Chapter 25: The Target of Criticism
Chapter 25
After who knows how long, Lu Yanming finally ended the kiss.
Li Zhen panted and looked up at him, her ear tips red, "Aren't you angry anymore?"
"No, I'm not angry." Lu Yanming smiled and held her in his arms. He didn't want her to see how he looked right now.
How could he still be angry?
His heart was full of intricate sourness and regret that he didn't even have time for yet.
His self-control, his calmness, crumbled instantly when he saw her holding the pink envelope to look for Yu Sheng.
He was so afraid, afraid that she would go back to Yu Sheng's side again.
But just a few days ago, he was still in M Country, without even the qualifications to meet her and talk to her. He had only had her for a few days, yet he said those things to her because of jealousy.
As soon as she went out, he regretted it.
"Mr. Lu, this is the company..." Li Zhen struggled out of his embrace.
The two of them were only using each other. This was not a romantic relationship.
Lu Yanming straightened up. His face was gentle and elegant. "You've been too merciful to me today. Next time, you can..."
"Next time I can hit you?" Li Zhen interrupted.
"Yes."
Lu Yanming's apologetic attitude was so good that Li Zhen felt bad.
"Okay, Mr. Lu. Let's call it even for the past few days."
"It can't be called even."
"Huh?" Li Zhen frowned.
"Consider me owing you." Lu Yanming's eyes lowered slightly as he gazed at her steadily and attentively.
Li Zhen realized something was not right. She was used to his arrogance and difficulty in arguing back. She was a little unused to his serious look.
"You said it." Li Zhen avoided his gaze as her eyes darted around. "I'm going back to the advertising department."
She circled around his tall figure. The advertising department and marketing department were only a few floors apart, so she went downstairs directly.
The stairs were usually empty.
Only the clear tapping sound of Li Zhen's high heels could be heard.
After walking down two floors, Li Zhen leaned against the wall and clutched her chest. The blush on her face had not yet faded.
When she and Yu Sheng were still husband and wife, they tried their best to take a different route in the company. But Lu Yanming actually secretly kissed her in the company.
She had originally thought it would take at least a few days to argue with Lu Yanming.
But with just a kiss, how could it seem like there was no conflict between them?
Li Zhen's mind was in turmoil and she could not figure it out. She decided not to think about it and went back to the office.
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Sitting at her workstation, she suddenly remembered that she had not done the most important thing yet.
She took out Jiang Kening's love letter, opened it without reading the content, and quickly took a photo to send to Yu Sheng.
She sent a line: [This is Jiang Kening's love letter to you. You won't get to enjoy the paper version. Just take a look at the electronic version.]
Yu Sheng: [?]
Li Zhen: [???]
Yu Sheng: [You're helping someone else deliver a love letter to me?]
Li Zhen: [You think I want to? Your pursuer insisted on asking me to deliver it. What could I do?]
"Little Zhen Zhen, there's a meeting in the conference room. Stop playing with your phone." Zhang Xiya reminded from the cubicle next to her.
"Okay." Li Zhen got up and threw all the messy things to the back of her mind.
The conference room of the advertising department was not very big, with one large rectangular table that could probably seat more than thirty people.
As soon as she walked in, her eyes met Jiang Kening's.
She nodded at Jiang Kening to indicate that she had taken care of it.
But in response, Jiang Kening just gave her a cold smile.
This speed of burning bridges was too fast!
Li Zhen didn't care too much. As long as Jiang Kening stopped pestering her, she would rather Jiang Kening be indifferent to her.
On the projector screen were the newly finalized products.
Macro Sea owned many top luxury jewelry brands.
This time it was launching the Nebula Series of its SCC Jewelry brand, mainly featuring pearls. This set of jewelry included women's necklaces, bracelets, earrings, brooches, as well as men's bracelets, cufflinks, and dress shirt studs, totaling thirty-six pieces.
Standing at the front with a laser pointer was Ren Zongshun, one of the three responsible managers in the advertising department, mainly in charge of model-related affairs.
After briefly introducing the new series, the projector screen switched to a schedule.
"In the past few days, everyone has tried shooting the new products."
"This is the shooting schedule we came up with after reviewing the results and discussing."
"Please take a look to see if there are any issues. If not, proceed according to this schedule."
Generally, no one would object to what several managers had finalized.
Ren Zongshun glanced around at everyone. "You've all seen it, right? Dismiss if there are no issues..."
"Manager, I have an opinion." Suddenly, a voice came from the corner.
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice.
Just as Ren Zongshun was wondering who was making trouble, he saw Jiang Kening stand up. "Manager, everyone can see that the main product being pushed this time for the Nebula Series is that string of stellar bracelets."
Jiang Kening coldly laughed toward Li Zhen in the corner. "But you assigned most of the key shots of it to Li Zhen. She's just a hand model. For such an important main product, it would be more appropriate to let us full-body models do it."
There was a strange phenomenon in the model circle.
Runway models looked down on exhibition models, exhibition models looked down on flat models, full-body models looked down on partial models.
With Jiang Kening's words, most of the full-body models nodded in agreement.
None of them wanted the limelight this time to be snatched away by a small hand model.
If it was someone else, Ren Zongshun would have scolded them already. But considering Jiang Kening's backer, the company's big red person Jiang Keyan, he patiently said, "Li Zhen's hand contours are very suitable for this pearl bracelet. We looked at everyone's test shoot results and this allocation was determined after comprehensive consideration."
Jiang Kening: "Manager, you know that there are many influencing factors on the test shoot results."
Li Zhen had not expected that Jiang Kening's destruction of the bridge this time would be so thorough.
She had just asked her to help deliver the love letter, but now she was snatching the shooting spots right in front of her.
Zhang Xiya was furious as she glared with wide eyes. "Little Zhen Zhen, what's wrong with her today? Things have already been arranged, yet she's still openly competing with you. What is she trying to do?"
At the front of the conference room, Ren Zongshun spoke gently, "Kening, let's talk about this later. Everyone else, go get ready. The shoot will start this afternoon."
Everyone left the conference room.
Whispers circulated among the exiting crowd.
"If Jiang Kening hadn't pointed it out, I wouldn't have noticed."
"It's normal for Li Zhen to get more resources..."
"How can you say that?"
"Think about it. On the first day the new vice president arrived, she dared to throw herself into his arms. How many people could do that? And President Yu, wasn't he also..."
The two chatting suddenly heard a voice next to their ears, "What are you talking about? So quietly?"
When they turned around, they were stunned.
Li Zhen smiled, with a hint of inexplicable coldness in her smile, "Zhang Yucui, if you want to talk behind someone's back, don't be a coward. Speak up so I can hear it too."
After a pause, Li Zhen kindly said, "Or if your throat's not working well, I can get you a megaphone?"
Li Zhen did not lower her voice. The people around had stopped enthusiastically to watch the show.
The narrow hallway in front of the conference room was immediately jammed.
Zhang Xiya stood side by side with Li Zhen, shaking her head in disappointment. "Little Zhen Zhen, you're putting her in a difficult spot. Those with loose lips can never make it big. They only dare to secretly wag their tongues behind people's backs."
Zhang Yucui's face immediately turned red with anger. "You two, mocking me? What did I say wrong? Ask the other colleagues. Everyone's saying you're trying to seduce the new vice president."
Li Zhen: "Oh, is that so?"
"Of course. If you don't believe me, ask them..." Zhang Yucui looked around.
Everyone lowered their heads, either pretending to look at their phones or fidgeting with their hands.
Li Zhen had not scolded them. They would have to be crazy to willingly come knocking and scold Li Zhen.
Mainly, no one felt they could out-argue Li Zhen.
Zhang Yucui: ......
Zhang Yucui's face turned red with anger. "Li Zhen, don't be arrogant. You're just a small hand model. On what basis can you defy us full-body models? What capital do you have that makes you so haughty..."
Zhang Yucui's voice got smaller and smaller as she spoke.
Because the more she spoke, the less confidence she had.
Li Zhen straightened her chest in front of her, straightening her slender waist. Dressed simply in a white blouse and a bodycon skirt, her tall and slender figure was eye-catchingly beautiful, comparable to runway models on the T stage.
Seeing Li Zhen straighten her chest, Zhang Xiya could not help laughing and whispering in Li Zhen's ear, "That capital is big. We all know, stop sticking it out."
Zhang Yucui's face turned pale.
Li Zhen glanced at her and walked towards her workstation.
The people on both sides of the aisle immediately made way automatically.
Passing by Zhang Yucui, Li Zhen's eyebrows arched up slightly, and her eyes curved into a beautiful crescent as she said, "You can speculate about me, and there are plenty who talk behind my back. But next time, don't let me hear it!"
Li Zhen's words were not only meant for Zhang Yucui's ears.
After Jiang Kening's outburst today, she had become the target of everyone's criticisms. She didn't care what others thought of her, as long as they didn't say it to her face.
She had boundaries, so that others wouldn't cross the line.
Those outside in the hallway hadn't heard a thing going on inside the conference room.
Just now, Jiang Kening had been the last to leave. Rather than following the others out the door, she had closed it behind them and turned to face Ren Zongshun. "Manager..."
Ren Zongshun hadn't expected her to be so stubborn this time. "I know what you're thinking, but plans that have already been decided can't be changed."
"Manager, I didn't want to talk to you about that."
"Then what did you want to say?" Ren Zongshun looked puzzled.
"I want to give part of my photo shoot assignments to Li Zhen."
"What?" Ren Zongshun doubted his own ears. "You're a full-body model, she only does hands, she can't handle your shooting assignments..."
Plus, the assignments were directly linked to pay, so how could Jiang Kening bear to give them up?
"The company has always valued her highly, giving her more opportunities would be good training for her." Before he could say more, Jiang Kening smiled and placed a membership card on the conference table. "Oh right, this is a membership card for a restaurant you go to often. I don't really go there myself, so why don't you use it."
Around four in the afternoon, the marketing director's office was still in a meeting after a full day had passed.
Many versions of the marketing plan for the new product line had been drafted, and it wasn't until the afternoon that they finally settled on one. Now all that remained was to finalize the execution details.
In the three years since joining Macro Sea, Yu Sheng had gone from supervisor to manager and now director, while also grooming many capable subordinates along the way.
One of them was Zhao Yan, the current marketing manager who was giving a report.
He was also the one who had given up his seat to Li Zhen at lunch.
After Zhao Yan finished presenting, Lu Yanming asked some questions which Zhao Yan answered one by one.
Wang Pengqi was already nodding off, but forcefully kept his eyes wide open to pretend he was listening attentively.
Sitting to the side, Yu Sheng had to admit that although he didn't like the new deputy director, their thinking aligned surprisingly well when it came to work.
"Director Lu, I need to step out for a document." Zhao Yan lowered his head to ask Lu Yanming for permission.
Lu Yanming nodded.
It was a full five minutes later before Zhao Yan returned.
Zhao Yan handed the file to Lu Yanming, stealing unnatural glances at Yu Sheng.
Yu Sheng noticed and lifted his eyelids to look at him. "What's the matter?"
"Director Yu," Zhao Yan lowered his voice, but it was still clear in the quiet office, "Li Zhen from the advertising department..."
Lu Yanming who was looking through the file stopped his motions.
Yu Sheng's gaze darkened.
Zhao Yan: "Something's happened to her."