$ uname
Linux

$ mkdir -p 1/ 2/ shared/assets

$ ln -s `pwd`/shared/assets `pwd`/1/assets

$ ls -l 1/ 2/ shared/
1/:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 deploy deploy 18 Apr 29 11:12 assets -> /tmp/shared/assets

2/:
total 0

shared/:
total 4
drwxrwxr-x 2 deploy deploy 4096 Apr 29 11:12 assets

$ cp -r `pwd`/1/assets `pwd`/2/assets

$ ls -l 1/ 2/ shared/
1/:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 deploy deploy 18 Apr 29 11:12 assets -> /tmp/shared/assets

2/:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 deploy deploy 18 Apr 29 11:12 assets -> /tmp/shared/assets

shared/:
total 4
drwxrwxr-x 2 deploy deploy 4096 Apr 29 11:12 assets