Chapter One: The Farmstead

  "My god, she's actually living in a place like this, it's totally taking advantage of her!"

  Cheng Lingyue looked around the room she was in, cursing inwardly, but her face remained calm, even with a hint of stubbornness.

  "No problem, as long as there's a place to stay. Besides, it's still quiet here, I like the quiet, can sleep well and play well tomorrow!" She turned her head to say to the shop owner couple, while forcing a smile at her colleague Zhou Litian who had followed in with fake concern and real curiosity.

  She's like that? Unfortunately, she also has a weed spirit, no matter how they bully her, she will stubbornly persist!

  Linglong is the assistant general manager of a large foreign-funded company, with excellent business skills and never making any mistakes. However, she has been ostracized because the general manager's wife, who is also the company's financial director Song Xin, has always suspected that Linglong intends to seduce her husband.

  She doesn't look particularly beautiful, her face is just delicate, but her skin is fair and her figure is great, tall and slender, not like most Asian women with a flat chest and pear-shaped body, but rather well-proportioned and curvy, just like her name - Linglong Yuemei.

  When this beautiful figure is wrapped in a tailored professional suit, it naturally attracts the attention of many men who wear "colorful" glasses to look at women, including that somewhat ill-intentioned general manager.

  But to say she wanted to seduce others, that's how wrong it is!

  She never had a mindset like that, on the contrary, she has always been trying to keep distance from some people with ulterior motives. She doesn't want to be a frivolous woman, and wants to guard her true heart, waiting for a good man who can move her heart to appear.

  But Song Xin completely ignored the facts, or she simply didn't want to understand the facts. She just wanted to find someone as a target to vent her own helplessness and anger, and make up for the despair of her own heart by hurting others.

  Linglong's work performance was good, and Song Xin couldn't fire her casually. However, she found ways to make trouble for Linglong, trying to force her to leave voluntarily. The reason why Linglong endured and didn't resign was that the salary of this job was the highest in the same industry. In order to pay for her father's medical treatment, her family had borrowed a large sum of money, and after her father passed away, she had to repay it.

  Besides, Song Xin colluded with those sycophantic colleagues to bully her, making her feel strongly resentful and determined not to give in - want to force her out? She would rather stick it out!

  She is not a tolerant person, she will not silently endure bullying without fighting back, so this is a tug-of-war battle, although she has been at a disadvantage for more than a year, but those people cannot get rid of her either.

  This time, it was a company-organized employee trip in batches. She didn't want to come at first, but couldn't bear Song Xin's cold ridicule, so she participated in this three-day, two-night tour of Jingxian Longpanshan. Who would have thought that as soon as they arrived here, new tricks came immediately.

  They didn't stay in the town's hotel, but instead chose to stay in a more flavorful farmhouse. When they arrived, they "regrettably" discovered that the two farmhouses had a total of twelve rooms, while their small tour group had thirteen people, with only Linglong's name "forgotten" to register.

  Although Linglong was known to be very frugal, Song Xin, the leader of this trip, said: "Move to another place, the company won't pay for the expenses," forcing Linglong to move into this storage room.

  This small house is quite clean, standing alone in the corner of the entire yard, about ten meters away from the main house. Although it's a storage room, there aren't many miscellaneous items inside. The room has several old furniture and daily necessities that have been replaced but not thrown away, as well as an old-fashioned wooden big bed.

  It's just that this room hasn't been lived in for a long time, and on a warm spring day, as soon as you enter the house, you can feel a bit of chill.

  "It's good that you have a place to live." Zhou Liwen said with a tone of relief, but his expression was slightly disappointed.

  "Well, in that case, I'll get it for you - Miss Cheng, is it?" The shopkeeper let out a sigh of relief and flashed a professional smile. "I'll go get the bedding for Miss Cheng right away. Guaranteed brand new, inside and out, with brocade satin covers."

  "Alright, thank you." Lingjong still maintained a satisfied smile, with a hint of unexpected delight, as if she was really happy. In fact, she was happy to have disappointed Zhou Liwen. Her disappointment proved that Song Xin would be disappointed, and she finally gained a small spiritual victory in the fate that had been arranged for her.

  Watching Zhou Liwen and the shop owner's couple leave the house, Linglong weakly put her simple luggage on the bed, touched her slightly stiff face, and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

  A war between women is really boring and childish!

  As the sky was getting late, she didn't wait for the shop owner to send the quilt anymore, and hurriedly rushed to the cafeteria. In her experience, if it's a bit later, maybe there won't be any food left to eat, and then Song Xin would say: "Additional meals are not paid by the company!" Then she would lose out, so it's better to go eat now and have enough energy to fight against their big and small thirty-six strategies!

  After dinner, she rushed to take a bath and then returned to her room. The bedding had already been delivered, and indeed it was brand new inside and out, but the brocade quilt cover was slightly different from what she had expected. She didn't mind these details, as the spring nights in the mountains were still a bit chilly, and all that mattered was that the quilt was warm enough.

  She was wrapped in a quilt, lying on the bed listening to music, thinking that it's not bad to be far away from those selfish people, at least they didn't disturb her. But before she could savor the quiet moment, there were rustling sounds coming from outside the door, and the wooden door and window frame also creaked loudly.

  "Cheng Ling! Cheng Ling!" A half-man-half-woman voice shrilled out her name, just like an old eunuch.

  Linglong rolled her eyes and thought about ignoring them, but she was afraid they would make a big fuss. Moreover, she didn't want to show weakness, so she jumped out of bed to open the door.

  As soon as the door opened, a ghostly head suddenly appeared in front of her, and despite being mentally prepared, she was still startled. "Old Qian, stop messing around! How childish!" Her brain had been squeezed by the door countless times, but she could still tell that the owner of this duck-like voice was none other than him.

  Qian He Ming, a so-called middle-level leader in the company who is close to retirement but still lingering around, is actually a despicable human being who can only survive by flattering and bootlicking. The two people following behind him are undoubtedly those two young women in their twenties who are as worldly-wise as forty-year-olds, Zhou Liwen and Zhu Min. These three are all part of the inner circle of General Manager's wife, Financial Director Song Xin.

  Next to appear was Song Xin, a woman in her forties, with the demeanor of an empress dowager. Wherever she went, she sought to be the center of attention, making a grand entrance, even though the general manager was her husband rather than her son. She still had at least ten years to wait before she could become the empress dowager.

  "I hope I'm not disturbing you, Little Cheng. Let's take a look at how you're living. Anyway, this is the company's mistake. Zhu Min has always been careless, don't mind it." Song Xin pretended to be very concerned about her employees, "Besides, it's still early, and I guess you weren't sleeping anyway."

  "As a matter of fact, I was just about to sleep."

  "Haven't slept yet? Let's chat for a bit!" Song Xin's face was smiling, but her actions were not polite at all. She squeezed into the room from Linglong's side, "Usually everyone is busy, since we're out, of course we should communicate more and sleep can wait, there's plenty of time to sleep when we get home!"

  What does Song Xin have to discuss with them, is it to confront them? But she has nothing to fear since she's done nothing wrong and her conscience is clear. However - they won't resort to violence against her just because they outnumber her, will they?

  Thinking so, she walked to the right side of the door and sat down on a low cabinet. That side was closer to the main gate, and there was also a rolling pin that looked very handy by her hand. Although she thought Song Xin wouldn't be impulsive enough to hit someone, she still came prepared!

  "I'll apologize first, I've made you suffer, Sister Cheng won't blame me, right?" Zhu Min stuck out her tongue and said in a spoiled tone.

  Linglong forced a smile and didn't say anything, but in her heart she really wanted to rip off Zhu Min's fake mask and see her true face.

  She thought she was cute, but Linglong only felt disgusted. This little girl had just graduated from university and entered the company, but she was very worldly and didn't know if she had been taught office politics in college. Anyway, she was good at seeing people and speaking their language, seeing ghosts and speaking ghostly words. On the surface, she was pure, enthusiastic, and innocent, but behind her back, who knows how many sinister plots she had used.

  "The environment here is actually not bad." Song Xin said elegantly, but from her furrowed eyebrows, it was clear that she didn't like the chill and the faint musty smell in the room. "At least they don't treat their employees poorly."

  "It's okay here, I guess this is a blessing in disguise!" Linglong retorted to Songxin.