Everyone pulled Sang Lu into the room and pressed her down onto a chair, surrounding her with concerned expressions.
"Xiao Sang, what's really going on?"
"If Director Wang dares to fire you over rumors, none of us are working here anymore."
"Yeah, screw this! They can't just accuse people without proof!"
"Exactly!"
"Tell us, what exactly did that bastard Director Wang say?"
Sang Lu blinked in confusion.
Fired?
What firing?
She looked up at everyone, bewildered. "Director Wang assigned me to a business trip—five whole days—to—"
Little Duan, caught up in the heated atmosphere, dropped all pretense.
Logging into his notorious account, "I_Am_Your_Daddy, Piano_Master_of_the_Canyon," he slammed the table before Sang Lu could finish.
"A business trip??? How dare they send Sister Sang Lu on a—"
His furious expression froze mid-sentence, morphing into utter bewilderment.
"—business trip? A… business trip???"
"Yes!!!" Sang Lu threw her hands up in frustration. "Everyone’s swamped right now, and they’re sending me away! Said it’s for an exchange program at Qingmang TV. I leave next Monday. How am I supposed to find time for this now?!"
She clutched her head in distress.
"Qingmang TV? That’s amazing!"
One colleague beamed at her.
"So the ‘bad news’ you mentioned was this?"
Sang Lu, switching from the "head-clutching despair" expression to "chest-pounding agony," groaned.
"Of course this is bad news! How is it not?"
Wasn’t it just like the saying—when it rains, it pours?
She was practically drowning in stress!
Everyone: "……"
Yu Xiaoke pointed at the empty cardboard box and asked, "Then why were you carrying that box like you were packing up to leave?"
"Huh? The box?" Sang Lu glanced at it, puzzled. "My desk was piled high with folders, and I saw an empty box in Director Wang’s office. I asked for it to take some stuff home."
Everyone: "……"
So that’s what it was…
An awkward silence fell.
It was as if a crow could be heard cawing as it flew over the D-team office…
Caw—caw—
Embarrassing.
Only now did Sang Lu fully grasp the situation from their expressions.
So… they thought she’d been fired.
Earlier, in Director Wang’s office…
He told her someone had written a complaint about her.
He also mentioned there were rumors circulating about her in the station.
Calling her in was to hear her side first.
Sang Lu only hesitated for a few seconds.
Well…
What could she say?
Since he’d asked directly…
Might as well be honest.
For a fleeting moment, she wondered—
Should she really lay everything out?
Would Feng Yan even want their marital status known to outsiders?
But then again…
She couldn’t risk losing her job just to spare a man’s feelings.
She knew her priorities.
So she told Director Wang the truth.
The car she got into after the investment meeting wasn’t some mysterious investor’s—it was her legally wedded husband’s.
As for Feng Yi, mentioned in the complaint?
Pure fabrication.
Nonsense from start to finish.
And the investment? She’d had no idea beforehand.
Knowing Feng Yan, she was certain he wouldn’t have invested just because of their relationship.
More importantly, she had full confidence in D-team’s project.
They’d worked hard on it—it deserved funding!
The investors had good taste, and they’d keep working hard to repay that trust.
That was all.
As she spoke, Sang Lu’s gaze was as steady as a warrior’s.
Director Wang’s mouth hung slightly open, shock rippling across his face.
Sang Lu had no idea what mental gymnastics he went through, but suddenly, he told her there were two spots for an exchange program at Qingmang TV—and one was hers.
Sang Lu cut straight to the point.
"Director Wang, you’re not doing this because…"
She’d been half an hour late the other morning.
Was this some roundabout punishment?
That wasn’t fair!
Director Wang, looking utterly impartial, cut her off.
"Don’t overthink it. You were always one of the candidates. We just held off notifying you because of the complaint. Now that it’s cleared up, you’re good to go. Just focus on the exchange program."
Sang Lu was speechless: "……"
It took her several minutes to process that she’d have to squeeze a business trip into her already packed schedule.
Back to the present.
The D-team still had her surrounded, fists practically raised in solidarity.
Sang Lu: "……"
She shrugged calmly.
Brushing past the details, she said,
"Don’t worry about me~ I’ve already explained everything to Director Wang. Those baseless rumors won’t stick."
……
After the misunderstanding cleared up…
The clock lazily ticked toward 5 PM.
Yu Xiaoke clasped her hands in relief. "Thank goodness it was just a false alarm."
Someone chimed in, "No drama, no danger—just another day clocking out at five!"
Sang Lu quickly tidied her desk, stacking mountains of folders into the cardboard box.
Carrying it, she walked out with her colleagues.
The lobby was packed with people leaving work.
After waiting through several elevator rounds, they finally made it to the ground floor.
Just as they stepped outside…
A group smoking by the trash cans turned to stare.
Luo Kai and his B-team cronies had a weird habit of loitering near the bins.
No idea why.
Sang Lu gave them a disinterested glance.
Luo Kai, spotting the box in her arms, nudged his buddies with a smirk.
"Look, the woman who slept her way up is finally getting kicked out of the station."
"Always hated that D-team. Hope they all pack up and leave!"
One lackey eagerly agreed, "Kai-ge, with her gone, that Qingmang TV spot’s definitely yours now, right?"
Another jumped in, "No question. Out of all the teams, who’s more qualified than our Kai-ge?"
"Damn right. Even if she stayed, Kai-ge would’ve gotten the spot anyway."
Luo Kai took a leisurely drag, smugness oozing.
"Keep it down, keep it down."
……
Sang Lu was too far from the trash cans to hear them.
Only Little Duan caught Luo Kai’s sneering gaze.
Frowning, he flipped them the bird.
"Oho, the little lapdog’s giving me the evil eye," Luo Kai mocked, nudging his friends. "I’m shaking in my boots."
The trash-can crew burst into laughter.
Zhuang Xiao was laughing too.
From the Mercedes parked outside the station, her eyes locked onto Sang Lu.
Even from a distance, she could see the dejection on Sang Lu’s face.
The cardboard box in her arms.
The colleagues hugging her in consolation.
Zhuang Xiao’s lips curled into a cold smile.
Heh.
No doubt about it.
That reluctant farewell?
She was definitely getting fired.
A rush of satisfaction flooded her.
So what if Sang Lu had latched onto the Feng family’s second son?
Look at her now—kicked to the curb like trash.
If Feng Yan really cared about her…
Would he let her get fired?
Looks like their relationship isn’t all that great after all.
Just a plaything, something to toy with and discard.
Zhuang Xiao’s thoughts then turned to her own boyfriend.
Sure, he was much older than her, but so what? With an annual income in the millions and a decent enough face, men like him weren’t easy to come by these days.
A person shouldn’t aim too high in life.
Take Sang Lu, for example—someone who dared to dream of climbing into the clouds.
The only outcome for people like her was a harder, more brutal fall.
A mix of satisfaction and complexity churned in Zhuang Xiao’s heart.
After all, Sang Lu was her distant cousin. Seeing her in such a pitiful state, it was hard not to feel a flicker of sympathy.
But that sympathy vanished as quickly as it came.
Gone in an instant.
Instead, her eyes gleamed with smug, unshakable confidence.
Look at it another way.
Sang Lu should actually be thanking her.
She’d helped her face reality sooner rather than later.
Really, she’d done her a favor.
