After I Lost My Memory, My Wife Started To Chase Me - Chapter 21
Chapter 21: The Test
Weishu followed Kong Qin to her office. Kong Qin had Weishu sit in the main chair and pulled up a seat to sit across from her, handing Weishu a second cup of coffee. As Weishu reached for it, Kong Qin suddenly pulled back. “You can’t drink coffee, can you?”
Weishu looked at her longingly. “One cup once in a while shouldn’t…”
Kong Qin got up and poured her a glass of water. “Don’t even think about it. You used to be a coffee addict. Now is a good time to quit.”
Weishu was speechless. She obediently picked up the glass of water and took a sip, inexplicably not daring to protest.
Kong Qin pursed her red lips and took a sip of her freshly ground coffee right in front of her. The rich aroma filled the air. She spoke at a relaxed pace. “You’re the boss of Shu Color, and I’m your highly paid veteran employee. I’m in charge of observing the market, going out to negotiate projects, and raising our prices.”
Weishu repeated her words in her head, realizing that those were all things she was supposed to be doing. “Then what am I in charge of?” Weishu asked, blinking in confusion.
Kong Qin’s eyes curved into a smile. She said seriously, her voice soft, “You’re in charge of Shu Color’s ‘soul.'” Weishu was a little at a loss for words.
“Shu Color is named after you and relies on your reputation to have a foothold in the industry. You don’t have to doubt your own importance.” Kong Qin was sharp and intuitive. In just a few words, she pinpointed Weishu’s inner wavering and fear and gave her a reassuring answer.
Weishu gave a quiet “oh,” put her cup back down, and then pushed it a little. “Well,” Weishu said, trying to figure out what to ask. “What’s the process for my work? Do I choose the designs myself? Or is it based on the price, or… the client?”
Kong Qin’s answer was concise. “Whatever you like.”
Weishu didn’t feel overwhelmed by the favor. Instead, she was repulsed by this “do whatever you want” style of work and became worried about the future of the studio.
Weishu called Sun Tu. “Can you print out the studio’s financial report for me?”
Sun Tu quickly brought the report, along with a detailed list of design projects. Kong Qin just smiled and watched her the entire time, saying nothing.
“Revenue increased by 173% over last year, with a 98% completion rate.”
“This year, the number of designs I personally created is… 37?!” Weishu was so shocked she stood straight up from her chair, looking at each one. That’s an average of five designs a month, and they were all full-scale, major designs. Weishu must have been spending every day at the studio, working overtime like a model employee.
Kong Qin smiled. “A lot of them were messes left by the junior staff.”
Weishu sighed in amazement. “I thought I really didn’t have to do anything.”
“For the past few years, you’ve only done what you liked, but this year,” Kong Qin stopped there, smiling and changing the subject. “I’ve never forced you to take a single design from start to finish. You took on all of these voluntarily.”
From the looks of it, she wasn’t just doing whatever she wanted and only satisfying her own artistic choices; she also followed the market and took responsibility for her employees. The mention of voluntarily taking on designs reminded Weishu of the two overdue projects from a few days ago. She cleared her throat and looked everywhere but at Kong Qin, saying casually, “So, what about the designs for Kuangye Company?”
Kong Qin tilted her head, sizing her up, and after a moment, laughed. “That falls into your ‘like’ category. Once you take them on, they’re yours.”
Weishu’s heart trembled slightly, and a joyful excitement began to spread, like autumn water infused with the fragrance of flowers, rolling through every vein in her body and making her feel incredibly comforted. Beige was the unexpected part of her life outside of work. She was her first choice and a blatant favoritism. This fact gave her the courage to ask questions again.
Perhaps it was Kong Qin’s natural, approachable demeanor that made Weishu drop her guard, or perhaps Weishu had been prepared for this all along. After a moment of silence, Weishu spoke softly, with a bit of hesitation but with a firm resolve. “Sister Qin, I have a question about Beige and me.”
Kong Qin nodded as expected, her tone light. “Ask away. But I don’t know Beige very well, so I don’t know the specifics of your relationship.”
Weishu wasn’t looking to learn about Beige from someone else anyway. She lowered her head, biting the soft flesh on the corner of her mouth, and asked softly, “I just want to ask about me. You said I voluntarily took on the designs for Kuangye Company. Is that a one-of-a-kind thing?”
Kong Qin’s eyes widened, and she gave a knowing smile. “What are you doubting? Are you doubting your feelings for Beige?”
Weishu nodded her head vigorously like a chick pecking for rice.
Kong Qin straightened up, wearing a face that said, “If that’s what you want to talk about, I’ve got a lot to say.”
“In your freshman year, you worked part-time at my studio. Every time class ended, you’d stare blankly at the street below because Beige would come to pick you up.”
“If Beige brought you food, you wouldn’t go to dinner with anyone else.”
“When I tried to ask you subtly, you said, ‘She’s my person.'”
“A young girl at the studio had a crush on Beige, and you almost got into a fight with her. You scared her so badly she cried like a baby.”
Weishu’s mouth slowly formed an “O” shape. She was only nineteen in her freshman year. She was that possessive? “She’s my person”—that was so cool! Weishu leaned in, urging her on. “And? What else?”
Kong Qin shrugged. “We only met again after you started your studio. The most recent time was when you were secretly wearing your wedding ring and flashing it at me, showing off that Beige proposed to you and you were going to get married.”
If she didn’t like her, she wouldn’t have shown off the ring, right? She didn’t seem like the type to be a show-off, so these little details and obvious favoritism should be proof that she liked Beige, right? This was real, wasn’t it?!
After Kong Qin left, Weishu searched through her office, turning everything upside down. “Where’s my ring?! The big, shiny ring!”
The wedding ring had vanished without a trace, and the security footage didn’t show her wearing a ring. Weishu meticulously checked every corner of the office, even pushing aside the heavy solid wood desk, but she found nothing.
“What is this?”
A moment later, Weishu’s search came to a halt. She had opened a closet to look through it, but she saw a locked box in the innermost drawer. She was looking for her wedding ring but found a locked password box. For some reason, the four numbers “0817” suddenly appeared in her mind. She dialed the numbers into the correct position, and her heart rate began to accelerate.
At first, Weishu suspected her wedding ring was inside. But then she thought, a private item like a wedding ring shouldn’t be kept at home? So it was more likely to be a work secret. The question was quickly answered. Inside were not a ring or work documents, but various small bottles. They were neatly arranged in three rows, and the packaging had been torn off, so there was no content to read. Instead, a few unintelligible symbols were drawn on them with watercolor paint.
Inside the small bottles were pills of all sizes and colors. They smelled bitter and were definitely not vitamins or supplements. Her heart skipped a beat, and her hands and feet instantly went cold.
Could these be medicine to treat a stress disorder? But as far as she knew, her stress disorder only showed up as a craving for seafood. And these kinds of mental illnesses were mostly treated with therapy. Taking medication, and so many kinds of it, was terrifying just to look at.
Weishu closed the password box. She thought for a moment, then took one pill from each of the bottles and wrapped them up.
“Hello? Is this the drug testing lab? I’d like to pay for a private test on a batch of medication. There are… about a dozen different kinds.”