They had originally planned to assign that floor as an office for him and Ye Qiusuo.
Ye Qiusuo, finding it a waste of time to go all the way to the top floor, declined. Instead, she chose an office on a lower level for easier access to the various labs.
Now, there was only one office on the top floor, belonging to Zhang Chengjue.
Ye Qiusuo's gaze fell on his desk, where a brand new golden ID card lay. The access permissions at the gate must now require this card.
"President Zhang, Professor Ye is here," Assistant Zhao proactively announced.
Only then did Zhang Chengjue swivel his chair around. He looked at Ye Qiusuo, suddenly stood up, and put on an apologetic expression. "Qiusuo, what brings you here? Oh, my memory. My ID card broke not long ago, so I had to get a new one. I forgot to tell you."
Ye Qiusuo gave a noncommittal "Hmm." "I need you to approve the documents I had sent over earlier. I'll need them tomorrow."
"Documents? For something like this, you could just call. No need to come up. Didn't you used to say that yourself?" He said, rummaging through the thick stack of papers on his desk, finally finding Ye Qiusuo's documents at the very bottom. "I'll approve them for you right now."
Ye Qiusuo watched as Zhang Chengjue finished signing and handed the documents over.
"Qiusuo, next time just call. I'll have Xiao Zhao bring them down for you. It'll save you time," Zhang Chengjue said with a smile, putting on a show of consideration for her.
Ye Qiusuo stared at Zhang Chengjue for a long moment, waiting until the smile on his face was about to falter, before reaching out to take the documents and turning to leave.
"Why did you let her in?" Zhang Chengjue asked Zhao Guiyin with a darkened expression.
"I thought Professor Ye had something urgent," Zhao Guiyin explained, lowering his head.
"Next time she wants to come in, make her wait half an hour."
"But..."
"No buts."
Zhang Chengjue was practically hoping Ye Qiusuo would make a scene now. The company's shares were currently divided. At most, she only held 24%. He held the same amount, but the other two shareholders together had 35%. Once he won them over, he would hold the greatest internal authority.
The prospects for Tianqiu Company were too good. Having sat in this position for just a few years, Zhang Chengjue never wanted to step down. The outside world knew him, Zhang Chengjue. As for Ye Qiusuo... she was just someone who could get her name on project papers.
They were a company, businesspeople. What did a researcher need with so much power?
Zhang Chengjue wasn't afraid of Ye Qiusuo taking new projects to other companies either. Currently, Tianqiu Tech had the best experimental environment and the most complete equipment in the country, which continuously attracted countless researchers.
Of course, Tianqiu Tech owed its current scale to Ye Qiusuo, who had liaised with various parties back in the day to secure such comprehensive equipment.
Zhang Chengjue wasn't afraid of Ye Qiusuo leaving. Even if she started her own venture, she could never build another Tianqiu Tech.
The favors Ye Qiusuo had called in back then were all used up. There was no possibility of building a lab better than Tianqiu Tech's.
There was another reason for Zhang Chengjue's audacity: Ye Qiusuo seemed to have run out of good projects.
Since last year's medical watch, her projects had all had an air of fantasy about them. Many of the newly recruited, capable researchers thought her ideas were pie-in-the-sky, baseless, and that she was just recklessly burning through money, relying on the company's success.
Zhang Chengjue had heard that scholars generally stopped making significant contributions after forty, with achievements mostly coming from their youth. But he hadn't expected Ye Qiusuo's inspiration to dry up so quickly; otherwise, they could have remained harmonious for a few more years.
He was a businessman. Chasing profit was in his nature.
...
Ye Qiusuo left very calmly. She had sensed earlier that Zhang Chengjue had changed, though the speed was still unexpected. At the recent shareholders' meeting, those two other shareholders were likely Zhang Chengjue's people now.
Starting the company together hadn't been smooth sailing. To raise funds quickly, they had brought in another shareholder. Later, to attract researchers, both Ye Qiusuo and Zhang Chengjue gave up one percent of their shares each, distributing them among the researchers. As the company's projects expanded further, the two shareholders from the meeting were introduced by Zhang Chengjue.
Ye Qiusuo suddenly smiled, though her eyes held no mirth.
As usual, she finished her experiments at Tianqiu Tech before leaving. However, she didn't go straight home but went to a research institute instead.
"I'm looking for Dr. Zeng."
The small institute wasn't big on formalities. Someone passing by called out, and Zeng Liqing came out.
"Professor Ye?" Zeng Liqing was surprised to see her. "What brings you here?"
"I want to know why you resigned, Dr. Zeng," Ye Qiusuo got straight to the point.
Zeng Liqing's expression was complicated. "Researchers resigning is normal. I just had some friction with others that affected the project progress."
"What kind of friction?"
Zeng Liqing studied Ye Qiusuo carefully before sighing. "I believed the therapeutic mushroom was being pushed to market too quickly. While experiments had cleared its toxins, there were still side effects—it could cause severe hallucinations. It wasn't suitable for mass production and release."
"But the hallucinations aren't harmful to the human body."
"Yes," Zeng Liqing agreed. "So the company considered this side effect negligible. But once on the market, who knows what the consequences might be."
"So it's a therapeutic mushroom. Patients can only consume it in hospitals, under supervision," Ye Qiusuo stated the strategy discussed at the meeting to address such concerns.
"Did Professor Ye come today to tell me this?" Zeng Liqing had resigned simply because he felt the company was becoming too aggressive and might run into trouble in the future, so he left early, even though the project was originally his idea.
Ye Qiusuo looked around the biological research institute. "Dr. Zeng, this place isn't suitable for you. Tianqiu Tech has the best experimental equipment in the country."
"Did Professor Ye come to persuade me to return?" Zeng Liqing didn't think an ordinary doctor like him was worth Ye Qiusuo's time to personally recruit back.
Ye Qiusuo shook her head. "Not today. I'll come find you again later, Dr. Zeng."
...
On Saturday, Ye Qiusuo, unusually, did not continue working. Instead, she turned on Gaoxing Channel 2 to watch the grand finale of "Star of Tomorrow."
However, shortly after turning it on, the TV displayed a message about cable area maintenance, stating it would be unavailable for another five hours.
Ye Qiusuo had to watch on her phone, but she wasn't a member. After five minutes, she was forced to pay for a subscription.
By the time she finished paying and started watching again, the number of bullet comments had multiplied. Professor Ye watched "Star of Tomorrow," wondering if after this episode aired, Xie Xi would still suffer the same fate as in the original story.
[Hahahaha, Xi Xi really doesn't hold back when he speaks.]
[I think Lu Mingzhe's win is really strange. Xi Xi wasn't wrong; it's already pretty good that Lu made it to the top three.]
[Could Lu Mingzhe really have gotten the underdog script?]
[I heard from a friend in the industry that Lu Mingzhe is a super-rich second generation, his family is loaded. This show is basically to promote him.]
[This is hilarious, only Xie Xi has so many water army fans. His temper is so bad, his words so harsh, and you all still kiss up to him. Unbelievable.]
[Lu Mingzhe's talent is obvious to all. Even the other contestants see him as a strong rival. If he had no skill, why would anyone mention him?]
[Could it be that Xie Xi is afraid Lu Mingzhe will steal his spotlight in the future, so he keeps putting him down?]
[Don't you know Xie Xi has done this before? He's been extremely harsh towards juniors.]
...
Ye Qiusuo watched the barrage comments and saw the trend beginning to emerge. After finishing the show and clicking into the hot search, there was already a topic about Xie Xi waiting for everyone to discuss.
"Xie Xi Suppresses Lu Mingzhe"
Clicking in, one could see someone had edited together all the things Xie Xi said to Lu Mingzhe and his looks during "Tomorrow's Star." In a short five-minute video, it fully 'demonstrated' how Xie Xi suppressed Lu Mingzhe and the disdainful looks he gave him.
[Holy crap, is Xie Xi really like this? I thought he was just a bit bad-tempered.]
[No way, no way, has everyone already forgotten how a junior from the same company was suppressed so badly back then that he left the company in obscurity?]
[Xie Xi just relies on his good singing to cover up all his flaws.]
[Lu Mingzhe is really pitiful, constantly torn apart by Xie Xi's words, yet he still has to smile and thank the mentor for his guidance. So tragic.]
[Lu Mingzhe truly deserves the championship. Thankfully, the other mentors and the audience had good judgment and didn't let him be wronged.]
...
Online comments are always like this. As soon as someone points out one thing, netizens quickly blow it out of proportion and start playing the 'justice warrior.'
Ye Qiusuo scrolled through the various comments and old videos below and, unsurprisingly, found this to be a premeditated manipulation of public opinion.
But unlike in the original story, half an hour later, the entire direction of public opinion had completely shifted.
Because Wei Qi had stepped in.
