Chapter 3: Unexpected Aerobic Exercise

The 7k monthly salary Zhou Yong offered was what Chen Jue’s current subordinates were making.

If he had a rush of blood to the head and bought into Zhou Yong’s pie-in-the-sky offer, it would be a step backward, putting him right back at the salary of a fresh college graduate.

Besides, President Zhou hadn’t mentioned a single word about benefits. Chen Jue was pretty sure the man was short on funds and would be betting his life savings to start a new business.

This kind of boss was impressive—capable, ambitious, and well-connected—but they were usually incredibly stingy.

People who rise from humble beginnings are often masters of penny-pinching. Once they strike it rich, you can bet they’ll ruthlessly exploit their employees.

So, after chatting with President Zhou for a dozen minutes and sipping some tea, Chen Jue left the office with the excuse, "I’ll go home and think about it. I’ll give you an answer in a few days."

Chen Jue wasn’t skilled at making empty promises to others.

But after slogging it out in the corporate world for years, he was no longer a clueless greenhorn.

When the boss dangled a carrot, he played Tai Chi.

Besides, Chen Jue had already decided that if he really couldn’t find a suitable new job, he would take a trip to clear his head first.

He had worked hard for several years and had some savings on hand.

He couldn’t afford a house in Hang City, but he could definitely afford to go out and have some fun for a while.

"Gold will always shine!"

’I’ll just wait and see!’ Chen Jue comforted himself.

He was now leaning toward waiting for the best offer. He felt that with his skills, abilities, and work experience, it shouldn’t be hard to find a new position.

Plus, with the inexplicable appearance of a strange attribute panel, the sense of desperation he’d felt when discussing his severance package in the HR office was temporarily gone.

...

Back at his desk, he went back to slacking off as usual.

Since the news that Taisheng Finance was about to be liquidated had already spread, the company’s finance department had stopped advancing funds for loans. The salespeople at their partner stores and agencies were all as sharp as a tack.

This afternoon, they had already started to hold back on submitting new applications.

With no client data being uploaded, the risk control department had become completely useless.

No clients, so what the hell was there to review?

The three teams, more than a dozen employees in total, were all sitting at their desks, chatting and shooting the breeze.

Some were busy looking for their next job, sending out resumes everywhere.

Some were brazenly playing mobile games—Genshin Impact, Honor of Kings, and PUBG, one after another.

Others, like Chen Jue, were frequently being summoned to the offices of the general manager, director, and chairman.

The various bosses and shareholders all wanted to drain the company of its resources before the liquidation, so they were all experts at dangling carrots and making empty promises.

After all, in this day and age, human resources are still resources.

But when he heard that his young apprentice, Jiang Lin, had actually gotten a verbal offer from Zhou Yong for 6k a month with room and board included, Chen Jue immediately thought, ’Son of a bitch.’

According to his naive young apprentice’s account: President Zhou thought that as a transparent and earnest recent college graduate, he was a diamond in the rough and planned to keep him close for special training.

In a few years, once Zhou Yong’s new company grew bigger and stronger, he might even make Jiang Lin the director of risk control.

Unlike slick old-timers like Chen Jue, whose minds were restless, Jiang Lin was more deserving of a higher salary.

’Isn’t this just fucking disgusting? He pulls this shit just because I stalled a little?’

’Truly worthy of a boss! So calculating!’ Chen Jue was completely in awe of these executives’ ability to make empty promises.

...

After slacking off until quitting time at 6 p.m., the sun was setting outside the large floor-to-ceiling windows, bathing the entire campus in the twilight glow.

It gets dark early in Hang City; night would fall in another half hour.

Chen Jue clocked out on the work app and squeezed into the elevator with his colleagues to go downstairs.

"Brother Jue, want to grab dinner together?"

"I don’t have much experience with what President Zhou proposed. I wanted to hear your advice, Brother Jue. Dinner’s on me!" Jiang Lin said after they left Huaye Mansion, having clearly given it a lot of thought.

Chen Jue glanced at him, knowing his young apprentice was tempted by the pie-in-the-sky offer from Zhou Yong. He nodded in agreement, planning to help him think it through.

They didn’t go far, just ordered a grilled fish and a few side dishes at the general restaurant on the first floor of Huaye Mansion, spending over a hundred yuan.

The first-floor restaurant was contracted out to an external operator. Driven by the foot traffic of tens of thousands of office workers in the campus, business was booming.

The rent for a single spot was rumored to have been driven up to 500,000 yuan a year, and even then, it was hard to get one. You can imagine how much money these semi-monopolistic food businesses were making.

In any case, it was much better than being a salaried worker!

As for the food, it was just mediocre.

Hang City was a food desert; the people who came here to open restaurants were all from out of town.

Heavy, oily, and slightly spicy, the food was a step up from the university cafeteria. It was definitely good enough for a broke recent graduate like Jiang Lin.

But Chen Jue was almost 30. After eating out so much, he always felt that nothing tasted as good as a home-cooked meal.

But they were all migrant workers trying to put down roots in the big city; there wasn’t much room to be picky.

Two beers in, Chen Jue began to painstakingly advise his naive young apprentice.

When the company was hiring, Chen Jue had personally interviewed Jiang Lin.

He knew that Jiang Lin was a lot like him—an introverted homebody who wasn’t good with words.

Someone with his personality was suited for technical roles, like a programmer.

If he really went to start a business with President Zhou, he’d probably still be counting the money for the person who sold him out.

So, Chen Jue advised him that if things didn’t work out, he should go back to his hometown and take the civil service exam or get a job at a big bank.

Jiang Lin had just graduated this year with a bachelor’s degree. He was still young and had plenty of time and opportunity to fight for a stable government job.

From Chen Jue’s experience, financial companies in the startup phase had very low risk tolerance. They would dissolve and liquidate at the drop of a hat and didn’t care about their employees at all.

If you passed the civil service exam or got into a big bank, as long as you didn’t make any major mistakes, you could at least have a stable job until retirement.

Besides, the pay in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region was already high. The annual salary for a grassroots civil servant, plus all the hidden benefits, was approaching 200,000 yuan. It was a much more promising path than the one for white-collar workers like them, who had to fend for themselves.

...

After the meal, Jiang Lin seemed to have come to a realization.

Seeing his pensive expression, it was hard to tell if he had taken the veteran’s advice to heart.

He had said all that needed to be said. As his mentor, Chen Jue felt he had done all he could.

If it weren’t for the fact that they were from the same hometown and had a master-apprentice relationship, and that Jiang Lin diligently helped him with miscellaneous tasks at work, Chen Jue couldn’t be bothered to share his life experience with an outsider.

He himself had struggled until almost 30 without success; he was in no position to enlighten others.

The most he could do was advise others to avoid making the same mistakes he did.

...

After leaving the campus, the two went their separate ways.

One headed for the Jianye Road subway station, the other got on a Hello shared bike.

The next two days were the weekend. Chen Jue had originally planned to continue sending out resumes and looking for a job.

But this suddenly awakened attribute panel had thrown a wrench in his plans, and he felt like he could perhaps do something different for a change.

’Where can I do some Stone Skimming?’

Sitting on the bike, Chen Jue suddenly had no idea where to go.

He had worked at the campus for over two years, but he spent most of his time either in his rented apartment or at the company.

Occasionally on weekends, he would meet up with a few friends from college who stayed in Hang City for a meal or team up for some games at an internet cafe, but he had rarely explored the nearby area.

Because this area was all industrial parks, filled with skyscrapers and residential complexes, there were no interesting attractions.

He opened his navigation app and searched for places with ponds or rivers. A few kilometers away was Baima Lake Park, not far from the Changhe District where Chen Jue lived.

It took him over 20 minutes to bike there. By the time he got off and locked the bike, Chen Jue was already drenched in sweat.

PANT... PANT... He gasped for a few breaths to recover.

Chen Jue realized he hadn’t exercised in a long time; his body was really out of shape.

He had only biked five kilometers, but his legs were already feeling sore and weak, and he was sweating all over.

But to Chen Jue’s surprise, after he had been resting on the spot for just a few seconds, the attribute panel in his vision unexpectedly showed a change!

[Ding~]

[Completed one qualifying session of aerobic exercise]

[Assignable Free Attribute Points +0.01]