Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Three: Discussion (1/2)
Mr. Mystery was the driver who caused the accident?!
……
That afternoon, all of YL except for Yan Jin and the senior executives engaged in the fiercest discussion they’d ever had.
“I say, shouldn’t there be a problem with this?”
“There’s problems no matter how you think about it.”
“I can’t comprehend this.”
“Let’s summarize what we know for sure. First, the mystery designer that appeared a year ago is FISH from the company across the street. Next, FISH got into a car accident with Chairman Yan in March. Finally, Chairman Yan has recruited FISH here to YL.”
“No matter what, Chairman Yan couldn’t have signed the offending driver, right?”
“Right, right. How could that be? It would be scary to have such a murderer in our midst.”
“I’m still recovering slowly from the shock of the accident. At least there weren’t any major injuries. If it were me, I’d never want to see the assassin ever again. It’s too scary.”
“Right, right. It’s fortunate that nothing worse happened.”
“What do you mean nothing worse? Chairman Yan had gauze on him during the funeral. It really hurt my heart to see that.”
“That’s still pretty good. My uncle once got into a car accident and spent two months in the hospital.”
“Heaven helps the worthy, and Chairman Yan was born under a lucky star. Someone said that if Chairman Yan hadn’t called emergency services quickly, that culprit wouldn’t have survived.”
“What? Did that really happen?”
“I am not sure if I should be saying this, but I heard that FISH didn’t sustain any major injuries either.”
“What? How can that be? Wasn’t it said that he was in a coma for a long time?”
“I also heard that. I have a friend at SI who told me that FISH returned to work the day after the accident to cause some more trouble before getting fired.”
“Maybe not the very next day, but it’s true he returned to perfect health really quickly.”
“Coincidence?”
“…I feel like it’s not.”
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence either.”
The group fell silent, pondering over the events that didn’t seem to make much sense.
“Wait, let’s not get distracted. Isn’t the primary issue determining whether FISH is Mr. Mystery?”
“Eh? Wasn’t that already confirmed? Director Shao said so.”
“What? Was I the only one that thought we were discussing why Chairman Yan would hire the driver who caused the accident?”
“It’s because the primary issue isn’t whether FISH is the offending driver. It’s if he’s Mr. Mystery.”
“… Can I say something? Isn’t the primary issue dependent on why FISH would want to cause trouble?”
“Ohh, seconded.”
“Thanks for enlightening us.”
“I always thought something felt wrong. So it was actually that.”
“Yeah, FISH is the mystery designer. He’s helped us for so long. Why would he want to cause trouble for the Chairman?”
“The mystery designer appeared a year ago. Does that mean FISH was already preparing to cut ties with SI a year ago?”
“But then, isn’t it a little dumb of SI to forcefully terminate him? They’d have to pay the severance package.”
“That must mean SI definitely didn’t know FISH wanted to cut ties.”
“I’d guess that they also didn’t know FISH was the mystery designer.“
“So what you guys mean is that this was all orchestrated by FISH? He deliberately provoked SI to fire him when he’d finished all his preparations to leave SI and join us?”
“That logic is flawed. Why would the mystery designer with his talents feel the need to prepare for so long to find his next job? Although we can be considered to be pretty good in city S, but it’s not like city S is the only city in the world. In reality, in terms of the jewelry industry, cities B or H are better than city S.
“Maybe he has some reason that he needs to stay in city S?”
“That sounds pretty far-fetched…”
“Speaking of which, is FISH really that talented? I feel like the mystery designer is better than him.”
“Holy shit?”
“Holy shit!”
“Holy shit.”
“Holy shit…”
“Hey, what’s wrong with you guys?”
“I think I’ve discovered something.”
“Me too.”
“Me three…”
“What? Stop messing around and tell me. Everyone’s waiting.”
“It’s not quite polite to say…”
“Let’s choose a representative to explain. The first ‘holy shit’ was from Director Shao. Director Shao, if you please…”
“Hey you little rascals… okay sure, I can spread some speculation. What speculation? Well, I didn’t personally see, but I heard that… didn’t FISH specially come to accuse the mystery designer of plagiarizing his work?”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm….”
“The fuck? So you’re saying that he was just acting?”
“This could explain the issue of FISH’s capabilities.”
“I feel like I’m pretty close to the truth now.”
“What a coincidence! Me too.”
“I’m confused. Is FISH out of his mind?”
“Please don’t trash talk the mystery designer. Otherwise, I might have to fight you tomorrow.”
“Shit, you change sides so fast. Sure, sure, whatever, I’ll say it more politely. Why would FISH go through so much work for nothing? From our previous guesses, if he had already made up his mind to leave and also prepared his next position, he could plagiarize his own work. Sorry, I should say, he could further modify his own designs to both help us and hurt SI’s contracts. That all makes sense, but how come after he made a name for himself he didn’t directly join us then?”
“Maybe it’s because of the contract termination penalty?”
“That’s possible. If the termination penalty was too high, maybe YL couldn’t necessarily afford it.
“It should be something along these lines.”
“I feel like things are starting to make sense now.”
“… Not really. Why would FISH want to make trouble then?”
“Maybe the negotiation with the Chairman went south?”
“Unreasonable.”
“Maybe he wanted to job-hop again and return back?”
“That’s not really logical either. If he didn’t want to leave in the first place, he wouldn’t have left. With his identity as the mystery designer, Zhou Jinrong would have bent his knees for him.”
“What if it is because of unrequited love with Zhou Jinrong, and so he wants to destroy him?!”
“…”
“Which fujoshi jumped out this time? We’re talking about serious matters here.”
“Get out, you chauvinist pig! That’s me, and I’m on Team Yan-Mystery!”
“Yan, Yan-Mystery?”
“Team Yan-Mystery ships Chairman Yan and Mr. Mystery. If you want more reference, you can come find me.”
“Hey, a fellow member! Let’s add each other online.”
“Sure, I know who you are. From the design department, right?”
“Haha, I know who you are too.”
“That’s way too scary.”
“See no evil, hear no evil.”
“Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?”