"Mr. Huo, this is all I could find out about Secretary Ling's father." Fang Chao placed the document he had compiled on Huo Linsheng's desk.
Huo Linsheng took a quick glance. There was so little content that he could almost take it all in at a single look.
"Is this all?" Huo Linsheng asked in surprise.
Fang Chao looked a bit embarrassed. "Yes. It seems that Secretary Ling's father changed his name. Most of the information from over twenty years ago was still on paper, and there was a fire in the district where he lived back then. A lot of the information was burned. We don't know what his name was before the change, so there's really no way to start the investigation."
"What about starting from Secretary Ling's mother?" Huo Linsheng asked.
A person couldn't just exist without leaving any information behind.
Fang Chao still seemed a bit dazed as he replied. "I checked Secretary Ling's mother's friendships when she was young. No one knew how she suddenly got a boyfriend. There are several different accounts."
"Some said it was a free - love relationship, while others said it was a blind date. We still can't be sure. Moreover, Secretary Ling's father didn't seem to like taking photos at all. We couldn't find any pictures of him."
Huo Linsheng's eyebrows were knitted tightly.
Was it really just because the information from back then had been burned, or was there some other reason?
Seeing that his boss looked unhappy, Fang Chao quickly tried to make up for it. "It's been a long time. After all, the person passed away over twenty years ago. It's inevitable that it's a bit difficult to investigate. I'll keep following up and inform you as soon as I get any news, okay?"
Huo Linsheng nodded. For now, this was the only option.
He still felt that Secretary Ling's father looked familiar. But he didn't tell Fang Chao about this.
As they were talking, there was a knock on the door.
Fang Chao immediately fell silent, while Huo Linsheng pressed a button on the side. After getting permission, the person outside opened the door.
Ling Nuan didn't come in directly. Instead, she poked her head in from outside. "Are you guys done talking?"
Huo Linsheng didn't expect it to be Ling Nuan.
"What's up?" Huo Linsheng asked.
Ling Nuan waved her phone and said, "It's lunchtime. Aren't you guys... going to eat?"
The tables had turned.
Before, Ling Nuan had been so busy that she skipped meals. After her grandmother was discharged from the hospital, her eating habits had returned to normal. But now, it was Huo Linsheng who was too busy with work. It was difficult for him to have three regular meals a day, let alone just lunch.
Huo Linsheng checked the time and replied, "I still have two documents to process. I'll go after I'm done reading them."
When Ling Nuan heard this, she wasn't happy. She walked straight up to him, gathered the documents on Huo Linsheng's desk, and put them aside. "Eat first. You can deal with them after lunch."
Huo Linsheng sighed helplessly. "The documents are urgent."
"Are they so urgent that you can't even wait for a meal?" Ling Nuan retorted.
If it were someone else, Huo Linsheng might be able to deceive them. But Ling Nuan was one of his secretaries. She had some idea of how urgent the matter really was.
"What did you say when you were persuading me back then? Why are you acting like this now?" Ling Nuan seemed to be settling old scores. "Mr. Huo, are you being a double - standard person?"
Huo Linsheng raised his eyebrows and replied, "I can complain. But who can you complain to?"
Ling Nuan: "?"
Listen. Had anyone ever seen such a shameless person?
But Ling Nuan also had a way to deal with him.
"I'll complain to myself," Ling Nuan said.
Huo Linsheng looked at her questioningly.
Ling Nuan smiled at Huo Linsheng. "If you don't have lunch, I'll go find Huang Sheng and Qin Rao tonight. I won't go home."
Huo Linsheng: "..."
Fang Chao: "..."
Wait. Wasn't he a bit out of place to listen to the following conversation?
Huo Linsheng was indeed threatened. Although he could easily catch Ling Nuan when she tried to slip away after work, Ling Nuan was just concerned about him. He was happy to cooperate once.
He sighed and replied, "Let's go. Let's have lunch."
After saying that, as if he just remembered there was Fang Chao in the office, he invited, "Join us?"
Fang Chao showed an embarrassed but polite smile. "Mr. Huo, can I decline? I'm actually a rather bright light - bulb."
Huo Linsheng replied smoothly, "In that case, you'd better go shine on someone else."
After saying that, he stepped forward, put his arm around Ling Nuan, and walked out.
Fang Chao: "?"
Listen. Shine on someone else. That was the vision of their boss!
The appearance of the boss and the future boss's girlfriend in the company cafeteria immediately piqued everyone's interest.
Everyone was really curious! They were curious about how Ling Nuan had managed to win over their cold and aloof Mr. Huo, and they were also curious about how Mr. Huo and Ling Nuan got along.
Although everyone was too afraid of the boss's authority to get close, sometimes people just couldn't control their eyes. This was fully demonstrated by the fact that everyone couldn't help but look at Ling Nuan and Huo Linsheng.
They only cared about their own eyes and didn't think there was anything wrong. But for the two people being stared at...
Ling Nuan felt a bit uncomfortable.
And then there was Huo Linsheng.
"The shrimp today is quite good. Try some," Huo Linsheng said as he peeled a shrimp himself and put it in Ling Nuan's bowl.
At that moment, Ling Nuan seemed to hear a collective gasp around them.
Ling Nuan: "..."
"I have my own hands!" Ling Nuan warned in a low voice.
Huo Linsheng raised his eyebrows and replied, "Having your own hands doesn't stop me from peeling shrimp for you."
As soon as he finished speaking, another neatly peeled shrimp landed in Ling Nuan's bowl.
Huo Linsheng did take good care of Ling Nuan, but it wasn't to the point where he had to peel shrimp for her during a meal. Once was fine, but if he kept doing it... Ling Nuan quickly realized that Huo Linsheng was doing it on purpose!
"Are you trying to get revenge on me for reminding you to have lunch?" Ling Nuan asked in disbelief. She thought it was quite possible, after all, Huo Linsheng often didn't act like a normal person.
Huo Linsheng refuted, "How could that be? My girlfriend cares about me. As a return, of course I have to care about my girlfriend too."
The two of them kept their voices low. The people in the cafeteria didn't dare to get close, so they didn't hear their conversation. But seeing the two of them whispering intimately, everyone's gazes became even more intense.
Some people were so focused on watching that they didn't even look at the road in front of them.
"Bang."
Two colleagues who didn't know each other bumped into each other.
The noise was so loud that Ling Nuan even turned to look.
The two colleagues who had bumped into each other were about to blame each other, but when Ling Nuan's and Huo Linsheng's gazes fell on them one after another, they shivered and then smiled friendly at each other.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt? I'm really sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going."
"It's okay. It's not your fault. I wasn't looking either. Are you okay? I should be the one apologizing to you."
"No no no, it's my fault."
"I'm also at fault."
The two of them kept being modest with each other.
Ling Nuan stared at them in disbelief. Finally, she said blankly, "Are the colleagues in our company really this kind and friendly?"
Huo Linsheng chuckled and was about to put another freshly peeled shrimp into Ling Nuan's bowl.
This time, Ling Nuan refused no matter what. She tightly hugged her bowl, clearly showing her refusal.
Huo Linsheng had no choice but to eat the shrimp himself.
The two of them were having a great time interacting, while in the company's big and small groups, people were chatting like crazy in private.
The news just flew and flew until it landed in front of Huo Xiao.