Chapter 44: Name

Tang Qingli immediately closed his little mouth.

"I know what you're thinking, don't hide it."

Pei Jiayin picked up his teacup and took a slow sip. "The other party is rather shy..." He paused. "That's right, people without a partner tend to be a bit slow-witted."

Then, under Tang Qingli's polite gaze, he drove another knife straight into his heart: "Wang Lei is much more perceptive."

Tang Qingli maintained an official smile while cursing Wang Lei to high heaven in his heart.

Once he found out the identity of the boss's wife, he would make sure to tell Wang Lei dead last.

Want to hitch a ride to success? In your next life.

"Just have the stylist go to my new address directly, nothing else needs to be said."

Tang Qingli's brain raced, and his heart hammered nervously... He hadn't expected that when the boss finally made a move, it would be utterly earth-shattering!

How could Pei Jiayin not know what was going on in Tang Qingli's mind? He continued with his arrangements:

"According to this identity information, book the flight tickets and hotel to Haishi for Friday night."

Tang Qingli's eyes lit up. He hadn't expected his golden age of rising to prominence to arrive so soon. His ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card—let him take a good look at who it was.

Pei Jiayin glanced at Tang Qingli and finished what he had to say: "Don't say what shouldn't be said, and don't post what shouldn't be posted."

This was a direct order to keep his mouth shut.

Tang Qingli instantly wilted. Fine, there went all his fun.

"Understood, Boss."

He looked through the information Pei Jiayin had sent over.

Yu Yuchu.

He felt like he had seen this name somewhere before.

After booking all the flights and the hotel, Tang Qingli still couldn't resist the itch. He posted a Moments update on WeChat, blocking Pei Jiayin and Wang Lei.

[The iron tree blooms.]

He blocked Wang Lei because that guy was as stubborn as a mule. If Wang Lei saw this post, he would never have a moment of peace again.

He was well-liked, and before long, several colleagues who were goofing off at work dropped comments asking if he was in a relationship.

Tang Qingli ignored all of them, keeping everyone in painful suspense.

Looking at the string of agonizing comments below, he smiled with satisfaction, then put away his phone to get back to work.

Meanwhile, over in the design department, Yu Yuchu—completely unaware that she had been thrust into the eye of the storm—was finishing up her daily tasks.

The intern performance review was scheduled for this Wednesday. At the thought of her upcoming official employment, Yu Yuchu couldn't help but feel her heart race with excitement.

However, the most important thing right now was to clear Wan Ninghe completely from her field of vision.

After the project concluded, Wan Ninghe, along with Yu Yuchu and Mu Chuan, had become one of the major contributors. Naturally, she stopped trying to lower her profile and began mingling actively in various groups around the company.

Although people still had their reservations about what Wan Ninghe had done previously, young people were bound to be hot-headed, and Wan Ninghe maintained a pleasant, smiling attitude toward everyone. Within a single afternoon, she had successfully managed to reshape the design department's perception of her.

Yu Yuchu was actually quite pleased to see this phenomenon.

The better the impression they had of her now, the harder she would fall when the good show began tonight.

"Yuchu, don't forget about tonight's celebration banquet. You're practically one of the main pillars."

A colleague nearby reminded Yu Yuchu, "Make sure you don't let others steal your thunder."

It seemed that not everyone was willing to buy into Wan Ninghe's act.

Yu Yuchu returned her with a smile.

Tonight, Wan Ninghe wouldn't just try to steal her thunder; she would become the focal point of everyone's attention.

She looked up at Wan Ninghe, who was playing the social butterfly, admiring her current smile. As if sensing something, Wan Ninghe shot Yu Yuchu a defiant look without showing any weakness.

Yu Yuchu gave her a polite, professional smile in return.

After a while, Wan Ninghe wrapped up her socializing. Beaming with radiant smugness, she pretended to casually walk past Yu Yuchu's desk, and then let out an exaggerated gasp of feigned surprise: "I'm so sorry, Yuchu, I stepped on your foot."

The surrounding colleagues immediately pricked up their ears, and a few even stared unblinkingly in the direction of Yu Yuchu and Wan Ninghe, determined not to miss a single drop of drama.

Yu Yuchu raised her head and looked over with the gaze one might reserve for a madwoman.

She hadn't even come close to touching her foot. What was this? Reverse frame-up?

Regarding Wan Ninghe's objective, Yu Yuchu maintained a wait-and-see attitude.

"Is something the matter?"

Yu Yuchu replied indifferently, "If nothing's wrong, get out of my sight. Looking at you makes me sick."

Wan Ninghe looked like a wounded little beast, acting as though she couldn't bear Yu Yuchu's coldness, tears already welling up in her eyes: "I'm really sorry, Yuchu, I didn't mean to."

By the time the situation had evolved to this point, even if Yu Yuchu hadn't known what was going to happen, she could still guess the rest of the script eight or nine parts out of ten.

Wasn't this just playing the innocent victim while being manipulative?

Yet Yu Yuchu had no intention of pretending she had already forgiven Wan Ninghe. Instead, she grew even colder, a look of utter disgust appearing on her face: "Let me ask you, do you have a problem? I said, you make me sick."

Since they were going to make a scene, she might as well blow it up even bigger.

A flash of disbelief crossed the depths of Wan Ninghe's eyes. Things had reached this point—what possible reason did Yu Yuchu have not to make peace with her? Even if she couldn't stand her in private, shouldn't she at least put on a friendly facade in public?

Didn't she know what the current situation was?

What an absolute fool.

Still, this was for the best. Since Yu Yuchu was the one actively destroying her own image in front of her colleagues, it had nothing to do with her. Wan Ninghe laughed wildly in her heart, but on the surface, she put on a look of pitiful grievance: "Yuchu, are you still mad about what happened before? I really just lost my cool back then and said those things in the heat of the moment. I regretted it the second the words left my mouth!"

Yu Yuchu scoffed mockingly, "Is that so?"

"It's true... Yuchu, you have to believe me. Now that things are in the past and I've already apologized to you publicly, can we just wipe the slate clean?"

"No," Yu Yuchu said with a straight face. "You know very well what you did. I made you apologize because you slandered me behind my back and spread malicious gossip, which doesn't mean I've forgiven your actions."

Hearing this, Wan Ninghe felt a jolt in her heart, and her facade cracked for a split second.

Yet she quickly recovered, and large teardrops immediately welled up and fell.

"I... I... Yuchu..."

Overwhelmed by emotion, Wan Ninghe began to sob, becoming so choked up she couldn't even speak coherently.

Yu Yuchu raised an eyebrow. Bringing Wan Ninghe to Huasheng really was doing her a disservice; Hengdian Studios was clearly her true calling. She was practically a shoo-in for the next Best Actress award!

Wan Ninghe had already laid the groundwork with everyone around her, and now, with these falling tears and unfinished, choked-off words, she successfully managed to rouse public indignation.

Someone nearby even muttered in a low voice: "She's already lowered herself so much to ask Yu Yuchu for forgiveness. No matter how wrong Wan Ninghe was before, can't Yu Yuchu just be the bigger person?"