Chapter 39 Ding Dong
When He Xiaolan left Huadie's house that morning, the two of them were still sprawled out in bed. At the office, she was a bit absent-minded. Li Lingyue had taken leave, saying her child had been having a rough time lately and she'd taken him to see a therapist. Li Lingyue and He Xiaolan had chatted briefly before, saying that during the divorce, the child was awarded to the father because he was better off financially. But how could a man, now free, remain chaste for the sake of a child? A year later, he remarried and soon after, she became pregnant and had a child.
There were several arguments to get custody of the child back, but the man he married later gave birth to a girl, and the child's grandparents refused to let go, only promising Li Lingyue that she could pick up the child frequently and spend time with her. Since she had her own child, she would have to rely on the other family's charity if she wanted to spend time with her. "I'm saving money now so I can take my child abroad to study. No one can stop me while I'm away," Li Lingyue told He Xiaolan over a homemade lunch about her recent goals.
Having grown accustomed to the crowded office, He Xiaolan was still a little uneasy to find herself alone again. She sorted out the materials for the interviews, along with last month's attendance records. The few people at the bottom of the list had to be interviewed today; according to the boss, they had to pack up and leave.
Jasmine could already judge the current mood of people coming in by looking at their faces. If the person was angry, she would pour them chrysanthemum tea. If they were calm, she would bring them coffee. This matched perfectly with He Xiaolan.
This year, the company's air conditioning wasn't set very high, supposedly to protect the environment, but really just to save money. He Xiaolan took off her coat, revealing a thin down jacket underneath. It wasn't long before she felt incredibly cold. Jasmine tore off one of her heat pads and handed it to He Xiaolan, "It's still a little warm, warm your hands."
Xiao Liu looked a little depressed when he walked in. He didn't even look at the two of them. He pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Director He, this dismissal... isn't it too sudden? I was indeed not feeling well that day, so I asked for leave and went to the hospital several times. Is that not allowed?"
Xiao Liu had been working overtime for a while, which had caused him to be extremely stressed. He suddenly lost his hearing, so he took some time off and went to the hospital. He was diagnosed with sudden deafness, which could become permanent without immediate treatment. Now his hearing is better, but he's lost his job.
"I have no choice. This is what my boss asked me to do, so I can only work according to his requirements. I understand your difficulties, but we are all employees and we have to listen to the arrangements from above."
Xiao Liu pushed his glasses. It was such a cold day that he felt his clothes were almost soaked with sweat. "What about compensation? How is it calculated?"
"It's only one month's compensation, because you transferred your contract to a new company before, and you haven't worked there for a full year yet." He Xiaolan lowered her eyes, pretending to read the terms of the resignation contract.
"This is a scam! I can't sign this separation agreement. I'm going to go through arbitration."
Xiao Liu left angrily, and He Xiaolan and Jasmine looked at each other.
"Isn't this going to happen to everyone later?" Jasmine said with a hint of despair, looking at the stack of documents in her hand.
"It's not just the ones behind us. If we get fired, it will be the same situation." He Xiaolan leaned back in her chair, feeling a chill on her back. She put on her coat again. The conference room was as cold as an ice cellar, even more chilling than the winter outside.
Every piece of paper in Jasmine's hand had a photo of an employee printed on it. The people in the photos had innocent smiles on their faces. No one could have imagined that one day they would be caught off guard by the word "dismissal".
When He Xiaolan returned to the office, she sneezed several times and felt a little stuffy. She took some medicine at noon and felt very sleepy in the afternoon. Just as she was about to take a nap, Qin Tiantian called and said, "Hua Hudie said she was going to catch someone cheating. The girl is in Beijing and said she is studying in a vocational college in Huairou or Changping. The two have been flirting for almost a month and have even met in person."
"Calm down, both of you. People say that if you catch an adulterer, you should catch both of them. If Qian Helin doesn't go, it's no use finding just one person. Qian Helin can't be so stupid as to be exposed yesterday and then go meet his lover today. Isn't that crazy?"
Hua Hudie snatched Qin Tiantian's phone and reported her plan to He Xiaolan in person. She planned to first go and see who this "Brown Sugar Ding Ding" was, so that she could better attack after understanding the enemy's dynamics.
"Why are you using military tactics? Both of you should be careful and don't make any social news."
"Our little thing won't make the news. Just focus on your work and I'll tell you in the evening."
"No, you two don't even know whether it is Huairou or Changping, how can you spy on military intelligence?"
"Let's go, let's go. How can we not go to two places in one day?" The voice on the phone had become a little fuzzy, and it was obvious that it was connected to the car's Bluetooth. He Xiaolan knew that persuasion was useless. The best she could do was to turn off the silent mode on her phone to avoid being unable to answer the call when the police came to her.
A young woman had arrived in the R&D department. She hadn't submitted her medical report when she started. Li Lingyue had said she'd go and get it done, but she still hadn't returned it. He Xiaolan had no choice but to go find her herself. Following the list of new hires, she finally saw the newcomer. "Hello, I'm Lin Lele, our new intern." He Xiaolan glanced at her, then at her profile, which said she was 24 and a recent college graduate.
"When you first joined the company, you took leave and didn't go for the physical examination. Director Li contacted you a few days ago and asked you to submit the pre-employment physical examination report, but it seems you haven't sent it yet."
Lin Lele stood up, wearing loose clothes, and spoke with a hint of apology, "I'm sorry, Director He, I have been busy moving these days and haven't made an appointment for a physical examination yet. I will make an appointment later."
"Okay, just report it directly to Director Li when the time comes. Don't forget it again, otherwise it will affect your internship evaluation and it will be difficult to get a permanent position."
"Okay, thank you for your reminder, I'll get busy first."
The more He Xiaolan watched her walk, the more awkward it seemed. She felt something was wrong. She didn't look like she was pregnant, so she probably thought it was because she was sitting all the time and her lumbar spine was hurting. But when she was pregnant with Yueyue, she always felt back pain and would hold her waist when she walked.
He Xiaolan approached Jasmine with questions, thinking that they were about the same age and might have some overlap. "Do you know Lin Lele, the new R&D employee?"
Jasmine chewed an apple, her cheeks puffed up like a squirrel, her eyes a little confused, "The one who didn't submit the physical examination report? I've seen her a few times, but not well. I just know that she always wears a loose sweatshirt and walks slowly." She threw the apple core far away into the trash can. The plastic bucket made a slight "dong" sound, which scared her so much that she quickly shrank her neck.
"Okay, it's okay. Don't eat such a cold apple so early in the morning, or you'll have diarrhea."
"Sister, do you think she's weird too?" Jasmine suddenly leaned in closer, her voice lowered, and she secretly measured her belly with her fingers. "She looks quite thin, with arms as thin as sugarcane. But her belly is always bulging, and even a hoodie can't cover it up. She always holds her waist when she walks."
"Even you can see it." He Xiaolan sighed deeply. The white mist lingered in the air for a moment, then dissipated, slowly melting into the cold city. The winter wind was like a knife, scratching her face painfully. A gust of cold wind blew He Xiaolan's hair all over her face.
Ever since Ge Lin left, she and Jasmine had been the closest people in the office. They felt like they were treading on thin ice, terrified that one wrong move would land them on the new boss's "optimization list." They were planning to go get ramen outside, analyzing Lin Lele's strange behavior as they walked.
He Xiaolan's heart skipped a beat. She remembered that on the day of the interview, she went out to meet the headhunter. It was Li Lingyue and Jasmine who met Lin Lele.
"You were not here that day. Director Li said her resume was good, she was unmarried, only 24 years old, and looked stable, so he kept her." She paused, "But I saw that her movements were a little stiff when she stood up and sat down. I thought she was nervous at the time." Jasmine was so cold that she wrapped the hood of her sweatshirt around her neck to block the wind. Her voice was muffled in her down jacket, as if it came from outer space.
"If she really does get pregnant, the new boss will kick us both out." He Xiaolan stirred the soup in her bowl with chopsticks. The oil on the surface gathered and dispersed, like an elusive thought. Since the new boss took over, he's been most wary of "trouble." Last month, a female employee became pregnant and was "graduated" before her maternity leave began, citing "unsatisfactory performance." The lawsuit is still ongoing.
"Sister, don't worry. If I am really pregnant, it has nothing to do with you. The person who interviewed me at that time was Director Li. If I were fired, I would go back to Shanghai. My parents don't want me to stay in Beijing anymore, so I would go back and be their full-time daughter."
Although nothing was set in stone, everyone was looking for a way out. In the office that afternoon, He Xiaolan secretly browsed job postings on various recruitment apps on her phone, entered her age, and clicked search. The job postings that popped up were like scattered glass shards, piercing her heart.
Most of them are salespeople with a monthly salary of 4,000 yuan, who are required to "accept unlimited overtime"; or they are supermarket cashiers or community cleaners, but the age limit is 50. There are also some with the bait of "high-salary recruitment", but when you click in, you will find that they are all scam positions disguised as "customer service".
After the age of 35, the workplace is like a sieve, which gradually filters people like her to the bottom, leaving them with almost no strength to struggle.
He Xiaolan was worried, while Qin Tiantian sat in Hua Hudie's car, clutching her seatbelt tightly. The two of them had searched most of Beijing but couldn't find the real "Brown Sugar Ding Ding." It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but it turned out to be a needle in disguise. There was no way they could find it.
"Why don't you download a game? It would be faster to look for it in the game than to drive around looking for it." Qin Tiantian was about to vomit. Hua Hudie's driving was just like her mood, up and down.
"You're right, why didn't I think of that? You're worthy of being Dr. Qin."
"It doesn't sound like a good thing."
When He Xiaolan arrived at Hua Hudie's house, the two of them were huddled on the sofa, figuring out how to play the game. "It's too late for you two to play now. This game is divided into zones. Do you know which zone they are in?"
"Qian Helin is playing at home, so he must be in Chaoyang District." Hua Hudie pulled her head away from her phone and stretched her wrists.
"Yeah." Qin Tiantian couldn't play anymore, so she took off her glasses to rest her eyes, and didn't forget to agree.
"What's right about that? You two will be laughed at if you tell others this. I specifically asked the girl in our department this afternoon. This game is divided into several servers. They are not divided according to where you live. You don't even know which zone Qian Helin entered. What are you busying yourself with?"
Butterfly huddled on the sofa in a dejected mood, throwing her cell phone aside without even looking at it. She lowered her head and didn't speak for a long time. She knew that her behavior throughout the day was stupid, and she was doing all these just to make her time pass faster.
The room fell silent, the only sounds being the occasional car horn outside and the dimming notification of Butterfly's phone. He Xiaolan looked at the empty beer can on the coffee table. The label on the can was curled up, like Butterfly's current mood, wrinkled and unable to unfold. She thought of the tree she had seen on the road earlier, its leaves gone, its bare branches piercing the sky, just like their search for "Brown Sugar Ding Ding" now: empty, with nothing to hold onto.
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