The pregnant woman and her family had originally intended to express their heartfelt gratitude to Lin Wanwan.
They had no intention of keeping a low profile, naturally attracting the attention of other colleagues in the office area with ease.
Colleagues who were originally buried in their work tapping on keyboards set down their tasks one after another and looked over, while a few curious onlookers directly gathered around.
Quite a few people knew about Lin Wanwan buying the raw marinated seafood yesterday to send for testing, though no one had paid overmuch attention at the time.
Most people merely thought she had gotten an upset stomach and was acting out of petty anger.
At the time, many felt Lin Wanwan was being overly grudge-bearing—was such a trivial matter really worth making a grand fuss about?
If an ordinary person accidentally got an upset stomach, chances were they would simply accept bad luck and swallow it down.
After all, the cost for ordinary people to defend their rights was far too high.
The outcome of defending one’s rights was completely out of proportion to the price paid for it.
Finding a foreign object in one’s food—forget it.
Running into an unlicensed driver hiking up prices on the spot—forget it.
Facing unfair treatment—still, forget it.
Over time, most ordinary people had long surrendered many rights they were rightfully entitled to.
Now, seeing that Lin Wanwan had not only successfully defended her rights but also saved the lives and health of quite a few people, an unusual emotion surged in the hearts of many colleagues.
Ordinary people might back down due to difficulties, but no normal person would ever mock those who were willing to rise to the challenge.
“Oh my goodness! Wanwan, you’re way too awesome!”
“Wanwan is genuinely incredible! Just after saving President Evans, not two days later, she takes down a shady raw marinated seafood shop!”
“That seafood shop looked quite clean on the outside, who knew they’d dare add that kind of medicine! Good thing you stopped them in time, otherwise that pregnant lady would have suffered horribly!”
“Daring to go head-to-head with a shady owner and insisting on reporting them—Xiao Lin is truly a good one!”
Liu Xiaoli was all the more filled with pride, pulling Lin Wanwan’s arm with a laugh:
“I knew you weren’t someone who acted recklessly!”
“Well done!”
The surrounding colleagues chimed in one after another, compliments rising and falling repeatedly.
From the outer edge of the crowd came the sound of footsteps as Deputy Director Zhou Wentao from the Administrative Department walked over.
Dressed in a crisp light gray suit with a warm smile on his face, his gaze swept over the silk banner reading “Eradicating Harm for the People, Enthusiastic and Responsible,” the smile on his face growing ever more radiant.
“Lin Wanwan, is it? Well done!!”
Deputy Director Zhou’s voice was not loud, yet it brought the noisy office area to an instant hush.
“Our Ocean Engine has always emphasized social responsibility!”
…
“You didn’t just uphold your own principles; you also brought honor to the company…”
“Your performance was exceptionally outstanding!”
“You not only saved a major client for the company, but also protected the lives and health of many ordinary citizens! Extremely well done!”
“I look forward to you making even more contributions to the company and society in the future!”
As soon as these words were uttered, many surrounding colleagues revealed envious expressions.
Understanding the underlying message was key—though Zhou Wentao didn’t state anything explicitly, everyone present was smart.
Naturally, they could tell the deputy director was immensely satisfied with Lin Wanwan.
Although the deputy director was not the top head of the department, his job rank was equal to that of the director, both being S7.
The recognition of an S7, combined with achievements of sufficient weight, was enough to allow Lin Wanwan—an S3 who had only recently passed probation—to smoothly secure an A-grade evaluation at the end of the year.
Deputy Director Zhou smiled and waved his hand, exchanging a few more pleasantries with the Food and Drug Administration staff and the couple.
He specially instructed colleagues in the administrative group to hang the silk banner on the company’s honor wall before turning to leave.
After seeing off the Food and Drug Administration personnel and the couple who kept thanking her repeatedly, Lin Wanwan was surrounded in the middle by her colleagues, her cheeks slightly warm.
She was originally not used to being surrounded and praised by so many people, and hearing the continuous stream of “amazing” and “admirable” at this moment made it even harder to handle. She hurriedly waved her hands and said:
“Don’t say that, everyone. I just did what I should do. Anyone seeing that kind of situation would lend a helping hand.”
“You can’t say that!” Liu Xiaoli immediately chimed in,
“Yesterday, some people were still making sarcastic remarks, saying you were making a mountain out of a molehill!”
As Liu Xiaoli spoke, she scanned the crowd, trying to single out Song Jiaman.
However, Song Jiaman was clearly no fool; seeing that things weren’t looking right, she had fled to the restroom early on.
Liu Xiaoli looked around, and seeing no sign of her, could only give up resentfully.
“By the way, Wanwan, didn’t you say yesterday that if things were resolved smoothly, you’d treat everyone to afternoon tea?”
Prompted by Liu Xiaoli, everyone immediately caught on and chimed in together:
“That’s right! Afternoon tea! Wanwan can’t break her word!”
“Wanwan, good things come in pairs! Just passed probation yesterday, and today you got praised by the director—you have to buy!”
“I want taro boba milk tea, 30% sweetness and light ice!”
“I want to eat the tiramisu from that place next door! I saw you buy it last time, it tasted super amazing!”
Looking at everyone’s lively and cheerful demeanor, the slight restraint in Lin Wanwan’s heart vanished in an instant. She nodded with a smile:
“Don’t worry! A promise is a promise!!
Everyone, send what you want to eat and drink to the small group chat. I’ll place the order right now and guarantee everyone gets to enjoy afternoon tea to their heart’s content!”
The moment the words left her mouth, a cheer instantly erupted in the office area.
At 5:30 PM, the office area instantly livened up. Colleagues packed up their things, discussing their weekend plans in groups of two or three.
Just as Lin Wanwan finished organizing the documents on her desk, her phone let out a “ding”—it was a text message from her mother.
“Wanwan, this weekend is your grandmother’s birthday. Don’t forget to come back, the elderly lady has been nagging about you for days.”
Seeing the text message, Lin Wanwan slapped her forehead hard, her heart filled with regret.
Too many things had happened during this period, to the point that she had actually forgotten such an important matter as her grandmother’s birthday.
She hurriedly dialed her mother’s phone back, her tone laced with apology:
“Mom, I’m so sorry. Work has been busy and my head was a bit scrambled recently, I almost forgot Grandma’s birthday.
Don’t worry, I’ll take a ride home first thing tomorrow morning, I definitely won’t delay Grandma’s birthday.”
On the other end of the phone, her mother heard the guilt in her tone and hurriedly comforted her:
“I know you’re busy with work, it’s good as long as you didn’t forget.
Your grandmother keeps talking about you these past few days, saying she hasn’t seen you in a long time, and even said she wants to make your favorite soy sauce chicken for you…”
After chatting back and forth with her mother for another dozen minutes, Lin Wanwan finally hung up the phone.
Holding her phone while standing by the roadside, her grandmother’s image floated into her mind.
When she was little, her parents were busy with work, so she grew up following her grandmother in Dongguan.
Her grandmother always saved the best things for her—in summer, she would scoop out the very center of the watermelon for her to eat; in winter, she would tuck her small cold hands into her own coat to warm them up.
In the past, she didn’t have much money in her hands. For her grandmother’s birthday last year, she bit the bullet and bought a small pair of gold earrings, spending just 2,100 yuan, yet her grandmother cherished them immensely, telling everyone she met that her granddaughter had bought them.
Her grandmother had always liked gold, but simply couldn’t bear to spend money buying it for herself. This time, she would definitely make her grandmother thoroughly happy.
With 180,000 yuan now sitting in her bank account, a thought suddenly occurred to Lin Wanwan: buy her grandmother a gold bangle.