Chapter 5, those words struck a chord with Li Pusheng...

These words stung Li Pusheng's heart, and he exclaimed, "Oh dear, my little cat is not easy to raise."

Seeing that he wouldn't respond, Tan Huiming laughed loudly: "You, you! Do you think my son isn't good enough for your precious granddaughter? Look at how stingy you are!"

It was just a lighthearted joke between old friends, and no one really took it seriously. Tan Huiming brought Tan Yi along just by chance, and he didn't expect him to actually get Li Li to talk.

A few days later, or about a week later, Tan Yi was playing video games at home when Tan Congxu, who had rushed home, picked him up and took him directly to his grandfather's house.

Tan Huiming sat on the living room sofa and handed him a phone with a smile, which was on speakerphone.

Tan Yi took the phone, completely bewildered, and asked into the microphone, "Who is it?"

There was no sound on the other end, so he asked his grandfather again, "Did he hang up?"

Tan Huiming waved his hand, signaling him to calm down.

Sure enough, there was a moment of silence on the other end, then a little girl's voice suddenly came through and asked, "When are you going to call me to go swimming?"

Tan Yi paused for a moment: "Weekend, I guess."

"Oh." Then the call ended abruptly.

Tan Yi was still confused when Tan Huiming reached out and ruffled his hair hard with his large hand, praising, "Good lad!"

She then specifically instructed him, "Little Cat Sister is coming to visit this weekend, so you must treat her well. Do you understand?"

Tan Yi nodded.

Tan Huiming then realized something, looked up at Tan Congxu who had been standing quietly beside him the whole time, and was filled with emotion, his face a mixture of feelings.

He pondered for a moment and said, "The Li family values ​​that little girl very much. It's not quite right for them to use your place to entertain her."

"Okay... let's clean up the outside and have Tan move over here."

Tan Congxu's eyes suddenly reddened, and he bowed deeply, saying, "Thank you, Mr. Tan."

Tan Huiming sighed and said, "Let's go back first."

Tan Yi didn't understand the meaning of the adults' conversation, nor was he clear about what he was gaining and losing.

All he knew was that Tan Congxu was very happy that day, and he was quickly packed up with his luggage and sent to his grandfather's house, a place he rarely visited.

He hadn't really learned to swim yet, but in order to show off in front of the little kitten, he spent two days splashing around in the pool and drank his fill of water.

When Li Li came to visit on the weekend, he could swim a few meters out and then swim back, looking quite professional.

He wore a small blue swimming cap, his fingers gripping the cool white tiles of the pool, and looked up at Li Li, who was squatting obediently beside him, asking, "I told you I could, right?"

"Mmm." The kitten nodded.

He floated up and down in the water, asking, "Do you want to come down?"

Li Li looked eager to try, but the aunt who had come with her family quickly stopped her, saying, "Little kitten, we didn't bring our swimsuits today, okay? How about next time?"

“That works too,” Tan Yi thought for a moment, climbed up the pool ladder, and tossed his hair. “I’ll take you to my room to see the new Gundam my dad bought me.”

The following week, when Li Li returned, she brought her swimsuit and goggles, along with a teacher she had hired to teach children to swim.

From then on, picking her up and dropping her off at the Tan family home became a frequent and routine occurrence.

It was around that time that Tan Congxu was officially employed by Tan Huiming, leaping from an unknown marketing manager in a private company to the management of Yanqi.

——

Li Li was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of Su Mi kneading. With her eyes closed, she subconsciously reached for the bed next to her, where it was empty but still warm.

The living room lights were off, only the TV screen emitted a blue glow. Tan Yi sat alone on the sofa in his pajamas, listening to Dai Zhe apologize on the phone.

He said his girlfriend meant no harm to Ashley; she was just arguing with him and said in a complaining tone, "Look at other people's boyfriends."

If Ashley was truly upset, they would very much like to apologize in person.

Tan Yi interrupted him, coldly asking, "Who told her that she could use my girlfriend as a scapegoat in an argument?"

"You've been with me for so long, do I still need to teach you how to respect my girlfriend?"

Before Dai Zhe could say anything more on the other end of the phone, Tan Yi suddenly swore, saying, "If you try to argue again, we'll get the f*** out of my house together."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone, followed by a weak "Sorry, Brio."

Tan Yi has always had a few people like Dai Zhe around him. He helps them with food and lodging, takes them out to eat, drink and have fun, and even helps them swipe their credit cards to buy gifts for their girlfriends.

A more fitting term for this type of person than "friend" might be "paid study companion."

Countless Dai Zhes spend thousands of dollars a month renting a small room in a tenement building over 40 years old, studying while calculating whether their bank account balance is enough for the month's utilities and food.

If you don't want to go back to this predicament, you can't bring yourself to offend him.

Suddenly, a cat meowed in his ear. Tan Yi turned his head and saw Li Li, wearing a nightgown, following behind Su Mi, drowsily coming out of the room.

He hung up the phone without saying a word, then stood up and opened his arms: "Why are you up?"

Li Li nestled into his arms and mumbled, "Are you having trouble sleeping again and came out to play games?"

"No," Tan Yi said, patting her back and coaxing her, "You were woken up by the phone call. Let me carry you inside so you can sleep a little longer, okay?"

On Monday morning, the office was filled with yawns, and even drinking two cups of instant coffee couldn't ward off the overwhelming drowsiness.

After the administrators finished distributing the high-temperature welfare cards for the month, they also gave Shi Han about a hundred meal tickets, saying, "Ordinary employees don't need these. You can distribute them to the interns outsourced to the department."

Shi Han glanced at the person next to her, who was so sleepy that their eyes were squinting, and smiled knowingly.

You Chang was overjoyed to receive more than 30 meal tickets at once. She told Li Li on WeChat: "Let's eat in the cafeteria for lunch! I really want to try the steak set meal."

Li Li said yes.

When I went to the cafeteria at noon, there were two more people next to me: Ou Ning and Shi Han.

Li Li ordered a plate of fried noodles and oolong tea. When she was twirling the noodles with her fork, she kept nodding her head, almost digging it into the bowl.

Shi Han rubbed her forehead and teased, "You're still sleepy all morning. Did Xiao Li go out to steal this weekend?"

Li Li took a sip of iced tea through the straw and snapped out of her daze: "Hmm. I went to see my boyfriend over the weekend and didn't get much sleep."

She stayed up all night playing games with Tan Yi the night before, and took an early morning flight straight to the company, but everyone misunderstood her words.

"Ah..." You Chang blushed and subconsciously glanced at Ou Ning beside her.

Shi Han grinned mischievously and asked, "Little Li has a boyfriend?"

Li Li nodded: "He's still studying in Hong Kong."

"Have we known each other for many years?"

“He’s my childhood friend,” she said, taking a bite of noodles.

Shi Han said meaningfully, "Then their family situation must be quite good."

Li Li smiled.

Ou Ning's attentiveness came and went quietly. Soon after, someone gossiped to Shi Han that he was getting along very well with the leaders of the communications service business line in the cafeteria.

They're probably looking for another way out.

Shi Han thought to himself, "This is truly a sensible and intelligent person."

Now, she was worried about how to remind You Chang to make preparations as soon as possible without violating any rules.

The final solution I came up with was to send Li Li her application for permanent employment when her two-month internship was almost over.

The two girls probably kept in touch. You Chang was very enthusiastic about her work those days, and her expression was full of anticipation.

Shi Han was upset, but all she could say was criticism, not comfort.

You Chang finally realized something belatedly, and his whole body wilted like a dehydrated cabbage.

Then one day after get off work, while packing her things, Li Li, who was next to her, suddenly said to her very seriously, "Sister Shi, I don't think you should do this."

“Even if you don’t like You Chang, there’s no need to keep negating her value and making her feel that she’s not good enough to be promoted. That’s workplace bullying.”

Shi Han smiled and said to Li Li noncommittally, "From beginning to end, I was not the one who denied her value."

She was merely the company's mouthpiece and mouthpiece.

"As a mentor, I need capable employees. If I had to keep one person to follow my principles, I would choose You Chang."

“But my word doesn’t count, so I can’t give her hope.”

Opportunities are rare; once you've given one, you can't give another.

Shi Han could only cut off her hopes in advance, implying that she should find other ways out, even though her intentions were good.

Li Li went back and called Xie Zongfang. After confirming internally, Xie Zongfang said that only 50% of the employees at Moshi were promoted to permanent positions this year.

This means that only one of the three interns can stay.

Li Li was unsure whether she should feel guilty about it, but she also felt a little sad seeing You Chang's distraught appearance.

She knew that You Chang cherished this opportunity. She spent her days dreaming about the day she would be promoted to a full-time employee and receive her full salary, then go out for a big meal and buy a pair of shoes that wouldn't rub her feet.

She then asked: Uncle Xie, what is the conversion rate at headquarters?

Xie Zongfang's reply was: There are no restrictions.

She was furious at the huge disparity in treatment and cursed Tan Su, that bastard, a hundred and eighty times in her heart. Finally, she made a phone call and arranged to meet him through Chen Ya.

This was their second meeting at the agreement.

Tan Su's office was on the 32nd floor, the tallest building in the area, overlooking the flat plains of S City, where everything looked like ants.

The weather is not good today. There is no sun, and the clouds are thick, as if they are pressing down on our heads, right next to us.

Tan Su had just come out of the conference room, taken off his suit jacket and tossed it onto the sofa. He sat down opposite him, turned on his computer, and said succinctly, "Just say what you need to say."

Li Li pursed her lips: "I came to ask about the quota for permanent positions at MoShi. Why is there a 50% cap?"

"Have you been restrained?"

She said, "No."

Tan Su raised his eyes: "Then why did you come to see me?"

Li Li said confidently, "I think this system is very unfair. At headquarters, the promotion of employees can be based on individual circumstances, but at Moshi, even if an employee has no problems, they will still be rejected by this ratio."

“My colleague is very hardworking. She received the highest evaluation from her mentor after joining the company and has the best individual performance. If this kind of qualification is enough for an ordinary employee to be promoted, then she should be able to as well.”

"That's all?" Tan Su's gaze returned to the computer screen, and he commented, "A waste of time."

Li Li stepped forward and forcibly pressed down on his laptop screen: "As a company leader, how can you call it a waste of time when employees are demanding basic fairness?"

She glanced at Tan Su, thinking he might be angry, but he wasn't.

Tan Su looked at her, leaned back in his chair expressionlessly, and said, "Your emphasis on these personal traits might be valued by HR, and perhaps also by the project team. But from the company's perspective, I only look at value, and your friend doesn't have the value to make me make an exception for you."

He tilted his chin up and said, "For example, the income of everyone in the entire career line who works diligently and clocks in is probably less than one-tenth of the discounts Li Zhoudu gives you just to have you eat snacks and drink milk tea here. That's what's worth measuring and considering."

Tan Su looked at the girl's stubborn face: "You should be grateful for your background, Li Li—"

"It forces me to waste my breath here talking to you about things I don't care about at all; instead of being abused by you to use the guise of defending others to condescendingly display your so-called equality and love."

His patience ran out: "Go back and stay put, don't do anything unnecessary."

A note from the author:

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[milk tea]