Just two simple words, and Summer Lowell suddenly realized, could all of this have been orchestrated by Maxim Sinclair?
What a clever move.
Summer couldn't help but sigh.
"Congratulations to Director Lowell for your plan's success, killing two birds with one stone, well done."
Summer, feeling a surge of anger, merely glanced at the message, pretending not to have seen it.
While considering a countermeasure, her phone suddenly rang.
Answering it, she found it was the culprit Maxim Sinclair calling.
Summer's grievances were deep, yet she maintained a calm tone, "President Sinclair, what's up?"
"Director Lowell, your move is truly brilliant, not only 'killing' those designers who are dissatisfied with your arrival but also gaining benefits by selling out others..."
Upon hearing this, Summer knew Maxim was deliberately mocking her about leaking the Mingyue project's design drafts.
She gritted her teeth, anger boiling up inside her.
Clearly, this was a trap he set up, ruining her reputation while also making it impossible for her to stay at the Stellarion Branch.
The question was, how did he get his hands on the Mingyue design drafts?
However, facing Maxim Sinclair, she really stood little chance of winning.
Thus, Summer forcefully suppressed her anger, smiled, and responded, "There's no need for you to worry about my matters, President Sinclair."
Then she hung up the phone.
From that day on, there was constant talk about the matter throughout the company.
But because there was no direct evidence to prove Summer was responsible, even though Mingyue was unsatisfied, she couldn't do anything to Summer.
After three months of project work went down the drain, Mingyue couldn't swallow that anger and eventually fainted during a meeting and was sent to the hospital.
With her fainting, Summer's situation in the company became even more difficult.
After the early meeting ended, a distressed Summer furrowed her brows while tidying up documents.
The deputy director, Noah, got up and walked over to her, speaking in a voice the whole meeting room could hear, "After tidying up, come to my office, we'll discuss the matter of the design drafts leak."
"Alright, I'll be there," Summer replied mechanically. Regardless of how she explained, no one believed her, and she didn't care anymore.
Once they both left the meeting room, the others who hadn't left immediately gathered together.
"What do you think the deputy director wants with her? Could it be to fire her?"
"I think it's unlikely. The other day when President Joyce discussed the design leak, the deputy director was still defending her."
"What's the relationship between those two? The deputy director is so protective of her?"
Another designer, who was close to Mingyue, looked at her newly done nails and remarked cynically, "They must have an unusual relationship. Our Chief Director Lowell came from Leonia with a protector by her side. You don't have to think hard to realize what's between them."
A murmur of ambiguous laughter filled the meeting room.
"Hey, do you think this deputy director will help Director Lowell suppress this issue? As a partner of Stellart, it shouldn't be hard for him if he wants to."
"Who knows." The designer sneered, blowing on her nails, "If you don't want people to know, don't do it. The design leak caused such a stir. If the deputy director does suppress it for her, how will that be explained to the shareholders at headquarters?"
"Choosing between power and beauty, such an old story, tsk tsk tsk tsk."
"It's a pity for Mingyue, working so hard for so long, only for it to all go to waste. If it were me, I wouldn't let it go either."
"Yeah, seeing her work so hard, and now ending up in the hospital from anger, sigh, while the culprit gets close to the leaders, who knows what's really going on between them!"
"Alright, alright," the meeting room door knocked, a colleague poked their head in and kindly reminded, "Gossip like this, be careful the leaders don't hear, or you'll be in big trouble."
Several people exchanged glances and picked up their materials to leave the meeting room.
Deputy Director's office.
Summer stood in front of the desk, Noah looked at her stern expression and couldn't help but laugh, "What's with the look? Like I'm about to fire you, have a seat and let's talk."
Summer pulled out a chair, sat quietly, waiting for Noah's instructions.
Noah took off his coat, hung it nearby, and personally made two cups of coffee, placing one in front of Summer, "Regarding the Mingyue project group's design draft leak, I believe it wasn't you."
Summer looked up at him, "You're willing to believe me?"
"Yes," Noah nodded, repeating, "I naturally believe that this wasn't your doing."
After Noah finished speaking, he smiled, "Even though all signs point to you benefiting from this, my intuition tells me it wasn't you, you're not that foolish to do something so easily seen through."
"The laughable part is, besides you, no one believes me, yet I can't find any evidence to prove my innocence."
"This is indeed a tricky situation," Noah tapped his palm, "from another perspective, did you block someone's path? Or have you unknowingly offended someone?"
Startled by Noah's words, Summer immediately pictured Maxim Sinclair's unpredictable face.
In terms of enmity, nobody held a greater grudge against her than Maxim Sinclair.
That ruthless man was capable of anything.
Noah also thought about Summer's past as a corporate spy and subtly hinted, "Have you considered there might be a mole in the company?"
A mole?
"Perhaps you should start with those you've offended before."
After leaving Noah's office, Summer deliberately took a detour, passing by every office in the design department, discreetly examining the designers.
If remembered correctly, Elias Joyce had once subtly hinted to her that if she hadn't been parachuted in, the position of design director should have gone to one of the designers here.
She had landed in someone else's position, and it's possible someone was unhappy with her and wanted her gone behind the scenes...
Weighed down by the matter, Summer walked carelessly and bumped into someone while turning a corner.
"Sorry, are you alright?"
Summer apologized repeatedly, looking up, she inwardly noted trouble, for the person she bumped into was none other than the designer Linda who was at odds with her.
Worse still, Linda was holding a cup of coffee, and due to Summer's bump, half of it spilled on her skirt suit.
"Aren't you watching where you're going?" Linda tossed the cup aside, glaring at her.
"Were you watching where you were going?" Summer shot back.
The commotion they caused drew a wave of gazes from colleagues at their workstations.
Someone close to Linda rushed over with tissues, pulling her away, not forgetting to apologize to Summer before leaving, "Director Lowell, Linda didn't mean any harm, please don't be upset."
Dragged away, Linda wasn't satisfied, and threw a glare back at Summer.
As Summer watched the departing Linda, she recalled Noah's earlier words.
According to Noah's reasoning, Linda seemed to fit the mole's profile quite well.
Most importantly, Linda was also a designer on the Mingyue project team...
Retracting her gaze, Summer went straight to the company's security office, asking the security personnel to pull recent surveillance footage from the past month of the Mingyue project team's office, focusing on designer Linda's actions.
She suspected that Linda was the one acting as the "mole."
After all, if anyone couldn't stand her success and wanted her out of the design director position, Linda would definitely be a contender.