Chapter 40 Guilty
In a high-end porridge shop outside the school, Tan Feng, Zhou Liang, and the others who had just been released from the hospital gathered around a table, listlessly eating porridge.
"I just got news from Zheng Jiao," Tan Feng said. "She went to Liu Shang to pay back the money, but he refuses to accept it."
"Let's see who can go to him in a bit and return the money."
Hearing what Tan Feng said, everyone frowned in confusion. "No way."
"That's 7,000 yuan. He's really going to be that generous?"
"I bet he was just putting on a show for Zheng Jiao and the other girls. He'll have to take it back eventually, right?!"
At this, Zhou Liang sighed lightly and shook his head.
"After yesterday's painful lesson, haven't you guys learned anything?"
"This Liu Shang is definitely a wily old fox, deeply calculating and scheming."
"No matter what, he won't accept this money."
"But after this battle, we've suffered a disastrous defeat, even worse than the Battle of Chibi."
"The news that Liu Shang paid the bill last night will probably spread throughout the entire freshman class. By then, his reputation, image, and popularity will be pushed to an exaggerated height."
"There's no doubt now about Jiang Ruolin. She'll embrace her boyfriend even more, letting down her guard and opening her heart to him."
"As for us, not only have we been utterly defeated and lost face, but we'll also be labeled as insidious, cunning, and petty schemers."
"Well, there's still one thing I can't figure out."
"This Liu Shang bought a new Giant bicycle worth at least 2,000 yuan, and now he has at least 7,000 yuan of pocket money in his bank card!"
"Is there something wrong with our intelligence? Is his family background really just ordinary?"
Hearing Zhou Liang's question, the guilty Song Jia immediately changed from the little tigress who had been lecturing them into a silent kitten, meekly eating her porridge.
But she had always been independent and had a strong personality, so no one paid any attention to her abnormality.
...
It was Saturday again, and Jiang Ruolin still went home for the weekend.
After such a big incident at school, she had to go home and hold down the fort, lest any rumors reach her parents' ears. This way, she could deal with them immediately.
Before parting, Jiang Ruolin told Liu Shang to drink porridge to soothe his stomach, and that she would make it up to him when she came back next week.
From Liu Shang's understanding, Jiang Ruolin's words definitely had a deeper, more suggestive meaning. He still remembered her previous "No, it smells like alcohol," which made him a little excited.
On Saturday morning, after breakfast, Liu Shang took the bus to the company.
This was the busiest time for oil field construction. Not surprisingly, everyone in the technical and production departments was working as usual.
However, beyond Liu Shang's expectation, the atmosphere in the whole company and the large office seemed strangely silent and depressing today.
In the past, although they also worked overtime on Saturdays, it was the weekend after all, and the atmosphere was usually quite active, with everyone talking and laughing.
But what had happened today?
First, Liu Shang went to the offices of Xu Tiande and Mr. Zhong to say hello.
In Xu Tiande's office, one could clearly feel a trace of exhaustion from the old professor.
Seeing Liu Shang greet him, he raised his head from a desk covered with various documents and technical materials and forced a smile.
"Ah, Liu Shang, you're here. Just in time. I have some charts and graphs here that I need your help with. I'll send them to you later."
Next, Liu Shang went to see Mr. Zhong.
Since the ground dispensing technology project had been successful, and the company's other engineering projects were also going smoothly, Mr. Zhong seemed quite relaxed and comfortable.
"Hehe, Kid Liu, you're here?"
"I thought that after you got a bonus big enough to pay for tuition and daily expenses, you weren't planning on coming back!"
Liu Shang waved his hands and smiled. "Mr. Zhong, you're making fun of me again."
"To be honest, class at school is really boring, far less interesting than being at the company."
"Hehe, yes. With your technical level and personality, if you were asked to sit through those basic theoretical lectures, you definitely wouldn't be able to stand it."
Immediately, Mr. Zhong leaned forward again, lowered his voice somewhat mysteriously, and said:
"Kid Liu, be a little more low-key in the company today."
"If you have nothing to do, you can help Professor Xu with his charts, graphs, and PPTs. If you're tired, you can play games or read the news. It's all fine."
"You're a sharp kid, so you must have noticed. The atmosphere in the company today isn't right. There are some problems with the profile control project on Professor Xu's side. The client's oil production plant is putting a lot of pressure on us. Mr. Song's mood has not been good lately."
Hearing Mr. Zhong's words, Liu Shang nodded, then returned to his workstation, turned on his computer, and began to work.
Even without Mr. Zhong's kind reminder, Liu Shang would have been like this anyway: calm and composed, content to just do the work at hand.
Not far from Liu Shang, Ma Yuan was no longer as active as before. He was frowning and sighing as he sorted through a large amount of construction data.
Sure enough, less than half an hour after Liu Shang sat down, someone came to inform them to go to the large conference room for a meeting.
The walk was silent, and Liu Shang, also holding a notebook and a pen, sat down in an inconspicuous spot in the conference room.
At the head of the conference table, the chairman, Song Guangyuan, had a gloomy face and a very serious expression.
Moving from the large office to this conference room, the overall feeling of depression had increased a lot.
Subsequently, as usual, the meeting began with project-by-project progress reports.
Song Guangyuan, who seemed completely impatient today, waved his hand and skipped the reports for several projects, until it was time to report on the profile control project.
"Ma Yuan, tell me about the situation of your profile control well."
Hearing the boss call his name, Ma Yuan took a deep breath and then reported the current construction situation.
It was all routine production data that was submitted in the daily logs. Everyone, including Song Guangyuan, was well aware of it. Having him report it now was just a formality to re-familiarize everyone with the situation.
Normally, after reporting the construction data, Ma Yuan's part would be over.
But, in an act of pure self-sabotage, after reporting the data, Ma Yuan overstepped and added a completely unnecessary comment.
"Mr. Song, since I am responsible for the real-time monitoring of this well's construction, I discovered yesterday that the cost of our chemicals has exceeded the contract amount for this well."
"In order to ensure that our company's interests are not harmed, I stopped the on-site construction to observe the effect after switching back to water injection..."
As soon as he said these words, Chen Xu and the few others who disliked Ma Yuan showed an imperceptible smile. The brows of Mr. Zhong and the other senior staff immediately furrowed, and even the ever-good-tempered Xu Tiande showed a hint of anger and deep concern.
And Liu Shang, sitting in the corner, didn't even raise his eyelids. He continued to scribble casually in his notebook with his head down.
At the same time, he thought to himself: *This Ma Yuan is hopeless...*
Sure enough, before Ma Yuan could finish recounting his "feat," Song Guangyuan exploded. He ruthlessly slammed his teacup on the table, splashing tea everywhere.
"Stop work? Who told you to stop work? Who did you report to?!!!"
"The chemical cost exceeds the contract amount? Is everyone else in this company just sitting around doing nothing? Does the production department not calculate this every day? Do we still need you to remind us?"
"Ma Yuan! Are you clear about your specific job responsibilities?"
"What time is it now, and you're still worrying about production costs?!!!"
"Just this morning, the head geologist from the Number Three Oil Production Plant called me. If this well still doesn't show results, we might not get any future work from them!"
"I'm wishing I could spend *more* money on it right now to get an effect, but you went ahead and stopped the work on site for me!!!!"
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