Chapter 2

“Let me sleep another ten minutes. Receive the clients for me when they arrive.”

My busy mornings usually let those ten minutes stretch into two hours.

Now there was no one to fill the gap. All forty-seven minutes were there in the group chat for everyone to see.

She joined the online supplier meeting on time.

But afterward, two columns in the delivery schedule were still blank.

I didn’t learn any of this until my suspension ended and I returned to work.

Manager Zhou seated me beside the print room and put me in charge of sorting old contracts.

“The expenses are still under review. You won’t be working on Hengchuan for now. Concentrate on your assigned work, and don’t go spreading gossip.”

I took the file list and switched my computer back on.

Several things were missing from my desk.

The plant I’d tended for everyone had been moved to Lin Na’s desk. My stapler was sitting among her papers.

When I sat down, Xu Qing smiled at me across the aisle.

“You’ve got it easy now. Nothing to worry about all day.”

I didn’t answer.

That afternoon, Hengchuan returned the revised documents.

The email went to the department’s shared inbox. It gave three reasons: the equipment models were still outdated, the power supply at two stores remained unconfirmed, and the proposed delivery dates had no supporting confirmation from the manufacturer.

Lin Na sprang to her feet and posted a screenshot in the group chat.

“Su Nian, is this the standard of the documents you handed over?”

She added a screenshot of the file properties.

Creator of first draft: Su Nian.

The whole office turned toward me.

I opened my saved handover record and pointed to the third item.

“These two stores were awaiting further checks. You needed to confirm the equipment models and delivery dates. They were marked as outstanding when you signed for them.”

Lin Na pressed her hand down on the page.

“I’m asking why your original draft wasn’t complete in the first place! We never used to have all these problems!”

Of course we hadn’t.

Even after she said she’d received the files, I kept chasing suppliers and contacting the on-site engineers to check the details.

Before bed, I checked my inbox again, afraid I might have missed an email.

Those evenings of extra work had never appeared in her handover records.

Manager Zhou came out to mediate.

“Fix the documents first. We’ll work out responsibility later.”

Xu Qing helped Lin Na revise the cover page and casually moved one date back by two days.

The next day, the supplier called to ask who had sent the client an unconfirmed date.

Lin Na immediately produced Xu Qing’s edit history.

“Look. I wasn’t the one who filled it in.”

Xu Qing went white before she could swallow her coffee.

That afternoon, Manager Zhou issued a new instruction: everyone was to edit only the work they were responsible for. No one was to make commitments on another person’s behalf without confirmation.

Lin Na was the first to like it.

After that, the document group filled with the same message:

“Please have the person responsible confirm.”

No one would press the final Send button for her anymore.

But they still came to me.

“Su Nian, you’ve got experience. Just have a quick look.”

“Weren’t you the one who always did these?”

I finished attaching the file reference label and told them which shelf held the documents.

I didn’t take on what came next.

On Friday evening, Lin Na brought her laptop over and blocked the side of my desk.

“The client’s chasing us, and I have plans tonight. Check this and give it back. I’ll send it later.”

On the screen was the delivery schedule she still hadn’t completed.

I glanced at the bottom-right corner.

Six p.m. exactly.

I had archived all the old contracts assigned to me that day and given administration the receipt.

I saved my work, shut down my computer, and unplugged my charger.

Lin Na pushed her laptop forward, trapping the strap of my bag.

“You’re seriously leaving?”

I slowly pulled the strap free.

“Your work still isn’t finished.”

Then I slung my bag over my shoulder and walked past her.

Two weeks before Hengchuan’s final assessment, the company held an internal rehearsal.

The project covered equipment upgrades at forty-eight stores and three years of operations and maintenance services. The anticipated contract value was 120 million yuan.

Whenever Manager Zhou mentioned it, he seemed reluctant even to say “might.”

This time, he asked each team lead to rehearse the questions the client might ask.

I was called in too, but only to cross-check the service scope in the existing contracts. I wasn’t involved in any new delivery commitments.

I sat at the far end of the long table with several archived contracts in front of me.

The technical team finished its presentation.