Chapter 3
When I opened my eyes again, a doctor in front of me was explaining my condition to Mr. Miller, the company’s Vice President.
"Her altitude sickness was already severe, and she was clearly unwell. Why wait until she developed wet cough symptoms from high-altitude pulmonary edema before bringing her to the hospital? We almost ran out of time, you know?"
Seeing me awake, the other people in the hospital room swarmed around me.
Mr. Miller, holding Mr. Davidson back, pulled him towards me. "Chloe, I'm truly sorry about this. I never expected something like this to happen during a company team-building event."
"What are you waiting for, apologize to Chloe now!"
Mr. Davidson's eyes darted around, hesitant to speak. I decided to cut to the chase. "Manager Davidson always has his own strong opinions. I suppose he still thinks I'm acting, just like when I asked for help with my altitude sickness, right?"
My words flustered Mr. Davidson a bit, but he still gave me an imploring look. "It's all a misunderstanding, Chloe. Our department is like a family, and you're my most valued employee. How could I ever think that?"
"I'll get a medical certificate from the hospital. This incident counts as a work-related injury. As for who should take responsibility—"
I looked at Mr. Miller, who immediately provided the answer. "Davidson, you're fired!"
"No, Mr. Miller, please! I'm a senior employee at the company. Even if I haven't scored huge wins, I've put in years of hard work."
Despite Mr. Davidson’s repeated pleas and attempts to soften him, the outcome didn't change.
Fuming with nowhere to vent his anger, he looked left and right, his eyes landing on Melody, who was staring at the floor. He quickly stepped forward, grabbed Melody’s arm. "Why did you say Chloe’s altitude sickness was fake? You were the one stirring things up; otherwise, I never would have punished everyone with a hike. You b*tch, you made me lose my job!"
With that, Mr. Davidson raised his hand and slapped Melody across the face.
"Yes, I heard Melody say it too! She said Chloe was just faking being sick to be lazy. Could it be that Melody made all that up because she was jealous of Chloe?"
"Her performance has always been worse than Chloe's. She held a grudge and manipulated others to hurt her. You're terrifying, Melody!"
As the colleagues' inciting voices grew louder, Mr. Davidson's rage doubled. He grabbed Melody and was about to throw her out the window.
It was Mr. Miller who saw this and shouted to stop him.
After that day, my colleagues didn’t gang up and freeze me out like in my past life. Instead, they actively took on my workload.
Their attitude towards Melody, however, grew colder by the day, making her personally experience what it felt like to be isolated and helpless.
Not long after I was discharged from the hospital, the day came when my project proposal was complete.
In my past life, when I took my design proposal to my superior to apply for project funds, Melody's inner thoughts claimed my plan was full of flaws and would saddle every colleague with debt because of me.
Both colleagues and management believed her, refusing to approve my funding.
If I hadn't been desperate to raise the money from my own sales performance, I wouldn't have gone to that steel mill client on the cliff in my previous life, and that cliff accident wouldn't have happened.
I reined in my thoughts, displaying the project content on the large screen in the conference room.
I had barely outlined the project framework when Melody impatiently projected her thoughts.
[Does Chloe really think she’s the only one in the company who understands the industry?]
[The internet is clearly the mainstream now, but she insists on going off the beaten path to do some overseas business. If it weren't for her 'brilliant idea,' it wouldn't cause everyone to work for years, not only failing to save money but ending up in debt because of her.]
Initially, everyone in the conference room had been full of praise for my project. But after hearing those thoughts, their faces completely changed.