Vivian was already busy with typesetting. Seeing Shannon’s file, she frowned and remarked, “Shannon, I’m really busy right now. I’ve been trying to catch up with my work. Can’t you do it on your own?”
“What did you just say?” Shannon widened her eyes in disbelief as if she had just heard a blatantly bad joke. “Do you know how busy I am? For your information, I did this investigative interview all by myself! I still have to sort out all the interview transcripts. Yet you expect me to do these chores by myself?”
Vivian frowned deeper, “But I’m really busy here as well. Why don’t you…”
Before she could finish her words, Shannon interrupted impatiently, “Vivian, I know you’re just a back-line staff. You’re not as busy as us front-liners. Cut down some of your arrogance, will you? Or do you plan to ask the Chief Editor to help you with your job so you can sit back, do nothing, and get paid?”
Shannon’s voice was sharp, for she had deliberately raised her tone as she spoke. That sudden outburst caught the attention of most people in the magazine company.
Feeling tired of the drama, Vivian’s face turned cold and unflinching.
She took a deep breath, nonchalantly grabbed the documents Shannon had put on her desk, and said indifferently, “Okay, I’ll help you organize it.”
A smug expression of victory appeared on Shannon’s face. Just as she was about to come up with a witty retort, Vivian spoke again coolly.
“However, please do not think of yourself as the benefactor of this magazine company after just one successful interview. Get off from your high horse and realize that this is the first time, after being in this company for two whole years, that you are responsible for your first-ever manuscript.”
Although Vivian’s words sounded mean and hurtful, they were also the truth.
She had joined the magazine company with Shannon at the same time. She was promoted to personally take charge of a separate magazine section starting just last year, whereas Shannon had been stuck with the same chores such as proofreading.
“You…” Shannon had not anticipated Vivian to turn against her suddenly. Her face turned pale as she also overheard many chuckles from colleagues around her. Reeling with anger, she swiftly gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. She then turned to leave, helpless to retaliate.
After Shannon stormed off, Sarah slid her chair over and gave Vivian a thumbs-up. “Vivian, well done! What a splendid display to knock that pompous lady down a few pegs! I’ve been annoyed with Shannon these few days. It was just an interview, and yet she was already putting on airs and acting in such a high-and-mighty way.”
Vivian smiled silently, refusing to comment further. She started to sort out the documents left by Shannon on her desk.
Scrutinizing the documents in her hand, she could not help but frown deeply.
The factory mentioned was really evil-hearted. The employees hired were all from the countryside. They were merely simple people who did not know much, tricked into becoming obedient work slaves to the factory.
Looking at the documents, she hesitated and could not help but mumbled, “If the factory was exposed, what would happen to those poor workers?”
“All of them would be unemployed,” chipped in Sarah as she shrugged, “I’m responsible for investigating the capital flow of this factory. Recently, they’ve received a lot of large orders. However, they were unable to keep up financially. Seems like the worker wages had been in arrears for a long time. If we go ahead and expose this factory, all its assets would be frozen. Needless to say, the workers would definitely be affected.”
Vivian could not bear to hear such cruel reality. Nonetheless, she knew that action must be taken. After all, to continue allowing the food produced by such an irresponsible factory to circulate in the market would burden the consumers as well. It may be a tough topic to side with, but all she could do now was to continue organizing the information on hand.
As the clock struck eleven o’clock in the morning, Vivian felt a slight cramp in her stomach.
She rubbed and massaged her tummy with a frown on her face.
She had a weak stomach, and it would start to hurt the moment she felt even a little hungry. To prepare for overtime, she had munched on a few biscuits beforehand. But time seemed to fly by without her realizing it, and now she could not hold it anymore.
Realizing that the shop downstairs must have closed at this point, she had no choice but to walk to the pantry to see what was in the refrigerator.
Since there were too many people working overtime, the snacks in the fridge had long been gone. Left with no choice, Vivian decided to warm up some milk to fill her tummy.
Just as she was sipping her hot piping milk, she heard footsteps approaching behind her suddenly.
She turned her head in time to see someone she had no intention of ever meeting nor hoped to bump into.
