Ruan Sheng grew even more curious. "Submitting a resume? To which company?"
"Lexingdao."
Ruan Sheng's hand on the steering wheel paused. He turned his head, looking at her with an extremely peculiar expression.
"Lexingdao? Isn't that the cultural and entertainment enterprise under the Huo Clan? I remember the top executive is Huo Jing, Huo Yanzhi's biological aunt."
He chuckled teasingly. "Tell me, you're not serious, are you? Chasing someone all the way to their aunt's doorstep?"
Ruan Yao's cheeks flushed slightly. "I majored in design in university. That company has been developing in the trendy art toy field these past two years, and I'm very interested."
She paused, then added, "I'm genuinely serious about wanting to work at Lexingdao."
On one hand, she truly was aiming for Huo Yanzhi.
She and Huo Yanzhi currently had no intersection; she could only take the initiative to create one.
But on the other hand, she was aiming for Huo Jing.
Ruan Sheng neither affirmed nor denied her explanation. After thinking it over, he wasn't optimistic about this matter.
Not optimistic in every aspect.
Lexingdao had been rapidly gaining momentum in recent years, rising to the top three in the domestic field. It seemed lively on the surface, but in reality, compared to the money-devouring beast that was the Huo Clan, this Lexingdao was considered the least profitable.
That industry was deep and murky, still not fully established. After years of hard work, it wouldn't earn much money. Huo Jing holding it up there was just testing the waters in a blue ocean. Though called a Huo Clan industry, it was actually quite marginal.
Moreover, Huo Jing was famously known in the circle as the Iron Lady, with a very tough approach.
The people under her were either veterans who had followed her for many years or elites poached from the industry. His sister, a fresh graduate, simply couldn't catch the eye of that female demon.
Most likely, her resume would be filtered out by HR in the first round.
Looking at his sister's clear eyes, Ruan Sheng ultimately didn't voice these discouraging words.
Forget it, she's a fresh graduate; hitting walls in the workplace is an inevitable path.
The car soon arrived at the building of the Ruan company.
Ruan Sheng unbuckled his seatbelt. "I have things to attend to upstairs. Will you be alright on your own? Do you still remember where Cousin's office is?"
"No need, I remember." As Ruan Yao spoke, her hand rested on the car door but didn't push it open immediately.
She seemed hesitant to speak.
"Brother, what do you think… how is Cousin performing at the company?"
Hearing this, Ruan Sheng curled his lip, his face full of disdain.
"High ambitions but low abilities, and loves to show off. But fortunately, his current position looks glamorous but holds little real power, so he can't cause any major disasters."
He looked at his sister, somewhat curious. "Why suddenly care about this?"
Ruan Yao lowered her eyes, her fingers tightening around the umbrella handle she held in her arms.
"I just feel that Cousin's character isn't very good." She raised her head, looking directly into Ruan Sheng's eyes. "I'm afraid he might do something in the future… that harms our family."
The casualness on Ruan Sheng's face faded a little.
He glanced around, lowering his voice. "You can say that in front of your brother, but don't go saying it in front of Mom and Dad, especially Mom. She'd be sad if she heard it."
"I know," Ruan Yao replied softly.
"Alright, go on." Ruan Sheng waved his hand at her.
Ruan Yao bid farewell to Ruan Sheng and walked alone toward the department where Su Mingyuan was located.
The receptionist and employees along the way stopped upon seeing her, respectfully greeting her.
"Good day, Miss Ruan."
Ruan Yao smiled and nodded in response, then walked familiarly toward Su Mingyuan's department.
She remembered Su Mingyuan's office was at the end of the corridor, tucked away in a corner of the marketing department.
A position with little real authority, but leisurely and well-paid.
Before she even reached the door, she could hear a man's raised, impatient voice scolding from inside.
"Lin Weiwei, is this the proposal you came up with? How dare you submit something like this?"
"Regarding the innovative points for the amusement park collaboration character, didn’t I already give you direction during the last meeting? Why didn’t you use it? Why insist on using your own wishful thinking?"
"You’re a newcomer, your foundation isn’t even solid, yet you’re always trying to come up with flashy ideas. I gave you this project as an opportunity, but you can’t be this irresponsible!"
Ruan Yao paused her steps and didn’t knock.
She pressed against the door, listening quietly.
Inside the office, a weary female voice spoke softly.
It was Lin Weiwei.
"Supervisor Su, the core innovation of this proposal is based on the market research we conducted last week. The data shows that young consumers nowadays prefer traditional Chinese-style designs, so I boldly incorporated ink-wash elements…"
"Data, data, all you know is data!" Su Mingyuan’s voice cut her off. "Data is dead, but people are alive! Do you have any idea how difficult that client is? If I hadn’t smoothed things over in advance, you wouldn’t even have had the chance to meet him!"
"I’m being strict with you for your own good. You need to polish your skills so you can stand on your own in the future."
Su Mingyuan’s voice softened, adopting a tone of someone bestowing a favor.
"Just like with this new project—if I hadn’t stepped in at the last minute to save the day, would the materials you compiled have impressed the client? What you did was just the tedious work of organizing information. The truly crucial decisions still had to be made by me."
Ruan Yao’s fingers, hanging at her side, slowly curled into fists.
This project.
She remembered now.
In her past life, it was because of this project’s success that her father had publicly praised Su Mingyuan at the board meeting for the first time, believing he had finally matured and was no longer just a clever but inexperienced young man.
It was because of this project’s "success" that Su Mingyuan was promoted to deputy manager of the project department, gaining his first access to the company’s core operations and paving the way for him to later steal technology and sign the guarantee contract.
So, all his so-called achievements, his so-called growth—they were all stolen.
Stolen from Lin Weiwei.
Bang! The sound of a stack of documents being slammed onto the desk echoed from inside.
"Enough, no more explanations. Follow your new ideas and make sure you finish the revisions tonight and submit them to me."
The sound of a chair being pushed back and muffled footsteps came from inside the room.
The doorknob turned.
Just as the door was about to be pulled open from the inside, Ruan Yao raised her hand, a pure and harmless smile spreading across her face, and gently pushed the door open before the person inside could step out.
The door swung open, revealing Lin Weiwei’s face, etched with exhaustion and stubbornness.
She was holding a thick stack of documents in her arms and was clearly taken aback by Ruan Yao’s sudden appearance.
Ruan Yao’s gaze swept past her, landing on the man behind the desk who was about to lose his temper. Her voice was soft and sweet.
"Cousin."
Su Mingyuan, who had been ready to explode at someone barging in without knocking, instantly switched from impatience and anger to fawning delight upon seeing Ruan Yao, like a Sichuan opera performer changing masks.
"Yaoyao?"
He promptly rose from his executive chair and hurried around the desk.
"Oh, what brings you here today? You should have let me know in advance—I would have come downstairs to pick you up."