"Okay." Grace Winslow gathered her things and went to the cafeteria.

The Ministry of Diplomacy’s cafeteria was quite decent. The selection of dishes was extensive, and the food tasted pretty good.

Grace Winslow got a few of her favorite dishes. The meals here were free, so there was no need to pay. The benefits were, one could say, quite good.

Grace Winslow found an empty table and sat down. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Is that the new female colleague at the Ministry of Diplomacy? She’s pretty good-looking."

"She is, but I heard from people in the Ministry that her character is questionable and she’s hard to get along with. Apparently, she got into the Ministry through some shady means. She’s just a pretty face."

"Even if she is just a pretty face, she’s a very pretty one. Some people wish they could be one and can’t even manage that."

"Hush, don’t say that. She has powerful connections. It’s her first day, and she already dared to put her desk right outside the Minister’s office. The Minister didn’t even say anything. She’s probably being kept by some big shot."

The cafeteria was filled with the rustle of hushed discussions.

Grace Winslow acted as if she hadn’t heard a thing and just ate her food.

If she let rumors like this get to her, she’d probably have died from depression eight hundred times over by now.

The more you cared about certain things, the more enthusiastically others would talk. It was better to just ignore it.

When they realized their antics weren’t getting the desired effect, they would naturally get bored and stop causing trouble.

After finishing her lunch, Grace Winslow returned her tray and utensils and went back to the office.

The others looked at each other in bewilderment.

"How is she not angry at all? So calm?"

"Either her backer is powerful enough that she’s not afraid of these rumors, or she has absolute confidence in her own abilities."

"Speaking of which, does anyone know where she came from? They rarely bring in interns at this time of year. It’s not even graduation season, so why suddenly get an intern?"

"I heard she’s from Crestwood University’s foreign languages department."

After Grace Winslow left, the group continued their hushed discussion.

Just then, someone couldn’t hold back anymore. "She’s from Crestwood University’s foreign languages department, a freshman this year. She was the national champion of the college entrance exams. Do you have any idea what that means? Millions of people took that exam, and none of them scored higher than her. Her performance at school is excellent too. Some time ago, she attended a conference with us and was noticed by a top leader."

"This time, it was that same top leader who specifically requested her for an internship at the Ministry of Diplomacy. Use your brains, will you? You believe whatever anyone says and then gossip behind people’s backs."

"As long as nothing unexpected happens after she officially joins the Ministry, the Minister’s position is practically hers for the taking. She might even climb higher. If you get on her bad side, do you think it’ll end well for you?"

Everyone recognized the speaker. She was also from the Ministry of Diplomacy and was a senior employee who had been there for seven years. She had also graduated from Crestwood University, and her family background was considerable. It could be said that in the Ministry, she looked down on everyone except the Minister.

Hearing her speak out like this, the people who had been gossiping immediately shut their mouths.

Grace Winslow returned to the office and once again began wrestling with the documents on her desk.

Although it was all difficult, learning new things through her work was a pleasant experience for her.

By the time the other office staff returned, Grace Winslow had already translated one page and was battling with the second.

For the entire day, Grace Winslow’s mind was filled with nothing but highly specialized vocabulary. It wasn’t until quitting time, when everyone had left, that she belatedly realized it.

Their department usually wasn’t very busy. They were only needed for diplomatic events. Most of the time, they were in the office studying or reading materials, so everyone tended to leave early when the day was over.

When Grace Winslow snapped out of her daze, the sky was already almost completely dark.

She organized the documents. They couldn’t be taken home, so she locked them in her desk drawer.

After all, people were ostracizing her. She couldn’t rule out the possibility that someone might try to sabotage her by deliberately destroying these documents to frame her.

When she had locked everything up and was ready to leave, she discovered that the door had been locked from the outside.

Grace Winslow tugged on it twice, but it wouldn’t budge.

She couldn’t help but laugh.

She had only ever seen workplace bullying on TV before. As a former housewife, this was her first time experiencing it for real.

’But did they really think this childish prank would be enough to trouble me?’

She shook her head and walked straight to the window.

Because the office was on the first floor, the window wasn’t high off the ground. Grace Winslow simply opened a window and jumped out.

Then she closed the window behind her and strode away.

’Trying to lock me in the office to mess with me? Not a chance!’

The next day, Grace Winslow arrived early again, getting there before anyone else.

The office key was taken in turns by everyone, who was responsible for opening and closing up for the day.

Grace Winslow had listened to her language tapes twice at the door before the person responsible for opening up finally sauntered in.

Seeing Grace Winslow sitting by the door, he jumped in surprise and instinctively demanded, "G-Grace, Comrade Grace, why are you here?"

"Where do you think I should be? In the office?" Grace Winslow raised an eyebrow and glanced at him.

The man felt a pang of guilt. "I, I didn’t say that. It’s just, you, why did you get here so early?"

"Work starts at eight. I arrived at seven-thirty. Is that very early? Open the door. I still have work to finish, so don’t waste everyone’s time." Grace Winslow glanced at the time and urged him on.

According to the official start time, this man was already late.

It was only because no one checked attendance. Otherwise, every single person in the office was guilty of arriving late and leaving early. If they were docked pay for it, a whole month’s salary wouldn’t be enough to cover the deductions.

’If these people hadn’t messed with me, it would have been fine. But now that they have, they can forget about living such a lazy, coasting life. Not a chance.’

That very day, Grace Winslow went and reported everyone in the office for arriving late and leaving early.

Leon Rhys had a smile on his face as he turned and ordered the logistics department to investigate.

These people were all incredibly arrogant and never bothered to be discreet. They even went around bragging about how they could work just a few hours a day, sit around doing nothing, and still get paid for full attendance. There was no better job in the world.

But when Leon Rhys launched the investigation, everyone was dumbfounded.

This time, it wasn’t just attendance being checked, but also individual professional skills.

After two rounds of testing—spoken foreign language conversation and a written exam—it was discovered that the conversational skills of half the people in the department had severely deteriorated.

Grace Winslow watched the whole show from the sidelines without getting involved.

But once everyone had been assessed, Sharon Lloyd stalked over to Grace Winslow’s desk with a dark expression and slammed her hand on it. "Grace Winslow, you’re the one who reported us, weren’t you? How could you be so malicious? You just got here, and you’ve already caused half the people in this office to potentially lose their jobs!"

"Have you ever considered that they have elderly parents and young children to support? They’re counting on this income to feed their families! How could you be so vicious!"