She's not crazy enough to buy trending topics like this; for a moment, she didn't know whether the topic was criticizing Chen Liuying or Liang Shi.
Lin Luoxi was speechless after reading it. "What's wrong with Bai Weiwei? She's like a mad dog, biting indiscriminately. Is it all for her girlfriend with that phoenix-like face who can't be helped no matter what?"
Xu Qingzhu was downcast. "I don't know."
"She broke up with me before because of Chen Liuying, and now she's broken up with you too?" Lin Luoxi asked.
"Huh?" This was the first time Xu Qingzhu had heard about this.
Lin Luoxi recounted the whole story.
Because Lin Luoxi's aunt's family has a popular clothing brand, they were looking for a new spokesperson. Chen Liuying and another female artist were competing for the endorsement. Their company has always preferred to use talented actresses, so they decisively chose the other female artist. The contract process was already underway, but it had not yet been announced to the public. Bai Weiwei came to Lin Luoxi for help because of Chen Liuying.
Lin Luoxi always adhered to the principle of handling business matters officially, so she politely declined her offer.
Unexpectedly, she gossiped behind his back, which Lin Luoxi overheard and they had a fight, eventually breaking up.
Finally, Lin Luoxi concluded, "Chen Liuying is just a parasite sucking blood from Bai Weiwei, and Bai Weiwei accepts it well, so let's respect and bless her, and lock her in."
Xu Qingzhu sighed, "I don't understand why. We used to be very close."
"Was the incident that was exposed about her last time related to you?" Lin Luoxi said, "The one about Huayue International."
Xu Qingzhu nodded.
"You're perfectly fine, but she almost got dumped, ruined her reputation, and even attempted suicide because of it," Lin Luoxi sneered. "She was just jealous of you."
"How could this be?" Xu Qingzhu asked in surprise, "I..."
“Okay, let’s not talk about those things from your college days,” Lin Luoxi said. “There’s a type of person who wants her friends to do well, but doesn’t want them to do better than her. So you could be friends when you were about the same age, but now that you’ve fallen behind, her malice is sharper than a knife.”
//
Xu Qingzhu didn't get a good night's rest because of this.
She kept thinking about Lin Luoxi's words and kept checking her Weibo account, where the trending topics were dropping rapidly.
Liang Shi, who was a little tipsy that night, saw the trending topic and simply said, "Her acting skills are indeed poor."
Xu Qingzhu was speechless.
The next morning, Xu Qingzhu ate a quick bite of breakfast and drove to the company before Liang Shi even got up.
She arrived early, made herself a cup of coffee, and then started working.
At 11 a.m., the head of the design department went out for a while. When he came back, he asked everyone to stop what they were doing and said that he was going to hold a meeting to introduce the new colleagues.
People were discussing it animatedly.
"What new colleague? Such a grand entrance."
"RT's New Designer of the Year, I wonder where our boss found him."
"We have to hold a special meeting just for her; everyone has a ton of work to do."
"..."
However, everyone obeyed the minister's orders and gathered obediently in the conference room.
Xu Qingzhu sat in the deputy's seat, still checking the plan with her notebook. After a while, the minister pushed the door open and came in. "Alright, everyone, thank you for waiting. Our new colleague got lost. Now let's welcome our new colleague."
Everyone craned their necks to look at the door, and even Xu Qingzhu stopped what she was doing and looked up to see who it was.
A woman in a black suit entered, a wicked smile playing on her lips. She strode into the center of the conference room in her black leather shoes, her voice light yet incredibly confident, "Hello everyone, I am—Zhou Yi'an."
Chapter 35
The meeting room seemed to have been put on pause.
Zhou Yi'an was dressed in a well-tailored black suit, with a white shirt peeking out from the cuffs and collar. Her shirt was adorned with gold cufflinks, and she wore an expensive designer watch on her wrist. Her voice was slightly husky, and when she lowered her voice, it became a smoky hue.
Her stylish outfit, coupled with her confident and radiant smile, stunned everyone in an instant.
It seems unbelievable that RT's New Designer of the Year would have such a face.
She spoke very little, but smiled at everyone and said, "Please guide me in the future."
A few seconds later, Lumi, who never lets the atmosphere become dull, took the lead in clapping, clapping very hard, and the whole conference room could hear her "clap clap clap".
Sally followed, saying in her not-so-standard Chinese, "Beautiful lady!"
This prompted Cherry to glance at her.
The minister asked Zhou Yi'an to take a seat, and then the weekly meeting would begin.
The assistant in charge of arranging the seating didn't know that a new person was coming, so there was no seat for Zhou Yi'an. Zhou Yi'an, without any hesitation, moved a chair and sat down next to Xu Qingzhu.
Xu Qingzhu immediately closed the notebook and went into a state of high alert.
No matter how vivid her imagination was, she never expected that the new designer would be Zhou Yi'an.
Sally was very enthusiastic and beckoned Zhou Yi'an over, "Beautiful lady, sit here."
Lin Luoxi, who was originally sitting next to her, rolled her eyes, got up and walked to Zhou Yi'an's side, saying in an unfriendly tone, "Let's change seats."
"No thanks." Zhou Yi'an crossed her legs, casually picked up a pen from the table, twirled it between her fingers, and still wore that wicked smile. "I prefer sitting next to pretty older sisters."
Xu Qingzhu frowned slightly and glanced at her thoughtfully. "Miss Zhou."
Zhou Yi'an looked over with a smile, her voice rising at the end as if flirting, "Hmm?"
Xu Qingzhu stood up with her notebook in her arms and gave a polite smile. "If I remember correctly, you and my wife are in the same grade, so I'm younger than you. I'm sorry."
Zhou Yi'an: "..."
I don't know who had a low threshold for laughter, but they couldn't help but burst out laughing.
The meeting room suddenly became incredibly awkward.
Zhou Yi'an didn't notice anything amiss, her smile remained unchanged, and the corners of her mouth turned up even higher. "Then it was my fault. Miss Xu has a good memory."
"It's alright," Xu Qingzhu replied indifferently.
Anyone could see that the new designer and the young lady had a grudge, but no one knew the specifics of the grudge.
So everyone in the conference room pricked up their ears, afraid of missing a single moment.
But Xu Qingzhu didn't want to bring up personal matters at the company. She simply reminded everyone coldly, "Meeting."
"Gu Yining, distribute the information to everyone." Xu Qingzhu projected the laptop screen. "Let's discuss the autumn new product launch first."
I thought there would be a good show in the meeting room, but Xu Qingzhu started talking about work instead.
The meeting proceeded smoothly, as usual.
Zhou Yi'an didn't do anything too outrageous, except that her eyes were always fixed intently on Xu Qingzhu.
Xu Qingzhu ignored her gaze as if nothing had happened.
The meeting lasted for nearly an hour. Xu Qingzhu then adjourned the meeting and told everyone to return to their respective posts. The group left the meeting room one after another.
The department head, eager to connect Zhou Yi'an and Xu Qingzhu, led Zhou Yi'an to Xu Qingzhu. "Since everyone was here, I didn't introduce them. Now, let me formally introduce you. This is our deputy head of the design department, and also the daughter of our CEO, Ms. Xu Qingzhu. She graduated from the Finance Department of Qingyi University and pursued an MBA for two years. Although she just graduated, she is very capable, as you have already witnessed. And this is our new employee whom our CEO has spent a lot of effort recruiting, RT's Rising Star Designer of the Year, Ms. Zhou Yi'an."
Xu Qingzhu was tidying up the documents on the table when she heard this. She looked up and saw the minister chuckling like a "landlord's silly son," completely unaware of what was going on.
Helpless, she lightly extended her hand and said, "Hello, Xu Qingzhu."
"Hello." Zhou Yi'an smiled. "It's not like we're meeting for the first time, Miss Xu, why are you being so polite?"
"You two know each other?" the minister asked in surprise.
Xu Qingzhu: "..."
She seriously doubted how someone with his IQ could have gotten into the position of minister.
Before joining the design department, I was even in the marketing department.
It's fair to say that Minghui Jewelry is full of such "talents," making it difficult for them not to go bankrupt.
Zhou Yi'an: "Of course."
Xu Qingzhu: "A brief encounter."
Their voices rang out in the conference room. The minister paused slightly, then asked, "Do they know each other or not?"
Xu Qingzhu frowned and couldn't help but retort, "What's it to you?"
Her tone was fairly calm, but because she was preoccupied, it didn't sound very friendly.
“Minister,” Xu Qingzhu said, “can we only talk about business at the company? Whether we have a personal relationship or not is not important.”
The minister was taken aback; it was the first time he had ever seen Xu Qingzhu angry. He repeatedly said "okay."
Xu Qingzhu walked towards the door. Zhou Yi'an reached out of her pocket and patted the minister's shoulder, her tone teasing and sarcastic, "Minister, you're supposed to be a minister, how come you're... emmm"
She didn't say anything more, but her smile held a lingering meaning.
Zhou Yi'an hadn't intended to avoid Xu Qingzhu, so her voice was quite loud and was heard by Xu Qingzhu.
Xu Qingzhu stopped and turned to look at Zhou Yi'an. "Ms. Zhou, now that you've joined Minghui Jewelry, you're an employee of Minghui Jewelry. Starting to sow discord between leaders on your very first day, are you arrogant or do you want to be fired? Our design department is small and can't tolerate two-faced new employees. If you have other ideas, I can help you with your resignation."
"Oh? I could, but that depends on whether your father agrees." Zhou Yi'an shrugged indifferently. "No matter how powerful a princess is, she still has to consider the emperor's wishes."
After she finished speaking, she frowned slightly, but her smile only widened. Without any apology, she said, "Sorry, I was just using it as a metaphor, I didn't mean it that way."
"I had no idea Mr. Zhou would agree to let you come out to work." Xu Qingzhu clicked her tongue, her voice cold and indifferent, her expression disdainful. "I thought the princess could only stay at home."
I directly retorted with her own words.
“Ms. Zhou,” Xu Qingzhu said, “If you’re here to be a designer, then Minghui Jewelry welcomes you. But if you’re just here to play workplace politics, then I’m sorry, we don’t have the time or energy to play along. You’re a pampered heiress, with no worries about food or clothing, and you don’t know the hardships of ordinary people. But the employees here all rely on this job to support their families. They have elderly parents and young children to support, unlike you.”
She paused, pursed her lips slightly, and said in a low voice, "On the day Minghui Jewelry goes bankrupt, I will send all the information to Mr. Zhou. Not only that, all the media will broadcast it together, including the video of that day. You will go from being an idle young lady to the executioner who caused the company to go bankrupt."
Zhou Yi'an's smile vanished. "You!"
Xu Qingzhu said, "If Minghui Jewelry goes bankrupt, I have nothing left to lose. The video from that day proves that you had the motive to do this. Even if Minghui Jewelry was already on the verge of collapse, once you joined the company, its bankruptcy would definitely be related to you. Mr. Zhou, you must have had many rivals along the way. Tell me, even if I let you go, do you think others will?"
Only five people remained in the large conference room.
Hsu Ching-chu, the minister, Chou Yi-an, Cherry, and Sally.
Sally was completely bewildered and kept tugging at Cherry's clothes, asking Xu Qingzhu what she was saying and whether they were arguing.
Cherry is quick-witted. Although her family can't compare to the Liang family, they still have some connections to understand things in the industry, and—Zhou Yi'an.