Cheng Lele posted the flight and hotel information she was about to book in the company’s WeChat group, tagging her superiors and finance personnel. At last year’s annual meeting, the theater chain president had announced that to improve the company’s administrative efficiency, they would introduce the latest OA system. As it turned out, the stingy company shopped around for prices, then turned back and continued down the old road. Approval forms had to be filled out on paper and sent up layer by layer, and announcements still had to be made in the group chat for all to see.
The moment Cheng Lele sent the information, another group [Corporate Slaves Group 5 (No Leaders)] exploded.
A: [Cindy, are you really going to Taixi for support?]
B: [Has President Shen fallen into a money pit? Sending headquarters staff to support a franchise store?]
A: [Are you stupid? President Shen is a profiteer who never does anything without profit. Would he provide free support? The other party is paying a separate consulting fee.]
B: [Damn, so why did this fall on Cindy specifically?]
C: [It’s definitely Old Dog Huang’s idea. After that incident a while back, he was worried he had no way to get rid of Cindy. Now Old Dog Huang has sniffed it out.]
D: [Old Dog Huang really isn’t a decent person.]
A: [Vomit.jpg]
E: [Cut into pieces.jpg]
F: [May his lineage end.jpg]
C: [Haven’t seen this emoji before, saved it.]
A: [By the way, where is Taixi?]
C: [A tiny thirty-sixth-tier county town. That cinema was supposed to close at the beginning of this year but was just acquired by an individual investor. I heard that investor has never run a cinema and hasn’t mentioned plans to open a chain. Who knows if they’ll just play around with it and then close it down again?]
D: [If it closes, Cindy can come back, right? Then I wish it an early closure.]
A neat row of “wishing it an early closure” followed.
Cheng Lele weakly added an ellipsis at the end. HR Manager Mark called her on the internal line, asking her to come to the small conference room.
Mark had worked at Tongda Theater Chain for over ten years and was considered one of the company veterans. Cheng Lele was hired by him. The longer a company operated, the more old employees it had, and the more slackers there were. But honestly, in the three years since Cheng Lele joined, she had been dedicated and hardworking, and her achievements were there for all to see. If she hadn’t offended Director Huang, she really wouldn’t have been exiled.
He handed Cheng Lele a position adjustment consent form he had prepared in advance.
Cheng Lele took it. Although they had communicated briefly before, seeing in black and white that her original salary had been split into base salary plus performance bonus, with the performance bonus accounting for almost half, she still felt displeased.
“Mark, what the company is doing violates labor law.”
Although Cheng Lele didn’t plan to go to the labor bureau for arbitration, she had to make her point. As for why she wasn’t doing so—well, she worried she would soon have a weakness in the company’s hands and wanted to hold back temporarily, waiting to see the situation before tearing off the facade with the company.
Mark was doing his job: “Cindy, actually you can’t really call it a pay cut. The company is giving you an additional housing allowance. Employees working in Beijing don’t enjoy this benefit.”
Cheng Lele smiled: “The housing allowance goes to the landlord. It just passes through my hands.”
“You can’t put it that way. Don’t you have to rent in Beijing? Besides…” Mark sized her up. “You’re from Taixi. Living in your own home, doesn’t that save you money?”
The corners of Cheng Lele’s mouth straightened into a line.
Mark immediately said: “Director Huang and the others don’t know you’re from Taixi. I haven’t told them either.”
Cheng Lele felt somewhat helpless. Mark’s tone made it sound like she owed him a favor.
“The company’s salary isn’t distributed based on household registration. Whether I’m from Taixi or not, this allowance should be distributed according to the benefit system. I’m not taking advantage of the company.”
Seeing she wouldn’t yield to soft or hard tactics, Mark sighed: “Cindy, I know you have grievances. Fine, I’ll violate protocol and give you the inside scoop. In two more months, the group is transferring President Shen to the film and television side. Once he goes, Director Huang will definitely follow. When that happens, I’ll find a way to transfer you back.”
Cheng Lele raised her eyebrows and asked half-doubtfully: “Really?”
“Inside information, guaranteed authentic. Just stick it out there for six months no matter what. Pretty loyal of me, right?”
Cheng Lele smiled. She wanted to say plans couldn’t keep up with changes. Even guaranteed matters could turn upside down in a few days, let alone in half a year. Back then, her plan to start a new life in the provincial capital had been set in stone, but within half a month…
She stopped herself in time, twirled her pen, and wrote her name in the signature box.
Mark’s promise couldn’t be written on paper. She just listened casually. Since she definitely had to return to Taixi anyway, after expressing her position, she might as well sign.
She accepted Mark’s favor. After signing, Cheng Lele capped her pen and said humbly: “Brother Mark, I await your summons.”
Coming out of the small conference room, Cheng Lele logged into the box office data platform and selected Taixi in the region column. It showed there was only one cinema in the area, with decent box office numbers.
After all these years, the entire county still only had one cinema. In today’s context of the cinema market continuously moving into smaller cities, this was truly not easy.
Perhaps it was just too far down the tier list for the “downward expansion” to reach there. When she was little, she thought Taixi was quite prosperous. Only after arriving in Beijing did she realize it was really a small backwater. Thinking of those narrow-minded royal nobles at Taixi High School dividing that small backwater into high and low classes, Cheng Lele couldn’t help but laugh.
Having no competitors was a good thing. At least her bonus wouldn’t be a goose egg.
After reviewing the data, Cheng Lele shut down her computer and began organizing the materials and miscellaneous items on her desk. Some small decorations were given to nearby colleagues, some documents needed to be shredded, and others had to be sealed and transferred.
A timid gaze kept coming from the side. She ignored it.
There were many more things to do after this. Even trusting Mark’s guarantee, Cheng Lele didn’t dare leave her Beijing room empty waiting for her return. She had to sublet her shared room. Because the timeframe was only six months, she had to offer a discount on the rent before finding a suitable woman to take it over.
After this major matter was settled, she bought a bouquet of daisies and took the bus to the cemetery to visit Mom.
“I won’t be able to come see you for half a year. Plane tickets are too expensive—saving is saving. Don’t miss me too much.” She sat in front of the grave and chatted with Mom for a while. The late summer wind wasn’t too hot. After chatting, she thought about nothing, leaning alone against the tombstone watching the clouds in the sky scatter and gather, gather and scatter, until night fell all around before getting up.
Before leaving, she suddenly asked the person in the photo: “Mom, do you think I’ll run into Little Bro when I go back?”
After all these years, by now he should have already realized his dream and rung the bell at NASDAQ, right? After all, before even starting university, he could already afford to buy a house in the provincial capital. She imagined Little Bro driving a supercar in and out of Grade 5A office buildings. Sitting in the center of a conference room with people below trembling in fear. Little Bro opening his golden mouth: “The weather’s turned cold. Time to bankrupt the Wang family.”
Cheng Lele was amused by the scene she imagined.
For Little Bro, Taixi was too much of a backwater place. They probably wouldn’t run into each other. That was good.