Heartthrob, Your Image is Crumbling!

Chapter 537: Doomed

Although Zhou Yuwen's company had not been established for long, its development speed could only be described as advancing a thousand miles a day. The office building here was originally provided to Zhou Yuwen by Baidu free of charge. In the very beginning, they were only using a single floor and had hired few employees. Yet, in just half a year, the three-story office building was densely packed with busy staff.From the initial food delivery service center to the current labor company, cultural media company, planning company, the development team for the Fun Campus app, the incubation team for the Shared Bicycle Project, and even the logistics warehouse construction project far away in Northern Jiangsu, sixty full-time employees were performing their respective duties alongside various part-time staff.

Every so often, new faces could always be seen around the company.

Although Xianlin Delivery had now been renamed to Baidu Delivery and its business had spread across major colleges and universities, Zhou Yuwen was still responsible for the core operations. Because the startup had only been running for a year and had highly accurate market positioning, Baidu Delivery generated hundreds of millions in financial revenue for the company annually. Even though Zhou Yuwen's side was technically outsourced at this point, he still pocketed tens of millions in net income.

As for traditional businesses like labor and planning, they seemed unlikely to bring in massive fortunes. However, one had to remember that this year marked the explosive phase of the internet, and making money during this period primarily relied on people.

For example, Zhou Yuwen's labor company had currently contracted the ground promotion for QR codes and the popularization of Alipay scanning across all of Jinling. This year, major internet companies were expanding madly. They did not actually care about the authenticity of the data; the crucial part was the data growth points. Some people saw the business opportunities in this and hired masses to frantically register accounts. This kind of work might be difficult for others, but Liu Shuo had nothing but a massive workforce. As long as he took the lead, the ground promotion work could be completed with ease.

This single business venture alone could bring in hundreds of millions in profit a year.

Then there was the cultural media company. Although its profit points were still unclear, Zhou Yuwen had already incubated over a dozen highly distinct campus influencers through the Fun Campus short video platform. These included magic performers, singers, and naturally, special effects editors.

Fun Campus took a high-end route, clearly differentiating itself from Kuaishou right from the start.

During meetings, Zhou Yuwen had specifically emphasized that they needed to leverage their advantage as university students. He wanted everyone to associate Fun Campus with highbrow elegance, leaving Kuaishou for the lowbrow masses.

So far, the development had been highly successful. It had already expanded beyond the university student demographic and was opening up to the broader society.

Every single project hit the exact right note of the era's timeline. The money-making speed of Zhou Yuwen's company truly equated to earning millions or even tens of millions a day.

Outsiders did not understand this. They thought the company run by this student, Zhou Yuwen, was just a small-scale operation. However, every single internal employee worshipped him. They understood the company's potential better than anyone. The company underwent dramatic changes every passing day, and countless people desperately squeezed their heads trying to secure a job there.

Of course, with the company's development, the hiring requirements became increasingly strict. It was quite rare to see a situation like this, where three newcomers were brought in over the span of two days.

The moment the three newcomers arrived, they sparked heated discussions among the internal employees.

"These three girls all look incredibly beautiful."

"They aren't all the boss's secret lovers, are they?"

"What are you talking about? Our boss is young and successful, why would he need secret lovers?"

"The first one to come in is named Li Shiqi. She seems to be the boss's newest girlfriend."

"Huh? Really? Is your information accurate?"

"Nonsense, it's been the talk of the town!"

On Li Shiqi's very first day, her personal information was thoroughly gossiped about and dug up by others—she was Zhou Yuwen's high school classmate, an undergraduate at Jinling University, and the boss's new girlfriend.

The moment she arrived, she entered the president's office to work as a secretary.

Moreover, she was personally brought in by President Tao. Could her background be simple?

"Then who is that tall one?"

"Jiang Minmin? Never heard of her, but she's quite pretty too."

Coincidentally, coming in alongside Li Shiqi was Senior Sister Minmin, who had previously had an awkward falling out with Qu Jing. Her full name was Jiang Minmin.

Regardless of what Jiang Minmin thought in her heart, Tao Tian always felt that during her most helpless moments, it was Jiang Minmin who stayed by her side. Furthermore, Tao Tian had not necessarily completely accepted Qu Jing in her heart. Having Jiang Minmin by her side would definitely prove greatly useful in the future.

Compared to Li Shiqi's simplicity, Jiang Minmin clearly knew how to dress and appeared far more mature. On her first day, she wore a bust-accentuating black base shirt that revealed her slender waist.

Paired with tight-fitting skinny jeans, she already stood at five foot seven, and with the addition of two-inch high heels, she did not look like she was here to work at all. It felt more like she was walking a fashion runway.

Precisely because of her attire, everyone felt that this girl's background was anything but simple.

After interacting with her a bit, they felt she knew absolutely nothing, yet she was being heavily groomed by President Tao. They even ate lunch together. Seeing their intimate relationship, it was obvious her background was quite complex.

Naturally, some people tried to inquire about Jiang Minmin's true origins.

For example, Chen Wan from the planning company remembered that this Jiang Minmin seemed to be Tao Tian's roommate. But Zhou Yuwen's company was too messy. Previously, he had been close to both Tao Tian and Qu Jing, and now another Minmin had arrived.

Who knew what kind of relationship they shared? As a result, she was assigned to the cultural media company, put in charge of the model selection work for a specific region.

This role had a lot of overlap with the planning company, so Chen Wan casually probed Tao Tian about the relationship between the boss and Minmin.

However, Tao Tian's answer was entirely ambiguous.

Tao Tian simply smiled and said, "What kind of relationship could there be? In this company, who doesn't have countless ties to the boss? What kind of relationship do you think the boss and I have?"

Tao Tian's response left Chen Wan dazed.

Chen Wan thought to herself, 'Everyone can guess the relationship between you and Zhou Yuwen. Since you put it that way, we can only tread carefully.'

Minmin was arranged to work in Qu Jing's cultural media company, while Li Shiqi went straight into the president's office. Compared to Minmin's mysterious status, Li Shiqi's identity was far easier to accept, and countless employees were much more willing to curry favor with her.

For instance, when walking together during lunch, seeing that Li Shiqi was quite young, and noting that the company had graduates from Jinling University, someone immediately pulled her closer by calling her Junior Sister.

Then, handing her an apple and a bottle of water, she smiled and said, "Hi, Junior Sister, long time no see. We even met at the freshman welcome party."

Li Shiqi was pleasantly surprised when she saw the person. "Senior Sister? I didn't expect to see you here."

Li Shiqi still remembered a few of the more excellent senior sisters from her faculty. She found it strange. Why would someone with such strong academic grades like her senior sister come to work here?

The senior sister replied that she was very optimistic about the company's future.

The Shared Bicycle Project alone was worth placing a bet on.

After all, during university, the most frustrating thing about going out on weekends to take the subway was that there was always a two or three-kilometer blind spot. At the time, she used to think about how convenient it would be if there was a bicycle available to ride at any moment.

However, considering that once she rode a bicycle over, she would not know where to park it, the problem had constantly troubled her.

It wasn't until Zhou Yuwen proposed the Shared Bicycle Project that her eyes lit up.

It was precisely because of this that the senior sister resolutely chose to join this company!

During lunch, after chatting about this topic, the two grew much closer. Li Shiqi had finally made her first friend in the company.

Then, the senior sister smiled and asked her, "Everyone in the company says you are our boss's girlfriend. Is it true?"

Hearing this question, Li Shiqi's face flushed slightly, and she lowered her head.

If it had been before, Li Shiqi definitely would have denied it.

But last night, Zhou Yuwen had already expressed that they could try dating.

Therefore, although Li Shiqi was shy, she nodded and admitted, "We're currently just in the talking stage."

"Ah, I can't believe it's true!" Li Shiqi's senior sister exclaimed in great surprise. This senior female student from Jinling University wasn't particularly outstanding in appearance, but her height was quite prominent. She possessed the typical traits of a programmer: a white shirt paired with fitted jeans, her hair tied in a simple ponytail, and wearing round-framed glasses.

From the senior sister's eyes, one could see unhidden envy toward Li Shiqi.

The senior sister declared that Zhou Yuwen was a man who approached godhood. Many of the ideas he proposed were wild and imaginative, yet incredibly practical. For Li Shiqi to become the girlfriend of a man like him proved that she was also very excellent. She absolutely had to seize this opportunity!

Lectured so solemnly by her senior sister, Li Shiqi felt a bit dazed. She couldn't help but probe, "Senior Sister, do you... like Zhou Yuwen?"

Faced with this question, the senior sister shrugged nonchalantly and stated that there wasn't a single girl in the company who didn't like the boss.

Because only by being in the company could one truly understand how excellent the boss was. Setting everything else aside, take herself for example: she had painstakingly studied programming for four years in university. Yet, many algorithms and codes she had struggled with were easily unraveled once she entered the company and received pointers from the boss. It was then that she realized how overly complicated and outdated her past studies had been. It was no exaggeration to say that if the boss were a programmer, he would absolutely be the most exceptional programmer alive!

The senior sister's face was completely covered in adoration for Zhou Yuwen.

This sent Li Shiqi into a momentary trance. After working in Zhou Yuwen's company for a day, she discovered that her senior sister was right. The women in the company—whether they were part-time models or the front desk receptionists—all seemed to hold subtle feelings for Zhou Yuwen in their eyes. Calling it fanaticism might be a bit of a stretch.

But when these girls talked about Zhou Yuwen, they genuinely looked captivated and full of yearning.

Li Shiqi could sense that if Zhou Yuwen asked any one of them to be his girlfriend.

Even knowing he already had a girlfriend.

They would still throw themselves at him without hesitation.

Therefore, in this kind of environment, Li Shiqi felt even more strongly that she needed to stick to her true self.

Since she had already become Zhou Yuwen's girlfriend, she shouldn't let outside influences disturb her, and she absolutely couldn't act unreasonably and pester him like the previous girls had.

Li Shiqi silently told herself that since childhood, she had been a girl who lived in the shadows. She was worse than others in every way—she had no complete family and no happy childhood.

Having finally managed to become Zhou Yuwen's girlfriend, she needed to know her place and behave herself.

Even if Zhou Yuwen had other women, she had to pretend she didn't know.

Because she was inherently not worthy of Zhou Yuwen.

It was her honor that Zhou Yuwen chose her.

How could she possibly have the nerve to be jealous?

Not only would she not blame Zhou Yuwen for finding other women on the outside.

Li Shiqi felt that, if necessary, she could even help cover for Zhou Yuwen.

In short, she wanted to let Zhou Yuwen know that she was different from the other girls.

It had to be this way!

The more the other company employees treated her amicably because she was Zhou Yuwen's girlfriend.

The stricter Li Shiqi became with herself.

For example, she was the first person to arrive at the company today. Since it was only her second day at work, she didn't have any specific tasks. Thus, she thoroughly cleaned Zhou Yuwen's office inside and out.

She even paid out of her own pocket to buy some potted plants. She wanted Zhou Yuwen to walk into a completely transformed office.

When Tao Tian arrived for work and saw this, she did not stop her.

It wasn't until Zhou Yuwen arrived.

Tao Tian took Shen Yu to complete her onboarding.

At this moment, new gossip began brewing in the company.

"Why is there another girl?"

"And from the looks of it, this girl is very close to the boss. What is their relationship?"

"Isn't the boss's girlfriend that Li Shiqi?"

Meanwhile, Zhou Yuwen finally arrived at his office.

Li Shiqi, who was busy tending to the plants, hurriedly stood up upon seeing him approach. Before she even spoke, her eyes had already conveyed a thousand words.

Just looking into her eyes was too much for Zhou Yuwen to bear, and he subconsciously looked away.

Noticing that the office was completely spotless, Zhou Yuwen couldn't help but sigh. "Actually, you don't need to come in this early. There are dedicated cleaners to do all this."

Li Shiqi replied softly, "It's fine. I was just idling by myself anyway."

Zhou Yuwen noticed that the documents on his desk had been systematically categorized and sorted by Li Shiqi, marked with sticky notes in various colors.

Zhou Yuwen picked one up to look. Li Shiqi said, a bit embarrassed, "Actually, I don't understand these documents either. I could only sort them based on the different companies."

Zhou Yuwen looked at the neat, elegant little handwriting on the sticky notes.

He didn't say anything. As for whether it was useful, it certainly was. However, before Li Shiqi arrived, Tao Tian had also done a good job organizing things for him.

Still, these things had to be taken slowly.

Seeing Zhou Yuwen set the document down, Li Shiqi asked, puzzled, "Did I do something wrong?"

Zhou Yuwen said it was nothing.

"You did too well."

Hearing Zhou Yuwen say this, Li Shiqi finally smiled. "This is all part of what I should do."

Sitting in his chair, Zhou Yuwen looked at Li Shiqi's shy demeanor, unsure of how to broach the subject.

After some thought, he finally asked, "Shiqi, what happened the night before last... have you told anyone else about it?"

Mentioning the night before last made Li Shiqi smile shyly.

The confession and kiss from the day before yesterday.

"I... I didn't say anything to anyone. But I realized that the people in the company all seem to think I'm your girlfriend... Actually, I didn't want it to be like this. I was hoping for things to be more normal," Li Shiqi said, lowering her head in embarrassment.

Zhou Yuwen thought to himself, 'Oh, I am doomed then.'