Assistant Lin Has Something To Say

He Jianshan was, on a rare occasion, distracted.

An employee was reporting this month’s results. After this, he was going to be detailing goals and projected plans for next month. However, He Jianshan didn’t have it in himself to listen. 

He was busy thinking about some stuff related to Lin Hui.

Earlier that morning, he’d been flipping through some reference material for an investment proposal. As soon as he opened up the book, he found a sheet of A4 paper tucked inside. It was a resignation letter, an eloquent page listing all the reasons why he was resigning. It looked like everything was ready. All that was missing was a signature.

The only person he’d lent this book to was Lin Hui. This was Lin Hui’s resignation letter.

At that moment, He Jianshan felt as though his heart had dropped. Then, he saw that the date listed on the resignation letter was four years ago. He exhaled softly. He Jianshan refolded the resignation letter and tucked it back into the book. 

Actually, it was quite typical for people to come and go at any company, no matter how big or how small. This wasn’t just the case for ordinary employees. Wanzhu also had middle to high level employees jump over to a different company or run off to start their own business. He Jianshan had never cared about it before. However, when he saw that letter of resignation, when he realized that Lin Hui had also considered resigning, he found himself a little bit at a loss.

It seemed that He Jianshan had never imagined that Lin Hui would one day leave Wanzhu, that Lin Hui would one day leave He Jianshan.

Fortunately, this was from four years ago. On some random day four years ago, Lin Hui might have considered leaving. However, in the end, he stayed.

He Jianshan spent a few minutes recalling what had happened during this time. He had a vague guess as to why Lin Hui had wanted to leave. The date listed on the resignation letter had been an ordinary and unremarkable day. However, a week earlier, a big event had occurred at Wanzhu—an employee had suddenly died during work hours.

The employee’s name was Zhou Donghui. He was a member of the planning department. Within Wanzhu, he was known for being honest and sincere. He spent all day writing up proposals, and he did his work diligently. Just one day before the accident occurred, he had made a joke with his colleagues, saying that he’d dreamt of numbers last night and planned on buying a lottery ticket. Who would have thought that, just one day later, he would suddenly collapse in his office. Wanzhu sent the man to the hospital as soon as the incident occurred, but, unfortunately, it was already too late. The death certificate issued by the hospital confirmed that it was a sudden cardiac death. According to company policy and relevant government regulations, the company was to compensate the family with compensatory payment. They would also assist with the funeral proceedings.

During that time, He Jianshan had been abroad, so Lin Hui had stepped in for a lot of things. His mood had actually been very complicated. He was also someone who had lost relatives, so he could empathize with what the family was going through. However, from a corporate perspective, this was something that needed to be handled as soon as possible in order to reduce the impact on the company. As he was urging for follow up from the administrative department, he was also contacting Zhou Donghui’s family in order to discuss compensation. No one expected the issue to suddenly explode on the internet before the two sides had ever even met.

The reason was because Zhou Donghui’s wife, Wei Xuan, posted an article on Weibo. The title was quite intriguing all on its own—Three Questions For Wanzhu: My Husband, Zhou Donghui; My Child’s Father, Zhou Donghui; Zhou Jianguo’s Son, Zhou Donghui; Why Have You Left Us? The article claimed that Zhou Donghui, a longtime employee of Wanzhu, had encountered workplace bullying. He was forced to work long overtime hours. One month before his death, he had been demoted and received a cut in pay for no reason at all. All of this had been weighing heavily on his heart and resulted in his passing. The article was written from Wei Xuan’s perspective. The details felt very real, and the emotions behind it were sincere.  Each and every word was accusing Wanzhu of abusing and honest employee. Each and every letter seemed to be dripping in blood.

A single stone stirred up a thousand waves. 

There’d always been a lot of online attention towards Wanzhu, and Wei Xuan’s article had also resonated with a lot of people. There were a few people pointing out that this was just the family’s side of things and that there wasn’t any solid evidence for their claims. However, that night, with the help of various verified accounts and the righteous fury of the internet, the hashtag, #WanzhuKillingEmployee, made it onto the trending list. Public opinion instantly boiled over.

If the voice of criticism could still be considered tolerable, that all changed once Wei Xuan took an interview with a well-known media outlet, The South China Morning Post. The article was accompanied by a photo of Wanzhu’s headquarters. The black and white color tone tinted the entire photo with a sense of oppression. Underneath the photo was a small but eye-catching line of characters: “Of the many employees wandering among the reinforced concrete, how many of them have thought that they’d one day be crushed beneath it?” Throughout the entire article, there was a very strong sense of instigation. The writing was almost inflammatory in style. Its one-sided tone and subjective wording made people’s blood pressure rise, pushing the company into a precarious position.

This was a call to arms.

All arrows were pointing directly towards Wanzhu. 

Naturally, Lin Hui also saw these two articles. To be honest, he was incredibly shocked and upset. Not only were a lot of the details in the article not true, Wei Xuan had also mentioned a “high level executive with an ‘l’ last name” that was bullying her husband in the workplace and had deliberately lowered his salary. This so-called executive was probably referring to him, Lin Hui.

Lin Hui carefully recalled all contact between Zhou Donghui and himself. It was pretty much entirely about work. Their conversations were smooth, and the atmosphere was peaceful. There hadn’t been any sign of unhappiness at all. The reduction in salary that Wei Xuan mentioned did in fact occur. However, that was because Zhou Donghui had been performing rather poorly over the past year or so. The proposals he drafted either contained low-level mistakes or were haphazardly done. He also took up other jobs on the side, so his work had been severely affected. His department leader had spoken to him about it several times. The demotion and reduction in salary had actually been because his team leader really couldn’t take it anymore. His team leader wanted the company to either transfer him to another post or ask him to retire if all else failed. Zhou Donghui had been working in the planning department ever since he started working at Wanzhu. All he knew was how to write up planning proposals. It was a difficult thing for a middle-aged man to change careers, but he truly wasn’t in the kind of state in which he could continue his original position.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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Zhou Donghui must have noticed that something was up. When he saw Lin Hui, he profusely apologized. He confessed that he’d been worrying about money for the past two years. His kid was going to start elementary school soon, and he wanted to buy a house within the school district zone. However, the price of a house in that location was too expensive for him to take on. He was a bit of a taciturn person to begin with. Whenever he went home, he’d have to listen to his wife nag at him. There was just too much pressure. Sometimes, he would rather stay at the company than go home early. Both of their parents were now selling their houses and borrowing money to support them. He’d also been doing some part-time work in his spare time. Plus, he had the money that he’d saved over the past couple of years. His family was planning to buy one of the cheaper houses on the market and get it over with. 

Zhou Donghui’s face was full of fatigue. When he spoke, his eyes reddened, and he choked up several times. He promised to adjust his mental state as soon as possible. He just hoped that the company would give him another chance. Lin Hui couldn’t help but sigh. Although he didn’t have a family, he knew that the phrase “school district zone” was like a shackle on the modern family. In the end, Lin Hui agreed to resolve the issue with a demotion and reduction in salary. Since the matter was pretty much settled, there wasn’t any need to force an excellent and experienced employee to retire. He informed He Jianshan of the matter, and He Jianshan approved it.

Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that such a thing would be misinterpreted as workplace bullying.

Also, judging from the chat records between Wei Xuan and Zhou Donghui, it seemed that Zhou Donghui was always getting home late, telling her that he’d been working overtime. Perhaps this sort of thing happened too often. Wei Xuan was very dissatisfied and asked him why he was being assigned so much overtime by the company. She said that it hadn’t been this bad before. Zhou Donghui explained that it was arranged by the higher ups and that there was nothing he could do about it. However, Zhou Donghui’s workload actually wasn’t so bad that he’d need to do overtime every day. Furthermore, his immediate superiors had never made such a request. When Wei Xuan asked Zhou Donghui why his salary had been decreased, Zhou Donghui said the company had made the decision to decrease his salary. When asked about the reason why, he simply said that the higher ups didn’t like him and vaguely muddled his way through the conversation.

Lin Hui didn’t understand why Zhou Donghui would tell such a lie. Maybe it had just been one lie at first. However, a single lie requires another ten lies to cover it up. Ultimately, his wife completely believed everything he said. After Zhou Donghui’s death, she repeatedly played back the things he’d said and came up with this melodramatic plot about workplace bullying. She insisted that this toxic workplace was what caused her husband to lose his life. Wanzhu, as a top ranking company, should eliminate all toxic behaviors from its ranks, take responsibility, and give everyone an explanation. 

This was absolutely absurd.

What was even more absurd was the fact that, even if there wasn’t a shred of convincing evidence, public opinion still sided with Wei Xuan.

He watched as things became more and more unreasonable. Even after the company issued an official statement addressing the inaccuracies of the article, the controversy still wasn’t dying down. After all, Wanzhu could release overtime records to prove that they didn’t force anyone, but it was hard to confirm whether or not there was workplace bullying going on. It was he-said-she-said. You claim you didn’t bully anyone. I don’t believe you. Lin Hui and Wei Xuan ended up having a face-to-face conversation. He wanted to try and communicate with her. However, her emotions had been running too high, and she wouldn’t listen. She even grabbed her phone and smashed it on his forehead.

At the same time, voices of doubt began to appear within the company. Some people felt that this current conversation wasn’t good for Wanzhu. Even if this had nothing to do with Lin Hui, he should still be suspended for now. One, it would help to avoid intensifying the conflict, and, two, it would serve as a show of attitude. Some people also felt that these false allegations were a bad influence and that the company wasn’t doing enough to combat it. Sometimes, it was necessary to sue. They couldn’t give up the opportunity to defend themselves just because Wei Xuan encountered a misfortunate event… 

Lin Hui was exhausted. Pressure from both online and within the company had pulled him taut. He’d inexplicably become the target of abuse and criticism. He repeatedly reviewed every decision he made and every word he said in order to ensure that there was nothing amiss. He still needed to have meetings with the public relations department, the legal department, and various other senior employees every day. They would discuss what to do next over and over again. Then, once he had a bit of peace and quiet, he needed to sort out everything, including the normal operations of the company, and send it over to He Jianshan.

He was so anxious that he didn’t even notice he was saying words he’d already said and sending files he’d already sent to the person on the other side of the computer. For the first time in his life, he doubted himself. He Jianshan had only been gone for a couple of days, yet he’d already made a mess of Wanzhu. Although He Jianshan approved all of these decisions, Lin Hui was very clear about the fact that He Jianshan’s judgments were all based on his reports. Since he was halfway across the world, There was no way he’d be able to have a complete understanding of the entire situation. He simply trusted him. However, it seemed that he had failed to live up to He Jianshan’s expectations. He’d even written his letter of resignation in a very self-sacrificing way. If his resignation could calm everything down, then he would not hesitate.

On the eighth day, He Jianshan returned.

He came back a day earlier than originally planned. No one had received news, not even Lin Hui. When he walked into the conference room, Lin Hui almost wasn’t even able to react. Once everyone started swarming up to him, the two of them made eye contact with each other from across the crowd. He Jianshan’s eyes stopped on Lin Hui’s forehead for a while. Then, he walked past the people in front of him and said, “Continue the meeting.” 

There was no doubt. He Jianshan was Wanzhu’s heartbeat.

From the moment he entered the conference room, the entire atmosphere had completely changed. Lin Hui also started to relax a little.

He Jianshan listened carefully to the PR team’s analysis and proposal. He tapped the table with his finger. Then, he spoke.

“Let’s do that then. Prepare the materials for litigation.” 

“Sort out all records of communication with Zhou Donghui. It does not matter whether it’s online communication or in-person communication. Include casual group chats as well. I want to take a look.”

“Find someone to open up his computer. Collect all traces of his work.”

“Make an appointment with Mrs. Wei. Just tell her that I’d like to have a chat.”

“Everyone should get back to doing whatever they were doing—” 

He Jianshan looked at Lin Hui.

“You. Follow me to the office.”

Lin Hui took a deep breath.

It was already 10:00 PM. All the employees who were supposed to get off work had already gotten off work, and those who weren’t getting off work were already exhausted. The building had finally quieted down. Lin Hui followed He Jianshan back to their office. He was a little tired. He hadn’t said much throughout the entire meeting. He Jianshan glanced at him and casually threw him a book. “Go read on the sofa.” 

How could he possibly read at a time like this? Still, Lin Hui didn’t ask questions. He Jianshan said to read, and so he did. Neither of them said a word. One of them sat at the desk, glancing between his phone and his computer from time to time. The other sat on the sofa, staring at the book in his hands in a daze.

They each did their own thing without interfering with the other. It made for a surprisingly harmonious scene.

Lin Hui didn’t know how much time had passed. He Jianshan didn’t seem to have any intention to speak, but Lin Hui couldn’t sit still. He’d just put down his book and was about to say something when he heard the faint sound of an electric current in his ears. Then, there was a buzz, and the office fell into darkness.

A power outage? 

The sudden power outage stunned both of them. Lin Hui suddenly remembered something. “Oh. I believe property management said that there would be a routine inspection of the circuits tonight. I think the power will be out for about ten minutes.”

After saying this, he stood up. “I’ll go and open the curtains.” He Jianshan had been away all this time, so the custodial staff had pulled down the curtains in his office. There wasn’t any light in the office at the moment. It felt a little stuffy.

“Wait a moment.”

Lin Hui stopped in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows and threw a puzzled glance towards He Jianshan. He couldn’t see clearly. His phone wasn’t by his side either. All he could make out was a vague outline of He Jianshan. He walked over and stopped in front of him. 

He Jianshan seemed to be looking at him.

After a while, he asked, “Does it still hurt?”

He Jianshan’s voice was rather low, slowly pouring into the darkness like lake water. Lin Hui blanked for a moment. Then, he realized that he was asking about the wound on his forehead. It had been left by Wei Xuan’s cell phone. It wasn’t that big of a deal. All that was left of it now was a tiny scar. Lin Hui opened his mouth. He really wanted to brush it off by saying “it’s alright”, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t get a word out. In the end, he just gently shook his head.

“Do you remember that one Mid-Autumn Festival? We were standing here just like this.” He Jianshan didn’t mind the silence and spoke up again. 

Of course he remembered.

It was a day that he would never forget. They watched that bright and beautiful moon. They watched the glimmering city lights. They spent an unforgettable Mid-Autumn Festival together. Lin Hui didn’t know why He Jianshan was bringing it up, but his complicated, tangled up mood suddenly seemed to unravel.

He Jianshan stretched out his hand and placed it against the curtain. He seemed to be talking to himself. “I wonder if the moon’s out today?”

Lin Hui found himself getting inexplicably nervous. He stared hard at He Jianshan, trying to guess what it was he was thinking from his face, but all he could see was a faint outline. He couldn’t help but say, “I—” 

Whoosh—

Outside the window, there was the soft and gentle moon.

If there was anything in this world that was forever, it would be the moon. It didn’t matter if it was a thousand years ago, ten years ago, or even now. Once the sky fell dark, the one thing you could always count on seeing was that same soft glow. Lin Hui’s eyes were filled with that gorgeous moonlight. He found himself stunned. He forgot about everything else. All he could feel was this surge of emotion in his heart, complicated and difficult to distinguish. His nose felt sour.

“Lin Hui.” He Jianshan turned his head. “You’ve worked hard.” 

This one sentence finally disintegrated the last bit of Lin Hui’s defenses.

He wanted to say that he hadn’t worked hard, that he still hadn’t worked hard enough. Everything he’d done these past couple of years had all been thanks to He Jianshan’s guidance. He’d been confident in his own growth. However, all it took was him leaving his side for him to realize that he was still far from good enough. He was way out of his depth. He didn’t even want to rest. His phone kept on lighting up. There was still a lot of work to be done. He shouldn’t have even listened to him and read that book. They should’ve discussed what to do next—

But the moon was just so beautiful.

Lin Hui’s tears fell without warning, and, once the first tear fell, there was no stopping the rest. It was silent at first. Then, it became quiet sobbing. Finally, he lowered his head, covered his eyes with his hands, and let out all of his anxiety, grievance, and suffering. 

He Jianshan didn’t say anything more. He just quietly stared at the moon like a silent stone sculpture.

Within this sudden ten-minute power outage, within this brief yet endless darkness, Lin Hui was able to finally relax for the first time in many, many days.

By the time the lights came back on, Lin Hui had already returned to normal. Apart from his reddish eyes, there was hardly any trace of his earlier outburst. He looked at He Jianshan. Then, he showed him a bright and earnest smile.

“President He, let’s get back to work.” 

The Author Has Something To Say:

Every employee’s thought about leaving before, and Assistant Lin is no exception. This is the second time he thought about resigning.

Translator’s Note:

Even in a non-entertainment novel, there’s no escaping the righteous fury of the internet.