The next day, Zhao Yu arrived to work on time. Apart from her red eyes and more prominent dark circles, everything else looked normal.
When Fu Tao saw her, he felt a little guilty and wanted to approach her a few times but in the end, decided against it. After the meeting, he hurriedly left the office, rushing to meet a major customer in person.
There was also a meeting in the afternoon, but it was just going to be routine updates from each marketing team. Due to Fu Tao's absence, Zhao Yu, his assistant, naturally had to took over.
Halfway through the meeting, Marketing President Hu Guowei was speaking when the conference room door was suddenly pushed open, and a 17 or 18-year-old girl aggressively rushed in.
After realizing who it was, Zhao Yu who was closest to the door quickly got up to meet her, and whispered, "Meng Meng, why did you come? Mr. Fu is not in the office right now. We're in the middle ..."
"Pow!"
Before she finished speaking, the loud sound rang out from a palm slapping her face. Everyone was taken aback by the scene and for a moment there were absolutely no reactions.
Zhao Yu clenched her fists tight stiff on either side of her skirt, but still with a smile on her face, said with a calm tone, "Mengmeng, this is the conference room, why don't we go to your dad's office to talk?"
Having said that, she reached out to pull the girl out of the meeting room. Instead, Fu Yumeng ruthlessly shoved her, pushing her far away.
Zhao Yu was wearing high heels and she couldn't maintain her balance after such an action. She staggered backwards and fell directly on the table behind her in embarrassment.
Fu Yumeng moved to hit her again, but was stopped by a marketing director, Chen Ke. "Mengmeng! This is a company, not a place where you can make a scene. Get out now."
Fu Yumeng stared fiercely at Zhao Yu who had stood back up."You shameless sl*t, how dare you seduce my dad? Do you want me to let someone sell you to a nightclub as a pr*stitute?"
Chen Ke looked at Zhao Yu's pale face, grabbed Fu Yumeng by the arm and forcefully dragged her out.
When the door of the conference room closed again, Zhao Yu took in two deep breaths and calmly returned to her seat, pretending as if nothing had happened.
After Hu Guowei wrapped up his report, Zhao Yu also earnestly reported the work her team has accomplished.
At the end of the meeting, Fu Yumeng was no longer in the office building, but the news had already spread rapidly and the spectators of the dramas had a new topic to gossip about.
Zhao Yu just straightened up and walked through it. In front of people, she needed to act as if she wasn't bothered by anything.
But when no one was paying attention, she hid quietly in the refuge of the 30th floor, curled up on the ground and cried.
When she felt she had cried enough, she lifted her head from her knees and saw a tissue in front of her.
She raised her head and saw Xue Ziang's expressionless face.
For two seconds, she was surprised and in shock. Then she immediately got up off the ground. Turning her back to him, she wiped away the tears, and whispered in a low voice, "Mr. Xue."
The safe haven was covered in dust and her suit was already full of dust stains. Xue Ziang looked at her pitiful appearance, sighed and asked, "Do you only know how to cry? Will crying solve the problem?"
Zhao Yu lowered her head, bit her lip and didn't say a word.
Xue Ziang paused for a moment but suddenly pulled her right hand up with one of his and her long sleeve down with the other.
Zhao Yu panicked and struggled desperately, but Xue Ziang held it tight and said in a deep voice, "I thought I saw it."
He was referring to when she leaned on the conference table with her right hand squeezed hard.
Zhao Yu was stunned and stopped moving for an instant.
Xue Ziang took advantage of this and lifted her cuffs, his eyes falling on her white arms. He then narrowed his eyes as his anger welled up.
Between her right wrist and elbow, there were several scratches ranging from deep to shallow. Some were already scabs but some were newly caused – probably put there last night.
"Are you stupid? You resort to self-harm as soon as you encounter difficulties?"
Zhao Yu continued to bow her head in silence, but the tears could not stop falling.
Xue Ziang released her hand and handed her more tissue.
Zhao Yu took the tissue, wiped away her tears, and said meekly, "Thank you, Mr. Xue."
"What's the use of thanking me? If you can harm yourself, you can also think about what to do. You've been bullied to this point and you still don't know how to fight back? Your many years of life have really been wasted."
However, Zhao Yu did not take to heart a single word that Xue Ziang said.
When Fu Tao returned to the company in the afternoon, she offered to resign.
Knowing that his daughter came to the company and caused such an uproar, Fu Tao felt even guiltier. He kept apologizing to Zhao Yu but he didn't dare to say anything to keep her.
The rumors and mistreatment that Zhao Yu have been experiencing were all caused by his impure thoughts towards her to the point that even someone with her perseverance has been driven to quit. He really was in no position to say anything.
With Fu Tao's approval, Zhao Yu submitted a resignation application to the company's HR system. Halfway through the operation, a low voice suddenly came from behind her, "Just like that, you've been scared away. Isn't this just putting yourself down?"
Zhao Yu smiled bitterly, " It's just an ordinary job, I can do this anywhere. Resignation wouldn't hurt me in any way."
"Is that so? Considering your temper, do you think that changing companies will make everything alright? What if something like this happens again? Will you resign and run away again? You're fine with letting people make you the butt of their jokes?"
Zhao Yu bit her lip and said nothing.
Xue Ziang asked, "Do you know who reported you?"
Zhao Yu shook her head.
"Ye Zi and Gu Yunfei."
Zhao Yu looked up at him in astonishment. She wasn't surprised by these two people but more by because he was actually willing to tell her who it was.
After all, Ye Zi was his secretary and she heard they were especially close.
Xue Ziang leaned over and looked straight into her eyes, "If I were you, I would take how the others treated me and return it tenfold."
Zhao Yu's eyelashes trembled and she looked at him with red eyes.
Xue Ziang straightened up and smiled. "I'll give you a chance for revenge. Do you want it?"
Zhao Yu's resignation application was not submitted in the end, instead before the end of the work day, all the departments had heard that the HR department had arranged for her to be Xue Ziang's assistant.
The news shocked everyone.
It was common knowledge that Xue Ziang was extremely difficult to please. He had sole authority on who his assistants and secretaries would be. Many female staff thought of different ways to get close to him but were all firmly blocked by a wall. Who would have thought that Zhao Yu, someone who had just made such a big uproar and became a joke to everyone, had her luck turned in an instant and got poached by Xue Ziang directly?
When she returned to her apartment after getting off work, Zhao Yu received another call from Gu Yunfei.
"How did you play this chess game? I thought you let me deliberately instigate Fu Yumeng just to sell to Fu Tao how miserable you were. How did you suddenly become Xue Ziang's assistant?"
Zhao Yu smiled: "Don't you know he is a man? A famous playboy? I'm still very confident about my figure and appearance."
Gu Yunfei laughed over the phone, obviously not believing her.
Zhao Yu didn't say much either. They weren't even friends. At best, Gu Yunfei was just her hired hand. She didn't need to explain herself.
She then looked at a girl's information on her computer screen, smiled and raised a toast to it.
It was a skill to be able to imitate a person's temperament and character perfectly.
She wanted to approach Xue Ziang to use him to climb up. As for whether he was going to use her as a warm body or if she had really inspired his instinct to protect her… she didn't care.
1 In my experience, it would be the deputy manager or someone of the next highest rank getting the updates on the manager's behalf, not the assistant but I guess here, they are trying to give her more responsibility haha. Let me know if this is normal for y'all.