Chapter 22: President Gu Has Her Attend an Internal Meeting

Ever since returning to the country, Gu Yunci had doted on her endlessly—if she wanted the stars in the sky, he would pluck them for her.

This level of severity was a first.

But she knew full well that she wasn't yet Mrs. Gu; disobedience would only displease Gu Yunci.

The consequence would be Meng Shutang moving from the master bedroom to a drafty attic.

Her eyes immediately brimmed with tears as she asked in a soft, puzzled voice, "Brother Yunci, I didn't mean anything else—I just felt it had wilted like this."

She carefully placed the flowerpot where Gu Yunci had indicated. "I'll look up information online in a bit, and we can take care of it together."

"No need."

The man lifted his eyes. "Give me the latest process chart."

Qin Zheng stepped forward. "President Gu, this one."

Gu Yunci took it. "You all may leave."

Bai Cixian didn't want to go, but after reading Gu Yunci's expression, she left obediently.

But before she was even out the door, she heard Gu Yunci call Qin Zheng again; with no choice and great reluctance, she slowly pulled the door shut.

Qin Zheng came to the desk. "President Gu."

A hand with well-defined knuckles gently stroked a pink-white petal about to fall. "Go to the flower and plant market and hire an old master gardener to come."

Qin Zheng said, "I can bring it over and let the old master take a look at the situation right now."

The man rose, walked to the sofa, picked up his tie, and put it on. "No need. I'll learn personally and tend to it personally."

After saying that, he walked out. "Oh right, notify Meng Shutang—have her come over for a meeting."

Qin Zheng froze on the spot. This meeting was an internal one—was it appropriate to let Meng Shutang attend?

Whatever the boss says goes.

A miserable wage-earner could only follow orders.

Meng Shutang was also very surprised when she heard she was to attend the Gu Clan cultural tourism internal meeting. "Special Assistant Qin, did you hear wrong?"

Qin Zheng was driving to the flower and plant market. "No, Young Madam. You'd better hurry—the meeting starts in four minutes. If you're late, President Gu will lose his temper again."

Meng Shutang hung up the phone without another word.

She changed out of her work uniform, grabbed her notebook, and immediately headed to the seventh floor of the Gu Clan.

Gu Clan cultural tourism internal meeting.

The attendee list inexplicably had two extra names on it.

One was Gu Yunci; the other was Meng Shutang.

Gu Yunci rarely concerned himself with such trivial matters—he seldom even attended mid-level meetings.

Why would he attend a team meeting?

But ever since Bai Cixian parachuted into the cultural tourism department, everyone found it odd, though not exactly shocking.

But Meng Shutang... she wasn't even a Gu Clan person—what right did she have to sit here?

On the attendee list, even though her name occupied only a tiny box, it was a "conspicuous" presence.

The most shocked was Bai Cixian. She had been smilingly whispering to Qiao Mo about seeing Meng Shutang working as a hourly worker in the cafeteria earlier, when she suddenly caught sight of Meng Shutang appearing in her field of vision with a faint sheen of sweat, and immediately froze.

She rose abruptly. "Meng Shutang, why are you here?"

Meng Shutang found a corner seat, opened her laptop while panting, and, as if she hadn't heard, methodically prepared for the meeting.

On the phone, she had asked Qin Zheng why Gu Yunci had inexplicably told her to attend an internal meeting.

Qin Zheng was equally baffled—he had been just short of telling her to pray for her own good fortune.

She didn't want to lose the Wenlüxiaozhen project, nor did she want to lose the part-time job as an exhibition guide at the Cangpinge, so she couldn't afford to offend Gu Yunci.

After all, the Gu Clan part-time work was an important source of income for her at this stage.

Seeing Meng Shutang not making a sound, Bai Cixian pushed back her chair to go over. "Did you come to the wrong place? This is an internal meeting of the cultural tourism department."

"I had her come over."

The man walked in and slammed a stack of documents onto the desk with a smack. "What you've written is terrible—can't I bring in a teacher to teach you all?"

The office, which had been buzzing just a moment ago, fell dead silent.

Bai Cixian sensibly sat back down quietly, head lowered, not daring to utter a word.

She felt that what came next would surely be Meng Shutang's moment of glory—after all, she was the one Gu Yunci had invited.

Who knew—in the next second, the man lifted his eyes toward Meng Shutang sitting in the corner, his tone laced with ice: "Meng Shutang, present the display plan for the Wenlüxiaozhen Cangpinge."

As soon as these words came out, everyone present was stunned.

The Wenlüxiaozhen Cangpinge involved cultural relic grading and circulation route planning.

Either way, both were core classified contents—how could Meng Shutang, an outsider, know the actual situation?

This was just... making things difficult for her!

Moreover, this content had only been finalized and archived yesterday; Meng Shutang had never been exposed to it at all.

Meng Shutang clenched her hand and was about to speak.

Bai Cixian, as the primary person in charge of the cultural tourism department, said, "President Gu, the Cangpinge plan is a core classified matter. Teacher Meng probably hasn't seen it, has she?

She doesn't know these contents—if she says something wrong, it could delay the project's progress."

As her words fell, Gu Yunci turned his eyes toward her. "I asked her. When is it your turn to interrupt?"

Bai Cixian froze for a moment.

She instinctively wondered—did Gu Yunci know something?

Abnormal treatment fees at Jiangcheng Yiyuan? The sudden collapse of the Wenlüxiaozhen display rack? Or last night, when she pushed Meng Shutang down and then falsely accused her?

Whichever it was, it was extremely unfavorable for her.

Qiao Mo, seeing the situation, tried to smooth things over. "President Gu, what Manager Bai said is also true."

Gu Yunci's gaze was like a blade sealing throats, "You department love to butt in—did you learn that from the supervisor?"

One sentence, and no one in the meeting dared to utter a sound.

Gu Yunci picked up his phone, looked at Meng Shutang, "Now I'll give you a streamlined plan—two minutes, one mistake and you'll be my exclusive assistant for the next month, organizing the Cangpinge provenance report, on call 24/7."

The reason Meng Shutang now has time to take on a part‑job.

That's because the Gu Clan's exhibition guiding hasn't been scheduled yet, and the planning and design work for Wenlüxiaozhen is also wrapped up.

With a ding, the file transferred to Meng Shutang.

She didn't have time to think further, grabbed her phone and started browsing.

Over a hundred pages, two minutes, dense text—no ordinary person could finish reading it.

In the meeting room, everyone was sweating for Meng Shutang.

And Gu Yunci, leaving the silent room behind, walked alone to the floor‑to‑ceiling window, his tall figure standing among the skyscrapers, his cold, hard aura lingering.

Under the table, Qiao Mo poked Bai Cixian, "Sis, you're in danger—the tyrant CEO said she must be on call 24/7."

"The Cangpinge in Wenlüxiaozhen is basically a posting to the boonies," Bai Cixian laughed.

Qiao Mo reacted, glanced at Meng Shutang, her eyes full of sympathetic smiles.

Bai Cixian leaned in, "Those things…"

Qiao Mo, "I handle things—you can relax, not a single thing will fall through."

Bai Cixian's worried heart slowly settled.

In a blink, she saw the man lower his eyes to look at his watch.

Time crawled—only one minute twenty seconds had passed.

Two minutes to finish a plan—how did Meng Shutang offend Gu Yunci to be publicly slammed like this?

"President Gu, I've finished reading."

Meng Shutang rose, her face still flushed from concentrating on the document.

Whether it was satisfaction with her ability or a faint sneer at her arrogance, the man smiled faintly, turned, and sat back down.

"Alright, you speak."

Everyone pricked up their ears, waiting to see Meng Shutang's joke.

Confidential documents, two minutes—they didn't believe an outsider to the Gu Clan could do better than them.

Meng Shutang lowered her eyes to glance at the plan points on her phone, then looked at the eager crowd waiting for a joke.

Her heart surged, yet she kept her back straight and began to analyze the core flow and the logic of the artifact zones.

As soon as she spoke, everyone was stunned.