“Give me one year of your life and I’ll give you the money you need.” Feng Mian is a normal and down to earth modern woman. She just wanted an ordinary life, an ordinary job and find an ordinary man to marry in the future. (Yes, all should be ordinary). But when family matters took a turn for the worst, she faced a huge dilemma called shortage of money. Suddenly, a contract came due to a series of coincidences. Zhang Liang was fed up with his father's (yes, father not mother) matchmaking schemes for him. He wanted to have a peaceful year because this was his chance to expand his business overseas, yet his father didn’t seem to get the message. When an ordinary fresh graduate employee in his company accidentally saw a scene, he decided to take the chance. “Since she has a normal background with nothing remarkable, nothing should go wrong, right?” Browsing through the contract, Feng Mian gritted her teeth. 'Fine. It was just one year of my life anyway. I wouldn't lose a lot.' But was it true? Or would that one year turn out to be a ride full of ups and down for both of them? ... Story set in modern era in fictional country. This story is purely fiction, any similarities with real life's event is purely coincidence. Special thanks for CatarinaM2811 for making the cover Word count: 900-1800 words/chapter Discord: https://discord.gg/pBy2wGB ... Thorough the Years' Series: 1. 1 Year of Beginning [complete] 2. 2 Years of Restarting [complete] 3. -Work in Progress- 4. -Work in Progress- 5. -Work in Progress- 6. -Work in Progress- 7. -Work in Progress- The series are all STANDALONE, meaning you don't have to read the other series in order to be able to follow this story. You can just read one and you still didn't lose anything. Each of the series have different main leads but they all happen in the same universe (and similar timeline, some are overlapping but mostly not) ... Other novels: -Flowers Bloom from Battlefield [complete] - Under the Veil of Night [complete] - 7 Path of the Lilies [on long hiatus] - Villain Lady [complete] - Science and Fantasy [complete] - Forgotten Legend of the Bloodied Flower [on going] - The Quiet Empress [on going] ... Note for those who read Sorahana's other novels: This novel took a different approach compared to my other novels because it focused heavily on romance and also in main lead's perspective. follow me on IG: @sora100518
Feng Mian chuckled. "You're the one too ambitious. I'm just a down to earth woman."
Zhang Liang didn't reply. He picked his suit and walked out of the room, leaving Feng Mian to do her own work.
Knowing that it would just be a long debate, Feng Mian focused on her work once more. There were people who would aim high because they knew that they could. Feng Mian's dream has always been to be a painter. She only hoped to earn enough by joining a company and used the leftover money to buy some painting tools.
Besides, climbing to higher position would give her less job related to painting and more work that required interpersonal relationship. As someone who preferred to stay alone in her room and paint, talking was not her forte. She didn't really want to be pushed into that kind of job and settled at the lowest rank of a simple designer.
That way, she would be able to chase after her dream.
However, things didn't work the way she wanted. She didn't have time in the past and with her mother's sickness, she had to take care of her mother. Now, she had the chance to pursue her dream, so she would surely do it to the best she could.
With that, Feng Mian diligently worked on her report. As long as she did her work well, she would have enough time to continue her painting again.
…
- Zhang Liang's Company -
A few days later, Yu Yan received text from the manager that they had already selected the design and called her over. She walked to the manager's room, wondering why she would be called.
Knock! Knock!
"Come in."
"Excuse me?" Yu Yan pushed the door open and saw the manager was looking at the document in front of him seriously. He glanced up when he saw Yu Yan and sighed. "Is there anything wrong?"
The manager shook his head. "Director Zhou called me just now. He wanted Feng Mian to be out of your team and be on her own."
Yu Yan arched her eyebrows. The reason why they have teams was because the workload was too much for one person to handle. Why did they suddenly want to have Feng Mian on her own?
"This is her recent proposal. I don't know how, but President Zhang wanted us to review it. After seeing this, I can't see why I should say no."
"Can I take a look?"
The manager nodded his head. Taking the documents, Yu Yan began to read. She recognized the writing at once because she had been working with Feng Mian for a long time. However, the wording had clearly improved. More importantly, it was very suited to the theme that the president had decided.
Yu Yan's eyes sparked with interest. "As I thought, she would have been better off to be a team leader on her own!"
The manager smiled bitterly. "With that introverted personality she had, I highly doubt it. A team leader needs to interact with a lot of people too and have a presentable appearance."
Recalling how Feng Mian still needed to learn how to put makeup properly, Yu Yan sighed. "I can just doll her up every morning if she wants to. But I guess now it's not needed. With her being independent, I'm sure that she'll get more important projects in the future."
"You sound even happier compared to your promotion."
Yu Yan rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm happy for my friend. Why can't I be happy for her?" also, it meant we need to have a good meal together to celebrate this. I'll call her later.
The two last sentences were just her thoughts. Yu Yan would never say it in front of the manager.
The manager smiled bitterly. "You should have gotten a promotion a long time ago if not for that incident."
Yu Yan's smile fell when she heard the manager's words. She looked at him and put the document on the table. "It won't happen again. This time, I'm going to get my promotion."
"I wish you luck. There's a new assignment for you."
"Wait, another one?"
"Yes. There are some projects left. You'll be working with Team W."
Yu Yan groaned. She didn't really like that team, but since it was the order, she needed to do it. "How about my new team members?"
"There'll be recruitment soon. We'll inform you when they have decided for the new member on your team."
"Alright."
Yu Yan chatted a bit more before walking out of the room while bringing a huge pile of documents. She felt a headache just thinking that their team would have to work harder. Without Feng Mian in the team, it would be much harder because she needed to push her teammates harder.
'When I have the time, I'll call Feng Mian and congratulate her, then. For now… work.'
…
- Zhang Liang's Residence -
Feng Mian didn't know anything that had occurred in the company because of her. She was too busy painting after her work had finished. Zhang Liang had told her that there won't be any work for her for the time being, so she poured her time and attention fully to her painting.
Knock! Knock!
"Yes?"
"Madam, may I have a talk?"
Feng Mian knew that Butler Lou rarely asked that. She quickly set aside her brushes. "Ok."