Volume 5, Chapter 2 – Environment

The next day, Shen He rushed out from home in a panic. Wearing a short-front ceremonial dress that hung to her knees, she arrived at her usual stop and waited for the bus with everyone else.

Even though she had hurried as much as she could, she still reached the company a little past the required time. The instant she passed through the access gate, the display screen beside it suddenly lit up red, and at the same time a voice announcement began broadcasting throughout the lobby.

[Employee No. 226, Ms. Shen He, is 1 minute and 23 seconds late for the morning shift. A proportional deduction will be made from today’s wages according to regulations.]

Shen He’s face first flushed red, then quickly darkened like the bottom of a pot.

Fortunately, Star Tower Group was a tech company, not a finance company. There was no giant screen in the lobby showing financial data, and not that many employees lingered there at this hour. Only a few receptionists were looking at her and whispering to one another. There was no need to ask what they were doing. They were mocking her.

Seething, Shen He took the elevator upstairs, went straight to her workstation, pulled out her chair, and sat down.

“Meeting time! Meeting time!”

Her backside had barely had time to warm the seat before a bespectacled middle-aged man came in from outside. Like Jiang Anqiang, he was dressed in a suit. Waving a holographic screen around at the people nearby, he said, “Everyone to Meeting Room 2. Lily, go take attendance and see who isn’t here.”

He had a work badge hanging from his breast pocket as well. It showed his position as Department Manager, and his name as Liu Zhen.

The moment she saw him, Shen He perked up slightly. Picking up the document folder she had brought with her, she stepped forward and said, “Manager Liu, this is the research material you asked me to prepare yesterday…”

“You finished it pretty fast.” Liu Zhen took the material first, but when he raised his eyes and saw what Shen He was wearing, he immediately frowned. His whole face turned gloomy.

“Shen He, what’s going on with you?”

“Huh?”

Shen He froze. She had no idea what she had done wrong this time.

Being late?

But attendance wasn’t under Liu Zhen’s authority, was it?

Besides, the announcement had already gone out and her pay had already been docked. Hadn’t they said at the start that they wouldn’t keep hounding people over it?

“I’m talking about your clothes, your clothes!” Liu Zhen stepped forward aggressively, jabbing a finger at Shen He’s forehead. “Look at this trash you’re wearing. We’re a tech company, got it? Employees at a tech company should dress like employees at a tech company. Who told you it was okay to wear old-style clothes while on the job?”

So that was what this was about?

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Shen He was even more shocked and tried to argue. “But there was nothing in the contract saying…”

“The contract doesn’t say you have to eat every day either, but I don’t see you starving yourself to death, do I?” Liu Zhen cut her off brutally, pointing down the corridor behind him. “Don’t start bringing up that kind of nonsense with me. Since you’ve only been here a few days, I won’t formally ding you for it. Go register with HR and get yourself a proper uniform. The cost will be deducted from your pay!”

Shen He pressed her lips together, emotion building and brewing inside her.

She could hear the snickering and whispers from the other workstations. It felt as though her dignity were being peeled back layer by layer like fruit skin, exposing everything inside her for other people to laugh at.

Instinctively, she wanted to snatch back the documents, smash Liu Zhen’s face with them, and announce on the spot that she quit.

But at the last moment, she thought of her father, bedridden after coming back from the battlefield, and her mother, who had resigned specifically to care for him… and she hesitated.

That single moment of hesitation was caught immediately by Liu Zhen. He smugly lifted his chin, his lenses catching the overhead light, and jabbed Shen He’s forehead again. “Don’t just stand there! Didn’t you hear me say there’s a meeting starting?”

“I’m giving you ten minutes. If you don’t change and show up in Meeting Room 2 within ten minutes, you can leave for good!”

With no other choice, Shen He went to HR to collect a new uniform as instructed. Then, at top speed, she changed in a bathroom stall and made it to the meeting room just in time to take her seat.

Liu Zhen gave her a regretful look, then continued explaining the contents on the screen.

There was nothing much to say about the meeting. It was just a summary of the company’s sales figures for the previous quarter and an analysis of the market prospects in various sectors of Wangchuan Circuit.

The material Shen He had provided also made an appearance during the meeting. Liu Zhen directly adopted her research report and, shamelessly, took the credit for it himself.

After the meeting ended, Shen He came out feeling light-footed and unsteady, as if an entire layer of skin had been flayed off her mind.

It wasn’t that she particularly cared about her superior appropriating her work.

She was an adult who had seen darkness, after all. She understood the principle that if you wanted to gain something, you had to pay first.

She was willing to pay that price in exchange for gradually gaining a firm foothold in her new company. The problem was that she still felt unable to persuade herself to accept work of this nature.

She didn’t like Star Tower Group. She never had.

A great deal of the previous dynasty’s historical records had been lost in the chaotic first era after the Void Tribulation, but even judging by its recent conduct, Star Tower Group was despicable.

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Truly despicable.

Buying off the media, manufacturing public opinion, even fabricating lies, all just to force its own products and technologies in for profit. Wasn’t that despicable?

But Shen He had no choice.

Her family was in trouble. Her parents had lost their source of income. Her older brother, Shen Tan, had gone to the front lines and had not yet sent back any word.

On top of that, her aunt’s family had come again not long ago to make trouble, shouting for their family to repay its debts. Shen He knew she was now the only pillar left beside her parents.

She had to hold on.

Even if she didn’t like this job, which her family had pulled strings to get for her, she could not afford to be willful anymore.

She finished the workday like a walking corpse. Right before it was time to leave, Liu Zhen called Shen He out.

“The research was decent.”

Liu Zhen’s expression was fairly amiable. “There are some things I have to say. You understand, right? I have to put on a certain attitude.”

Yeah, bullshit.

Shen He cursed inwardly, though on the surface she only showed a mild, friendly smile.

Playing nice all of a sudden? No way you’re holding in anything good.

“I looked at the form you filled out. You’re a local, huh?”

Liu Zhen abruptly changed tack and started bringing up Shen He’s place of origin.

Shen He nodded reluctantly. “My whole family fled here from Tongyun Circuit back then.”

“So that’s at least eight or nine years, huh? Nice. Much more grounded than someone like me who only got here this year.”

Liu Zhen was very pleased with that answer and gave Shen He a few pats on the shoulder.

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“Since you’ve got grassroots familiarity, I’ll hand all future research tasks over to you.”

“The research you did today still wasn’t detailed enough, and it wasn’t realistic enough. From now on, don’t just do online research. You also need to pick some densely populated communities and interview people about their views.”

“You mean the old neighborhoods?” Shen He asked.

Liu Zhen nodded.

“That’ll be hard,” Shen He said honestly. “There’s no way the old neighborhoods will give positive feedback.”

Qi methods had already become widespread, and the older generation wasn’t going to die off that quickly. So many people still remembered everything that had happened over these years. How was work like that supposed to be carried out?

This bastard Liu Zhen, if he wanted her dead, he could just say it outright!

“Can’t you think of a way yourself?” Liu Zhen frowned.

“People like us, since we don’t have much talent in qi methods and can’t become qi cultivators to fight on the front lines, should focus on studying ‘logistics’ work properly.”

He was trying to cozy up to Shen He.

And indeed, there really weren’t many locals in this branch. Even counting only Eastern Xia natives, there were fewer than fifty. Most of the others had distinctly foreign features.

They had only recently moved in here. Development always took time.

“You did the research yourself, so you know what the front lines look like.”

Liu Zhen’s tone grew slightly heavier.

“Don’t worry about whether you use deception or spin. If the end result is for everyone’s good, then what is there to get hung up on?”

“Work hard.”

He patted Shen He’s shoulder again.

“Once I move up, this position will be yours.”

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Night fell.

Shen He dragged herself back to her rental apartment, utterly exhausted, and threw herself straight onto the bed.

Her home was in one of the old neighborhoods, but it was too far from the company. She had failed to earn the professional license for qi cultivators and therefore was not allowed to buy or rent a Silver-Shuttle Vessel. Commuting on the ground took four hours every day.

The time cost was too high. Renting a place made more sense. She had been living alone for a while now.

After resting a bit and patching up her internal exhaustion, Shen He got up to make something to eat, then went to the washroom to shower. When she came out, she turned on the television out of habit.

Living alone really was lonely. She needed the television to provide background noise, just enough to ease some of the fatigue in her heart.

[Message from the Heaven-Monitoring Directorate: Recent observations indicate that the stagnation of the ‘Sky Sea’ is showing signs of weakening. The lower regions at the relevant coordinates may encounter a meteor shower. Personnel in those areas are advised to take proper safety precautions.]

“A meteor shower?”

Eyes half narrowed, Shen He instinctively looked at the footage being shown on the screen.

It showed a vast black firmament, with many fiery sparks trailing tails as they fell downward.

Looks like Wangchuan Circuit is inside the affected zone.

Shen He froze for a moment.

Then she gave a self-mocking smile. Something like that probably had nothing to do with a nobody like her.

Still, the sight was pretty magnificent.

She watched the image and thought to herself.

Especially that fiery-red meteor in the middle.

So huge.

So bright.