She didn’t say much, averting her gaze after a single glance, then took her laptop and headed towards the elevator.
Behind her came the surprised voices of two women. "She’s really leaving?" one of them, another girl, asked.
Li Xin scoffed, "Hmph, what did I say? Designers! So full of themselves!"
Their voices weren’t low, not at all worried Ye Yuning might hear. Ye Yuning’s grip on her laptop tightened. If she weren’t concerned about Xiao Linye right now, she really would have marched back and taught those two busybodies a lesson.
When the HR manager arrived, she saw Ye Yuning walking towards the elevator with a dark expression. The manager’s own expression soured. "Designer Ye, leaving for the day, are we?!"
Recognizing the unkind tone, Ye Yuning shot a cold glance at the HR manager’s forced, insincere smile. "Can’t I?"
"Leave? Of course, you can. It’s time, after all!" the HR manager said, nodding with a smile. But her smile was clearly colder now. As if Ye Yuning leaving on time was some grave misdeed.
Just then, the elevator doors opened. Ye Yuning dropped a remark, "Good that I can. Otherwise, I might have thought working at Xiao’s meant signing my life away." With that, she stepped into the elevator.
Li Xin and the other girl, who had just been discussing Ye Yuning’s departure, along with the HR manager, all found their expressions turning unpredictable.
Li Xin looked at the HR manager. "Manager Zhang, this new designer we’ve hired is quite something—even more arrogant than the previous ones."
Manager Zhang’s expression tightened. "Alright, alright. Get back to your work." Since Mr. Xiao himself had asked her to look out for Ye Yuning, she couldn’t really say much more. However, I should probably report Ye Yuning’s work attitude to Mr. Xiao, she thought.
Ye Yuning left Xiao’s, fuming.
Her phone lit up with an incoming call from Xiao Linye. He answered quickly, "Hello."
"Off work?" Ye Yuning asked. When I worked at Manlang, he always picked me up on time.
Today, however, Xiao Linye said, "I have to work a bit late. You’re off already?" His tone was clearly surprised.
Ye Yuning was already fuming. Hearing that Xiao Linye was also working overtime stoked her anger even more. She took several deep breaths to suppress her frustration. "Yes, I am. Will it be a problem for you?"
Xiao Linye paused, then said, "Not really. You head home first."
"Good, I’m going home then." After saying this, Ye Yuning ended the call.
Overtime, overtime, everyone’s working overtime! The entire Xiao’s is working overtime. Does this Mr. Xiao get some sort of kick out of making people work late?
Thinking of this Mr. Xiao, Ye Yuning had the persistent feeling she was overlooking something. But in her current state of anger, she couldn’t recall a thing.
The phone in her bag vibrated—BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹~𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮~𝚗𝚎𝚝
She took it out and saw it was Chen Wei calling. She answered, "Chen Wei."
The news made Ye Yuning’s head ache. "What kind of bad news?"
Chen Wei said, "One of our projects... the Qin Family has taken it over."
Ye Yuning was speechless. A project... taken over by the Qin Family! What on earth does that mean?
The Qin Family—the very reason she and the Ye Family had completely fallen out. Back then, everyone in Upper City thought she was finished for daring to break off her engagement with the Qins. However, the Qin Family had consistently targeted the Ye Family afterward, not her personally. And now, this...!?
Ye Yuning closed her eyes, reining in her emotions before speaking, "Poached?"
"Oh, no, not poached. Taken over."
Ye Yuning furrowed her brow. "What does that mean?"
"The Xifeng project, the one you were handling, Mr. Wang’s project, remember?" On the other end of the line, Chen Wei sounded frantic, almost jumping out of her skin.
Ye Yuning knitted her brows. "Weren’t we about to wrap it up?" Of course, she remembered Xifeng. It was almost complete, just waiting for the final payment. She had poured a lot of hard work into that project.
Yet, at this moment, Chen Wei said hurriedly, "Yes, it was about to be wrapped up! But now the Qin Family has taken over and instructed us to redo everything from scratch."
Ye Yuning’s mind suddenly reeled. She felt like she must have misheard.
"Say that again! I don’t think I heard you clearly!"
"You heard me right. They want us to redo everything."
This time, Ye Yuning heard her loud and clear. Her head throbbed intensely. She pressed a hand to her forehead. "Who from the Qin Family took over?"
Redo everything from scratch? This whole thing is just... bizarre! The Xifeng project... How much effort had she poured into it? She’d been with it from the beginning. Wasn’t it almost finished by now? What did they mean, redo it? Had the Qin Family demolished the entire thing?
Chen Wei replied, "The Qin Family’s Eldest Young Master, Qin Jinchuan!"
Ye Yuning exclaimed, "What? Isn’t he an idiot?"
Wait! She remembered! Yan Jun had told her that her covert investigation revealed the Qin Family’s eldest son wasn’t an idiot at all. As for why he’d pretended to be one for so many years, it was undoubtedly related to the treacherous internal struggles of the Qin Family.
Chen Wei sounded on the verge of tears on the other end. "I don’t know what happened either! He’s suddenly not an idiot anymore, and he’s even taken over the entire Qin Family!"
The entire Qin Family... This was a massive amount of information to process, and the current situation was a huge shock.
Clutching the phone tightly, she told Chen Wei, "Let me try to sort this out. I’ll call you back in half an hour."
With that, she hung up.