Chapter 2
The HR manager sat behind her desk with a stern face and handed me a “Voluntary Resignation Form.”
A resignation would mean I had chosen to leave and was entitled to no compensation. Termination initiated by the company required severance, payment for unused annual leave, compensation time, and several other benefits.
The difference amounted to tens of thousands of yuan.
I glanced at the document, flicked it back across the desk, and looked at her without concern.
This HR manager was Qin Si’s devoted bootlicker and one of Lin Xueqin’s people. She had created plenty of trouble for me in the past.
The heroine of an angst novel might magnanimously forgive such trash.
I did not possess that kind of generosity.
At the moment, I valued money rather highly.
“Sign it,” she ordered. “Then I can calculate your final salary.”
I smiled. “I’ve changed my mind. This is a wonderful place to work.”
I rose and turned to leave.
She panicked.
“What do you mean, Zhao Mange?”
“Exactly what you heard.”
I shut the door behind me, returned briskly to my desk, turned on my computer, and began preserving evidence.
The HR manager chased me out, her voice suddenly softer.
“Zhao Mange, we can talk about this.”
I ignored her.
A chat window from Qin Si popped up on my screen containing a single question mark.
I closed it and blocked him.
Not long afterward, the HR manager’s phone rang. She answered with ingratiating care.
“Yes, Mr. Qin. I understand. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it as quickly as possible.”
After hanging up, she glared at me and stormed into her office.
When she emerged again, a termination notice, salary statement, and severance calculation had been arranged neatly in front of me.
“Everything is in order now. Sign.”
“I only just left the hospital, and my eyes are still weak. I need time to read. Leave them here.”
Her face tightened with frustration.
Then her phone rang again. This time her smile became even more obsequious.
“Ms. Lin, yes, I understand. I’ll have it done as soon as possible. Don’t worry.”
Afterward, she warned me that everything had to be completed before the end of the workday.
I watched her walk away.
That remained to be seen.
I happened to feel like making her work overtime.
A quick calculation exposed major gaps in both my salary statement and severance package.
The salary statement omitted my unused annual leave. Under labor law, each unused vacation day had to be compensated at triple pay. I had worked there for three years and accumulated six days. At triple pay, that amounted to eighteen days of wages.
My unused compensation time had to be paid at double rate. Together, those two items added up to more than a month’s salary.
The severance calculation was even more entertaining.
She had used my lowest monthly after-tax salary. Labor law required the calculation to use my average pretax monthly salary. That little substitution had swallowed another ten thousand yuan or so.
The novel had described my resignation from the company. Lin Xueqin framed me, Qin Si refused to believe me, and I was forced to leave without a single yuan in compensation. I lived in poverty, fell ill, and was eventually picked up by Qin Si again.
Before I could even feel grateful, his untouchable first love needed blood.
As the heroine of an angst novel, I had been equipped with one very special trait: rare Rh-negative blood.
His first love had the same blood type.
That made me her permanent blood bank.
The heroine’s constitution was apparently superhuman as well. No matter how badly she was abused, she could still donate blood to someone else.
Truly impressive—in the worst possible way.
Anything received through personal favor eventually had to be repaid with personal favor.
Anything secured through the law was different. It was mine by right.
The HR manager urged me repeatedly, but I remained unmoved until the workday was nearly over.
By then, Qin Si and Lin Xueqin had apparently cursed her out enough times for one day.
Only then did I tap the two statements with one finger.
“These calculations are wrong. Redo them.”
“What is wrong?”
“I’m off work now. I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
“You’re doing this to punish me!”
“Yes.”
I smiled.
The HR manager bit her lip. At last, genuine panic appeared in her eyes.
“No. We have to finish the process today.”
“That is your job, not mine.”
I picked up my bag and headed for the door. I had already been fired—why would I work overtime?
“Zhao Mange, please. Help me. You don’t want to see Mr. Qin or Ms. Lin again, do you?”
I stopped and looked expressionlessly past her shoulder.
Qin Si and Lin Xueqin stood there, their cold gazes sweeping over me before landing on the HR manager.
She began to tremble. All her earlier arrogance vanished; she looked ready to dig a hole and bury herself in it.
I gave a soft laugh.
“You’re right. I truly don’t want to see either of them again, so I’ll help you.”
For one suspended moment, the HR manager could not decide whether to laugh or cry.
She checked every figure again at top speed, moving with the care of someone crossing thin ice.
“Ms. Zhao, it should be correct this time. Please sign.”
I glanced down and pushed the form back toward her.
“There is still a mistake. Add my overtime pay for today.”
Her face went completely black.
Her eyes were vicious, but she could do nothing except grit her teeth, print another copy, and wait for my signature.
When everything was finally complete, she stared at me with naked malice.
“I am delighted that I’ll never have to see you again.”
“The feeling is mutual. Do you know what you look like when you save money for your corporate overlord? Like the ghost who helps a tiger devour its victims—pitiful and despicable.”