"Alright," Xiao Kai bit his lip, picked up the plastic bag, and felt the piercing gazes of his colleagues on his back, making him feel as if he had thorns on his back.
"Manager, this isn't proper," a crisp voice suddenly echoed in the office, "According to Company Rule 13, for every minute of being late, a fine of ten yuan is incurred. So why do you want to deduct Yan Xiaokai's entire month's bonus?"
It was a very beautiful girl who spoke, with a face as translucent as a freshly peeled egg, smooth and flawless. At that moment, she stood up, bathed in sunlight, her breath-taking appearance leaving everyone breathless. This girl, named Xiao Zhu, was said to have had a fling with many management personnel in the company. Jia Zhengjing's gaze shifted to her and he immediately smiled, "Xiao Zhu, I know you are a great employee, but Yan Xiaokai isn't deserving of your intercession. He consistently disobeys the rules and regulations. This isn't the first time. You must trust that I handle things fairly and will never treat employees unequally."
"In that case, the fine should just be ten yuan," Xiao Zhu insisted.
Jia Zhengjing furrowed his brow, then pulled a smile again, "Alright, alright, he will be fined ten yuan, then."
Xiao Zhu smiled faintly, sat down, and gave Xiao Kai a grateful glance, even though she was focusing on the documents on her desk and hadn't noticed his gratitude.
"Indeed... the old man's words have all come true," Xiao Kai thought quietly, "Today is my twenty-first birthday, so will things really turn around for me after my birthday?"
"Why are you dawdling!" Jia Zhengjing kicked him in the backside, "Hurry up! Go empty the trash and get back to work. Don't think the company pays you a big salary every month just to feed you for free!" He snorted heavily, turned and walked back into his office, slamming the door shut behind him. But three seconds later, the door creaked open again, "Hey, that... Assistant Qin, come in and discuss work with me."
"Oh, okay." Qin Zhen, oozing with charm, got up and swayed into the manager's office. Then, her high heels made a series of crisp and pleasant clicking sounds, and as the manager's office door closed, there were several sounds of swallowing saliva from behind.
Xiao Kai emptied the trash, carefully cleaned the restroom, and then returned to the office with water stains all over him, sitting down. As soon as he sat down, seven or eight people crowded around him.
"Xiao Kai, these are the drawings I couldn't finish yesterday. Help me with them."
Xiao Kai, I just received a call from a client and need to go out immediately. Please print this document for me."
"Xiao Kai, I forgot to take out the trash yesterday. Can you help me with it?"
"Xiao Kai, this is my son's summer homework. He is too lazy to do it after going out to play. Can you do it for him?"
...
Xiao Kai looked helplessly at his desk, which was instantly piled with all kinds of documents, newspapers, books, and even elementary school textbooks. Then, he saw the manager's office door open with a "bang", and Jia Zhengjing, with a lipstick mark on his face, walked out with a serious look on his face. He walked up to Xiao Kai, frowned at the messy desk, and sternly said, "Xiao Kai, you are doing personal tasks during working hours again! Fine, I will deduct half of your salary this month!"
"But... this isn't mine..." Xiao Kai helplessly looked around, but all of his colleagues seemed to have suddenly turned into ostriches, burying their heads deep behind their computer screens, all acting as if they were diligently working.
"You still claim it's not yours! If it's not yours, then whose is it?" Jia Zhengjing erupted again. "Your work attitude is seriously problematic! Write me a thoughtful report, or I'll fire you!"
"Manager Jia, these things are really not his. I can testify to that," a crisp and pleasant voice interjected. The girl called Xiaozhu stood up again. "Also, even if he is doing personal tasks during working hours, there is never a rule to deduct half of the salary, right?"
Jia Zhengjing's expression appeared somewhat stunned. His demeanor was very unfriendly, and he remained silent for a long half a minute before taking a deep breath and forcing a smile. "Xiaozhu, you're right. I was too much."
"If it weren't for Xiaozhu, I would've fired you earlier!" Xiao Kai cursed in his heart while obediently standing up. "Manager, you are right. It's all my fault. I'll submit the thoughtful report to you early tomorrow."
"Well, that would be enough." Jia Zhengjing nodded in satisfaction and walked back. "Alright, everyone, let's work diligently. Assistant Qin, let's continue our discussion."
Xiao Kai sighed quietly and glanced to his left, where the very pretty girl, Chi Xiaozhu, was sitting. In a sense, Xiao Kai was quite dull in matters of love. He had never been involved in romantic relationships throughout his academic life. Only when he graduated and started working at this company did he seem to suddenly understand the meaning of love upon seeing Chi Xiaozhu for the first time.
When he saw Chi Xiaozhu for the first time, it felt as if something fragile in his heart had shattered like porcelain. Her figure then occupied his entire heart, leaving no room for anyone else. Xiaozhu's elegance, grace, and stubbornness, along with her indescribable literary charm, seemed to strike Xiao Kai's heart directly, causing him to fall for her in a split second.
In other words, his feelings for Chi Xiaozhu were very much a love at first sight. Were it not for this infatuation, given his temperament in school, he would have directly quarreled with Manager Jia.
Unfortunately, despite his deep affection for her, Chi Xiaozhu seemed to have no interest in him. Except for speaking up for him when he was being bullied, she usually ignored him. She was a very calm girl, silent at work and silent leaving work. Every word and every action she made exuded an easy, unhurried elegance. She seemed to live in a kind of ethereal, rhythmic state that was entirely different from the people around her.
It was said that Chi Xiaozhu's family was very wealthy. She worked here because her parents had connections with the upper echelons of the company. So, even if she frequently clashed with Manager Jia, he didn't dare to give her a hard time. A girl from such an aristocratic family, even in the worst-case scenario, would never marry a mere laborer who had just barely settled the issue of putting food on the table.
In other words, even if she did develop feelings for Xiao Kai, there would be absolutely no possibility of any result between them.
But it was precisely because of this that Xiao Kai became increasingly infatuated with her. The more infatuated he became, the more he could endure Manager Jia's oppression.
Xiao Kai sent a message to Chi Xiaozhu on the computer: "Thank you." Chi Xiaozhu quickly replied with a simple smiley face, leaving Xiao Kai at a loss for words. Even if he was dense, he could see that Chi Xiaozhu had absolutely no interest in him, not even the interest to engage in a conversation.
The workday flew by, and before he knew it, it was five in the afternoon. Xiao Kai nervously stared at his phone, counting down the seconds: "Half a minute left... Twenty seconds left... Ten seconds left... Ah, so excited, I'm about to turn twenty-one! Am I really about to change my luck?"
"Yan Xiaokai!" A familiar roar echoed in his ear. "What are you up to again?"
Xiao Kai trembled, looked up, and saw Manager Jia's face inches away from his.
"I... I wasn't doing anything," Xiao Kai hurriedly explained.
"Weren't doing anything?" Jia Zhengjing sneered, propping himself up on the glass partition deliberately to get close to Xiao Kai and intimidate him, the smell of smoke making Xiao Kai nauseous. "I clearly saw you staring at your phone and counting down the time during work hours. You're just sitting here, waiting for the end of the day. You have no work ethic or sense of responsibility!"
"I was wrong," Xiao Kai promptly admitted. Based on his experience from the past few months, if he didn't admit his fault, he would end up with additional charges related to his attitude.
"Is admitting your fault enough?" Jia Zhengjing waved his arm, leaning forward to shout, "If every employee were like you, what future would our company have? If every employee..."
Just as he said this, the clock hanging on the wall chimed, indicating it was five o'clock.
"I'm about to change my luck..." Xiao Kai thought quietly.
”Happiness inevitably leads to sorrow, it's payback.” This was Xiao Kai's first reaction: "Now I have to accompany Manager Jia." Just as this thought crossed his mind, he fell to the ground, but...
"Huh, strange, it doesn't hurt." Xiao Kai focused and saw that his elbow, which had hit the ground, was pressing against a black leather bag. The bag was soft and looked like it was of good quality.
Xiao Kai got up, opened the bag, which had four layers inside and found nothing. He reluctantly searched through it and finally found a zipper on the edge of the bag. Upon opening it, he found more than ten colorful cards inside, most of which were bank cards and membership cards. Some were familiar to Xiao Kai, like the Industrial and Commercial Bank, the China Merchants Bank, but some he had never seen before, such as golf clubs, private business clubs. Undoubtedly, the owner of the bag was wealthy. However, these items were of no value to Xiao Kai because he didn't know the passwords for these cards.
The only thing Xiao Kai found was a photo among the cards. It was a photo of a girl with her long hair tied into a ponytail, looking particularly energetic and lively, full of the vitality of a young girl, and incredibly cute.
“Well, undoubtedly, this girl is the rich man's girlfriend,” Xiao Kai thought enviously. “These days, good girls are all taken by these rich pigs.” This thought seemed to conjure up a scene in his mind of a middle-aged man as fat as a pig arm in arm with a lively young girl.
Shaking his head, Xiao Kai expelled these wild thoughts, not wanting them to ruin his good mood for the day. He went to the lottery shop and confidently shouted, "Give me a lottery ticket!"
“Are you buying one ticket and shouting so loudly?” The lottery selling old lady, who already knew Xiao Kai, grumbled as she walked over. “Xiao Kai, buying a lottery ticket also has its technique. The way you buy, you're definitely not doing it right...”
“You, move aside move aside,” Xiao Kai had just picked up the ticket when he was pushed by a burly man behind him. "Get lost, poor guy, I'm going to buy a hundred tickets!"
“Tch, adults don't remember the grudges of a little person,” Xiao Kai discretely gestured a middle finger behind his back, making the old lady laugh heartily. Then he saw the big man grab a thick stack of lottery tickets, swaying them towards Xiao Kai, proudly saying, “Kid, watch closely, I'm going to show you how I win the lottery.”
Xiao Kai was puzzled, why did this guy always boast in front of him? Just then, a stylish, well-built young woman stepped forward, called out softly, “Darling, are you done?” She then leaned her soft body against the big man, and turned around to glance at Xiao Kai with watery eyes. Xiao Kai's heart immediately went "thump", thinking, "Damn, that's how it is."
The big man, obviously, got a huge boost to his ego. His movements were quite fast, tearing up more than fifty tickets, exclaiming, “Haha, I won!.”
“How much?” the young woman asked, delighted.
“Two yuan,” the big man's face reddened slightly, then he regained his confidence. “I've got plenty of money. This is just spending money for fun. Come, baby, give me a kiss.”
So, the young woman brought her face forward, and smacked a loud one, making Xiao Kai's skin crawl.
The big man tore up a hundred lottery tickets in total, and only won those two yuan. Feeling a bit unbalanced, he wanted to say something grand but Xiao Kai pushed him aside, “Alright, you've bought yours, now it's my turn.”
“What’s wrong, poor guy, do you even have money to buy?” the big man was indignant.
“I'm not buying,” Xiao Kai pointed to his ticket, “I've already won.”
“What! You won?” the big man was a bit stunned. “How much?”
“Just a little bit,” Xiao Kai nonchalantly said, “Just ten thousand.”
The sun hadn't set yet, and the light was shining on the lottery ticket half-open in Xiao Kai's hand, with the words "Ten Thousand" clearly printed on it.