"We need to finalize things with President Li and head back quickly. Otherwise, if too much piles up, I'll be the one exhausted."
"Don't worry about having too much work in the future. I'll be here with you when you work overtime. Don't put too much pressure on yourself."
The two slept in each other's arms. After breakfast the next morning, they put on their makeup and went to the Ke Group's location to meet Li Guohua again.
This time, they successfully secured a meeting, but Li Guohua didn't discuss business with them.
The two were led into the office by an assistant. Li Guohua scrutinized Lu Jiaying with a peculiar gaze.
"You are Lu Jiaying?"
Lu Jiaying had never interacted with him before and didn't know how he knew her name. She politely extended her hand to shake his.
"Yes, hello President Li. This is our group's Young President Zhan, who is interning at the company during his break. I'm temporarily guiding him to familiarize himself with the business..."
Li Guohua, over 50, was tall and appeared upright. He pushed up his glasses and interrupted Lu Jiaying's introduction.
"It's not that I won't cooperate with Zhan Group, but that I cannot cooperate with you. President Lu, if you genuinely want this project, please send a different project manager."
Lu Jiaying exchanged a glance with Jiang Jingyu, unsure of his meaning.
"I am the Marketing Director of Grei Electric. If we are discussing cooperation, I believe I best represent the company's sincerity, so I don't quite understand your intention, President Li."
"You are currently the Marketing Director of Grei Electric, but that might not be the case in the next second. Our project cannot be ruined by someone with a poor reputation. Therefore,"
He looked at Jiang Jingyu, "Send someone reliable."
Jiang Jingyu also didn't understand his words.
Lu Jiaying was undoubtedly the most representative and authoritative person in the marketing department. It was their first meeting, so why was she unreliable?
"I still don't quite understand what you mean. Please speak your mind. President Li, may I ask what exactly Director Lu has done that makes you dissatisfied?"
Vice President Li looked back and forth between the two. Seeing their sincere and unfeigned expressions, he opened his computer and sat down.
"It seems you two truly don't know about this matter."
He turned the computer screen to face them.
"I don't know if this is true or false, or if you've fallen into someone's trap, but since the matter has already escalated to the point where I know about it, it must be quite embarrassing internally."
"Let's not talk about projects for now. Go back and deal with this first."
The two stepped forward and looked at the computer screen simultaneously.
Upon seeing the content, Lu Jiaying's head buzzed.
Her face turned pale, and her whole body felt cold. She could barely stand.
Jiang Jingyu, standing beside her, also had a grim expression, his brow furrowed tightly.
Without further ado, they thanked Vice President Li and said they would send someone else to liaise with him another day. Grabbing Lu Jiaying's hand, he led her out of the office.
The two didn't have time to book flights. They returned to their office, gave Li Guohua's contact information to the marketing manager, explained the next steps of their work, and drove his car back to Nancheng immediately.
All the way, Lu Jiaying's expression was solemn, and her hands and feet were cold. Jiang Jingyu held the steering wheel with one hand and held hers the entire time with the other.
Neither of them expected things to turn out this way.
Both were inwardly troubled, contemplating their next move, and neither spoke a word.
They drove at high speed. The more than 400-kilometer journey took just over five hours.
The two arrived at the company just past three in the afternoon.
They went directly from the underground parking lot to the marketing department.
As soon as they stepped into the marketing department's territory, they saw everyone casting surprised and awkward glances at them, but no one dared to speak.
It was Zhang Xiaoyu who, under pressure, rushed to Lu Jiaying's side.
"Director Lu, you're back. What's going on? Your phone has been unreachable all day, you didn't reply to WeChat messages, and you haven't checked emails..."
The few hours on the road were enough for Lu Jiaying to consider all sorts of terrible scenarios and prepare herself mentally for the storm.
Therefore, although her expression wasn't cheerful, her emotions were relatively stable.
Pretending to be unaware, she asked Zhang Xiaoyu, "What happened that you're so flustered?"
"Director Lu..." Zhang Xiaoyu looked at her, then at Jiang Jingyu, finding it difficult to speak.
"You should really go and check the company's internal forum yourself."
The so-called internal forum was an internal office system. It was a software developed by Zhan Group in recent years based on existing social media platforms, specifically for office use. Every employee in the company had an account.
It allowed for uploading and downloading files needed by the public, as well as group chats and status sharing similar to QQ Space.
Lu Jiaying never logged into this system because she wasn't that idle to follow gossip there.
Moreover, important documents were delivered directly to her office for her to sign in person, making logging in unnecessary.
She had even forgotten her login password, and her phone was unusable, preventing her from recovering it.
Seeing her frowning and fumbling with it for a long time without success, Jiang Jingyu used technical means to log in.
The comment section had already accumulated tens of thousands of replies.
Although the images seen on Vice President Li's computer had been blocked by the technical department, public opinion could not be suppressed.
With tens of thousands of comments, all discussing Lu Jiaying.
For the first time in her life, Lu Jiaying hated seeing her name.
Across the screen, in every line, in every person's words, her name was present.
Her colleagues, hiding behind anonymous IDs, were now like uninformed netizens watching a drama.
Despite knowing nothing, they attached all sorts of filthy, cold, sharp, and heart-piercing remarks to her name.
Those words felt like bottles of high-concentration sulfuric acid, stinging her eyes as if she were going blind.
The photos were spread through a mass email. It was likely sent by someone very familiar with Zhan Group's software operations and who had the authority to send such emails.
Every employee with an account, including company executives, throughout the entire Zhan Group, received this email.
It contained video screenshots of Lu Jiaying and Jiang Jingyu being set up that night.
High-definition, magnified, undeniable screenshots from various angles, capturing their expressions perfectly.
The moment she saw the photos, Lu Jiaying's heart collapsed.
But she had confidence in Zhan Group's management and knew that the technical department would intervene immediately, preventing the photos from spreading widely.
Furthermore, she knew who was behind it, and the matter would be easy to resolve, merely causing some gossip for a while.
But now that it had happened, as two adults, they had to accept it whether they wanted to or not.
However, facing tens of thousands of abusive, mocking, and sarcastic comments at this moment, she realized her thoughts on the way had been too naive.
Her blood seemed to freeze. Stimulated by these comments, her mind went blank, and she couldn't utter a single word.