The hands of the clock, like the Grim Reaper's cold scythe, slid mercilessly, tick by tick, towards the 5:30 PM end of the workday. Inside the office of Sales Team A at Feichi Group, the atmosphere was heavier, more oppressive than ever, even tinged with a bizarre excitement. Almost everyone had tacitly slowed down their work, the corners of their eyes, as if equipped with an automatic tracking system, occasionally darting towards the restless figure fidgeting like a caged beast in the corner—Chu Tianyi.
The absurd task Wang Hai had thrown at him—"three hundred color-printed promotional materials for the 'Sailing Plan' on Grade A imported coated paper, to be completed before the end of work"—weighed on Chu Tianyi's heart like a thousand-pound boulder. It was also like the script of a farce with a foregone conclusion, whetting the appetites of all the onlookers. They were all holding their breath, waiting for the inevitably spectacular "good show" to officially begin.
Fine beads of sweat covered Chu Tianyi's forehead. Due to prolonged anxiety, humiliation, and helplessness, his face had a sickly flush, and his lips were somewhat chapped. He had tried every solution he could think of in the short time available, but each attempt was like a clay ox entering the sea, ultimately resulting only in deeper desperation.
He had immediately rushed to the administration department's office, trying to find a sliver of a chance for leniency. However, Auntie Li from Administration, renowned throughout the company for being "impartial and unyielding," merely pushed up the thick, bottle-bottom-like reading glasses on her nose and repeated, in a programmed, emotionless tone like a broken record, the same few lines he had already heard countless times: "Little Chu, it's not that I don't want to help you. Rules are rules. Without a handwritten note signed by Director Su herself, forget Grade A imported coated paper; even for ordinary A4 copy paper, anything over a hundred sheets requires a formal material application process. Coming at the last minute like this is against regulations. There's nothing I can do. Why don't you go ask your Team Leader Wang to talk to Director Su?"
These words, seemingly pointing him in a direction, were, in fact, pushing him towards a dead end. Chu Tianyi couldn't even get past Wang Hai, so how could he possibly expect Wang Hai to plead with Director Su?
He then tried to find possible loopholes or backdoors in the company's printer system, hoping to bypass the permission settings and print directly. But Feichi Group was a large company, after all, and the IT department wasn't incompetent. The print management system was a hundred times more secure than his own rickety wooden door at home. Without the corresponding authorization code, the color printing function and special paper options were grayed out, completely unclickable.
He even swallowed his pitiful pride and, with a thick face, approached a few colleagues with whom he usually exchanged nods and had a passable relationship. He wanted to see if he could borrow some plain A4 paper, even just to print black and white versions, so at least Wang Hai could see he had made an effort. And the result? Those people either pretended not to hear him or looked at him with a horrified expression as if he were crazy or trying to drag them down with him, then quickly made excuses and scurried away like he was the plague.
He was like a fly trapped in a transparent glass bottle. He could see the world outside, see the patch of sky above symbolizing freedom, but no matter what, he couldn't find that small exit. He could only collide fruitlessly against the bottle wall, again and again, until he was exhausted, despairing, and waiting for death.
"Dong, dong, dong..." The large, round wall clock finally chimed half-past five, devoid of any emotion. To Chu Tianyi, the sound was like the life-hastening gong struck by a judge in the underworld.
Almost the instant the chimes faded, Wang Hai's corpulent figure strolled out of his private office as if on cue. He still held that thermal mug filled with strong tea, reeking of a mixture of cheap tea leaves and plastic. A nauseating, cat-playing-with-a-mouse grin hung on his face, his eyes filled with the anticipation of savoring his revenge.
"Chu Tianyi!" Wang Hai's voice wasn't loud, yet it was like an invisible whip, lashing out with icy chill upon Chu Tianyi's already taut nerves, stretched to their limit. "Time's up. Not a minute more, not a minute less. Where are my three hundred color-printed documents? Are they neatly and flawlessly arranged on my desk as I requested?"
He deliberately raised his voice in the latter half of the sentence, his unique, grating voice ensuring that everyone in Sales Team A, and even those in the neighboring Team B craning their necks to peek, could hear his every word clearly.
All eyes, like iron filings drawn to a magnet, instantly focused on Chu Tianyi. A suffocating silence filled the air, along with a heart-palpitating oppressiveness characteristic of the calm before a storm.
Chu Tianyi slowly stood up. Due to prolonged anxiety, humiliation, and extreme mental tension, his legs felt weak, almost unable to support his weight. He looked at Wang Hai's face, which appeared even greasier due to his smugness. His lips moved, attempting to make a sound, but his throat felt as if it were being strangled by an invisible hand. He spoke hoarsely, "Team... Team Leader Wang... this task... I..."
"You what? Huh?" Wang Hai's eyebrows shot up exaggeratedly, a cruel delight flashing in his eyes. He seemed to enjoy the perverse pleasure of forcing someone into a corner and then watching their dying struggle. "Don't tell me you couldn't even handle such a trivial, insignificant little thing? Then I'm truly disappointed! Feichi Group doesn't pay you to be a master here, a decoration, or thin air!"
His gaze, like a viper's tongue, roamed over Chu Tianyi's faded, cheap shirt and slightly unglued imitation leather shoes. Then, he glanced meaningfully at Lin Qiqi not far away, who was pretending to organize documents but whose fingers were trembling slightly from nervousness. His tone became even more flippant, harsh, and even carried a lewd insinuation: "No wonder, some people just don't have their minds on work! All day long, they're sneakily peeking at the department's beauties. A toad lusting after a swan's flesh, why don't you take a piss and look at your own shabby, impoverished state! You? You want to pursue a fairy like our Qiqi? In your next life! What kind of decent performance can someone like this produce? What damn value can they create for the company? I say, they're purely wasting the company's food, polluting the company's air, and corrupting the company's morale!"
These words were more vicious, more soul-crushing than any previous humiliation! He not only demeaned Chu Tianyi to be worthless, utterly destroyed, but also forcibly dragged the innocent Lin Qiqi into it, using the crudest, most vulgar language to publicly imply that Chu Tianyi harbored dirty, improper thoughts about Lin Qiqi!
"You!" Lin Qiqi's pretty face, already pale with worry, instantly flushed crimson. She abruptly lifted her head. Her large, watery eyes, usually carrying a hint of innocent bewilderment, now burned with two small flames of extreme anger and grievance. She clenched her fists tightly, her chest heaving violently with rapid breaths. The full curves beneath her V-neck blouse appeared even more breathtaking, as if about to burst through the thin fabric. She seemed to want to retort, to defend Chu Tianyi and herself, but when her eyes met Wang Hai's warning-filled and undisguised lecherous gaze, she was like a frog stared down by a venomous snake. All her courage and anger turned into a bone-deep fear and helplessness. She could only bite her tender lower lip tightly, her eyes uncontrollably turning red, glistening tears welling up, stubbornly refusing to fall.
A loud "buzz" resonated in Chu Tianyi's head, as if he had been struck head-on by an invisible battering ram! Wang Hai's words had completely ignited the monstrous rage that had long been suppressed to its absolute limit within him! He could tolerate all of Wang Hai's oppression, a_n_y_ d_i_f_f_i_c_u_l_t_i_e_s _c_r_e_a_t_e_d, and humiliation directed at himself, but he absolutely could not tolerate Wang Hai using such filthy, vulgar words to defile and hurt a pure and beautiful girl like Lin Qiqi! This had touched his last remaining bottom line!
"Wang—Hai—!" Chu Tianyi's teeth ground together audibly, each word seemingly forced from between them, carrying a growl suppressed to the extreme, like that of a wounded beast. His eyes instantly turned bloodshot from extreme anger, filled with horrifying red streaks. He stared deadly at Wang Hai, his gaze as if wanting to devour him alive!
"Yo-ho? You dare bare your teeth at me? Want to rebel, huh?" Wang Hai hadn't expected Chu Tianyi, this soft persimmon whom he usually kneaded and flattened at will and who wouldn't even dare to fart, to actually dare to show such a ferocious gaze in public today. He was stunned for a moment, then flew into a rage, feeling his authority had been challenged as never before. He slammed the thermal mug in his hand heavily onto Chu Tianyi's already rickety desk. Scalding tea instantly splashed out, a few drops even landing directly on the back of Chu Tianyi's hand, leaving several rapidly reddening blisters.
"Taking it too far? I'm damn well taking it too far with you today, what can you do to me?" Wang Hai's oily face, somewhat swollen from anger and alcohol, was now violently contorted with agitation, spittle flying like rain. "Chu Tianyi, I'm telling you clearly right now! You, from this second onwards, are officially fired! Immediately! Right now! Pack up your damn things, which are worse than garbage, and get out of Feichi Group! I don't want to see your worthless, reckless face for another goddamn second!"
"Also," Wang Hai added, as if still not satisfied, he viciously jabbed his forefinger, yellowed from long-term smoking, almost at Chu Tianyi's nose, and enunciated word by word, through gritted teeth, "I will report your 'glorious deeds' of today, in meticulous detail, to the company's HR department and Director Su! Let them make a good note of it in your departure file, in the most conspicuous red letters! Let's see which decent company in this Star City will dare to hire a piece of social garbage like you, who is insubordinate, talks back to superiors, is incompetent, and spends all day thinking about taking advantage of female colleagues! You just wait to beg on the streets!"
Fired! A stained record! Blacklisted in the industry! Never to be hired!
Each word was like a red-hot, poison-quenched steel knife, stabbing fiercely into Chu Tianyi's heart, shredding his already riddled self-esteem and his last sliver of hope for the future into pieces!
The surrounding colleagues didn't even dare to breathe loudly. The entire office area was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, only the dull hum of the central air conditioning droned on, like a premature dirge for Chu Tianyi. Their eyes, looking at Chu Tianyi, were filled with incredible shock and a trace of... inexplicable fear. None of them had expected Wang Hai to take things this far; this was practically pushing Chu Tianyi to his death!
Chu Tianyi felt the world spin, his ears buzzed, and everything before him began to blur. Wang Hai's distorted and ugly face, Lin Qiqi's beautiful eyes brimming with tears of grievance, anger, and helplessness, and the complex expressions of the surrounding colleagues—indifferent, fearful, or tinged with a hint of pity—all seemed to twist, deform, and magnify in a huge, constantly rotating and sinking vortex...
His body trembled violently from extreme anger and despair, his knuckles making an unnerving, teeth-grinding "kaka" sound from excessive force. He wanted to rush forward, to use all his strength to smash Wang Hai's disgusting face into the desk! He wanted to roar, to vent all the long-suppressed anger, unwillingness, humiliation, and despair in his heart without reservation!
But he couldn't.
He knew that if he laid a hand on him, he would truly be beyond redemption, playing right into Wang Hai's hands. A despicable scoundrel like Wang Hai was best at distorting black and white, confusing right and wrong. At that time, he would only bear even heavier accusations and completely ruin his own life.
An unprecedented sense of powerlessness, like a thousand miles of frozen ice, instantly submerged all his anger and reason. He stood rigidly in place, like a puppet drained of all strength and soul, allowing those vicious words and cold gazes to slice him apart, piece by piece, like the sharpest blades.
His heart was bleeding. His soul was wailing in agony.
Despair! This was true, absolute despair with no way out!
Just as Chu Tianyi felt his spirit about to be completely devoured by this boundless darkness, and his consciousness began to blur due to lack of oxygen and immense mental pressure, in the deepest part of his mind—a chaotic and mysterious corner he himself had never perceived, like the primordial universe—it seemed as if something, unable to withstand the extreme pressure from both the outside world and his inner self, which had surpassed a critical point, quietly...
"Click—"
An extremely faint, almost imperceptible sound, like the sound a hardened seed finally makes when it breaks free from the shackles of darkness and struggles to push through the soil, carrying the breath of new life and destruction, quietly... gently echoed in the deepest part of his soul.