Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen: It Could Not Get Any Worse (2/2)
“Hey guys.” Xiao Yu pushed open the door and walked in before asking, “What are you all talking about? let me listen in too.”
At that moment, Xiao Yu’s mood was quite good. He smiled as he waited for people to gather around him to ask about his recovery or about the accident.
However, all he got was a few stammered ‘Chief Xiao’ and an office that instantly went silent.
Some colleagues who were closer to him smiled awkwardly at him. Those who were neutral to him stared at him as if he was an endangered animal, studying him from head to toe as they covered their mouths and spoke to the people sitting beside them in low voices he could not hear.
“Xiao Yu, why did you come back?” the only person that approached him was Lin Zhou. His office was not here, surprisingly he was here. Although, he was not surprised to see Xiao Yu here.
Seeing Lin Zhou’s face made Xiao Yu slightly breathless. He took a few deep breaths and managed to control the urge to raise his fist and punch Lin Zhou in the face.
“My office is here, where else could I go?” Xiao Yu answered coldly.
Lin Zhou turned back and looked at the office. He then turned to pull outside: “Let’s talk outside.”
“Why should we talk outside?” Xiao Yu was not a person with bad temper, but that didn’t mean that didn’t have one. “Some things should be said in front of everyone.”
Lin Zhou frowned: “Our company is having some…”
“How long do you still plan to lie to me?” Xiao Yu gritted his teeth as he stared at Lin Zhou: “From that five, no, that six deals that you gave to Yan Jin from SI, the carpet from cathedral times, the rings from the cruise, the Autumn Release Conference Moonlit Manacles, Heart Lock…”
Lin Zhou’s gaze turned cold instantly.
If the vibe he gave earlier was warm like the spring, gentle and cultivated, then right now, he was without a doubt tearing off the meaningless facade that he had been wearing all along.
He raised his voice and interrupted Xiao Yu’s sentence saying, “You are no longer a staff of SI. There’s no place for you here. I hope you will stop being unreasonable.”
Even though he had had some suspicions, hearing the words from Lin Zhou made Xiao Yu’s anger shoot up to its peak.
“Why did you have to do something like that? Have I done anything wrong to you? You plagiarized so many works of mine…”
“Xiao Yu, stop believing in your own lies!” Lin Zhou was not acting panicky. Instead, he spoke with righteousness: “You believe that your capabilities are outstanding and that even I could not stand stand in your way. You unsuccessfully slandered the mystery designer for stealing for your work and finally walked down the path of no return. As your senior, seeing you becoming what you are today, I cannot avoid responsibility for it. I hope you can acknowledge your problem. You are still young. If you correct yourself, there’s still hope for the better.”
Lin Zhou’s voice was echoing in the entire office, effectively putting Xiao Yu in a daze.
He thought he had mustered enough vigor for that moment but was instantly overwhelmed by Lin Zhou. He did not even have a chance to point out Lin Zhou’s crime and was instead assaulted by countless baseless accusation.
Everyone in the office heard what Lin Zhou had said, but none of them stood up to correct him.
Amongst the buzzing sound in Xiao Yu’s ears, he even heard voices jeering.
“That’s exactly how it is.”
“He actually had the face to come back after creating so much trouble.”
“How could someone have so little self-awareness and not understand the situation. I would just fade away if it was me.”
“If it wasn’t for Director Lin, our design department would be ruined by him. How could he make a false counter charge against us?”
This was probably the most humiliating and helpless moment of Xiao Yu’s entire life.
So, he made a move that was once-in-a-lifetime and reckless. Disregarding the consequences,
he grabbed the display vase near him.
The office was filled with various degree of screaming as Lin Zhou’s body fell to the floor.
Until Xiao Yu was pinned down by several people and completely immobilized, he spared no pains or efforts to beat up Lin Zhou.
“Help! Oh gosh! Security!”
“I’m calling the police.”
“Ohmygod, I actually worked with a person like him. *sobs*”
While Xiao Yu was pulled away, he earned a few punches as well, but he was still not worse off than Lin Zhou.
Until security arrived, everything was a mess. The office was in complete disorder, the running employees and the flowers and soil scattered all over the floor.
Xiao Yu, immobilized, stared at Lin Zhou with a deadly glare.
Lin Zhou got up from the floor with difficulty. Fresh blood rolled off from his forehead to his cheeks. He had to reach out to wipe the blood before he could open his eyes to see.
His whole body was hurting, but his heart had never felt so relaxed before.
At this moment, he was no longer that nice senior who was forever gentle and patient, selflessly watching as his junior overtook him, watching him earn the success that he had been dreaming about, and watching him abandon him and head towards a place that he could never be able to reach.
Instead, he would be a winner, battered and exhausted, who had advanced gradually and entrenched himself at every step, exhausting every trick he had…
A winner.
Lin Zhou got up with the help of the bystanders. He had wounds all over his body, especially his face. For a moment, he looked more like a car accident victim than Xiao Yu.
“Why?”
That was the last question Xiao Yu asked as he was ushered out of the office.
He did not hear Lin Zhou’s answer.
……
Instead, he saw a smile on Lin Zhou’s face,
A smile that belonged to a winner.