As Xia hurried out of the 88th floor, she could feel the weight of her secret crushing her. She had to go. She was his personal assistant, nothing more, and her heart was not going to make her forget that.
The next morning, the Lu Group boardroom was buzzing. Belle, radiating confidence and a heavy cloud of her signature French perfume, stood before the board, presenting the marketing campaign Xia had painstakingly crafted during countless sleepless nights. Xia, relegated to fetching coffee and taking notes, felt a familiar pang of injustice.
Belle, basking in the board's approval, continued, "As you can see, our new strategy is revolutionary, a complete reimagining of the brand's image..."
Zhenting sat at the head of the table, his expression unreadable. He listened intently, but Xia couldn't shake the feeling that his focus wasn't entirely on Belle. His gaze kept drifting towards her, a silent interrogation in his dark eyes.
Suddenly, Zhenting interrupted Belle, his voice a low, controlled rumble. "Ms. Lin," he said, using her surname with deliberate coldness. "This is a very... creative campaign. Tell me, what was the inspiration behind the central motif?"
Belle faltered, a bead of sweat trickling down her temple. "Well, Zhenting, darling, I wanted something fresh, something that captured the essence of modernity and..."
Zhenting raised a hand, cutting her off. His eyes, sharp as shards of ice, scanned the presentation displayed on the large screen. He pointed to a barely visible detail in the corner of one of the slides.
"And this?" he asked, his voice dangerously soft. "This small... flourish? A jasmine flower, almost hidden. What is its significance?"
Xia’s breath caught in her throat. The jasmine flower. It was her signature doodle, an unconscious habit she always added to her work, a tiny echo of the scent that clung to her skin.
Belle’s face paled. She stammered, "The... the jasmine? Oh, that was just... a visual choice. I thought it added a touch of elegance."
Zhenting's lips curled into a sardonic smile. "Elegance? Is that all? I was under the impression that every element of a Lu Group campaign was meticulously planned, pregnant with meaning. Surely, such a prominent symbol has a deeper significance."
The boardroom was silent, every eye fixed on Belle, who was visibly crumbling under Zhenting's relentless interrogation. Madam Lin sat a few seats away, her face contorted in a silent scream, the only noise being the hiss of her aerosol hairspray.
Seeing Belle’s mounting distress, Xia steeled herself. She couldn't let him humiliate Belle so openly, even though justice was due. She opened her mouth to intervene, ready to claim responsibility for the doodle and deflect Zhenting’s attention.