Lin Chaoshang slid a single sheet of paper across the desk.
"Vice President Chen. Does this top secret quote look familiar to you? Trying to scam us with out-of-stock toxic inferior paint?"
"Brother Chen," I said, "your little scheme was so loud I could hear it from downstairs. It's a good thing you ran into me with my three years of warehouse experience and sharp eyes. Otherwise, you would have dragged the whole company down with you."
"You — you're just making false accusations. This is just some piece of trash from outside. What does it have to do with me? Mr. Lin, we've worked together for so many years. Would you really trust a lowly assistant over me?"
"The legal department checked your transaction records. The evidence is undeniable."
"Mr. Lin, please listen to me. I was just blinded by greed for a moment. I promise I'll never do it again."
"Shut up. Pack your things. The head of legal will be in touch with you."
That was so cool. So cool. Dealing with a traitor like that, so clean and ruthless. He even had the legal department ready ahead of time. Is this what they call the top-tier intimidating presence of a ruthless CEO?
"Su Jin, are you there?"
"Yes, boss. What do you need?"
Are we going to celebrate? Hot pot or barbecue?
"Go make some coffee."
"Add extra sugar, okay? Is that all?"
Apparently that was all. I made the coffee. On the way back from the pantry I walked into the tail end of a conversation that stopped one syllable too late.
"Does anyone here really have no idea how Su Jin got that position? Brand luck consultant? Isn't it just dumb luck? If I went to a temple and hit the jackpot thirteen times in a row, I could be a lucky star, too. Thirteen consecutive holy cups."
"I bet the Bodhisattva wouldn't even want to give you one," I said, "and you'd just blame the temple floor for being uneven."
"Could you be any more obvious with your passive-aggressive remarks? Some of us actually do the work around here."
"You mean the kind of work where you misplace a decimal point and almost cost us ten times the penalty in breach of contract, and then make others clean up your mess?"
Ke Xin opened her mouth to answer, and her monitor turned blue.
"Why is my computer screen blue? The quarterly report presentation for the three o'clock meeting — I didn't save it yet."
The IT guy came up, crouched under her desk for four minutes, and stood back up shaking his head.
"The motherboard is fried. The hard drive is completely dead. The data is definitely unrecoverable. You'll have to redo it."
"How can I redo it? The meeting is in half an hour." She spun around. "Is it you? It must be you. You're jinxing me, you bad luck charm. You just can't stand to see me doing well."
Are you even being reasonable? How would I do that? I don't even know how to fix computers. What, am I supposed to blue-screen your PC from ten meters away just by using my mind?
"It's over. It's all over. They're definitely going to fire me this time."
"Move aside," I said.
Cloud sync from her old phone. Breakpoint recovery on the draft file. The file came up on the spare laptop with everything on it except the last two slides, and the IT guy stared at the screen like it had insulted his mother.
"Cross-device cloud sync and breakpoint recovery? The odds of this are lower than winning the lottery. This doesn't follow any scientific logic at all."
"Su Jin, this coffee is for you. And, um, please look out for me from now on."
"Sister Su, let's go have that new Japanese place for lunch. My treat."
I guess helping others out doesn't actually make my own luck any worse. But seriously, is he ever going to say thank you? Never mind. Forget it.
"Su Jin. Stay behind."
"Boss, I already went over Mr. Li's contract yesterday, and I watered the money tree this morning. I controlled the water amount perfectly. Is there anything else you need?"
He put a small box on the desk between us.
"Open it and take a look."
"Wow, it's so beautiful. Boss, is this a high-end gift prepared for a major client?"
"It's for you. This agate has been blessed. Wear it on your left hand. The red color will bring you good fortune and keep you safe."
"For me? But I'm not wearing red today." The beads were cool and heavy and darker at the centers than at the edges. "Putting this on, the clasp feels a bit tight. I'll go find Miao to help me later."
He took my wrist and did the clasp himself.
Oh my God, his fingers were so hot. He usually wipes down even a pen with an alcohol swab, and now he's actually helping me put on a bracelet with his own hands? Does this count as a workplace injury?
"It's mainly for good luck and protection."
"Boss, did you give one of these to every colleague?"
"It's only red for you."
Shen Miao caught my wrist before I made it back to my chair.
"What's that on your wrist?"
"Oh, it's nothing. It's just something the boss gave me. He said it's been blessed. Told me to wear it on my left hand for protection."
"Protection? That's red agate. That's for attracting romance."
"What did you say? Attracting romance? A guy who prays to Guan Gong sent you something to attract romance?"
"He's not being superstitious. He likes you. He just doesn't realize it himself yet."
How do you pursue someone without being superstitious about it? Lin Chaoshang likes me? How is that even possible? The way he looks at me is clearly like looking at a god of wealth. But just now, when he was helping me with the bracelet, he was so close.
Attracting romance, huh? So if I wear this while being with you, does that make me a romance?
By the afternoon the bracelet had its own fan club.
"Did you guys see that red agate bracelet on Su Jin's wrist? The boss gave it to her personally. He even fastened it for her."
"What brand is it?"
"Fortune consultant sounds nice. Personally, I think the scope of this consultant role probably even includes his bed."
"No way. How could that be?"
"Otherwise, how could an errand girl like her get such a high salary?"
I was still deciding whether to throw a stapler when the phone at the account desk started ringing and did not stop.
"Isn't that Mr. Wang—"
"Mr. Wang, please listen to my explanation. The lawyer's letter — the breach of contract fee—"
Shen Miao got there first, with the quote sheet in her hand.
"Ke Xin. What is going on with the quote you gave Mr. Wang?"
"I — I quoted it based on what I calculated yesterday."
"You missed a decimal point by one digit. The contract amount is off by a full ten times. The other side is threatening to sue us for fraud now."
"Sister Miao, I must have typed an extra zero by mistake. Please, put in a good word for me with the boss."
"A good word? You created a hole worth millions. You're going to have to fill that yourself." She turned to the junior beside her. "Check all the records."
"Yes, ma'am."
They found it by six. "Mr. Lin, we found it. Over the past three months, Ke Xin has had five similar quoting errors. It's all because she never double-checked. Before, the amounts were small. The partners didn't dig deeper."
"Suspend her for a week. Write a formal apology, and deduct her salary for the losses."
"Su Jin even helped Ke Xin recover her presentation last time," somebody said in the corridor, "and look at her. She was spreading nasty rumors behind her back. Talk about karma."
At the end of the week, the boss put a note on my keyboard instead of speaking to me like a normal employer.
"Go burn incense at the city god temple this Saturday."
"The boss is resting, and I just want to sleep in at home."
"You're the fortune consultant. Go soak up some divine energy. It counts as overtime. Triple pay."
"All right. What time are we meeting tomorrow morning?"
"Eight o'clock sharp. I'll come pick you up."
"Ooh," Shen Miao said. "A date."
"What date? This is just overtime pay."
"Then why didn't he ask anyone else to go? Why did he have to pick you?"
He arrived at eight exactly, in a gray knit sweater and no tie, and I nearly walked into a lamppost.
Help. Boss. This is way too good-looking.
"Here. Take it to ward off the cold."
"Thanks, boss."
"Watch where you're going. Stay close and don't get lost. I'm leading the way."
Inside, past the incense braziers, an old master sat behind a table with a bamboo cylinder.
"Draw a lot to test your fortune. Which of you two patrons would like to go first?"
Lin Chaoshang shook the cylinder. One stick clattered out onto the table, and the master's eyebrows went up and stayed up.
"This gentleman patron. You've drawn the unluckiest of lots. The prophecy says you'll hit a major roadblock in your career soon, and you've got bad romantic entanglements, too. I'm afraid you might lose a fortune."
"But I pray to Guan Gong every single day."
"Patron, it's written in black and white. It can't be wrong. Why don't you take a good luck charm with you?"
He turned around and held the cylinder out to me.
"You go ahead and shake it for me to change my luck."
Can you even have someone else do that for you? Even superstition has its basic rules, right? What if I draw an unlucky lot, too? Would you fire me on the spot? My triple salary can't just fly away like that.
I shook it. The stick fell out. The master picked it up, and then he stood, which I gathered was not something he did often.
"Oh, my. An incredibly lucky lot. In twenty years, this is the first time I've seen this master-tier lot. My lady, with your destiny, you'll get the wealth you seek and the love you desire. And sir — even though you drew the worst lot, this lady beside you, she has a personality that brings immense fortune to her husband."
"No, no, master, you've got it all wrong. He's my boss. We aren't a couple."
"Take your good words," Lin Chaoshang said, and set the money down on the table. "Here is the offering."
Wait, why is he the one paying? Is he in such a hurry to clear things up? And what does "take your good words" mean? Boss, you're breaking character.
"Hey. Go get some food. Order whatever you want. It's on the company tab."