Resignation

Zhao Danshi came down with a cold the next day.

He ran a high fever. His entire body ached as though he had been beaten up, and he could not get out of bed at all. Even the breath from his nose was scorching hot.

His alarm went off at seven in the morning. He turned it off on his phone, wrapped himself in his thick quilt, and went back to sleep.

His head hurt too badly. After turning off the alarm, he even forgot to call the company to ask for leave.

By the time the phone rang and woke him again, it was already past nine in the morning. The moment Zhao Danshi answered, his supervisor's displeased voice came from the other end. "Zhao Danshi, what's going on with you?! Are you even coming to work? It's this late and you still haven't shown up!"

Zhao Danshi's voice was weak. "Sorry, Supervisor Liu. I caught a cold today. I need to take sick leave and go to the hospital."

His supervisor was very unhappy. "Why didn't you say so earlier?! You still haven't handed in your drawings. They were supposed to be submitted yesterday. Now that work has already started, you want to ask for sick leave? Who knows whether you're really sick or just overslept?"

Zhao Danshi said helplessly, "I really am sick. If you don't believe me, forget it. Just treat it as me lying. I'm not taking sick leave either. I'm resigning now."

His supervisor was instantly dumbfounded. Just as he was about to say something, Zhao Danshi cleanly hung up the phone.

Idiot! Zhao Danshi muttered hoarsely, rubbed his face against the pillow, then burrowed back into the quilt and went to sleep.

He slept until the afternoon, finally waking to the sound of his stomach growling. He had no appetite because of the cold, but he really was hungry, so he could only drag himself up on exhausted legs despite his reluctance.

He was drenched in sweat. After being bundled up for so long, he had begun to smell a little. He poured himself a cup of warm water, searched for a long time, found a packet of cold medicine in the medicine box, and gulped it down with the water.

Even though Zhao Danshi was still a virgin, he had the necessary common sense. He guessed that things had been too intense yesterday, leaving wounds behind him, or perhaps it had not been cleaned properly. The inflammation today was probably what had caused his fever.

In this situation, he definitely needed anti-inflammatory medicine. However, he did not have any at home, so he would have to go out later to buy some.

He usually cooked at home, but he was too sick today to have any appetite, and he did not want to eat his own cooking either. He simply tidied himself up, went into the bathroom for a shower, then threw on a jacket and went downstairs on weak legs to eat wontons.

He had lived here for some time and often ate wontons downstairs, so the owner of the wonton shop had become familiar with him. Seeing his complexion, the owner was startled. "What happened to you? Why are you so pale?"

Zhao Danshi raised his slightly flushed eyelids and said listlessly, "I accidentally came down with a fever."

"Hey, a fever isn't a small matter. Did you take your temperature? How high is it? I have fever medicine here. Want me to get you a packet?"

"Thank you, but no. I just took fever medicine. Please get me something to eat first." Zhao Danshi looked up at the menu. "The usual, a ten-yuan bowl of plain wontons."

"Sure. Wait a moment, I'll bring it right over."

Seeing the state he was in, the owner hurried into the kitchen to cook the wontons.

To take care of a sick customer, the owner thoughtfully used less oil and salt and added an extra half ladle of pork bone broth to his bowl. Yet when he brought it out, Zhao Danshi added vinegar, chili, and pickled mustard greens to it, not leaving out a single thing.

After running the shop for so many years, the owner had never seen a patient who was so bad at taking care of himself. He quickly stopped him.

"Hey, don't eat such heavy flavors when you're sick. Eat something lighter."

Zhao Danshi looked up at him with a faint flush on his face and waved his hand. "Forget it. I don't have any appetite right now. If I don't add these things, I can't eat it."

Hearing that, the owner could only let it go. That evening, he went to the kitchen and made a fresh serving of ginger soup for him as a complimentary drink.

Looking at the steaming ginger soup, Zhao Danshi did not know why, but his eyes suddenly grew hot.

After eating the wontons, he could not be bothered to go to the hospital. He simply walked a few steps to a chain pharmacy and bought anti-inflammatory medicine, fever medicine, and a thermometer. He planned to go home and take the medicine himself first, then visit the hospital if it really did not work. His backside still hurt, and he did not dare take steps that were too large.

He had originally wanted to buy some topical ointment as well. He stood in the pharmacy looking for a long time, but in the end, he was too embarrassed to ask.

Forget it. The human body's ability to heal was powerful. A tiny wound like this would slowly heal even if he left it alone. Besides, he had already bought anti-inflammatory medicine, so it should not be too much of a problem.

After finally filling his stomach, Zhao Danshi went home, took his medicine, still remembered to brush his teeth, and then rolled back into bed.

Perhaps because of the medicine, he fell asleep almost the moment he touched the bed. Yet his sleep was restless, with countless dreams coming one after another. One moment it was Li Ping, the next it was his parents, with whom he had long severed ties. The dreams were a chaotic mess, each taking turns appearing and tangling with Zhao Danshi through half the night, making layer after layer of cold sweat break out on his forehead.

Early the next morning, Zhao Danshi's stubborn biological clock finally did its job, and he woke at his usual time for work. He still felt a little dizzy, but his forehead was cool. His fever should have broken.

A cold usually took around a week to recover from. As long as he did not have a fever, it was not a big deal and would not affect his life too much.

Zhao Danshi instinctively got dressed, put on his shoes, and went to wash up. Only when he reached the bathroom did he suddenly remember that he had already resigned. His steps paused, and he sighed inwardly.

Although he had wanted to resign for a long time, he had gone through fierce competition when he first joined the company and only barely secured the position. Now that he was suddenly leaving the job he had worked so hard at for so long, he truly felt a little reluctant.

He had only said he was resigning over the phone. He had not gone back to complete the formalities, so he still had to make a trip to the company today.

After washing up, Zhao Danshi turned on his computer and formally drafted a resignation letter.

Not long after he arrived at the company, his supervisor came too. Seeing him seated at his desk, the supervisor gave a cold snort and gestured for him to go into the office to discuss things in detail.

The moment they entered the office, the supervisor mocked, "Didn't you say you were resigning? Why are you here again today? Let me tell you, you asked for leave too late yesterday. It can't count as sick leave, only personal leave."

Zhao Danshi glanced at him and brought out the hand hanging at his side. It held a resignation letter. "I am indeed resigning. I came today to complete the departure procedures. Is this convenient for you?"

His supervisor had always butted heads with him, but he was actually fairly satisfied with him. Zhao Danshi came from a prestigious school, was capable at his work, and was diligent. He worked overtime every day from nine in the morning until ten at night without showing much complaint.

His supervisor might have been annoyed by Zhao Danshi's inflexibility, but if he really resigned, the company would have no way of recruiting another employee this outstanding in such a short time.

The performance of the people under him was closely tied to his own salary. Even for the sake of money, his supervisor did not want Zhao Danshi to resign.

The supervisor stared wide-eyed at the resignation letter in his hand for a long while. He forcibly swallowed his anger and barely squeezed out a smile. "I only said a few words to you, and you really want to resign? Have you found another job?"

Zhao Danshi shook his head.

His supervisor let out a breath of relief, then looked up and gave him a quick, light glance. "Jobs aren't easy to find these days. You know what the work environment at our company is like. If you look elsewhere, the salary and other conditions may not be better than ours. Otherwise, you wouldn't have come to interview at our company, right? You were sick yesterday, and you called a little late. I'll talk to HR and have them change your personal leave into sick leave. Take your resignation letter back first and think it over carefully."

Zhao Danshi gently placed the resignation letter on his desk. "There's no need, Supervisor Liu. I've already thought it through. Thank you for your guidance over these past days. I came today to hand over my work and complete the procedures."

The supervisor would not listen. He pushed the resignation letter back to him again and said with a stern face, "Work is busy this morning. Take the resignation letter back first. We'll discuss this when we have time."

Zhao Danshi glanced at him, did not take the letter, and turned around to return to his desk.

He was used to seeing things through from beginning to end. The design drawing from the day before yesterday was not finished yet, so he had to work on it some more. There were other things as well. Since he had decided to resign, he had to properly hand over the relevant work.

His coworkers were all surprised to hear that he was resigning. Their salaries were not particularly high, but they were better than some and worse than others, and were still fairly respectable in the city.

To be honest, the overall financial climate was not good right now. In this line of work, no matter where one went, one would be exploited, and overtime was unavoidable. It was better to stick with what one knew than start over somewhere new. Staying somewhere and working steadily also meant a greater chance of promotion.

No matter how his coworkers asked, Zhao Danshi stubbornly insisted that he was resigning because something had come up in his hometown and he needed to go back.

Once he gave that excuse, no one could question him further. A few coworkers he was close to could only secretly invite him out for drinks that night as a farewell.

Zhao Danshi's backside still hurt, so there was no way he could go out drinking.

He vaguely thanked everyone. "Thank you, everyone. My cold isn't better yet. I'll treat you to drinks when I'm feeling better. Besides, the resignation process won't be finished anytime soon."

Little Li asked, "What are your plans after this?"

"I haven't made any plans yet. I'll just coast along for now. I still have some savings, so I'll go home and rest up for a few months first."

"That's true. Your health is the most important thing. Go home and take good care of yourself."

Zhao Danshi thanked them. Once he finished that design drawing, he had no more tasks for the day. After working here for so many days, it was the first time he got off work on time, and he saw the sun before it had set.

He could not help feeling emotional. He had worked himself to the bone for so long that he could not even see the sun. He did not know what he had been working so hard for every day. What was the point of making more money? You might have the life to earn it but not the life to spend it.

Since he got off work early today, he found a shared bicycle, unlocked it with his phone, and slowly rode home.

To become an environmentally friendly city, the city had specifically planned dedicated bicycle lanes. Both sides of the road were planted with beautiful silk floss trees, and it was their blooming season. The trees were covered in gorgeous pink flowers. Riding beneath them felt like passing through clouds of blossoms.

Zhao Danshi was in an unusually good mood. He could even smell the fragrance of flowers in the gentle breeze blowing toward him.

After slowly passing through two streets like that, he suddenly heard a somewhat mechanical voice by his ear. "Hello."

"Hm?" Zhao Danshi instinctively turned to look. A few bicycles passed him on either side, but he did not see anyone speaking.

The voice by his ear repeated itself. "Hello, I am Watcher."

Thank you to Sweeping Monk for the landmine, mwah~