Chapter 284: A fight broke out in the office

Smack!

The keyboard shattered into pieces.

Lili was stunned, and the teammates beside her were also dumbfounded.

Employees in other work areas stopped what they were doing and threw surprised glances over.

"Ya, you…" Zhang Haoyang's mind went blank for two seconds; he never imagined someone could mess things up like this.

Si Ya pointed at Lili's nose and commanded, "If you won't listen when I speak nicely, then clear out your stuff or I'll knock over your computer too!"

In the spacious office, the murmurs of other employees rose.

"Who is she? So arrogant!"

"I don't know… I've never seen her before; it looks like she just came in with their team leader. When she passed by our area, I glanced at her—she's pretty, but her temper is huge."

"Could she have gotten in through connections…"

"Drop the 'maybe'—if she didn't have connections, she wouldn't dare act so wildly."

…

Hearing the chatter, Si Ya lifted her chin, looked around, her arrogant, overbearing expression practically screaming 'connection hire' across her face.

Seeing how tough she was, everyone was certain her background was not simple.

Even though they disliked her, they were all ordinary staff who just wanted to work peacefully; nobody wanted trouble, so they quickly avoided her gaze, heads down, pretending not to see anything.

Lili's teammates also realized this in a short time—all furious but unwilling to speak up.

After all, even Zhang Haoyang, who often curried favor with superiors to gain the director's patronage, they'd avoid offending him if possible; but this woman was even more outrageous than Zhang Haoyang, proving her background far surpassed his.

That made her even more someone not to provoke.

Si Ya took in everyone's expressions, secretly delighted.

My boyfriend Zhang Haoyang really isn't simple—even as a mere team leader he can make other coworkers defer to him; otherwise, with me being this domineering, why isn't anyone coming to help Lili?

It feels great to have powerful backing.

Zhang Haoyang's heart had been in his throat, but seeing the surrounding teammates—and indeed the whole office—remaining silent, he secretly let out a breath.

"Ya, you haven't officially started work yet, so how about this: you each take a step back," Zhang Haoyang said, standing between Si Ya and Lili. "After work today, Lili, tidy up your desk; I'll arrange another spot for you. Starting tomorrow, this desk will be Ya's. How does that sound?"

Si Ya spread her hands: "Fine, as long as she apologizes to me, I have no objection."

Tears welled in Lili's eyes; though she was the one being bullied, now she not only had to give up her desk but also apologize to the other side.

Lili's teammates were also furious, almost speaking up for her, but a colleague quietly stopped them.

"Apologize!" Si Ya urged.

Lili crouched, head down, picking up the keyboard Si Ya had smashed, protesting in silence.

Si Ya's brows furrowed, her tone hardening: "I told you to apologize!"

Zhang Haoyang also spoke: "Lili, just say sorry, and we'll consider this over."

In an instant, Lili's tears fell in big drops; she gritted her teeth and said stubbornly, "Let me move my desk—I'll accept that, but I've done nothing wrong, so why force me to apologize?"

"If you don't apologize, get lost!" Si Ya, being extremely unreasonable, even kicked the keyboard away.

Lili didn't have time to pull back; the heel of Si Ya's high shoe jabbed hard into the back of her hand.

"Haoyang, fire her! I don't want to work with someone like her!" Si Ya said to Zhang Haoyang.

Before Zhang Haoyang could speak,

A surprised voice came from nearby: "Eh? Where did that keyboard come flying from?"

Si Ya and Zhang Haoyang recognized the voice; turning, they saw Yu Teng picking up the broken keyboard, with Li Wenwen beside him.

Their eyes met, and both were stunned for two seconds.

Yu Teng looked at the young girl sobbing on the floor, then at the two acquaintances standing beside her, and couldn't help but frown.

This scene, this atmosphere—it looks like those two are bullying someone again.

Zhang Haoyang frowned, sizing up Yu Teng and Li Wenwen, and asked in an unfriendly tone: "Why are you two running to my place again? If you didn't get the job, hurry up and leave—stop wandering around aimlessly!"

"Who says we didn't get hired?" Yu Teng stared at Zhang Haoyang, steady: "We're now employees of the Product Department, have completed onboarding, and today we're officially at work—leadership sent us to the Publicity Department to find Director Wang to coordinate several product promotions. Where is Director Wang?"

Zhang Haoyang and Si Ya were filled with disbelief.

They actually got hired?

Not only were they hired, they entered the workflow so quickly—and were even sent directly to liaise with Manager Wang?

Zhang Haoyang didn't know about staffing in other departments, but this meant they were at least department‑manager‑assistant level, making them at least one rank above him.

"Director Wang isn't here!" Zhang Haoyang said coldly, displeased. "Besides, I'm busy right now—you two step aside! Wait wherever you like, just don't get in my way!"

"That keyboard belongs to that girl," Li Wenwen said, pointing at Lili crouched on the floor.

Yu Teng ignored Zhang Haoyang's dismissal, walked over, and said softly, "Are you okay?"

Lili hugged her knees, head buried in her arms, shoulders trembling, faint sobs escaping.

Li Wenwen also approached, squatting beside her, and asked, "Were you bullied by Zhang Haoyang and Si Ya?"

Lili burst into loud sobs.

"Who's bullying her? Don't ask nonsense! You two, stop meddling!" Si Ya snapped.

"You're the one bullying her!" a teammate finally burst out, unable to hold back: "Lili was doing her work fine, you ran over demanding she make space for you—that's bad enough, but you smashed her keyboard and demanded she apologize! Where's the reason in that?"

Yu Teng and Li Wenwen then understood the whole story; it wasn't surprising at all—indeed, it was exactly the sort of thing Si Ya would do.

The two helped Lili up, had her sit back in her work chair, and comforted her with a few words, telling her not to be afraid or worried, and not to take Si Ya's unreasonable demands seriously.

Si Ya gave the employee who had just stepped forward a nasty look, hands on hips, and said sarcastically to Yu Teng and Li Wenwen: "Huh, impressive—you got in by sheer luck and now dare to oppose me? Who do you think you are?"

Yu Teng said solemnly, "Zhang Haoyang, control your person—don't let her act like a shrew, embarrassing everyone."

As soon as he said that, the surrounding people were shocked.

Zhang Haoyang was already annoyed that those two had been hired by the group, and hearing someone call his girlfriend a shrew made him flare with shame and anger; he clenched his fist and slammed it hard into Yu Teng's face.

Yu Teng was sturdy, but Zhang Haoyang had trained before; a sudden punch came, Yu Teng couldn't block it and fell with a boom.

"Zhang Haoyang! How dare you hit someone?!" Li Weiwen exclaimed, shocked and angry.

Zhang Haoyang sneered, "You two, get lost now! Otherwise I'll beat you both together!"

Li Weiwen was slim and never good at exercise; facing Zhang Haoyang's threat, he was somewhat afraid, so he could only help Yu Teng up, planning to leave this place of trouble first.

"Damn... I've tolerated you for too long!" The moment Yu Teng was helped up, he suddenly lunged at Zhang Haoyang.

Zhang Haoyang didn't expect the other to dare fight back; out of the blue, he also took a punch to the face.

In an instant, the two were grappling.

The teammates nearby hurried to push away and clear space, while all the staff in other office work areas stood up to watch.

Si Ya shouted excitedly, "Haoyang, don't go easy on him! Give him a good lesson!"

Thanks to his prior boxing and martial arts training, Zhang Haoyang beat Yu Teng until he was dazed; if Yu Teng weren't physically fit, a few punches would have knocked him out.

Bang!

Another thud of fist hitting flesh.

Yu Teng fell face-up onto the ground.

Zhang Haoyang didn't want to give him a chance to catch his breath, and was about to lunge for a vicious beating.

Li Weiwen was terrified, but he didn't want his good buddy bullied like this; he steeled himself, raised his not-so-strong arms, rushed to Zhang Haoyang's back and tightly hugged him, saying, "Don't... don't hit! Someone could get killed!"

"Let go of me!" Zhang Haoyang roared.

Li Weiwen strained his arms tight with all his strength, "You stop... I... I'll let go..."

"Courting death!" Zhang Haoyang's eyes flared red; he summoned force with both arms, broke free, turned and slapped Li Weiwen's fair, refined face, then directly choked his neck.

"Let him go!" Yu Teng, gritting through the pain, got up and lunged at Zhang Haoyang.

Zhang Haoyang flung Li Weiwen like a tool, sending him crashing heavily onto Yu Teng.

Now, not only had Zhang Haoyang gone berserk, but Yu Teng and Li Weiwen also lost control; though they knew they weren't his match, they struggled to their feet and grappled with Zhang Haoyang again.

As the scene spiraled further out of control, someone finally came to their senses and shouted to call security quickly.

Several employees near the office door immediately got up and ran outside.

"What are you doing! Clumsy!" a voice scolded from the doorway, "You almost bumped into me!"

"Ah! Manager Wang!"

"Sorry, sorry!"

Those employees hurriedly apologized, then told him that people were fighting in the office, and they were about to call security.

"What? Someone actually dares to fight here? Crazy!" Manager Wang rushed in, glanced around, quickly spotted the three fighting, and ran over shouting, "Everyone, stop!"

"Manager Wang's here! You guys better stop fighting!" the nearby employees also shouted.

Yu Teng and Li Weiwen calmed down and immediately stopped fighting.

But after they had already backed off, Zhang Haoyang still landed a few punches on both of them, then exhaled, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and slowly combed his hair.

Manager Wang's face turned livid; he glared at Zhang Haoyang, then sternly rebuked Yu Teng and Li Weiwen, "Which department are you from?! What nonsense made you come here to cause trouble!"

Li Weiwen's eyes and face were swollen, his mouth split in several places, and he was exhausted to the point of barely standing.

Yu Teng, relatively better off, panted and said, "You... you're Director Wang, right? We... we didn't come to cause trouble; something just happened... it... it was Zhang Haoyang who first bullied people... first struck..."

Zhang Haoyang said, "Manager Wang, they two against one, yet they claim I'm the bully—do you believe that?"

"Hello, Manager Wang," Si Ya said opportunistically, "I can testify that they came to cause trouble!"

Manager Wang, with a dark expression, pointed at the four and said, "You, come with me to the meeting room! Everyone else, stop gawking and get back to work!"

The office conflict was finally suppressed.

The four followed Manager Wang into a nearby meeting room.

As soon as the door closed, Zhang Haoyang took out a premium cigarette from his pocket, offered it to Manager Wang, and eagerly lit it for him.

Manager Wang sat down, smoked, and sized up Yu Teng and Li Weiwen from head to toe, asking, "Which department are you from?"

Before they could speak, Zhang Haoyang interjected, "Manager Wang, these two guys were my college classmates; today they just joined the Product Department and came here to show off, so I couldn't hold back and ended up fighting them."

"Hey? Zhang Haoyang, you're inverting right and wrong!" Yu Teng snapped.

Li Weiwen, enduring the intense pain in his mouth, also said angrily, "It's clearly you and Si Ya bullying a female coworker; we called you out on it, and you lashed out—"

"Enough!" Manager Wang interrupted, "I don't know how the Product Department hires people! Bringing in two such undisciplined things! You two don't need to come to work—get lost! I'll go explain the situation to your department head later."

Yu Teng and Li Weiwen both stared in disbelief.

They never expected that Manager Wang would, without fully understanding the whole situation, move to fire them.

Zhang Haoyang flashed a smug smile, sat with Si Ya beside Manager Wang, and introduced, "Manager Wang, this is my girlfriend, whom I mentioned to you this morning—I asked her to come work here."

"Hello, Manager Wang." Si Ya greeted.

Manager Wang nodded, "Zhang Haoyang is a young man I quite appreciate; otherwise I wouldn't have agreed to let you join our group, nor would I have let you share an office. In short, from now on, work well."

"Yes, Manager Wang," Si Ya said with a sweet smile, "Haoyang and I won't let you down."

Although Si Ya thought that if she pulled out her boyfriend's powerful connections, she wouldn't need to take this so-called superior seriously, she still had to put on the act for now.

Manager Wang's eyes wandered, intentionally or not, over Si Ya's shapely figure as he smiled and said to Zhang Haoyang, "Haoyang, your girlfriend is quite nice; I'm sure she'll be a good employee in the future."

Zhang Haoyang flattered, "Thank you for your appreciation, Manager Wang."

Manager Wang slowly shifted his gaze, noticed Yu Teng and Li Weiwen still standing by the office door, immediately frowned impatiently and said, "Why haven't you left yet? Do you want me to call security?"

Li Weiwen nudged Yu Teng's arm and said wearily, "Forget it... let's go..."

Yu Teng gritted his teeth silently, "No, we must get to the bottom of this today; we can't just take the blame for everything without knowing why. Besides, if we're dismissed like this, we'd also be letting down Jingli's kindness."

Li Weiwen's face showed embarrassment, "I feel I've already let her down; we just started the job, and we've caused her such trouble..."

"So we absolutely can't just walk away like that!" Yu Teng clenched his fists, stepped toward the meeting table, and said neither humbly nor arrogantly, "Manager Wang, the cause and course of the incident were witnessed by many of your department's colleagues present; I hope you'll hear what others have to say. Besides, the office has surveillance cameras; you can pull up the footage to see what happened then."