Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Five: Settling In
Xiao Yu felt something was a little strange.
He’d felt this way the moment he walked in, but the feeling hadn’t been as strong. Now, the feeling was more pronounced.
Whether it was the receptionist’s smiling expression or Director Wang personally waiting for him at the front, they all contributed to Xiao Yu’s inexplicable sense of unease.
But the feeling boiled over with what just happened with the human resources representative.
The contract worth tens of millions was resting innocuously in his hands, but somehow he felt a burning sensation from it.
“Speaking of which, the contract was prepared long ago. What took you so long to come?” Director Wang suddenly asked.
“Huh? Umm…”
Xiao Yu searched for a reason.
Of course he couldn’t say that the scoundrel Yan Jin had gotten him so drunk that his hamster ears wouldn’t go away.
“I was mainly dealing with the aftermath of the accident like, umm, compensation and such.”
In that frantic moment, Xiao Yu was only able to come up with that vague excuse.
Director Wang stopped abruptly in his tracks and gave Xiao Yu a suspicious glance. Reverting back to a straight face, Director Wang flatly asked, “Did you have to pay a lot? After all, Chairman Yan’s Phantom is extremely expensive. ”
“Umm, well, pay, I didn’t have to pay too much. Yan Jin…”
A single lie necessitates another ten thousand.
Xiao Yu first eliminated the option of revealing how much he actually paid and then considered for three seconds whether he should reveal his relationship with Yan Jin. In the end, he went with, “Yan Jin said that if I signed with YL, he’d waive the indemnities.”
Director Wang sighed heavily. Xiao Yu wasn’t sure, but he thought Director Wang’s eyes were full of sympathy.
“D-Director Wang?”
“It’s nothing. Let’s keep walking.”
Xiao Yu did the same and followed, the strange feeling growing ever stronger.
When they’d reached their destination, Xiao Yu was surprised to see the large lettering “Conference Room” on the door. “Wait, aren’t we going to the work area?”
“You’re not wrong.”
Director Wang pulled the door open, but instead of going inside, he stepped to the side. Fast as a thunderbolt, he solidly shoved Xiao Yu in the back.
Xiao Yu stumbled into the conference room. Just regaining his balance, he turned to reproach Director Wang for his dangerous stunt but instead heard bang bang, pow pow!
Bang!
Pow!
Boom!
The sounds of a gun salute rang out and streamers and confetti of all colors filled the room. The flowery-like display showered the star of the show.
Shocked, Xiao Yu lifted his head.
The conference room was full of people. Some Xiao Yu recognized, and others he didn’t.
At once, they chorused, “Welcoming the honorable Mr. Mystery!”
A warm welcome for the mystery designer indeed.
A massive banner was unfolded, revealing those same words written in red and gold.
On the central table rested a double layer cake. Its white frosting and strawberries looked all the more appetizing.
Xiao Yu’s stunned brain slowly began functioning again. Pulling the streamers off his head, he opened his mouth to say all the things he wanted to, but in the end he only managed an emotional “thank you”.
The attendees broke out into applause and laughter. The applause continued for a long while.
From the other side, Shao Yue entered from a side door and saw the scene before him. While sighing that he’d arrived late, he grabbed the crown from the table and went to place it on Xiao Yu’s head.
Xiao Yu inclined his head to receive the crown but failed to do so.
Another person had followed Shao Yue in and intercepted the crown.
Xiao Yu saw a large shadow fall across his own fuzzy line of sight.
Yan Jin used his tall and large body to block Xiao Yu behind him, whose eyes were red with emotion. Indifferently, Yan Jin stated, “That’s enough playing around. All of you should leave now.”
“Whaaaat——”
Everyone expressed their fierce displeasure.
“Chairman Yan, you’re too much. Who was the one wanted the welcome party in the first place? Why are you blaming us now?” Shao Yue was the first to retort.
“Yeah, yeah!”
“Chairman Yan, stop mother-henning us. Come join us!”
The room quickly dissolved into a mess of continuous hubbub and laughter.
Mixed inside the regular sounds of conversation was the sound of some atypical laughter.
The laughter wasn’t evil or mocking either; rather, it was the undisguised silvery tinkling laughter of young girls in springtime enjoying the festivities.
“That’s like solid evidence!”
“The two of them look so sweet together!”
“I already know everything else, so when are they getting married?”
This conversation wasn’t loud, but Xiao Yu overheard because they were standing next to him.
“Jia Jia?”
Xiao Yu recognized a familiar face from previous discussions. Out of YL’s designers, He Xinjia was the one he had the best relationship with after getting to know her from a forum. She was younger than him by one year and had unexpectedly joined YL. Originally, Xiao Yu had planned to recruit her into SI.
“Yu Yu——”
He Xinjia happily greeted Xiao Yu after hearing her name called, and then… she was shot by Yan Jin’s icy cold stare and retreated two steps, not daring to come forward.
“Hey, what are you doing? Get out of the way.” Xiao Yu pushed the obstructing Yan Jin out of the way and walked over himself.
He Xinjia furtively glanced at Yan Jin for his reaction and then excitedly introduced the rest of their colleagues from the design department to Xiao Yu.
After being miserably abandoned, Yan Jin stood frozen for two seconds before being pushed by Shao Yue. “I say, stop getting in our way. The rest of us young adults don’t need an old fogey like you around. We’ll go back to work after splitting the cake.”
Yan Jin: “……”
Clearly, Chairman Yan had originally joined to help boost his lover’s confidence. However, he could only watch indignantly as Xiao Yu acquainted himself with the rest of the design department. With rigid steps, he left the conference room.
Yan Jin closing the door behind him was like flipping a switch. The ambiance immediately became more lively as the previously mindful employees relaxed. The conversation sounds grew extremely loud as if the ceiling would bust open. Fortunately, the entire building belonged to YL; otherwise, their upstairs and downstairs neighbors would have come to complain long ago.
Many people came to pay respect to the mystery designer. Perhaps it was because of Yan Jin’s instructions, but everyone who came over to raise a toast held fruit juice. Xiao Yu could therefore comfortably join in.
A few gossipy coworkers seized the opportunity to ask Xiao Yu why he had assumed the identity of Mr. Mystery to come work undercover at YL. Luckily, Xiao Yu had already prepared a response, so he calmly said:
“I discovered that another SI employee plagiarized my work. Nothing happened when I reported it to the company, so instead I took another path towards opposing him.”
This was pretty close to the truth. Xiao Yu had resigned himself to the fact that the perpetrator wouldn’t be exposed, especially since Xiao Yu was brought up well and didn’t talk about others behind their backs. He specifically didn’t name the person who plagiarized his work.
Unexpectedly, no sooner had he finished his statement than someone responded, “You’re talking about Lin Zhou, right? I found out about this a long time ago.”
The speaker was a refined young man dressed very casually in a white shirt and jeans. His hair wasn’t dyed and he didn’t wear any other accessories. Compared to the other designers, he looked more like a fresh college graduate working a standard desk job.
“Wow! I didn’t expect that it’s really true. Sorry Oliver, I was wrong, I should have believed your data analysis. Haha.” The lady standing next to He Xinjia let out an amazed cry before giggling and hiding behind He Xinjia’s back.
“Data analysis?” Xiao Yu was shocked.
“It’s just a joke.” The youth adjusted his glasses. “I’m Oliver. You can also call me Xiao Mo. Rather than designing things myself, I prefer analyzing other designers and their works.”
Isn’t that just a critic…
It was the first time Xiao Yu had directly met a critic. After being stunned for a short while, he timidly said, “Hello, I’m FISH.”
“Shouldn’t that be ‘Mr. Mystery’?” He Xinjia laughed from the side.
Xiao Yu helplessly indicated yes.
“Haha.” The other listeners also laughed.
The welcome party was extremely successful.
Xiao Yu was surrounded front and center answering questions. One cycle after another of gossip, photos, and autographs passed before the scheduled time was up. The unfortunate people that Xiao Yu hadn’t gotten to each cried that it was a pity, but they didn’t dare to spend too long. They could only make do with Xiao Yu’s promise that he’d get to them at their next meal together.
Xiao Yu happily agreed to.
Originally, they had entertained the idea of partying for a little longer, but after remembering the large pile of work that awaited them, one after another decided to quickly retreat back to work in fear.
So after eating the cake and sharing some small gifts, each person tactfully returned to their workstations to begin a new day of work.
“FISH, let’s go together.” He Xinjia beckoned him over.
“Sure, I’ll be there in a moment.”
……
The onboarding process at YL was far smoother than Xiao Yu had expected.
Xiao Yu was already familiar with about eighty percent of the other designers. The remaining twenty percent were fans of his anyways, so it was easy to get along with them. The previously disorganized rabble that operated like headless chickens were quickly unified with Xiao Yu as their core. The work experience was similar to when Xiao Yu had mentored an intern at SI.
The overall strength of YL’s design department was far worse than Xiao Yu had expected. Most of the designers had talent but no experience. Out of ten design drafts, nine were unusable. There were many odd novelties that were characteristic of young designers. However, Xiao Yu wasn’t worried about these issues. With him at the helm to mold the young talents, it was only a matter of time before YL’s standards and processes were perfected.
When Xiao Yu had last visited YL as a hamster, he hadn’t experienced the charm of YL. But now, Xiao Yu was struck by the brimming enthusiasm and motivation of YL’s workplace. It wasn’t an exaggeration to describe it as a paradise for young employees.
YL’s workflows were quite similar to SI’s, so it wasn’t long before Xiao Yu adapted.
This wasn’t a coincidence. Since SI had been an industry leader for so long, most of the new up-and-coming companies used SI’s workflows as a template, and YL was no exception.
Nonetheless, YL’s environment and overall workplace relationships were much stronger than SI’s. The relaxed atmosphere reminded Xiao Yu of his overseas apprenticeship with his master.
Although they clearly had such an old-fashioned chairman…
“Hmm, are you speaking ill of me?” Yan Jin lifted his head up from the pile of documents.
“Wow, you even found out about this.” Without the slightest fear of being caught in the act, he laughed and straightened the documents before tossing them onto Yan Jin’s desk. “Stop messing around and sign this. I still need to go downstairs to edit the little ones’ drawings.”
Up until now, Xiao Yu was extremely satisfied with everything YL had provided him. There was just one thing that he hadn’t completely understood to date…
Why was his workstation on the 30th floor at the chairman’s office?
