Chapter 15 — From Noodles to Glory

"Accepted. But there is one condition... don't mention my personal life, don't mention divorce, don't mention Chu Han." "Why?" "Because he doesn't deserve to appear in my story." The interview was scheduled for the following Tuesday. Monday night, I received an unexpected text message. The sender was Luong Uyen. "To Niem, can we meet once?" I looked at those words and was silent for a moment. Then answered with two words: "Maybe." The next afternoon, after the interview ended, I met her at a coffee shop near the company. Luong Uyen is much thinner than the last time in court. No makeup, wearing a normal hoodie, hair tied casually. Compared to the delicate "comrades" of the past, it's like two completely different people. She sat in the corner, the coffee in front of her was cold. Seeing me walk in, she stood up. "To Niem... no, general manager To. Thank you for agreeing to meet me." "Let's talk about business." I sat down and didn't say anything. She bit her lip. "I know you hate me." "Not to the point of hating me. You don't have that scale." Her expression changed, but she did not refute. "I came to apologize to you. Also... tell you a few things." "What?" "Those documents... when Chu Han gave them to me, he said he bought the commercial copyright from the document site. At that time I believed it." "What happened after that?" "After Tri Vien sent the infringement document." copyright, I just found out it wasn't right. I went to ask him, he..." She stopped. "He told me that it was my fault that I did it myself. He said that if I told him, he would deny it, anyway, there was no direct evidence." "But in court, you still said it." "Because..." She raised her head to look at me. "Four hundred and seventy thousand, I can't pay it back. My monthly salary is twelve thousand. I have to pay this amount for four years." "And he... never even said 'sorry' to me." I looked at her. "He told me to bear the blame. From beginning to end, he just wanted to keep himself." Her voice began to tremble. “I worked so much because of him, I never had a weekend off, every time he said 'Uyen has worked hard'… I thought he really cared about me…” “He doesn't care about you.” I interrupted her. "He doesn't care about me either. He only cares about himself." Luong Uyen covered her mouth, tears rolling down her eyes. I waited for her to finish crying. "I won't increase your compensation. Four hundred and seventy thousand, in installments, within three years to pay it off." She suddenly raised her head. "You... really?" "True. But there is one condition." "Say it." "The compensation is deducted from your salary. You continue to work, continue to do good designs. I've seen your other works... other than the ones I copied, you really have the basics." version.” “It's just that you took a shortcut.” “Don't go again in the future.” She froze. Then I nodded strongly. "Thank you... To Niem. Really thank you." I stood up. "Don't thank me. This is not forgiveness, it's letting go." "Forgive you, also forgive me." Walking out of the cafe, it had started to rain lightly outside. I opened the umbrella and stepped into the rain. The phone rang again. The official invitation to cooperate with the project to upgrade Tri Vien Group's global brand strategy has arrived. Total project budget: twelve million. Implementation cycle: eighteen months. I stood in the rain looking at that number, the corner of my mouth slowly curled up. Twelve million. Three years before I resigned, I thought my life revolved around cooking and children. Now I know… The kitchen cannot confine me. That man cannot be locked up. After the global brand strategy project kicked off, the Niem Bach workshop changed from me fighting alone to a team of five people. Dao Vi is in charge of sales and customer contact. I recruited two more designers and a manager

project management. Office for rent in the creative district east of the city, two hundred square meters, ground-level windows facing south, sunlight shining in all day. On the day I signed the contract into the office, I took Dai Bao with me. I ran back and forth in the empty office. "Mom, is this your company?" "Yes." "So big! Bigger than my house!" "Even bigger in the future." Dao Vi leaned against the window frame and looked at us, smiling. "To Niem, did you know? Today the industry media published your interview, the number of reads has exceeded a hundred thousand." "What about the comments?" "Half said 'finally Niem Bach is back', half said ‘As expected, it is the female designer's ceiling.’” “Someone also asked... where have you been after three years of disappearance.” “Let them guess.” “Aren't you going to make it public?” “It's not necessary. My work is more important than the story.” The second week the workshop officially opened, the first batch of deliverables of the Tri Vien global project was completed ahead of schedule. After Truong Loi saw the plan, he called. "Miss To, the overseas team responded... said the perfection of the visual system far exceeded expectations. The person in charge of the Asia Pacific region said verbatim: 'This is the best Chinese brand visual output I have ever seen.'" "Thank you."