Eighty-seven, a pack of rookies.

That night, Gao Tang posted another moment on his social feed: a nine-panel spread of pictures from the animation exhibition, with a handsome close-up of himself in the center and Chen Ruowen’s back captured in the frame. The caption was half pitiful self-pity, saying, “I actually got roasted for my looks today,” and half a sly display of pride. Like a peacock fanning its tail, afraid no one would know he had gone out with the woman in the photo.

Chen Ruowen did not pay much attention to it. She even left a comment: “You were never as good-looking as Yuan Yuan in the first place.” But Bai Jinyan, who was friends with both of them, nearly exploded when he saw it. He immediately called Chen Ruowen and, with careful casualness, spent the entire call probing into her schedule for the day.

Meanwhile, after a week of learning and adjustment, the interns at Bright Vision officially took over their work in the new week.

Early that morning, Wu Mingkai hurried along with Zhang Liling to welcome the newly hired employees. When taking attendance, he grew so nervous that his gaze skipped over an entire department. Then, during the company culture promotional video, he fumbled and tripped over the power cord.

Fortunately, they were using a laptop, so aside from the loud thud of the plug striking the floor, nothing else went wrong.

But when he took over the task of entering employee information, trouble came again. Bright Vision had not introduced an online system, so all employee data had to be entered manually into spreadsheets. The basic information was fine enough, but the later calculations, such as years of service and birthday countdown reminders, left Wu Mingkai completely stunned. Only then did he realize that his twenty years of supposed “Excel mastery” had really been nothing but a joke.

Over the weekend, Li Zichun had worked two days overtime and finally organized the company’s salary data for the entire past year. On Monday, Pang Qi handed the compiled results to the newly appointed Yu Yi and told her to calculate the projected expenses according to the trial plan and send the results back within half an hour.

Yu Yi was instantly dumbfounded.

“Sister Qiqi, this... this many spreadsheets, do I have to add them up one by one? That would take at least a whole day. Half an hour...”

Pang Qi gave Yu Yi an expressionless look. “You don’t know how to use SUMIF?”

“...Huh?”

Pang Qi lowered her gaze back to the spreadsheet in front of her and ignored her.

Li Zichun had already calculated the salary expenses for each person under the different schemes over the weekend. Today, Yu Yi only needed to add up the names of the personnel at different levels once; at most it would take a dozen minutes. And she actually wanted an entire day for that?

Yu Yi glanced cautiously at Pang Qi and said, “And there are so many different levels. I still have to find the different people one by one in the roster. Th- this is so troublesome!”

Pang Qi looked even more disgusted now, and this time she did not even bother to look at Yu Yi.

“Sister Qiqi?”

“Could you keep your voice down?” Yang Xiaojun, who was burying herself in trial calculations for the KPI plan nearby, shot Yu Yi a vexed look.

“I’m sorry, Sister Xiaojun, it’s just that I don’t know how to calculate this, so...”

“Don’t you know VLOOKUP?” Yang Xiaojun complained irritably. “If you can’t even use these basic formulas, why are you in HR? Calculating data is already annoying enough without you making noise beside me.”

Yu Yi awkwardly fell silent, looking helplessly at the computer in front of her.

Li Zichun, seeing the scene from the front row, silently sighed and took the initiative to call Yu Yi over.

“I’ll teach you.”

Yu Yi nodded eagerly and immediately stood up from her seat, running over to Li Zichun’s computer.

“...Insert the formula you need here. In the first row, select the employee name you want to look up, and in the second row...” Li Zichun demonstrated on her own computer and gave Yu Yi a simple explanation of how to use it.

“...That way you can get the result you want. When you’re done with what’s on your plate, I’ll teach you some of the functions we use most often...”

Seeing this warm little scene of teaching and learning, Pang Qi curled her lip inwardly, while Yang Xiaojun let out a derisive snort at a volume just loud enough for the whole office to hear.

“Some people just love playing the good Samaritan. They’re barely competent themselves, and yet they still have the nerve to teach others. Has she ever calculated a complete set of data on her own?”

Yu Yi gripped her mouse tightly.

“I think instead of mocking others, it would be more important to solve the problem first.”

“Hah, it’s just a broken formula. You act like nobody else can use it. And you talk about solving problems. If you’re so good at solving them, why don’t you go be a manager? You’d be wasting your talent as a little assistant.”

“If you know how, you can teach too. If you’re just selfish, don’t accuse others of it,” Li Zichun retorted without politeness, then forced a smile toward Yu Yi beside her. “That’s all there is to it. Nothing else is difficult.”

“I’m selfish? Unlike some people, I didn’t get by with a high school diploma and somehow muddle my way into an assistant position, only to be replaceable by any intern who walks in.”

As the two sides argued fiercely back and forth, Yu Yi quietly stepped away from Li Zichun’s workstation and returned to her own seat. Just then, the office door opened once more, and Zhang Liling walked in from outside with Wu Mingkai.

“There were so many people starting today, and this batch was so easy to handle. Not a single one forgot their documents, and nobody asked me any weird questions either.”

Zhang Liling took the laptop Wu Mingkai handed her and tucked it into the cabinet. When no one responded, she finally noticed the awkward tension hanging over the office. Her eyes moved among the others before settling on Yang Xiaojun, who was still pouting.

“Oh, Xiaojun, do you know? There was a guy from the planning department among the new hires today, and he’s actually pretty handsome. Tall too, with a vibe a bit like that singer you like. Why don’t you and Jingjing go take a look at their department training this afternoon?”

Yang Xiaojun snorted, but unlike before, she did not lash out with sarcastic remarks.

“Forget it. There’s so much to do today. Who has time for that?”

“What a pity.” Zhang Liling smiled, then said with renewed enthusiasm, “You can also go to the new employee exchange event. That guy will definitely be there. Who knows, maybe there’ll be some beautiful sparks flying!”

This time Yang Xiaojun finally smiled a little, but still said nothing and bowed her head to continue her great accounting endeavor.

At last, the atmosphere in the office returned to something normal.

Zhang Liling rummaged through her desk for a while, then took a folder and pulled her stool over beside Chen Ruowen’s workstation.

“The two managers from the marketing department finally got back to me. Dear Miss Chen Ruowen, let’s go over the final list for the exchange event!”

She greeted her, brought the documents close to Chen Ruowen, then lowered her voice to the faintest whisper.

“What happened while I was away just now?” She tipped her chin toward Li Zichun and Yang Xiaojun in turn. “Did those two have a fight?”

Chen Ruowen lifted her gaze from her computer screen and gave Zhang Liling an indifferent look.

“I didn’t notice.”

“They’re always fighting.” Zhang Liling sighed. “All right, let’s go over the plan!”