Chapter 15: Assistance |
After Ji Yongsheng announced the meeting adjourned, Wei Hongsi stood up with the others and walked out, lingering towards the back. Just as he reached the conference room door, he heard Gu Shiming call his name.
He turned around and saw Gu Shiming and Dai Songquan standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, beckoning him over. He walked towards them. When he got close, he greeted first, "President Dai."
"How are you finding working at Zhiwei?" Dai Songquan asked with a smile.
"Quite good," Wei Hongsi replied, a slight smile appearing on his face as well.
Dai Songquan asked a few more questions, which Wei Hongsi answered simply. The minor details of daily work were, of course, unnecessary to discuss with the company's top leader.
After the small talk, Dai Songquan gave Wei Hongsi's shoulder a couple of light pats. "Just focus on your work with peace of mind. Don't let all this messy business weigh on you; it won't amount to anything."
Wei Hongsi nodded in agreement. He thought to himself, is President Dai going out of his way to comfort me?
Coming out of the conference room, he saw Wu Wenjun talking to Meng Haolin, with Mu Wei also present.
"Manager Meng, just let me know anytime you need anything, I'll make sure it's arranged properly."
Wei Hongsi didn't linger and headed towards the elevator lobby, retrieving his access card from the security guard.
As he entered the elevator, he caught sight of Gu Shiming approaching and reached out to hold the door.
Gu Shiming entered the elevator, gave him a nod, and after the doors closed, said, "President Dai and our teacher are classmates. Before you joined the company, the teacher called President Dai."
"Oh," Wei Hongsi suddenly understood. "I hadn't heard the teacher mention that."
"So you won't lack for opportunities. It just depends on whether you're prepared."
"Mm, I understand."
"You don't need to worry about Ding Yafan. Her technical competency assessments haven't met the standards; she hasn't been able to get a promotion for years, so she resents me," Gu Shiming said, a trace of mockery curling at the corner of his mouth. "As for Mu Wei, it's also about a promotion, but that's not important anymore."
Wei Hongsi gave a faint smile. "Understood. They can't affect me."
At Zhiwei Technology, the Human Resources Department belonged to the execution layer and could exert very limited influence over him. His work evaluations were primarily based on the opinions of his own department and the Research Center.
Come to think of it, the company's HR Director position was vacant, so Ding Yafan was the de facto head of the department. In such a situation, that "Deputy" in her title probably irritated her even more.
...
Wei Hongsi returned to his workstation and checked the time on his computer. There was still about fifteen minutes until the end of the workday. Calculated, the meeting had only lasted about an hour and a half, yet it felt like much longer had passed.
He picked up his cup and drank some water, then willed the "System" panel to appear.
[Current Contribution Points: 120 points]
[Mission: Prevent Paradise Beverages' plan to launch Plan B advertisements on dynamic media (Completed)]
Only these two lines of information had changed. After completing the mission, he had gained 100 contribution points.
The mission's completion was within expectations. Even though Jiang Kai's communication work had just begun, Paradise Beverages wouldn't knowingly step on a landmine, so Plan B had completely lost any chance of appearing before the public.
But what could those contribution points actually do? Perhaps the answer would only be revealed when the "System" upgraded again.
After closing the "System" panel, he saw a chat notification on WD. The initiator was "Wu Wenjun (Comprehensive Support Center-01)."
"Hello, Engineer Wei! I have a task here that I'd like to ask for your assistance with. Would that be convenient for you?"
Wei Hongsi knew what Wu Wenjun's work task was, but what role could he possibly play by getting involved?
As he pondered this, red ghostly text flashed before his eyes.
[Mission: Uncover the mastermind behind the Paradise Beverages advertising trap (Completing this mission will grant a System level upgrade)]
Another mission actually appeared. Was this a continuation of the previous one?
He summoned the "System" panel again and saw that the mission description at the bottom had been updated to the line of text that had just appeared before his eyes. There was no countdown timer displayed after it, indicating it was probably untimed.
The reward of obtaining a "System" level upgrade was certainly tempting enough. If he hadn't misunderstood, this shouldn't be the only way for the "System" to level up. Therefore, failing the mission wouldn't trap him at the current level forever; it was essentially a mission with no failure penalty.
Although this mission seemed very difficult, since it was untimed, it was worth a try.
Speaking of which, this "System" didn't even offer an option to refuse the missions it issued.
As these thoughts ran through his mind, he replied on WD, "I have no problem with that."
Wu Wenjun: "Good. We'll set off at 17:15. Meet at the main entrance lobby on the 1st floor."
Wei Hongsi replied with an OK emoji and began wrapping up his work for the day. When the time was about right, he shut down his computer and headed to the Director's office.
Since it wasn't officially the end of the workday yet, technically, going out required an application. But according to Ji Yongsheng's instructions, going through the WD process wasn't appropriate, so he just gave Yu Sheng a verbal heads-up.
After listening, Yu Sheng said, "Alright, go ahead and assist Manager Wu with his work first. If you encounter a situation that's too difficult or awkward, don't hesitate to refuse when you should."
Wei Hongsi nodded in acknowledgment.
Leaving the Director's office, he took the elevator down to the 1st floor lobby and saw Wu Wenjun was already there. They exchanged brief greetings, exited the building, and got into a black sedan waiting at the entrance.
Wu Wenjun was quite polite to Wei Hongsi, pulling him to sit together in the back seat.
Through the car's rearview mirror, Wei Hongsi saw the driver was the same security guard who had been stationed outside the conference room earlier.
Wu Wenjun introduced him, "This is Liu Zhifeng. You can call him Xiao Liu."
Wei Hongsi saw that Liu Zhifeng looked about a year older than himself and didn't presume familiarity. He greeted, "Hello, Captain Liu."
The company had quite a few security personnel. Someone who could be on duty during high-level meetings and accompany Wu Wenjun on tasks outside was definitely not in a basic position. Calling him Captain Liu was certainly not a problem.
Liu Zhifeng looked into the rearview mirror, smiled, and nodded. "Hello, Engineer Wei. You're too polite."
Wu Wenjun glanced at Wei Hongsi with a faint, amused smile, thinking this young man was quite interesting. Liu Zhifeng was a former reconnaissance soldier. For him, "Captain Liu" was a title full of nostalgic sentiment.
The car drove for over twenty minutes before stopping at the entrance of a relatively old residential neighborhood.
Wu Wenjun motioned for Wei Hongsi to get out first and led him into a restaurant by the roadside, up to a private room on the second floor.
"Even when working, we have to eat," Wu Wenjun explained with a smile, seeing Wei Hongsi's puzzled look. "The person joining us later is an old comrade of mine, named Yu Zhen. He's the head of the Criminal Investigation Brigade at the district branch and is trustworthy. We'll brief him on the situation here first; the news definitely won't leak."
Wei Hongsi nodded. He thought to himself, Manager Wu is really being cautious.
He glanced around the private room. A round table for eight was placed in the center, and there was a small square table in the corner, likely for playing cards. The interior decoration was simple. Combined with the exterior facade, it was probably a restaurant catering to the general public.
Not long after, Liu Zhifeng also entered. "Manager Wu, the dishes are ordered," he said, handing a briefcase he was carrying to Wu Wenjun.
"Alright, have a seat first," Wu Wenjun said, placing the briefcase on the small side table.
