"Song Xiaoli, don't go too far!" Huang Yuan shouted into his phone.
Song Xiaoli on the other end of the call was taken aback, then roared back even louder, "How dare you yell at me? Huang Yuan, how dare you yell at me?"
"Not only did you fail to help me, but now you dare to shout at me?!"
"It's over, I want to break up with you!"
Huang Yuan, who had been clenching his fists, suddenly relaxed. He calmly lit a cigarette, took a puff, and said, "Fine."
"What...?"
Song Xiaoli was stunned, taking a few seconds to respond, "Huang Yuan, what do you mean?!"
Leaning against his desk, Huang Yuan narrowed his eyes and said, "You want to break up with me, right? I agree."
Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he added, "By the way, I didn't see Gu Chenan's girlfriend, but I did see the model he was with. I'm wondering how someone like Gu Chenan, who doesn't lack female attention, would harass you?"
"Huang Yuan!" Song Xiaoli screamed hysterically, "Come to my company right now!"
"Hah." Huang Yuan scoffed, "Song Xiaoli, have you gotten used to treating me like a dog all these years? You want me to come to your company?"
"Sure, you'd better buy some medicine in advance. Be careful, or I might punch your health insurance card flying."
"I got fired from my company because of you, and you don't even feel a bit guilty. Not only that, but you blame everything on me. Who do you think you are?!"
"Huang Yuan, are you asking for death?! Let me tell you..."
As Song Xiaoli's shouts continued through the phone, Huang Yuan simply hung up.
......
The next day.
Zhenhua released an announcement to the public.
General Manager Huang Yuan and Deputy General Manager Sun Wei have left Zhenhua due to differences in ideology with the company.
This brief news might seem unremarkable, but it contained a wealth of implications.
The entire city of Shanghai knew about the recent events between Caiying and Zhenhua, with Zhenhua suffering a complete defeat.
Right after the results came out, Zhenhua's General Manager and Deputy General Manager both left their positions. Who would believe it wasn't a dismissal?
As soon as this news broke, before the beauty industry could react, Gu Chenan's classmate group chat exploded.
Previously, Song Xiaoli had boasted that she would teach Gu Chenan a lesson, and everyone knew her boyfriend was the General Manager of Zhenhua Cosmetics.
But now her boyfriend had been fired by the company, and Caiying had gained fame. This looked like a complete victory for Gu Chenan from every angle.
As for what had happened these past few days, people could guess most of it by connecting the dots.
"Damn, Xiaoli's boyfriend got fired?"
"Probably, but maybe we shouldn't discuss this in the group chat."
"Right, if anyone wants to know the details, they should private message Xiaoli."
Reading the messages in the classmate group, Gu Chenan sneered.
Don't discuss it in the group? Why not?
Isn't this a perfect opportunity to humiliate Song Xiaoli?
Weren't you so arrogant before, relying on your boyfriend's position? Saying things like Caiying would definitely go bankrupt? Now that your boyfriend's been fired, why aren't you making a peep?
Gu Chenan immediately typed a message and sent it to the group: "@Song Xiaoli, didn't you say your boyfriend would teach me a lesson? I've been waiting, but I haven't seen anything yet."
"Oh right, has your boyfriend been fired by Zhenhua? Tsk tsk, it's truly pitiful to be stuck with such a liability."
"If worst comes to worst, tell your boyfriend he can come work at my Caiying. We're old classmates after all, I can look after him and give him a position as a department manager."
After sending these messages, Gu Chenan finally felt he had vented his anger, and stopped paying attention to the group chat.
It wasn't that Gu Chenan lacked grace, he had just gotten used to being vindictive in the novel. He felt that if he didn't humiliate Song Xiaoli, he couldn't shake off the emotions from when he was insulted that day.
......
Meanwhile.
At a workstation in Dragon Power Group.
Song Xiaoli gritted her teeth in anger as she looked at the taunting messages from Gu Chenan on her phone screen.
Yesterday, after Huang Yuan hung up, he never contacted her again.
She had thought that once Huang Yuan's anger subsided, he would apologize and buy her gifts like before. But to her surprise, there was no movement at all by morning.
She tentatively called Huang Yuan, only to be informed that the call was engaged.
Clearly, she had been blocked.
She closed the group chat and opened Huang Yuan's WeChat. After careful consideration, she sent a message.
"Huang Yuan, we were both a bit emotional yesterday. Although I'm mostly at fault in this matter, setting aside the fact that you lost your job, don't you think you made some mistakes too? You promised me you'd make Caiying go bankrupt within a month, but you didn't accomplish that, did you? So can't you just admit your mistake and we can put this behind us?"
As soon as the message was sent, a red exclamation mark appeared.
She had been blocked on WeChat too.
Suddenly, her nose stung, and a hot tear rolled down her cheek.
"Why, why would you treat me like this? Wasn't it you who failed to keep your promise to me? Am I not allowed to lose my temper?!"
Knock knock knock!
At that moment, someone rapped on Song Xiaoli's desk.
She was startled and quickly looked up, hastily wiping away her tears. "Director Liu."
It was none other than Liu Wan, the woman Gu Zheng had arranged for Gu Chenan to meet on a blind date when he first returned to the real world.
"What's wrong with you? Crying at work?" Liu Wan frowned.
"No, no," Song Xiaoli quickly waved her hand. "Just some family issues."
"It's alright, take some time to calm down and focus on work. Everything will pass," Liu Wan comforted her before walking into her own office.
She closed the office door, took out a face mask with "Caiying" written on the package from her drawer, and applied it to her face.
She sighed inwardly, "Caiying's face masks are so cheap, yet so effective. How come I never noticed them before?"
"I heard Caiying has a new CEO. I wonder if it's a man or a woman, to be so brilliant as to make Caiying go viral across the internet in just a few days."
As she was thinking this, a WeChat message from her father came through.
"Wan, I took some time to talk to your Uncle Gu a few days ago. He said he won't be arranging any more blind dates between you and his son Gu Chenan in the future, so you can rest easy."
Seeing this message, Liu Wan smiled with joy and quickly replied, "That's good then. I guess that Gu Chenan knows his place."
After sending that, she quickly typed another message with both hands, "Dad, tell Mom I'll bring home some face masks for her in a few days. They're really effective, so tell her to stop using her old face masks."
After sending the message, she stretched.
"I heard that after Caiying's sudden rise to become a leader in Shanghai's beauty industry, there's going to be an exchange gala for the city's beauty industry at our Dragon Power Hotel. They're going to invite Caiying's mysterious new CEO. It'll be a perfect opportunity to see what this new CEO looks like."