to listen to progress and make decisions.

His employees were able to coordinate with him now that he was finally familiar with the internal environment. Despite being a workaholic, Li Shaoze didn't work until it was dark, which was much appreciated by his employees. He would always go home by seven.

They also liked to work with him because of his competence and decisiveness in making decisions and looking for solutions to some very difficult data. They were surprised by Li Shaoze's ability despite only taking office just recently.

Li Shaoze was a competent director they wished they had known sooner.

***

The next day was finally the weekend. And the high intensity of meetings and briefings for two days had gone down significantly. The environment was much calmer. It was five o'clock when Li Shaoze decided to go home.

He stepped into the elevator of the 43rd floor and it went down quickly. Behind him were Zhu Zijin who also finished work and was the one to act as chauffeur today. When the elevator reached the 22nd floor, it stopped to open the door.

It revealed a familiar older, middle-aged woman, Chen Ying. The 22nd floor was the human resource department and she seemed about to go home too.

Taking steps into the elevator, she smiled once she saw Li Shaoze but her face was still stern. Even Zhu Zijin had a hard time deciphering her intention. Apart from Li Shaoze, who seemed to be clueless of it.

"Off work?" she asked like a mother trying to question her child.

"Yes," a curt yes came out of Li Shaoze's mouth, which wasn't at all odd.

It wasn't every day that Chen Ying could meet him. Their schedules and department weren't related. So today was such a lucky day for her.

"You've lost weight. Was it tough getting familiar with the environment?" Chen Ying looked Li Shaoze up and down. She was a bit worried but she knew he had to get through it by himself as the future chairman.

"It was fine. I'm getting the hang of it," Li Shaoze said modestly, without a hint of arrogance and unpretentiousness.

Chen Ying nodded as if she approved of his attitude. They stood side by side and the elevator finally reached the parking space. The older woman turned to him and they waved goodbyes.

Li Shaoze waited for Chen Ying to get into her car and drive away before he went to his. He had always shown good manners towards his teachers which was why he was well liked by the five old folks even if his quiet personality was a drawback.

Li Shaoze got into the car and ordered to leave.

He didn't notice a slightly older man sitting nearby in another expensive black sedan, observing him until the taillight was no longer seen.

This man was one of the members of the board of directors in the opposing party against Li Shaoze. He held high position in the management and he had disliked Li Shaoze since the first time he learned about the nasty rumors surrounding him.

He wasn't convinced that Li Shaoze wouldn't be a corporate spy to help Li Group one way or another. He believed Li Shaoze was still a Li after all. This should be one of his schemes to get recognized by the Li's.

Li Shaoze had been introduced in the board meeting on his first day working. Only the board of directors were informed about Li Shaoze's real identity and standing as the next chairman.

However, the lower management and the general employees had no idea. This was because they had been ordered to keep the information secret until the day of the official inauguration.

However, the older man didn't care about this. He had created a rumor about it for the past few days when Li Shaoze was busy to pay attention.

'When the time comes for him to take his post, his position would no longer be stable due to public opinion,' he thought in amusement.

"Let's go," he told the driver with a smirk on his face. Not knowing that such news would blow up into something bigger.