The Heiress's Game

Payday was a Friday, and starting at 9:30, people in the jewelry design department's WeChat group were sending "waiting for a payslip" emojis.

At exactly 10 o'clock, the group suddenly fell silent for a full three minutes. Then, Sister Fang was the first to send a wide-eyed emoji, followed by Brother Song sending three exclamation marks in a row, and then the whole group exploded.

At the time, Dong Yuwei was wearing headphones and revising the earring designs for the next season of the Flying Apsaras series. She was dragging and dropping lines on the CAD interface, while the Italian opera recommended to her by the old craftsman in the Milan workshop was playing in her headphones.

She didn't notice the WeChat messages popping up on her phone screen until Sister Fang leaned over from the next workstation.

He ripped off her headphones, his voice brimming with barely suppressed excitement: "Yuwei! Did you see it?!"

"What are you looking at?" Dong Yuwei blinked blankly.

"Payday is here! Check your salary!"

Dong Yuwei looked at the text message notification sent by the bank, and she couldn't believe it.

Dong Yuwei then opened the company's internal system, found the salary details section, and her fingers froze on the touchpad.

She stared at the exact same number for a full ten seconds, her heart pounding as if she were on a rollercoaster.

1,087,600.

She blinked hard, then leaned closer to the screen and looked at it again.

One million eighty-seven thousand six hundred dollars.

"There must be a mistake," she muttered, then suddenly stood up, grabbed her phone, and ran to the finance department.

The finance department was on the sixteenth floor. She waited for the elevator for ten seconds, but it felt too slow. She turned around, pushed open the door to the fire escape, and climbed three flights of stairs in her high heels.

When I pushed open the glass door of the finance department, Xiao Zhou, the finance officer, was carrying a cup of coffee back to her workstation from the break room.

"What's wrong? What's wrong? Is it on fire?" Xiao Zhou put his coffee down on the table and instinctively protected his keyboard.

"Sister Zhou, my salary—could you please check if it's been calculated incorrectly?"

Dong Yuwei handed her phone to Xiao Zhou. The screen displayed the details of her payslip, and her fingers were still trembling slightly from climbing the stairs.

Xiao Zhou leaned over and took a look. Then she looked up at Dong Yuwei with an extremely complicated expression.

That gaze contained a subtle displeasure at the offense to his professional dignity, understanding for the newcomer's lack of experience, and a hint of unwavering confidence that "how could my salary calculation be wrong?"

"Dong Yuwei." Xiao Zhou took off his glasses, wiped them with a cloth, and put them back on, his tone serious.

You can question my fashion sense, my latte art skills, and even my character.

But—" Her voice suddenly rose a notch.

"You can't question me for miscalculating wages, especially not for miscalculating such a huge amount of wages."

This is my professional dignity, my bottom line in life, and the medal of honor for my eight years of work in this industry with a zero-error rate.

Do you know what it means to miscalculate a month's salary by over a million? That's much harder than calculating over a million correctly.

Everyone in the finance department looked over, and some were already covering their mouths and laughing.

Dong Yuwei's ears turned red from the barrage of questions, and she quickly waved her hands:

"No, no, Sister Zhou, that's not what I meant. I just... I just didn't expect it..."

"Didn't expect what? Didn't expect to be worth so much money?"

"But I've only been working here for a month..." Her voice was so soft it was almost a whisper to herself.

"Base salary is base salary, and commission is commission."

"Your design department's salary structure is different from that of ordinary departments. The base salary is just a guarantee, and the bulk of the salary comes from sales commissions."

The first commission payment for the Flying Apsaras series' sales across all channels was settled this month. As the lead designer, the profit-sharing percentage is clearly stated in the contract. You signed the contract yourself; didn't you read it carefully?

Xiao Zhou's fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed rapidly, then he turned the screen toward Dong Yuwei.

"Take a look, this is your pay details."

Basic salary, position allowance, and full attendance bonus are all normal.

This large portion represents the initial sales commission for the Flying Apsaras series, based on the designer revenue sharing agreement you signed with the company.

This is the travel allowance during the training in Milan, calculated on a daily basis, with the exchange rate settled in Euros in real time.

And this is another one, look carefully—the prize money for the 'Flying Series Outstanding Creative Award' was personally approved by President Gu.

In total, it amounts to 1,087,600 yuan.

"I've calculated it for you three times after tax, and it matches up every time. Do you want me to calculate it a fourth time?"

Standing in front of Xiao Zhou's workstation, looking at the rows of numbers clearly displayed on the screen, Dong Yuwei suddenly felt a tightness in her throat.

She recalled the night she sewed that leather bag on the balcony of her rented room by the light of a secondhand table lamp. Her fingers were cut by the waxed thread, and she simply put on a band-aid and continued sewing.

She recalled learning engraving from a master craftsman in a Milan workshop, where she was severely scolded in Italian by the old man for using the wrong technique.

She couldn't understand the words, but she knew he was cursing her. She gritted her teeth and started over and over again until the old man silently gave her a thumbs up.

She recalled Shen Ziqian standing on the steps of the graduate student dormitory building, looking down at her and saying, "You run an online store, are you good enough for me?"

Doesn't she deserve it?

Xiao Zhou took a tissue from the tissue box on the table and handed it to him, saying, "Alright, alright, stop crying here. Go cry in your design department if you want to. My finance department has bad feng shui; it's not suitable for being sentimental."

Dong Yuwei took the tissue, pressed it hard against the corner of her eye, and then smiled.

Back in the jewelry design department, Dong Yuwei remembered that she wanted to treat everyone to hot pot.

At the time, her budget was 150 yuan per person, and she booked a newly opened Sichuan-Chongqing hot pot restaurant, which was considered mid-range in Beijing.

But now, she glanced down at her bank card balance on her phone screen—she wouldn't even blink if it were 1,500 per person, let alone 1,500 per person.

No, she still needs to blink, after all, she's not the kind of person who spends money recklessly.

She opened WeChat and scrolled to Gu Yunjin's chat history. Their chat history hadn't ended three days ago.

Mr. Gu added her as a friend through a group chat and sent a message saying "I am Gu Yunjin". She replied with "Hello, Mr. Gu", and then nothing happened.

She stared at the dialog box, hesitating for almost two minutes. Theoretically, inviting colleagues to dinner didn't require reporting to the boss, but Gu Yunjin had just arranged an apartment for her a couple of days ago and had the legal department help her with Shen Ziqian's matter, so she felt it wouldn't be right not to invite Gu Yunjin.

But treating your boss to a meal is stressful in itself. If you treat him cheaply, it seems disrespectful; if you treat him expensively, he might think you're wasting money.

Besides, President Gu is so busy that he probably won't come, but it would be impolite not to ask at all.

She gritted her teeth, typed a message, and sent it: "Mr. Gu, I got paid today."

I'm treating my colleagues from the jewelry design department to hot pot tonight at that newly opened Sichuan-Chongqing hot pot restaurant near the office. Are you free tonight? I'd like to invite you too.

After sending the message, her heart was pounding as if she had just run 800 meters.

About two minutes later, the screen lit up.

Gu Yunjin's reply was brief: "Okay, may I bring my family?"

Dong Yuwei breathed a sigh of relief and quickly typed: "Of course! Welcome, welcome!"

"It could be three people."

"No problem! It'll be more fun with more people!"

Dong Yuwei put down her phone, thinking that the average budget per person for this meal would probably increase from 150 to 200.

As for President Gu's family, they are nothing more than her husband and child. The three of them plus President Gu herself only add four pairs of chopsticks.

She had even started to consider whether to book a private room, since it wouldn't be appropriate for the big boss to sit in the main hall.

Then Gu Yunjin's next message popped up, shattering all her previous plans into pieces.

"My husband Bai Junze, my brother-in-law Bai Tianyi, and my best friend Qian Yuewei."

Dong Yuwei stared at the three names on the screen, her pupils dilating for a full five seconds.

Bai Junze, Bai Junze of the Bai Group? The Bai Junze who appeared on the front page of financial news?

She subconsciously opened her phone's browser and searched for the three characters "Bai Junze".

The first search result was Baidu Baike (Baidu Encyclopedia), the second was the Forbes list, and the third was a candid photo of a profile that had gone viral on some unknown business forum.

Dressed in a suit and tie, with a cool and aloof expression, the comments section below was flooded with people calling him "husband".

She silently closed the browser, then opened WeChat, changed "book a private room" to "book the whole store," then thought it was too exaggerated, deleted it, and retyped it.

She sent a message to the jewelry design department's group chat: "Urgent notice, the hot pot lineup has been upgraded tonight."

President Gu will be coming, and she will bring her family: her husband Bai Junze, her brother-in-law Bai Tianyi, and her best friend Qian Yuewei.

The group was silent for a full ten seconds.

Then Brother Song was the first to react: "Bai Junze? Is it that Bai Junze? Bai Junze from the Bai Group? The Bai Junze from Forbes?"

Fang Jie chimed in, "I Googled Bai Tianyi, and Gu Zong's brother-in-law is just too handsome!!!"

Another colleague chimed in: "Wait a minute, you guys missed the point—President Gu is bringing her husband to have hot pot with us???"

"Is the tripe at that hot pot restaurant good enough? Should we go somewhere else?"

"Is it too late for me to go home and change? I just grabbed whatever clothes I could find this morning and left—"

"It's too late. Just accept your fate. No matter what you wear, you're just background noise in front of Bai Junze."

Dong Yuwei looked at the rapidly scrolling messages in the group chat, her lips curling into a wide smile that she couldn't suppress.

Dong Yuwei sent a screenshot of the reservation information to the group chat: "Reserved. Tonight at 7 PM. The private room can seat 20 people. Don't be late, everyone."

The group chat was instantly flooded with comments like "Sister Dong is awesome!"

Dong Yuwei looked at the row of emojis, put her phone on the stand, and placed her fingers back on the graphics tablet.

She lowered her head, smiled, and continued drawing.

Tonight, she is a designer at Star Shine, accompanied by a group of the world's best colleagues and her boss.

The woman who reached out and pulled her out of the mire when she was at her lowest point—having hot pot together with her—this is the life Dong Yuwei deserves.

That's all, that's all for today. Really, I'm even more eager than you to finish this novel so I can enjoy a few months of freedom.

After finishing this book, I might finish the new one I'm starting (I hope I didn't impulsively start writing, since I've already signed a contract with Tomato). I only plan to write about 300,000 words for that book.

Then I'll be taking a break for a while. My new book won't be published until May or June next year, which makes me happy just thinking about it.