My Online Girlfriend Has a Twin Sister

Li in the after-sales department was absolutely frazzled. In the year-plus since she’d joined the company, she had never been as busy as she was today. Usually, at this time of day, she’d be reading a web novel while chatting with a guy she was seeing, leisurely sipping her coffee. Before she knew it, it would almost be time to clock out.

An easy day’s wage, earned with pleasure.

But today, she didn’t even have time to get a cup of water.

The notifications on her work account were going off nonstop, the BEEP BEEP BEEP sounding like a death knell. Even though she was replying as fast as she could, before she was even ready, a new wave of messages would flood in.

Her reports were filled with customer details and addresses requiring after-sales follow-up.

After a while, she felt her head spinning and couldn’t take it anymore. She looked up, wanting to ask a colleague for help, but when she took off her headphones and raised her head, she realized the entire office was a scene of noisy chaos.

All her colleagues were swamped.

For a moment, Li’s eyes glazed over with confusion. She didn’t really understand why the product was having issues, but anyone’s instincts would tell them that this situation was dangerous. The list of after-sales cases was just too long. Just the ones she was holding now couldn’t even fit on a single sheet of paper...

...

Meanwhile, on the way over.

Jiangg Ruxue had almost never moved with such urgency. The last time she had been this panicked was many, many years ago. It was when the two sisters’ father passed away. When the news of the car accident came, she had rushed over without a moment’s rest. The look on her face and the frantic pace of her steps now were no different from that night she got out of the car and ran all the way to the scene.

Just as pale, just as frantic.

This company had been the center of her life for so many years, her only pillar of support. To ensure this company could continue, she had even dipped into the inheritance left by their father. If she lost it, she truly didn’t know what she would do, how others would look at her...

Then, she would have to face those scornful, mocking gazes again, just like all those years ago.

At this thought, a look of pain and struggle flickered in Jiangg Ruxue’s eyes.

"We’re here!"

As the elevator went DING, Assistant Dong at her side spoke, startling her out of her deep thoughts.

The two of them quickly exited the elevator and hurried to the after-sales department.

The moment they pushed the door open.

The chaotic, bustling scene appeared before Jiangg Ruxue’s eyes. She frowned, watching countless employees on the phone, so busy they didn’t even have time to look up. In the past, when she came here in her capacity as president, these employees would all stand up. Now, no one paid her any mind.

Every single one of them was overwhelmed.

An employee at the front of the cubicles looked up in the pause between calls and noticed the two at the door. However, the first person she cried out to was Minister Dong.

"Minister, you’re finally here! I really don’t know what’s going on. We suddenly have a huge number of complaints about our new product. The outsourced customer service company has transferred all those cases to us. Do you know about this?"

"I know. It was my order," Minister Dong’s heart sank. She exchanged a glance with Jiangg Ruxue and asked with difficulty, "Have you compiled a list?"

"No."

"Then how many after-sales issues have you received so far?"

"Over thirty."

"All for the new product?"

"Yes," the employee thought for a moment. "Only one case wasn’t."

"Get that list compiled and report to me as soon as possible," Minister Dong said, steadying her subordinate. She then turned to Jiangg Ruxue. "The workstation in the very back—Li from our department was the first one to receive the after-sales reports. Let’s go see her."

At that moment, Jiangg Ruxue had the words "There’s no need to look" on the tip of her tongue. She swallowed them with immense difficulty and nodded.

In truth, from the moment she walked into the after-sales department and saw this, Jiangg Ruxue already knew.

’She knew the inside story. Of course she knew it was all over. There was no point in making any other effort. Right now, it would be better to contact the company’s shareholders to discuss a final strategy and try to prevent the worst-case scenario from happening.’

Waves of dizziness washed over Jiangg Ruxue. Her body swayed, and she barely steadied herself by grabbing a nearby desk.

’How could an accident like this happen... Although she had used a cheaper substitute from another company for the new product to lower costs, the materials were ultimately compliant. Her under-the-table dealings were only to maximize profits. She would never do something as self-destructive as making a shoddy product to defraud consumers.’

Jiangg Ruxue had countless questions, but there was no time to investigate.

The two of them walked over to Li’s workstation in the after-sales department.

Seeing her superiors, Li shot to her feet, panic written all over her face.

"Minister, ever since you left just now, the after-sales messages haven’t stopped. A lot of consumers are now saying they want to report us. I can’t even keep up with the phone calls by myself... What do we do now?"

As Li spoke, her gaze darted to the side, landing on the woman next to her minister. When she got a clear look, her pupils contracted.

"President Jiangg, you’re here too?" Li’s voice was filled with astonishment.

"President Jiangg came over the moment she heard. Li, don’t panic. I’ll arrange for other colleagues to help you contact the people on this list," Minister Dong soothed her. "In ten minutes, I’m holding an emergency meeting for our after-sales staff in my office."

"I understand."

"So," Minister Dong looked at Jiangg Ruxue. "President Jiangg, what do you think?"

"No, you can come over in half an hour. For now, come upstairs with me for a meeting. I’ll call Assistant Qin and have her notify the other shareholders."

"But, President Jiangg, isn’t Assistant Qin on leave?"

"Right... I forgot about that. I’ll notify them myself, then. Let’s talk as we walk."

Jiangg Ruxue did her best to remain composed. Even though her heart was filled with an unspeakable bitterness, she could only force it down for now. In fact, she was already running through her list of contacts in her head, trying to figure out who could help her through this crisis.

Of course, she wasn’t the most pitiful one. The most pitiful were the other company shareholders and these employees who were still working so hard, all of them completely in the dark.

The colleagues in charge of marketing and sales had gone out to celebrate yesterday and hadn’t even woken up at home yet.

They had no idea that the wonderful promotions and raises they dreamed of yesterday had all turned to dust overnight. Now, even their jobs were on the line.

...

"Hey, Minister Chen, I just heard all the orders for the new product have been frozen, they’re not letting them ship. What’s going on? The department in charge is refusing to sign off, saying you signed off on it too... Huh? But this affects our performance for the month. Is this an order from management? You’ll have to report this performance issue up the chain then. Otherwise, how am I supposed to explain this to my team... Alright, I’ll leave it at that."

「As time slowly passed.」

Everyone at Meiruxue Company sensed that something was wrong.

The company had descended into chaos. The heads of nearly every important department had been called into meetings. The uninformed subordinates had to make over a dozen calls just to get through to someone.

The orders were frozen. It was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on the enthusiastic delivery staff.

Subordinates asked their superiors, and superiors could only ask their superiors.

The fact that Meiruxue Company was already behind on salaries had caused plenty of resentment. Now, the chance to increase their pay was also being restricted. How could people not be angry?

"There’s nothing I can do. It was on speakerphone, you all heard it," the delivery department’s team lead tossed her phone on the table and spread her hands. "Forget about the orders for now. Go home early."

Seeing her expression, everyone exchanged confused glances.

"Really go home?"

"The Minister said so. We can go home and rest for now. Didn’t you all hear?"

"Alright then."

After giving her instructions, the team lead, looking annoyed, grabbed her things and left first, not bothering with her completely bewildered colleagues.

Presumably, she was also very troubled by the order freeze, but the answer to that was known only to the higher-ups.

’It was only normal for a small fry like her not to know the inside story.’

’Ugh, we haven’t been paid in months. Is this company trying to kill us?’ she cursed under her breath.

She pushed open the office door.

Even though Jiangg Ruxue had summoned all the upper management for a meeting, even calling back those who were away on business trips, no matter how seriously she treated it, she couldn’t stop the great ship of her company from sinking into the depths of the ocean, never to rise again.

It was too late to find a solution now.

She had no idea that corporate spies, planted by several major rival brands, were already conspiring to unleash a storm within Meiruxue Company. Like termites hollowing out a wooden beam, they touched antennae, silently passing messages to one another.

「Afternoon stretched into late night, until most of the lights in the street-side shops went out and the entire city grew quiet and desolate, with the occasional drunkard wandering the dark, unable to find his way home.」

A business van, its two bright headlights cutting through the darkness, drove along the road to the outskirts of Mingzhu City.

Unusually, it wasn’t Jiangg Ruxue’s driver behind the wheel; Minister Dong from the after-sales department was driving.

Several other core executives of the company were also in the car.

Amidst a strange silence, Jiangg Ruxue, who had been lost in a daze for a long time, was the first to speak.

"This time... it was my mistake. I kept it from all of you. Only a few people in the product department knew I changed the formula, leading to such severe consequences... But you’ve all seen the company’s current situation. We’ve reached a dead end. This was the only way to bring it back from the dead. I made a risky gambit."

After Jiangg Ruxue finished speaking, no one said a word. The few people in the car remained silent. She turned her head to look out the window and stated again.

"I will take full responsibility for this incident. Just as we discussed in the meeting today, you bear no responsibility. You were only carrying out my decision... I know the company is in dire straits right now, unable to even pay salaries. I will do my best to pull some strings and hopefully get us through this crisis. However, our company will have to downsize and tighten its belt from now on, announcing our withdrawal from certain markets. I will also be transferring some of my shares..."

Just then, the man sitting in the passenger seat turned around.

"President Jiangg, perhaps we can file for bankruptcy and then re-register the company. Otherwise, the compensation we’ll have to face is just too massive. Right now, the investors don’t know we’ve been cooking the books."

"It’s too late..."

Before Jiangg Ruxue could answer, another woman’s eyes widened abruptly.

"When did you cook the books?! How could you hide something so huge from me!"

"It’s something that can’t see the light of day. The fewer people who know, the better," Jiangg Ruxue closed her eyes. "It’s already too late to file for bankruptcy. The investors called me this afternoon. As long as they sue us, we can’t go through the standard procedure for deregistering the company."

"Then what do we do? We can’t possibly afford the breach of contract penalties!"

"There’s nothing to be done. Sigh... Let’s sell the building."

At these words, everyone fell silent.

The most valuable asset Meiruxue Company owned was the building it had purchased a few years ago. If they sold even that, there would be no chance of a comeback.

From then on, it would only be a slow decline into ruin, until its eventual death.

"Have we... have we really reached this point?"

Everyone in the car was a core executive of the company. Some were long-serving members who had been with the company for over a decade.

Years of hard work and struggle to build a career, now destroyed in an instant.

No one could accept it.

But this was reality.

Of course, the one with the most to lose was Jiangg Ruxue, who had made the decision. But she could only swallow the bitter pill. She was already thinking about an exit strategy.

It was simply a matter of selling the company’s most valuable property, compensating all the orders, negotiating with the investors, and then pulling some strings. Whatever problems could be solved with money would be solved with money. If she could go through the proper channels to file for bankruptcy, the losses wouldn’t be so severe.

Of course, that was the best-case scenario.