In an office building in an office park in Shanghai's XH district, a middle-aged man with a protruding belly walked up to a tired-looking young employee with a thick document in his hand.
"Wu You, please review this document for me. There's an electronic copy in the shared folder. We need it at 1 p.m. If we find even one typo, it will affect the afternoon meeting."
Wu You looked at his boss in astonishment: "Mr. Huang, I am a graphic designer. You should ask the document secretary to review the documents."
Huang Youde glanced at him and said, "Little Li is going to accompany me to pick up a client for dinner. It won't hurt to put in more effort and do more work."
Wu You felt a bit stifled, and kept his head down without saying a word for a long time. In the end, he resignedly dragged the documents that had been slammed on his desk over to him.
"Young people need more opportunities to grow. How can you get promoted if you only do your own job all the time..." The faint whispers could still be heard coming from the direction of the boss's office.
Some of his colleagues gloated over his misfortune, while others expressed sympathy, but none of them offered to help. It was common knowledge within the company that Wu You had offended Huang the Skinflint, and nobody wanted to be targeted. Although it was just a small advertising company owned by a private individual, the economy was bad, and jobs were hard to find.
Wu You rubbed his eyes. He hadn't shown the manuscript he'd been working on all night to Huang Bapi yet, and he figured it would be returned for redrawing. He checked the time on his computer; it was already 11:30. He didn't know if he could finish reviewing the documents by 1 p.m., but he knew he wouldn't be able to have lunch.
Now, advertising and media companies receive many external orders, such as game illustrations. Wu You is good at drawing animal sketches and fantasy comics, and was originally considered fairly valued by the company.
At the beginning of last month, the company hired a new secretary for the general manager named Li Li, a recent college graduate. On her third day at work, the boss, Huang Youde, kept her working overtime. That evening at 8 p.m., Wu You returned to the company to retrieve his lost phone and happened to witness his boss harassing Li Li.
Okay, it might not be harassment, but it was more like verbal flirting, at least there was no physical violence.
To be honest, Wu You didn't actually do anything heroic to save the damsel in distress at that time; he was just a little stunned.
However, Li Li was quite frightened. When she saw the company gate open, she was even more ashamed and scared, and ran away right past Wu You.
This infuriated the boss, Huang Youde, who was annoyed that Wu You had seen it.
Because of this, the man surnamed Huang would often make things difficult for Wu You.
At first, Wu You really thought he was going to mentor him, so he worked hard. But he gradually realized what was going on.
What frustrated Wu even more was that the newcomer, Xiao Li, didn't resign with high aspirations in the end. A few days later, he actually became intimate with someone surnamed Huang.
Just as Wu You was getting dizzy from reading, his uncle called.
Wu You's uncle, Zhang Guojun, has been very good to him since childhood. In recent years, he has only seen him a few times during the Spring Festival. He usually contacts his mother, Zhang Jinlan, and rarely calls him directly.
On the phone, the uncle's voice was low and somber, and he could faintly hear his mother Zhang Jinlan's sobbing voice trying to dissuade him. The uncle told Wu You that his father, Wu Jianguo, had been in a car accident and had just finished surgery. He was currently in the ICU of Qiantang Central Hospital.
Wu You's mind exploded. He couldn't believe that the man who had never smiled since childhood but had always been the pillar of his family was now lying in a hospital room hundreds of miles away, on the verge of death.
Wu You rushed into the boss's office without knocking.
"Mr. Huang, I need to ask for leave to go home. My dad was in a car accident."
Huang Youde, as if he hadn't heard anything, slowly picked up his teacup, took a sip, and then looked up at Wu You.
"It's not wrong to want to rest, why make up excuses? You can ask for leave once you finish next week's schedule."
Wu You calmed down a bit and tried to control her emotions as she explained to her boss, "Mr. Huang, I didn't lie. Besides, I remember I haven't taken my annual leave yet. I have 5 days of paid leave."
Huang Youde waved his hand impatiently: "Alright, alright, don't mention annual leave to me. Don't even think about taking a vacation until the planning diagram is finished. And even after it's finished, I still have to review it, and it's not certain whether it will be up to standard."
Having been targeted by Huang for over a month, Wu You could no longer hold back. She ran to her seat, grabbed the printed copy of the plan she had worked on all night, rushed back to the general manager's office, and slammed the plan onto Huang Youde's desk.
"Here's your proposal." Wu You picked up Huang Youde's water glass again and suddenly turned it upside down onto the brochure paper, causing most of the glass of water to smear the entire stack of paper.
"I quit!"
After shouting those words, Wu You ignored Huang Youde, who was barking and yelling behind him, and went straight back to his seat. He grabbed his phone, wallet, and other personal belongings and rushed out of the company gate with the words "Shencheng Hongwang Media" on it.
At 4 p.m., Wu You arrived at Qiantang Central Hospital after taking a high-speed train and a taxi. After asking at the information desk where her father was, she finally arrived outside the ICU intensive care unit.
A group of relatives had gathered outside the ward, comforting the weeping mother. When she saw Wu You return, the mother seemed to have found her pillar of support, but she just grabbed his arm and choked up.
After offering a few words of comfort to his mother, Wu You went into the ward to see his father.
The ward was full of monitoring equipment. Wu Jianguo lay on the hospital bed with a pale face, his forehead wrapped in thick gauze, his mouth and nose covered with an oxygen mask, an IV drip inserted into his arm, his legs raised, and his eyes closed with no signs of waking up.
He left the ward in silence. His uncle told him that Wu Jianguo had six broken legs, a fractured pelvis, and two broken ribs. The most serious injury was a concussion, and there was a risk of intracranial hemorrhage at any time. The truck that hit him fled the scene. If it weren't for the sanitation worker on the roadside who saw it and called the police, he probably wouldn't have made it to the hospital. The police are currently investigating.
Zhang Guihua cried, half complaining and half regretting: "Your dad is stubborn. I told him to let it go, but he wouldn't listen. He insisted on making a scene in the provincial capital. He left home in a huff this morning, and who knew..."
After graduation, Wu You worked in Shanghai. She knew about what her mother was talking about, but she didn't realize how serious it was.
The Wu family lives in a mountain village called Xugou Village in a corner of Xiaoshan. Behind the village is a large mountain and a clear river flowing into the sea. The scenery is beautiful and the transportation is relatively convenient. In addition, it is not far from the economically developed Qiantang River. So at the beginning of the year, a developer took a fancy to a large piece of land on the back mountain of their village and planned to develop a high-end rural farmhouse club along with the mountain.
Although that area was remote, seven households were included in the development zone, which led to the issue of demolition and relocation.
Logically, demolition compensation is usually a profitable business, and the families should be happy. However, this developer has connections in both the legitimate and underworld circles, and not only did he act arrogantly, but he also offered only 500,000 yuan per household as compensation. 500,000 yuan may sound like a lot, but it can't even buy half a house in the Qiantang area or even in the neighboring Kuaiji City. Of course, the villagers were not happy.
The Wu family had contracted a hillside and a section of river. They planted tea and fruit trees on the hillside, raised some free-range pheasants, and raised river mussels, fish, and shrimp in the river. They were the most economically affected household, so Wu Jianguo took the lead in resisting the holdouts and negotiated repeatedly with the developer, raising the resettlement fee from 500,000 yuan to 1.5 million yuan per household.
Another problem arose: the price had indeed increased, but the developer was adamant about paying 1.5 million yuan per household. The six ordinary households barely managed to break even, and after being threatened, they gradually signed in agreement. But the Wu family was different. They had invested a large sum of money in the large-scale contracting of mountain forests and river channels, as well as the houses under construction, which had almost emptied Wu Jianguo's savings accumulated over half a lifetime. To exaggerate a bit, 1.5 million yuan was just a fraction of that.
This morning, Wu Jianguo drove his beat-up Jinbei minivan angrily to the provincial capital to petition. He said, "You developers have connections in the city, so the province can't possibly listen to you. If that doesn't work, I'll go to Beijing."
The van had just entered the provincial highway when it was violently struck from the side by a truck with out-of-town license plates.
Wu You clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Wu Jianguo drove that provincial highway countless times throughout the year because of his business dealings. This car accident happened no earlier or later, but it just so happened when Wu Jianguo was planning to petition. Wu You didn't believe it was a coincidence at all.
“Wu Jianguo’s family members, which of you is Wu Jianguo’s family member?” A nurse walked over from one side of the corridor.
Wu You stepped forward: "Nurse, that's me."
"The initial surgery and medical fees are not enough, and there is also the ICU nursing fee. Please deposit 50,000 yuan first, and we will make up the difference if it is not enough."
Zhang Guihua opened her mouth, then subconsciously looked at her second aunt, Wu Xiaohui, among the group of relatives. Wu Xiaohui awkwardly avoided Zhang Guihua's gaze and hurriedly ran away under the pretext of going to the toilet.
Wu You felt a pang of anxiety. Last year, he had been busy building and renovating his house. In addition, he had only recently started planting seedlings in the river section he had contracted. He had already lent 200,000 yuan of his meager savings to his second aunt's family as a down payment for his cousin's house. After the car accident and surgery, the Wu family, which was quite wealthy among their relatives, could not come up with the 50,000 yuan.
Wu Jianguo certainly has insurance, but it's just general rural social security. Not to mention the time it takes to get reimbursement based on receipts, the money he'll need for this kind of injury will be astronomical in the future, and social security will definitely be far from enough.
"Okay, nurse, I'll go pay the bill right away. Is my dad alright?" Wu You answered the nurse first.
"There's no immediate danger to his life, but we need to prevent intracranial hemorrhage and fluid buildup in the near future. He needs to be observed in the ICU for a while. The key is brain tissue damage; if not handled properly, he could become a vegetable. Remember to pay the bill when you're better." The nurse finished speaking and left.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Guihua's body went limp and she almost fell. Wu You quickly supported his mother, saying, "Mom, don't get agitated. Dad will definitely be alright. Qiantang Hospital has a strong medical team. By the way, how much savings do we have left?"
Zhang Guihua sighed and said, "There's still 23,000 yuan left."
Hearing this, Wu You secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He still had 38,000 yuan in his card, and with the money from his family, he could manage to pay this prepayment.
But what about the future? The ICU costs 6,000 yuan a day, and that's just for normal care. Even if I hadn't resigned, my meager salary wouldn't be enough. Am I supposed to sign the demolition agreement? But my father would be furious when he wakes up, and I can't accept that!
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