Double evil in the business district

The night breeze blew by, but Wang's words pierced Xiao Yue's heart like an icicle. She forced a smile, "Wait for me? Wang, you're such a joke. It's so late, can't we talk about it tomorrow?"

Wang's eyes flickered for a moment, then he regained his composure. "It's nothing serious, actually. I just wanted to ask you, how much information have you found about this project?"

Xiao Yue's heart was filled with alarm, but she remained calm on the surface. "There's so much information, how can it be so easy to find it? Colleague Wang is so concerned, why don't you help me?"

"I'd like to help you, but I'm also very busy." Colleague Wang sighed and said helplessly, "However, I can show you a way. I heard that the information seems to be in the archives of previous projects. You can go take a look."

Xiao Yue sneered inwardly. She had already searched the archives of previous projects and found no useful information. It was clear that Wang was deliberately misleading her, wasting her time.

"Really? Thank you so much, Mr. Wang!" Xiao Yue pretended to be grateful. "I'll go to the archives tomorrow to take a look."

Colleague Wang nodded with satisfaction, turned and left, with a barely perceptible sneer on his lips.

The next day, Xiao Yue followed Wang's "instructions" and went to the company archives. As expected, she searched there for a whole morning but did not find any useful information.

"How is it? Did you find what you needed?" Sister Zhang's sarcastic voice sounded in her ears, with undisguised sarcasm.

Xiao Yue took a deep breath and suppressed the anger in his heart, "Not yet, but I will keep working hard."

At the afternoon team meeting, Sister Zhang launched another attack, accusing Xiao Yue of incompetence and slowing down the project in front of all the colleagues. Manager Li sat by, silent, as if tacitly agreeing with Sister Zhang's statement.

Xiao Yue endured all this silently. She knew that now was not the time to fight back. She had to find the key information first to clear her grievances.

After the meeting, Manager Li suddenly called Xiao Yue and said, "Xiao Xiao, come to my office with me."

Xiao Yue's heart tightened, and an ominous premonition came to his mind...

Xiao Yue walked into Manager Li's office with a nervous mood. Manager Li pointed to the chair opposite him and motioned her to sit down.

"Xiao Xiao, how is the project progress recently? Are there any difficulties?" Manager Li asked with his fingers crossed, looking concerned.

Xiao Yue sneered in her heart, but remained calm on the surface. "Thank you for your concern, Manager Li. The project is still moving forward, but..." She paused deliberately, observing Manager Li's reaction.

Manager Li showed a hint of impatience. "Just what? If you have any questions, just tell me."

"It's just that the information I'm responsible for is rather complicated, and it will take some time to organize." Xiao Yue's tone was calm, as if he was just stating a fact.

"Well, data compilation is the foundation of the project, so it must be done carefully and meticulously." Manager Li nodded and changed the subject. "How about this? Starting tomorrow, before leaving get off work every day, you will come to my office to report on the day's work progress so that I can keep up with the situation."

Xiao Yue's heart sank, knowing that Manager Li was deliberately increasing her workload, but she couldn't refuse and could only nod and agree.

After leaving Manager Li's office, Xiao Yue returned to her workstation, suppressing her anger as she continued to sort through the documents. Before she knew it, it was getting dark, and her colleagues were leaving get off work one after another, but Xiao Yue was still hard at work.

"Xiao Xiao, you haven't gotten off work yet?" Secretary Zhao's voice suddenly sounded behind him, with a hint of hypocritical concern.

Xiao Yue turned around and forced a smile, "Yes, there are still some materials that haven't been sorted out."

"Young man, work is important, but you also have to take care of your health." Secretary Zhao said, his eyes falling on the pile of sorted documents on Xiao Yue's desk, and a hint of imperceptible cunning flashed in his eyes.

Xiao Yue didn't notice anything unusual about Secretary Zhao. She put the sorted information into a folder, locked it in a drawer, then picked up her bag and prepared to leave work.

The next morning, when Xiao Yue opened the drawer and prepared to continue organizing the materials, he was surprised to find that the order of the materials that had been organized yesterday was completely disrupted!

Xiao Yue immediately understood that someone must be deliberately causing trouble! And this person was most likely Secretary Zhao!

Xiao Yue took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. She knew that now was not the time to blame anyone; the most urgent task was to reorganize the information as quickly as possible.

Time passed minute by minute. Xiao Yue suppressed her anger and finally reorganized all the information before noon. Just as she was about to take a break and eat something, Manager Li suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Xiao Xiao, come with me. Here is a document that needs your help to organize." Manager Li said, stuffing a thick stack of folders into Xiao Yue's arms, then turned and walked towards an abandoned data room.

Xiao Yue was puzzled, but she followed him anyway. The room was dimly lit, and the air was filled with a damp, moldy smell. Manager Li casually tossed the folder onto a pile of discarded documents and left the room.

Xiao Yue looked at the disorganized pile of information in front of him, and suddenly felt a little uneasy...

In the dim light of the data room, dust was flying in the air. Xiao Yue suppressed her discomfort and began to sort out the pile of messy documents that Manager Li had thrown away.

Although they were called documents, most of them were actually outdated reports and discarded plans. The paper was yellowed and smelled musty. Xiao Yue was puzzled. What exactly did Manager Li mean by asking her to organize these things?

She patiently flipped through the pages one by one, and suddenly, a thin project plan fell out from a pile of waste paper. Xiao Yue picked it up and saw that the project name was exactly the "Splendid Jiangnan" project she was currently in charge of!

Her heart tightened as she quickly flipped through the pages. Although the plan was only a few pages long, it contained the core concept of the entire project, clearly documenting the project site selection, design concept, and some key data. Xiao Yue was ecstatic. Could this be the key information she had been searching for?

Just as she was reading carefully, the door of the data room was suddenly pushed open, and the dazzling sunlight poured in. Manager Li stood at the door with a hint of impatience on his face. "You haven't sorted it out yet? What are you dawdling about?"

Xiao Yue quickly hid the plan behind her and said, "Manager Li, I'll be right there."

Manager Li walked in and glanced sharply at Xiao Yue and the messy pile of documents in front of her. "What are you looking at?"

"No, nothing," Xiao Yue replied guiltily, "It's just some useless old information."

"Since it's useless, just throw it away and don't waste your time." Manager Li said, reaching out to take the plan that Xiao Yue had hidden behind him.

Xiao Yue instinctively dodged, "Manager Li, this information..."

"What?" Manager Li's tone became stern. "You want to disobey my orders?"

Xiao Yue bit her lip and finally handed the plan to Manager Li reluctantly. Manager Li took the plan, flipped through a few pages, and smiled disdainfully, "I thought it was something important, but it turns out to be an old plan from a few years ago, long outdated."

"But..." Xiao Yue wanted to argue again, but was rudely interrupted by Manager Li, "Okay, there's no need to discuss this matter anymore. You continue to organize these materials and send them to my office when you're done."

After saying that, Manager Li took the plan and turned to leave the document room.

Xiao Yue slumped weakly into a chair, his heart filled with despair and anger. Why? Why did something unexpected always happen just when he was about to find the key information?

She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. No, she couldn't give up! Even without this plan, she had to find other clues!

Xiao Yue returned to the office, only to find a glaring red message flashing on her computer screen: "File damaged." Her heart sank, and she quickly opened the folder, only to find that all the files related to the "Jinxiu Jiangnan" project had been deleted!

"What's going on?" Xiao Yue exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Colleague Wang came over with a look of concern on his face. "What happened?"

Xiao Yue then remembered that when she went to the reference room just now, it seemed that only colleague Wang was in the office...

"Nothing, just a small problem." Xiao Yue suppressed the anger in his heart and answered coldly.

Colleague Wang looked at Xiao Yue's ashen face, a barely perceptible sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth, and he turned around and returned to his seat.

As night fell, the entire office building fell into silence. Only Xiao Yue's office remained lit. The blank document on her computer screen seemed to mock her helplessness.

Xiao Yue didn't give up. She reorganized her thoughts based on her memory, recording every detail about the "Splendid Jiangnan" project, hoping to find a new breakthrough. Time ticked by, and she felt she was only one step away from finding the complete key information. But she only had three days left...

"Tick, tick..." The clock hands mercilessly pointed to midnight. Xiao Yue rubbed her sore eyes tiredly. Suddenly, as if she remembered something, she stood up abruptly, grabbed her coat and ran out...

A spark of hope flashed through Xiao Yue's mind. She remembered that Sister Liu, the senior who had been in charge of the "Jinxiu Jiangnan" project, had once told her that the initial planning proposal for the project had been published in the group's internal publication! If she could find that publication, perhaps she could find the complete version of the key information!

She searched through her office drawers and filing cabinets but couldn't find the publication. Then she remembered that according to company regulations, expired internal publications needed to be turned in to the administration department for archiving.

It was already late at night, and the administration department had long since closed. Holding onto a last glimmer of hope, Xiao Yue made her way to the floor where the administration department was located. The corridor was deserted, with only the voice-activated lights flickering with her footsteps, creating a particularly eerie atmosphere.

The administrative department's data room was located at the end of the corridor. Xiao Yue took a deep breath and pushed open the door. The lights were off, but in the faint moonlight from the window, Xiao Yue could vaguely see rows of tall filing cabinets standing in the center of the room, like silent giants guarding the company's secrets for years.

Xiao Yue fumbled to turn on the light, the glare making her feel a little uncomfortable for a moment. She gathered her composure and began searching the filing cabinet for the publication. The administrative department's archives were vast, and finding a publication from years ago was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

As time ticked by, beads of sweat formed on Xiao Yue's forehead. Finally, as she searched through the last filing cabinet, a publication with a yellowed cover caught her eye: "Xiao Group Internal Publication, Issue 3, 20XX."

Xiao Yue was overjoyed. With trembling hands, she flipped open the publication. The table of contents clearly read: "'Splendid Jiangnan' Project Planning Proposal." She couldn't wait to turn to that page and read it word for word.

The content of the plan was basically the same as the incomplete plan she had seen in the reference room, but it was more detailed and complete, even including some analysis and predictions of key data. Xiao Yue was ecstatic and quickly took out her phone to take a picture of the entire plan.

At this moment, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly came from the corridor, accompanied by the crisp sound of high heels hitting the ground, coming from far away and getting closer...

Xiao Yue was startled. Before she could react, the door of the data room was suddenly pushed open. Secretary Zhao was standing at the door, looking at her gloomily. "Xiao Yue, what are you doing?"