Standing tall (3)
"President Cao, if you accept your punishment, I won't interfere. But I don't accept mine. I won't withdraw it, and please don't interfere with my lawful efforts to defend my rights." "You..." Before President Cao could continue, Chi Qing calmly hung up.
"Qingqing, this is going to be hard to resolve down the line," Liu Ping said, looking at her worriedly.
"Sister Ping, I know the company is unhappy with President Cao taking kickbacks all the time, and with the marketing department's performance. But whatever they do, they shouldn't drag me into it. I'm not playing along anymore," Chi Qing replied.
"But Qingqing, the property market is in a slump. There are layoffs and pay cuts everywhere, and jobs are hard to find. You're under a lot of pressure too," Liu Ping said worriedly, knowing Chi Qing's family circumstances. With the state of the industry and the economy, everyone at the company kept their heads down, afraid of being laid off.
"I know, Sister Liu. You don't need to worry about me. Sister Liu, I'm taking this afternoon off in lieu." Since the marketing department often worked overtime on holidays, Chi Qing and her colleagues had a relatively flexible time-off-in-lieu arrangement. They only needed to fill out a request form and have their department head sign it, then submit the forms together to the administration department each month for tallying.
To avoid getting Liu Ping into trouble, Chi Qing deliberately dated her request last Friday, so it would count as a request she had submitted to Liu Ping last Friday.
Liu Ping swiftly signed the form and put it away, then watched Chi Qing casually shut down her computer, pick up her newly purchased bag, and leave work.
Sure enough, Chi Qing had shown foresight. At noon, President Cao and someone from the administration department both came to the office looking for her. When they heard that Chi Qing was taking the afternoon off in lieu, they launched into a tirade at Liu Ping. Liu Ping calmly took out the request form, pointed to the date on it, and said, "Chi Qing applied last Friday to take this afternoon off. How could I have known something like this would happen today?"
Although they knew there might be something fishy going on, they had no way to prove it, so the two could only leave in frustration.
Meanwhile, Chi Qing, who had never had the confidence to blow up like this before, ignored every message the company sent and rejected every work-related call. She posted only one reply in the company group chat: "Please provide evidence supporting the disciplinary action in accordance with the law, or withdraw the notice and issue a public apology before the end of the workday today. Otherwise, I will initiate the relevant legal proceedings tomorrow."
Then she happily began enjoying her afternoon of shopping, shopping, and more shopping.
First, she found Cloud City's most expensive buffet on Dianping and treated herself to a lovely seafood buffet without having to eat until she was stuffed.
Afterward, Chi Qing drove her little white car to the street lined with luxury car dealerships on Pingjiang Road. Her original car budget had only been around 500,000 yuan. She had thought she should keep a low profile at work; after all, quite a few people at the property company drove cars worth several hundred thousand yuan. But what had happened today made Chi Qing decide that if she was going to enjoy herself, she might as well go all out and get exactly what she wanted in one go! Although she knew nothing about cars, Porsche seemed to be the most expensive brand with a dealership in this third-tier Cloud City. Porsche it was!
Under a salesperson's hesitant gaze, Chi Qing walked into the showroom wearing a mask. As for the reason for that hesitation, she knew perfectly well. Working in marketing herself, Chi Qing knew very well that the moment she appeared in the parking lot outside the showroom, the security guard would already have radioed the sales staff with details such as what car the visiting customer drove and how many people had come.
The salesperson's hesitation was probably because of the Chanel bag in Chi Qing's hand. But the widespread availability of high-quality knockoffs, along with the Focus she drove, must already have led the salesperson to conclude that her bag was definitely fake.