Chapter 60: Director Wang Has a Crush on Sheng Wanyan
Director Li went around introducing everyone. No one could quite figure out what had gotten into the new Director Wang today.
He had personally sought out the heads of each department, requesting that they take him on a tour to meet the staff so that future coordination would go smoothly. Seeing how uncharacteristically humble he was acting, the department heads readily agreed. Every section was already brainstorming how to establish a good rapport with him to make their future supply requisitions easier, so they were more than happy to guide him around to say hello.
The moment the staff of the Propaganda Department heard Director Li’s introduction, they immediately stood up from their desks.
“Hello, Director Wang.”
“Good morning, Director Wang.”
Director Wang’s eyes lit up as he finally spotted the beauty he had been searching for. It made his entire morning of running ragged from office to office worth the effort. To ensure he could stage a “chance” encounter with Sheng Wanyan, he had subtly asked around until he confirmed she worked in Propaganda.
Given her striking looks and unmarried status, Sheng Wanyan was naturally the center of attention for every single bachelor in the cotton mill. Fearing that dropping by her office completely unannounced would make her suspicious or uncomfortable, he had manufactured this grand excuse of a factory-wide tour.
Director Wang Chaofan held his chin high, adopting the proud posture of an elite leader.
“Hello, everyone. I am the new director of the logistics department. My surname is Wang.” He paused, letting his gaze sweep the room. “Transferred down directly from the capital. It is a pleasure to meet you all.”
Carefully maintaining his authoritative tone, his eyes locked onto Sheng Wanyan, grasping his leadership persona tightly. “And what is your name, comrade?”
His arrogant, sweeping gaze made the rest of the clerks shift uncomfortably. He’s just introducing himself, so why does he have to act so high and mighty? everyone thought.
Director Wang kept his eyes fixed on Sheng Wanyan, and the rest of the office instinctively followed his gaze. It was completely obvious to everyone in the room that his question was directed solely at her.
“Hello, Director Wang,” she replied calmly. “My name is Sheng Wanyan.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Director Wang’s face erupted into a look of profound appreciation, and he actually began to clap his hands.
“What an absolutely magnificent name!” he cheered. “‘The willows in the evening smoke hang down in green wisps, and the peach blossoms in the spring rain dot the green moss.’ I presume this beautiful verse is where your family drew inspiration for your name, comrade?”
He wore the smug, self-satisfied look of an elite intellectual. Hearing him suddenly recite classical poetry, the senior clerks in the office looked mildly impressed.
“No,” Sheng Wanyan countered smoothly. “It actually comes from Su Shi’s poem, Jiangchengzi: Dark Clouds and Rain Passing Over the West Tower.”
Jiangchengzi: Dark Clouds and Rain Passing the West Tower Su Shi (Song Dynasty)
Dark clouds and rain passed over the west building.
The water flows eastward and the evening smoke dissipates.
The setting sun shines back on the willow trees, moving the curtain hooks.
Wushan is so beautiful tonight, the flowers have not fallen yet, and the wine is fresh.
The beauty’s smile turns into starry eyes.
The moon is shy, holding the golden bowl.
The singing fan lingers in the wind, blowing away all the sorrow of spring.
I want to ask all my friends in Jiangnan, who is like me, drunk in Yangzhou.
The classical poem she referenced vividly captured a distinct narrative: dark clouds and a sudden downpour had just swept past the western estate, and the rainwater flowed steadily toward the east. As the thick mist began to gather and settle, the brilliant afterglow of the setting sun pierced through the willow trees, reflecting off the silver curtain hooks like dancing flecks of gold.
In the midst of this breathtaking twilight evening, a striking beauty stood, radiating the ethereal grace of the Goddess of Wushan. The blossoms remained vibrant, and the wine was freshly filtered and crisp.
The beauty’s beaming smile and radiant eyes were so dazzling they put the crescent moon to shame as she repeatedly raised her golden goblet to toast her companion. The gentle breeze stirred by her silken fan chased away every lingering cloud of sorrow from the heart.
I must ask the elders of the southern lands, the poet mused, who among you can live as free and unburdened as I, appreciating true beauty and singing while blissfully drunk in Yangzhou?
As Sheng Wanyan calmly laid out the correct literary source, the grand smile on Director Wang’s face gradually froze, turning incredibly stiff.
Completely blindsided and having no idea how to salvage his dignity, he could only let out a dry, forced chuckle. “Haha, oh, is that so?”
Sheng Wanyan offered a polite, silent smile. The moment Director Wang caught her smiling face, his predatory motivation instantly surged right back.
Comrade Sheng Wanyan looks utterly spectacular when she smiles, he thought wildly. So what if she corrected me in public? If she could just smile at me like that every day, I’d willingly let her humiliate me morning, noon, and night.
Sensing the thick, awkward silence stretching over the room, Director Li immediately stepped forward to smooth over the situation and break the tension.
“Alright, now that everyone has formally met Director Wang from logistics, our future inter-departmental work should be much easier,” Director Li announced. “Comrades, please prioritize drafting next month’s promotional slogans and get them to my desk as soon as possible. Get back to your duties.”
Hearing the director’s command, the clerks instantly buried their heads back into their ledgers, projecting an aura of intense, serious focus.
Realizing it was no longer appropriate to linger, Director Wang had no choice but to turn and follow Director Li out of the office.
But as he crossed the threshold, he shot Sheng Wanyan a long, deeply meaningful look. In his mind, only a woman this breathtakingly beautiful and highly educated was truly worthy of standing by his side. He had long since grown utterly nauseated by the plain, worn-out hag he had trapped at home. What was the point of keeping her around when she couldn’t even manage to give him a son? If it weren’t for the fact that she kept the household running flawlessly, and the reality that his recent demotion meant he couldn’t afford a single public scandal, he would have divorced her the moment his feet touched Chengdu. His family connections in the capital couldn’t insulate him from another mistake, so he was forced to hold his tongue. Otherwise, she would have been gone long ago.
Once the managers left, Sheng Wanyan stared toward the closed door. She knew with absolute certainty that Wang Chaofan’s little poetry recital had been staged entirely for her benefit.
A thirty-five-year-old married man actually harboring designs on a twenty-year-old girl—the sheer audacity was staggering. Where did a mediocre man like him get that level of delusional confidence?
She realized that moving forward, she could no longer afford to linger around the factory floor a single minute past her shift. To prevent herself from being cornered or entangled by Director Wang, she needed to vanish the moment the whistle blew. If she flatly offended a powerful logistics director, it would inevitably fracture her career and stability down the line. Her family had spent significant money and coupons to secure this permanent state position, and she refused to let it go to waste over a workplace predator.
If she lacked the political weight to openly crush him, couldn’t she at least master the art of hiding?
Sheng Wanyan quickly formulated a survival plan in her head, pre-packing her desk materials twenty minutes before the clock struck so she could execute a flawless escape.
The literal second the end-of-shift whistle blew, she was the very first person out of the office, retrieving her bicycle and pedaling out of the courtyard.
When Director Wang casually strolled down to the bicycle racks a short while later, hoping to stage a romantic coincidence, he found the space entirely empty. Sheng Wanyan’s bicycle was already gone.
Assuming he had simply mistimed his arrival, he shrugged, mounted his own frame, and pedaled home.
The moment he stepped through his front door, his eyes landed on his sallow, exhausted wife and his three young daughters, who were lined up waiting for him to return.
His light mood instantly evaporated. He sat down at the dinner table, and when his eyes registered the plain steamed buns and cold, unseasoned vegetables laid out before him, his face darkened to a thunderous scowl.
“I bring home dozens of yuan a month in salary, and this garbage is what you serve me?!” he roared, slamming his chopsticks violently onto the wooden table. “Have you been secretly stealing from our treasury to subsidize your worthless maiden family again?!”
His wife and three young daughters immediately lowered their heads, trembling in silence.
“I swear, I haven’t sent a single cent to my parents…” his wife whispered, her voice shaking. “You only allocate me five yuan a month to cover the entire household’s expenses. There is literally no money left in the box.”
The three little girls were painfully thin, their skin pale and sallow, and their hair brittle and yellow from severe malnutrition. Their clothes were a patchwork of coarse, old fabric. His wife looked utterly unrecognizable compared to her youth, her face completely drained of color.
In sharp contrast, Director Wang’s face was flush and healthy, and he was dressed in a tailored uniform made of premium, high-grade cotton blend.
“Five yuan for a month’s expenses isn’t enough?! How can a woman be so incredibly wasteful?!” he snarled. “It’s best if you haven’t been skimming from my pockets. If I ever catch you trying to send provisions to your parents out in their rural exile, I will throw you and these useless girls straight into the street!”
Hearing his threat, a wave of terror washed over his wife. If they were cast out of his state-allocated apartment, how on earth would a mother and three young daughters survive in the city?
“Chaofan… please,” she pleaded, her voice cracking as tears welled in her eyes. “They are my birth parents… They were sent down to a brutal labor camp. I’m only begging you to let me mail them ten kilograms of coarse grain each month…”
Director Wang’s eyes narrowed into cold slits, completely unmoved by her tears!
