After getting off work, Lin Yanbei pushed a shopping cart through the supermarket near her home, intending to pick up a simple dinner and replenish a few household supplies. Reaching the shelf with wet wipes, she picked up a large, inexpensive pack and tossed it into the cart.
Her phone rang. It was a call from Lin Shiyu.
Lin Yanbei had sent a WeChat message earlier that afternoon, not wanting to call directly since she wasn’t sure if her aunt was available.
“Little Aunt,” Lin Yanbei answered the phone.
“Yanbei-bei~” Lin Shiyu was on vacation and sounded exceptionally cheerful over the speaker. “I just arrived at the hotel in Hokkaido! It’s so much cooler here than in Jingdu. How are things on your end? How was your first day of work? Did you adapt well? Is Jiang Ran treating you nicely?”
Lin Yanbei choked for a second. How exactly should she define “nicely”?
Slapping her and then a sweet date- did that count as good or bad? She walked over to the ready-to-eat section, grabbed a discounted box of sushi, and put it into the cart. After hesitating for a moment, she managed to squeeze out:
“Uh… it’s alright, I guess.”
“Yanbei-bei, why do you sound a bit down? Did Jiang Ran scold you?” Lin Shiyu hit the mark on the first try.
Lin Yanbei curled the corners of her mouth slightly. “Little Aunt, I want to ask you something.”
“Go ahead.”
“Is Architect Jiang… someone who particularly hates other people touching her things?”
She had replayed the morning’s incident in her head and reasoned that Jiang Ran’s outburst was because she had touched her thermos without permission. There had to be an information gap she wasn’t aware of, which was why Sun Wen had managed to set her up so easily.
“She isn’t usually that fussy. What did you touch?”
“A white thermos.”
“A thermos?!” Lin Shiyu gasped.
Lin Yanbei let out a bitter smile. Hearing the turn in Lin Shiyu’s tone, she knew she was right; the issue indeed lay with that cup.
“Yanbei, how on earth did you end up touching her cup?”
Lin Yanbei recounted everything that had happened that morning.
By the time she finished, Lin Shiyu was furious, venting directly through the phone: “Holy shit! How dare Sun Wen! Pulling workplace bullying right on your head, does she think I’m invisible? Just wait until I get back; I’ll settle the score with her. And Jiang Ran too, how is it that the rotten people surrounding her never give her a moment’s peace?”
Lin Yanbei sensitively caught the key phrase: “So she lost her temper because of the water cup, or… because of the rotten people?”
“Sigh, because of the water cup, and also because of the rotten person.”
Lin Shiyu’s voice grew heavy as she explained, “Something Jiang Ran ingested went wrong in the past. Ever since then, she’s been extremely cautious. She strictly refuses to touch or use any cup that someone else has handled. Everyone who’s been at the firm long enough knows about this. Sun Wen targeted you precisely because you’re a newcomer, using that detail to set you up.”
“Something she ingested went wrong?” Lin Yanbei was shocked. “Was she…” Poisoned? Frightened by the thought popping into her head, she physically shook her head to cut off her imagination.
Lin Shiyu, however, picked up the thread: “To be precise, she drank something laced with an allergen.”
Noticing that Lin Shiyu seemed to know the details very well, Lin Yanbei couldn’t help asking, “Do you know who did it?”
“Yes, it was your ex, er, no, I mean her ex…”
Lin Yanbei felt dizzy. “Little Aunt, what are you talking about? What ex?”
Lin Shiyu sighed and said, “How should I put this… Before you came along, Jiang Ran actually had an assistant. Not Sun Wen; she isn’t an assistant. It was a guy named Yin Xu, hired through external recruitment. The guy looked completely dignified and righteous on the surface, but his methods were utterly disgusting.”
“Why did he do that?” Lin Yanbei stopped in her tracks, more and more questions piling up in her head. Even though asking felt like prying into her superior’s gossip, if she didn’t get a clear answer, the scolding she took this morning would have been in vain.
Lin Shiyu hesitated for a moment before saying, “Actually, it’s not much of a secret; there’s nothing that can’t be shared. Let me start from the beginning so you don’t get manipulated or used by others without even realizing it.”
Lin Shiyu began the story from the very start.
“Back then, Jiang Ran won a major award for her design of the Qingzhou Museum. Many clients specifically requested her for their projects, and more than half of the company’s team revolved around her. Yin Xu had just passed his probation period; he had prior experience, so his job was to monitor project workflows for Jiang Ran. His redeeming qualities were his attention to detail, which made him suited for leading projects, and his ability to handle social drinking and business entertainment, making him very useful. Later on, the firm directly assigned him to be Jiang Ran’s assistant.”
“Don’t be fooled by how cold Jiang Ran usually acts, looking as if she keeps everyone at a distance. When it comes to the people she keeps by her side, she imparts everything she knows without holding back. Honestly, she was quite foolish. Nowadays, when other architects mentor newcomers, they keep them around for four or five years to see how much they can absorb on their own. Who else but her, the literal face of the firm, would take on an assistant like a professor taking on a student, teaching him step-by-step right from the beginning?”
“Yin Xu seized upon this point and approached her with a clear motive. Being an assistant wasn’t enough for him; he took advantage of his proximity to show constant warmth and care. Combined with his decent looks, that bastard managed to climb his way up.”
Lin Yanbei now understood what the “two exes” meant: Yin Xu was Jiang Ran’s former assistant, as well as her ex-boyfriend.
Lin Shiyu continued: “As a result, within a few short months, the bastard showed his true colors. He wanted a piece of Jiang Ran’s projects and resources, and he even tried to stick his hands into projects the firm operated privately. By the time it reached Qin Ji’s ears, Qin Ji wanted to step in and give her a warning, but Jiang Ran took the fall for him without a second thought. People in the firm rumored all kinds of things; calling her ‘overprotective’ was already putting it kindly.”
Lin Yanbei couldn’t help but recall the conversation she had overheard in the restroom. So that was the origin of the term “overprotective.” For a rumor to spread so widely and persist for so long, the impact back then must have been massive.
“I remember it very clearly,” Lin Shiyu said. “At that time, the firm was giving its all to win the Shenchuan Resort project. The client had always favored Jiang Ran; think about it: a project located all the way in Sichuan coming to Jingdu to find a designer; you can imagine how much they trusted her, right? To focus entirely on securing the project and avoid affecting Jiang Ran, Qin Ji stopped pursuing Yin Xu’s actions. But to explain to the other shareholders, she stepped in and made a private agreement with Jiang Ran.”
“An agreement? What kind of agreement?” Lin Yanbei didn’t quite understand what type of agreement it could be.
Assuming she was curious about the content, Lin Shiyu paused briefly before explaining, “Only a few shareholders know about this, so don’t spread it around. Qin Ji agreed that after Jiang Ran secured the Shenchuan Resort project, Yin Xu would be allowed to participate in the design and receive a co-signature. However, if they failed to land it, Jiang Ran voluntarily agreed to forfeit five years of her equity dividend distributions.”
Lin Yanbei’s brows knitted tight. Even just listening to it, she found it hard to believe someone could go to such lengths.
What was even harder to believe was, “She went that far for him… How could it end up…”
“How could it end up like that? Because that bastard had no heart! He used Jiang Ran purely as a tool and a stepping stone. Right before the bidding, the single most important scheme presentation was handled by Jiang Ran herself, and she only brought him along. Yet right before the presentation began, Jiang Ran was suddenly taken away by an ambulance, and Yin Xu went completely MIA. That left the presentation high and dry; the client was furious and refused to have any further communication or cooperation with D&A. The firm suffered a massive hit in both finances and reputation.”
“She was taken away by an ambulance… How was she?” Having subconsciously taken Jiang Ran’s side, Lin Yanbei’s heart suddenly grew tense.