Chapter 11 The Farthest Distance

Ling Xuan returned to his office and saw Liu Xiaoting chatting on QQ in front of the computer. When she saw Ling Xuan come in, she quickly set her QQ to invisible and said shyly, "Sorry, President Ling."

This office was originally an idle storage room. Since Ling Xuan and his team needed to stay at Qianying for a long time, Huang Yaqin had someone clean up this storage room. After renovation, it became the office for Ling Xuan and his colleagues. It was only about twenty - odd square meters. Besides a bookcase, there were three desks, two computers, a printer, and a telephone. These things filled the small room to the brim.

Ling Xuan glanced at Liu Xiaoting and said, "It's Sunday today. There's no need to be embarrassed." Then he asked, "Is the advertisement scheduled for Wednesday ready?"

Liu Xiaoting quickly picked up a printed draft from beside the printer and handed it to Ling Xuan, saying softly, "Please have a look."

Ling Xuan took the design draft, skimmed through it briefly, and said, "Tomorrow, ask Qin Niyan to proofread the text. If there are no typos, send it to Xiao Chen for publication."

"Okay!" Liu Xiaoting replied softly.

Ling Xuan turned on the computer on his desk, picked up the phone beside it, and directly dialed Liao Chenjuan's mobile number according to the one Huang Yaqin had given him.

"Hello!" came the voice of a woman in her forties from the other end of the phone.

"Hello, is this Sister Liao?" Ling Xuan greeted politely.

"Yes, I am. Who is this?"

Ling Xuan said gently, "I'm Ling Xuan, the planner from Qianying Beauty Industry. President Huang asked me to call you."

"Oh!! It's President Huang! What's the matter?" Liao Chenjuan's tone became more modest when she heard the name of President Huang from Qianying.

Ling Xuan said, "Sister Liao, we wouldn't come to you if we didn't have something important. There's something I need to trouble you with."

Liao Chenjuan said softly, "What is it? Can't President Huang handle it?"

Ling Xuan said, "Well, today a man came to our Qianying and smashed the door for no reason. A reporter from your morning newspaper was also there. Sister Liao, you know that if this kind of thing gets reported in the newspaper, it will only be harmful to our company."

Liao Chenjuan was silent for a moment on the other end of the phone and then said, "I understand. What are you planning to do now?"

Ling Xuan said, "Can you ask that reporter not to publish the story? We can discuss anything else."

Liao Chenjuan said in a deep voice, "This might be a bit difficult because I'm not in charge of the 'Social Focus' column. But I can ask about it for you. By the way, what's the name of that reporter?"

Ling Xuan said, "We don't know yet, but we'll investigate as soon as possible."

Liao Chenjuan nodded and said, "Well, I'll keep an eye on it for you. If I know the name of that reporter, I'll notify you right away, okay?"

Ling Xuan said gratefully, "Sure, thank you so much, Sister Liao."

"You're welcome. That's settled then, okay?"

"Okay."

...

Ling Xuan hung up the phone, let out a long sigh of relief, leaned his back against the chair, stared wide - eyed at the white ceiling, and was lost in thought.

"President Ling, would you like me to make you a cup of tea?" Liu Xiaoting asked softly.

"Yeah!" Ling Xuan replied.

Liu Xiaoting picked up the cup on his desk and walked out.

"Beep - beep!" At this time, Ling Xuan's mobile phone rang again. He looked at the number and saw it was President Hu from the company.

"Hello, President Hu." Ling Xuan flipped open his phone to answer and greeted.

"Xiao Ling, what happened at Qianying today?" Hu Fan, the president of Jingrui Company, Ling Xuan's boss, asked sternly on the other end of the phone.

Ling Xuan said, "President Hu, please don't be impatient. Here's what happened. Let me tell you slowly..." He roughly described the course of the incident.

Hu Fan asked on the other end of the phone, "Do you know who that reporter is now?"

Ling Xuan said, "Not yet."

Hu Fan said, "No matter what, this matter can't be reported in the newspaper today."

Ling Xuan said, "I'll do my best. After all, no one wants this kind of thing to happen."

Hu Fan got angry and said, "What do you mean by 'do my best'? You must make sure it doesn't get reported."

With a "snap", Hu Fan hung up the phone.

Ling Xuan closed his phone, threw it heavily on the table in anger, and cursed, "Damn it! Do you think I want this to be reported in the newspaper?! It's not that easy to prevent it from being reported. Do you think you own the newspaper?!"

"President Ling, your tea."

Liu Xiaoting somehow brought in the tea.

Ling Xuan realized he had been a bit out of control just now, nodded slightly and said apologetically, "Sorry, I was out of line just now."

Liu Xiaoting returned to her seat, reopened QQ, and without turning her head, said softly, "That was President Hu's call, right? It's okay. Anyone would be a bit impatient when facing such a thing..."

Ling Xuan knew that Liu Xiaoting didn't like Hu Fan. She had said more than once that if she wasn't assigned to work at Qianying and if it wasn't for him, Ling Xuan, she would have left Jingrui Advertising Company long ago. In addition, Qin Niyan's surveillance of Ling Xuan and her in recent days had made her even more resentful.

In Liu Xiaoting's eyes, President Hu was a symbol of social parasites and scum. He couldn't do anything, but just because he was the boss, he would shout at others. "Just because you have money doesn't mean you can do anything!" This was what Liu Xiaoting often said.

Liu Xiaoting often asked Ling Xuan, "Why have you been able to stay in Jingrui Company for four years? For anyone else, staying for one year would be quite good." Indeed, in Jingrui Company, even the women Hu Fan kept couldn't last more than a year. Ling Xuan was already one of the most senior employees in the company.

Every time Ling Xuan heard Liu Xiaoting ask this, he would just smile it off. Instead, he would comfort Liu Xiaoting to work with peace of mind and accumulate more work experience, which would be a good account for herself in the future.

Ling Xuan smiled when he heard Liu Xiaoting's words and said, "I never thought our Xiaoting has learned to comfort people."

Liu Xiaoting smiled slightly and said, "It's true! No one could have predicted today's incident. What does it have to do with you? Why should you be the one to bear it alone?"

Ling Xuan let out a long sigh and said, "It's not that simple. If we were to shirk responsibility, then no one would need to take care of today's matter and we could just leave it to the police. But things are not like that. Qianying is like a ship. We are not only the crew but also the passengers on the ship. If the ship hits an iceberg, do you hope it will sink to the bottom of the sea?"

Liu Xiaoting said softly, "I understand what you mean, but the Titanic sank. If necessary, we should try to survive and board another ship instead of sinking with the ship and being buried in the sea!"

Ling Xuan smiled and said, "Of course, if it really comes to the point of the ship sinking, we can make a choice! But now we are still a long way from that. So we should do our best to keep it away from the iceberg and sail in the right direction..."

Liu Xiaoting smiled and said, "If there's a 'Best Employee' selection, I think you should be 100% elected. There's no more loyal employee like you in the world. You are the future of Jingrui, the hope and future of Qianying..."

Oh my god!

Ling Xuan never expected that the always gentle and refined Liu Xiaoting could be so funny when making jokes.

In the movie A Chinese Tall Story, there's a line that goes, "The furthest distance in the world is not between life and death, but when I stand in front of you, yet you don't know that I love you."

Ling Xuan would say that the furthest distance in the world is that we work together every day, yet I don't know you have another unknown world.

Everyone has a side that others can't see. Even if you face someone every day, you may not know them best. So, don't think that being together day and night means you know someone the most. That's just self - deception.