Chapter 3
New Beginnings
It was impossible for him to be able to resign immediately, he still needed to stay here until the end of September in order to fully play out his surplus value.
"Ding," reached the 18th floor.
Ye Wenxuan stood in the empty elevator, tidying up his suit and ponytail in the mirrored walls. Then he finally carried his backpack out of the elevator and swiped his card next to a closed gla.s.s door in the corridor, stepping inside.
Here was the work area for SFLS"s personal made-to-order mens clothes department"s Team B designers, next door was the A team and C team, the women"s design department"s area was on the 19th floor, and then above that was the cosmetics and jewelry design area, and so on. When Ye Wenxuan had nothing to do he would also be walking around on the upper and lower floors, on the one hand to find inspiration, and on the other hand to meet more peers and widen his own network.
He walked into the s.p.a.cious, brightly decorated work area and greeted a colleague filling up his coffee mug. "Liu brother, so early?”
"How is it early ah, last night I didn"t sleep, I had to rush to draw my designs." Liu ge weakly waved his hand. "Xiao Ye, what happened this weekend, everyone took turns to call you on your phone but no one answered, the director"s face was very unpleasant. If you were held up by some business, you best wait for her to come in this afternoon and report to her, otherwise your bonus this month will probably be done for.”
He looked Ye Wenxuan up and down. "You even started wearing gla.s.ses when not working? This habit isn"t good, your face is so handsome, but if you cover it with a pair of gla.s.ses, our company"s beautiful ladies and handsome men will losing a welfare.”
Ye Wenxuan smiled and pushed up his gla.s.ses, not continuing this topic.
He changed the subject, "Thank you Liu brother, I really did have some business this weekend and wasn"t able to keep my phone on me." He looked over at Liu ge"s desk. "Are you going to continue to work on your draft?”
Liu ge waved again, "No, I haven"t slept for two days in a row, I"m going to go back to rest." He downed his cup of coffee and picked up his bag, ready to leave. Before he left, he mentioned, "Xiao Ye, several brothers were basically tired numb these past two days, now they are probably lying in bed sleeping. You can just take a look in the morning, I"ll come back later to continue.”
These designers were basically all nocturnal, Ye Wenxuan naturally agreed, and then watched him stagger out.
He turned around and found his desk, placed his backpack in the locker, and then sat down in the chair and turned on his computer.
Here was an open work area, all of the group B designers had their own desks, and in the small area around their desks, they could design and arrange it according to their own preferences. They thus decorated their own office areas in a variety of styles.
Ye Wenxuan"s neighboring small brother loved birds, so he had his desk designed into the shape of a huge log stump. He covered the table with a variety of delicate and fancy bird specimens, at first glance it seemed like a huge bird"s nest, very attractive.
As far as Ye Wenxuan himself was concerned, he preferred a clean and bright design style, so his office area was designed according to this concept. But when placed next to a huge bird"s nest, his office area would appear to be somewhat overshadowed.
Of course, the colleague on the other side of this bird"s nest also suffered the same fate, and sometimes would privately discuss with Ye Wenxuan. He said that whenever he saw those real or fake bird specimens, he would always feel like he could smell a bit of bird p.o.o.p flavor.
But Ye Wenxuan was actually quite fond of this bird lover"s design, at least his design was quite pleasing, and when he became tired of drawing he would take a look, his mood would improve quite a bit.
Next to the office area there were a few huge work desks, on top were a variety of scissors, paintbrushes, design paper, the complete works. This setup was to help the designers find some inspiration, they could paint and graffiti together, stimulate their thinking.
In addition, there were gla.s.s-walled meeting rooms in the corner, a relaxation area for the designers to rest, as well as a pantry with a wide a.s.sortment of fine refreshments. Everything was thoroughly designed, it all looked perfect.
Ye Wenxuan"s position was in the row closest to the director"s office, he turned his head and looked through the gla.s.s wall next to him. It seemed like the group B design director hadn"t come to work yet, so he opened his mailbox and began to consider how to write his resignation application.
After hammering around for almost one hour, Ye Wenxuan wrote down his name on the resignation letter. He hesitated for a bit, and finally pressed the Send b.u.t.ton.
With a "ding" sound, the email was sent successfully.
Ye Wenxuan let out a breath, then he glanced at the pile of unfinished drawings on the table and casually tidied them up, dropping everything into a drawer.
One hour later, the office slowly filled with people, many people saw Ye Wenxuan and came over to say h.e.l.lo, and also asked about the weekend overtime matter, expressing concern for him.
Ye Wenxuan was one of the top-notch designers in group B, normally there would be quite a few people trying to curry favor with him. Of course, there were also more than a few people who envied him.
Facing these colleagues who seemed caring on the surface, Ye Wenxuan put up his spirit, thanking them one by one, and then faintly revealed that he might resign soon.
No matter what their purpose was for coming over, these colleagues all wore faces full of shock when leaving. Everyone seemed unable to believe that someone would actually voluntarily resign from such a superior job, and moreover was someone who was expected to be promoted, and be able to become the next design director.
This news quickly spread through the company"s internal chats, when the men"s design department director saw the email, the other several directors by her side had basically all known.
Zhang Liyi"s expression was gloomy, she didn"t care about her neighboring colleagues" private gestures and bowed her head to look over the resignation application, then turned off the screen.
After lunch, the designers who had stayed up late and gone to sleep returned to the office, Ye Wenxuan sat in his chair and looked up. Then he saw Zhang Liyi aggressively walking into the 18th floor team B office area with a black face.
"Ye Wenxuan, come to my office." Zhang Liyi walked over, her tone was not great, and then glared at the designers watching from the side. "What are you all looking at, are your drafts done? Still dallying around, you will all have to turn it in tonight, you better see what you"re going to do!”
Her voice had barely fallen when countless wails rose from all around. Zhang Liyi turned a deaf ear to these, only waving Ye Wenxuan over.
The small brother sitting next to him in his "nest" came over and patted him on the shoulder, whispering, "I"m afraid Zhang director"s menopause struck again, I offer you my condolences.”
Ye Wenxuan: "Alas.”
Entering the director"s office, Zhang Liyi immediately struck down her question: "Why resign?”
Zhang Liyi: "Countless designers are dreaming of being able to be in your current position, your ability in group B is also very outstanding, and you also have no problem getting along with your colleagues. I can"t think of any reason for you to give up such a good position.”
Ye Wenxuan voiced the reasons that he had long ago prepared: "My parents hope that I can go back to work somewhere close to home, make it easier to take care of them.”
"Is that true?" Zhang Liyi looked at him suspiciously. "W city definitely doesn"t have any decent foreign company, even if you job-hop back there, your treatment there can"t compare to here.”
Ye Wenxuan hurriedly waved his hand. "I am definitely not job-hopping to some other design company. I am really unable to stay in S city for too long because of some personal reasons.”
Zhang Liyi intently looked at him for a while, Ye Wenxuan also looked back at her with an upright manner and sincere att.i.tude.
"Ye Wenxuan, we can see all of your performance over the past two years, your design ideas and finished products are all very good. I heard from above that if your job qualifications increase a step further, getting promoted to my position and becoming a design director is absolutely not a problem." At this point, she paused. Seeming a little jealous, she continued delicately, "Earlier the headquarters had pa.s.sed along some information, the China division was expected to have five promoted to go work at the headquarters, you had a lot of potential to compete for one of these positions, and if you had worked hard, you might have gotten a chance to go to London to continue to work.”
This time Ye Wenxuan really was somewhat regretful, "Oh, I"m sorry about that.”
This was equivalent to having one fewer compet.i.tor for herself, so Zhang Liyi"s mood was particularly complex. "What happened this weekend, a group of people were rushing to put out a draft, but weren"t able to contact your phone. Did you see how many times I called you?”
Ye Wenxuan made a helpless expression.
"All right then. I will submit your resignation application to the human resources department, as for whether they will let you go, I won"t be able to handle too much." Zhang Liyi was quite dissatisfied. "Group B finally won a big order from the Xing group after so much difficulty, yet you have to leave at this time, our progress will definitely be greatly impeded. This will force me to have to think more deeply about this.”
Ye Wenxuan pointed at the sky and swore, "Director, I really did not get poached, really, in the future I might…even have to put down my design work.”
Zhang Liyi was surprised. "Oh?”
Ye Wenxuan: "Well…That"s the case, delaying the progress of the entire group, I"m really very sorry.”
It seemed like this subordinate was really forced to resign, Zhang Liyi also stopped trying to dissuade him. "I will pa.s.s on your application, but even if you are able to resign successfully, you will still have to come and finalize the designs with the team B designers until the 30th of this month. Of course, when you leave you will need to sign the agreement, you will not be able to pa.s.s out any design-related information. I think that you should be quite clear about this process.”
Ye Wenxuan nodded. "I understand.”
Zhang Liyi: "All right, you can go now.”
He had gotten through without mishap, Ye Wenxuan let out a breath and turned to leave the director"s office.
Once he walked out, he saw that the group A and group C employees had come over from next door to chat, a bunch of designers were holding cups and chatting idly, and also discussed some of the customers that each was responsible for.
A designer with serious eye bags sighed, "That boss is too picky, our group of designers showed him more than 30 versions of sample clothes, he wasn"t satisfied with any of them, directly sending them back to be redesigned. You don"t know, our boss"s expression at that time, it was like he was immediately going to have a heart attack.”
"It"s just 30 something versions, at least your boss gave you some suggestions." Next to him a beautiful woman enviously said, "Our client ah, truly a woman of mystery, the group worked together to design over a hundred shawls, the boss couldn"t even see the customer"s face, only dealing with her a.s.sistant. There wasn"t even a single opinion, also don"t know whether or not the finished product would be pa.s.sed.”
"There"s also no way, this group of bosses all have power, normally they"re really busy, where would they care about us.”
"The women"s department is still better ah, there"s a lot of money, the bosses are also easier to deal with." Someone said emotionally.
A miss who had just transferred over from the women"s division rolled her eyes at him, "Yuck, you don"t know how difficult those women are to satisfy, I had to change a piece of clothing over 100 times, the final result was still to go with the first version. Really, the men"s division is still better to handle.”
Everyone sighed incessantly.
## On how to avoid overtime ##
Zhang Liyi: "Why didn"t you come work overtime on the weekend? The entire group was here, only you were missing. Speak, where did you go to fool around?”
Ye Wenxuan: "I went to generate electricity.”
Zhang Liyi: "You think that I"m r.e.t.a.r.ded?”
Ye Wenxuan: "Yes.”
Zhang Liyi: "Very good, you will have to come to work until the 30th. Then these days you will continue to work overtime for me!”
Ye Wenxuan: "Hmph!”
So on Monday night, the designers habitually came to work overtime.
At 6:30 pm, SFLS"s entire division building had a blackout, the electricians were unable to repair it in a short time.
The designers: "Hoho, work what overtime, let"s go home to wash and sleep.”
Zhang Liyi: "…”
Ye Wenxuan who took his hand off the electric switch: "Hehehe.”
Translator Notes:
[1] ge – 刘哥, it"s a bit weird to directly write out Liu brother every time as a name, so I might just keep the pinyin sometimes for these sort of things
[2] struck down – 劈头盖脸, idiom, literally means splitting the head and covering the face
[3] gotten through without mishap – 有惊无险, idiom, literally means to be more scared than hurt
[4] truly a woman of mystery – 神龙见首不见尾, literally means you can see the head of a heavenly dragon, but not the tail
Random Notes:
Almost 1.5 hours for this, 6 pm – 7:20 pm, for 3.3k characters to 2.4k words. Perhaps the summary-translation way is not for me. I spent half the time trying to figure out how to best do it. I was planning on just filtering through the MTL, and then going back through the raws and fixing the erroneous parts, but then I kept on getting stuck on the terms during the MTL and being like that doesn"t make sense, let"s MDBG this raw term first. And then it was even slower than reading through the raws in the first place bc I kept on reading both the MTL and the raws. Sigh. d.a.m.n this OCD.
Edit (12/24): Merry Christmas everyone! An extra chapter of 100kV as a holiday celebration.