Jiang Jingyu keenly sensed the shift in her emotions.
Thinking she was unwell again, he quickly asked, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Tong An'an was so tired, a weariness that left her unable to speak.
She closed her eyes and said softly, "No, I just don't want to talk. You can stay if you want, but please, don't talk anymore, okay?"
Given her condition, Jiang Jingyu dared not leave. He carried her to the bed and held her. Both had a lot on their minds, but neither spoke.
They spent the night resting poorly.
Recently, due to her health, though it didn't cause pain or itch and didn't affect her daily activities, Jiang Jingyu had grown accustomed to taking care of her.
This morning was no exception.
While she was asleep, he got up early and prepared breakfast.
Seeing him like this, Tong An'an felt even more uneasy.
Jiang Jingyu was too good. It was precisely because he was so good to her that she couldn't bring herself to ask the questions, couldn't bear to break this peace, and couldn't bear to break up with him.
She was in a dilemma.
On one hand, she didn't want to be a substitute. To live her life deceiving herself with this secret.
On the other hand, leaving him might mean never meeting anyone better. This was her first love. She was so reluctant, so incredibly reluctant.
So reluctant that even the thought of breaking up caused her heart to ache as if it were being torn apart.
Seeing her distracted even while eating breakfast, Jiang Jingyu asked cautiously.
"Are you still unhappy about that? Don't overthink it."
"I never really liked children anyway. There were so many kids in my family growing up, always noisy and chattering. I got tired of it long ago. Besides, my family doesn't need me to continue the lineage. As long as we're happy together, that's all that matters. You don't need to feel burdened."
He was so good. Tong An'an didn't want to keep a long face and upset herself or him, so she could only pretend to be a little happier and smiled at him.
"I understand. I'll come around."
After breakfast, they headed to work. Jiang Jingyu drove with one hand and held hers with the other.
Usually, she would be chatty and cheerful, but today she just stared out the window, lost in thought. He felt heartbroken.
Upon arriving at the company, he personally watched her enter the sales department floor. He only left after seeing her sit at her desk through the glass door of the sales department.
However, back in his office, he still felt a lingering worry, wondering how he could completely alleviate her guilt about not being able to have children.
From eight to nine o'clock, Jiang Jingyu checked his phone frequently.
Naturally, Tong An'an wasn't in the mood to proactively send him messages to tease him or share her thoughts, so her phone remained empty.
He could hold back, but she couldn't.
He messaged her to ask if she had drunk water today. Tong An'an replied a few minutes later: "Preparing for a meeting."
She was very serious about her work, so Jiang Jingyu didn't reply to disturb her.
He asked Zhang Yang to find out what time their meeting was and what it was about.
He soon found out: it was a department meeting at 9:30 AM regarding the progress of a certain project.
Jiang Jingyu knew about this project because Tong An'an sometimes brought work home, and he would help her with it.
He missed her terribly. Even if they didn't say anything or do anything, just being able to look at her would be enough.
Jiang Jingyu instructed Zhang Yang, "Give them a heads-up. I'll be attending the meeting later."
The CEO occasionally went to departments for inspections and attended their meetings, treating it as a surprise check.
This wasn't the first time, so the supervisor understood.
After Zhang Yang delivered the message, he hurried out to inform everyone.
"President Jiang will be attending our meeting later, so everyone be alert. Present yourselves well during the reports, don't embarrass our department."
Finally, the meeting began.
Jiang Jingyu sat at the head of the table, with the supervisor beside him.
He remained silent, only occasionally glancing at Tong An'an.
But Tong An'an only stared at the documents in front of her, not returning his gaze.
As the reports progressed, Jiang Jingyu's ears picked up a set of numbers.
He looked up at the screen. The figure seemed incorrect, so he raised his hand to interrupt the presenter.
"Who investigated this data? Why is it written like this?"
This project was being advanced by Tong An'an and another senior employee.
These two had looked down on Tong An'an since her first day in the department.
Then, she became the President's girlfriend, and they were secretly jealous and resentful of her.
However, Tong An'an was usually quite low-key and didn't interact much with others, so they couldn't find any fault with her.
Today, they had planned to alter one of the data points to make her lose face in front of the supervisor, but they hadn't expected the President to attend.
The two were excited and, after some discussion, decided to put on a show.
If no one noticed the data issue, they would expose it themselves and then blame Tong An'an, making her lose face in front of her boyfriend.
It would be even better if it was discovered directly.
Having made such a basic error, they wanted to see how the President would cover for her.
The President was indeed professional. The supervisor hadn't noticed yet, but he had spotted such a minor detail.
The female colleague pretended to stare at the screen in shock for two or three seconds. After confirming the issue, she looked at Tong An'an.
"An'an, you were responsible for this section. You know better than I do how the numbers were derived, so why don't you explain?"
Tong An'an looked at the document she was pointing to on the screen. It was the most original version, not the one that had been changed later.
She was about to stand up and say, "Could you be mistaken? Did you grab the wrong version? The final version I gave you wasn't like this."
However, Jiang Jingyu preemptively interjected.
"Could it be your mistake? This is the initial version; perhaps you grabbed the wrong material?"
The female colleague immediately denied it, "No, President Jiang, Tong An'an just sent it to me before the meeting."
"That's strange then. I saw Tong An'an working on this project, and I calculated the figures with her. The correct figures should be xxxx, it's impossible for it to be Tong An'an's error."
"Sit down, quickly find the correct version, and report again. Don't make such a basic mistake again in the future."
"On a small scale, this is just a department meeting, and you made a mistake due to carelessness with the version. On a larger scale, if you directly sent the wrong version when dealing with a client, such a large discrepancy – who would bear the cost, the company or you personally?"
Her words made the female colleague blush furiously, wishing she could disappear into the ground on the spot.
She never imagined that Jiang Jingyu had even calculated such trivial things with Tong An'an.
The supervisor quickly took over, saying he was a poor leader, and so on with a lot of polite remarks.
Then, he praised Tong An'an for her diligence and told Jiang Jingyu that everyone should learn from her.
Jiang Jingyu looked at Tong An'an for a while, feeling somewhat satisfied.
Not wanting to put any more pressure on everyone, he waved and left the office.