Chapter 340: Lao Qian 2

Lao Qian took a deep breath, and more than half of the cigarette was gone. This puff of smoke was the poison he used to prolong his life.

He inhaled too hard and coughed twice, smiling bitterly: "I got this smoking habit just to stay awake for overtime. I've lived a mediocre life, and without knowing it, I've sacrificed my life in this place, just for this monthly salary of a few bucks. Thinking about it now, it's really too stupid."

Qi Fei didn't interrupt his self-pitying lament. The thin, pale face of Zhuang Xueqing floated before his eyes. They were all ordinary people crushed by this massive financial empire—they were pushed to the edge.

"Do you have time to listen to me talk about this? I want to find someone to talk to. If someone had been willing to listen to my grievances and persuade me when Dong Ziwu was parachuted in to be my leader, maybe everything wouldn't have reached this point." Lao Qian's cigarette ash fell on his trouser leg, and he still remembered to dust it off—deep down, he was still a decent person.

Then he looked up at Qi Fei, his voice suddenly cold as if he were a different person, and said: "Anyway, you aren't that anxious to save Tian Mi; you also hope she dies."

Qi Fei couldn't deny it immediately. From the very beginning of planning to use Tian Mi as bait, he hadn't cared about whether Tian Mi lived or died.

However, when Lao Qian pointed out this thought, he was afraid. He was afraid of himself. After all, he shared the same bloodline as Xi He, and that dark side followed him like a ghost. He didn't know when he started to have the crisis of being swallowed by this darkness.

"I could have lived in the light." Lao Qian's words seemed to respond to Qi Fei's secret worries. "In middle age, I had already started to convince myself that I would live an ordinary life, work hard, and live steadily. Is this what I needed? Is it excessive? It's not excessive," he asked and answered himself.

"But Tian Mi's appearance changed everything. At first, I thought she was just another Feng Yi. The so-called leaders nowadays come and go, that's just how it is. I'm different from those young people; I don't hold any hope for these people. They all have their noses in the air and eyes looking upward, temporary workers who leave after a few years. It doesn't matter, it really doesn't matter."

"But Tian Mi's level was higher than Feng Yi's. She not only wanted to climb up by any means necessary, but she also wanted to climb up in a high-sounding way. She wanted to innovate, wanted to send people to build the Computing Investment Department. They looked at a bunch of people's resumes, knew I had experience in this area, and let me take the lead in doing this. I didn't think much and agreed. For me, where I work and what I do is just work, it doesn't matter, it really doesn't matter."

"Computing investment is a new sector. For so many years, I've seen through everything. The only thing I can't let go of is that when work comes, I can't just slack off. My damn sense of responsibility kicks in. Come to think of it, their eye for picking people is actually quite good. I mean the eye for picking people who do the work. Computing is indeed something I'm interested in. How should I put it? When building this department, although it was very hard, I seemed to have found back the passion that had disappeared for a long time. I know that at my age, someone without a background, even if I do well at Nancheng Investment, is just a bottom-level worker. But my expertise was recognized in this matter. People still need to be recognized. I'm an ordinary person, I have the desires of an ordinary person, those tiny, small certain happinesses that are not worth mentioning to those people above."

"During this period, something unrelated to me happened. Li Shuangshuang was pregnant."

"This pretty little girl was worried about being single before. I hadn't heard of her getting into a relationship, and suddenly she was pregnant. The group was buzzing with discussion, guessing who the father of the child was that she didn't want to reveal."

"But I didn't participate. These boring gossips had nothing to do with me. I was only invested in the construction of the Computing Department. Every day, countless things that needed to be contacted and coordinated were already overwhelming. It just crossed my mind that young people nowadays are quite open. Having a child out of wedlock was a terrible scandal when I was young."

"As for the position of the head of this department, I didn't think about it. It's normal for the group to arrange a supervisor to come over. I can convince myself from any angle: those whose ability is not as good as mine have higher academic qualifications; those whose academic qualifications are not as good as mine have more experience."

"See, things reached this point, and it was still very normal. My bottom line is very low, very low."

"But Tian Mi arranged Dong Ziwu. Who is he? When they told me this name, my brain was blank. I had imagined many candidates, but this person had never appeared in my line of sight."

"Soon I found out he was an employee of a company under the group, rocket-promoted to me. When the appointment document came out, another news that surprised me came: he announced his relationship with Li Shuangshuang. He actually, for this position, let this girl bear the reputation of being pregnant out of wedlock for half a year."

"Immediately after, I knew he came in through Tian Mi's relationship."

"Maybe you won't understand why these little things that sound unimportant would make me harbor such great hatred for him. Heh, I can't explain it clearly myself."

"And Dong Ziwu, this rich kid who had never suffered any setbacks, accepted this supervisor position so naturally and with such peace of mind."

"I don't understand. Why would anyone think that using connections is a normal thing, or even something to be proud of?"

"He started ordering me to work on his first day of work, asking me to write reports for him. There was no awkwardness of a small employee promoted to supervisor; he was so skilled as if he had practiced it countless times in his mind."

"In his eyes, I was just a lower-class person, a lower-class person serving his gilding and promotion. Just like Li Shuangshuang, everyone had to contribute to his promotion. This was determined by our inferior background."

"But who is he? He's just the son of Dong Qianjin and Wu Xufen. Dong Qianjin is just a so-called middle-level company manager who graduated from the same university as me."

"His promotion was obtained by his parents licking boots and operating."

"In the end, the one I hate most is Tian Mi. Computing investment, this department I built with my heart and blood, to her, was just something she could use as a favor."

"Dong Ziwu not only wants to sit in the supervisor's seat, but in the future, I have to continue to work my heart out in this department, working for his resume. Everyone will say this young talent should be made the group's vice president, while I, in two more years, will enter the ranks of the forgotten old employees, retiring in obscurity, and maybe even be optimized ahead of time."

"Why?!"

Having said this, Lao Qian clenched his fists, his eyes burning with the fire of hell.

At this moment, Qi Fei's phone rang. He picked it up, and Wu Shanqiu's voice came: "Brother Fei, Tian Mi has been found." ===== CHAPTER 341 =====