Chapter 35 [VIP]
Chapter Summary: "You're amazing!"
The annual meeting was a great success, and Qian Lina, who was supposed to be there, learned about it from an online source.
Qian Lina felt frustrated whenever she thought about it.
During the first rehearsal, her performance was far from satisfactory. She was fine standing downstairs, but as soon as she got on stage, she started shaking violently and couldn't make a sound at all; what came out was a sobbing, whimpering voice.
Without even needing to see what the head office leaders said during the rehearsal, Qian Lina was simply replaced.
Actually, she has nothing to complain about. Her mistake was that she lacked ability and couldn't seize opportunities when they came.
The article described every program at the annual meeting. The dance "Mangzhong" was accompanied by a group photo, and Qian Lina immediately spotted Ni Zhenzhen standing in the middle.
Despite wearing the same clothes and makeup, Ni Zhenzhen seemed to have an extra halo, shining brightly like the morning star in the sky.
If there's any difference, it's probably that others' faces clearly say, "I'm here to complete a mission," while Ni Zhenzhen's are not.
This explains why the dance instructor placed her in the center, why the photographer at the annual meeting pointed his camera at her, and why I chose this particular photo from among many others.
Qian Lina felt a mix of jealousy, admiration, and a sense of loss. If it weren't for her overestimating herself by wanting to be a host, would she be the one standing there?
Qian Lina exited the article filled with praise and was surprised to find a message quietly waiting for her.
A person whose profile picture is of blue sky and white clouds said to her, "Happy New Year!"
Qian Lina's heart skipped a beat.
Blue Sky and White Clouds was the boy who asked her to be the host that day. She thought she wouldn't have any contact with him after the annual meeting, but she didn't expect him to still remember her.
Even if it's a mass message.
Qian Lina typed a string of words and then deleted them. After repeating this several times, she finally sent the exact same four words: "Happy New Year".
Qian Lina regretted sending the message as soon as she did. She should have followed it with a question, such as "Are you alone?" or "What are your plans for your day off?" Instead, she just sent a "Happy New Year." What if it ended like that?
fine.
Blue Sky and White Clouds sent another message: "I'm sorry."
Before Qian Lina could react, another message followed: "I'm the one who found you, but you didn't get to attend the annual meeting [sad]".
Qian Lina: "It's okay, it's my fault [playful]."
Blue Sky and White Clouds: "No, you're very good. Your script is exceptionally well-written; the leader even asked about it."
Qian Lina: "Really?"
Blue Sky and White Clouds: "I haven't thanked you yet, how about we grab a bite to eat together?"
Qian Lina stared at the words over and over, her hands trembling with excitement. She pressed the phone to her chest, her eyes burning, her throat dry, but she didn't cry. Instead, she let the long-lost joy spread throughout her body.
It turns out she didn't come away empty-handed.
In addition, Blue Sky and White Clouds told Qian Lina that the bank would be conducting several internal recruitment drives in a couple of days, and asked her to keep an eye on the information on the internal network.
Qian Lina indeed saw the recruitment notice on the intranet. She quickly signed up, and then inevitably thought of Ni Zhenzhen.
Should we tell her?
Before Qian Lina could come up with a solution, Ni Zhenzhen's message arrived. She added a sentence after the link: "There's a job posting on the intranet, apply quickly."
Ni Zhenzhen's news was like a timely rain, allowing Qian Lina to completely let go of her entanglement. However, her heart was soon filled with another emotion, so she couldn't help but smile bitterly.
"I was just about to tell you, and you sent it to me. Thank you."
Haha, let's cheer each other on!
The result of this application was that neither of them passed the resume screening.
Qian Lina thought that perhaps it was true, as the director said, that the so-called internal recruitment was only for people with connections, and that people like her without a background were destined to work as tellers for the rest of their lives.
A few days later, new job postings were released on the internal network. The bank planned to establish a financial leasing company, and because it involved international business, the high English proficiency requirement effectively excluded a large number of applicants.
This was good news for Qian Lina, but she still didn't understand what the company did.
"Financial leasing?" Qian Lina felt the name sounded familiar, as if she had heard it somewhere before.
Ni Zhenzhen reminded her, "Do you remember the book I gave you? It's about financial leasing. You might be able to use it."
“Yes…” Qian Lina remembered, but instead of feeling relieved, she became even more flustered.
Qian Lina couldn't remember where she had thrown the book.
If we really can't find it, we can only ask Ni Zhenzhen for another one, but I don't know if she will give it to us.
Fortunately, Qian Lina quickly found the two books, which were placed on her bedside table, covered by two magazines.
Ironically, she had never seen a place that was so close she could just reach out and touch it.
She always seems to be like this; before she decides to do something, she buys a bunch of things, claiming that "a skilled craftsman must first sharpen his tools," as if owning these things means she has mastered the skill.
She bought a pair of running shoes for night runs, a bunch of washi tape for making journals, and online courses for preparing for the civil service exam, and then nothing more.
If Qian Lina had known this day would come, she would have stayed up all night to finish watching it.
Over the next few days, she didn't get much sleep and ended up making several mistakes in her transactions, which resulted in her being severely scolded by her supervisor.
Before Qian Lina could even recover, she was utterly tormented by an English exam paper filled with technical jargon.
Unsurprisingly, Qian Lina was rejected, while Ni Zhenzhen's name appeared on the internal interview announcement. Indeed, even if she read it day and night several times, it wouldn't be as memorable as Ni Zhenzhen's thorough translation.
Qian Lina was filled with regret; she had once again watched the opportunity slip away.
Qian Lina congratulated Ni Zhenzhen generously, saying, "Good luck with your interview!" Then she took out the practice questions for the civil service exam that she had already bought, hoping that it wasn't too late to start now.
On the day of the interview, Xu Tianzhou drove Ni Zhenzhen to the head office building. It was a magnificent building that seemed to have no top in sight from inside the car, with white clouds swirling on the glass curtain wall, as if lifting the bank's logo embedded on the roof into the sky.
Ni Zhenzhen had been here a few times. Although she was a full-time bank employee, getting in was incredibly difficult. Registration, verification, security checks, and waiting to be picked up were no easier than for a visitor, and perhaps even worse. Once, she wasn't even allowed in; HR staff rushed her onto a bus and took her elsewhere.
Ni Zhenzhen even joked with Xu Tianzhou about it, saying, "I didn't have this much trouble getting into the United Nations headquarters in New York."
I wonder if she will be able to enter and leave this building legitimately in the future?
After parking the car, Xu Tianzhou apologized before Ni Zhenzhen got out, saying, "I really can't offer any useful experience in this regard."
He curled his lips into a self-deprecating smile.
Ni Zhenzhen felt a surge of heartache instantly.
After returning to China, Xu Tianzhou submitted more than a hundred resumes, most of which disappeared without a trace, a small number failed the written test, and the few interviews he did have also ended in failure.
One day later, Xu Tianzhou told her, "I found a job."
"Wow! That's great! I knew you could do it." She was so excited that she jumped up and down, overjoyed, that she didn't even notice the dark look in Xu Tianzhou's eyes.
"It's a rice noodle shop, they provide meals, and the salary is pretty good."
"..."
Ni Zhenzhen originally wanted to say that one's first job determines the starting point of one's career, so it would be better to be cautious. However, upon further reflection, she realized that Xu Tianzhou must know this principle.
Xu Tianzhou pressed further, "Do you feel it's not a good idea?"
Ni Zhenzhen shook her head. "It's just a bit of a surprise. How did you come up with the idea of doing this?" It doesn't seem to be related to his major, and she had never heard him say that he was interested in the catering industry.
Xu Tianzhou said, "It's nothing. I just saw the job ad when I went out to eat, and I thought, this might be the only job that won't refuse me."
Xu Tianzhou spoke casually, but only Ni Zhenzhen understood the sorrow and despair hidden behind his words. How could she possibly criticize him at this moment?
Ni Zhenzhen hugged him tightly and exclaimed sincerely, "You're amazing!"
She held him tightly in her arms, as if she wanted to use all her strength to express her feelings.
Ni Zhenzhen said, "This is the first time I've learned that 'being able to bend and stretch' is not just an idiom. If it were me, I probably couldn't do what you did."
"..."
Xu Tianzhou frowned, his eyes darkening further. Ni Zhenzhen was squeezing him so tightly that it hurt, but no amount of pain could outweigh the shock and bewilderment in his heart.
This doesn't seem to be the result he wanted.
Inspired by the job posting, he impulsively decided to test her. He wanted to see if she would suppress her disdain, mockery, or become hysterical from sheer frustration.
But no, she looked up at him and said, "You're amazing!"
He once again lost in what he thought was a contest with Ni Zhenzhen.
Ni Zhenzhen's extraordinary tolerance forced him to quickly buy the rice noodle shop he had visited once. The process was quite complicated, but fortunately, everyone is driven by profit. Even though the rice noodle shop owner said many irrelevant things such as dreams, hard work, and that they cannot be measured by money, Xu Tianzhou took them all as bargaining chips to raise the price.
After several rounds, the shop owner finally succumbed to his increased demands.
Xu Tianzhou later realized that he seemed to have dug a hole for himself.
Running a rice noodle shop is not as easy as one might imagine. He has to carefully maintain relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, and the mall property management, which is no simpler than dealing with executives from Cinda. Most importantly, he hopes to make the rice noodle shop profitable as soon as possible.
His personality wouldn't allow him to do anything futile, even if the rice noodle shop was just a front.
Gradually, Xu Tianzhou seemed to fall in love with this job. Sometimes he would think that it wouldn't be bad to run such a small rice noodle shop with Ni Zhenzhen.
However, Ni Zhenzhen's ambitions likely lie elsewhere; she has grander goals and higher aspirations.
Xu Tianzhou hugged her and said, "Keep going, I'm waiting for your good news."
"Hmm." Ni Zhenzhen got out of the car, took a few steps, then turned back. Sure enough, Xu Tianzhou was still looking at her.
She waved her hand, and the golden bracelet danced in the wind, like the golden trim that the setting sun bestowed upon the waves, breathtakingly beautiful.
There were thirty or forty people interviewing with Ni Zhenzhen. They were all called into a conference room one by one. There were seven or eight interviewers sitting in the conference room, all with serious expressions.
Ni Zhenzhen waited for two or three hours, but the interview lasted only five minutes. Apart from testing her spoken English, they didn't ask her any professional questions.
As she left the meeting room, Ni Zhenzhen comforted herself, thinking of it as a day trip to the head office.
New Year's Eve arrived in the blink of an eye, and Ni Zhenzhen unusually left work a few hours early.
She didn't go home immediately, but went to another place. The straight road was sparsely populated, and the occasional car that passed by was heading home.
The residential area across the street had long been decorated for the holiday, with bright red lanterns and dazzling colored lights complementing each other, but at this time of year, few people were appreciating them.
Ni Zhenzhen stood outside the residential area, lingering, pausing, and looking around. Unable to contain herself, she followed a family and sneaked inside.
Walking along the familiar path, past the snow-covered corridor, and then turning a corner beside the magnolia tree, Ni Zhenzhen looked up and fixed her gaze on a window with a light on.
The tears she had held back all the way burst forth at this moment, drifting down with her longing for her parents on this day of family reunion. Ni Zhenzhen couldn't help but wonder what the people inside were doing, whether they were preparing the New Year's Eve dinner, and whether they were thinking of her.
A shadow flashed past the window, and Ni Zhenzhen quickly lowered her head and left.
After leaving the residential area, Ni Zhenzhen received a call from Xu Tianzhou.
Xu Tianzhou ate at the store with his colleagues who hadn't gone home.
"Where are you?" Xu Tianzhou asked.
Ni Zhenzhen mumbled, "Outside."
"I'll come pick you up."
Do you know where I am?
Xu Tianzhou neither said he knew nor he didn't know; he simply said, "Wait for me."
Ni Zhenzhen shuffled her toes along the quiet, deserted street, time ticking by. Just as the last shop was about to close, a car pulled up. That car was like a small, drifting boat, scooping her up from a vast ocean.
Xu Tianzhou opened the car door for her, his voice as gentle as a hug, as if pushed closer by the distant sound of firecrackers, "Let's go home."
Qian Lina is from out of town and has to go home for the Spring Festival. Ni Zhenzhen worked for seven consecutive days. She was tired, but the overtime pay she received was enough to turn her fatigue into strength.
After the New Year, everything returned to normal. A month had passed since the interview, and Ni Zhenzhen hadn't received any news, as if nothing had happened.
One day, two people claiming to be from the head office's human resources department suddenly came to the branch to conduct a background check on Ni Zhenzhen. They first spoke with the branch manager and then brought in several colleagues, including Qian Lina.
As Qian Lina left, she hung up a "Service Temporarily Closed" sign, and the people behind her immediately jumped out and asked, "Where are you going?"
Qian Lina replied expressionlessly, "The computer is broken."
This survival instinct was instilled in her by her long years of frontline work. She couldn't talk about things like going to eat or use the restroom, because tellers are not allowed to have any personal needs.
In the conference room, people from head office were already waiting for her, along with a running camera. Qian Lina suddenly felt like she was being interrogated.
The two first recorded Qian Lina's basic information, and then asked her about Ni Zhenzhen.
Qian Lina took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, "She's excellent, with top-notch professional skills and a reputation for excellent service among clients..."
Is there anything else?
"She also actively participates in the bank's activities. She was in the annual meeting performance, and there are photos of her on the website."
Does she have any flaws?
"shortcoming……"
Qian Lina knew that Ni Zhenzhen's move to this point meant that her job transfer was basically confirmed, but if she said just one thing, Ni Zhenzhen would be finished.
As far as she knew, Ni Zhenzhen had used her own money to pay off an elderly person's credit card more than once while on duty, which was a serious violation of bank regulations.
There's no kindness in banks, only risk. If you dare to operate privately, you risk amplifying that risk.
A strange flutter surged within her. Qian Lina gritted her teeth and said impatiently, "Her biggest flaw is that she's too kind-hearted and doesn't know how to protect herself. Once..."
There were two rustling sounds outside the window. A sparrow landed on the security bars, peeked around for a while, and then flew away.
Qian Lina glanced at it, then looked away, continuing from where she left off: "Once, when it was her turn to eat, the client said he had been waiting for a long time and wouldn't let her leave, so she really didn't leave."
Qian Lina ultimately did not reveal that Ni Zhenzhen had secretly paid off the elderly man's credit card. Perhaps she did not want to cause trouble, or perhaps she believed in the saying "good deeds are rewarded" and wanted to add evidence to the record.
The two people sitting opposite each other exchanged knowing smiles, probably used to the trick of turning advantages into disadvantages, and were quite disdainful.
To Qian Lina, that smile was like a venomous snake's hiss, instantly enraging her. Qian Lina wanted to make those office workers in government offices experience what it was like to have no time to eat, and see if they could still laugh then.
One of them then asked, "Is there anything else you want to say?"
"It's gone."
"Really not?"
This time, Qian Lina didn't rush to answer because the man's tone was very strange, as if he was determined to get something out of her. Even Qian Lina herself wondered if they already knew something and were just waiting for her to confess.
Qian Lina shrugged, looking confused. "It's really gone."
The two exchanged a glance and asked in confusion, "Then why did you write the whistleblower letter?"
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