PSMD – Chapter 133

Qu Yan and Qiu Yang’s early life experiences were quite similar in the first half.

Her family was poor; it was a poverty-stricken household. Her father was an incompetent man who just wasted time outside from dawn till dusk. Her mother had been paralyzed since an accident years ago. Plus, she had a younger brother, so she bore the responsibility of taking care of the family from a young age.

She had good grades, teachers protected her at school, and no one bullied her, but at many moments, she was very jealous of some classmates at school.

Those classmates wore designer brands, talked about where they had traveled, and even the phones they secretly played with were the latest models.

She knew she wasn’t envious, but jealous. She wanted to see these people be like her, going home after school every day to wipe her mother’s body and cook dinner for her brother, instead of living a life she had never even dreamed of.

Why? she thought.

Why were some people born into luxury, while she was like a rat in a sewer? She couldn’t understand.

But she knew she needed to study hard; she had to earn a lot of money so she could live that kind of life too.

But those thoughts remained buried in her heart; she still felt that fate was extremely unfair. What left the deepest impression on her was that after starting university, she once went looking for a part-time job, applying to be a waitress at a restaurant, but the boss didn’t hire her.

The boss frowned and gave a ridiculous reason: “Our restaurant values appearance quite a bit. If you dress like that, customers will dislike it.”

That restaurant didn’t provide uniforms; everyone had to wear their own clothes.

She didn’t have many clothes; the ones she wore then were faded from washing, but they were actually very clean.

But the boss said customers would dislike them.

At that time, she already had some savings, but she was an adult now and had to be responsible for her own life and her family’s life. The weight on her shoulders was much heavier than before, and she couldn’t immediately get a new outfit.

After this incident, she went and bought a set of designer clothes, changing her entire look from head to toe. She found that after changing her clothes, her classmates were more willing to talk to her and would smile kindly at her.

For the first time, she felt how good it was to have money; others would look at her differently, and she wanted to completely shed her former image.

She continued studying, she continued working part-time.

She no longer took care of her mother but hired a nanny. By the time she graduated, she was finally much freer, except for the occasional annoyance of her family reaching out to ask for money.

She joined Wanming, starting as an unknown junior employee. Because she had worked part-time for so long, she had long developed the ability to deal with people, so she was like a fish in water at work. People would say privately that she had high emotional intelligence and was good at handling social situations.

She had boyfriends, each with good work ability and a decent family background.

She seemed very happy, with a successful career and a happy relationship.

But only Qu Yan herself knew the true color of her heart; it was just that she was good at disguising herself, making it invisible to others.

In this regard, she was more successful than in her career.

But later, she couldn’t control herself anymore.

She had the person she envied the most so far—Qiu Yang.

Qiu Yang was younger than her, prettier than her, and more popular than her. Their past experiences were clearly so similar, but how did Qiu Yang become so smooth-sailing later on?

Like a tree growing vigorously, sprouting tender green branches, something she had never possessed.

On many nights, Qu Yan couldn’t sleep.

She knew deeply that Qiu Yang deserved all of this; Qiu Yang was fundamentally different from her.

Qiu Yang was clean, while she was dirty.

The boyfriend incident was just a pretense, or rather, a starting point, to give herself a reason to target Qiu Yang.

Qiu Yang seduced her boyfriend—what a perfect reason! Even though she knew it wasn’t true, this idea became increasingly firm in her heart.

She just couldn’t find an opportunity; she could only quietly distance herself from Qiu Yang, from the initial warmth to the later estrangement. She felt she had made it very obvious, but Qiu Yang didn’t seem to notice. Qiu Yang still trusted her and treated her like an older sister.

After a while, she gradually wanted to give up the idea of targeting Qiu Yang.

But the opportunity came so coincidentally.

Qiu Yang broke up.

Qiu Yang was vulnerable.

She felt this was a good time, especially since Qiu Yang had already climbed to the position of Deputy Department Head.

She felt that if Qiu Yang wasn’t at the company, the air around her might be much fresher.

So when facing Tao Sixian, she proactively asked, “Can I add your contact information?”

“I can tell you about Yangyang’s news later.”

Tao Sixian didn’t like Qiu Yang. The moment she learned this truth, Qu Yan felt very relieved. But after Qiu Yang returned from Xicheng, she connected with the Director of Qiyao Company.

Qu Yan: …

At many moments, Qu Yan was quietly observing.

She didn’t show it; she used Peng Kaimiao, wanting to make Qiu Yang completely collapse.

As long as Qiu Yang left Wanming, she would feel peaceful and reconcile with her past of so many years.

But in the end, it was her who was fired.

Qu Yan hadn’t thought of this; she didn’t expect Peng Kaimiao to report her.

The moment Qiu Yang splashed water on her, her old thoughts resurfaced.

She had been a glamorous person for so long, so long that she forgot her true identity was just a rat in the sewer.

But even rats want to see the light; rats don’t want to keep hiding.

What was wrong with her climbing up?

Qiu Yang knew Qu Yan definitely didn’t think she was wrong, so she carefully thought back, listened to the recording again, and finally made a decision.

That was, she would make public the fact that she was the victim.

Qiu Yang didn’t want to be misunderstood anymore as being sad about Qu Yan’s dismissal.

The moment this idea came out, she told Shen Ningruo.

Shen Ningruo looked at Qiu Yang’s eyes and brows; she saw Qiu Yang’s anger and didn’t hesitate to support Qiu Yang’s decision: “Okay.”

“Then you’ll talk to President Wen tomorrow?”

“I will.”

“Even if President Wen really fires me later, I will still expose what Qu Yan did.”

Her previous hesitation was due to concerns about her future at the company, but after talking with Qu Yan, she felt there was really no need to cover up anything for Qu Yan anymore.

She believed Peng Kaimiao had provided Wen Yuan with enough evidence, otherwise Qu Yan would definitely have resisted.

Tuesday happened to be June 1st, Children’s Day. Qiu Yang had never celebrated this holiday at the appropriate age.

At the primary school she attended as a child, there would be performances on this day, but her aunt wouldn’t let her participate and would ask her to take leave to go home and do chores.

Qiu Yang didn’t even get to be an audience member.

Recalling these things, Qiu Yang unconsciously softened her breathing.

Qu Yan was just the first person to be punished, not the last.

After the morning meeting, Qiu Yang went to find Secretary Lin. She knew people from other companies were coming to discuss cooperation today, so Wen Yuan would be quite busy, but what she didn’t expect was that Wen Yuan let her into his office directly.

He didn’t even make her wait in line.

After Secretary Lin closed the door, there was a low “bang,” pulling Qiu Yang’s thoughts back.

Wen Yuan was also wearing a suit today. He watched Qiu Yang approach and said, “Have you thought it through?”

“Does President Wen know what I’m thinking?” Qiu Yang was a little surprised.

“It’s not hard to guess.” Wen Yuan leaned back slightly, placing his right hand on the black office desk. His hand had distinct joints, long fingers, and neatly trimmed nails—a hand that hand fetishists would love.

Wen Yuan’s index fingertip lightly tapped the desk before he spoke slowly: “Qu Yan and you had a good relationship before. She was removed so quickly yesterday, she must be bewildered.”

“There needed to be a conversation between the two of you. I’m sure you went to see her after work, so the meeting process…”

“Must have been unpleasant, otherwise you wouldn’t have come to me, right?”

Wen Yuan’s mind was very clear and intelligent; Qiu Yang had known this for a long time, evident from Wanming’s decisions. It was just that she had only interacted with Wen Yuan from a distance before and didn’t have a specific concept of this.

Only now did she realize how meticulous Wen Yuan’s thinking was.

“Mm.” Qiu Yang responded, her eyelashes fluttering. She placed the USB she was holding on Wen Yuan’s desk. “This is the conversation between her and me yesterday. I copied it.”

Wen Yuan sat up straight again and took the red USB in front of him. This USB had a cute sheep pattern printed on it. He raised his eyes, thinking the sheep looked a bit like Qiu Yang. He chuckled inwardly, then nodded seriously on the surface: “Okay.”

Publishing the dismissal notice on the official website and company bulletin board was already very lenient towards Qu Yan.

“Peng Kaimiao provided me with screenshots of Qu Yan instigating him. The dates, conversations, everything is very clear.” Wen Yuan finished speaking and frowned. “If you want to publicize her misconduct, I think it’s better to use the company’s official account.”

“That’s what I was thinking too.”

The company had two official WeChat accounts: one for customer inquiries, and the other for adding company groups for easy notifications. Each served its purpose.

Wen Yuan smiled: “Then I’ll have Yu Chen come in. You can talk to him, and he’ll edit the text.”

“…Okay.”

Yu Chen was the employee responsible for this WeChat account. Qiu Yang didn’t interact with him much, but that didn’t matter.

Wen Yuan left the office to discuss work in the meeting room. Now only Qiu Yang and Yu Chen were in the room. She spoke slowly, focusing on the key points. Yu Chen had a notebook in front of him, and he typed on the keyboard as he listened.

“Department Head Qiu, see if there’s anything else you want to add?” Yu Chen said to Qiu Yang after typing the last word.

Qiu Yang leaned her head over: “Let me see.”

Her expression was serious as she read the content word by word, sentence by sentence.

Yu Chen then added: “The chat screenshots and audio file will also be posted in the group.”

“Mm.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“Nothing to add.”

After reading, Qiu Yang withdrew her gaze.

“Okay, I’ll notify the group shortly.”

Before leaving, Wen Yuan had specifically instructed that only Qiu Yang needed to review it; his opinion wasn’t important.

The only requirement was that it should preferably be sent out at 10:30.

The time was almost here.

Qiu Yang sat on the sofa and started to get nervous. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. When she opened her eyes again, she saw that Yu Chen had already notified everyone and attached the chat screenshots and audio file after the text.

“Done.” Yu Chen smiled. As an outsider, he also felt a sense of satisfaction.

Qiu Yang looked at the laptop in front of her. For a moment, she heard the sound of a stone falling from her heart.

Because it was from the company’s perspective, this notice appeared much more objective, simply stating the facts.

But to every employee at the company, it didn’t feel calm at all.

Wen Yuan happened to return after finishing his meeting: “Is it done?”

He hadn’t had time to look yet.

“It’s been notified, President Wen.”

Wen Yuan nodded: “Then you can go back.”

Qiu Yang also stood up: “President Wen, I’ll head back too.”

“…Alright.” Wen Yuan wanted to comfort her but felt it would be abrupt and inappropriate, so he decided against it.

On the way from the General Manager’s office back to her workstation, other employees all cast glances at her. She pretended not to see, but couldn’t help breaking out in a cold sweat behind her back.

Regarding the matter with Qu Yan, everything was over.

From now on, she would have no further contact with Qu Yan.

Qi Rong was rarely slacking off today; she was working seriously when a colleague next to her called out: “Everyone, quickly look at the company group chat!”

“What’s going on?” Qi Rong was still looking at her computer.

The colleague exclaimed, “Oh my!” “Quickly look, earth-shattering news.”

Unable to resist her gossipy nature, Qi Rong opened her phone. Although it was working hours, the group was already exploding. Everyone was saying things like “Holy crap” and “What a terrible person.” She scrolled up and finally saw the company’s notice.

It was quite long; she finished reading it.

She was listening to the recording when she saw Qiu Yang return to the office.

They had been sitting together for quite a while. Qiu Yang was sincere, and she also treated Qiu Yang like a younger sister. Now, thinking back to when she was still discussing the matter about Qu Yan with Qiu Yang, she felt a pang of guilt towards Qiu Yang.

“Yangyang…” Qi Rong wanted to say something.

Qiu Yang raised a smile: “Sister Qi, it’s nothing.”

“I am now Niohuru¹ Yang.”

¹ A cultural meme from the drama Empresses in the Palace, where “Niohuru” signifies a character’s vengeful rebirth, here humorously adopted by Qiu Yang to mark her empowered transformation.