Feeling Guilty

Inside an upscale porridge shop outside the school, Tan Feng, Zhou Liang, and the others, having just left the hospital, sat around a table struggling to drink their porridge.

"I just got word from Zheng Jiao. She went to Liu Shang to pay him back, but Liu Shang refused to take the money."

"Someone should go find Liu Shang later and return the money to him."

At Tan Feng's words, everyone frowned in confusion. "No way, right?"

"That was 7,000 yuan. Would he really treat everyone so generously?"

"Maybe he was just putting on a show in front of Zheng Jiao because she's a girl. He'll probably take the money back in the end, won't he?!"

At that moment, Zhou Liang let out a soft sigh and shook his head.

"After yesterday's painful lesson, haven't you learned anything at all?"

"This Liu Shang is definitely an old hand with deep schemes and a calculating mind."

"No matter what, he won't take that money."

"After this battle, we suffered an absolutely catastrophic defeat—worse than the Battle of Red Cliffs."

"Word that Liu Shang paid the bill last night will probably spread throughout the entire freshman class soon. By then, Liu Shang's reputation, image, and popularity will be pushed to an outrageous height."

"Jiang Ruolin will, without a doubt, become even more accepting of her boyfriend. She'll lower her guard further and open her heart to him."

"And us? Not only did we lose the lady and the army, but we'll also be branded as sinister, cunning, disloyal people who can only talk big."

"Sigh, there's one thing I still can't figure out."

"Liu Shang just bought a Giant bicycle worth at least 2,000 yuan, and he has at least 10,000 yuan in spending money in his bank card!!!"

"Was there something wrong with our intel? Is his family really that ordinary?"

Hearing Zhou Liang's question, the guilty Song Jia instantly changed from the little tiger who had just been lecturing everyone into a silent cat, quietly drinking her porridge.

But she had always been independent and strong-willed, so no one paid attention to her unusual behavior.

Saturday came again, and Jiang Ruolin still went home to stay.

Something so major had just happened at school. She still had to go home and keep watch, lest some rumor reach her parents' ears. That way, she could deal with it immediately.

Before they parted, Jiang Ruolin told Liu Shang to drink porridge properly and take care of his stomach, then promised that when she returned next week, she would spend some quality time with him.

In Liu Shang's understanding, there was definitely a deeper meaning behind Jiang Ruolin's words. He still remembered her previous words—"No, you smell like alcohol"—and they made him a little excited.

On Saturday morning, after breakfast, Liu Shang transferred buses as usual and arrived at the company.

It was currently the busiest period for oilfield construction, so as expected, everyone in the technical and production departments was working as normal.

But to Liu Shang's surprise, the atmosphere throughout the company and the large office was unusually dead and oppressive today.

Normally, even though they worked overtime on weekends, it was still the weekend. The mood was always lively, and everyone chatted and laughed.

So what was going on today?

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

At Xu Tiande's office, he could clearly sense a trace of exhaustion emanating from the old professor.

When he saw Liu Shang greeting him, he raised his head from a desk covered in documents and technical materials and forced a smile.

"Ah, Liu Shang, you're here. Perfect. I have some charts and curves I need you to help make. I'll send them to you on QQ later."

Then Liu Shang went to see Manager Zhong.

Thanks to the successful completion of the major surface separate injection technology project, as well as the smooth progress of the company's other engineering projects, Manager Zhong was still fairly relaxed and at ease.

"Hehe, kid Liu, you're here?"

"I thought the 30,000-yuan bonus was enough to cover your tuition and daily expenses, so you were planning not to come anymore?!"

Liu Shang waved his hand with a smile. "Manager Zhong, you're teasing me again."

"Honestly, attending classes at school is really boring. It's nowhere near as interesting as being at the company."

"Hehe, true. With your technical level and personality, if we make you sit through all those basic technical theories again, you definitely won't be able to listen to them."

Then Manager Zhong leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice with a mysterious air.

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

"If there's nothing to do, help your Professor Xu make charts, curves, and PPTs. If you get tired, play some games or read the news. That's all fine."

"You're such a sharp kid, so you must have noticed that the atmosphere in the company is off today. There's a problem with Professor Xu's profile control project. The client, the Oil Production Plant, has been putting a lot of pressure on us, and President Song has been in a terrible mood lately."

Hearing Manager Zhong say this, Liu Shang nodded, then returned to his workstation, turned on his computer, and began working as usual.

Even without Manager Zhong's kind reminder, Liu Shang would have acted the same way. He remained calm and composed; it was enough to simply do his own work well.

Not far from Liu Shang, Ma Yuan had also lost his usual liveliness. With a frown and a sigh, he sorted through a huge pile of construction data.

Sure enough, less than half an hour after Liu Shang sat down, someone came to notify them that there would be a meeting in the large conference room.

No one spoke along the way. Liu Shang, also carrying a notebook and pen, took a seat in an inconspicuous spot in the meeting room.

At the head of the conference table, the boss, Song Guangyuan, wore a dark expression and looked extremely serious.

After moving from the large office into the conference room, the oppressive atmosphere became even heavier.

Then, as usual, they reported the progress and construction status of one project after another.

Song Guangyuan, who seemed completely out of patience today, waved away the progress reports for several projects until they reached the profile control project report.

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

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

It was all routine production data from the daily production logs, data that everyone, including Song Guangyuan, already knew. Having him report it now was merely going through the motions and refreshing everyone's understanding of the situation.

Normally, once he finished reporting the construction status, Ma Yuan would have nothing more to do.

But unfortunately, after reporting the construction data, Ma Yuan took it upon himself to add an entirely unnecessary remark.

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

"In order to ensure that the company's interests would not suffer losses, I had the site stop construction and observe the results after water displacement..."

The moment those words left his mouth, Chen Xu and several others who were at odds with Ma Yuan revealed faint, barely noticeable smiles. Manager Zhong and the other executives immediately frowned. Even Xu Tiande, who was usually good-tempered, showed a trace of anger and deep concern.

Meanwhile, Liu Shang, seated in the corner, did not even raise his eyelids. He continued lowering his head and casually scribbling in his notebook.

At the same time, he sighed inwardly. Ma Yuan was beyond saving...

Sure enough, before Ma Yuan could finish this self-congratulatory speech, Song Guangyuan at the other end exploded. He slammed his teacup down on the table, splashing tea everywhere.

"Stop construction? Who told you to stop construction? Who did you report it to?!!!"

"The chemical costs exceeded the contract amount? Are all the people in this company just sitting around doing nothing? Doesn't the production department compile statistics every day? Do we need you to remind us?"

"Ma Yuan! Do you even understand what your own job responsibilities are?"

"At a time like this, you're still worrying about production costs?!!!"

"Just this morning, the geological director of the Third Oil Production Plant called me. If this well still doesn't produce results, we might as well forget about getting any future work!"

"Right now, I want nothing more than to throw more money into it and force results out of it, yet you fucking stopped work at the site without authorization!!!!"