At noon, Jian Yan had eaten Candied Taro, Stuffed Tofu, and Sliced Pork in Hot Chili Oil, and she also had a bowl of white rice. She finished all the food in her lunch box cleanly. However, it had only been four hours since her lunch, and she could, as if nothing had happened, eat in one go... He Xiu specifically counted, five plates of grilled streaky pork.

  No, she was starting to grill the sixth plate.

  He Xiu watched her with great interest. "Were you not full at noon?"

  While grilling the meat, Jian Yan said, "It has nothing to do with whether I was full or not at noon. I'm just naturally able to eat a lot. My mom said I'm making up for all the food I didn't get to eat when I was a kid."

  He Xiu smiled. "I didn't realize you could eat so much usually."

  "I usually hold back. Since Manager He is treating us today, of course I have to show my sincerity by eating."

  He Xiu: "..."

  When the other female colleagues heard her say this, they also expressed that they would show their sincerity by eating.

  He Xiu didn't know whether to laugh or cry and called the waiter to add several more dishes.

  A group of female colleagues sat together for a meal, and naturally, the whole table was full of chatter. He Xiu couldn't join their conversation, so he sat aside and grilled the meat quietly.

  Jian Yan walked over, took the brush from his hand, and said to him, "Manager He, let me grill. You go and eat something."

  He Xiu looked at her and smiled. "I was quite full at noon."

  Jian Yan: "..."

  "You should be hungry by now even if you were full at noon." She picked up a scallop that was almost grilled and put it on He Xiu's plate. "Eat more."

  "Thank you." He Xiu raised the corners of his mouth and gave her a smile. Jian Yan immediately thought of the portrait of him that she had drawn on her computer. She awkwardly averted her gaze and focused intently on the various vegetables and meats on the grill.

  After finishing the barbecue, He Xiu originally planned to go back to work, but the employees were having so much fun that they all suggested going to sing. There was a KTV upstairs in Starlight Department Store, so there was no need to go elsewhere, which was very convenient.

  He Xiu rarely went to KTV, and when he did go occasionally, he hardly ever sang, except when he had a gathering with the people in his studio. "You guys go and sing. Just come to me for reimbursement when you're back."

  The team leader said, "Manager He treated us to a meal. Let us treat you to sing. I wonder if Manager He would be kind enough to accept our invitation?"

  Jian Yan was actually a bit expectant. He Xiu had such a nice voice, and he must sing very beautifully. She wondered if he would be even better than Nan Si?

  Everyone looked at him expectantly. He Xiu really couldn't refuse, so he agreed to go to the KTV with them and sit for a while, but he made it clear that he wouldn't sing. However, he soon found out that the employees of the Dream Wardrobe were all excellent singers. Even if he wanted to sing, they might not give him the chance.

  He looked at Jian Yan, who was sitting beside him, and asked her, "Aren't you going to sing?"

  Jian Yan shook her head. "I rarely listen to music, and I don't know many songs. I'd rather not go up and make a fool of myself."

  When the team leader heard her say this, she clapped her hands and said, "Jian Yan will sing the next song. Reserve it for her!"

  Jian Yan: "..."

  What grudge is this...

  He Xiu chuckled softly and said to her, "You'd better think quickly about what you're going to sing later."

  Jian Yan: "..."

  She really knew very few songs. She flipped through the song list for a long time, and somehow, the song that Nan Si had sung at the first music meeting popped into her mind.

  "Jian Yan, have you chosen a song yet? Qing Qing will finish singing soon!"

  Hearing her colleague's urging voice, Jian Yan quickly found the song "He Doesn't Love Me" and clicked on it. "Okay, okay."

  Qing Qing's song ended just at that moment, and the soothing prelude of the next song soon sounded. Jian Yan took the microphone handed to her by her colleague and started singing along with the music.

  "He doesn't love me. It's too cold when we hold hands, and we're not close enough when we hug..."

  When Jian Yan was singing, Nan Si's voice was always in her head, and she even unconsciously imitated Nan Si in some parts. He Xiu had been sitting on the sofa watching her, with a faint smile on his lips.

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  After singing a song, the colleagues were very supportive and clapped and cheered. Jian Yan held the microphone, coughed, and said to everyone, "For the next song, I solemnly invite Manager He to sing. Let's welcome him!"

  It seemed that everyone just realized at this moment that Manager He hadn't sung a song yet, and they all started to make a fuss. He Xiu remained calm and said, "I'd better not sing. I'm tone-deaf. It wouldn't be good if I scared you all away."

  "Manager He, you have such a nice voice. How could you be tone-deaf?" Jian Yan didn't plan to let him get away with it so easily. When the team leader asked her to sing just now, he had even added fuel to the fire beside her. Now she wanted to get back at him.

  The other colleagues also chimed in, "Jian Yan is right. With such a nice voice, Manager He, how could you be tone-deaf? Don't think you can fool us just because we don't have much education!"

  He Xiu pondered for a while and finally walked up and took the microphone from Jian Yan's hand. "Well, since you all want to hear me sing so much, I'll sing one song. I hope you won't regret it."

  After he finished speaking, he specifically looked at Jian Yan. However, Jian Yan wasn't intimidated by him. She didn't believe that someone with such a nice voice could sing that badly.

  But soon, He Xiu vividly taught her that there were exceptions to everything.

  He Xiu chose a classic old song that everyone was familiar with, but after he sang for a full minute, no one could recognize the tune at all.

  Everyone in the private room was stunned and motionless in the face of his bewildering singing.

  They swore that if the person standing on the stage singing wasn't Manager He, they would have rushed up to cut the song long ago. Jian Yan also had an expression of disillusionment. The way Manager He sang this song couldn't be fully described by just the word "难听" (terrible).

  It was simply mental pollution.

  After the hellish three minutes passed, the colleagues in the private room all heaved a sigh of relief. They had survived! They were so touched!

  The team leader took the lead in clapping and then said from the bottom of her heart, "Manager He, you're handsome, so you're right. You'd better not sing in the future."

  He Xiu smiled and handed the microphone to the next person.

  I don't know if it was because of He Xiu's great influence, but the next colleague couldn't find the tune of the song after searching for a long time.

  He Xiu took a sip of the lemonade in his cup and asked Jian Yan with a smile, "How did I sing that song just now?"

  Jian Yan slowly turned her head and looked at him. "Excuse me, do you call what you just did singing?"

  "Pfft." He Xiu was choked by the water in his mouth, turned his head aside, and coughed twice. "It was you who insisted that I sing."

  "Yeah, I'm already deeply reflecting on it."

  This time, He Xiu burst out laughing.

  He left the KTV at seven o'clock, and the other colleagues stayed inside to continue having fun. When Jian Yan got home, it was almost eleven o'clock. She flopped softly onto the big bed and thought that fortunately, she was on the evening shift tomorrow, so she could sleep a little longer in the morning.

  Thinking of this, Jian Yan was a bit surprised. Since when did she start having the idea of staying in bed? She seemed to have really changed a lot during this period. In less than a month since she started working at Starlight Department Store, she had met more people and gone out more than in the whole past year combined.

  She suddenly thought of the song that He Xiu had sung in the KTV today and couldn't help laughing. She fished out her phone from her bag, logged into QQ, and sent a message to Nan Si: "Mr. Nan Si, are you there? I have something I want to consult you about."

  After waiting for a while, Nan Si replied to her, "I don't dare to call it consulting. Teacher Tangzhi, feel free to ask me anything."

  Tangzhi: Hmm... Well, for example, is it possible that a person has a very nice speaking voice but sings extremely, extremely badly?

  He Xiu couldn't help laughing when he saw this sentence of hers. She even used the word "extremely" twice. Did he really sing that terribly?

  Nan Si: It's possible. Being tone-deaf is inborn, and no matter how good one's voice is, there's no cure for it.

  Tangzhi: Oh...

  Nan Si: What's wrong? Do you have a friend like that around you?

  Tangzhi: Hmm... His voice is really nice. Originally, we didn't believe him when he said he couldn't sing, but when he started singing...

  Nan Si: Hahahahahahaha

  Tangzhi: …

  Sigh, Jian Yan let out a melancholy sigh. How could she save Manager He?

  In the end, she decided to save her own ears first.

  Tangzhi: I'm going to listen to your songs now, in case I have a nightmare when I sleep at night :)

  He Xiu looked at the message she sent and couldn't stop laughing in front of the computer.

  Perhaps thanks to Nan Si's singing, Jian Yan wasn't invaded by the demonic sound that night. Instead, she had a nice sleep. She got up relatively late in the morning and didn't have time to draw. She directly went to the kitchen to prepare lunch and dinner.

  Since she had eaten something greasy yesterday, she specifically picked a few light dishes today and also cooked a pot of Minced Pork Congee with Preserved Egg. When she was having lunch in the cafeteria in the afternoon, she found that He Xiu had also brought relatively light dishes today.

  The two of them smiled at each other. He Xiu asked her, "What time did you guys leave last night?"

  "It was after ten o'clock. If it weren't for some people having to work the morning shift, it would probably have been even later."

  He Xiu smiled. "I'm surprised you still remembered that you have to go to work."

  "I can't help it. The salary for this month hasn't been paid yet."

  He Xiu lowered his head and smiled. He deliberately asked her, "Did you sleep well last night? You didn't have a nightmare, did you?"

  "Pfft, ahem, ahem." Jian Yan was choked by the congee in her mouth. She asked him a bit nervously, "W-Why do you ask?"

  "Oh, when I came to work today, several female colleagues said they had nightmares after listening to me sing yesterday, so I'm asking if you also couldn't escape it."

  "I-I'm okay..." Jian Yan buried her head in embarrassment, afraid to meet his gaze.

  "Ah, isn't that the chairman?"

  "Where, where? Gee, it really is our chairman."

  The voices of two colleagues chatting attracted Jian Yan's attention. She looked in their direction and saw that they were all staring at the TV.

  There were two TVs in the staff cafeteria. They usually liked to play some TV dramas and variety shows, but today, they rarely played financial news.

  The news was selecting the top ten most influential people of the year, and He Jinglong was among them. Jian Yan thought that maybe it was because the chairman was going to be on TV today, so the cafeteria specifically played financial news.

  She watched the short interview with He Jinglong on TV and said to He Xiu, "I also read an interview with the chairman in a magazine before. Your parents have such a good relationship."

  Unexpectedly, He Xiu's face suddenly changed. He put down the chopsticks in his hand. After a moment of silence, he said with a hint of anger, "Zhao Yingfang is not my mother at all."