63. The Art of Eradication

During the past few months since Ling Ling joined Group A, she also felt that Shi Wenjin's various behaviors were indeed lacking in professional ethics, so she followed Chuqi's words and said, "The workplace is dangerous, why bother to tear your face apart? It's better to provoke a gentleman than a villain. Gentlemen generally don't cause conflicts, and it's useless to have a conflict with a villain. It won't change the situation, but will make it worse." "You are trying to calm down by persuading me now. Didn't you and Gu Chaoqun have a fierce quarrel some time ago? You don't know his latest situation yet, do you?" Ling Ling was strolling around and enjoying the delicious sandwich. When she heard Gu Chaoqun's name, she asked dully, "He is always the one who surprises me so much that I hope something happens to him. What happened to him?" "He was fired! The company gave him a month to pack up and leave. He was trying to extort more compensation and threatened arbitration, but the boss's connections and influence meant he couldn't afford to make a scene. I heard Gu Chaoqun was fired yesterday." Chuqi sipped the milk tea Lingling had given him. The warm liquid flowed into his stomach, soothing his anger. "Well, our boss is pretty good, I like his type," Lingling smiled infatuatedly. Chuqi rolled her eyes and said, "Then you should work hard. He was widowed in middle age, but now he is in his prime. You still have hope." Lingling giggled, with sauce on the corners of her mouth. "My boyfriend and I have a good relationship now. I have no intention of becoming a boss and managing you now or in the future. Don't worry." "Tsk." Chuqi rolled her eyes in disdain and continued to say confidently, "So, why am I afraid of Shi Wenjin? This time I'm really going to fight him! If I can get him away, then I can be considered to be generating income for Tuowu." Ling Ling swallowed the food in her mouth and continued to persuade her earnestly, "Shi Wenjin and Gu Chaoqun are different. Gu Chaoqun has only been at Tuowu for a little over a year. He has no achievements and no foundation. His relationship with the boss is merely an equitable exchange of high salary and professional ability. Gu Chaoqun, however, has failed to provide commensurate output and has only added to the chaos. My attack on Gu Chaoqun isn't a conflict between him and me, but between him and Tuowu. So how could the boss let him go? As soon as a problem is discovered, the losses must be cut immediately and he must be eliminated immediately. He's just a pawn to be discarded at any time. But Shi Wenjin is different. He's a veteran who has been with the boss since he founded Tuowu. Although he lacks moral integrity and talent, he is loyal. While this loyalty is cheap for the company, it is expensive for the boss's reputation. So you see why the boss put him in Group A, because the boss trusts...

Ling Ling had been in Group A for the past few months and had felt that Shi Wenjin's behavior was indeed lacking in professional ethics. So, she followed Chu Qi's lead and said, "The workplace is dangerous, so why bother to fall out? It's better to provoke a gentleman than a villain. A gentleman generally won't cause conflict, but it's useless to provoke a villain. It won't change the situation, but will make it worse."

"You're trying to persuade me to stay calm now, but weren't you and Gu Chaoqun having a heated argument some time ago? You still don't know his latest situation, right?"

Ling Ling was strolling around, enjoying a delicious sandwich. When she heard Gu Chaoqun's name, she asked with a dull expression, "He's always the one who surprises me so much that I hope something happens to him. What happened to him?"

"He was fired! The company asked him to pack up and leave within a month. He originally wanted to extort more compensation and threatened to go to arbitration. But the boss has such skills and connections that he won't let him make a fuss. I heard that Gu Chaoqun had already packed up and left yesterday." Chuqi sipped the milk tea given by Lingling. The warm liquid flowed into his stomach, soothing the angry man.

"Well, our boss is really good. I like his type." Ling Ling smiled infatuatedly.

Chuqi rolled her eyes and said, "Then you should work hard. He was widowed in middle age, and now he is in his prime. You still have hope."

Ling Ling giggled, sauce smearing the corners of her mouth. "My boyfriend and I are in a very good relationship now. I have no intention of becoming the boss lady and managing you now or in the future. Don't worry."

"Tsk." Chu Qi rolled his eyes in disdain and continued confidently, "So, why am I afraid of Shi Wenjin? This time I'm really going to fight him! If I can get rid of him, then I can also generate income for Tuo Wu."

Ling Ling swallowed the food in her mouth and continued to persuade her earnestly: "Shi Wenjin and Gu Chaoqun are different. Gu Chaoqun has only been at Tuowu for a little over a year. He has no achievements and no foundation. His relationship with the boss is just an equal exchange of high salary and professional ability. Gu Chaoqun failed to provide equal output and instead added to the chaos. My attack on Gu Chaoqun is not a conflict between him and me, but a conflict between him and Tuowu. So how could the boss let him go? As soon as a problem is discovered, we must stop the loss in time and eliminate him at the first opportunity. He is just a pawn that can be discarded at any time.

But Shi Wenjin is different. He's a veteran who's been with the boss since he founded Tuowu. Though he lacks moral integrity and talent, he's incredibly loyal. While this loyalty may be cheap for the company, it's a significant cost to the boss's reputation. So, you can see why the boss put him in Group A. He trusts Sister Mei, knowing she's versatile and capable of handling a situation like this.

"So what?" Chu Qi, with his usual hot temper, was convinced by her theory but still felt aggrieved. "Are we going to let a fool like him live off the fat of the land? Look at our team. It was supposed to be Tuo Wu's legendary team: Sister Mei was able to secure big clients that others couldn't, Lu Chong's art has won numerous awards in recent years, and your and my copywriting has performed well this year, consistently impressing clients and boosting their sales this year. But what has Shi Wenjin done in this strategy position? I feel like he's like an impotent man's penis; it's better not to exist, or I wouldn't be so angry watching him."

After Chuqi finished talking, he drank the milk tea in gulps.

Ling Ling accompanied her in circles around the rainbow roof in the courtyard, and continued to persuade her from a different perspective: "In the workplace, if you want to be more calm, you have to adjust your mindset to believe in the saying 'existence is reasonable.' Shi Wenjin's existence in Group A and in Tuowu is reasonable. He is actually the dregs left over from Tuowu's development over the past twenty years. The boss has known him longer than you do. Doesn't the boss realize what kind of person he is? Sister Mei is a shrewd person. Doesn't she realize how he is regarded by everyone? But why didn't they touch him?

Before you can discard the dregs, you must first drink up the clear water on top. Shi Wenjin isn't irreplaceable, but you should at least keep his problems within reach. He's always been lukewarm, lacking morals or talent, yet happens to have done nothing wrong. How can you just fire him? You had a falling out with her today, and while that disrupted the hypocritical peace maintained by the higher-ups, isn't that just fodder for your attention? Maybe it was just a coincidence, or maybe not?

Ling Ling's words awakened Chu Qi. She crushed the empty paper cup and fell into deep thought.

Fang Tuowu, who had just finished breakfast at the table by the window, closed this week's project pictorial and looked through the dark tinted glass of the open window again at Ling Ling, who was stamping her feet in the cold beside the rainbow roof.

*~*~*~*~*~*~

When Ling Ling and Chu Qi returned to their workstations, Shi Wenjin was gone.

They initially thought he was just out to relax, but he didn't show up again all day.

They also thought that this guy had finally been publicly provoked and couldn't bear the humiliation, so he skipped work and hid away.

They had no time to pay attention to him anymore, as they had to focus on the new project, so they buried themselves in their work and worked overtime until late at night.

Gu Chuqi stretched and yawned before saying to Ling Ling, "I can't do it anymore. I need to leave first."

Ling Ling was still revising her own script. Without even looking up, she replied, "Alas, I have to submit a proposal tomorrow, so I'll probably be working on it until late at night. You should go first."

Chuqi patted her shoulder sympathetically and went to the bathroom to relieve himself before leaving get off work.

Ling Ling was struggling between two words when she suddenly heard a woman's sharp scream coming from outside.

She quickly recognized Gu Chuqi's voice and ran out.

At the door of the women's restroom, Shi Wenjin blocked Gu Chuqi at the door. The horrifying thing was that he was holding a fruit knife in his hand!

Shi Wenjin's face flushed red, and veins popped out of his hand as he gripped the fruit knife. He yelled at Gu Chuqi, his insults mingled with spit: "Aren't you fucking awesome? Why don't you dare yell at me now? You all think I'm a wimp and easy to bully, right? I've been trampled under your feet for over 20 years, and now at my age, I'm being scolded by you in front of the whole company. I have no face left anyway, so don't even think about getting yours!"

He lifted Chuqi's shoulders in anger. Chuqi held on to the door frame tightly and screamed for help in fear.

"Brother Wenjin!" Ling Ling ran behind him and called his name anxiously.

Shi Wenjin turned his head and glared at Ling Ling with his eyes wide open. He pulled Chu Qi up and put a knife to her neck, threatening Ling Ling, "If you dare come over, I'll kill her!"

"No, Brother Wenjin, I won't go over there. Don't get excited." Ling Ling opened her palms and surrendered to him. "Chu Qi didn't say those words against you. She's just like that. If she wasn't vicious, she wouldn't be a good copywriter, right? When I first came to Group A, didn't she always criticize me? Brother Wenjin, you're an old hand. Don't bother with her, okay? We're colleagues who work together every day and see each other more than our families, so let's talk it out, okay?"

Ling Ling spoke to Shi Wenjin in a casual tone, and his expression gradually relaxed, but his red eyes were still filled with resentment, "It's not just because she scolded me, but also because she ignored me! How could she send it to everyone but me?! At home, my family despises me; at work, my colleagues despise me. All of you think I'm redundant, and my life is a waste of resources. I don't deserve to have an intersection with your lives, I don't deserve it!" Tears flowed from Shi Wenjin's red eyes as he kept accusing.

Ling Ling saw colleagues from other departments rushing over after hearing the noise. She put one hand behind her waist and gestured to them, signaling them to call the police. Then she pretended to disperse them, saying, "Everyone, please disperse. This is an internal matter within our team. It will be over in a moment."

She turned and walked closer to the direction where Shi Wenjin was holding Gu Chuqi hostage, and said to him in a soft tone, "Brother Wenjin, you are a veteran of Tuowu. Your experience itself is a chronicle of the domestic advertising industry from its infancy to prosperity. You are hard to ignore. It's just that we are new here, always wanting to handle problems efficiently and achieve rapid growth. Our focus is on the matter itself and the results, so sometimes we don't communicate much with you. Please don't mind."

Ling Ling had walked to a place about two meters away from them. She also saw the security guard and several male colleagues slowly surrounding the women's restroom from both sides.

Author's Note

Liu Qiu

author

04-23

I just came back from overtime to continue coding the extra chapter, please vote for the consolation prize...