Chapter 97 Poverty makes people lose their will! How come this address is at an orphanage? ...

The weather has been getting colder lately. It even rained this afternoon, and the temperature dropped below zero by tonight.

This week, Wen Yue's shift is from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. the next day. She still needs to arrive at the company an hour early. It takes her about an hour to get from home to the company. Wen Yue doesn't like to be on time except when she gets off work, so she leaves home at 11:30 a.m.

Wen Yue pushed open the door of her rented room. The streetlights installed on the exterior wall of another building across the street dazzled her. The streetlights had no lampshades, and the bare bulbs shone arrogantly in the night. Rain streaked through its halo, making it appear glaringly white, as if it were hailing.

It should snow soon, Wen Yue thought to herself.

Snowfall is the biggest expectation of most children in the south for winter, but Wen Yue doesn't really like it. Winter is too cold. A snowfall lasts for a day at most, and sometimes it melts before it even hits the ground. The temperature is always particularly low for a few days before and after a snowfall, making people's bones ache. But this year, she suddenly looks forward to snowfall because she has warm clothes.

Wen Yue opened her umbrella and stepped into the drizzle.

A thin layer of water covered the ground. Wen Yue, wearing her newly bought leather ankle boots, walked carefully, but she wasn't worried about getting her shoes wet. Her new clothes were very windproof, and the cold wind couldn't penetrate them at all. She felt warm all over, and the slight cold wind felt refreshing on her face. Unlike before, when she had to hunch over to keep warm, she walked with her head held high and her chest out.

One advantage of taking the night bus is that there is no traffic jam. Wen Yue left half an hour earlier and arrived at the company half an hour earlier.

She didn't want to see the person she didn't want to see in the office, so she went directly to the conference room. However, she didn't expect that the person she didn't want to see was also in the conference room. Wen Yue was about to turn back to the office and come back after the meeting started when she heard Lin Yuanyuan say aggrievedly, "I know she is an orphan and has some personality problems, but I really didn't report her. How can she suspect me so easily?"

She was talking about me? What's wrong with my personality? Wen Yue was full of questions.

Then Wen Yue heard Ning Zheng say, "I'm sorry, she was indeed being unreasonable in this matter. I apologize to you on her behalf."

Wen Yue began to doubt if she was dreaming. Otherwise, how could such an absurd thing happen in reality? And what right did Ning Zheng have to apologize on her behalf? What kind of abstract game were these two playing?

Unable to bear it any longer, Wen Yue walked straight into the conference room and said, "Lin Yuanyuan, give me your phone."

Lin Yuanyuan was taken aback by Wen Yue's sudden appearance and her asking for her phone, and was momentarily confused. "What?"

"Give me your phone," Wen Yue repeated.

For some reason, Lin Yuanyuan actually handed over her phone.

Wen Yue took Lin Yuanyuan's phone, unlocked it in front of her bewildered face, opened their company's video app, quickly operated the screen with one hand for a while, and then showed Lin Yuanyuan the report record page, "You still won't admit it?"

Lin Yuanyuan stared in shock at the page Wen Yue had brought up—it was her alternate account! How did Wen Yue log into her alternate account?

Wen Yue answered her question, "You saved the password."

Lin Yuanyuan's face turned deathly pale instantly, "I..."

“You’re right, I’m an orphan, all alone. I’ve relied on others my whole life, so I know how to read people’s expressions. You think you’re so good at pretending? You’re the dumbest person I’ve ever met,” Wen Yue said.

Lin Yuanyuan was still in shock.

Wen Yue took out her phone, took a picture of Lin Yuanyuan's report record, and then returned the phone to her. "I didn't want to expose you to the company, after all, you are my first friend, but you not only don't admit it, but you also keep saying that I am framing you. If I don't provide solid evidence against you, wouldn't I be making trouble? I won't take the blame."

From the moment Wen Yue entered, Ning Zheng stared blankly at her.

In Ning Zheng's memory, Wen Yue had always been a quiet and gentle girl who always kept her head slightly down. She was also easily shy when talking to her and seemed a little timid. He never expected that Wen Yue would have such a strong side.

Today, Wen Yue's style of dress is quite different from before. She wears a simple beige down jacket, which is fluffy but not bulky, making her look tall and slender with fair skin and delicate features. She looks like a pampered and polite college student who seems naive but is actually very insightful.

The way she calmly and logically dismantles other people's hypocritical masks is captivating.

Ning Zheng had always thought he liked Wen Yue's gentleness and kindness, but now he realized that he seemed to like her wisdom and strength even more.

Xu Xin knocked on the door and walked into the conference room with a gloating look on her face. "Oh, so the ship of friendship has capsized?"

Wen Yue focused on operating her phone as she walked to an empty seat and sat down, paying no attention to Xu Xin whatsoever.

The other two completely ignored her.

Xu Xin was so angry that she kept snorting.

"Wen Yue?" Ning Zheng stammered, "Why..."

"Knock knock knock!"

Before Ning Zheng could finish speaking, the team leader knocked on the door and came in.

The meeting began, and everyone focused on the meeting. The team leader started reporting on the situation and providing training on new knowledge according to the established agenda. Given that the matter reported last week was somewhat complicated, the meeting ended before work hours, so everyone had to seamlessly transition to their workdays.

Wen Yue wasn't in a hurry to start working; she went to the team leader's office first.

When the team leader saw Wen Yue coming to find him, he said, "I was planning to look for you later."

Without asking Wen Yue why she was looking for him, the team leader said, "I didn't know you were on leave last week. I've already taken care of the matter of you being reported."

"This can still be handled?" Wen Yue asked, somewhat surprised. "How can it be handled?"

“Although three reports were successful, the original video that violated regulations wasn’t strictly a review error. I talked to the leader about your performance all along, and he also felt that we couldn’t just take a one-size-fits-all approach. After consideration, he decided not to fire you yet, but your performance bonus will still be deducted, and there’s also the quality inspection competition…” The team leader paused and said, “You probably won’t get your participation points either. You should understand. There are leaders above the leaders, and he’s afraid of being investigated from above.”

Normal performance accounts for 30% of the competitive selection score. Without it, how can I compete with others? But it doesn't matter anymore. Wen Yue handed the envelope in her hand to the team leader: "Thank you for helping me, team leader, but I have decided to resign."

Reviewing resignations is a very common process, but Wen Yue's resignation still surprised the team leader. "Resignation?"

Wen Yue nodded: "Yes."

Team leader: "Why? Don't you really like this job?"

Wen Yue inwardly scoffed. What was there to like about this job? Not at all.

She simply had no other choice.

...

Although she had submitted her resignation, she still had to go to work as usual until it was approved. After leaving the team leader's office, Wen Yue returned to her seat and continued working.

Unexpectedly, not long after the start of normal work the next day, the team leader said that she had received a call from above, saying that Wen Yue from her team had filed a formal complaint against Lin Yuanyuan for maliciously reporting her colleague, and that the evidence was conclusive.

Wen Yue did not deny it.

As it was almost 10 p.m. when they were supposed to leave work, Wen Yue and Lin Yuanyuan were notified that they didn't need to come to work the next day. One of them had her resignation application approved quickly, while the other was fired.

As soon as it was time to leave work, Wen Yue began packing her things.

Lin Yuanyuan was sobbing behind her, but Wen Yue pretended not to hear her.

Ning Zheng walked over to Wen Yue and asked, puzzled, "The company said they wouldn't fire you, so why did you still resign?"

Wen Yue said, "What reason do you need to quit if you don't want to do it? Isn't that how everyone does it?"

Ning Zheng: "But you clearly..."

Wen Yue stopped what she was doing and looked directly at Ning Zheng: "I am clearly all alone and cannot do as I please as others, doing whatever I want and not doing what I don't want to do, right? But don't forget, I originally had nothing, and I am not afraid of losing it."

Yes, she originally had nothing, and she shouldn't be greedy. Before, it was her mother and the little penguin, and now it's Ning Zheng and Lin Yuanyuan. What a person is destined to have and what they are not is probably predetermined. She shouldn't be greedy for things that don't belong to her, so even if she gets them, they will be taken away.

"But what about us?" Ning Zheng asked sadly. "Where do you plan to go in the future?"

Wen Yue: "What do we need to do? What's our relationship?"

Ning Zheng felt a little wronged: "Just because I didn't give you a confession ceremony, you're still angry after all these days?"

Distance truly makes the heart grow fonder. She hadn't even realized Ning Zheng had such a problem with comprehension before. Wen Yue said seriously, "Ning Zheng, I don't like you, and we're not together. If having a meal with you last time caused this misunderstanding, I think you need to examine your own thoughts. Please don't say things like 'we're together' anymore. I'll pay you back for the meal."

Ning Zheng seemed not to understand Wen Yue's meaning, and asked in a trembling voice, "You...don't want me anymore?"

Wen Yue was too lazy to explain to him anymore, "Yes!"

Ning was stunned into standing still by Wen Yue's single word, "yes."

Wen Yue didn't have many personal belongings, just a water cup, a pack of tissues, and some simple office supplies. She packed them all into the plastic bag that held her lunchbox, picked up the bag, and ran away.

By the time Ning Zheng realized what was happening, Wen Yue had already disappeared from his sight.

...

Wen Yue was thinking of taking a break first and looking for a job after the New Year, but in reality, she downloaded a job search app as soon as she got on the bus and started browsing the latest job postings.

“Poverty makes people lose their ambition!” Wen Yue sighed to herself.

There are so many deceptive job postings on recruitment websites. Wen Yue flipped through several pages before finally finding a restaurant job posting for waitresses. The job involved long hours, lots of work, was tiring, and the pay was low.

"Finally, we've reached the real thing." Wen Yue slowed down her browsing speed.

"They actually started providing social security as soon as I started working," Wen Yue murmured, then swiped past the message.

There's no future in being a waitress. If possible, she hopes to find a job she can work in earning more experience. She has a low level of education and needs to learn some skills while she's young, otherwise she'll be replaced as she gets older.

An hour later, the bus stopped at the bus stop. Wen Yue rubbed her sore eyes and got off the bus. "Even selling pork by weight in the pork market would earn more than the price these recruitment companies are offering."

The price she mentioned from the recruiting company wasn't the price in the job advertisement, but rather the actual salary offered by the company after chatting with several positions she had her eye on. Moreover, they didn't even provide social insurance. The 'ugly face of capitalists' described in textbooks finally came into being at that moment.

Without social security, going to the hospital is so expensive... If she gets even a minor illness, her savings simply won't be enough to cover her expenses. Wen Yue is starting to regret her impulsive decision to quit her job...

Social security information led Wen Yue to the restaurant waitress job posting again. Wen Yue clicked on the details, "How come this address is at an orphanage?"

Wen Yue checked the location carefully and found that it was near the back gate of the welfare home. "There is indeed a fairly lively street there, so it's normal to have restaurants there."

"How about working as a waiter/waitress as a temporary job? At least you'll have social security, so your social security contributions won't lapse, and the salary seems pretty good too. Plus, you can get off work earlier than at most restaurants."

However, she was still somewhat hesitant. It wasn't that she couldn't shake off her Kong Yiji-style long gown and was unwilling to work as a waitress. In the current job market, there were plenty of undergraduates and graduate students making milk tea. She, a junior college graduate, had no such burdens. It was just that this restaurant was too close to the orphanage. What if Aunt Lou saw her? She would be very disappointed.

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Author's Note: I've created a comment giveaway. Leave a 2-point comment below this chapter and a red envelope will be randomly awarded. Even though you're all silent, I know you've all passed by, because I can see the click count. Just pop in and join the fun! o(^_^)o