This damn job is not something I want to do even for a single day.
“Go back and redo it!”
Just as Yun Fan finished pouring a cup of boiling water, his boss’s roar made his hand jolt, causing half the water to spill out.
This damn job is really not something I want to do even for a single day.
He sighed, reaching out to grab the tissue box. Missing it on the first try, he reached again, and the tissue box was pushed directly into his hand.
The older colleague at the adjacent desk grinned sheepishly at Yun Fan. “I used a couple of sheets, hurry up and wipe it off.”
“Young man, don’t be nervous,” the older colleague added.
Yun Fan glanced at the half-empty pack of tissues, thinking to himself that this guy was truly the epitome of being stingy where it counts and spending where he pleases.
Their company was terribly tight fisted, refusing to even provide facial tissues under the lofty, eco-friendly guise of environmental protection. His neighboring colleague deftly bummed everyday items right and left, yet when it came to buying web novels, he never held back.
He read them book after book, day in and day out. As long as it was good, he would unlock all chapters blindfolded.
Yun Fan worked at a financial trust company as a wealth advisor. To be specific, he was primarily responsible for clients’ family trust businesses, providing high net worth individuals with personalized wealth management solutions that met their needs for asset protection and segregation, inheritance and allocation, and philanthropic charity.
However, the job title could simply be summed up in one word: ox horse.
At six thirty in the evening, Yun Fan sat in the office, caught in a dilemma.
This office building had fifty five floors, and their company was on the fifty third. Looking out the window, Yun Fan didn’t dare look too closely, as he was somewhat afraid of heights.
At this hour, going downstairs to grab dinner made waiting for the elevator heartbreaking. Yet if he didn’t eat, his stomach would start protesting, which he blamed on his rushed morning that left him no time to buy backup snacks.
Then again, it wasn’t really his fault; he should blame their boss for holding meetings all day long and refusing to let anyone catch a break.
This was one of those things Yun Fan could never understand since entering the workforce: leaders didn’t actually decide anything, as leaders only called meetings. A single meeting would routinely stretch on for an hour or two, with everyone talking over one another, ultimately concluding nothing.
The boss would sit at the end of the long table, nodding with a profound expression before finally saying, “You all go down and discuss it further.”
Discuss it further?
Then what was the point of the meeting?
From just past nine in the morning until arriving at the office, Yun Fan had barely touched his own workstation, shuffling from the large conference room to the small one, his head spinning after a whole day of meetings.
Now that he finally managed to sit at his own desk for a moment of peace, his heart was sent pounding by the boss’s roar.
If you asked him, their company ought to install an electrocardiogram machine to run daily strips on everyone just to see who could manage to avoid an irregular heartbeat.
Out of the corner of his eye, Yun Fan glanced at his neighboring colleague, deciding that this guy definitely could.
Who said companies didn’t idle people? His seatmate was living proof. Seeing that everyone was taking a break right now, the guy had popped his audio novel back on. Of course, he listened to novels even when everyone else was busy. His main job responsibility upon coming to work every day was waiting for his wife and immersing himself in the world of web fiction.
Yes, this colleague was a zhuiyu, a man who married into his wife’s wealthy family. His wife was one of the company’s senior executives, and every year, she merely had to casually toss a fraction of her workload his way to let him hit his annual performance quota in the first quarter, leaving him the rest of the year entirely free to kick back and relax.
Forcing himself to rest by gazing out the window, Yun Fan half listened and discovered that the story his colleague was currently listening to happened to be his favorite subgenre, zhuiyu literature.
Though it seemed the colleague had turned over a new leaf, because this sounded like boys’ love literature.
What was going on? Did the colleague have new aspirations?
Yun Fan quickly scanned the surroundings of the office, looking toward the married male bosses and male clients, crying out in his heart that while old brother certainly possessed some charm, and perhaps with enough effort he could marry into wealth once more, he still needed a moral baseline.
The colleague chuckled uproariously, happily muttering under his breath that it was so dog blood, so fun, and that he needed to find another one. Seeing him laugh, Yun Fan couldn’t help but smile too. Although the colleague’s presence left many in the company feeling resentful, Yun Fan felt having someone like this sitting next to him wasn’t half bad, as at least he was better than the overachievers who manufactured work out of thin air and sent daily progress reports to the work group at two in the morning.
“Hey, wife!” The colleague responded loudly, flashing a row of pearly white teeth.
He trotted off toward his wife’s office, moving so fast that he left his novel playing phone behind, letting the mechanical female voice drone on.
Yun Fan, who momentarily wanted neither to work nor to eat, relaxed and listened with one ear to the unhurried, emotionless external playback.
This novel was a dog blood story about high society.
It told the story of a minor celebrity who got his boyfriend to willingly marry into a wealthy steward’s family, using that opportunity to break into high society and subsequently attempting to marry his way in himself.
Yun Fan took a sip of water, thinking that there were always players outplaying players. Compared to the people in this novel, his neighboring colleague was remarkably pure.
The mechanical voice continued reading, arriving at the part describing the four key figures within the wealthy family. True to novel tropes, these four kings were bound to be dazzling enough to daze the minor celebrity, leaving him unsure of whom he should marry into.
Wen Zhaofu, twenty eight, a cold and abstinent tycoon from the Hong Kong circle and the future head of the Wen Group. Blessed with god like facial features, despite using a wheelchair year round due to a leg disability, it did little to diminish his status as the most coveted eligible bachelor in the Hong Kong circle.
Cheng Yu, twenty eight, Wen Zhaofu’s cousin, a sophisticated president from the Shanghai circle. He habitually wore gold rimmed glasses and carried himself with refined, introverted grace. Demanding absolute perfection in both work and life, he was a lofty new elite.
Wen Haochen, twenty two, Wen Zhaofu’s half brother, who also had a twin sister. Currently in college and nearing graduation, he had inherited the Wen family’s exceptional genes. Sunny and handsome, he was the most popular campus heartthrob.
The final figure was Liu Erxing, who shared no blood relation with the aforementioned three. At twenty five, he was the acknowledged god grandson of Wen Zhaofu’s granduncle. Operating in the Beijing circle, he was a carefree playboy and an aviation rescue team pilot.
Liu Erxing could fly pigeons, race cars, take to the skies, and dive into the seas, truly untamed, dashing, and extraordinarily debonair.
Hearing this, Yun Fan couldn’t help laughing. Good grief, every single one of them was a dragon among men. Such character settings were wonderfully novel esque.
Just as Yun Fan wanted to keep listening, the colleague trotted back. With an exclamation, he hurriedly turned off the novel app and muttered an apology to Yun Fan.
Then, the colleague quickly packed his bag and shook his head. “I’m heading off. Today is President Zhao’s and my wedding anniversary, so we’re going out for a candlelight dinner.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a chorus of tongue clicking echoed from around the office.
Gazing at his retreating back, Yun Fan murmured to himself that the guy was allowed to enjoy himself, but please don’t generate aggro, or at least leave his phone behind because he still wanted to hear what happened next.
The girl sitting across the desk poked her head out, her eyes gleaming, and shared a laugh with Yun Fan.
By seven thirty, people were trickling out of the office. Yun Fan exchanged glances with his department colleagues, everyone restless and ready to seize an opportunity to bolt.
However, just as Yun Fan prepared to make his move, the boss pushed open the office door and bellowed in a voice like rolling thunder, “Get over here for a meeting!”
Sitting there in a daze, listening to the boss’s passionate rhetoric, Yun Fan desperately wanted to ask where he bought his supply of adrenaline.
Why did he have endless reserves of bovine energy day in and day out, and why did he demand that everyone else maintain that same vibrant working state?
Did he not realize that a lack of vital energy was the norm for contemporary young people?
“Take a look at your performance this quarter! How does it compare to Group Two? All you saw was Yu Xian slacking off, but you completely missed how he exceeded his KPI targets again this year!”
The colleagues raised their heads in unison to look at the boss, Yun Fan guessing they were all thinking the same thing. They were probably thinking that the boss should either step up his own game and raise his current zero performance record, or go marry into a wealthy family himself.
If a leader’s sole function was to act as a middleman who merely relayed demands from higher ups and pushed down workloads, what was the point of them? They might as well install a robot, or better yet, have everyone communicate directly with upper management to prevent middlemen from wantonly distorting instructions or arbitrarily adding extra burdens.
If everyone could transmit information equally and eliminate information gaps, the workplace would truly become a wonderful paradise.
With spittle flying everywhere and a piercing, high pitched voice assaulting his eardrums, Yun Fan grew drowsy. Lowering his head, he let the tip of his pen casually scribble across his notepad.
Zhaofu, Cheng Yu, Wen Chen, Liu Er.
When this thoroughly unpleasant day finally drew to a close, he realized he had been jotting down the names of characters from the novel all along.
Well, Yun Fan wondered to himself, how did I even manage to memorize those?
At one in the morning, as Yun Fan lay in bed ready to sleep, he noticed the boss had dropped another notice into the group chat.
Received, task execution guaranteed.
Received, task execution guaranteed.
Yun Fan clicked his tongue, locked his phone, and went to sleep. Who on earth wanted to perform cyber kowtows over there? They could all buzz off!
To avoid repeating yesterday’s misery, Yun Fan ordered a worker’s bento early: three dishes and one soup, enough to fill his stomach even if it wasn’t particularly delicious.
Stir fried in massive woks, food from these places was always heavy on cooking oil.
Yet for the sake of speed and convenience, the vast majority of his colleagues chose the worker’s bento as well.
Except for his neighboring colleague.
That colleague hadn’t even shown up today, and Yun Fan had no idea what he would be eating for lunch. His wife, however, had come in, her spirits as high as ever.
At three in the afternoon, Yun Fan went out to meet a client. This project had reached its final stage, requiring family members to be gathered together for the family trust signing ceremony.
As a wealth advisor, Yun Fan only wanted to focus on the first two words of his job title, but in reality, he had to look after everything and answer for everything.
The wealthy were hardly reckless spenders; if anything, they were far more meticulous and calculating. What they entrusted wasn’t merely wealth, but trust and credit, along with an entire household’s worth of grievances, petty squabbles, and trivial messes.
If one happened to deal with a client blessed with an expansive family tree, the job grew infinitely more complex. Yun Fan had to account for every single person’s personality and their respective vested interests.
Though they were blood relatives, in front of massive wealth and benefits, all facets of human nature laid themselves bare.
Take today’s family, for instance: the old patriarch was famously profligate, leaving behind an endless trail of illegitimate children.
Halfway through the ceremony, Yun Fan watched the expressions of those present with bated breath. Suddenly, the youngest son rushed forward, angrily reprimanding his grandfather for unfair asset distribution.
Where there was one initiator, a second troublemaker was sure to follow. True to Yun Fan’s expectations, the scene quickly devolved into chaos. Yet beyond his expectations, completely disregarding the cameras filming live on site, they started throwing punches at one another.
When high net worth individuals fought, they relied on thoroughly ordinary, classic tactics like hair pulling, face slapping, and an endless chorus of screeching and yelling.
A black, sheet like object flew through the air, and it turned out the old patriarch’s hairpiece had been ripped right off. His new young partner, a girl who looked roughly the same age as Yun Fan, shrieked at the top of her lungs that they should stop hitting him because his dentures were falling out.
The boss pointed a trembling finger at the chaos unfolding before him and took small, hurried steps backward.
Yun Fan and his colleague rushed forward to try and break up the fight, but the two of them were hopelessly outnumbered and couldn’t hold anyone back. Yun Fan thought about calling the police, but no sooner had the thought formed than someone roared at the top of their lungs to see who dared call the police.
While Yun Fan was swiftly assessing the environment to find a solution, a sudden slap came flying toward the side of his face. He instinctively tilted his head away, and a wave of intense pain instantly engulfed the left side of his head and ear.
Amidst the ringing inside his head, Yun Fan’s body went limp, and he crashed heavily onto the red carpet.