"Wait a minute!"
Su Mianmian jogged, finally reaching the elevator door just before the doors closed. The elevator doors opened again, and Su Mianmian bowed to thank the person inside. Looking up, she realized the person standing at the front was He Suyan.
Su Mianmian stepped into the elevator and greeted He Suyan. "Good morning, Manager He." He Suyan gave her a cold look and uttered three emotionless words. "Good morning."
Su Mianmian felt a chill and involuntarily shifted to the side. She had momentarily thought last night that He Suyan wasn't actually that cold-blooded; it was probably just an illusion. After getting off the elevator, He Suyan strode straight to his office.
Su Mianmian lagged a few steps behind, arriving at her workstation. As soon as she sat down, Zeng Ke placed a carton of milk and a sandwich in front of Su Mianmian. "Mianmian, have you had breakfast? I bought an extra one for you."
Su Mianmian waved her hand in thanks. "Thank you, but I already ate this morning." Zeng Ke scratched her head sheepishly. "It's okay if you've already eaten; you can eat it later if you get hungry."
After Zeng Ke left, Xia Qing came over in her tumbler chair and winked at Su Mianmian teasingly. "Mianmian, Zeng Ke seems to have designs on you." Su Mianmian didn't think much of it, her eyes innocent. "What designs?"
Xia Qing gestured with her eyes towards the breakfast Zeng Ke had given her. "I've worked with Zeng Ke for years, but I've never seen him bring breakfast to any girl."
Su Mianmian blushed, somewhat understanding Xia Qing's meaning. "Senior Zeng Ke probably takes good care of me because I'm new." Xia Qing pursed her lips, not saying anything more. "By the way, how did it go with the business translation last night?"
Su Mianmian rolled her eyes. "It was alright. Manager He said to keep working hard." "Manager He went personally last night?" Xia Qing was somewhat incredulous. "Mianmian, if it's really like you said, Manager He might personally mentor you."
Is that so? Su Mianmian glanced at He Suyan's office, remembering his icy attitude towards her earlier, and couldn't be sure. For the rest of the day, Liu Shu assigned Su Mianmian a lot of work.
A high stack of documents awaiting Su Mianmian's translation piled up on her desk. Even by the afternoon, Su Mianmian had only completed half. Su Mianmian sat up straight, rubbing her aching back, just in time to see He Suyan come out, his gaze cold and stern as always.
He glanced around the cubicles and called out a few names. "There's an exhibition at the Marriott Hotel. Get ready, we'll head straight there later." Another interpretation assignment?
Su Mianmian's eyes lit up, and she tentatively raised her hand. "Manager He, can I go too?" He Suyan gave her a cold look. "No, just focus on completing the tasks Deputy Manager Liu assigned you." He Suyan then turned and went back to his office.
Su Mianmian silently lowered her hand. For some reason, she sensed that He Suyan's attitude towards her was different today, colder than before, and tinged with a hint of disgust.
She couldn't figure out what she had done to offend that powerful figure; they had been perfectly fine at the event last night. "Overestimating yourself. Manager He took you out last night just to test your abilities. You didn't actually think he was going to personally mentor you, did you?" Liu Shu approached Su Mianmian unnoticed and spoke sarcastically. Su Mianmian pursed her lips. "I didn't think that way." She just wanted to go out and gain more experience.
"That's good. You don't know, Manager He hates people like you the most. You're on his blacklist. You probably won't be getting any personal mentorship from him in the future."
Su Mianmian felt increasingly uneasy and frowned involuntarily. "Please explain yourself, Deputy Manager Liu. What kind of person am I?"
Liu Shu remembered overhearing some female colleagues gossiping in the restroom earlier, saying that Su Mianmian was seen hugging and kissing an older man at the conference yesterday, and that she got out of a BMW this morning.
She was seething with anger. She'd known how a poor student like Su Mianmian could afford luxury goods—turns out she'd been slept with by an old man! That little bitch, making her lose half a month's salary for no reason!
"I don't need to explain what kind of person you are, do I? Everyone here probably knows." Knows? Su Mianmian glanced around, noticing the shifty looks and disdain in some eyes. Her brows furrowed even more; she was about to ask again.
Liu Shu waved her hand impatiently. "Fine, I'm too lazy to talk to someone like you. These documents must be handed to me before we leave work!" Before we leave work? Su Mianmian glanced at the half-finished documents on the table, her face scrunched up.
Even if she had two hands, she couldn't finish translating in such a short time! Despite her inner complaints, Su Mianmian kept her head down and silently sped up her translation. Zeng Ke even helped her translate a portion during a break.
However, by the time she was supposed to leave work, Su Mianmian still had a portion of the work unfinished. Liu Shu finally found a reason to call her into her office and berate her with the door wide open. "You're too slow! You haven't even finished translating this small amount of paperwork in a whole day?"
"If you delay the schedule and cause losses to the company, can you take responsibility?" Su Mianmian bit her lip, her eyes slightly red.
"Deputy Manager Liu, these documents, at a normal translation speed, should normally take two days. You gave me too little time; how can you shift the blame for the delay onto me alone?" Liu Shu didn't expect Su Mianmian to dare to talk back, and became even angrier.
"Don't put on this act in front of me! I'm not a man; I don't fall for your act!" "Two days? You're talking about the level of translators at ordinary translation companies, right? Is our Huarui comparable to those companies? If you can't adapt, you might as well leave!" Was she trying to kick her out again? Su Mianmian took a breath. "Deputy Manager Liu, Manager He said yesterday that I was hired by him, and whether I stay or leave is up to him." "Oh, so you're using Manager He to pressure me?" Liu Shu leaned back in her chair, arms crossed, her eyes arrogant.
"Su Mianmian, if you're so capable, go find Manager He right now and see if he's willing to help you!" "Fine, I'll go!"
Su Mianmian sniffed, turned and left the office, ignoring the curious stares from the other cubicles, and went straight to knock on He Suyan's office door. He Suyan was talking to someone when he heard the knock and called out, "Come in."
Looking up, he saw Su Mianmian's eyes were red like a rabbit's. His gaze turned cold, and he gestured for the other person to leave before speaking slowly. "What is it?"
Su Mianmian took a breath, suppressing the urge to cry, and recounted the whole story to He Suyan.
"Manager He, that workload can't possibly be completed in a day. If Deputy Manager Liu wants to fire me for this reason, I won't accept it!" He Suyan coldly looked at this seemingly docile but actually resilient girl.
She was beautiful, capable, and had a bright future ahead of her. He Suyan couldn't understand why she would choose to take a shortcut. Her gaze shifted several times before He Suyan spoke coldly, "So what if you're not satisfied? It's a fact that you didn't complete the work assigned to you on time."
"Su Mianmian, this world isn't so fair. If someone is making things difficult for you, just arguing won't do much good. Instead of wasting time, think about how to improve yourself so that others can't find any fault with you!"
Su Mianmian couldn't believe that He Suyan would utter such absurdities. She suddenly thought of Gu Yizhou. In the same situation, He Suyan told her to comply and compromise, while Gu Yizhou wouldn't; he would tell her to stand firm.
Su Mianmian suddenly felt disappointed, wondering if Hua Rui, which she had so desperately wanted to join, was truly worth staying at. He Suyan clearly saw the emotions in Su Mianmian's reddened eyes: anger, shock, and then disappointment.
A ripple stirred in He Suyan's usually calm heart. Before Su Mianmian could speak, He Suyan said, "Let's leave work as usual. I'll discuss the details with Deputy Manager Liu regarding the delay in the client's schedule."
After Su Mianmian left, He Suyan called Liu Shu into his office. Su Mianmian didn't know what they discussed inside; she only saw Liu Shu walk in arrogantly, head held high, and walk out arrogantly, head held high again.
The only difference was that as she passed Su Mianmian's workstation, she sneered coldly, nostrils down. "Go ahead and jump around, let's see how long you can keep it up."