"You said Lu Xue doesn't have any hidden motives. But I think she's actually quite calculating!"
Ding Muyun sounded cold and distant when she called Mu Ziyue to complain.
"She's just a country girl who wouldn't have been able to make it here on her own. But she managed to land an internship at your brother's company, and rumor has it she's the president's assistant. That's a job many people are vying for! She has neither the education nor the work experience. How did she get it? I bet she went to your brother and played the cute card!"
Mu Ziyue had grown increasingly impatient with Ding Muyun's constant bad - mouthing of Lu Xue. So she retorted,
"Didn't you always tell me to be more tolerant of Lu Xue, to accept her and not pick fights with her? You were the one who used to tell me not to get angry. Now you're the one who's angry all the time. Why is that?"
"If she can stay by my brother's side, let her. It saves me from having to see her at home all the time and spares me a lot of awkwardness!"
Ding Muyun was left speechless. She gradually realized that the situation was turning against her.
She had to find something on Lu Xue quickly, something that would be a knockout blow and make Mu Yuze kick Lu Xue out as soon as possible.
As she thought about it, an idea popped into her head.
Since Lu Xue was brought out of a small mountain village by Mu Yuze, if she went to that village and dug into Lu Xue's past, maybe she could find some dirt on her.
She quickly got in touch with a private detective and set the plan in motion.
...
Lu Xue found that her daily internship at the company was going more and more smoothly.
Mu Yuze even had a private space created for Lu Xue next to his office. He also had all of Lu Xue's stuff from the old mansion's studio moved there.
So Lu Xue's studio was naturally relocated from home to Mu Yuze's company.
On a daily basis, apart from filling Mu Yuze's pen with ink in the morning and bringing him a glass of lemon water in the evening, Lu Xue spent most of her time in the adjacent studio working on her own creations.
After about half a month, Lu Xue started to feel a bit embarrassed.
She was getting a high salary but basically just holding a position in the company.
The most crucial thing was that not only did she herself think this was inappropriate, but everyone in the company seemed to think it was perfectly normal.
Mu Yuze and Yan Hua needless to say, they never assigned any work to Lu Xue.
The other employees in the company probably already assumed that Lu Xue was the boss's girlfriend.
Any work - related matters were automatically redirected to Yan Hua.
Yan Hua was surprised to find that his workload had increased. People liked to come to him for all sorts of things, even the most basic tasks.
Yan Hua was a bit confused. "I'm a senior assistant! Senior assistant! Do you know what that means in the company? I'm second only to the boss in this company, okay!"
But this senior assistant was a bit of a nerd in daily life, so he didn't have a very lofty image in everyone's minds.
They replied matter - of - factly, "You're still below the boss's girlfriend. Can you be more important than her?"
Yan Hua was surprised to find that since Lu Xue joined the company, his status had dropped to third place.
Lu Xue was supposed to be his junior and be under his protection!
But everyone treated Lu Xue with such deference, almost like they were treating the mistress of a family - owned business.
Yan Hua felt something was off. After thinking for a while, he thought,
"This can't be right. When did Lu Xue become the boss's girlfriend? How come I didn't know about this? Are they secretly having an office romance behind my back?"
Almost immediately, Yan Hua rushed into Mu Yuze's office. He pushed the door open and asked,
"Boss, are you having an office romance with the mistress?"
Mu Yuze was in a video conference. He almost choked on the water he had just sipped.
He quickly ended the meeting, frowned, and asked, "What are you talking about? Who's the mistress?"
Yan Hua slapped his forehead and realized his slip - up.
"Sorry, sorry. I meant to ask if you're having an office romance with Lu Xue?"
Just as Yan Hua said this, Lu Xue came in from the tea room behind, carrying a cup of coffee and placing it on Mu Yuze's desk. Both of them looked up when they heard the question.
Lu Xue looked at Yan Hua like he was crazy. Yan Hua felt a bit nervous under her gaze.
Since he had already said it, he stammered, "It's not my idea. Everyone's been gossiping, so I just came to ask..."
Just from Lu Xue's expression, Yan Hua could tell that the rumors were baseless.
He quickly waved at Lu Xue and then fled as fast as he could.