Guilty Conscience

Inside a high-end congee shop outside the school, Tan Feng, Zhou Liang, and others who had already been discharged from the hospital were gathered around a table, struggling to eat their congee.

"Just got word from Zheng Jiao, she went to find Liu Shang to return the money, but Liu Shang absolutely refused to take it."

"Let's see who goes to find Liu Shang later and pays him back."

Upon hearing Tan Feng's words, everyone frowned in disbelief. "No way?"

"That's 7,000 yuan, and he's just going to treat everyone like that?"

"He's probably just putting on a show for Zheng Jiao, and he'll take it back later, right?!"

At this moment, Zhou Liang sighed lightly and shook his head.

"After yesterday's painful lesson, don't you guys have any self-awareness?"

"This Liu Shang is definitely a deeply calculating, scheming old hand."

"There's no way he'll accept this money."

"And we, after this battle, can be considered utterly defeated, even more so than the Battle of Red Cliffs."

"The news that Liu Shang paid the bill last night will probably spread throughout the entire freshman class very quickly. At that time, Liu Shang's reputation, image, and popularity will be pushed to an exaggerated height."

"Jiang Ruolin, without the slightest surprise, will also become more accepting of her boyfriend, further lowering her guard and opening her heart."

"As for us, not only have we lost our wives and soldiers, but we'll also be labeled as insidious, cunning, disloyal, and all talk and no action."

"Sigh, until now, there's one thing I really can't understand."

"Liu Shang just bought a Giant bicycle worth over two thousand, and he has at least ten thousand yuan in pocket money in his bank card!!!"

"Is there a problem with our intelligence? Is his family really that ordinary?"

Hearing Zhou Liang's question, the guilty Song Jia immediately transformed from a little tiger that had been teaching everyone a lesson into a silent cat, quietly eating her congee.

However, she had always been unconventional and had a strong personality, so no one paid attention to her unusual behavior.

It was Saturday again, and Jiang Ruolin was still going home to stay.

With such a big incident happening at school, she had to go home to hold down the fort, just in case any rumors reached her parents' ears, so she could deal with them immediately.

Before they parted, Jiang Ruolin reminded Liu Shang to drink his congee to nourish his stomach and promised to spend more time with him next week.

According to Liu Shang's understanding, Jiang Ruolin's words had a deeper meaning and another layer of implication. He still remembered her previous words, "No, it smells of alcohol," which made him a little excited.

On Saturday morning, after breakfast, Liu Shang took the bus to the company as usual.

It was the busiest time for oilfield construction, and as expected, everyone in the technical and production departments was working normally.

However, to Liu Shang's surprise, the atmosphere in the entire company and the main office today seemed rather dead and oppressive.

In the past, even though they were working overtime as usual on Saturdays, the atmosphere had been quite lively, with everyone chatting and laughing.

But what was going on today?

Afterward, Liu Shang first went to greet Xu Tiande and Manager Zhong in their offices.

From Xu Tiande, he could clearly feel a hint of exhaustion emanating from the old professor.

When he saw Liu Shang greet him, Xu Tiande looked up from his desk, which was covered with various documents and technical materials, and forced a smile.

"Ah, Liu Shang is here. That's good, I have some charts and curves that need your help with. I'll send them to you on QQ later."

After that, Liu Shang went to Manager Zhong's office.

Thanks to the successful completion of the previous large project for surface sub-distribution technology, the company's engineering projects were also progressing smoothly, so Manager Zhong was quite relaxed and at ease.

"Heh heh, Liu, you brat, you're here?"

"I thought you had enough bonus from the 30,000 yuan to cover your tuition and daily expenses and weren't coming anymore?!"

Liu Shang waved his hand and smiled, "Manager Zhong, you're joking with me again."

"Honestly, attending classes at school is really boring; it's far less interesting than being at the company."

"Heh heh, I suppose so. With your technical skills and personality, if you were to listen to those basic technical theories again, you definitely wouldn't be able to pay attention."

Then, Manager Zhong leaned forward and lowered his voice mysteriously, instructing:

"Liu, brat, behave yourself at the company today."

"If you have nothing to do, help your Professor Xu with the charts, curves, and PPTs. If you get tired, you can play games or read the news, that's all fine."

"You're so sharp, you must have noticed that the atmosphere in the company is not right today. Professor Xu's profile control well project has encountered some problems, and the client oilfield is putting a lot of pressure on us. President Song has been in a bad mood lately."

Hearing Manager Zhong's words, Liu Shang nodded and returned to his workstation, opening his computer to start working.

Even without Manager Zhong's kind reminder, Liu Shang would have done the same, staying calm and focused on his own work.

Not far from Liu Shang, Ma Yuan was also not as active as usual, frowning and sighing as he organized a large pile of construction data.

As expected, less than half an hour after Liu Shang sat down, someone came to notify them to attend a meeting in the main conference room.

There was nothing to say along the way. Liu Shang, also holding a notebook and pen, sat in a less conspicuous position in the conference room.

At the head of the conference room, the boss, Song Guangyuan, had a dark expression and looked very serious.

After arriving at the conference room from the main office, the overall oppressive feeling intensified considerably.

Then, as usual, project progress and construction situations were reported one after another.

Song Guangyuan, who seemed to have no patience today, waved his hand and skipped over several project progress reports until they reached the profile control well report.

"Ma Yuan, tell us about your profile control well."

Hearing his boss call his name, Ma Yuan took a deep breath and began reporting the current construction situation.

It was all routine production data that was reported daily in the production logs. Everyone, including Song Guangyuan, was aware of it. Asking him to report now was just going through the motions and familiarizing themselves with the situation again.

Normally, after reporting the construction situation, Ma Yuan would be done.

However, as if by some unfortunate twist of fate, after reporting the construction data, Ma Yuan took it upon himself to add an unnecessary sentence.

"President Song, since I'm responsible for the real-time construction dynamics of this well, I discovered yesterday that our drug costs have already exceeded the contract amount for this well."

"To ensure our company's interests are not compromised, I instructed the site to halt construction and observe the effects after water injection..."

As soon as his words were out, a barely perceptible smile flickered in the eyes of Chen Xu and others who were not on good terms with Ma Yuan. Manager Zhong and other senior executives immediately frowned. Even the usually good-tempered Xu Tiande showed a trace of anger and deep concern.

Meanwhile, Liu Shang, sitting in the corner, didn't even lift his eyelids, continuing to doodle idly on his notebook.

At the same time, he couldn't help but lament inwardly: This Ma Yuan is hopeless...

As expected, before Ma Yuan could even finish his self-congratulatory remarks, Song Guangyuan on the other end erupted, slamming his teacup onto the table with force, splashing tea everywhere.

"Halt construction? Who told you to halt construction? And who did you report to about this?!!!"

"Drug costs exceeding the contract amount? Are all the people in the company just sitting around doing nothing? Doesn't the production department track this daily? Do we even need you to remind us?"

"Ma Yuan! Do you clearly understand your specific job responsibilities?!"

"What time is it now, and you're still concerned about production costs?!!!"

"Just this morning, the chief geologist from the Third Oil Production Plant called me. If this well doesn't show results, we might not get any more work in the future!"

"Right now, I wish I could pour more money into it to force results, and you went and stopped the on-site work without authorization!!!"