Having vanished from in front of Ye Zhen in a flash, Jiang Xiaoyi turned up at the fire-venting club half an hour later.
Her eyes were practically shooting flames, and she wanted nothing more than to book an extra-extra-extra-large fire room right away and let it all out. In her mind she’d already sketched out the whole scene of beating up Ye Zhen, until her senior’s voice pulled her back to reality—
“Xiaoyi, hand out these flyers for me, would you?”
Jiang Xiaoyi looked at the flyers stuffed into her hand, and only then did she snap out of it, as if waking from a dream, and nod.
To pay off her debt faster, the annual membership card at the fire-venting club that Ye Zhen had paid for had already been resold at a discount by the cash-strapped Jiang Xiaoyi, through a former coworker from her old part-time job.
But it was only a drop in the bucket. The extra red envelope she’d been hoping to get from Ye Zhen had fallen through again—luckily, Dan Hui had also offered her a part-time gig—
“Business at the fire-venting club is doing great, I’ve leased out another whole floor, planning to build new scenes and rooms, and there’s a lot of logistics and marketing needs for it too. You helped out back when the club first started, you know the process well, so it’s really great to have you help out part-time.”
Being able to help, Jiang Xiaoyi was happy too.
It was only after actually taking on the job that she realized there wasn’t really much she needed to help with—Dan Hui had probably just set up this part-time role deliberately, to protect her pride.
Ye Zhen was difficult and harsh, like Cinderella’s wicked stepmother; Dan Hui was gentle, considerate, and kind, like a character destined to be a story’s protagonist.
Both bosses, yet worlds apart.
That day, Jiang Xiaoyi came to the fire-venting club and found the other interns needed to go out on the street to hand out flyers, so wanting to help too, she grabbed some flyers and went out with them.
But she’d only handed out a few before Ye Zhen’s call came in—
This man was overbearing and imperious on the other end of the line: “Anna, get over here right now.”
A minute ago he was telling her to disappear immediately, now he wanted her to appear immediately—did he think she was some dog he could summon and dismiss at will? This wasn’t even work hours! It was the weekend!
“Sorry, President Ye, I have personal matters to attend to, it’s not convenient.”
Jiang Xiaoyi hung up after saying this, then swiftly blocked Ye Zhen’s number, which brought her a bit of relief.
There were a lot of people at the weekend commercial district intersection, and Jiang Xiaoyi was handing out flyers pretty quickly. She’d just turned toward an approaching middle-aged man, ready to hand him her last flyer, when just as she raised her hand, a hand reached from behind and intercepted the flyer.
Then came a familiar, sinister voice—
“So this is why you didn’t answer my call.”
Jiang Xiaoyi turned around, and saw Ye Zhen standing behind her with an unpleasant expression. This man picked up the flyer and looked it over: “Fire-venting club?” He frowned. “You really like venting fire that much?”
Ye Zhen paused, then continued: “I won’t interfere with your hobbies, but I can’t tolerate you handing out flyers on the street like this.”
This man raised his voice slightly: “And are you protesting against me? Handing out flyers on the pedestrian street I have to walk through to get to the office—are you trying to make a statement?!”
Jiang Xiaoyi snatched the flyer back from Ye Zhen, unable to hold back: “President Ye, what I do with my non-work time as a side job, as long as it’s not illegal, is my own business. I’m also not bored enough to waste my precious personal time making a statement against you.”
Jiang Xiaoyi added, restrained: “I’m actually quite busy in my private time too.”
“So this is a part-time job?” Ye Zhen acted as though he hadn’t heard her, looking around at the other clearly work-study interns handing out flyers, his face darkening. “You’re not doing this anymore going forward.”
Jiang Xiaoyi’s eyes went wide—this time she was genuinely getting angry: “Does my personal time belong to you too?”
Jiang Xiaoyi had thought her challenge would snap Ye Zhen to his senses, but instead, not only did Ye Zhen show no shame, he pressed his lips together and smiled.
“Of course it does.” This man declared with full conviction. “You’re my assistant, you enjoy a salary five or six times higher than the standard rate for the role, so a kind of contract has formed between us. Although what I pay you is for your working hours, this is effectively a retainer, meaning by default I hold priority rights over your personal time on equivalent terms. All of your time has already been reserved by me in advance—if you need to make your own temporary arrangements, you need to inform me and ask for leave. That’s an assistant’s basic duty.”
Jiang Xiaoyi was simply stunned by Ye Zhen’s twisted logic. She got five or six times the salary precisely because Ye Zhen was five or six times harder to deal with than other bosses—how did paying for that translate into a default right to take priority over her personal time?
“An assistant serves their boss comprehensively—under normal circumstances you should be on call 24 hours a day. If I don’t call you during your personal time, that’s a courtesy on my part, but if I do call, you should appear immediately.”
Ye Zhen looked at Jiang Xiaoyi with disdain: “Besides, I already told you before—if I occupy your personal time for work, I’ll pay extra for it, definitely more than the hourly rate you’re getting handing out flyers on the street right now. What you’re doing now is a total lack of contractual spirit and shows no professional ethics as an assistant whatsoever.”
“Most importantly, it affects my image.” ?
Ye Zhen’s face turned cold: “My, Ye Zhen’s, assistant out handing out flyers on the street—what would people think seeing that? Would I still have any face going out in public? Is it that I’m not paying you enough, or that your workload isn’t full enough?”
Jiang Xiaoyi was so furious at Ye Zhen she couldn’t even speak.
Did all of her time really belong to him just because she worked at his company? And priority rights too? On call 24 hours? An assistant was a person too! She had freedom too! An assistant had a personal life too! This wasn’t even about money! This was about respect!
Yet Ye Zhen didn’t pick up on any of Jiang Xiaoyi’s anger at all, continuing matter-of-factly: “I originally wanted to call you over to deliver an important confidential document to the office, and because you didn’t answer, I had to deliver it myself. Do you know how much my time is worth per minute? Do you know how much time you’ve wasted for me?”
This man shook his head: “Honestly, I don’t even know what the point is of hiring an assistant like you. Good thing it’s only temporary.”
Right, right, right, thankfully it was only temporary—if it weren’t for the thought that in a couple more days she’d get her pay and return to her original position, Jiang Xiaoyi worried she might not make it through.
Happiness was all relative—thinking of Eunuch Li now, Jiang Xiaoyi only found him endearing by comparison.
Ye Zhen shoved the document into Jiang Xiaoyi’s hands: “Since I ran into you here, it must be fate that you finish the job you’re supposed to do. Go deliver it—the client will go to Ruiyi, and you’ll directly proceed with the contract negotiation on my behalf. This meeting, you’ll attend in my place. Director Miao will also be there. My brother’s still waiting at home for me.”
“……”
Jiang Xiaoyi was simply dumbstruck, and the feeling only intensified once she lowered her head and saw the partner company listed in the contract—this was a major client of Ruiyi’s! The deal being negotiated involved a huge amount too. Yet Ye Zhen wasn’t personally going to attend the negotiation meeting at all, just casually having her attend on his behalf—that was really too careless, too irresponsible toward the company…
Out of a sense of duty to do her job well, Jiang Xiaoyi rushed to deliver the document and materials anyway.
After all, in the Project Incubation Department, Jiang Xiaoyi hadn’t had many chances to be involved in high-level business. Now that this counted as her first exposure to the company’s major projects, she thought she might get to see the world and learn something before returning to her original position, and was actually looking forward to it.
But that anticipation was quickly dashed—
The moment she stepped into the meeting room, the thick smell of cigarette smoke made her throat itch.
Director Miao completely ignored the massive no-smoking sign on the wall behind him, leaning back in his chair puffing away, while enthusiastically handing out cigarettes to the partner’s attendees: “Have one, have one, it’ll perk you up…”
Besides Jiang Xiaoyi, Director Miao had also brought two assistants, both women, one of them pregnant. Yet he smoked without any regard or asking anyone’s opinion, and even looked at Jiang Xiaoyi imperiously: “Hey, you there, what are you standing around for? Doesn’t President Ye’s assistant even have that much sense? Get me an ashtray! Then make five copies of this material!”
If she were Ye Zhen, Jiang Xiaoyi would have straightened her back and pushed back on the spot, but she wasn’t some “crown prince”—she was just a powerless, hapless working girl, and even this position as Ye Zhen’s assistant would soon be handed off, returning her to being an ordinary employee in an ordinary department. Going forward when she ran into Director Miao, she’d still have to watch her step around him.
Endure.
In her twenty-some years of life, if there was one thing Jiang Xiaoyi was good at besides bad luck, it was enduring.
She was never the heroine of some triumphant story.
Ruiyi’s headquarters used a fresh-air system, and as a high-rise office building, windows couldn’t be opened to the outside either. Jiang Xiaoyi got Director Miao an ashtray, then handed the photocopying task to the pregnant coworker, so she could briefly escape the secondhand smoke.
Jiang Xiaoyi continued enduring in the thick smoke, and the negotiation meeting she’d been looking forward to never materialized. Instead, Director Miao and the client didn’t discuss anything business-related at all—
The middle-aged major client, Director Lin, glanced at the partnership proposal and grinned: “Old Miao, ha, for this project’s marketing team, the roster in charge of copywriting looks like it’s all women. You’re leaving the writing entirely to women?”
He continued, glancing at Jiang Xiaoyi: “And I see everyone you brought today is a pretty young girl too.” Director Lin smiled, meaningfully. “You’ve got a good eye and quite the luck with the ladies, but why do you even bring a pregnant one along? Or does that belly have something to do with you?”
Although the pregnant coworker being mocked wasn’t present, as a third party Jiang Xiaoyi found these words extremely uncomfortable to hear, yet Director Miao just smiled obligingly—
“Oh come on, Old Lin, what are you joking about—me bringing these young ladies out, isn’t it exactly so you can enjoy the view? As for our pregnant coworker, if she’d met you earlier, she might not even be married and pregnant now, and even if she were pregnant, who knows, the baby’s father might be someone else by now, huh.”
This flattery was disgusting, but it hit Director Lin right in the sweet spot—this greasy middle-aged man laughed loudly, then looked at Jiang Xiaoyi: “Little girl, you write copy too? When it comes to writing, you ladies often have a certain issue—know what the most important thing to watch out for is?”
Jiang Xiaoyi pressed her lips together and said nothing, not knowing what he was getting at.
Director Lin clearly wasn’t expecting Jiang Xiaoyi to answer either. A few seconds later, his greasy voice rang out again: “A lot of what you ladies write, well—the top part’s too full, the two highlights stick out too much, but sadly the bottom part is a bit sparse, and there’s a hole too, way too watery.”
It took Jiang Xiaoyi a full few minutes to register what he actually meant.
She hadn’t expected this so-called major client Director Lin to be nothing like the etiquette-minded successful man she’d pictured in her mind, but instead this kind of vulgar, sleazy man. Nor had she expected anyone could so shamelessly disrespect women like this, cracking dirty jokes like that in front of everyone without so much as blinking.
Wasn’t this blatant workplace sexual harassment?
Jiang Xiaoyi only felt the blood rushing to her face—not from embarrassment, but from anger and humiliation.
For the first time in her life, she felt she could barely stand to endure it any longer.
For money, for a living, she could endure Ye Zhen’s nitpicking and Eunuch Li’s torment, but being mocked with such utter disregard for her dignity like this—Jiang Xiaoyi felt it was a trampling of her personhood; she felt humiliated and furious, her heart heavy as if she’d swallowed lead, suffocatingly so.
Yet Director Miao showed not the slightest intention of smoothing things over, instead joining in with more chuckling, turning to Jiang Xiaoyi to “advise” her, half-seriously: “You hear that? Director Lin’s words of wisdom aren’t given to just anyone—he must like you…”
Judging by Director Miao’s conduct, he was clearly quite familiar with Director Lin, and not only wasn’t surprised by his “bad habit,” he seemed well used to it.
Director Lin, thinking himself hilarious too, laughed loudly: “Just a joke, just a joke, but a lot of you young people really do write with this flaw—me putting it this way, I’m sure you’ll remember it and won’t make this mistake again…”
For the rest of this so-called “meeting,” Jiang Xiaoyi didn’t absorb a single word.
It was only after Director Lin had thoroughly finished mocking her, agreed to the partnership, and been sent off, that Jiang Xiaoyi could no longer hold back—
“Director Miao, why did you treat me that way? You clearly knew what kind of person Director Lin was—why didn’t you stop him?”
Jiang Xiaoyi only felt a sour ache in her chest, tears about to break in her eyes.
Why treat her this way?
What had she done wrong?
Was it because she was ordinary, unremarkable, and had to depend on this nine-to-five job to live, that she had to endure things like this?
Director Miao was stunned for a moment, then glanced at Jiang Xiaoyi with some impatience: “Why did I treat you that way? You should ask President Ye that. It was President Ye who said he wanted this deal closed, but in the end, for such an important major client, he himself didn’t show up—instead he sent you. Isn’t that message clear enough?”
“He obviously knew exactly what kind of character Old Lin has, and wanted to use you as an easy favor to close this deal in one stroke, which is why he specifically sent you to cater to his tastes. Otherwise, what makes you think you’d have any business attending a meeting like this? You’re just an assistant—you know what assistants are for? Fetching tea and pouring water and doing grunt work!”
Ever since Ye Zhen had put management in its place before, Director Miao had clearly been nursing a grudge, and now, seeing Jiang Xiaoyi, he vented it on her: “Think you’re somebody just because you’re an assistant? You’ve eaten less rice than I’ve eaten salt! And you’re asking me why I treated you this way—take a look in the mirror! Bad luck!”
Director Miao stormed out, slamming the door, but Jiang Xiaoyi couldn’t calm down for a long time.
Ye Zhen. It was Ye Zhen again.
No wonder he’d made such a fuss about having her deliver the document and attend the meeting over the weekend—this had been his plan all along! He’d meant to use her being sexually harassed to secure a major client for the company all along!
In that instant, Jiang Xiaoyi’s accumulated resentment—old and new—toward Ye Zhen and her churning emotions nearly reached a boiling point.
But thinking of the debt she still owed, her bank balance, and the salary level in this industry, Jiang Xiaoyi could only force herself to calm down quickly—endure a moment and the storm calms, take a step back and the sea and sky widen.
When facing difficulties, give yourself more chances, give others more chances, keep your mind calm, retreat moderately—that’s true maturity and magnanimity!
Endure, Jiang Xiaoyi, you are the strongest ninja of endurance!
Even Han Xin once endured the humiliation of crawling between someone’s legs! The endurance of today is all for the success of tomorrow!
Besides, many things look different depending on the angle you view them from, and your state of mind changes with it too.
Rather than think of it as having to endure two more days with Ye Zhen, why not think of it this way—she could milk this eccentric Ye Zhen for two more days, earn two more days of temporary assistant pay—wasn’t that basically ridding society of a pest and redistributing the rich’s wealth to the poor?
Jiang Xiaoyi, keep going!
Endure two more days, earn this quick cash, pay off your debt, and you’ll be free of Ye Zhen, successfully back on solid ground, back to your original life, truly having made it through!