Chapter 7
Nothing in this world is ever perfect. Honglin Residential Complex had excellent facilities and was very comfortable to live in, the only downside was that it was too far from the city center. Even driving took half an hour to get to the company. Fortunately, I could catch a ride with Shangguan, otherwise I would never have chosen to live here. Though, honestly, with my abilities, there's no way I could have afforded to buy a place here anyway.
When we were still one stop away from the company, I got out of the car. This was Shangguan's rule, something he called the "forced exercise method." His exact words were that if I didn't get this exercise, I'd surely turn into a pig…
From this alone, you could tell what kind of unreasonable, self-centered person he was! I could clearly take the subway to work—the nearest station was only a five-minute drive from Honglin. If he dropped me off there, wouldn't I be getting even more exercise?
Of course, honestly speaking, I didn't have much objection to his approach either. There was a subway station right next to the company, but crowded subways were extremely unpleasant. Forget about limited seats—just the sea of people was terrifying. So if I had to choose between walking ten minutes and squeezing onto a subway, I'd much rather walk.
But wouldn't it be nice if Shangguan weren't my boss? Then I could ride in his car straight to the company instead of having to dodge him like this to avoid trouble.
Thanks to Shangguan's speed today, I arrived at the company five minutes earlier than usual. I set down my briefcase, turned on the computer, and grabbed my cup to head to the tea room.
"A-Yi, why do I see you drinking tea every single day?"
I'd just finished adding the tea leaves when a voice came from behind me. I turned to see a woman in a coffee-colored business suit, short hair, very familiar-looking—she should be a colleague from our department. Unfortunately, I was always terrible at remembering names.
"Have you ever thought about switching to a different drink?" The woman raised an eyebrow and asked.
"Well, it's habit, I guess." Actually, my favorite drink was purified water—clean and convenient. But Shangguan said that kind of water had no nutrition and ordered me to drink at least two cups of tea every day, and it had to be mineral water. The latter wasn't a problem since the company and my apartment both had mineral water dispensers—I just had to fill my cup. But brewing tea was really troublesome. Yet I didn't dare skip it, because if he found out, he'd definitely call me every day to nag, and that would be even more annoying than making the tea.
"You can't let habit make you forget to try new things." A spirited man appeared behind the woman. "Don't you think it's boring, A-Yi? Same routine every day. Coming to work at the same time, drinking tea every day, ordering the same few items from the set menu every week—how dull is that? How about coming out with us tonight after work?"
"Uh…" I scratched my head. "I have to work overtime."
"Ah, missing one day won't hurt anything. You work so hard every day, we feel bad for you." He said, though there wasn't a trace of guilt on his face. If I remembered correctly, he was the one who left documents on my desk nearly every day.
"Uh… let me think about it." I quickly finished brewing my tea and retreated back to my seat like I was fleeing from disaster. As I left, I could still faintly hear their conversation.
"A-Yi really is a weird one."
"What do you mean, he's just simple and honest." The woman's voice carried a hint of coquette. "Quite cute, actually…"
"Oh, so I'm not cute?"
"You're bad, not cute…"
The last sentence was already quite muffled, and I wasn't sure if I heard correctly, but that was none of my business anyway. As long as they stopped inviting me to go out and play. Because that really was such a bother.
It seemed like ever since I left university, I hadn't participated in any gatherings or outings. I've never been all that interested in making friends. During university, I did have a few classmates I got along fairly well with—like Chen Zhongyang whom I ran into last weekend, we probably had some decent rapport. But after leaving university, I never contacted any of them again. Because I didn't know what there was to talk about. Was everyone eating and drinking together really that fun?
Fragments of university gatherings still surfaced in my memory. It seemed like we were either eating or singing karaoke, and my role was always the quiet one. Even when someone secretly shoved a microphone into my hands, I'd sing so off-key it sounded like a rooster crowing, and before I could finish, someone would grab the microphone away. After doing that a couple times, nobody would push me up on stage anymore, and then… it seemed like nobody invited me to the karaoke room anymore.
That was too long ago, and my memory was a bit fuzzy. In any case, I had no interest in any kind of social activities. Fortunately, Shangguan wasn't into that sort of thing either. Except for the banquets he absolutely couldn't skip, most of the time he was the same as me—holed up at home, either working or watching DVDs.
That was absolutely perfect for me. Otherwise, with Shangguan's overbearing personality, he'd definitely drag me all over the place.
Work was boring, but once you got used to it, it wasn't so bad. At noon, I went to the cafeteria for Monday's nutrition set meal. In the afternoon, I got scolded by the manager, who once again rehashes the same old criticism about my slowness. But this time, it seemed like his patience had finally run out. After twenty minutes of咬牙切齿 (gritting his teeth in fury) scolding me, he threw a stack of materials onto my desk.
"Listen up—this is your last chance. You'll be paired with Yang Xin, Zhao Han and Wang Junxian will be a team. I want to see results by next month, and I'll use whichever team's work is better. As for the team that does poorly—all year-end bonuses, forget about it. And your performance reviews… especially you, Li Yi, don't think that just because you signed a contract, you can't be fired!"