Melinda only remembered that later she couldn't stand the spicy food, and she was excited to tell her
companions that she liked the same taste with Jonas.
How silly she was.
"What would you like to eat? I'll look for it nearby." Jonas knew the hidden meaning of this sentence,
but he deliberately ignored it.
"No need. I'll hang up if there's nothing else."
"Melinda, can't you have a talk with me calmly? Please give me a chance. I want to start over."
Melinda's direct refusal was a little disappointing, but Jonas only felt that he should suffer these.
"We won't start over, and we will never be together again," Melinda said as she turned around and
looked at herself in the mirror, a little ferocious on her face. Who could be as calm as water when
talking about the past?
Melinda hung up the phone. In order to get quietness, Melinda had muted the phone. After such a long
time, she knew clearly that blacklisting didn't work.
Melinda was preoccupied and did not notice the change of attitude of many colleagues.
It was not until three days later that Melinda gradually realized that all the people around her were
making various excuses to isolate her.
"Mark, do you have any good literature recommendation of this issue?" Melinda turned to ask her
colleague. This was the topic they would talk about after each requirement was designated.
Melinda's reserve of knowledge and unique insights were great. Colleagues were fond of discussing
with her, but Mark seemed to have heard nothing about what she said this time, and he stood up and
walked to the opposite side.
His keeping a distance from Melinda made Melinda embarrassed. Her colleague on the other side
stood up from her seat quickly and went straight to the conference table to join in the fun.
There were four or five people around the conference table. They seemed to be discussing, but their
eyes would occasionally float to Melinda.
"Elsa, why are you here?"
Elsa was the colleague on the right side of Melinda. As soon as she came, someone greeted her. With
a cup in her hand, Elsa took a seat at the conference table.
"Who wants to discuss with that person? Isn't the topic this time about how to survive in high-speed
cities? Maybe someone will talk about how to get in superiors' bed in the end." Elsa had been jealous
of Melinda all the time. This time, she found the opportunity to mock her, showing no mercy.
The people around her burst into laughter.
"You really don't know how to get into superiors' bed. Many people say that there is such a lady's
design center, but in fact, they teach people to do those disgusting things. Why don't you ask her to
bring you into contact with that if you are in a favorable position?"
a colleague ridiculed. Most of the people who had spoken at this time were envious of Melinda at the
usual time. The neutral ones were only alienated because they were worried that if they stood on the
side of Melinda, they would also become the focus of the crowd.
"I'm begging you. Stop disgusting me here," Elsa said as she folded her hands. The crowd burst into
laughter again.
It could only to say that Melinda's several articles were well read, which caused a great deal of hatred.
With the new theme layout, the meeting held in the afternoon was about the last theme. By convention,
the first article that came out was usually the one that the editor in chief thought was the best.
This time, the best article was still the one Melinda wrote.
Victor was sitting at the head of the meeting room. The editor in chief played the articles on a power
point. In the past, no one had any opinions about it as their superiors and their opinions were the same.
However, as soon as the display of Melinda's article was over, someone raised his hand to make a
speech and denied her article from the beginning to the end.
"This is a good example of a pupil writing off topic. Isn't such article put out to be disgusting person?"
the speaker spoke with indignation. They didn't mention who those articles were for everyone to talk
about it freely.
Since some people had started the beginning, similar comments could be heard from time to time.
Some even made a conclusion, "This time, the company lets out the worst article at first, right?"
Everyone was laughing, as if the sharpness they had just attacked was only aimed at the article, not
the writer.
The following articles were almost receiving the praises from the public. Although Victor was not a hard
working person, he still had keen eyes. He also sensed that there was something wrong with it.
It was just that the company was an open-minded company. No matter how good Melinda's draft was,
over half of the employees thought it was not good, so she had to modify the article again.
Melinda was pissed off, too. She had been kind to everyone in the company, but she was attacked by
all the staff. She could admit that the article was not as good as before due to her bad mood. But it was
not as worthless as they criticized.
After the meeting, Melinda went to the washroom and heard the discussion outside the toilet cubicle.
"That article is just a piece of rubbish. It didn't make any sense that it was the best one. Even if
someone says that she has nothing to do with Mr. Cheng, nobody will believe that."
"Exactly! In order to protect her, Mr. Cheng had criticized all of our articles."
"Just for protecting his lover," the woman sneered. The door next to her was pushed open. Melinda
scowled and walked up to the two.
They were at a loss after finding that the one they talked about heard what they said.
Washing her hands, Melinda turned to them and said coldly, "When you smear someone, please
present evidence to convince people. If not, please make a public apology to me. Otherwise, we are all
writers and know how to defend ourselves."
Melinda's words were actually a warning. Those people were clever enough to understand what she
meant.
"Are you threatening us? Melinda, don't you know what you have done? You are such a proud and
aloof woman, why didn't you act like this in front of Mr. Cheng?"
The woman was also scared at first, but then she puffed out her chest as if this could make her more
confident.
Now that Melinda heard what she said, she didn't try to hide herself and spoke it out in front of Melinda.
"I just hope that you don't spread rumors without any evidence." Melinda looked straight at the two. Her
eyes were bright and full of righteousness, which made the two people feel guilty inexplicably.
"Evidence! It's the evidence that you two went to the date on the beach!"
The woman who said this was one of the two people who had witnessed how Melinda and Victor got
together by the seaside that day. She made great contributions to the quick spread of the rumors.
"That day Mr. Cheng asked me to go for a walk with him."
After knowing the reason, Melinda couldn't help being angry. If it weren't for Victor, no one would have
misunderstood them.
Hearing her words, the two women burst into laughter. They looked at Melinda as if she was an idiot.
They looked at each other and said ironically, "Do you believe it?"
"Is it credible?"
the other woman echoed. The two walked out of the washroom with mockery and spread the news.
What Melinda didn't know was that what happened at the beach was just a fuse. The people who
aimed at upset her even chained up many things and made up a scheming history for her.
"The atmosphere in the office is going to be affected by this woman. Our department is an example in
the company. Now it is laughed at every day,"
Elsa said. She was the favorite member of this department and always the one who ranked the first in
the article. However, everything had changed since Melinda appeared.
"Yes. I don't dare to go to the canteen now because I'm afraid that others will ask me about it,"
someone said in agreement. She belonged to the side of Elsa and had always hated Melinda from the
very beginning.
No one was willing to believe Melinda's explanation.
"Melinda, you want to explain to us. You have to find a more reliable reason. You and Mr. Cheng are
innocent. Can you persuade anyone by this one sentence?"
Some people pretended to be kind, but actually they were mocking Melinda. The others also made a
gab at her, but none of them stood on the side of Melinda.
Looking at the colleagues who got along with her day and night, Melinda had a mixed feeling. Human
heart was indeed the most unpredictable.
She sat calmly in her office and ignored the mocking words. Standing not far away, Elsa was more
jealous.
She was not only jealous of Melinda's talent, but also her temperament.
But she didn't know that Melinda had to live a horrible life for five years. Their irony was not enough at
all.
On the contrary, Elsa was a person with a good sense of propriety. She would take advantage of her
colleague's help to get rid of Melinda.
If an excellent person couldn't join the group, he or she would be abandoned in the end.
Elsa was a well aware of this point.
After Victor went back to his office, he read Melinda's manuscript many times and felt that there was no
problem, but he also found that the quality fell a lot this time.
So he understood it as that colleagues tended to have higher requirements for capable people.
"Melinda, Mr. Cheng is looking for you." This message-passing man said that in an intimate tone,
drawing a lot of attention from the colleagues around.
"Okay," Melinda answered. She then locked the screen. Never relaxed vigilance against others. These
people attacked her right in front of her, and if they did something to her in secret, it would be really
difficult to prevent them from happening.
Sitting on the sofa and sipping the tea cup, Victor was relieving his boredom. Seeing Melinda come in,
he pointed at the seat beside him as he said, "Take a seat."
Victor sat on the middle part of the sofa, Melinda went to the right, sat down, and ignored his greeting.
"Mr. Cheng, what can I do for you?" Victor was puzzled by her attitude.
"The person who denied your manuscript is not me. Don't give all your anger to me." Victor couldn't
help displaying an aggrieved expression.
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