Chapter 4

I laid my suspension notice and the subsequent assignment to archive documents on the table.

HR compared them for a while.

“Has she completed her current work?”

Administration opened the receipt.

“All of it.”

“Are there any Hengchuan documents she failed to hand over, or denied access to?”

Lin Na pressed her lips together.

I produced the signed handover record.

HR asked administration to retrieve the document access logs. The times when Lin Na had subsequently downloaded the files were clearly recorded.

“I didn’t say she denied access! I said she won’t help!”

The HR representative stopped writing.

“If you need more staff, ask your supervisor. You cannot remove an employee from a project, require her to finish your work through your account, and then judge her performance by whether she complies with your personal requests.”

Lin Na sat up straight.

“Then who’ll dare report a coworker’s misconduct? I reported her, and she retaliated. Aren’t you encouraging the whole company to follow her example?”

“You have the right to report a concern. The concern you report still needs to be verified.”

HR turned to Manager Zhou and asked how the milk tea investigation was progressing.

He turned his phone facedown.

“The project’s been so busy. I told Lin Na to supply the original receipt, but she said the shop hadn’t sent it. I was going to wait until things settled down…”

So all those days I’d spent “under investigation,” the investigation had consisted of nothing more than the two pictures Lin Na posted in the group.

One of me drinking milk tea.

One of a client hospitality expense summary.

No one had ever formally asked me a single question.

I stared at the notice on the table and suddenly laughed.

These past few days, even when I poured water in the pantry, someone would make a point of watching my cup.

Apparently, they weren’t too busy to watch.

They were only too busy to look at what I’d actually done.

HR asked me to leave a written statement and immediately contacted finance to check the original order.

I set out that afternoon’s events chronologically, attached the messages and work assignments I had, and requested that they preserve the pantry’s surveillance footage from that day.

I didn’t ask for special treatment. I added just one sentence at the end:

Please provide the findings in writing and issue a correction to the same audience that received the original notice.

That afternoon, finance sent its preliminary findings.

Lin Na had submitted the client hospitality order. Su Nian had not handled payment, reimbursement, or approval.

The remaining order details were being checked with the shop.

“No evidence was found that Su Nian directly used or administered the company funds concerned.”

There it was in the email.

Lin Na slammed her laptop shut after reading it.

She didn’t apologize.

Instead, she turned and pulled at Xu Qing’s chair.

“Cover the phones for me tomorrow morning. I need to finish these schedules quickly. I’ll take your shift next time.”

Xu Qing gripped the armrest and stayed seated.

“Whoever’s on the roster takes the shift. I can arrange an official swap. Email the request and copy the manager.”

“Now you’re copying her too?”

“You still haven’t explained that date change in the group.”

Lin Na looked around.

Someone immediately put on headphones. Someone else hugged a stack of fresh printouts to their chest.

I knew those movements all too well.

They’d distanced themselves in exactly the same way the afternoon of the milk tea incident.

Lin Na stood there for a while, then laughed aloud.

“Fine. Everybody’s busy except me. You think I can’t do it without your help?”

She picked up the client list and slapped it against the glass partition.

“The client recognizes the person in charge. Make all the spreadsheets you want. None of you will be signing this hundred-million-yuan contract!”

I put the files in the cabinet and closed the door.

This time, the louder she shouted, the more clearly I could hear the panic beneath it.

Just as Lin Na was running out of ways to conceal those red-flagged outstanding items, corporate headquarters announced the members of its special project task force.

She was appointed lead presenter for the commercial portion of Hengchuan’s final assessment.

The appointment email included her work record: three consecutive years of timely client responses, more than twenty handovers, and no major errors.

I had prepared the original documents for seventeen of those handovers.

The task force could see the results. It couldn’t see who had stayed up until two a.m. fixing the spreadsheets.

Manager Zhou’s report on the rehearsal contained just one sentence: