Pei Mingyuan was only disappointed for a moment, but then he regained his spirits. He said, "It doesn't matter. If it doesn't work today, there will be next time. As your loyal suitor, I have enough patience to wait until you spare time for me."
Pei Mingyuan actually had a pair of deep and charming almond - shaped eyes. When he looked at someone seriously, those eyes seemed to contain tender affection. But Xu Zixi got goosebumps all over her body from his look. She cleared her throat, waved her hand and said,
"Um, I'll go back to work first. Since I've suddenly been promoted to the chief designer and need to start leading a team, there are still a lot of things to deal with. Hehe."
After saying that, she turned around and walked out quickly.
After leaving Pei Mingyuan's office, Xu Zixi rubbed her arms hard and shivered all over. His look reminded her of those playboys who chased after her and courted her in her previous life. Each of them seemed to be deeply in love with her, and sweet words just poured out of their mouths as if they were free. It was just so nauseating.
Holding the hot - handed dry - share dividend agreement in her hand, Xu Zixi planned to go back and make a good plan for her next work plan. Unexpectedly, she saw an unexpected person outside her own office.
Wen Li, who used to follow Pei Weiwei around and offer her advice, wrung her hands in front of her chest and looked at Xu Zixi nervously.
"Y - Yuan Xi, I have something to tell you..."
Xu Zixi crossed her arms and squinted slightly: "You mean you suspect that 'Sea Forest', the third - ranked work in the initial score, plagiarized your work for the competition?"
Wen Li had just told her that on the eve of the end of the competition's submission period, her house was burglarized. A lot of property was lost, including the computer she used to make the competition manuscript. Pei Weiwei originally planned to use her work to replace another entry, but due to this accident, she replaced it with Ou Caicai's work instead.
One had to say that the atmosphere in the design department was really... well.
At this moment, Xu Zixi couldn't help but feel glad that Pei Weiwei had been kicked out mercilessly by someone. Otherwise, if things went on like this, the company would surely be ruined by her.
Wen Li nodded with a pale face: "This matter has been bothering me for almost a week. Since I saw that work in the final that day, I couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard I tried. I kept comparing the details of the two models in my mind. I'm sure that it was modified from my lost work. I didn't expect that work to actually get the third place in the initial score."
Xu Zixi tilted her head slightly: "But why did you come to me about this? Shouldn't you go to the person in charge of registering the competition?"
Wen Li said sincerely: "Yuan Xi, I'm sorry. I was blind before and wrongly followed Miss Pei. Actually, I know you're not the kind of person described in the news. I knew you were a trustworthy and kind person since you helped Zhou Yaru get her computer back at all costs. I thought you would definitely help me, so I came to you."
Xu Zixi was both angry and amused: "You really have great confidence in me."
She thought for a while. It wasn't a problem for her to help Wen Li investigate. She was actually a bit concerned about this matter too. If someone really stole someone else's work for the competition, why did they then back out at the last minute? Didn't they do all this just to win an award in the competition?
If according to that person's original plan, they did win an award. Then what did they want to do next?
Xu Zixi: "The competition is over. Even if we find out who stole your work, it won't change the result. Even so, do you still want to investigate?"
Wen Li nodded: "Yes!"
Xu Zixi said: "Okay, I'll take care of this. You go back and wait for my news."
After being troubled and depressed for so many days, and being ridiculed by Ou Caicai every time she mentioned it, at this moment, just because of Xu Zixi's words, Wen Li's emotions that she had been holding on to for so long instantly collapsed. Tears fell like broken beads. While wiping her tears, she sobbed and said to Xu Zixi,
"Woo... I... I knew... you're a good person... Woohoo... Thank you!"
After finally calming Wen Li down and sending her out of the office, Xu Zixi returned to her seat. After thinking for a while, she opened the computer with a solemn expression and her fingers flew over the keyboard.
Although this competition adopted an anonymous system, at the beginning of the submission, everyone was required to sign a copyright commitment letter. Therefore, the system must have stored relevant information about the author of "Sea Forest".
Xu Zixi hacked into Pei's internal system and started searching for relevant information using hacking techniques, but the result was nothing. Because she found that in Pei's system, except for the six awarded works, all the information of other works had actually been completely destroyed, leaving not a single trace.
After exiting the system and erasing the traces of her intrusion, Xu Zixi fell into deep thought.
Generally speaking, all the materials generated by each company's activities would be archived for future reference, and the minimum retention period for the materials was three years. It was obviously abnormal for them to be disposed of so quickly.
Was it an accident or a deliberate act?
She shook her head and sent this news to Wen Li via text message. It took Wen Li a long time to reply with just three words "Thank you". From these three words, Xu Zixi could feel her sadness and helplessness.
Worried that Wen Li might do something stupid because of this, Xu Zixi thought for a while and replied:
"I'll continue to keep an eye out for you."
After Xu Zixi left, Pei Mingyuan was no longer in the mood to work. He paced back and forth in his office since morning.
Sometimes he thought that since she was allergic to flowers, what kind of gift should he give to please her? Perfume? Clothes? Bags?
Sometimes he wondered what to invite her to eat the next time he asked her out for dinner. Western food? Japanese cuisine? French cuisine?
Before long, he thought that although he was outshone by that guy surnamed Yan, he was physically sound, had normal eyesight, and could approach her openly and express his feelings to her.
Anyway, he had won! He had won so gloriously! It was really satisfying!
Pei Mingyuan waited and waited. Finally, it was time to get off work. He hooked the car key with his finger, picked up his motorcycle helmet with one hand, and hummed a tune as he swayed out of the office. He planned to go and visit the injured Cui Jiandong with Xu Zixi to enjoy some "time for just the two of us". He had already fantasized about the scene where she sat behind him on his motorcycle and hugged his waist tightly.
But when the elevator reached the first floor, suddenly three female employees happily rushed up, surrounded Xu Zixi, and unceremoniously squeezed him aside. Pei Mingyuan was stunned.
Where was the promised "time for just the two of us"?
Xu Zixi was surrounded by Dai Sha, Huang Zhenzhen, and Zhou Yaru. The four of them walked out of the gate chatting and laughing. Since they were going to visit Xu Zixi's home directly after seeing Cui Jiandong, they all got into her car. The four of them, engrossed in their conversation, didn't notice at all that there was a Pei Mingyuan following behind them.
Pei Mingyuan stood there for a long time. It wasn't until Xu Zixi's car had driven a long way that he realized that he had really been completely forgotten by her.