Chapter 34: Chapter 34: This Is Too Shameless
"I quit."
Thea Sherwood almost thought she’d misheard. She froze for a moment. "What did you say?"
’How could Ivy Sherwood agree so readily? Isn’t she a shameless leech who refuses to leave the Sherwood Company no matter what?’
"You want me to leave the Sherwood Company, don’t you? Fine, you get your wish. But I’m not leaving because of you. I’m leaving because the Sherwood Company isn’t worthy of an employee like me."
In her year at the Sherwood Company, she had learned that it was a corporation rotten to its very core.
A company like this couldn’t last much longer.
The Sherwood Company’s original mission—to let people experience the world’s many scents—was long gone.
Especially after Ivy joined the perfumery department, she realized just how serious the problems were.
Ivy Sherwood left without a backward glance, but Thea Sherwood, watching her go, didn’t feel the satisfaction she’d expected from tormenting her.
"You!"
’Something’s wrong. Very wrong. For Ivy to leave so decisively... something must be up.’
But where could Ivy go after leaving the Sherwood Company?
’She’ll probably come crawling back to me in a few days, beaten and disgraced. When she does, I’ll make her kneel before I let her back into the Sherwood Company as a lowly employee.’
...
Back home, Ivy Sherwood wasn’t so much angry as she was disheartened.
She had her own plans for a while but had been too hesitant to take the first step.
Her gaze fell on the bottle of water sitting nearby, and it seemed to suddenly give her immense courage. Now, Ivy decided, she would go all in.
’Look at Quentin Blackwood. He left the Blackwood Family at just fourteen without a penny to his name and started from scratch, building the business empire he has today.’
Ivy’s ambitions weren’t that grand. She just wanted to pursue what she loved: perfumery.
Nina Scott didn’t find out until two days later. She had been passing by the Sherwood Company and was about to ask Ivy to grab a drink when she was told Ivy had already left.
Nina immediately drove to Ivy’s house and pounded on the door as if the sky were falling.
"Coming, coming." Ivy only opened the door after seeing it was Nina on the security monitor.
"Ivy! Did they bully you? Are you okay? Let me see!"
Ivy smiled. "I’m fine, I’m doing great."
"How can you still be smiling!" Nina was furious. The Sherwoods had no right to bully Ivy like that, especially since her own mother had co-founded the Sherwood Company.
"What else should I do? Sit here and cry?"
The stronger Ivy appeared, the more Nina’s heart ached for her.
At least Nina had her brother to support her, but Ivy had been all alone since she was a child. Not only that, but her wicked stepmother, along with Claire Sherwood and Thea Sherwood, all despised her, wishing she would just drop dead.
’Ivy didn’t do anything wrong. Why is the world so unfair!’
"So what are you going to do now? Are you really just going to hand the Sherwood Company over to that mother and her daughters?"
"The Sherwood Company won’t last much longer," Ivy said.
"And you?"
"I have my own plans, of course. Come take a look."
Nina saw the webpage Ivy showed her and covered her mouth. "You started a new company!"
"Mhm, I’ve already picked out a location for the studio in the last few days. I’m hiring now."
"That’s amazing! You’re the famous Iris. If you open a studio, you’ll never have to worry about sales!" Nina knew about Ivy’s alias.
Ivy said, "I don’t plan on using the Iris name. The popularity of Iris was unexpected. I want to rely on myself and start from scratch."
As her best friend, Nina naturally supported Ivy unconditionally.
"I really don’t get how you think, but do you have enough capital? Do you want me to invest a little?"
"Of course I have enough. Iris has made quite a bit of money. Don’t worry about me."
"I’m just worried that if the Sherwood Family finds out you started your own company, they’ll definitely target you," Nina said.
Ivy had considered that. Thea Sherwood would definitely cause trouble.
"It’s fine. Am I supposed to be afraid of trouble? Besides, Thea’s own trouble is about to arrive."
"What do you mean?" Nina didn’t understand.
"Go online."
Nina finally picked up her phone, opened Weibo, and saw that Thea Sherwood’s name was actually trending.
#TheaSherwoodPlagiarism#
Thanks to her title as a "perfumery genius," Thea Sherwood had over a million fans online and was somewhat famous. Everyone knew she was the little princess of a wealthy family who worked at her own family’s company.
The Sherwood Company had just released a new fragrance, personally formulated by Thea. They had been hyping it up since last year, calling it an "unprecedented" scent. But when the product launched today, people discovered that its formula was a direct copy of a previous fragrance by Iris.
Not only that, but netizens dug deeper and found that many of the Sherwood Company’s fragrances were suspected of plagiarism.
Furthermore, many of their products had problematic ingredients. The newly released one was especially bad—plagiarism aside, it was advertised as a perfume with no chemical additives, safe even for pregnant women, but it was found to contain ingredients that are absolutely unsafe for them.
Their previous perfumes were also found to have many ingredients exceeding safety standards. Now, the Sherwood Company was getting torn to shreds online.
Since Thea Sherwood designed it, she was getting most of the hate.
"Who the hell propped Thea Sherwood up as a celebrity? She’s just as two-faced and manipulative as they come."
"I remember seeing her at a public event once, and wasn’t she wearing another brand’s perfume? She doesn’t even use her own company’s products?"
"Shouldn’t the Sherwood Company give an explanation? Are they using that dirty money to buy their own coffins?"
Reading those comments, Nina felt an immense sense of satisfaction.
"So, you knew about all this at the Sherwood Company?" Nina looked up at Ivy, who didn’t seem surprised at all.
"I didn’t know before." Previously, she had been working in the planning department, and since she wasn’t a key figure, she had no access to this kind of information.
It was only after she moved to the perfumery department, reviewed the old fragrance designs, and saw the submissions from the staff that she realized the Sherwood Company had been rotten for a long time.
That’s why Ivy had been so decisive about leaving when Thea Sherwood told her to get out that day at the company entrance.
Nina scrolled through the latest comments, feeling a thrill of satisfaction. She was even tempted to jump in and add a few insults herself.
But a moment later, Nina’s smile froze and then twisted into fury.
"Ivy, Thea Sherwood just posted on Weibo! Holy crap, she’s trying to pin the blame on you! That’s so shameless!"
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