Chapter One Hundred and Fifty: Something Feels Wrong
“There are some differences between YL and SI. Traditional companies tend to have more clearly defined responsibilities for different positions. But here at YL, the position of chief designer has been vacant for a long time. Up until now, I’ve been the one managing this unruly group of junior designers. Actually, there’s a few that are good enough to stand out, but they’re still a little lacking for a chief designer.”
Director Wang had worked at SI for decades, and was the director for eight of them. Because he had interacted with so many designers, he was very clear on what qualities were needed in a chief designer. Yan Jin highly valued his opinion and his experience, another reason why YL hadn’t filled the chief designer position.
“Oh, so it’s like this.” Xiao Yu nodded as if he understood.
Director Wang irritatedly clapped Xiao Yu’s back for not understanding. Xiao Yu stumbled forward a few steps before responding in alarm, “Director Wang?”
“Geez, I’m talking about you. How have you not understood yet?” Director Wang had no choice but to directly tell him, “I mean that those responsibilities will be transferred to you. You’ll bear the burden of building up YL’s design department.”
Xiao Yu stared blankly and then nodded his head. “I understand. I’ll work hard.”
Although it wasn’t a light responsibility, it was still fitting. Even if Yan Jin hadn’t opened a back door for him, with Xiao Yu’s talent, he could have taken a leadership role at any jewelry corporation.
Although he would have preferred to work as a chief designer that didn’t need to manage other internal matters, it was just like Director Wang had said. YL hadn’t divided up the responsibilities extremely clearly yet, so he could only work harder to cover any tasks unaccounted for.
Seeing Xiao Yu respond so frankly, Director Wang felt surprisingly gratified.
Xiao Yu had only become YL’s chief designer the second year after Director Wang had left, so he’d had the impression that Xiao Yu was still the scarily talented young designer that was unable to handle too much responsibility.
But now it seemed as though the young designer had grown up while he hadn’t been watching.
In the two eyes that had been full of naivety, Director Wang saw the gaze of a person who had suffered through hardship and an ever-present sharp determination that never left.
It looked like he could relax and retire comfortably.
Director Wang sighed, lost in his nostalgic memories for a moment before returning back to serious business. “YL’s growth hasn’t been slow, but it’s still hard for the powerful to win against a strong competitor on their home field. It hasn’t been easy being suppressed by SI all this time. But then, a game-changing person appeared. You’ve probably guessed by now that it’s you. ”
Xiao Yu choked, and the words “Mr. Mystery” died unspoken on his lips.
“You guys already know about this?” Xiao Yu awkwardly scratched his head.
“Of course,” Director Wang said disapprovingly. “Otherwise it’d be hard to explain your departure of SI for YL.”
Xiao Yu guiltily agreed.
Although changing jobs wasn’t uncommon in the industry, SI and YL were direct rivals. Even when they were collaborating on a project, they’d still start squabbling over disagreements. No matter how the private relationships were between individual designers of the two companies, on the whole the relationship between the two companies was very tense.
Xiao Yu could be considered a big-shot in the industry, and many designers were fans of his work. There were a few from YL that he maintained good relationships with, but that didn’t change the fact that SI and YL just didn’t get along.
If he came over to YL using just his identity as FISH, he guessed that he’d be shunned and pushed around until he resigned.
It was worth pointing out that if the situation were reversed, SI’s design department wouldn’t have done the same. One reason for the poor relationship between SI and YL was that SI tended to be more accepting of designers that joined them from other companies. Especially towards the designers they had previously collaborated with, SI would welcome them openly in a manner befitting the industry leader. On the other hand, YL’s design department was a lot more willful. Forget previous collaborators; they were willing to oppose even their clients. Who knew where such a new company got all that confidence from?
As a result, even without considering the opposite perspective, YL was also on SI’s list of blacklisted collaborators.
With a mind full of random thoughts, before Xiao Yu realized, he had already entered the doors of the advertising department.
“Block 301 to 310 all belong to the design department. Designer offices are in 301 to 305, conference rooms are in 306, and management is here in 307 to 310. At SI you didn’t need to worry about management, but here you need to take note of these things.”
“I am aware of that. I previously had to attend negotiations with potential clients, so I know how this works.” Xiao Yu saw that Director Wang was about to push open the door and hurriedly stopped him. “Wait wait, I’d like to go to HR first to resolve my contract.”
“You haven’t signed your contract yet? You should have done this long ago. What have you been doing all this time? Youngsters these days…”
Partway through his tirade, Director Wang stopped talking and calmly said, “You should go sign your contract first then. I’ll wait here. Right, you can just go directly to 310. Your contract is already set, so it shouldn’t be too complicated to just quickly stamp it.”
Xiao Yu: “……”
He’d been feeling that something wasn’t quite right, and he was a little curious what Director Wang had meant by that.
Director Wang leaned on the corridor’s handrail and waved at Xiao Yu to hurry him along.
The door to 310 was already open. Xiao Yu hadn’t even reached the door when he heard a ghastly cry, “Beautiful sister, I’m begging you. I just need a stamp. Yan Jin won’t know.”
When Xiao Yu appeared at the door, that person had just happened to collapse in grief and turn around. His eyes met Xiao Yu’s.
Xiao Yu wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw a streak of jealousy in the other’s eyes.
“You’re finally here. You’re here to sign your contract right? Come in, come in! This sister here is from the human resources department. She can stamp your contract for you.”
Xiao Yu was slightly unnerved by the man’s familiarity. He quickly guessed the man’s identity. “You should be Chairman Shao, right?”
“What Chairman? Chairman this, Chairman that. Just call me Shao Yue.”
Others would feel respected when they were addressed as “Chairman”, but not Shao Yue. He didn’t want to be called “Chairman Shao” for the rest of his life because rather than a salary increase, it meant that Chairman Yan was ditching his duties for the umpteenth time.
Xiao Yu was silent.
The interim chairman was exactly as the rumors described.
At least the young lady from HR wasn’t so wacky. She pleasantly greeted Xiao Yu, “Welcome to YL.”
“Thanks.” Xiao Yu was touched.
“Don’t mind the stupid kid. Let’s go sign the contract in another room.”
Xiao Yu: “……”
Shao Yue didn’t seem offended at all after being called a “stupid kid.” He still bounced happily around the young lady from HR. “Why bother going to another room? You can just sign it here. Yan Jin said that Brother Xiao brought the contract with him. A simple stamp is all that’s needed.”
Xiao Yu said, “Wait, wait??”
“Sure, then—” the HR lady said while placing the official seal on the table.
“Wait wait wait!” Xiao Yu extracted the contract from his bag and hurriedly said, “I think there’s an issue with the contract. Is there a mistake with the benefits?”
“Let me see.”
The HR lady extended her hand, and Xiao Yu passed the contract over.
However, before the contract could reach her hands, it was intercepted by the other person.
“What are you looking at? There’s nothing to look at! I personally oversaw the drafting of this contract, so it’s not possible that there’s a mistake. I say, you HR people really are too inefficient. There is a venerable guest here! If Yan Jin knew about your attitude, he’d fire you for sure.”
As Shao Yue was berating the HR lady, he casually grabbed the official seal left on the table by the HR lady and took both the contract and the seal to the coffee table. Stamp, stamp, stamp.
On the other hand, the previously tyrannical HR lady now looked terrified. When Shao Yue said that Yan Jin would fire her, her entire body trembled as if she fully believed Yan Jin would do something so illogical.
Xiao Yu was bewildered by the scene.
Ever since he stepped into YL, he had felt he had no control whatsoever of the events around him.
Shao Yue worked so quickly that by the time Xiao Yu realized what had happened, Shao Yue was already done stamping all the necessary places.
“Alright, sign here.” Shao Yue retrieved a pen from his pocket and put it into Xiao Yu’s hand.
“But, this contract…”
“There really is no mistake. Hurry up and sign. If there were a mistake, this contract would have never been released. If such an important contract were released with a mistake, it would be a career-ending accident for the entire HR department. How can there be a mistake?”
Xiao Yu stuttered, “B-but this…”
“Oh my god, would you look at the time! It seems like this HR miss has something that requires her to take a half day leave. It’s about time already.”
“But…”
“Hmm, I heard that Director Wang is recovering from a surgery for his ruptured spinal disc. It must be hard for him to stay standing for too long.”
“I’ll sign it.”
Something feels strange.
Xiao Yu couldn’t help but think this as he signed the contract.
As Xiao Yu numbly made his way out of room 310, Shao Yue cackled gleefully.
“Director Shao, was it really okay to do that?” The HR lady couldn’t help but ask. “He seemed like such a good young man.”
“What are you afraid of? These were Yan Jin’s orders. Or do you like being fired more?”
“I doubted those rumors before, but now it seems they were entirely correct. I really didn’t expect Chairman Yan would be that sort of person.”
The HR lady seemed completely shattered from her realisation of the chairman’s true nature .
……
Xiao Yu exited room 310 even more stiffly than when he’d entered YL.
“All done signing?” Director Wang asked.
“Mhmm, all done.” Xiao Yu nodded his head.
As he walked with Director Wang, Xiao Yu kept thinking about asking how much Director Wang’s salary was, but he feared he would be breaking his contract confidentiality clause. He could only keep the ever-growing doubt in his head.
*Sigh*, things really were so strange.
Xiao Yu’s soul wailed.
“Something wrong?” Director Wang felt something unusual and turned to look at Xiao Yu. “Are you nervous?”
“No, no. Many of them should be familiar faces,” Xiao Yu reluctantly admitted.
