Chapter 157: An Idle Man Takes Office |
Manager Aurore had worked at the Charity Foundation for over twenty years, yet he had never encountered such a terrifying career crisis.
"Supervisor Shi, I... I didn't know it was you... I was just joking with her..."
He tried to explain, trembling with fear, and shot glances at Employee Vya in the hopes that someone would speak up for him. However, she did not utter a single word in response.
Just as no one had stood up for Employee Vya earlier, no one stepped forward for him either, unwilling to risk offending the higher-ranking Supervisor Shi.
The only difference was that this time, there would be no other "Shi Rang" to sympathize with Manager Aurore.
Shi Rang stared at the sweating middle-aged man for a moment before suddenly smiling. "Actually, I am just joking with you too."
"R-really?" Manager Aurore smiled as well, letting out a long sigh of relief. "I knew it, someone as young as you..." Even as his heart pounded from the close call, Manager Aurore secretly marveled at Shi Rang's political maneuvering in the workplace.
Having previously heard that this new supervisor was parachuted into the position and was very young, he had assumed Shi Rang was just an incompetent Second-Generation Rich relying on his father's connections. Now, with this brief exchange, the young man had not only suppressed his subordinate but also established a remarkably dominant image, while smoothly sweeping the whole incident under the rug.
What a terrifying figure.
The other bystanders each had their own thoughts, eventually showing expressions of dawning comprehension.
Employee Vya wiped her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief; at the very least, her own burden of responsibility had been significantly lessened.
Qi Ta, in particular, was endlessly thankful for his moderate and cautious handling of the situation just moments ago.
Coinciding without agreement, the same thought popped into everyone's minds:
Right, this was how the world truly worked. There was no one who would act recklessly out of pure righteousness—
"You don't need to pack up and resign anymore. You can go prepare to explain exactly how much of the Charity Foundation's funds you spent on this welcome reception, and your reasons for embezzling public money." Shi Rang looked toward the security guard. "Please escort him to the auditing department. I'm afraid he might get lost."
Plunged right back into hell, Manager Aurore couldn't even process what had happened. It wasn't until the security guard grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the door—just like how Shi Rang had been escorted away earlier—that he finally let out a miserable shriek.
"I can explain! Supervisor Shi, I beg you, I didn't embezzle any public funds! I really didn't know it was you—"
Because he was entirely uncooperative, the security guard ultimately had to call a colleague over. They pried Manager Aurore's fingers off the doorframe one by one and forcibly carried him away.
"Please, be the bigger person—!"
Once Manager Aurore's shouts faded outside the door, Shi Rang walked back to the long table. He stood next to the plate of pies, pondering for a moment, before turning to the other new and veteran employees of the procurement department.
"There shouldn't be any other executives we need to wait for, right? Isn't today a welcome ceremony? None of you probably had a good breakfast, so come on over. At least fill your stomachs a bit, and once we're done, we'll proceed with whatever the standard process is. For my first day on the job, I'm quite pleasantly surprised."
Initially, no one moved toward that side of the room. Nobody could figure out exactly what he was trying to do.
It wasn't until Shi Rang vigorously waved Qi Ta over that the latter forced a smile and shuffled closer.
With someone taking the lead, the atmosphere in the breakroom quickly livened up. Even though it felt somewhat stiff and full of forced smiles, at least Shi Rang could openly enjoy a proper breakfast.
He hadn't intended to be so arrogant, but being hungry naturally made him irritable, and Manager Aurore had coincidentally thrown himself right onto the muzzle of the gun.
The man's appearance even looked thirty or forty percent similar to that Chief Editor from the Newspaper Office.
As a guy who considered himself rather gloomy, Shi Rang held quite a grudge.
The employees continued to cast various complex glances at Shi Rang while eating the pastries from the welcome ceremony.
Was there a problem with Manager Aurore's behavior? Of course. But some would argue that this situation was perfectly normal—like giving a gift in return for a favor, organizing private dinners to exchange information, or engaging in some ceremonial etiquette. Theoretically, all these actions were prohibited, yet they were always done this way.
Just because it had always been this way, did that make it right?
During his high school years, Shi Rang had erupted into countless arguments with Shi Shixin because he resisted the life path arranged through his father's "Connections". He had channeled his disgust for his biological father into fury, directing all of it against these so-called "social norms", and he had never wavered since. Even if he hadn't known the full extent of Shi Shixin's power back then, now that he knew the answer, he remained steadfast in his belief that it was wrong.
He understood these societal rules, but he refused to study them. He would rather be an ignorant fool who knew nothing of the world than comply. He chose to bear the bitter fruits of his stubbornness alone, acting as the "coward unwilling to solve the problem."
Even if he wasn't standing here in the capacity of a procurement supervisor, it wouldn't change his opinion of Manager Aurore.
A guy like him was exactly what people called an Eccentric Person and a Fanatic, yet he never felt that there was anything wrong with himself.
'Sigh, Management Authority, I've done nothing but help you clean up your internal affairs these past few days.'
'It wouldn't be too much to give me the official title of Councilor 13, would it?'
"Supervisor Shi, this is where the procurement department usually works. The supervisor's office is in the main building. How about I take you—"
"It's fine, I'll go in and take a look."
Qi Ta was originally responsible for guiding the new employees, but now he was "guiding" Shi Rang along with them, which made him exceptionally nervous. Having finally managed to send the new employees away, he hastily opened the door leading to the procurement department's workspace, revealing a spacious office to Shi Rang.
When Shi Rang stepped into the room, it instantly became so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. The employees all stopped what they were doing, observing him with gazes filled with either awe or curiosity.
The Charity Foundation was, after all, a highly profitable enterprise, and its working environment was quite excellent. Although the large office held many workstations, they were spaced far apart, and employees with slightly higher positions had private offices. Right now, a Director's office had just been vacated, and many people were scheming on how to secure that position.
Attempts to flatter and draw his attention began immediately. As Shi Rang approached, several people took the initiative to greet him. Some even came out of their private offices to introduce themselves, only for him to awkwardly urge them back inside.
He stopped and started, barely managing to take two consecutive steps before someone else walked right up to shake his hand.
This time, Shi Rang did not refuse.
"Supervisor Shi, I am the direct oversight inspector for the procurement department." The man, who emitted a Management Authority communication signal, had an attitude that was neither servile nor overbearing. "We received your report regarding Manager Aurore this morning. We will subsequently investigate the specifics of his embezzlement."
"I just did what I had to do. The Foundation's money should be used in the right places, shouldn't it?"
"You are absolutely right."
The inspector nodded to him and then returned to the office closest to the door.
It was not surprising that the Management Authority had planted personnel at the Charity Foundation's headquarters; these Authority employees were the only ones Shi Rang truly cared about.
Once the office settled down, Shi Rang gazed around the bustling room. From Qi Ta's subsequent introduction, he learned that aside from procuring work supplies for other departments, the procurement department was also responsible for supplying daily necessities to the orphans.
"Currently, there are over three thousand beneficiaries in the Ninth District waiting here to be matched with suitable adoptive families. There is also a group who have signed agreements and will be attending a designated School; they will depart as soon as the semester begins.
"These colleagues are responsible for coordinating with the children who have just arrived at their new residences. They will apply for some subsidies from the Foundation to help with living expenses, and we must ensure that the physical items sent over are delivered to the correct locations."
Shi Rang stopped next to a workstation in the center of the room.
This workstation was quite unique. The people sitting on both its left and right were from the Management Authority—judging by their communicator IDs, they were all Interns from the Internal Affairs Department who had come to the Veil Company to familiarize themselves with the procedures. Yet, this particular desk was completely empty, showing no signs of use.
"Is the person sitting here on leave?"
"Oh, you mean that one? That seat has always been empty. Our department has a lot of space and a large budget, so we never fill all the seats."
Qi Ta gestured toward the empty workstations in the corners of the room that were being used to store miscellaneous items.
Shi Rang took an extra, rather mindful glance at the well-positioned workstation before temporarily shelving this strange thought.
After walking around the room with Qi Ta and finally familiarizing himself with the workflow, he stopped disturbing the others and returned to the office in the main building where he was supposed to be.
Sitting exhaustedly in the leather office chair, Shi Rang mentally ran through the work procedures and discovered that this position required him to do almost nothing—and simultaneously allowed him to accomplish nothing.
His job duties consisted solely of signing off on the schedules submitted by his subordinates, and then lounging in this office—which was larger than his Bedroom—to collect a monthly salary of over a hundred thousand Yuan.
Placing Shi Shixin's son in such a high-ranking yet entirely useless position showed that the people arranging this had truly put a lot of thought into it.
They were afraid that a Second-Generation Rich like him would mess around and disrupt the Foundation's operations, yet they were equally afraid of embarrassing Shi Shixin. In the end, they came up with this compromise.
Shi Rang was very curious about which Council Member was in charge of regulating these Veil Companies. Did they really not care that so many parasites and idlers were siphoning off money that rightfully belonged to the Management Authority?
Or was this considered "acceptable shrinkage" to ensure the enterprise ran normally?
Helping the Management Authority clean up its internal mess wasn't his job. He was a Spy.
Now, he had finally managed to infiltrate them.
It was time to start executing his mission.
The mission issued by the Pan-Continent Alliance was already quite profound in its implications.
The Alliance was concerned about the declining number of orphans. This indicated that, in the Alliance's view, the reduction in orphans assisted by the Charity Foundation was absolutely abnormal and distinctly tied to the Management Authority.
With this hypothesis in mind, Shi Rang used his office computer to log into the Charity Foundation's working system. Unsurprisingly, as an idle man parachuted into the company, he didn't even have authorization to access the Database, and there was very little he could look up.
But it didn't matter if he couldn't get in; there were still plenty of Management Authority employees here.
They would have to find a terminal to charge their devices eventually, right?
After waiting patiently for several hours, Shi Rang discovered that most of the employees used individual Charging Stations. The corresponding Servers contained no heavyweight content other than punch-in records. He walked over to the office window and cast his gaze toward the "orphan living area".
His Sensing was a relatively crude form of detection. Although its range was vast, capturing valid information from the communicators required him to manually sift through them one by one.
There were hundreds of Management Authority employees within the Operations Zone. Rather than searching aimlessly, it would be better to see for himself how this heavily guarded Charity Foundation actually operated.
He needed to witness the orphans' living conditions with his own eyes before he could judge where the Charity Foundation's terrifying profits came from.
Logging into the Charity Foundation's intranet, he quickly found a suitable excuse: an "experience shift" for new employees.
Shi Rang immediately filled out an application form. The system data showed that the earliest shift he could apply for was tomorrow.
That settles it.
The next day (June 13th), early morning.
"Supervisor Shi, how about I take you inside for a tour..."
"?"
"Is there something inappropriate?"
"No, it's just that—this is an experience shift meant to attract employees to join the caregiving team. According to the rules, joining means you are required to work a mandatory full-day shift." The caregiver in charge of leading the team mustered his courage and blurted it out.
He was a Management Authority employee stationed here, but being in the Authority didn't mean he could look down on a supervisor from a Veil Company. They were simply working for different branches of the same organization, and a strict hierarchical relationship still existed.
"I know, don't worry about it. Just treat me like a regular employee." Shi Rang glanced at the time. "It's six-fifty now. The shift is about to start."
"Alright..." The caregiver fetched a Uniform in Shi Rang's size. As the latter went to change his clothes, the caregiver let out an almost imperceptible sigh.
He was worried that Shi Rang would get bored and want to leave after a short while, and that he wouldn't be able to stop him. Then he'd be caught in the middle and suffer disastrous consequences.
But the boss had spoken. There was nothing he could do; if he didn't follow orders, he would be in trouble immediately.
Letting these children see a new face who would only stay for a brief moment and then leave wasn't a good choice. It would make them very sad.
'I might as well just take this supervisor to look around the older classes.'
Just as he was thinking this, Shi Rang emerged. The caregiver quickly braced himself, cautiously leading the man out of the room to start the standard procedures.
The two walked one behind the other, passing through the quarantine zone that ran across the Operations Zone. Security guards soon approached them, only letting them through after verifying their identities.
"Currently, there are over eight hundred subsidized individuals within the headquarters Operations Zone—because we also took in several hundred refugee children, the numbers are much higher than they were at this time in previous years. They are divided into classes by age, and each class has a dedicated one-on-one caregiver and teacher. All staff members have undergone psychology training to ensure they can heal the shadows cast by the children's Original Families."
It was early morning, and the two of them passed by the empty academic buildings along the way.
On one side was the sports field, and on the other was a soccer field undergoing lawn maintenance. The buzzing noise of lawnmowers echoed across the pitch, and further away, there were many other athletic training facilities.
"The children's living environment is actually quite good," Shi Rang commented.
The approachable friendliness in his tone reassured the caregiver a great deal, causing him to drop some of his passive guard against his superior.
"Our goal is for them to walk out of here with beautiful memories and return to society with healthy personalities."
Their first stop was originally supposed to be the cafeteria to help prepare meals. However, the caregiver still didn't dare let Shi Rang do heavy labor like hauling flour in the kitchen, so he intentionally wandered around a bit longer. He chose to take Shi Rang to do the much easier job of plating the food once breakfast was ready.
By this time, the cafeteria was already bustling with noise. As soon as they stepped through the doors, they plunged into a surging buzz of conversation.
Footsteps mingled with the clatter of bowls and plates. The air was filled with an indescribable mix of aromas. Occasionally, the strong scent of a particular dish would take over, but for the most part, it was a hazy blend of meat, vegetables, and fried foods. Dozens, even hundreds of people flowed between the serving windows, weaving back and forth, instantly filling any empty seats that appeared in the dining area.
While plating fried chicken nuggets and fried eggs behind the transparent window, Shi Rang easily distinguished the refugee children from the regular subsidized children among the uniform-clad crowd—
The former group often appeared somewhat introverted or had yet to adapt to the noisy environment. They tended to stick close to one another, huddling into small groups regardless of age, instinctively looking after each other without needing a teacher to guide them.
It wasn't that these pitiful children were antisocial; rather, the subsidized children were mostly Adolescents. Although they were of various ethnicities and appeared to hail From All Corners of the World, they had already been living in the Operations Zone for quite a while. They had their own familiar little circles and would occasionally size up the adults with the feigned maturity characteristic of their age.
Shi Rang carefully observed his surroundings, yet no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find any lower-grade subsidized children.
'Could it be that the Operations Zone is partitioned by age group?'
Filing this suspicion away in his mind, he buried himself in his work. Occasionally, he tried to recall his own school days through the scenes playing out across the serving window, imagining that Ying Shang used to queue up in a similar place, growing up alongside other children.
Once the morning rush in the cafeteria ended, Shi Rang intended to help wash the dishes, but the caregiver guiding him held him back, saying that gym class was about to begin.
He was led back to the sports field.
As he helped toss a Volleyball and Badminton Shuttlecock back to the middle of the field after they had flown out of bounds, Shi Rang realized that the caregiver was intentionally preventing him from getting involved in the lesson.
He could understand why; the sudden departure of a newly acquainted adult could cause immense psychological harm to these orphans.
Fortunately, Shi Rang had already found his target. There was a caregiver who didn't participate in the class, constantly pacing the corners of the field with his hands behind his back. He would occasionally stop to observe the lesson and was clearly an executive.
He stealthily probed the name of the man's communicator:
[Mending Heaven Stone Project Supervisory Observer]
'Mending Heaven Stone Project?'
Thud.
A Badminton Shuttlecock flew over and landed by Shi Rang's feet.
He completed the Mounting process, withdrew his mental focus, and picked it up. He noticed a pair of teenagers standing not far away, holding rackets. They were facing him, their hands empty.
"Hey, your shuttlecock!"
He waited for them to react and prepare to catch the ball, only to suddenly realize that the previously noisy sports field had gone completely silent.
Hundreds of faces were all turned in his direction.
Beyond this eerie silence, the refugee children looked around At a Loss, having completely stopped playing as well.
A chill shot from Shi Rang's heels straight to the top of his head. But immediately afterward, the caregiver beside him turned to look behind them. Only then did Shi Rang realize that the children weren't looking at him, and he turned around to follow their gaze—
In the direction the subsidized children were facing, several faint plumes of smoke had appeared on the horizon, where the clouds were thin. Shi Rang raised his hand to block the sunlight and identified them as several columns of smoke. He knew what they were; there was an industrial park far from the Operations Zone where smoke stacks billowed endlessly—they could be seen much more clearly from the town.
Perhaps a change in wind direction had blown them over.
'But why...'
"Tweeeeet—!"
The sharp blow of the whistle jolted everyone back to their senses.
The supervisory observer lowered his whistle and waved his arm. The nearby teachers immediately announced the end of the lesson and began organizing all the classes into lines, preparing to return to the academic building.
The teenagers who had been playing with fiery enthusiasm just moments ago now all looked utterly listless. Shi Rang even saw someone wiping away tears—and all of them were subsidized children.
The refugee orphans, on the other hand, were made extremely uneasy by this bizarre situation.
Shi Rang gripped the Badminton Shuttlecock, took a deep look at the smoke columns, and then tossed it back into the equipment basket.
Beneath all these seemingly harmonious scenes lay a much deeper truth. This trip had not been in vain; he had found a crucial point of suspicion.
It was already late at night when the experience shift ended. Because the Mounted communicator hadn't been put on a charger, Shi Rang had no choice but to wait another day before he could continue his espionage work.
On the afternoon of his third day on the job, the communicator finally entered a new location: the main building's basement.
As soon as the device connected to the terminal for its routine data synchronization, Shi Rang's consciousness plunged into the data stream like a small fish. He swam effortlessly into the storage Servers and discovered that this was the central repository for all data. The Charity Foundation's internal network defenses were much more relaxed. This time, there was no AIC to audit his permissions, allowing him to search through the Database unhindered for everything he needed.
Very soon, he noticed something was wrong.
The Charity Foundation employed a "tiered permission" mechanism for its employees, similar to the one inside the Management Authority. The detailed Records each employee could access were quite limited, or the critical data had been deliberately obscured—this was designed to prevent them from conducting bulk analyses.
So, why was the Management Authority trying to hide these orphans' Records?
Shi Rang quickly compiled all the current assistance Records for the Ninth District. To his astonishment, he found a massive amount of falsified data—these Records indicated that their respective owners were currently housed in certain foster facilities, but in reality, these facilities simply did not exist.
After filtering out these fake Records and peeling back the smokescreen, he finally discovered what the Management Authority had been trying to cover up.
Currently, over ninety percent of the assisted individuals in the Ninth District were adolescents between the ages of twelve and fifteen.