38. Return to the old house
Vivian packed her luggage into more than a dozen cardboard boxes, sealing them all with tape. She didn't hire a part-time worker; she spent the entire weekend doing it all by herself. She also had the moving company bring in all the clothes—silk, cashmere, and cotton—that rustled and swished. She also had the glass bottles and jars of her skincare products, scented candles, and crystal wine glasses that jingled and tinkled. She even had a large Monstera plant brought in with her.
When she brought them here, she embraced the dream of a new life as if emerging from a cocoon, carrying with her everything she had accumulated over the past few years that was worth bringing into a new life. The rough and cheap things were all sealed in the storage cabinet of her small old house.
She didn't expect that in just one year, she would be back to her old ways.
Everything that happened yesterday has become who I am today. She is completely different today than she was last year.
She wanted to move back early, and to get the tenants to leave, she paid a month's rent as compensation. They were a young couple, fresh out of school, and fairly easygoing, not too troublesome. Watching them affectionately discuss finding an apartment and moving, Vivian realized that kind of happiness wasn't meant for her.
It wasn't that she was deliberately feeling sorry for herself. She had long ago voluntarily abandoned this ordinary life, which was truly blissful. It was just that she occasionally felt melancholy. But she couldn't afford to dwell on the passing of time for too long. She could only quickly sort out all the chores, gather her thoughts, and return to the company.
Everything seems to be the same as before, but one day in the mountains is like several years in my heart.
Back to reality, there's no venomous, overbearing CEO falling in love with you, no reserved Prince Charming helping you sort things out, only the shame you don't want anyone to mention. And this shame doesn't bring you any extra rewards.
She just felt extremely tired, but she had no choice but to put on her mask and work hard.
When the days get boring, they fly by incredibly fast. The saying "time flies by" is no exaggeration. In the blink of an eye, we're already wrapping up our year-end work.
Yang Ziqi had already resigned. Anyone else would have waited until their year-end bonus arrived, but for her, this little money wasn't worth the wait. The set of mugs she'd given to Vivian as a keepsake was still on her desk. All traces of her brief stay here had almost vanished.
Vivian expected her performance this year to be good. After all, she had managed to turn the tide and had been personally rewarded by Zhang Ruolin. Employees at investment institutions place particular emphasis on performance, as their regular pay only accounts for half of their annual income, with the bulk of the pay coming at the end of the year. While performance may seem to have a scientific scoring system, it's ultimately based entirely on the boss's word.
Most people's performance is a B+—no merits, no faults, and steady improvement. If it's just a B, your boss likely has something against you. A C puts you on a PIP, or Performance Improvement Plan. It sounds appealing, but it actually means you're very likely to be fired in six months.
It doesn’t matter to her at ABC, all she cares about is the bonus number and the percentage of the pay raise.
On the day of the performance review, since Jia Lan's vacancy hadn't been filled, Zhang Ruolin was supposed to lead the conversation, with HR listening in. However, with the New Year approaching and Zhang Ruolin incredibly busy, he delegated the task to HR.
HR sent a performance manager, several levels below Vivian's. Vivian was polite but ignored her. She had no decision-making power and simply read out the evaluation results.
Vivian was too lazy to listen to those polite words, she only cared about the numbers.
When the string of numbers was read out, she thought she had misheard: "Sorry, I didn't hear it clearly."
It’s worse than previous years.
The young manager repeated the document he was about to hand over to Vivian for signature.
That's right. Vivian was instantly furious: "Can I ask who ordered this?"
"Vivian, this... I'm sorry, I'm not sure." The little girl said timidly.
Since they really didn't know, Vivian couldn't let her anger run wild. She could only try to soften her tone, "Then, according to the current report line, theoretically, it should be Mr. Zhang who makes the decision, right?"
"Yeah, that's right."
There was no point in asking further, so Vivian could only give up.
Even after finally getting a promotion, she only received a 5% raise, which was practically nothing. Even for this, she seemed to owe Zhang Ruolin a great favor.
It’s better not to get promoted to this crappy rank.
Unable to sit still, she went downstairs to get some fresh air, otherwise she'd be suffocating. It didn't take long for her to understand what was going on, and she laughed at herself for being so childish. She'd forgotten that Zhang Ruolin loved this trick the most—giving a sweet date and then a slap in the face was his usual way of treating people, reminding them who was boss. It was just a test of compliance.
Besides this, Zhang Ruolin also loves assigning two similar positions to the same function. He doesn't even need to offer any extra rewards; the two will automatically fight to the death. He simply sits back and watches the tigers fight, then chooses the one who ultimately emerges victorious—the winner is always capable, aggressive, and has a low self-esteem.
Vivian had witnessed many of these things in the past, and she had lamented how ridiculous humans were. It would be fine if there were extra benefits, but they were willing to fight like this for something that brought no benefit at all.
At that time, she had never thought that such a small matter of hers would be worth the boss's attention.
Perhaps some people simply enjoy the pleasure of playing with others, just like someone walking down the street and stepping on a busy ant for no reason.
No purpose, just for fun.
In her disappointment, she felt deeply bored.
A headhunter she knew insisted on meeting with Vivian every month. But she had previously been so focused on her career advancement that she never even asked for the client's name when they called, always responding with, "Sorry, I'm not considering it at the moment."
But this time, she readily agreed to have coffee together.
Everyone felt she was the beneficiary of recent events. She alone felt exhausted, as if something within her had shattered. She had once greatly admired Zhang Ruolin, and Jia Lan had been both her mentor and friend. But this incident had revealed the discord beneath their facade of respectability.
This wasn't new in the workplace, and it would be naive to consider it a shattered dream. She understood that. But what was broken could no longer be mended.
It's probably very dangerous out there. If you encounter problems and difficulties, you might regret it very much.
But at this moment, she just wants to be true to herself.
The headhunter rushed over and said, "Excuse me, Miss Fang, I have to ask you for a last-minute appointment. An institution recently raised a new fund and is also looking for new sectors. They are recruiting talent and the conditions are good. So I was wondering if Miss Fang has been looking for any opportunities recently."
"What a coincidence. You see, we've known each other for so long, and I was indeed considering making a move this time."
"Great! This client is looking for someone who can work in an English-speaking environment, preferably under 35. Of course, this restriction is not required for exceptional candidates. I'm sure you're suitable in other areas."
Vivian thought, thank goodness I'm just under the deadline. But it's also ridiculous that these foreign institutions have quickly learned to treat employees over 35 as more disgusting than dogs.
Seeing her lack of reaction, the headhunter added, "And the client's package is very good. They know they're still relatively new in the Chinese market and their brand influence lags behind that of leading institutions, so they're willing to offer a higher package to attract talent."
"Okay. Thanks for thinking of me. I'll update your resume as soon as possible. We can communicate other details anytime."
The headhunter left happily. This time, it seemed that the headhunting fee was almost certain to be paid.
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