Song Shan’s pre-interview test scores had undoubtedly been good; otherwise, she wouldn’t have made it to the interview stage in the first place.
After the other interviewers had asked their share of questions, it was Su Mu’s turn. Without a moment’s hesitation, she drew a line through her name on the evaluation sheet.
To put it bluntly, there were countless candidates who were far more outstanding than Song Shan—what did she amount to?
Meanwhile, Song Shan’s anxious gaze swept over Su Mu from time to time, her heart filled with unease.
How could she not understand by now? To sit in the interviewer’s seat right after graduation, Su Mu had to have a major connection with the Su Corporation.
“Alright, you may go now. We will send the results to your email in two days,” one of the interviewers said with a polite smile.
Yet Song Shan had already read her fate clearly on Su Mu’s face, a sudden tightness constricting her chest.
She had prepared for so long for this interview, only for things to go disastrously wrong at the final hurdle.
And the biggest problem hadn’t even been her own performance.
She could tell that Su Mu possessed far greater authority than any of the other interviewers present. Although the others hadn’t explicitly said anything, they had clearly been satisfied with her—and now…
With reddened eyes, Song Shan rose to her feet to leave. Just as she reached the door, she suddenly spun around and asked a question that had absolutely nothing to do with the job.
“Su Mu—did Qing’er know about your true identity?”
“She knew. She knew a year ago. Why? Did she never tell you?”
Without hesitation, Su Mu rubbed salt right into Song Shan’s raw wound.
Song Shan’s face drained of color. Forcing herself to maintain a composure she didn’t feel, she walked out of the room, her heart steeped in utter desolation and grief. She sprinted frantically into the restroom, crouched inside a stall, and let her tears spill over uncontrollably.
Xiang Qing had known all along! Joining the Su Corporation was what Song Shan had yearned for most, and she had spent over a year preparing for it.
That was, until Xiang Qing claimed that the President of the Shen Corporation was pursuing her, offering to let them intern at his company where the work was easy and they could be retained permanently.
With the President as their backer, even a titan like the Su Corporation couldn’t compare.
That was why every time she saw Xiang Qing being “bullied” by Su Mu, she had always been the very first to step up and defend her.
Even knowing that Su Mu was Shen Yeyi’s fiancée, she had genuinely believed that Su Mu was nothing more than an obstacle ruining the true love between Xiang Qing and Shen Yeyi.
She had never once stopped to think—for someone to be Shen Yeyi’s fiancée, how could her background possibly be weak?
She only had her own stupidity to blame. Every time the topic came up, Xiang Qing had given vague, evasive answers, and she had blindly believed every word!
She had never bother to investigate Su Mu’s background, blindly allowing herself to be used as a hired gun.
Then came senior year, when a barrage of unexpected disasters struck, stripping them of even the chance to intern at the Shen Corporation.
Later, when Shen Yeyi became engaged to another woman, Xiang Qing’s hopes were completely shattered—and Song Shan’s dreams went down with them.
Having dragged things out until now, even her very last shred of hope to enter the Su Corporation was completely gone.
“Xiang Qing!”
Song Shan gnashed her teeth in pure hatred.
Why?! Knowing full well that I desperately wanted to join the Su Corporation, why did you constantly incite me to target Su Mu, both out in the open and behind the scenes?!
WHY?!
“Shan’shan? Shan’shan…?”
Xiang Qing’s soft, calling voice echoed from outside. Song Shan wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and slowly pushed open the stall door.
“Shan’shan, what’s wrong?”
Xiang Qing had no idea what had just transpired inside. She rushed forward in a flurry to comfort Song Shan.
“Shan’shan, did you not pass the interview? It’s alright, there are definitely better places out there for us! We don’t have to stay at this Su Corporation.”
In truth, Xiang Qing looked down on the Su Corporation from the bottom of her heart. She found that woman Su Mu utterly revolting, shamelessly hooking up with men everywhere she went.
“Xiang Qing—did you know all along that Su Mu belongs to the family behind the Su Corporation?”
Song Shan asked in a cold, trembling voice, desperately holding back her sobs.
Xiang Qing froze on the spot. Looking into Song Shan’s eyes, she found herself completely speechless, unable to utter a single word.
Catching her reaction, Song Shan understood everything in an instant, the final ember of hope in her heart vanishing into ash.
Since Xiang Qing knew Su Mu belonged to the Su family, why had she encouraged her to come here today? To let her be publicly humiliated?!
“Xiang Qing, you are disgusting!”
SLAP!
Song Shan delivered a heavy, stinging slap across Xiang Qing’s face, then turned on her heel and stormed out of the restroom in a rage.
Struck to the side, Xiang Qing stared down at the floor in utter disbelief, her mind completely blank for a moment.
Why…?
Why did everyone have to betray her?! Even her best friend was leaving her behind—why?!
What on earth had she done wrong?!
Was falling in love with Yeyi truly a crime?!
She and Yeyi were truly in love—why did everyone have to stand in their way?!
They simply wanted to be together; she hadn’t done anything wrong!
Xiang Qing squatted in the restroom and sobbed aloud, her heart filled with extreme grief. Taking out her phone, she finally removed Shen Yeyi’s number from her blacklist and dialed his phone.
Before it could even ring twice, the call was picked up, and a man’s urgent, anxious voice resounded from the other end.
“Qing’er! Qing’er, is that you?! Where are you? Talk to me, I’m so worried about you!”
“Yeyi… I’m in so much pain, I’m hurting so badly…”
Xiang Qing burst into bitter tears. Shen Yeyi grew frantic with worry, doing his best to gently comfort Xiang Qing before quickly storming out of his office to pick her up.
“President, there is still an urgent document…”
“Leave it there. I’ll process it later!”
Shen Yeyi irritably loosened his tie, exiting the office and driving at high speed toward the location Xiang Qing had mentioned.
As for Xiang Qing, after hanging up the phone, she wiped the tears from her face, pressed her lips together, and slowly walked out of the restroom. Half of her face was severely swollen, her eyes still shimmering with a veil of tears.
Completely unaware of this drama, Su Mu was still busy reviewing interns.
In the end, she selected a total of seven candidates for Su Chen to make his personal pick. The group included both men and women, after all, the secretarial profession wasn’t strictly reserved for females.
Once Su Mu finished her work, she returned to the executive office only to find Su Chen radiating an icy aura—it was easy to imagine he had been pushed to his limits by frustration.
As expected, playing the grand CEO wasn’t all that easy after all.
Rather than asking Su Chen directly, Su Mu went straight to search for Yin Wenbo.
“What happened during the meeting just now?”
“Sigh, issues big and small alike. Especially some of the company’s founding veterans—relying on their age and seniority to act with total arrogance…”
Yin Wenbo didn’t go into granular detail, but Su Mu understood completely.
These founding veterans who had helped build the Su Corporation’s empire from the ground up were no longer satisfied with merely receiving dividends in retirement. Instead, they wanted their descendants to continue infiltrating the company.
What they desired was far more than mere dividends—they wanted control.
Usually, they would boss everyone around and interfere with decisions; whenever they made a mistake, they would play the victim using their status as founding veterans.
They made it seem as if the company lacked human warmth, unable to even tolerate these old-timers.
Consequently, they often wielded considerable power over the company’s strategic decisions.
Su Mu pressed her lips together. Certain veterans definitely needed to be removed, but the company’s current situation wasn’t suited for cutting through the Gordian knot with a swift blade; a meticulous plan was required instead.
Without interfering excessively in this matter, Su Mu focused on familiarizing herself with everything in the company as quickly as possible.
Without a solid grasp of the company’s operations, discussing these grand strategies was completely useless.
After picking up Xiang Qing, Shen Yeyi immediately drove her back to his private apartment.
The apartment was a place Shen Yeyi had bought for Xiang Qing to live in ordinarily. The moment they stepped inside, Shen Yeyi couldn’t wait to wrap Xiang Qing in a passionate kiss.
The two entangled with desperate intensity, as if trying to kiss away all the pain of the past few days.
After an unknown period, Xiang Qing lay limply in Shen Yeyi’s arms, her heart feeling a wave of deep satisfaction. Yet a second later, she gripped Shen Yeyi’s clothes with sudden, nervous anxiety.
“Yeyi… I… I…”
Xiang Qing raised her head, her watery eyes gazing up at Shen Yeyi, sending his heart fluttering into chaos.
“Qing’er…”
Shen Yeyi pecked at the corner of Xiang Qing’s lips again, but Xiang Qing couldn’t bring herself to smile no matter what.
Noticing Xiang Qing’s gloomy, despondent expression, Shen Yeyi wrapped his arms around her even tighter.
“Qing’er, what happened? Tell me, alright?”
After a moment of hesitation, Xiang Qing endured the heartache and pushed Shen Yeyi away, tears cascading down her cheeks once more.
“Ah-Yei… let’s not see each other again in the future, alright? You are already engaged, and I… and I…”
Xiang Qing squatted down in tears, hugging herself helplessly.
Heartbroken, Shen Yeyi hurriedly tried to embrace her, only for Xiang Qing to push him away sharply, her expression breaking down completely.
“Ah-Yeyi, let’s not meet again! Never see each other again! You have a fiancée now, you already have a fiancée! And I am nothing at all—even the baby in my stomach will be branded as an illegitimate child in the future!”
Xiang Qing’s voice bordered on a screeching roar. In utter grief, Shen Yeyi held her tightly in a fierce embrace.
“Qing’er, did someone say something to you?! Was it someone?!”
Under Shen Yeyi’s intense questioning, Xiang Qing finally poured out the entire story.
“It was Zhao Shanshan… She told me to abort the baby in my stomach…”