TGSS - Chapter 33
Chapter 33: Trouble
Liang Zhouyi had followed Chu He along the beach for a long time, and was surprised to find that she had been gone so long and yet no one had come looking for her. Could her presence really be that faint?
Hearing her doubt, Chu He smiled. "Of course I asked for leave for you."
"Ask for leave?" Liang Zhouyi frowned. "If you ask for leave for me, my perfect attendance bonus is gone anyway."
Chu He was speechless. "Do you think you would still get your perfect attendance bonus if you just skipped work?"
She was about to say something else when both her phone and Liang Zhouyi's rang at almost the same time. Chu He glanced at Liang Zhouyi's screen and chose to hang up on Tan Qing's call, and Liang Zhouyi exchanged a look with her before answering Xu Lu's call.
"Liang Zhouyi! Are you with President Chu? You two hurry back, something has happened with Wen Xiaoying."
Chu He hopped on one foot across the sand to find her shoes while opening the messages Tan Qing had sent her. The dense rows of exclamation marks made her eyes blur for an instant. She pressed her temple before she could filter out what Tan Qing was actually trying to say.
Seeing her expression turn grave, Liang Zhouyi leaned over as well. Chu He handed her the phone and bent down to pull on her Martin boots.
"There are not many people who could get their hands on Wen Xiaoying's IP proposal and all the scripts," Liang Zhouyi said, clutching the phone, her head aching faintly from the cold wind.
"Indeed," Chu He said, pressing her lips together. "But it was leaked anyway, and an account that has always been positioned against Wen Xiaoying even posted a similar video first."
Chu He drove with a tight expression, and by the time she brought Liang Zhouyi back to the hotel under the cover of night, it was already very late. Everyone was gathered in the same room, heads bowed with extremely ugly expressions, as if they did not dare face Wen Xiaoying's anger.
"President Chu, you are finally back," the narrow-eyed assistant beside Wen Xiaoying said. Catching sight of Chu He and Liang Zhouyi leaning close together, she rolled her eyes and her tone was sharp.
Upon hearing that, Wen Xiaoying shot her a glare. Only when facing Chu He did she force a smile, but her slender fingers, faintly visible through the wide sleeves of her hanfu, had already clenched into fists, a gesture that betrayed her fury.
Xu Lu stood meekly by the chair but did not dare sit down. The dejected, dust-covered look of everyone made Chu He's heart sink. Wen Xiaoying had clearly already lost her temper.
"What has happened has happened. Rather than chasing who is at fault, we should first think about how to minimize the loss," Chu He said, her voice not loud, but it acted like a tranquilizer and the panic in the other team members' eyes receded a little.
Only Wen Xiaoying's assistant spoke up dissatisfied. "President Chu, the guilty party is obvious, is it not your company? Would we leak information to our competitors ourselves! We can put off pursuing accountability for now, but then tell us how you will make up for Xiaoying's loss?"
A trace of anger crossed Tan Qing's pale face. He stepped forward half a step as if to say something, but was stopped by a look from Chu He.
"I understand, but saying 'your company' is too distant. Xiaoying is, after all, one of our people. Since the project is bound to be stalled now and this matter will need to be replanned, one more night will not make a difference. Why don't we all go back to our rooms and rest early, then return to the company together tomorrow to figure out a solution?" Chu He said calmly, smiling as she made the decision on the spot.
"You!" The assistant stared at Chu He dissatisfied. They were anxious to death, yet Chu He seemed to be stalling for time. She felt like Chu He was one of those slick veterans who only knew how to play tai chi and shift blame.
"Fine, we will do as you say," Wen Xiaoying said. Her exquisite makeup had not yet been removed, and even though the waste of so much effort and time made her hateful at this moment, she still put on that obedient, sweet appearance when facing Chu He.
Tan Qing followed behind Chu He and Liang Zhouyi with a belly full of anger. It was not until they returned to Liang Zhouyi's room that he finally exploded, demanding loudly, "Chu He, why did you stop me? Did you not see how aggressive her assistant was before, as if someone among us deliberately wanted to harm Wen Xiaoying?"
Chu He was a little annoyed by his noise. She walked straight to the chair by Liang Zhouyi's bed, crossed her legs, and looked at him coldly. "Was she wrong? Was it not someone in our team who leaked it?"
In itself it would not have been a big deal. On the internet, especially in the short video industry, the cake to be divided was only so big, and what everyone filmed was highly homogenized. Plagiarism and copycat trends were endless.
But this time Wen Xiaoying had been beaten to it by the blogger who was always benchmarked against her, who released a similar video first. That made it hard not to be furious. If she were called a copycat, the effect of the entire IP proposal that followed would be greatly discounted.
Chu He's face looked dim and indistinct in the light of the bedside lamp. She smiled as if she did not care. "Wen Xiaoying is, after all, something of a client to the company. Although she is an influencer we signed, there are plenty of companies that want to poach her. Are you going to fall out with her on the spot?"
Tan Qing was left speechless, and subconsciously glanced at Liang Zhouyi standing beside him before saying, "But she and her assistant were insinuating between the lines that Liang Zhouyi did it, and they were cursing her very harshly just now. If you had been there, I do not believe you could have tolerated it!"
Only after he finished saying that did he come to his senses, and saw that Chu He, who had been sitting, had not even looked at him. She had already sprung to her feet and walked to his side to open the door. Tan Qing looked at her in confusion. "What are you going to do?"
Chu He turned half her body, clenched her fist and smiled darkly. "I regret it. I was far too nice to that woman just now. I am going to settle the score with her right now."
Hearing Chu He's sudden childish declaration, Liang Zhouyi sighed and blocked the doorway, saying helplessly, "Have you two made enough of a scene?"
"We are doing this for whose sake?" Tan Qing clutched his left chest, looking utterly heartbroken.
Liang Zhouyi looked at him baffled. "You say that as if you are convinced I am the one who leaked the information. Do I look that stupid?" Everyone had signed non-compete and confidentiality agreements. Doing something so thankless and so risky should have a motive, right?
Chu He walked back, somewhat wearily propping her chin and placing the pillow from the bed on her knees. Her cool, clear voice was very distinct in the room. "Neither of you needs to worry about it. I have the most experience with this kind of thing. Tan Qing, you go back and get some good rest first."
Tan Qing instinctively wanted to retort, but seeing the unquestionable look on her cool, distant face, he forcibly suppressed the irritation in his heart, and asked with some confusion, "You are not coming with me?"
"Why would I leave?" Chu He spread her hands. "I promised Chu Ze I would go home, and I already went back yesterday. I am sleeping with Liang Zhouyi tonight."
"Sleep!" Tan Qing's face turned from pale to red, a truly wonderful sight. He pointed a trembling finger and forced out a sentence. "Things are this serious, and you are still thinking about that kind of thing?"
"Tan Qing!" Liang Zhouyi's voice as she called his name was a little cold.
Chu He puffed out her cheek and sneered disdainfully. "You are so filthy. What on earth do you have in that head of yours all day? Have you been filming too many suggestive videos lately?"
"I cannot be bothered to argue with you two, I am leaving!" Seeing that the two of them were clearly on the same side, Tan Qing felt as if he might vomit blood, and he did not want to stay here as a third wheel either.
Chu He watched as Tan Qing slammed the door and left in a huff, then turned to look at Liang Zhouyi at her leisure. That lingering, somewhat ambiguous gaze made Liang Zhouyi's eyelid twitch uncontrollably.
"Do you think what happened today could be Wen Xiaoying staging it herself?" Chu He voiced her suspicion.
Liang Zhouyi thought for a moment before saying, "From what I know of her, not really. Wen Xiaoying has always been a very goal-oriented person, but she also values her own interests extremely highly. She would not do something that hurts the enemy by eight hundred while hurting herself by a thousand."
"You sure know her well," Chu He said, unhappy again upon hearing that. She took off her coat and hung it up, then thought for a moment and took off her sweater as well, wearing only a thin camisole. Because the fabric was so light and sheer, the scenery beneath the clothes was faintly visible.
"What are you doing!" Liang Zhouyi had not expected her to suddenly start undressing in the middle of a serious conversation. She caught a glimpse of fair, smooth shoulders and collarbones and panicked, looking away.
Chu He laughed. "What are you hiding from? I am going to take a shower, should I not take off my clothes?"
Liang Zhouyi lowered her head, her fingers digging into her palm as she tried hard to get back to the previous topic. "Then how do you plan to deal with Wen Xiaoying and the others?"
"How else can I deal with it? Just muddle through. If the videos collided, we will change to new ones, if the IP proposal was copied, we will revise it. As for who leaked the information, we will catch them after we get back to the company," Chu He said lightly, as if the matter was nothing at all.
"But..." Liang Zhouyi instinctively turned to look at her upon hearing that, only to see that Chu He had also slowly taken off her jeans. Two long, slender legs occupied her entire field of vision, and the large expanse of fair, luminous skin made Liang Zhouyi stare without blinking. The roots of her ears began to burn, and her whole ears turned bright red. She struggled to look away and said sullenly, "At least give someone some warning before you take off your clothes."
Chu He burst out laughing. "Liang Zhouyi, what is our relationship? You are getting shy with me now."
Liang Zhouyi could see it now. Chu He was the type who only cared about teasing and never considered the consequences. She always took the verbal advantage first.
Thinking of that, Liang Zhouyi suddenly pressed her lips together, turned her face, and let her gaze fall on Chu He as she asked, "Then tell me, what is our relationship?"
As if she had not expected Liang Zhouyi to be so direct, Chu He's breath hitched and she was the first to look away, saying as if it were only natural, "Of course we are best friends."
After she finished speaking, she strode toward the bathroom on her long legs. The scorching gaze behind her made her spine tingle, and even her steps became a little disordered, until she heard Liang Zhouyi coldly toss her a sentence that nearly made her fall to the ground.
"Oh, friends who have kissed, you mean," Liang Zhouyi's cool and teasing voice exploded by her ear.
Chu He's eyes widened, her body freezing as if stuck, somewhat unsteady on her feet. She coughed twice and hurried toward the bathroom in her slippers, as if some ferocious beast were chasing her from behind.
Watching her awkward appearance, a gentle smile touched Liang Zhouyi's eyes and lips. Although Chu He still looked like an ostrich now, she was not in a hurry. In any case, Chu He was not going anywhere.
The matter of Wen Xiaoying, however, made Liang Zhouyi's heart sink for no clear reason. Wen Xiaoying's earlier words about hoping she would resign were still fresh in her ears. She truly did not think Wen Xiaoying would do something that actively harmed her own interests, but it was hard to guarantee that this person would not make an issue of it to cause trouble for her. Perhaps the accounts between the two of them would have to be settled sooner or later.
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