Chapter 5
The Arrival of the New Boss
Without a doubt, Pang Jing Dong was late again.
When he turned out at the office with a pale face, the regular meeting had already finished. All his colleagues gave him a sorrowful look as if they were attending his funeral.
Pang Jing Dong knew for sure that he was going to get fired this time, so he chose to ignore the fact that he was already considered a dead man by his colleagues and proceeded to his desk. He sank into his chair and let out a long sigh.
The manager"s a.s.sistant sneaked up beside Pang Jing Dong and asked in a soft voice, "Dear Mr. Pang, why did you come so late?!"
"If the answer is I don"t know, would you believe?" Pang Jing Dong said with a wry smile.
"Would it be that you went out to do some terrible things?" Zhou Tong started laughing; she appeared to be interested with Pang Jing Dong"s personal life.
"The reality was terrible things came and f.u.c.ked me up!"
Zhou Tong did not continue the topic; instead, she said, "To be honest, today was not the best day to be late, everyone was worried about you!"
Among his colleagues, Pang Jing Dong was relatively well received. One of the reasons was because he seldom partic.i.p.ated in the clashes between factions or compete with others for personal benefits; and secondly, he was generous.
For the first reason, it depicted the common issue which could easily be found in big enterprises, including Pang Jing Dong’s company. As the famous idiom stated, "even Qin Hui has three close friends", which meant that in any big organizations, there would be people who were relatively close to each other, especially when they all shared common ideas and desires, resulting in the formation of factions within the organization.
P.S. – Qin Hui was a spy and traitor during his era, with no sense of mercy and moral. He played a huge part in the persecution and execution of General Yue Fei. The idiom generally states that as long as a group of people has some common interests, regardless if those interests are cla.s.sified as right or evil, they would consider one another as their close friends.
At Pang Jing Dong"s company, the workers were from different origins of the country, and most people normally referred to one another as "brothers from all over the country"; the truth was those who came from the same hometown would be closer to one another, as they were more familiar with their own culture and behaviors, which also influenced their characteristics to be similar. As an example, people from the northeast of China and Shang Hai were quite different concerning the aspects mentioned before, so when they were interacting with each other, they would feel uncomfortable and awkward.
Similarly, for those who graduated in the same school, as they once shared the same moments together for a period, they would feel closer to each other. Besides that, people with relatively close age would have a higher chance to share common interests; while those with same manners, would prefer to gather around together. All the above proved that people would indeed gather together according to their interests and ideas. As a result, people would prefer to join the groups which they had a stronger sense of belonging.
Due to the limited opportunities for a promotion or salary raise, people would compete with one another while pursuing their benefits for themselves, in which each person would draw support from their groups to achieve their desires, and causing the conflict to upgrade to an inter-faction level.
If one was to say that under the calm surface of a peaceful company, hides the strikes of blades at each other, the statement could not be any more accurate. However, Pang Jing Dong treated the situation with an unusual att.i.tude. He had never inclined to either side and maintained a good relationship with everyone. This was due to Pang Jing Dong was not fussed with any personal benefits, and he was still a relatively new employee and had only worked at the company for a brief period, so he did not have the chance to dive deeper into the background of the situation.
As for the other reason, it was merely Pang Jing Dong"s characteristics.
In just a few days, his colleagues had all realized that this guy was a bit too generous. It was so easy to convince him to treat anyone a meal if one was shameless enough to ask for it. Not only he would do it, but he would also include everyone who was there at the moment. As for the places which they chose to eat at, were never cheap to begin with.
Of course, asking him for a treat for one or two times was still acceptable. No one was shameless enough to ask for the third or fourth time. However, someone came up with another way of getting free meals from him; simply find some excuses such as, "It is my birthday today", or pretend to be the host and invite Pang Jing Dong, then avoid paying at the end by pretending to be drunk or hiding inside the washrooms, so Pang Jing Dong would end up paying without hesitating. After that, the host would then reappear, and pretended to be embarra.s.sed, "Oh, my bad! Didn"t mean to let you pay the bills. Let"s eat again next time, and I"ll treat you back!"
In fact, within a month"s time, Pang Jing Dong was treating his colleagues to lunch or dinner almost every day.
In return, his colleagues were somehow embarra.s.sed, as they felt like leeches to Pang Jing Dong, so even though he was late, or was not efficient at his duties, no one would criticize him apart from w.a.n.g Wei Tong. Even w.a.n.g Wei Tong would only mention it directly at him, but according to Zhou Tong"s intel, w.a.n.g Wei Tong had never said anything bad about Pang Jing Dong in front of the company"s executives.
At the same time, everyone was curious about Pang Jing Dong"s true ident.i.ty, and all kinds of rumors started spreading around. This was because, Pang Jing Dong"s generosity, together with his expensive branded clothing that he wore every day, would never be affordable just with his current salary.
From this observation, after exerting themselves to discover more clues to find out the truth, they came up with all sorts of possible theories. Some of them were quite convincing, supported with all kinds of hypothesis in such a way that it was difficult not to believe them.
The most convincing one was; Pang Jing Dong had a millionaire dad and was about to take over his business. However, due to the lack of experience, he was told to get a job, starting from the bottom.
When a rumor was repeated for thousands of times, it would slowly turn into truth, and people would start believing it. Zhou Tong was one of them.
Zhou Tong was a typical office beauty, who always wore her professional attire. She had an average physique, a slightly fleshy appearance, and on her oval-shaped face, were a pair of big, lively flickering eyes.
In Pang Jing Dong"s opinion, what stood out the most for Zhou Tong was her well-nourished skin which was as smooth and fair as some nourishing cream. Despite that, Zhou Tong would not agree with Pang Jing Dong, she was obviously more confident in her large b.r.e.a.s.t.s, as she would always leave the top two b.u.t.tons on her shirt undone, and proudly presented her cleavage, thus making all the male colleagues to gulp their saliva.
Even though Zhou Tong had never shared her relationships with anyone, but Pang Jing Dong did interpret that her biggest dream was to marry a wealthy guy, so she would never need to live a tough life. It was not uncommon to have this kind of thought in the society nowadays, especially when Zhou Tong had the a.s.sets to do so.
What Pang Jing Dong did not know, was Zhou Tong had already a.s.sumed he was a son of a millionaire enterpriser"s son, or even his b.a.s.t.a.r.d, but was it significant? It did not matter for Zhou Tong.
With his background, together with his well-received appearance, a height around six feet and a handsome face, was what every girl had dreamed about. However, to say that Zhou Tong had a crush on him, was still too early, because she was still bothered by some doubts towards him.