May There Be An Echo - Chapter 5

When Shao Yuci left Yu Zhi’s home, the flowers and gifts in her hands had turned into a sturdy bag of food. After hearing that she was renting a place and living alone, Yu Zhi had packed up almost all the remaining dishes and made her take them home.

It reminded Shao Yuci of the time when she had first gone to Haicheng to look for work. Money had been tight, and as a newcomer to the city, there were expenses everywhere, so she had been relatively frugal when it came to food.

The woman sharing her apartment had already been working for two years and was also from out of town. She left early and returned late every day, rarely spoke, and looked anything but easy to get along with.

But before long, Shao Yuci noticed that there would always be a small bowl of so-called “leftovers” waiting in the kitchen. At first, there would be a note tucked beneath the bowl explaining that she had cooked too much and couldn’t bring it to the office. Later on, even the notes disappeared.

On the day Shao Yuci received her first proper paycheck, she deliberately invited that woman to dinner at a fairly well-known restaurant nearby. Unexpectedly, only a few days after that meal, the woman was offered a promotion that required an assignment elsewhere. Soon afterward, Shao Yuci had a new roommate.

The roommates she met afterward had all kinds of personalities. Some were easy to get along with, while others were troublesome, but no one ever deliberately left food for her again.

Later still, Shao Yuci’s career progressed smoothly. She rented a better apartment and no longer had to count every penny whenever she ordered takeout. She met many people and encountered many things in Haicheng—some made her happy, some angry, some weary—but beneath it all, the warmth of those meals someone had quietly left for her when she first arrived remained in her heart.

Because Yu Zhi had saved her and treated her to that meal today, Shao Yuci now viewed Yuncheng through a warmer lens as well. In this unfamiliar place where she had no relatives or connections, only now did she finally begin to feel that she had truly landed in this world.

After taking the subway back to her rented room, calls from unfamiliar numbers kept coming in. Shao Yuci knew they were tricks from those creditors, but because she had submitted her résumé to Ji Corporation, starting yesterday she could no longer ignore every unknown call. Sometimes, after answering, she inevitably had to listen to some disgusting remarks.

It was already well past working hours, so Shao Yuci judged that the call couldn’t possibly be from Ji Corporation’s HR department. Without hesitation, she muted her phone and tossed it onto the table.

Shao Yuci made herself a cup of instant coffee and sat back down in front of her computer. Her résumé hadn’t been rejected, but there had been no other updates either. She didn’t even know how long this recruitment process would take.

Waiting around like this felt awful, so she began reviewing her chance encounter with Ji Linqing earlier that day.

She hadn’t managed to learn any concrete information from Yu Zhi today. Yu Zhi’s concern for her was sincere, but she was very measured when it came to Ji Linqing’s affairs. Even after learning that the two of them knew each other, she rarely brought up anything related to the Ji family.

If Shao Yuci started frequently hanging around Yu Zhi’s home waiting for Ji Linqing, then even if they happened to run into each other again, both Ji Linqing and Yu Zhi would be able to see through her “scheming.” There might never be another opportunity after that.

A method that cut off her own escape route had terrible cost-effectiveness, so Shao Yuci wasn’t considering it for now.

She thought again about the impact of seeing Ji Linqing up close today and couldn’t understand why the Ji Linqing in the original character’s memories had been so “distorted.” She might not be the bright, glamorous type, but this cool, aloof beauty was incredibly eye-catching too!

Shao Yuci had dealt with plenty of rich people and celebrities in her previous career. Even compared with those people, Ji Linqing was unquestionably someone who could overpower everyone else in the room at a glance. Why had the original Shao Yuci thought she was so awful?

Shao Yuci searched through the clues buried deep in the original character’s memories. After quite a while, she finally froze.

So that was it?

She found it difficult to agree with, yet at the same time, it made sense.

What gave her an even bigger headache was that the original Shao Yuci had picked verbal fights with Ji Linqing so many times, and now all of that debt belonged to her. Ji Linqing’s icy, keep-everyone-three-thousand-miles-away attitude today was definitely because of that.

For the next two days, there was still no reply from Ji Corporation in her inbox.

“No rejection is good news.” Shao Yuci closed her laptop and encouraged herself.

She changed into a relatively formal outfit, not because she was going to look for another job, but because she was heading to the residential complex where the original Shao Yuci had previously rented an apartment.

She had gone through all the money and bills the original character had left behind once again. The deposit the landlord had shamelessly withheld was simply too painful to let go.

Sixty thousand! She couldn’t just watch someone pocket that money. She had to get it back as soon as possible!

While she was still hospitalized, Shao Yuci had already cut all of the original character’s unnecessary expenses. Any memberships about to renew were immediately canceled, and all rewards earned from reaching spending thresholds were redeemed.

But none of that conflicted with recovering the sixty thousand. That money rightfully belonged to her. The original Shao Yuci simply hadn’t been good at dealing with these things, and the landlord had deliberately provoked her with harsh words, so the matter had eventually been dropped.

Shao Yuci recalled the process the original character had gone through when renting the apartment and knew that this landlord specifically targeted wealthy tenants. Once an agent showed the apartment and confirmed that someone was interested, the landlord would personally come over to sign the contract on the spot.

She had called the agent two days ago. The agent said it wouldn’t be convenient to arrange a viewing today, which most likely meant the landlord was meeting a prospective tenant to sign a contract.

After living here for a year, Shao Yuci knew the place well. She slipped inside when plenty of residents were coming and going.

She easily found the luxury apartment the original Shao Yuci had rented, and sure enough, voices were coming from inside. The door wasn’t locked, only left slightly ajar.

Shao Yuci listened carefully for a few moments. The routine sounded almost exactly like what had happened before the original Shao Yuci rented the place.

At times like this, the landlord presented himself as the very picture of respectability. He promised that every amenity was top-of-the-line and boasted that he was extremely selective about his tenants, but the moment he saw this particular client, he immediately felt she was just right.

Bullshit! Shao Yuci straightened her clothes and shoved the door open forcefully.

Four people stood in the spacious living room. The agent was the same one from a year ago, while the prospective tenants were two well-dressed women who looked like mother and daughter.

The landlord was the first to react. With his slightly protruding beer belly, he strode toward her.

“What are you doing here?”

Shao Yuci wasn’t affected by his attitude in the slightest. She even curved her lips into a smile.

“I’m here to get my deposit back.”

Shao Yuci said it loudly. The apartment was spacious and empty, so everyone heard her clearly.

Upon hearing that she was the previous tenant, the mother and daughter were no longer as wary of her as before, but they immediately looked somewhat dissatisfied with the agent.

“Didn’t you say all the paperwork for this apartment was clean? Why hasn’t the issue with the previous tenant been settled yet?”

Afraid of losing the deal, the agent repeatedly assured them, “The lease has completely expired. There are no unresolved issues.”

Shao Yuci quickly moved around the landlord and took a few steps forward.

“Yes, my lease has already expired.”

The agent breathed a sigh of relief, but Shao Yuci immediately continued, “But the landlord refused to return my deposit, insulted me, and drove me to jump into a river.”

The mother and daughter stiffened. That sounded far more frightening than an unfinished lease dispute.

The landlord rushed over. “What nonsense are you talking about? You left the apartment in a complete mess! You think renovating and upgrading the place doesn’t cost money?”

Shao Yuci continued wearing her fake smile, completely unconcerned by how awful his attitude was.

“What you said back then was that forty thousand of the sixty-thousand deposit was security for all the appliances in the apartment. I only lived here for a year and never once filed a repair request, yet you insisted that I had broken your appliances.”

“That’s right! You didn’t request repairs—you just broke them outright!” The landlord looked heartbroken as he swept his arm around the room. “All these appliances have been replaced with new ones. I have the recycling records.”

This was exactly what the original Shao Yuci had been unable to argue clearly with the landlord about. On top of that, he kept calling her a broke loser pretending to be rich, infuriating her until she could barely think straight.

“Yes, you recycled all of them, but that’s because what you bought in the first place didn’t meet proper standards!”

Shao Yuci walked toward the kitchen. “You probably replaced the oven with another Leticano model this time, right? But what you bought was a discounted unit that had been returned to the factory for repairs. The factory inspection label is right on the back. Want us to pull it out together and take a look?”

The original Shao Yuci had discovered this by chance and had even called the landlord about it. The landlord told her there was nothing wrong with the quality and said she could use it without worry.

The original Shao Yuci rarely cooked and hardly used the oven, so she hadn’t bothered pursuing the matter.

And the oven wasn’t the only appliance where she had noticed labels like that. Over the past two days, Shao Yuci had carefully sorted through the memories and realized this might be one of the landlord’s tricks for deceiving tenants.

In reality, the wealthier the tenants were, the less time they tended to have to use these appliances frequently. But the apartment still needed prestigious-looking equipment, and all that supposed premium value was reflected in the rent.

She wasn’t sure whether this new batch of appliances had also been refurbished, but all she needed was to ruin this lease agreement.

Sure enough, everyone’s expressions changed.

The landlord breathed heavily, looking as though he desperately wanted to curse at her but had no choice but to restrain himself. The agent looked awkwardly at the mother and daughter, already trying to formulate an explanation.

Shao Yuci turned toward the mother and daughter with the air of someone speaking from experience. “The most important part is that even after you discover the appliances are refurbished, the landlord still won’t replace them. He’ll just tell you to use them without worrying.”

“Then when you move out and try to get your deposit back, the landlord sends those refurbished machines off for recycling and claims you broke them. And if you try to argue, he’ll insult you and call you a poor bitch.”

Those had been the words that had hurt the original Shao Yuci the most. For someone who cared desperately about appearances, they truly had been difficult to bear. But to Shao Yuci, who only wanted her sixty thousand back, they meant nothing.

Her old job had been resolving crises for people. Now, she could just as easily manufacture one herself and hand it to the landlord.

Sure enough, everything she had said before paled in comparison with the impact of those two words. The moment Shao Yuci finished, the mother and daughter immediately turned to leave.

“We don’t want this apartment anymore.”

The agent tried to stop them, only to be glared at by the mother. “If you introduce us to another landlord like this next time, I’ll find a different agent!”

The landlord watched helplessly as the new lease fell apart and nearly died of rage.

Shao Yuci spoke before he could. “I really am poor right now, so that sixty thousand is very important to me. I really did jump into a river, so I wasn’t exaggerating just now. Your appliances really were refurbished goods. I didn’t lie.”

The agent also urged the landlord to settle the matter and put an end to it. In the end, the landlord reluctantly returned her deposit.

Then Shao Yuci added, “And another fifteen thousand for emotional distress. I can’t be bothered making another trip here. But if you don’t want to pay, then I suppose I’ll just have to go through the trouble of coming back the next time you’re about to sign a lease.”

Shao Yuci walked out with seventy-five thousand yuan, thoroughly satisfied. Even the sunlight seemed especially bright today.

She called Aunt Lian and told her she wanted to treat her to a meal.

**

That afternoon, after finally finishing a long departmental discussion meeting, Ji Linqing returned to her office, and Qu Yingzi came in carrying a document.

“President Ji, take a look at this.”

Ji Linqing opened it. It was Shao Yuci’s résumé.

“This was on the preliminary screening list HR submitted this morning. Shao Yuci applied to our company not long ago.”

Ji Linqing raised her eyes.

“The position she applied for is secretary.”

The positions advertised in this recruitment round were spread across different departments, but there was only one secretary opening, and it was in Ji Linqing’s Vice President’s Office.

Qu Yingzi continued, “Her financial situation is very strained right now. Especially after being discharged from the hospital, she moved into a new residence, and her spending on food, clothing, and daily necessities has clearly dropped by several levels.”

She paused. “Today, she recovered the deposit from her previous rental, about sixty thousand yuan. The exact reason she jumped into the river is still unclear, but this landlord had argued with her shortly before she did.”

After listening, Ji Linqing turned her attention back to the résumé.

“So she’s planning to find a job and support herself now?”

Ji Linqing quickly scanned the résumé. Aside from an impressive academic background and a polished list of interests and skills, her professional experience was virtually blank.

Strictly speaking, this might very well be Shao Yuci’s first proper job.

Qu Yingzi asked, “Should we let her go through the normal process, or screen her résumé out?”

Ji Linqing thought for a moment. “Let HR process it normally for now.”

“If she makes it to the interview stage, tell me.”

Qu Yingzi moved on to the next matter. “For tonight’s banquet, the Jiang family’s representative will be Jiang Shunyi.”

Ji Linqing gave a quiet acknowledgment, her face expressionless.

“The Jiang family changed representatives at the last minute. I’m guessing they still haven’t given up.”

Ji Linqing calmly signed the documents, her tone completely even. “If they enjoy wasting their effort, let them put on their little performance.”