193 Yousre to Blame, Too (1/2)
”Hmm?”
As she was opening her laptop, Ye Shuang froze when she heard that news, and she revealed an expression that made the workshop chief silent and worried. After she spaced out for a while and when she noticed the apologetic and slightly embarrassed expression on the chief's face, Ye Shuang smiled and continued to open the laptop. She said as naturally as she could, ”That doesn't bother me. Actually, I already knew that my identity has been revealed, but I just did not know which channel leaked it. However, even though the situation is under control, this leak is still considered part of your responsibility.”
Ye Shuang was not lying. When she heard that her name had become common among the upper society, Ye Shuang could sense something was wrong. Even though a person's name among a certain crowd was not a secret, there was still a barrier for information that was let into or out of a big circle.
Even though Ye Shuang's name was quite common among the ladies of the rich families, as long as one did not belong to that circle, even if there was just a slight difference in identity or gender, one would not gain access to the secrets they had.
For example, which rich wives would specially mention Ye Shuang's name when they moved to catch the mistress‽ At most, when questioned by the mistress and the husband, they would say, ”I had someone investigated this.”
And who was this someone‽ They would not mention her by name, and those who were focused on the conflict between the wives and the mistresses would not pay attention to such unimportant details. Unless a certain party purposely leaked this information for the sake of endearing themselves to others or for some other reason.
Initially, Ye Shuang could not figure out who was so bored as to share who had them exposed them with the mistresses and their sons, but now that she heard the chief bring it up, Ye Shuang understood everything that had eluded her so far.
Putting down the truth that was revealed, Ye Shuang expertly opened the file to compare the information given by the workshop. ”We will not talk about that for now. Do you mind if you tell me the few names of the people who have left the workshop as well as the posts and names of your current members.”
…
The sequence of events for a normal incident was reason, process, and result. For example, the talents who wanted to escape revealed Ye Shuang's information to a certain group of people, making them train their focus on Ye Shuang—that was the reason. Then these people with the intention to take revenge had conflict with Ye Shuang—that was the process. Finally, one party would come out the victor. Either they would manage to beat Ye Shuang, or Ye Shuang would perfectly resolve the situation—that was the result.
When Yao Zhixing heard Ye Shuang's name and reputation that was slowly forming through the grapevines of the upper society, the conflict had already started. Both opposing parties shouted out threats from opposite camps, and then Ye Shuang beating up Zhou Yue was the climax. That was combined with the identity that she had created so far from her work.
If this was described in terms of a card game, the group that wanted to take revenge on Ye Shuang had the trump card in Zhou Yue. If Yao Zhixing was the King, then Zhou Yue would be a Jack. Ye Shuang did not know the details of their original plan, but it should mostly be to use their Jack to hold off her King. Ye Shuang herself was an Ace; she could beat down most of the number cards. However, without the King card, with just an Ace, she could not do much. At most, she could exhaust several small cards before she lost to the two played by the other party. 'Unity is power' was not just something that was relevant in olden time.
However, what happened next surprised everyone. Ye Shuang's identity rose tremendously after a series of events. First, her combat ability had shocked many and then her identity, and her social position also greatly increased the size of her trump card. In the end, people realized that Ye Shuang might not be an Ace but a pair of Aces. Then their Jack also suddenly decided to surrender. Therefore, this crossing of blows ended before it even began. Unless the opponent found a better card, this was basically how the issue was going to be resolved.
Therefore, before the 'process' had been realized, the 'result' had been revealed, and after the dust settled, Ye Shuang finally found out the 'reason' from the lips of the chief.
It was wrong to say that Ye Shuang felt threatened. After all, the enemy had been vanquished before they even had the chance to do anything. However, it was quite annoying to be ambushed by someone who had betrayed her. Ye Shuang paid close attention to the movement of the members inside the talent storage; this type of event where the talents collectively betrayed the agent had only happened once, and it happened after she had taken over as the agent. It was such a humiliation.
After getting the latest data on the members from the chief and rearranging the data of the talent storage, Ye Shuang returned to her apartment with a strong annoyance that she tried to suppress but could not ignore. She just reached the front door and prepared to key in the password when the door to the neighboring apartment fell open.
Han Chu had his jacket hanging over his one arm, and his other arm was fixing the collar of his shirt. He looked like he was adjusting the collar because it was too tight, and he could not breathe comfortably. He had just moved one step out the door when he noticed Ye Shuang, who was standing in the corridor. Han Chu also paused before he nodded slightly. ”Just came back?”
Ye Shuang blinked and felt like she should be the one asking that question. ”When did Brother Han come back to San Lin City‽”
She had just gone out to run some errands, and when she returned, there was an additional person moving into her next door. That feeling was rather shocking.
”I arrived last night because I have some issues to deal with here…” Han Chu answered naturally. Then, he frowned slightly before studying Ye Shuang for a while. ”Have you run into some problem?”
Ye Shuang was surprised. Before she left the workshop, she had taken some time to arrange her expression to make it seem like she did not mind the people betraying her, but that did not mean that she really did not mind it. When she was outside and interacting with others, others could not read anything from her expression, but when she was almost home, there was naturally no more reason to continue this act. Therefore, Ye Shuang relaxed and allowed her real emotion to show, and because of that, her face contained a trace of unhappiness. However, even so, Han Chu's attention to detail still surprised Ye Shuang.
”Hmm…” After a contemplative frown, Ye Shuang nodded. ”Actually, I have something to tell you. A few of the names in San Lin City's talent storage have to be removed because some of them have jumped ship.”
Han Chu looked at Ye Shuang and lowered his head to glance at the watch on his wrist. Then he nodded and took a step back to allow Ye Shuang to get through the door. ”…Come in and we'll talk. I still have some time on my hands.”
Accepting Han Chu's invitation, Ye Shuang walked into the apartment next door. Han Chu removed the jacket and placed it back on the coatrack. He removed one button from his shirt and then folded his sleeves up twice. He walked into the open kitchen to find the coffee machine and brew Ye Shuang and himself each a cup of coffee. As he placed the cups down on the table, he sat down across from Ye Shuang. He picked the cup of coffee that he poured for himself earlier and nodded at Ye Shuang. ”Tell me, what is this about?”
Ye Shuang was not one to shirk from responsibility. Since the thing had already happened, hiding it as a secret would not help anyone, so she started the story from the party on New Year's Eve. She summarized the conflict that arose between herself and a certain group in San Lin City due to her daily contracts, and that was when she brought in the members who hopped away from the workshop, the roles that they played in creating this conflict, and how she eventually resolved the issue.
When he was in the company of a female, Han Chu was a perfect gentleman. Even though he felt like Ye Shuang did not need to go into detail for some of the events, he did not make any noise to interrupt her when she went over the events; he only held the cup of coffee in his hand and sipped on it slowly. When Ye Shuang finally finished explaining everything that had happened, Han Chu placed the cup of coffee down, and when the cup hit the saucer, it caused a tingling sound.
”So, what is your plan now?” Han Chu frowned as he tried to make a conclusion. ”Do you wish to warn these people for breaching the headhunting's contract? Or would you like to pursue them in a court of law?”
”I can do that‽” Ye Shuang was baffled. To be honest, she had just wanted to vent as she told the details of the work. She just wanted to share the news with someone; she really did not have the idea of doing more than that. If Ye Shuang was given a convenient chance to take revenge, she would not say no, but to purposely create trouble for people, that seemed a bit… bitter. For a few people that could not even raise a wave in her life, should she waste so much effort and money‽
”Yes, you can bring them to court because this is a violation of privacy and sensitive information.” Han Chu first nodded before giving his own opinion. ”However, I do not suggest that you do that.”
”I also think so,” Ye Shuang concurred, ”but I wish to hear your opinion.”
”Before this, I didn't have the chance to communicate the ideals of our work with you, but I feel this might not be such a bad time. You have been working for quite some time already, so I believe you should have your own understanding of the occupation now.”
Han Chu pulled out several bags of snacks from the shelf under the coffee table and walked into the kitchen to grab a big bowl. He tore the package open and poured out a bag of popcorn. He pushed it to the middle of the coffee table like he was ready for a long and hard talk. ”What do you think is the core of the headhunting business‽”
”An intermediary of talents.” Ye Shuang grabbed kernels of popcorn from the bowl and answered between chews.
Han Chu narrowed his eyes and silently moved the bowl back. He popped a few kernels into his mouth. ”You're right, an intermediary of talents. Then what would you say is your job scope?”
Han Chu did not wait for Ye Shuang to answer; that was a rhetorical question.
”The clients need someone who can help them solve some problem, the talents need a platform where they can sell their skills, and you as a headhunter do not need to care about anything else. You only need to focus on completing one thing… helping those in need who have not found the suitable employee to match them with the party that they would want to cooperate with and then push the talents that you have to them.
”How difficult the client's situation, the stability of the talents, and contracts outside of our business are all beyond your concern. You only need to focus on assessment and act as an intermediary to match the most suitable talent in your hands with the clients. Technically, I would not expect the best talent to be my asset forever. Therefore, if any of them have found a better prospect or wish to quit the job for a certain reason, for us, that is just us missing one talent that we can recommend. What the person does after they stop working for us and why they did that are completely unrelated to our job scope.”