E-Ladies: Navigating the Wired World
Chapter 109: Episode 109: Seizing the Advantage and Starting the Counterattack 1

Chapter 109: Episode 109: Seizing the Advantage and Starting the Counterattack 1

Four people entered the meeting room, and Zhou Xueyin hurried to close the door, lock it, and shut the blinds.

"Yinyin, what are you up to?" Li Jiniang asked, puzzled.

"Ha... huff..." Zhou Xueyin, who had just been melancholy, immediately looked at the three people with a mischievous grin, "Alright, alright, I can’t keep up the act! Paying a fine? I purposely set a trap, and I didn’t expect Zhao Caiyun to actually jump right in!"

"Damn, I really thought you were taken away! I was so worried!" Yao Shanshan muttered with pouting lips.

"It’s because I was afraid you guys would give it away, so Yinyin only shared the plan with me," Kang Siyin said with a proud smile, "Yinyin had Wanwan tell Mi Lu that 51buy hadn’t provided social security for new employees, which we could use to report her."

"Exactly! But what SB Mi Lu didn’t know is that the head of the social security bureau, Director Li, is my mom’s high school classmate. I talked to Uncle Li about this, and he said he could help by going through the motions after receiving the complaint," Zhou Xueyin said with a beaming smile.

"Damn, that explains why after hiring new employees, you were so eager to get their social security sorted out and even caught us up on ours!" Yao Shanshan had a sudden realization.

"Of course! I couldn’t trouble Uncle Li, could I? But I digress!" Zhou Xueyin glanced at Yao Shanshan, then continued, "After that, I deliberately put the social security payment proofs with the new employees’ files. Little did I know... just take a look for yourselves!"

Zhou Xueyin brought up the surveillance footage. Right after Zhang Jingwan told Mi Lu that they could report the lack of social security payments, Zhao Caiyun snuck back into the office on a Friday evening, after making sure Sun Miao had locked the door, and took all the documents left for her...

"Is this kid dumb? Didn’t she see the surveillance?" Li Jiniang commented with exasperation.

"Maybe she thought that since we had left for the day, the surveillance was off too..." Kang Siyin shrugged helplessly.

"After this incident, it might be time for me to have a talk with her..." Zhou Xueyin said, seeking the others’ approval.

"Indeed, it’s time. Now it’s clear that Mi Lu not only wants to grab clients to make money, she also wants to take us down..." Li Jiniang nodded seriously, fully supporting Zhou Xueyin.

"Shanshan, call Zhao Caiyun over," Zhou Xueyin said to Yao Shanshan, who was closest to the door.

Soon after, Zhao Caiyun walked in with a disdainful expression, and Yao Shanshan closed and locked the door again.

"Since you all know it was me, then I might as well say it, I resign. I’m done with this... and if your esteemed company loses any clients in the future, it won’t be my problem!" Zhao Caiyun was ready to act the martyr before Zhou Xueyin could say anything.

"No, girl, honey? Do you think resigning solves the problem? Do you think that by resigning, you can reverse all my losses? Come on, let me do the math with you!" Zhou Xueyin had anticipated that Zhao Caiyun might resign voluntarily, but letting her go just like that would be letting her off too easily.

"There’s nothing much to calculate. It won’t be more than 100k... Mi Lu has already done the math with me," Zhao Caiyun said disdainfully.

"Oh! The financial loss is indeed that much, but do you think your integrity is only worth 100k? Take a look at the confidentiality agreement you signed!" Zhou Xueyin took out the contract and highlighted the key points with a red pen, "Here, take a good look. You are suspected of leaking company secrets. Our company has the right to hand you over to the relevant authorities for processing!"

"..." Zhao Caiyun remained silent, but a flicker of panic passed through her eyes.

"You’re doing all this for less than 100K yuan, and it’s a sum you can’t even get your hands on or spend! Then you go and do the dirty work for someone who’s hiding and counting their money? Is it worth it?" Zhou Xueyin pressed step by step.

"I..." Yes, Mi Lu had just told her to invest the materials, and Zhao Caiyun had no idea about their value.

It wasn’t until Mi Lu let slip one day, but it looked like she had no intention of sharing the profits with her, let alone pay her extra for her work.

Repeatedly claiming Zhao Caiyun was her best girlfriend, but was her best girlfriend just there to be used and discarded?

Zhou Xueyin saw that Zhao Caiyun was starting to waiver again, "Xiaoyun, Mi Lu is nothing but a selfish, despicable person! Zhang Jingwan, Mi Lu made her sleep with clients to snatch orders! Bai Ying, she forced her to plagiarize 100 posts a day based on trending topics online! Li Hua, he had to switch through at least 50 accounts a day to liven up the forum! And look at you, turned into a corporate spy..."

"Mi Lu said... starting a business would be hard... that once we surpassed your traffic, we could rest easy... but it’s already been almost half a year, and there’s been no improvement..." Zhao Caiyun said with a sense of loss.

"Half a year... We got our first investment already! Only thinking about taking food out of someone else’s bowl, never about how to hunt for themselves! If she just wants to reap the benefits without the work, she’ll never be able to make the forum succeed!" Zhou Xueyin chastised Zhao Caiyun righteously.

"Mi Lu never listens to what we say, always belittles our hard work as worthless. Then she incites us to steal, to grab the fruits of others’ labor." Zhao Caiyun couldn’t hold back any longer, and started to voice her grievances, "She said, we don’t aspire for great wealth, but only for leftover scraps and cold bites to eat..."

She sniffled, "But while she says that verbally, her actions are completely different, constantly berating us as useless. When we don’t produce results. Without her taking us in, we would have been dead in the water outside..."

"So, she sent the two of you here to be moles, and you both actually came?" Zhou Xueyin asked rhetorically.

"Better than staying with her, being scolded all day long, right?" Zhao Caiyun lifted her head, tears welling up as she looked at Zhou Xueyin.

"Aren’t you and Mi Lu close friends? Why bind yourself to her so tightly? If she treats you like this, just cut her off!" Zhou Xueyin asked, perplexed.

"The first half year I came to Beijing, I relied on her support... I don’t want to be ungrateful..." Zhao Caiyun murmured quietly.

"Have you lost your mind? You think to repay kindness, you go and ruin other companies’ hard work? Don’t forget! The salary you’re getting now is paid by me! Your salary was earned through the hard work of Li Jiniang, Kang Siyin, Yao Shanshan, and me! You don’t want to be ungrateful? You’re already being ungrateful!" Zhou Xueyin scolded Zhao Caiyun fiercely.

Clearly, Zhao Caiyun was under Mi Lu’s control, and if she wanted her to come to her senses, reasoning was useless, only scolding might work...

"I... I..." Zhao Caiyun stuttered for a while, then struggled out three words, "I was wrong."

"You’re lucky you ran into us, still giving you a chance to make amends..." In Zhou Xueyin’s eyes, there was both ruthlessness and a desire to help this young woman in front of her.

"Really?" A glimmer of light appeared in Zhao Caiyun’s dim eyes.