I Deduce the Female Lead Likes Me [Transmigration into a book] - Chapter 24: Accident
The advertising company Kou Shuang found was called “Jana Advertising,” which had some reputation in the industry and many collaborations with the government. The HR discussed with her whether she could intern for a while before graduation to get familiar with the atmosphere and build relationships with colleagues, and also because the company had many big projects underway that would be a pity to miss.
After discussing with Kou Deqin, Kou Shuang started working in early December.
Coincidentally, Jana Advertising was very close to the law firm where Song Muxue interned, so Kou Shuang did not move out of Song Muxue’s small apartment.
On the day she reported to the company, the HR handed her over to the head of the design department, Zhang Zhiruo, saying she was her direct boss and she would follow her from now on.
Zhang Zhiruo was dressed casually, wearing a mask, likely due to a cold. She looked quite frail. She shook Kou Shuang’s hand and said: “Just call me anything, as long as it’s not Zhiruo; I hate that scumbag Zhang Wuji. Don’t be too formal at the company. If anything comes up, tell me directly, and I’ll find someone to help you solve it.”
Although she was the boss, Zhang Zhiruo seemed unpretentious, and her tone of voice was gentle. Kou Shuang felt no barrier and chuckled: “So you won’t solve it personally?”
Zhang Zhiruo was looking down at files. Hearing this, she looked up in surprise at Kou Shuang and said: “You want me to solve it personally for you? Alright then, just stick by my side.”
The HR was a little surprised and said to Kou Shuang: “Wow, you hit the jackpot. Department Head Zhang hasn’t personally mentored a new person in a long time.”
Zhang Zhiruo smiled and said: “Good rapport at first sight.” She then lowered her head to work, pointed to an empty desk next to hers, and said: “You sit next to me.”
Kou Shuang quickly said: “Thank you, Master!”
Zhang Zhiruo glanced at Kou Shuang again, then finally smiled and shook her head.
This counted as officially starting work.
She said she would personally mentor Kou Shuang, but Zhang Zhiruo was elusive, appearing only once and then disappearing. Kou Shuang got along well with her colleagues. A junior colleague gossiped with her, saying that Zhang Zhiruo was always a loner, and used to be the chief art director of a multinational company. No one knew how their small company managed to poach her.
She also said that Zhang Zhiruo was incredibly busy, and the “long time” HR mentioned was an understatement; in reality, Zhang Zhiruo had never personally mentored new recruits before.
The junior colleague’s eyes were full of envy as she said this, as if Kou Shuang was about to reach the peak of her life.
Kou Shuang smiled and changed the subject. She heard what she heard. Zhang Zhiruo might not have had a special regard for her; the apprentice position was something she had shamelessly sought.
Even without Zhang Zhiruo, the company still had to operate normally.
Before Kou Shuang joined, the company had just taken on a government project. Kou Shuang was pulled in to provide labor.
It sounded a bit absurd. The city was about to hold a World Art History Graffiti Convention, and to display a good spirit, the government had a sudden idea to cover all unsightly areas with graffiti.
The core keywords of this project were “innovation,” “enthusiasm,” and “vitality.” Jana Advertising spent a lot of effort to secure this project. The government didn’t want the results to be too rigid. The graffiti image examples provided were quite trendy. Designers worked day and night, rushing to process them, and finally presented an overall plan that satisfied the government.
The design phase had just ended; now it was the implementation phase. It sounded nice, but in reality, it meant many new recruits at the company carrying paint buckets, running all over the city, materializing the designs onto walls.
Zhang Zhiruo was the chief designer of the plan. Kou Shuang was Zhang Zhiruo’s person, so no one dared to assign her to outdoor work. But she felt a little bad idling alone, so she voluntarily joined the ranks of the “painters.”
The junior colleague was excited to hear that Kou Shuang was coming along and proactively teamed up with her. Their assigned area on the first day was a small alley near the main building. Both of them had little experience, so when tasks were assigned, they weren’t sent to those mixed and shady corners. There were several small alleys selling breakfast near the company building, with many small advertisements on utility poles and dark public walls. Their task was to paint the patterns on the demand sheet with colorful paints.
Kou Shuang looked at the demand sheet in her hand, seeing various patterns with no specific names, and found them quite beautiful. The style was abstract, the colors brilliant, and the lines, though seemingly messy, revealed rhythm and aesthetic appeal; it was indeed artistic.
The junior colleague said: “Your mentor painted this. I don’t understand it anyway, as long as the higher-ups are happy.”
Kou Shuang smiled and said nothing.
The junior colleague then mysteriously leaned closer to Kou Shuang and said: “Let me tell you, your mentor really likes animation. I’ve seen screenshots of ‘PriPara’ and ‘Hanamaru Kindergarten’ on her desktop. If you want to curry favor with her, you can start from there.”
The junior colleague might have meant well, but Kou Shuang was a little exasperated: “How can I curry favor with her? She doesn’t even come to the company often.”
“She’s busy, you know,” the junior colleague said.
The two each chose walls on opposite sides of the street and began to graffiti back-to-back. Kou Shuang had practiced painting specifically for this, but painting on vertical walls was too challenging. Before she had even painted twenty square centimeters, her arm began to ache, and she could hardly bear it.
She worried that her slow speed would hold them back. She quietly looked for her junior colleague to compare. But when she turned around, she found that her junior colleague’s paint bucket was on the ground, and the person herself was nowhere to be seen.
Kou Shuang instinctively reached for her phone, intending to contact her junior colleague, but instead saw a WeChat message: [I’m going to the restroom! You keep working!]
Kou Shuang felt a little helpless, shook her head, shook her arm, and continued her work.
After getting used to it, it was actually fine. She would occasionally shake her arm, then resume graffitiing with renewed vigor. After finishing one wall, she turned around and found that her junior colleague still hadn’t returned from the restroom, but a homeless man was squatting near the paint bucket.
The homeless man’s hair and beard were messy, making him look particularly disheveled. He glanced at the paint bucket several times, then cautiously extended a finger and dipped a little paint.
Upon seeing the homeless man, Kou Shuang had already started walking towards him. When she saw the man put his paint-stained finger into his mouth, she cried out.
“Hey! You can’t eat that!”
The homeless man was clearly startled. He trembled, hugging his arms, but continued to put his finger into his mouth.
Kou Shuang worried that eating paint would be bad for his health. She quickly ran a few steps, grabbed the homeless man’s hand, and scolded: “This is paint, not food!”
This homeless man had a bushy beard and hair like a bird’s nest. It was truly difficult to find a pair of cloudy eyes amidst all that hair. Kou Shuang looked directly into his eyes, feeling a sudden fear.
Fear flickered in the homeless man’s eyes. He pushed Kou Shuang forcefully and ran away.
Kou Shuang was sensitive to cold. In early December, she was already wearing a thin padded jacket, which made movement a bit inconvenient. Plus, she was wearing high heels, so she tumbled with a single push. At the same time, she heard something break, and her ankle ached.
Damn, my high heel broke… maybe I twisted my ankle too…
Kou Shuang fell to the ground in despair, reaching for her ankle. Sure enough, it was swollen.
Kou Shuang cursed under her breath, feeling her luck was truly terrible. She struggled to get her phone from her pocket. Just as she was about to call her junior colleague, a pair of cold hands touched her ankle, startling her into recoiling.
She looked up and saw Song Muxue, her expression calm.
Song Muxue asked her: “How did you fall here?”
Song Muxue gently massaged Kou Shuang’s ankle, making Kou Shuang gasp in pain. Song Muxue said: “Why aren’t you wearing socks? Aren’t you afraid of the cold? It’s swollen. Do you want to come to my company to apply an ice pack?”
Although it was a question, Song Muxue didn’t wait for Kou Shuang’s answer. She simply looped Kou Shuang’s arm around her neck, picked up Kou Shuang’s high heel with one hand, and helped Kou Shuang stand up. Kou Shuang was forced to stand on one leg, feeling a little flustered, and said: “Can you, can you do this?!”
Song Muxue said: “Yes. Start—hop.”
Song Muxue walked forward step by step, and Kou Shuang hopped on one leg, following her pace. After a while, Kou Shuang realized her question just now had been rather ambiguous and couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
She turned to look at Song Muxue’s profile. The other person was as serious and aloof as ever, likely not understanding the double meaning. Kou Shuang helplessly twitched the corner of her mouth.
Song Muxue brought Kou Shuang to the first floor of her company, asked the front desk for some ice packs, and squatted down to apply ice to Kou Shuang’s ankle.
Kou Shuang, being vain, wanted to show off her ankles, so she hadn’t worn socks. The redness and swelling on her ankle were visible to the naked eye, making the pain feel even deeper.
Song Muxue placed Kou Shuang’s foot on her knee, gently touching the skin with the ice pack, and asked: “Does it hurt? Is it cold?”
Kou Shuang flinched, but stubbornly said: “Doesn’t hurt, isn’t cold.”
Her swollen ankle was itchy and hot. The ice pack suppressed all the strange sensations, leaving only coldness and numbness. But Kou Shuang saw Song Muxue directly holding the ice pack, with cold air seeping through Song Muxue’s fingers. Kou Shuang felt that Song Muxue must be even colder and more uncomfortable than herself.
Song Muxue gently lifted Kou Shuang’s heel and said: “How did it get like this?”
Kou Shuang recounted everything in detail, then heard Song Muxue say: “How long has the colleague who was with you been in the restroom? This is malicious absenteeism.”
Kou Shuang said: “I didn’t expect this when we were grouped.”
After waiting so long and her junior colleague hadn’t returned, Kou Shuang already knew the other person was slacking off. However, since she had just joined the company, she didn’t know her colleague well enough. She could only swallow this silent loss for now and distance herself from the junior colleague in the future.
Seeing that Kou Shuang had no intention of cutting ties with the unreliable colleague, Song Muxue frowned. Just as she was about to say something, the junior colleague came over, taking small, hurried steps.
“Oh no, Shuangshuang, how did you get hurt? Your WeChat said a homeless man knocked you down. I haven’t seen a homeless man in ages… You’re really unlucky…” As she got closer and saw Song Muxue, the junior colleague’s steps slowed. She said: “Is this your friend?”
Kou Shuang smiled and said: “Good thing my friend happened to show up, otherwise I wouldn’t have known what to do.”
“Is your friend a lawyer? What’s her name?”
Song Muxue’s face was cold. She said to the junior colleague: “Kou Shuang isn’t feeling well. She won’t be returning to the company today. Please ask the company for two days leave for her; she sprained her ankle and can’t work.”
When facing familiar people like Kou Shuang and Zheng Fenglin, Song Muxue’s expression was calm, but when facing strangers, this expression became a cold aloofness that kept people at a distance.
The junior colleague seemed a bit intimidated by her aura. She paused and said: “Huh?”
Song Muxue had made this decision without even asking Kou Shuang’s wishes. Kou Shuang looked up in surprise, but saw Song Muxue also looking down at her, saying: “You’ve twisted your ankle. Do you still want to carry paint buckets and graffiti in the cold wind?”
Song Muxue’s aura was too strong. Kou Shuang could only smile at the junior colleague and say: “Then I’ll trouble you.”