One Year After Her Sister-In-Law Was Widowed - Chapter 18

Ji Zhuozhou was clearly a bit surprised to see her, but he stepped out of the elevator naturally. “Why are you here?”

Xiao Shuangyu hadn’t expected to run into Ji Zhuozhou here either. She looked up in a daze, glancing at the floor indicator on the elevator.

The sixth floor. It wasn’t the ninth floor where she had seen Ji Zhuozhou several times before.

Noticing her confusion, Ji Zhuozhou explained, “Our offices are on this floor. Most of us come here during the lunch break.”

Although the perfumers always seemed to stay in the lab, they didn’t spend the entire day there. The offices on the sixth floor were used for handling other tasks.

Xiao Shuangyu nodded, remembering that Wang Ran had mentioned on her first day that the Perfumery Department had offices on this floor.

The people who had gotten off the elevator with Ji Zhuozhou had already walked away. Xiao Shuangyu glanced back. “I… I forgot to press the floor button after getting into the elevator, so I just stepped out to take a look.”

It was an excuse.

She didn’t mention at all why she had gotten into the elevator at this time in the first place.

Since she didn’t say it, Ji Zhuozhou didn’t ask. “I see. Do you want to come and see where my workstation is?”

Xiao Shuangyu’s eyes widened instantly, and she nodded rapidly.

The office was crowded, and it was currently a break period, so Ji Zhuozhou led Xiao Shuangyu to the doorway and pointed to an empty spot with a small pot of mint on it. He whispered, “That’s the one.”

His deep green eyes turned back to look at her, a faint smile playing across his features. “It’s easy to recognize, isn’t it?”

Xiao Shuangyu suddenly felt that the location of Ji Zhuozhou’s office desk looked very familiar, as if she had just focused on it a moment ago. Before she could figure it out, she caught sight of someone out of the corner of her eye.

She turned her gaze; opposite the mint sat the person who had been leading the newcomer earlier.

Xiao Shuangyu couldn’t help but wanted to frown. She pulled her gaze back to look at Ji Zhuozhou, about to say something, but she was momentarily dazed by Ji Zhuozhou’s curved eyes and smile. She simply nodded.

A message from Wang Ran arrived; her break time was over.

Soon, Ji Zhuozhou escorted her back to the elevator, standing outside and waving to her.

Xiao Shuangyu mimicked Ji Zhuozhou’s wave. The pitch-black tentacles around her crowded into the closing elevator doors, twisting and clamoring without being affected in the least.

She still hadn’t received a message from Ji Zhuozhou.

However, on the last noon of her morning shift, she had not only met Ji Zhuozhou but had also spoken with him.

Ji Zhuozhou had smilingly shown her his workstation and smilingly sent her downstairs, his expression devoid of any coldness.

This surge of excitement diluted her unhappiness, giving her strength to her afternoon work.

It even lasted until 4:00 PM the next day. Xiao Shuangyu, who had switched shifts, appeared at the Huarui Building without being as unhappy as she had imagined.

Xiao Shuangyu had been reported.

As soon as she clocked in, before Wang Ran could go upstairs to the HR department to inquire, she took her aside and asked what was going on.

Xiao Shuangyu blinked and shook her head.

Wang Ran patted her shoulder with an air of “I’ve got your back” and went upstairs to fight—no, to argue.

Before long, Wang Ran came down fuming, cursing that the HR people had eyes only for show.

The reason Xiao Shuangyu was reported was for “harassing employees.” Allegedly, the evidence was conclusive, but they refused to show Wang Ran what that evidence actually was.

Claiming they couldn’t disclose the whistleblower’s information, they insisted on docking Xiao Shuangyu’s salary and demanding an apology. If her attitude wasn’t good, she would be fired.

Wang Ran ignored them completely, slammed the door, and left. No one dared to stop her.

Xiao Shuangyu handed Wang Ran a glass of water, her mind turning dryly, unable to fathom how she could have been reported.

Before she could reach a conclusion, she was called away by HR, and they wouldn’t let Wang Ran follow.

While heading upstairs, Xiao Shuangyu suddenly received a message from Ji Zhuozhou.

Sailboat: Has LianLian come to work?

This was the first message from Ji Zhuozhou in several days. Xiao Shuangyu was stunned for a moment before reacting, instantly becoming extremely excited.

She hurriedly replied with an “un,” staring at her phone screen somewhat nervously, wondering if Ji Zhuozhou would continue the conversation.

Sailboat: Are you used to this schedule yet?

There really was more!

Xiao Shuangyu was overjoyed. Looking at the question, she scratched her head and answered honestly.

I don’t know, I’ve been reported, I’m on my way to HR.

Below the contact’s name “Sailboat,” the status “The other party is typing…” appeared and didn’t disappear for a long time, as if he had a lot to say.

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t get to see what Ji Zhuozhou was going to say to her. She was led into a small meeting room, and her phone was confiscated.

The HR person opposite her wasn’t the one who had interviewed her. A stern face carried an aggressive expression. “If you don’t apologize, the other party will choose to call the police. By then, it won’t be something an apology can fix.”

“If this blows up, it won’t look good for you or the company. Xiao Shuangyu, don’t make things difficult for the company.”

Xiao Shuangyu sat across from her. Neither her expression nor her inner thoughts showed any ripple.

This level of sternness wasn’t even one-thousandth of her mother’s. She was long accustomed to facing it. She only spoke after the other person finished, her voice carrying clear confusion. “What did I do?”

The HR person’s tone became even harsher. “You don’t know what you did? Don’t play dumb with me here!”

Xiao Shuangyu looked at her. “Are you really here to mediate?”

The HR person snapped, “You…”

The sound of a ringing phone interrupted her. The HR person glanced at it, hurriedly grabbed the phone, turned away to leave the small meeting room, and answered with extreme deference.

“Hello, Manager Li. Yes, please go ahead.”

“No, no, I was just asking.”

“How could I? I’m a very fair person… A misunderstanding, it’s all a misunderstanding… The person just took the elevator; she didn’t do anything… Yes, yes, definitely not.”

“Right, right, I’ll make it clear, I definitely won’t spread rumors… I guarantee it will be handled well… Yes, Manager Li, I’ll let you get back to work, yes, yes…”

Disconnected fragments of the voice drifted in from outside. It wasn’t very clear, but it was enough to get the gist.

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t intentionally listen, nor did she turn to look. She maintained the same posture she had when the HR person left, sitting quietly.

Soon, the call ended, and the HR person returned.

The returning HR person was clearly different from before. Her back was bowed, her chin lowered, and a smile was plastered on her face.

She sat down, rubbing her hands together as she looked at Xiao Shuangyu. “Oh my, look at this mess. It’s all a misunderstanding.”

Seeing that Xiao Shuangyu ignored her, the HR person finally stopped being coy and told the truth. “It was yesterday at noon, right? You went upstairs once?”

“Maybe you were looking at something then, and it turns out a newcomer just arrived. She doesn’t know anything and thought you were looking at her. It’s just making a mountain out of a molehill…”

Xiao Shuangyu spoke up, “I was looking at them.”

The HR person froze for a moment.

Xiao Shuangyu finally knew why she had been reported. She brought up the “them” that HR had tried to gloss over and asked, “Am I going to be fired?”

The HR person quickly denied it. “How could that be? Who says you can’t look at people in an elevator? Besides, you’re the company’s security guard; your job is to pay more attention to anomalies.”

Xiao Shuangyu felt it was strange. She asked about the “conclusive evidence” and then about the “apology” and “calling the police.”

The HR person felt guilty from the questioning and hurriedly ushered her out of the meeting room, returned her phone, and rambled on about a lot of things. The general idea was that there was nothing wrong with the surveillance or the statements, but someone had been determined to get her fired.

That was why neither Wang Ran nor she could see the evidence—it was an attempt to trick her into leaving.

After hearing the HR person’s repeated guarantees that she would handle the matter properly and ensure no rumors would spread, Xiao Shuangyu was sent back downstairs in a daze.

She then watched the HR person explain the “misunderstanding” to Wang Ran with a cordial attitude, leaving Wang Ran looking equally bewildered.

Once the person left, Wang Ran walked over. “What happened? What did you do up there?”

Xiao Shuangyu thought about it and told Wang Ran everything truthfully. She also mentioned that HR had taken a phone call, though she didn’t say how much of the conversation she had overheard.

Wang Ran looked at her in amazement. “You aren’t a relative of some high-level executive, are you?”

Xiao Shuangyu shook her head decisively.

As for “Manager Li” from the HR phone call, Xiao Shuangyu’s knowledge of her was limited to a professional greeting. The rest was what Wang Ran told her.

This included the fact that Manager Li was the second-in-command under the General Manager of Huarui’s domestic branch. Given that the General Manager had never appeared for a long time, she was essentially the undisputed leader of Huarui.

Hmm, how could she have the status to make the top leader of Huarui personally call HR over her trivial matter?

Wang Ran didn’t really believe it either, but she nodded. “True, at your age, if you had a relative who was a big leader here, you shouldn’t be working as a security guard.”

Turning back, she asked her again, “Were you really just looking around casually?”

She was asking about her looking at people in the elevator. She didn’t even ask how Xiao Shuangyu was looking. Having worked together for a while, Wang Ran could already imagine the expression on Xiao Shuangyu’s face that caused the misunderstanding.

It wasn’t intentional, but most of the time, Xiao Shuangyu’s expression looked like a grumpy, gloomy sort of look.

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t overthink it further and just shook her head. “No, that person had a foul mouth.”

Wang Ran burst out laughing. “Then they really aren’t hygienic.”

Xiao Shuangyu stopped looking at Wang Ran and hurriedly picked up her phone to message Ji Zhuozhou.

Xiao Shuangyu: I’m back, it was a misunderstanding.

Quickly, the other side replied with an [un].

Xiao Shuangyu looked at that single word happily. Suddenly, she remembered that Ji Zhuozhou’s “typing…” status from earlier hadn’t resulted in a sent message. She hesitated over whether she should ask about it.

She completely failed to realize that Ji Zhuozhou actually knew about her little trouble because she had told him.

Ji Zhuozhou was an important perfumer at Huarui. If it were Ji Zhuozhou’s request, perhaps Manager Li really would take an interest in her.

Ultimately, Xiao Shuangyu put down her phone. She didn’t remember anything, and she didn’t ask anything.

At six o’clock, Xiao Shuangyu stood in front of the Huarui main entrance, counting the people leaving one by one, her heart longing for the meeting with Ji Zhuozhou.

Before long, the scent of misty rain drifted toward her.

Stepping close, Ji Zhuozhou looked up slightly at her face. “You worked hard today. See you tomorrow.”

Xiao Shuangyu’s heartbeat violently, but quite suddenly, she felt that those green eyes knew everything that had happened today.

The thought came and went quickly. She carefully curved the corners of her pitch-black eyes and, quite openly, responded.

“See you tomorrow.”