The neighboring city wasn’t far from Rong City. Qi Xi calculated that if things went smoothly, she could make the round trip in a single day, without even needing to stay overnight. Since the whole office was around at the moment, she couldn’t say much to Gu Yan, only exchanging a few extra glances before letting the administrative department arrange a car to take her to the neighboring city.

Qi Xi remembered Old Dong mentioning once that he liked Rong City’s osmanthus wine, so before setting off, she made a point of buying two jars to bring him.

Since it wasn’t rush hour, the drive went smoothly and she arrived quickly. Because Gu Xuehan had said the matter was urgent, Qi Xi rushed straight to Yuanchen’s building without stopping.

Racing against time, practically out of breath, she hurried into Yuanchen’s HR office, and fortunately seemed to have made it in time for the negotiation meeting with the employee—she ran right into Old Dong, his expression grim, on his way out.

Old Dong wasn’t actually that old—only just past forty. Well-maintained, he looked more like mid-thirties, and being diligent about exercise, he hadn’t developed the paunch typical of middle-aged men. He carried himself with energy, and though not particularly striking in appearance, his perpetually smiling face gave off an approachable warmth.

Despite working in HR, he never came across as someone people were guarded around—quite the opposite, he was genuinely likable.

Yuanchen rarely had disputes when employees left, largely thanks to Old Dong’s skill at building goodwill and his easygoing negotiating manner. Qi Xi had once sat in with Gu Xuehan on a conference call where his department had to lay off a batch of workers due to a production line cutback—Old Dong had single-handedly turned the whole thing around, showing real empathy and an ability to genuinely understand what the employees were feeling. Even a mass layoff that Gu Xuehan had expected to be a major conflict had gone smoothly and amicably under his guidance.

So what kind of employee was this, that even Old Dong couldn’t handle her?

On the drive over, Qi Xi had carefully studied the email Gu Xuehan forwarded her, but it contained very little useful information about the employee being terminated—only that her name was Yu Nana, that she’d joined Yuanchen right after finishing her undergraduate degree, that she hadn’t even completed a year there, and that her attendance record showed nearly thirty documented instances of unauthorized absence, not even counting the leave she’d properly filed through official channels.

Qi Xi was a little surprised—how had Yuanchen tolerated this kind of work attitude for almost a year before finally moving to terminate her?

She handed the two jars of osmanthus wine to Old Dong and was about to ask about the details of Yu Nana’s case when he gave her a somewhat sheepish smile. “Sorry to make you come all this way, Xiao Qi.”

Eager to wrap things up quickly, Qi Xi asked, “Should we head straight to the conference room?”

“No need, no need.” Old Dong waved his hands repeatedly. “Sorry about this—I just finished talking with Yu Nana, and I managed to convince her. We’ve reached a settlement. It was so last-minute, I only got her agreement right before you arrived, so I didn’t have time to let you know. You made the trip for nothing.”

Qi Xi was a little surprised. Based on what Gu Xuehan had told her, this Yu Nana was supposed to be a difficult case—how had it already been resolved?

She double-checked with Old Dong. “So this is already settled, then?”

His expression still didn’t look great, but he nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes, it’s settled. We’ve agreed on the severance terms. So thank you for coming all this way—once I finish signing the severance agreement with Yu Nana and get this wrapped up, I’ll take you to a new crayfish place that just opened near our office.”

Though Qi Xi did enjoy good food, her attention had snagged on the phrase “severance terms.” She frowned. “Wasn’t Yu Nana being terminated for serious misconduct—repeated unauthorized absences? In that case, shouldn’t she not be entitled to any severance compensation at all?”

Old Dong seemed caught off guard by the question, but quickly laughed and explained. “Yu Nana’s family situation is pretty difficult. The reason she kept taking leave and missing work was to care for her sick parents. I think that’s understandable. Now that she’s been let go, it’s tough for a young woman to find a new job quickly in this economy, so she initially made a huge fuss and refused to leave, even threatened to sue Yuanchen.”

He looked at Qi Xi. “But you know how it is—we’re in the middle of preparing for our IPO, and our boss doesn’t want any litigation popping up during this period. The instruction to HR and legal has been to settle wherever possible and avoid court. Once something goes to court, even if we’d win, we’d first have to go through labor arbitration, then a first trial, then an appeal—it drags on forever. And once we submit our IPO materials, any litigation has to be disclosed. Our boss’s view is simple: settle these small disputes early. A bit of humanitarian compensation isn’t going to sink the company—call it paying to avoid trouble.”

Old Dong glanced at the time, clearly under a lot of pressure lately, his eyes betraying a hint of anxiety he couldn’t quite mask. “Xiao Qi, why don’t you wait in my office for a bit. Let me get legal to finalize Yu Nana’s settlement agreement quickly.”

With that, he said a quick goodbye to Qi Xi and hurried out of his office.

It was obvious Old Dong was extremely eager to close out this dispute with Yu Nana as quickly as possible, to smooth things over and get her to leave.

Still, since Yuanchen and Yu Nana had reached an agreement, and it was moving in the direction the company wanted, even though Qi Xi’s trip had technically been for nothing, she was glad things had worked out for Yuanchen.

Waiting in Old Dong’s office, Qi Xi grew a little bored. She paced around a few times, examining the items on his desk more than once.

Everything in his office leaned toward solid, understated good taste—rather typical for a man his age. The one splash of color was a lucky cat mug on his desk, which felt oddly out of place with the rest of the room’s dignified atmosphere, giving it an unexpectedly playful touch.

Still, it was rather cute, Qi Xi thought—probably a gift from his daughter, since it clearly wasn’t a style Old Dong would have picked out himself.

After pacing his office a bit more, she started feeling drowsy, so she stepped out to get herself a cup of coffee from Yuanchen’s break room.

It happened to be around Yuanchen’s afternoon tea break, and the break room had quite a few people coming and going—some grabbing tea and a few small snacks before heading straight back to their desks, others lingering with their coffee cups, chatting quietly.

Qi Xi had only intended to make herself a coffee and leave, but while waiting, she couldn’t help overhearing a conversation between two women chatting nearby—

“Yu Nana’s really got it made, huh.”

“Tell me about it. In nearly a year, between all her made-up sick leave and personal leave, plus just not showing up at all, she’s probably worked a total of one or two months, tops. She got caught for almost thirty unauthorized absences, but there were way more she didn’t get caught for.”

The company wasn’t a charity, after all, and it wasn’t realistic to expect other employees to just tolerate Yu Nana’s blatant disregard for the rules—everyone had sick relatives or kids at home too, and no matter how sympathetic her situation was, demanding everyone else accommodate her wasn’t fair.

Qi Xi had just been about to turn and leave when the next part of the conversation caught her attention—

“No kidding. Decked out in gold and jewelry every day, changing designer bags practically every week. Is her family loaded or something?”

“But if her family’s that rich, why’s she even bothering with a job? Just stay home and stop making our lives miserable. Jin Hanmei, who’s on her team, has had the worst luck—since Yu Nana’s basically never around, all her work falls on Hanmei. Poor Hanmei’s basically doing two jobs, and it’s not like she’s getting paid double for it.”

“Do you think those bags of hers are even real?”

“No way, they’re definitely real! I saw her ordering two of them at once on the official website while at work one time—had them shipped straight to the office, even had the front desk sign for the delivery.”

“People really do have it so unfair sometimes. And have you noticed—every time someone files an anonymous complaint to HR about her, it always just gets swept under the rug somehow. You think Yu Nana might have connections?”

“No way. If she really had connections, would she be getting fired?”

…

The two women had spoken carelessly, without meaning anything by it—but Qi Xi, the unintended listener, took careful note.

According to Old Dong, wasn’t Yu Nana supposed to be from a poor family? But according to these coworkers, her lifestyle sounded conspicuously extravagant.

So what was actually going on?