Chapter 1 - The Hidden Folder

 Now, let's turn back the time to this morning and let the story begin ....

10.00AM — I'm sitting in the Big Boss's luxury office, shivering ...

Today, Big Boss mood is very unusual, holding his shining bald head, a pair of squinted small eyes are staring at me sharply, pondering.

I remember the last time the friendly and gentle Big Boss was in such an irritable mood was when all the other magazine staff we were working with for joint project said that the summer sunlight is too bright, and strongly demanded the company for shade curtains.

Thus, after struggling several times, our wise and brilliant Big Boss finally asked the Finance Department to buy inner transparent curtains.

In the end, it didn't block the sunlight and for the whole summer, the company was immersed in Princess pink dreamy atmosphere.

And the last last time, the printing company's Boss forcefully asked for more money for payment, saying that there was a rapid increase in paper prices so the printing fees would naturally have to increase as well.

Big Boss only took two days to get the Distribution Department to find out the paper price list and then use it as solid evidence to compare with and expose the Printing Boss' "paper price" lie.

Incidentally also putting pictures of the Printing Boss' and his secretary's interesting relationship onto the desktop as well.

Under the insidious threat of solid evidence, the Printing Boss who lost face had to coax Big Boss by giving out a good amount of free paper, and quietly left afterwards.

And the last last last time ....

As long as it is related to money, our Big Boss will emit a distinct imposing aura from his whole body, and this time, I went to his office because my one year contract has expired.

During this one whole year, as an editorial assistant, I have been very busy and working very diligently without any complaints, scoring the monthly Editorial Department's assessment with 90 points and above.

According to the procedure, when the contract has expired, it is the day for me to become promoted to an Editor.

Editorial Department, Administration Department, Human Resources Department... every Department, my promotion request report has successfully passed the review, until the last hurdle—Big Boss.

I subconsciously pulled my collar, and had a premonition that this hurdle is not easy to handle, with a possibility of having a complete defeat.

Because with the Editor promotion, my salary will be increased by 20% , healthcare, treatment, etc ...will also be upgraded, and as long as money matters are involved, Big Boss will always become very sensitive.

After a long time, Big Boss finally gave up on staring at me with a gaze filled with killing intent, faking the standard bureaucratic manner, "Xiao Bai ah ... this whole year, do you feel satisfied with your own work ?"I stared at Big Boss with resentment, ah...really evil. If I'm not satisfied, don't even have to talk about getting a promotion, but if I'm satisfied, it would make this Young Lady too conceited.

So, with a smile, I tried to avoid the question and said, "I have been in this company even before I graduated, this one whole year I have learned a lot of things in the Editorial Department, with Section Chief Li and other Editors being dedicated in guiding and cultivating me. Although there are some aspects that I am still lacking but fortunately everyone's evaluation on me is not bad, making me have more confidence.

"After quickly saying this passage out, I let out a long sigh , Fu .. Fu .. !! Saying it this way, will not only affirm my own ability but I also won't seem very conceited, and now I would like to see how Big Boss will rebutt.

Unexpectedly, Big Boss instantaneously smirked, I didn't even have the time to mutter No Good..., he had already said: "So as you said, Xiao Bao, you still have a lot of things to learn ?"

"I ——"

"I remember when you handed in the article for the last issue, unexpectedly there were three mistakes made."

"I ——"

"Xiao Bai ah.. Xiao Bai, be attentive! What is attentive, do you know? This is a must-have foundation for magazines. If a National Leader or Customer's name was printed wrongly, who will be responsible for it?"

"I ——"

"Ai— I remember not long ago, in the company there was a girl who was similar to you working as an Editorial assistant, because of a wrongly written 'Hubei' into 'Hunan', had caused the customer to refuse to pay for the advertising cost, and for nothing caused the company to lose 100 thousand ah... 100 thousand!"

I couldn't even say out "I ——" anymore.

Big Boss has always had the ability to make people speechless.

"Youngsters like you guys, are too impulsive, too reckless when doing things, you must be down to earth, must be attentive, you know this or not? The biggest drawback is that you guys are too complacent."

This time, I wanted to burst into tears. Boss, why don't you allow people to finish speaking? Actually, what I really wanted to say is even if I can't get my salary increment, can't I at least get my career promotion instead, this will also be counted as the best affirmation towards my work this whole year!

Big Boss started rambling nonstop, from spelling errors to grammar mistakes, then article concepts and various departments' situations. In the end, a conversation that started with promotion as the original topic has become an ideology training lesson.

I'm left with no tears to even shed.

"Xiao Bai, have you understood?"

I nodded.

"En," Big Boss nodded in satisfaction with eyes showing appreciation, "since it's like that, you can go ahead and get back to work. Two o'clock in the afternoon we'll have a meeting."I got up and walked out of the office, at this moment I suddenly realized the crux question: what am I doing by coming here?

I'm totally being ignored by Big Boss.

This event kept on bothering me until afternoon the meeting time, when I made the biggest mistake in my life. And the severity of this mistake is only a level below the violence I had done when I was a small child, which was taking a metal car toy and smashing it onto my cousin's forehead.

***

2.00PM — Company Monthly Meeting

Participants:

Big Boss

Editorial Dept: 5 pretty women & handsome men

Journalism Dept: 7 dinosaurs and toads.

Meeting main topic:

Discussing the magazine's main article for the next issue.

Meeting Agenda:

Editorial Dept, Journalists Dept will present out 2-3 proposals to discuss, after discussion, let Big Boss decide the final result.

Meeting Award:

Whichever department's proposal is being used, then that department will be in charge of the implementation of this issue. Furthermore this month Departmental Bonus will increase by 20 %; overtime pay, transportation and phone bill increase by 50%.

For a department that has been selected for 7 consecutive months will get the overall annual bonus increase by 0.5%

I often think that Big Boss coming up with such a reward system, at the end what is the original intention?

Is it to enhance the employee's enthusiasm or to promote healthy competition between these two departments?

If that's really the case, He, who is stuck in the middle and listening with a straight face to all the verbal attacks from the two departments must be regretting now.

In every meeting, it's probably Big Boss who suffers the most, and the one feels the most excited most is me.

The reason is very simple, both department originally has been displeased with each other and with the stimulation of the Awards given by end of the month, they will launch attack against each other until everyone's faces are flushed, it was super noisy in the meeting.

The most impressive time, there's once a female reporter named Slime wearing a 9cm high heels jumping up on the stool, one can imagine how spectacular the scene was.

And this time around, if I remember correctly if the Editorial Department gets selected again, then we will win six consecutive times. Therefore, today's meeting is extremely fierce.

Can Can from Editorial Department: "Our first topic for this issue is The Background of Financial Crisis, as well as Changes in the Market Consumption Structure and Introduction of Alcohol Ban; Analysis of the Restaurant Industry Current Situation ... ..."

Slime from Journalist Department: "Gee, you also have the nerve to bring up this kind of topic?! Come on, Introduction of Alcohol Ban is almost two months old, now then want to talk about what changes, our rival has already done that earlier! "

Doggy Huang from Journalist Department: "That's right, we will become this industry laughing stock, saying that we were picking from someone else's pocket? "

Xiao Wei from the Editorial Department: "It's..... it's..... it's not like that! I .... We.... we are now–"

Slime from Journalist Department: "Now ... Now, what now? Student Wei, you will have to practice your speech first beforehand before you attend the meeting! "

After that, the whole conference room was filled with laughter. The poor stutterer, Xiao Wei's face turned red and he buried his head down.

Can Can seeing this situation, immediately retaliate, " You guys ... this is personal Attack! "

Xiao Zai from Journalist Department: "What personal attack? We are just stating the fact, he can't even talk clearly, how can he discuss topics with us? "

Can Can from Editorial Department (sneering): "I think someone is jealous ...right?!! Xiao Wei has a superb writing skill, ah... right... Slime, do you remember last month your customer pointed to Xiao Wei to write him an article for him, and who is the person who ran to our department behaving like a puppy begging people? En??"

Upon hearing this, Slime's face became so ugly, and me as an onlooker, was no longer able to suppress my heartbeat. The sound of thump thump thump beating so fast can be heard.

Slime usually relying on the fact that she had joined the company earlier than most of us by six months and with a beautiful face above most people, immediately become popular and appraised as the "Company Flower", increasing her arrogance even more.

Actually, I personally think that Slime's beauty is very superficial and it belongs to the kind that the more you look at it, the more you get bored by it. Moreover, without any makeup, she's the definitely won't dare to go out type.

In comparison, Can Can who had joined the company at the same time as Slime, has a delicate face and tall figure. She has a bright and bold personality with a bit of Southern women's unique astute trait, making her more lively and beautiful.

Everyone in the company knows from the beginning, that they have been fighting against each other, and obviously it happened again today.

So currently I'm wondering if I should try to embrace the thigh of Editor Can Can (*trying to curry favor), putting some oil into the fire by saying a few words.

I was about to say something ... but then our Leader's gentle voice sounded from my behind, "Can Can, sit down. "

Can Can raised her eyebrows, reckoning she had the upper hand just now, immediately she sat back and relax. But then, our Leader next sentence made her freeze, "discussing matters unrelated with the meeting topic, monthly bonus deducted 200 yuan."

Can Can speechless and had yet to refute, when our gentle, kind and virtuous Editorial Department Leader Li Zi Ru while adjusting his gold frame glasses smiled gently and said, "arguing with superior will add 100 yuan deduction."

Can Can immediately clamped up, and I as the small little Editorial Assistant figure who wanted to curry some favor has completely abandoned that idea.

Seeing the situation is currently under control, our Leader again said, "the purpose of Alcohol Banned topic being brought up at this time was because two months ago when this policy had been introduced, some articles from major competitors are written based on speculations. And this time we can use the substantial changes in the past two months as an observation analysis, which will be more convincing than our rival."

Once said, the conference room immediately become very quiet.

Leader is definitely not a leader for nothing, with just a few words he had shot down the Journalism Department.

I silently took a glance at the person from Journalism Department who not long ago had just taken over the office – the handsome and brilliant Section Chief, only to see him with a calm expression pursing his lips, could not find any words to refute back.

Our Leader turned to me and said, "Bai Ning, bring out the PPT files that we have prepared beforehand, I will explain to everyone the idea of this topic."

I nodded and like a flash quickly inserted the USB drive into the computer and when I was about to copy the PPT file, Big Boss went one step ahead of me, took the mouse to click the folder to make a copy.

Silently I looked at the computer screen while contemplating whether to tell him where the files were, at that moment I saw a horrible thing appearing on the screen.

It's a folder ...

A hidden folder ...

A hidden folder named "GV"

And what's more frightening is that Big Boss's mouse was progressively moving closer to my dearest "GV" folder.

Big Boss casually said, "is it here?"

It was very quiet in the Conference room.

Numerous pairs of eyes were staring at the projector screen, and numerous pairs of eyes were looking at the Big Boss who is about to open the "GV" folder.

"Don't .....!!!! "

I shockingly shouted while Big Boss' hand was flicking and clicking.

My world has fallen apart...

Mirai's Comment: LOL I felt her pain...never mess with my money...He is tight with money, even grappling with employee pay, I can imagine he personally oversees the company's accounts (which is a good thing LOL)...BUT guess he's not as stingy as I thought, the pay incentives are pretty good...well it works out well for him though, his employees work twice as hard just for it, smart...

...Also, what a crucial error, how could she use the same USB...but then again, I'm sure she never expected anyone else, much less her boss to take over control of the USB's use...

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