And the facts bore this out. From the day after the notice was issued, Li Meili's eyes when she looked at them carried a sharpness that sent chills down their spines.
At the Monday morning meeting, Li Meili held the shift schedule, her eyes darting between Tao Xinrou and Zheng Shuhui. Then a faint, ambiguous smile curled at the corner of her mouth. "Tao Xinrou, Zheng Shuhui, you two performed exceptionally well this time. The leadership noted that you're meticulous and quick to react. The VIP floor has been busy with guests lately and is short-staffed, so you're being transferred there to continue covering shifts."
As she spoke, the surrounding colleagues all turned to look at them. Tao Xinrou understood. This was Li Meili's revenge. On the surface, it was a promotion, but in reality, she was pushing the most difficult tasks onto them. There was no avoiding it; they had to accept.
Sure enough, trouble came one after another.
On the first day, they were so busy their feet barely touched the ground. Even though they had reported the guest's need for hypoallergenic toiletries in advance, the Guest Room Center delayed sending them. By the time the guest complained, Li Meili lazily said over the radio, "I forgot to pass it on," resulting in Tao Xinrou getting a complaint from the guest.
The next day, Zheng Shuhui knelt on the floor to wipe the marble tiles three times, but Li Meili insisted there were still stains and ordered her to redo it.
The most infuriating thing was the performance evaluation. Even though everyone could see they had been working overtime, on the monthly performance sheet, Li Meili gave them barely passing scores, with the reason being "insufficiently flexible service, lack of initiative."
Tao Xinrou kept it in mind but showed no reaction on the surface. She knew this wasn't the time to fight back; a direct confrontation would only cause more losses.
To escape this situation as soon as possible, Tao Xinrou had to adjust herself and went to the restroom to brew a cup of coffee.
As soon as she pushed the door open, she heard suppressed sobbing inside.
Zheng Shuhui was standing with her back to the door, her shoulders heaving.
Tao Xinrou guessed that Zheng Shuhui was upset about the performance evaluation deduction.
Hearing footsteps, Zheng Shuhui quickly wiped her face, lowered her head, and whispered, "I'll go to the 20th floor right away." But when she turned and saw Tao Xinrou, the tears flowed even more uncontrollably.
"Xinrou... am I really useless? Can't even handle this small thing, and I'm dragging you down with me."
Zheng Shuhui's nose was red, like a wronged little rabbit.
Tao Xinrou walked over and handed her a tissue. "No, don't blame yourself. It's not your fault. They're deliberately picking on us."
Zheng Shuhui took the tissue and clutched it tightly, but the tears still wouldn't stop. "But my performance score was docked, and my family is waiting for me to pay the rent. And if it weren't for me, you wouldn't be targeted by Supervisor Li. If I had been tougher that day and refused the inventory job, she wouldn't have had anything on us."
Tao Xinrou comforted her, "The inventory thing wasn't your fault. Someone set you up. As for being transferred to the VIP floor, that's Li Meili's revenge. Even without you, she would have found another excuse to target me."
Zheng Shuhui's grievances eased a bit. She sniffled and asked, "But we can't just keep being bullied like this, can we?"
"Of course not. For now, we have to bear it. When we've gathered enough evidence, we'll go to Manager Zhang and the Inspector. There's always a place to appeal. We can't give up!"
Zheng Shuhui looked at Tao Xinrou, and the light returned to her eyes. She nodded firmly.
Tao Xinrou smiled, shared half of the coffee she had brewed with Zheng Shuhui, and said, "Come on, let's go to the 20th floor first. Don't let her catch us on anything new. After this busy period, I'll treat you to that amazing malatang place downstairs to reward ourselves."
*
What no one knew was that while they were frantically dealing with Li Meili's harassment, another pair of eyes was quietly observing Tao Xinrou's every move.
At that moment, an incident report about an "information leak case" inside Yunlu Hotel was sitting in Ying Jingsheng's phone mailbox.
"President Ying, I've learned that Zhang Hongbin has planted informants among the newcomers to consolidate his faction's power, but I haven't identified which newcomer yet," Wang Anran reported honestly.
Ying Jingsheng's hand, holding the phone, paused slightly.
The investigation dated back five years. After Grandfather stepped down from the front line, Yunlu Group was mainly managed by Second Uncle Ying Huaishan and Fourth Uncle Ying Huaili, while his father handled other matters.
Yunlu Group, once booming, had seen its stock price plummet in recent years. Several of its major industries had faded from public view, and only a few hotels under the group were still doing well.
Grandfather knew in his heart that all this was because the two relatives were secretly hollowing out the group, but he no longer had any real power. He could only watch helplessly as the business empire he had built slowly decayed.
So he pinned his hopes on Ying Jingsheng, who would one day take over the company. It was both a way to reclaim the group's real power and an important test for him.
Ying Jingsheng had grown up studying abroad and rarely returned to the country, leading the Ying family to believe he was a hopeless case unworthy of their attention.
Ying Huaishan and Ying Huaiyuan grew even bolder, inserting their own trusted people into key positions throughout Yunlu Group, as if they intended to take complete control.
It wasn't until last year, when Ying Jingsheng heard from his grandfather about the group's difficulties and the hidden details of the leak case, that he could no longer stay abroad in peace. He immediately decided to return to China to help his grandfather turn things around and reclaim power.
Although the mastermind of the leak case pointed directly at Ying Huaishan, he had deep roots. Ying Jingsheng knew he couldn't rush things. He decided to target the tail, not the head, starting with Ying Huaishan's trusted allies to first understand the situation before striking a decisive blow.
A few days ago, his assistant Wang Anran delivered a key clue: Ying Huaishan's core trusted person planted inside Yunlu Hotel was none other than the new manager of Yunlu Hotel, Zhang Hongbin.
To avoid alerting the enemy, Ying Jingsheng didn't inform anyone in his family. As soon as he returned to the country, he concealed his identity and applied for a position at one of the group's hotels.
"I understand. Keep an eye on Zhang Hongbin's movements and report to me at any time."
After saying this, Ying Jingsheng hung up. He casually opened the department's work group chat on his phone to check recent updates, but his gaze suddenly stopped. In the group chat, colleagues were casually mentioning Tao Xinrou's name and talking about her performance in the crystal loss case.
Indeed, one company, eight hundred group chats. Tao Xinrou and Zheng Shuhui weren't in this group, clearly excluded.
But Ying Jingsheng seemed lost in thought.
Tao Xinrou's performance in the crystal loss case was too impressive.
She didn't panic at all, presented evidence clearly, fought back logically, and every step was precise and ruthless—completely unlike the calm and sharpness a new employee should have.
It was completely different from how she usually acted around him.
Ying Jingsheng leaned back in his chair, his eyes narrowing slightly. Could Tao Xinrou be the informant planted by Zhang Hongbin?
Once this suspicion took root, it spread wildly.
Ying Jingsheng decided to test her.
Author's note:
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Ying Jingsheng: Testing.jpg
Tao Xinrou: Defending.jpg
Tao Xinrou: I can't let the CEO discover that I've figured out he's the CEO (playing dumb)