Substitute Bride to the Crippled Billionaire-Chapter 185 Rumor

Listening to their tumultuous discussion, Su Qingnuan sighed helplessly: "I just made a cup of coffee to help, I didn’t do anything else!"

However, such a weak explanation did nothing to satisfy them.

Su Qingnuan was cornered in the break room for half an hour. Seeing that she refused to give a single word, their expressions changed, and they dispersed one by one.

Watching the crowd scatter, Su Qingnuan breathed a sigh of relief.

Exiting the break room, she looked around to find quite a few people staring at her.

Among them were plenty of familiar faces. With a sense of dread, Su Qingnuan braced herself and walked back to her desk.

It was only after sitting down that Su Qingnuan finally felt the oppressive atmosphere fade away.

How could a few casual words exchanged with Xia Xing in the break room lead to everyone reacting like this? 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Puzzlement and confusion spread endlessly in Su Qingnuan’s mind.

However, she soon had no time to dwell on such thoughts, as work from above arrived.

The manager urgently called everyone to the meeting room to gather, prompting Su Qingnuan and Gu Xiaoxiao to grab their notebooks and rush over.

Sitting at the head of the table, the manager quickly counted heads and, after setting down the folder he held, spoke sternly: "As everyone knows, our cooperation with the Fu family has collapsed, and we now have a new partner."

The group nodded in agreement.

"This new partner differs significantly from the Fu family—they’re a multinational company. Their internal staff is not composed of a single nationality. Now, the other party has requested us to provide a better system to address the issues foreign employees face in using it. Do any of you have suggestions?"

After the manager’s words fell, the meeting room fell dead silent.

No one was willing to be the first to speak up at such a moment. Everyone chose silence.

The manager quietly observed them, while the silence in the room grew so heavy that no one even dared to breathe too loudly.

"Since no one has any suggestions, I’ll assign the tasks now." The manager pushed his glasses up and flashed a mischievous smile. "Two people per team. Complete the tasks I assign to you. Time to draw lots now."

With that, the manager pulled a white box out from under the table.

Judging by his practiced movement, he’d come well-prepared.

"Qingnuan, shall we team up?" Gu Xiaoxiao whispered near her ear.

Su Qingnuan nodded and, watching as people stepped forward to draw lots, suddenly reached over and pulled Gu Xiaoxiao close, whispering, "You go draw the lot."

"Huh?" Gu Xiaoxiao frowned. "I’m not really lucky at this."

"It’s fine."

She lightly pushed Gu Xiaoxiao, nudging her into the advancing crowd.

Gu Xiaoxiao followed the wave of people toward the box.

Su Qingnuan sat in her seat, watching Gu Xiaoxiao blend into the crowd, then followed her gaze as Gu Xiaoxiao made her way back.

"I pulled one!" Gu Xiaoxiao said excitedly, showing Su Qingnuan the slip of paper she’d drawn.

Taking the slip, Su Qingnuan glanced at it and slowly furrowed her brows.

"What’s wrong?" Gu Xiaoxiao asked, concerned. "Is it hard to do?"

Su Qingnuan closed the slip with a bitter smile and sighed. "You said you had bad luck. You weren’t exaggerating."

"...Got it."

After the meeting, Su Qingnuan and Gu Xiaoxiao huddled in the break room.

Gu Xiaoxiao sighed miserably: "Based on what you’re saying, our team probably has the hardest share of the entire project?"

"That’s right." Su Qingnuan smiled helplessly. "Originally, it was just about merging language formats, but you managed to pull ’language input’ as our task instead."

"...So what do we do now?" asked Gu Xiaoxiao.

Su Qingnuan shrugged and sighed. "What else can we do? Take it slow and tackle it step by step."

After briefly discussing their division of labor, Su Qingnuan picked up her cup and stood.

"Alright, let’s go look for some resources now and regroup to summarize before the end of the day."

"Okay."

The two of them headed toward the door, which they opened just as two people entered.

Su Qingnuan immediately stepped aside, making room for them to pass.

"Well, well, isn’t it Qingnuan?"

Su Qingnuan paused for a moment before lifting her gaze.

The two people facing her were looking at her with amused, ambiguous smirks.

She realized their faces were somewhat unfamiliar.

Su Qingnuan offered a polite smile: "Hello, are you new colleagues?"

"New?" One of them covered her mouth, laughing. "We’ve been working here for years, and you still don’t recognize us?"

"...Apologies." Su Qingnuan replied awkwardly, smiling. "I have a poor memory, so..."

"Don’t worry about it. We all know your memory is reserved for remembering the ’important people,’ right?"

What does that mean?

Su Qingnuan kept her expression neutral and her smile intact. "Anyone I’ve met, I’m sure to recognize."

"That’s true—it’s just that you’ve never met us until now," said the woman on the right wearing a red skirt, extending her hand with a smile. "I’m Hongjie from the Finance Department."

Su Qingnuan also extended her hand with a friendly smile: "Hello, Hongjie."

"Not so friendly." Hongjie’s lips curled into a smirk. "I heard someone’s been quite close with Manager Xia, so I came to see what this Miss Su looks like."

The sharp undertone in her words made Su Qingnuan instantly wary.

What’s her relationship with Manager Xia?

And Manager Xia... she hasn’t even interacted with him much, has she?

"You’re joking, Hongjie. I’ve only met Manager Xia once, and we don’t have any close connection."

"...Not close?" Hongjie frowned, her tone growing colder. "Manager Xia never drinks coffee made by others. If you’re not close, why would he drink yours?"

"..."

Never drinks others’ coffee?

Su Qingnuan frowned slightly, wondering if she’d misheard.

A moment ago, when she’d made coffee for Manager Xia, he hadn’t reacted at all.

"Hongjie..." Su Qingnuan responded with a cordial but cautious smile. "Could there be some misunderstanding here?"

"No misunderstanding." Hongjie stepped closer and locked eyes with Su Qingnuan, her gaze sharp. "Let me warn you—stay away from Xia Xing. I don’t care who you have backing you; if you dare touch Xia Xing, I won’t let you off easily."

"..."

Watching Hongjie’s bold retreat, Su Qingnuan lowered her head and rubbed her temples.

"Qingnuan..." Gu Xiaoxiao teased as she finished watching the scene, patting Su Qingnuan’s shoulder helplessly. "How come I never noticed before that your luck with romance was so good?"

Shooting her a glance, Su Qingnuan frowned slightly. "What nonsense is this? I’ve only exchanged two sentences with Manager Xia."

Gu Xiaoxiao sat down with a mischievous grin. "Let me tell you, this Hongjie is not your average person. She uses her connections to assert dominance in the Finance Department."

"Everyone in the company knows?" Su Qingnuan asked quietly.

"Yes." Gu Xiaoxiao nodded. "That’s why her background is so formidable! It’s an open secret in the company, yet not a single person dares to criticize her. Now, tell me—is her background powerful or not?"

Not more powerful than Fu Yihan’s connections, that’s for sure.

Su Qingnuan pursed her lips, stood up indifferently, and said, "Alright, I’ve got the memo. Now it’s time for us to get back to work."

Upon seeing this, Gu Xiaoxiao quickly followed her out: "Aren’t you worried at all?"

Su Qingnuan chuckled: "What’s there to worry about?"