Novel Full Chapter 70: You Have to Be Responsible for Me
Chapter 70: Chapter 70: You Have to Be Responsible for Me
Then she thought about her own journey, from being full of ambition to hitting walls everywhere. Before entering the workforce, she never knew how harsh the real world could be.
After taking a beating from the real world, she finally understood that there’s a limit to what one person can do. Hard work alone wasn’t enough to solve problems—you also needed luck.
She had chosen to be the Marketing Director at Zhi Fei Aerospace because she felt that in sales, the more you worked, the more you earned, and she could make the money she needed.
She had given up on her early fantasies. A master’s degree in economics from Qingbei didn’t guarantee a management position at a large corporation with a hefty salary.
These days, PhDs were a dime a dozen, so what was a master’s degree even worth?
She refused to bow to life, refused to compromise with power and influence. That’s why she chose to go into sales, relying on her own abilities to live with her head held high.
In reality, sales wasn’t her strong suit. In her first month at Zhi Fei Aerospace, her greatest contribution had been her management skills.
Cha Lan highly approved of her management abilities. As the Sales Director, he naturally focused on team performance anyway.
But Xu Wu wasn’t satisfied. She was there to close deals and make money. Even if the team brought in 5 million in sales in a month, her 0.5% commission was only 25,000. Added to her base salary of 20,000, her income wasn’t high.
Besides, sales orders didn’t come in every month. During months with no deals, she only had her base salary. After deductions for insurance and taxes, and then paying for rent and daily expenses, there was basically nothing left over.
She also had a proud and competitive nature. From junior high until graduation, she had always been the center of attention. After entering the workforce, she naturally couldn’t stand being second-rate. That’s why every time she met up with old classmates, she acted extremely generous, putting on a show to suggest her financial situation was anything but ordinary.
But keeping up such a front required money to back it up, and her income clearly wasn’t enough.
Gao Yue and Li Xiao were her high school classmates. Back in school, they had also been considered class beauties. If Xu Wu’s looks rated a 93 or higher, then theirs were around an 85. All of them were the fair-skinned, beautiful, long-legged type.
If Xu Wu hadn’t been so dazzling and overshadowed them, they too would have been pursued by countless male classmates.
It was rare for a beautiful girl to also be a top student. Xu Wu was already an exception, so naturally, the other two were certified slackers.
Neither of them did well on the college entrance exams. They didn’t even make it into a second-tier university and ended up in vocational colleges.
Because of this, they graduated a few years before Xu Wu. Now, Gao Yue was a mid-level manager at a real estate company, and her monthly income was said to be in the tens of thousands.
Li Xiao was doing even better. She was the chairman’s secretary at a high-tech company, and crucially, she had married well. Her father-in-law was a professor at Jinghang, so she had married into a scholarly family.
They weren’t Xu Wu’s closest friends, but more like rivals who were always trying to one-up each other. Their so-called get-togethers were just an excuse to vie for the spotlight.
Now, Xu Wu didn’t want to see them, but she also worried that if she didn’t go, she would lose face and give them a reason to mock her later.
She had only herself to blame for today’s predicament. The other day, Chen Xiao had her model a few Descente outfits.
In the fitting room, she thought they looked good, so she snapped a few selfies and posted them on her social media feed, which immediately got a ton of likes.
The comments below were all over the place!
Some praised her for being pretty, some complimented the outfit, and others were envious that she could afford such a brand.
It wasn’t exactly a luxury brand, but most people in her social circle were ordinary salaried workers with limited spending power.
She remembered Li Xiao’s comment at the time: "Descente, their skiwear is pretty good. A lot of people are wearing outdoor brands lately. My husband is a fan too, but he only wears Archaeopteryx!"
It was all about one-upmanship. Xu Wu couldn’t very well explain that the clothes weren’t hers and she was just modeling for someone.
For today’s get-together, Li Xiao had deliberately put her in a tough spot.
Li Xiao claimed her husband had taken her BMW, and Gao Yue couldn’t drive. So, for the "sisters’ day out" for beauty treatments and a meal, they would have to ask the great Miss Xu to drive. They wanted to hitch a ride in her "luxury car"!
This was checkmate. If Xu Wu showed up in her Golf, there was no telling how they would ridicule her.
But besides the Golf, she couldn’t possibly borrow the company’s Buick minivan, could she? That would scream "company car," and they’d mock her just the same.
’Sigh, this is all Descente’s fault. It’s all Chen Xiao’s fault.’
’Chen Xiao?’ She suddenly remembered he drove a Mercedes-Benz. ’Maybe... Besides, he was the one who started all this. If he hadn’t asked me to be a model, none of this would have happened.’
’Yes, he has to take responsibility.’ She kept hyping herself up, finally working up the courage to call Chen Xiao.
The phone rang twice before it connected. She forced her voice to be as gentle as possible and said, "Chen Xiao!"
BEEP BEEP BEEP... The line went dead!
’Bastard, Chen Xiao!’ Xu Wu stared at the disconnected call, then immediately redialed without hesitation.
"Chen Xiao, why did you hang up on me!"
"Lady, I thought there was something wrong with my earpiece just now. That sound was like a ghost wailing! I hung up to check it."
’I’ll endure it. I have to endure it! Not very damaging, but extremely insulting!’
She gritted her teeth. "My voice sounds like a ghost wailing?"
Chen Xiao said, "It scared me into a cold sweat. Good thing it’s daytime. If it were night, my soul would have been scared right out of my body!"
Xu Wu knew that if they kept this up, she would be the only one losing. She had yet to win a single verbal sparring match against him.
She took a deep breath and said, "I’m done messing around. I need to talk to you about something!"
He figured she wouldn’t be calling unless she needed something. "Go ahead. What is it?"
"Chen Xiao, you have to take responsibility for me!"
"Hey! Don’t just say things like that!" Chen Xiao cried out in alarm.
"We just linked arms! I’ve never heard of linking arms getting someone pregnant. I’m potent, but I’m not *that* potent!"
Xu Wu was instantly furious and embarrassed. She snarled, "You bastard, where are you?! I’m going to kill you today!"
"No need to shout, I’m already here!"
Xu Wu froze. Why did his voice sound like it was in stereo? Just then, her office door swung open, and in walked Chen Xiao, an infuriating smile plastered on his face.
"I’m telling you, Miss Xu, this office of yours is too small. You should have President Cha get you a new one. I feel cramped every time I come here!"
"You actually dared to show up..."
Chen Xiao sat in the chair across from her, leaning back. "Besides running your mouth, what else can you do to me?"
Xu Wu was furious, but there was truly nothing she could do to him.
Fortunately, Chen Xiao knew when to stop and didn’t provoke her further. Instead, he asked, "I actually came bearing good news today! Our project proposal for the water conservancy project with the Jiangzhou Design Institute was approved by their group. The preliminary estimate for annual business volume is no less than 50 million, and your team will get at least 20 million of that!"
"See? You’re so fierce with me, and yet here I am, showing up at your door to bring you money!"
Hearing this news, Xu Wu felt a little better. A quick calculation told her that 0.5 percent of 20 million was 100,000.
But then she remembered he had made 1.2 million from this deal, and that little bit of satisfaction vanished instantly!