Chapter 3

Procurement asked Lin Na, “When does the third batch of equipment arrive? If a store hands over its site late, how will the installation crew be reassigned?”

She smoothly opened the template I’d made and scrolled down two pages.

Then she stopped.

Those two date columns were still blank.

Manager Zhou tapped the table.

“Lin Na, we raised this last week.”

“The manufacturer hasn’t replied. I’ll chase them again tonight.”

Procurement projected an email.

“They replied yesterday. They need you to confirm the delivery phases so they can finalize the installation staffing schedule. Without your confirmation, they can’t keep their crew waiting indefinitely.”

Lin Na clicked twice, both times in the same place.

Looking at that email, I remembered the evenings I’d spent preparing reports for her.

She never read all the attachments. She only asked me to put likely questions and answers in the notes.

“Red means the answers, and blue means things I shouldn’t bring up, right?”

I’d even marked where she should pause and when to move to the next slide.

Later, management praised her expertise. She came to believe that whenever she opened her mouth, the knowledge would simply be there.

During the rehearsal break, she went to Xu Qing first.

“Compile these comments for me and send them over tonight.”

Xu Qing immediately closed her laptop.

“I can compile them. But you’ll have to sign off on any dates we promise.”

“You’re not a new hire. Can’t you use your judgment?”

“Last time I moved a date back two days, didn’t you say I’d made that decision all by myself?”

They argued across the back of a chair for a few seconds.

Lin Na turned and intercepted one of the engineers.

“Then just fill in the fastest possible dates. If the client asks, you can explain.”

The engineer pointed to the screen.

“How we install the equipment is our responsibility. Coordinating the client’s site handover and the manufacturer’s shipments is yours. Unless all three line up, nobody can guarantee those dates for you.”

“All I need is an estimate!”

“Even an estimate we give the client needs a basis.”

He pulled the mouse back and returned to his presentation.

Standing in the middle of the meeting room, Lin Na finally looked at me.

“Su Nian, come here a minute.”

I took my cup of water to the door.

She blocked the exit and thrust a sticky note in front of me.

“Call every supplier tonight and chase them. Do it the way you used to. Write out what I can and can’t say, and send it to me tomorrow.”

I looked at the familiar red and blue ink.

“The contact details and emails are all there. You can check them yourself.”

“You’ve done it so many times. One phone call would settle this!”

My grip on the cup tightened.

“That ‘one phone call’ took me from three in the afternoon until ten at night last time.”

Lin Na waved impatiently.

“Stop dragging up the past. We’re all in this together. If we lose the project, do you think you’ll get off lightly?”

The meeting room grew quiet.

Her voice got louder.

“All I did was remind you to follow the financial rules, and you’re still holding a grudge? You draw a company salary and can’t show even this much team spirit?”

I didn’t turn away from the eyes fixed on me.

Whenever people stared at me like that before, I rushed to say:

“All right. I’ll do it.”

The words were already on my tongue.

I swallowed them.

“If I’m to be responsible, have the manager reassign the work. Anything I do must be recorded under my name. Anything that isn’t my responsibility, you need to finish yourself.”

She slapped the sticky note against the wall.

“Do you have to keep score over everything?”

I looked down at it.

The name beside Person Responsible was still Lin Na.

“You’ve taken my name off the work, but you still want my hands to do it for you.”

I looked up.

“Lin Na, this time you have to be there yourself.”

The rehearsal minutes marked three outstanding items in red under Lin Na’s commercial responsibilities.

But she didn’t go to the suppliers first.

She went straight to HR.

At ten a.m., I was called into a small meeting room.

Lin Na was already there with a stack of printed chat records.

“I’m making a formal complaint against Su Nian. She’s refusing to do her job and encouraging coworkers not to cooperate on the project. Her expenses still haven’t been cleared, and now she’s deliberately taking her anger out on the company’s interests.”

The HR representative leafed through several pages.

“Who assigned Su Nian these tasks?”

“This is how we’ve always handled the project.”

“I’m asking about this time.”

Lin Na looked at Manager Zhou.

He cleared his throat.

“Su knows the process. Having her help improves efficiency.”