Before leaving work, Zhang Yang finally received the restaurant address from Anna.
He was determined to go, so he discussed with Jiang Jingyu in advance whether he could leave early when the time came.
Jiang Jingyu had no intention of working overtime anyway. Upon hearing his question, he subconsciously asked, "What's wrong? Something up?"
Zhang Yang told the truth: "The sales department is having a welcome party tonight, and Tong An'an will be there."
Jiang Jingyu understood; he was going to pursue Tong An'an.
It was a good thing in itself, but perhaps because Tong An'an looked so much like Lu Jiaying, it gave Jiang Jingyu a strange sense of belonging. He felt slightly uncomfortable with Zhang Yang's honesty and his infatuation with Tong An'an at first sight.
Of course, it was also possible that other things were causing it; he himself wasn't sure.
Not wanting to listen to Zhang Yang talk about these trivial matters, he waved his hand and told him to leave.
"Go ahead."
After work, colleagues from the sales department gathered in the International Marketing department, arm in arm, discussing what activities to arrange for the evening.
As they were talking, Zhang Yang walked in with a smile.
Seeing him, everyone screamed.
"Oh my, Special Assistant Zhang! At this hour, what wind blows you here?"
Zhang Yang said with a smile, "I heard that you beauties have a dinner party tonight, so I thought I'd borrow some of your light and come for a free meal. That's why I rushed over as soon as work was over."
"It's rare for Special Assistant Zhang to have the inclination to dine with us. Welcome, welcome!"
Everyone was delighted and surrounded him, joking around.
Tong An'an watched Zhang Yang, who was surrounded by many women and being showered with attention, and inexplicably felt a sense of familiarity.
Had her aesthetic sense gone wrong recently? Or were all handsome men similar-looking?
With his handsome features, tall stature, and penchant for wearing suits, was she suffering from face blindness?
Why did they all seem familiar?
After greeting everyone, Zhang Yang looked at Tong An'an and found that she didn't recognize him. Her expression was confused, and she didn't mention their previous encounter in front of everyone.
He decided to treat it as if they had just met.
Everyone happily went to the restaurant, where many small games were arranged. They ate, laughed, and had a very good time.
As it was past ten o'clock, they dispersed. Zhang Yang suggested moving to a KTV, offering to treat everyone to singing. The crowd cheered and they all left the restaurant.
Tong An'an knew that this gathering was originally for them newcomers, and everyone was delaying their departure for them. She was the least qualified to refuse.
However, her roommate Ma Weiwei kept calling her on voice messages for some reason.
Tong An'an only saw the numerous voice messages after she came out of the restaurant and quickly called back.
Ma Weiwei was crying uncontrollably on the phone, saying that her first startup project had been defrauded, causing a huge loss of money. The perpetrator had fled. She had reported it to the police that afternoon and spent half the day giving statements. She had just returned and was feeling very upset, wanting to chat with her.
Ma Weiwei was her only best friend, and Tong An'an naturally couldn't abandon her at a time like this, finding herself in a dilemma.
Everyone stood by the roadside waiting for cars. Tong An'an was on the side making a long phone call alone. When she returned, her expression was not good.
Zhang Yang had been paying attention to her the whole time and naturally noticed her unhappiness first. He walked over to her.
"What's wrong? Is something the matter?"
After the meal, she found Zhang Yang to have a good personality, be good-looking, and possess good work capabilities in everyone's eyes. Therefore, she also felt quite favorably towards Zhang Yang.
When he asked proactively, she told him the truth.
"What should I do? If I leave, I feel quite sorry to everyone. If I don't go, my friend is alone..."
Zhang Yang had some understanding of the women in the sales department, especially in International Marketing.
Taking advantage of their higher education, youth, and the fact that most of them were local to Nancheng, they were generally overbearing.
If someone was willing to lower themselves to befriend a newcomer like her, and she wasn't appreciative, she would inevitably be criticized later.
The workplace was a discipline, and he didn't want Tong An'an to be made difficult from the start. Therefore, after some thought, he slowly rotated his right arm and extended his hand to Tong An'an.
"My arm is uncomfortable, can you help me pull it?"
Tong An'an was speechless and even thought she misheard.
Zhang Yang rotated his arm again and handed his hand to her.
"You didn't mishear, it's really uncomfortable, help me pull it. Pull hard, with all your might."
Although she felt embarrassed to hold his hand after only knowing each other for a few hours, Zhang Yang's candid attitude didn't allow her to overthink it.
Tong An'an could only grab his hand and step back.
Zhang Yang said, "Further back, pull harder."
She took another step back.
Zhang Yang told her to continue, so she took half a step back, leaning her body backward, and pulled hard.
Zhang Yang's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and he clutched his right shoulder with his left hand.
"Okay, okay, you can let go now."
Since everyone had been drinking and couldn't drive, they needed to flag down three taxis to get to their destination.
Two had already been flagged down, and everyone was discussing the price and departure time with the taxi drivers, paying no attention to them.
When Anna looked over, Zhang Yang was already sweating profusely.
"Can you tell the driver to take a detour and go to the hospital first? My arm is dislocated."
"What?"
"You guys don't know, but I've had this problem since I was a child, habitual dislocation. A doctor can just pop it back in, it won't cause any trouble. After it's fixed, we'll continue drinking."
No matter how much they wanted to continue having fun with him, they couldn't afford to be careless when something like this happened.
Anna immediately offered to accompany him to the hospital, and everyone else also said they should disperse and gather another day.
Tong An'an successfully returned home.
On the way, sitting in the taxi, to be honest, her good feelings towards Zhang Yang surged to her chest.
So young, handsome, capable, and willing to help a junior like him – what girl wouldn't be moved by that?
Since she didn't have Zhang Yang's phone number or WeChat, she couldn't check on him. The next day, Tong An'an went to the company early.
As colleagues arrived one after another, Anna came in right on time. She learned that Zhang Yang had been right; he did have a habitual dislocation. Yesterday, a doctor at the hospital had simply pulled his shoulder twice, and it was fine.
Anna joked, "I didn't know Special Assistant Zhang had such a peculiar condition. It's a good thing Little Tong's accidental action happened. It's not good for a man to have arm trouble."
Everyone present were experienced individuals, and upon hearing Anna say that, they all laughed heartily.
Someone chimed in, "Special Assistant Zhang is so handsome, and he's a favored person by General Manager Jiang. I used to think it would be great to be his girlfriend. After hearing you say that, I suddenly feel he's not that appealing anymore. Forget it, whoever wants him can have him. I'm still young and don't want to become a widow so early."
After a period of joking, everyone dispersed to their work.
Even if Tong An'an was inexperienced, she could tell that she had harmed Zhang Yang, and her guilt intensified.
Although his arm was fixed instantly, it still needed rest.
Zhang Yang took a day off, claiming he was drunk from the previous day.