"No matter what happened, you must tell me the truth about who hurt you. You can trust me," said
Linda. She placed a hand on Sherry's shoulder, meeting her eyes with a look of sincerity.
Sherry felt a warmth enveloping her heart. It was pleasant to realize that no matter what troubles she
went through, there was always someone on her side ready to support her no matter what.
Linda couldn't help her solve her problems, but it was enough for her to be there as her best friend
while she was sad.
"Thank you, Linda," Sherry said in a low voice.
Linda leaned forward and put an arm around Sherry's neck. "Don't thank me, Sherry. You're my best
friend. I'll stand by your side no matter what."
Sherry nodded and gave her a slight grin. "By the way, since you've been assigned to work with me,
you have to take your work very seriously. I'm a really strict manager, you know."
Linda rolled her eyes. "You don't have to remind me what a workaholic you are. Hey, I just read the
contracts, and I saw that you have two cases at the same time—one is the Ou Group, and the other is
the Song Group. Did Jeremy arrange that on purpose?"
Sherry's smile turned brittle. "You already know the answer. Jeremy always has an ulterior motive for
doing things."
Linda was outraged on her best friend's behalf. "Jeremy is way out of line! If he sabotages you at work,
you must expose him. Don't sacrifice your career to protect him!" she exclaimed, giving Sherry a
ferocious look.
"It's all right," Sherry said with a sigh. "I know how to deal with him."
She now had a very heavy workload.
Sherry had already asked for a few days off. With the deadline approaching, she had barely made any
headway with her work. Fortunately, Steve had said she could postpone her deadlines for the Song
Group for a few days.
From the moment Sherry joined the company, she had been determined to devote herself to her work.
Linda saw how conscientious she was, and admired her very much.
The downtrodden, mousy wife of Jeremy Ou had finally broken free of her small world, and was
returning to her roots. Sherry was back, as strong-minded and professional as ever!
Of course, the transition wasn't easy. Sherry was a little clumsy at first, fumbling to figure out the
correct way to do things. But with effort and intelligence, she had developed her skills. With each
passing day she was becoming better and better at her job.
"Ouch! Help me rub my shoulder. It's so painful," said an employee in the tea room to the woman
beside her.
Sherry was about to enter the tea room, carrying a cup in her hand. She opened her mouth to greet
them when she heard the woman complain, "The new manager is such a workaholic! She doesn't even
give us any time to have a break."
"I know! This morning, I had just gone to the bathroom, and as soon as I walked out she approached
me and asked me to do so many things."
"Honestly my body is getting sore with all this nonstop work. My neck and waist are getting strained! If
the new manager doesn't relax, she'll work us all into the ground. I feel like even my eyesight is
deteriorating, I swear," the woman groaned.
"Well, to be fair, she was specially brought in to be the manager by Mr. Gu himself. She must be
working so hard to prove her ability to him."
"She can work as hard as she wants, but does she have to make us suffer with her? Honestly, this load
is killing me! I've been working overtime for several nights in a row. Last night I had an argument with
my boyfriend because I kept him waiting for an hour."
Sherry stood and listened for a while. When there was a lull in the conversation, she took a deep
breath and entered the tea room.
Her high heels made crisp clicking sounds as she walked inside. Many of them did not notice her at
once, since she didn't announce herself. But finally someone saw that the new manager herself had
walked in, and nudged the others, who were still chatting. They all turned to look at Sherry and fell
silent.
Sherry calmly filled her cup with water. Then she left the tea room without saying anything to anyone.
Her subordinates exchanged glances with each other, not knowing what to say. Eventually, the sound
of her heels faded away, and they all began talking at once.
"Did she hear the things we were saying?" said one of the women, looking concerned.
"I don't know.. Maybe not. I mean, she didn't look angry, did she? No one could be so calm if they
heard others talking behind their back."
"That's right," agreed the woman, sounding relieved. "Maybe she didn't hear anything. Anyway, we
weren't even talking about her by the time she entered."
"Let's just go back to work now. In case she did hear us, we shouldn't be lazing around in here, or else
we're really done!"
They all hurried back to their seats. From time to time, they stole covert glances at Sherry's office.
Linda approached Sherry and saw that she was busy. She scowled and asked her friend, "Why didn't
you confront them? How could you let them say those things about you?"
Linda had noticed that there was something wrong from Sherry's stiff expression, and she soon found
out all about the tea room fiasco.
Sherry didn't even raise her head. "It doesn't matter. They're right; I'm a workaholic. There's no need to
make a big deal out of idle gossip."
Linda didn't say anything. Sherry continued, "I'm asking them to do a lot of work, so I can't begrudge
them a few complaints."
"Why don't you explain it so that they can understand? It's not your fault that the deadline is so soon.
You can't delay it any further. For a client like this, it's normal to work overtime," said Linda. She felt
sorry for Sherry, who had to bear such a burden alone.
Sherry paused and looked up at Linda. "There's nothing to explain."
Before Linda could say anything else, Sherry stood up and began clearing her desk. She said, "Linda,
come with me to meet the client."
"Which client?" Linda asked. She was confused as to why her presence was needed.
"The CEO of the Song Group, Steve. He's the partner in charge of this project," Sherry said, beginning
to sort through the documents to choose the ones she would take with her to the meeting.
Linda's eyes widened. She said excitedly, "Sure! I'll go get ready."
She grabbed her handbag and hurried to the bathroom..
As soon as Sherry emerged from her office, she found Linda waiting for her by the door.
She glanced at Linda and suppressed a smile, seeing that her friend looked much more beautiful than
she had just a few minutes ago. She'd fixed her hair and touched up her make-up, so she looked more
sophisticated.
Linda saw Sherry's sideways look and stuck out her tongue at her. "We're going to meet a client, so it's
my duty to look as presentable as possible," she said in a whisper, so that no one could overhear.
Sherry and Linda left the office premises together. When they were gone, the members of the team
gathered together to ask each other what was going on. They were curious why Sherry had chosen to
take only Linda to the important meeting, when she was a newcomer without any qualifications.
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