Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Ring, ring!”
Lin Yao feebly stretched out her hand and reached for the noisy alarm clock.
Since she had things on her mind, Lin Yao turned and tossed the entire night last night. She wasn’t able to fall asleep until early in the morning, so she was still a little tired at the moment.
After Lin Yao finished her morning routine, she rearranged her hair and clothes in front of the mirror on the wall.
As soon as she went out the door, she saw her landlady standing nearby, smiling at her.
“Xiao Lin, are you going to work?”
“Yes, Auntie.” Lin Yao had always been a polite child. Before she headed out, she waved at the landlady and said, “Goodbye!”
The landlady’s chubby face immediately broke out into a smile, and she waved at her warmly.
“Goodbye, goodbye!”
For some inexplicable reason, Lin Yao’s mood was much better!
In the early morning, East City appeared unusually “clean” but not in terms of sanitation.
It was late autumn, and garbage, such as sunflower seeds shells, orange peels, fast food containers, and plastic bags, could still be seen everywhere on the ground.
If it was summer, the sanitation would be worse here. Bamboo sticks from barbecues, broken empty wine bottles, watermelon rinds, and even rotten watermelon, would be everywhere on the road.
Almost every corner and curb would have some vomit or excrement from an unknown source, and the air would reek of a disgusting odor.
What was even more disgusting was that cockroaches and rats crawled all over the ground, while flies and mosquitoes flew all over the sky, so there was nowhere pleasant to look.
However, this wasn’t even the worst part yet…
In fact, when Lin Yao said “clean,” she was referring to the early morning when those who came out at night were still sleeping.
By this time, Lin Yao had become aware that in her part of the East City, very few young people actually had a “serious” job.
Not that far away, a middle-aged woman wearing a yellow cleaning uniform was using a huge bamboo stick broom to sweep up the garbage on the ground. Dust was raised, and a very unpleasant smell rose up into the air.
Upon seeing Lin Yao, the cleaning lady immediately stopped the work in her hand. She took off her mask and greeted her endearingly, “Young lady, are you going to work?”
Lin Yao smiled at her, “Good morning Ma’am, I am going to work!” She waved her hand and walked away.
It wasn’t until Lin Yao walked more than a dozen meters away that the cleaning lady started to continue sweeping the floor again, and this made Lin Yao’s heart feel warm inside.
As usual, Lin Yao bought breakfast at the cafe next to the bus stop.
If she needed to wait for the bus, she would finish her breakfast at the stop. If the bus was there, she would wait to eat after getting off the bus.
As a member of the lower class of society, what image did she need to care about?
“Owner, a glutinous rice ball with meat filling, some old fritters with pickled veggies, and non-spicy please!”
“Alright, I’ll charge you four yuan, and you’re welcome to come again next time!” The red-faced breakfast cafe owner smiled like a Buddha figure and was especially warm to her.
The rumble of an engine and the electronic beeping unique to a bus sounded not that far away.
“Bus Route No. 56!”
For bus riders like Lin Yao, what she wanted the most was for the bus to roll up right when she arrived at the bus stop.
She had hardly encountered such good luck in the past, but now, things were different.
Lin Yao felt that since joining Lingyun Industry, her days of bad luck had finally come to an end.
The ride from East City to the Yueyang Building was only seven or eight bus stops. When Lin Yao arrived at the company at 8:10, she suddenly felt a little worried. Had she arrived too early?
The first thing Lin Yao did after she arrived at the company was to open all the windows and doors for ventilation.
She noticed that Lin Yun liked turning on the air conditioner in particular. After clearing out the air, she would close all the windows again.
At 8:20, Lin Yao leaned on the guardrail by the floor-to-ceiling windows and stood on her tiptoes as she looked down at Stadium Road below.
From this height, the cars appeared very small like tiny model cars, and the pedestrians became small dots. This gave her the feeling that she was looking down on all living beings.
Not that far away was the river of Hangzhou. The green river appeared serene and beautiful.
Lin Yao turned on her computer, but there was no work waiting for her to do.
Lin Yao looked up at the big empty room and felt a little confused for a while, but she knew that Lin Yun did not hire her to daydream.
What should employees do early in the morning, before the boss arrived at the company? She had never considered this issue that much.
When Lin Yao was at the Tianfeng Company, she was always the first to arrive every day. She also opened the windows and the doors to ventilate the room, and then she turned on her computer to start the day’s work.
At first, there was nothing wrong with this. She was a newbie and therefore had low work efficiency. If she didn’t start her work in advance, she wouldn’t be able to finish her work within the required time.
As time went on, the situation became different, and her efficiency grew stronger. Work that originally took her half a day to complete could be finished in an hour.
At that point, she became complacent.
Her colleagues obviously did things differently from her.
For example, Sister Dan would always wipe the table and chairs for the supervisors. Although the supervisors may not have always seen her doing, they still knew it was her deep down.
Another example was Master Zhang. After arriving at the office, he would turn on the water dispenser and make a cup of tea for himself. Then, he would unfold the newspaper for the day, cross his legs, and read the paper leisurely.
A third example was Xiao Shen, who was from the Finance Department. She would use that half-hour before the supervisors arrived at the company to give herself a beautiful makeover.
At around 9:00, when the supervisors arrived at the company, they would see that Sister Dan had cleaned up their offices. On several occasions, she smiled and greeted them with a rag in her hand before she went back to her job.
Master Zhang had already finished reading the newspaper, gulped down his cup of tea, and uncrossed his legs. His desk would be full of various files, and he would appear to be working hard.
As for Xiao Shen, what the supervisors saw when they passed the finance office would be a beautiful white-collar lady with tasteful makeup meticulously checking the reports.
People like Xiao Liu and Xiao Cheng were similar as well, and it seemed like everyone had stacks of work waiting to be dealt with.
The only exception would be Lin Yao…
During her last month at the Tianfeng Company, she became more motivated and was therefore even more diligent and hard-working; her work efficiency had become even more incredible!
So when the supervisors arrived at the company, she often already finished her morning work, and in the afternoon, she still needed to wait for other people’s data to come to her before she could start her work.
During this period, she had nothing to do, so she sometimes played Minesweeper on the computer and sometimes imitated others by reading the newspaper.
Lin Yao would always finish her work early and be one step ahead of the others, and her efficiency far exceeded that of her colleagues, but so what?
The leaders only saw that she was doing nothing, and caught sight of her doing nothing more and more!
Unfortunately, at that time, Lin Yao did not know why her supervisors were dissatisfied with her and her alone!
At 8:25, Lin Yao asked herself: What side of myself do I want my bosses to see at the moment?