I put you on a dating reality show, but I didn't make you a viral sensation!

Lin Zhou joined a software development company called "Qihang Technology".

Despite its relatively small size, it claims to be a "rising star in the internet industry."

He worked at this company for two and a half years. He was called a programmer, but he was actually doing the most menial work.

I basically have to stay at the company and work overtime every day.

Working until 8 or 9 pm is commonplace, and we're often busy until 10 or 11 pm, sometimes even until the early hours of the morning.

Lin Zhou guessed this was why programmers were prone to baldness and sudden death.

What frustrated him the most was the project that his team took over three months ago.

Lin Zhou was appointed as the person in charge, and he painstakingly completed every detail, from requirements research and framework building. Originally, it was not impossible for him to receive performance bonuses or even be promoted and receive a raise after the project went live. However, last month, the department manager suddenly put someone into the team and made him replace Lin Zhou as the project leader.

Their department manager was completely incompetent; he got to his position through seniority and flattery. He knew nothing but gave orders all the time—a complete idiot.

The person he put in was someone everyone in their business department knew.

The other party was his own nephew, Zhou Hao, a recent graduate who was also an idiot; he got in purely through connections.

This is clearly an attempt to steal his credit.

What's even more infuriating is that a vulnerability appeared before the project went live last week. That idiot Zhou Hao didn't even encrypt the payment interface, leading to the leakage of user data.

As a result, their department manager pushed all the blame onto Lin Zhou in front of the director, even accusing him of several things and deducting his performance bonus.

Lin Zhou couldn't hold back any longer.

He gave the credit to his nephew, but when things went wrong, he was made to take the blame. He was simply being taken advantage of.

He endured it before because jobs were hard to find and because he had to support two people.

Now, even if he wasn't selected for the dating reality show, he would definitely quit this awful job.

Lin Zhou quickly washed up, made himself some breakfast, and then leisurely took a taxi to the company.

It has to be said that with basic cooking skills, even a simple bowl of noodles tastes much better than what he used to make.

Thinking back to the haphazard breakfasts he used to eat, he suddenly felt that this kind of life wasn't so bad after all.

By the time Lin Zhou arrived at the company, it was already past ten o'clock.

At this time, the technical department was very busy, with the sounds of oxen and horses typing on keyboards rising and falling.

As soon as Lin Zhou reached his workstation, Old Chen, who was sitting next to him, leaned over and whispered a reminder: "Be careful, Zhou Hao just spent half an hour in the manager's office, probably talking about the project again."

Lin Zhou nodded, then sat down and began packing his things.

"What's wrong with you?"

Old Chen cast a questioning look at him.

Lin Zhou smiled. "I want to resign."

Old Chen was stunned for a moment, and was about to ask the reason subconsciously, but when he saw Lin Zhou's relaxed smile, the question was immediately stuck in his throat.

Lin Zhou's hard work during this period has been seen by his colleagues, and no one can tolerate having their credit stolen.

But there was nothing they could do; given the other person's position, they dared not say anything more.

Old Chen simply patted him on the shoulder without saying a word.

He had been with the company for five years and had long since grown tired of the manager's arrogant attitude. However, he had elderly parents and young children to support, and he didn't have the courage or confidence to leave like Lin Zhou.

Actually, there wasn't much to pack. It was mostly things like U-shaped pillows for afternoon naps and coffee to keep people going. As for work-related items, he had piled them all aside.

After packing his things, he got up from his workstation and went to his idiot manager's office.

As soon as I stood in front of the door, I heard voices coming from inside.

"Don't worry, I've already covered up the issue of that vulnerability. Once the project is finished, the credit will be yours, and I'll apply for a bonus for you then."

Zhou Hao grinned and said, "Uncle, you're really something. Lin Zhou was just a sucker; making him take the blame is a piece of cake."

Lin Zhou's expression was very calm as he raised his hand and pushed open the door.

The two people in the room froze for a moment when they saw Lin Zhou. Department manager Zhou Hongtao immediately started yelling at Lin Zhou with a cold face:

"Why are you so late today? Do you still want your perfect attendance record? By the way, is the patch I asked you to fix yesterday finished? Director Zhang asked about it this morning. Don't delay the users from restoring the service."

Lin Zhou said calmly, "I didn't."

The other person thought they had misheard, "What did you say?"

I said I didn't do it.

Zhou Hongtao's face darkened. This was a challenge to his authority. He threatened, "Lin Zhou! What do you mean? You were in charge of the project before, so you're also responsible for the handover problems. Finish the patching today, or you won't get a single penny in performance bonus this month."

Zhou Hao also gave a fake smile, "Yeah, Brother Lin, you need to be a team player. You should contribute more to the team."

"Team spirit? Dedication?" Lin Zhou looked at the two of them, a disdainful smile on his face.

"I'll give you my mother, you two idiots!"

With that, Lin Zhou walked straight to the other person's desk, slammed the printed resignation letter on it, and said calmly, "Today, I'm here to resign!"

"Resign?"

Zhou Hongtao immediately flew into a rage.

"Lin Zhou, don't push your luck! If you don't want this job, plenty of others will. If you quit now, you won't even get this month's salary!"

Zhou Hao's expression also turned somewhat ugly. Although he was now the person in charge of the project, in the end, everything was still done by Lin Zhou alone. Now that the other party had withdrawn and the project had run into problems, he certainly couldn't solve them by himself. If it affected the final handover, he would be lucky not to be fired, let alone get a bonus.

"Yeah, Brother Lin, don't act impulsively. This project still depends on you to finish it. If you leave, we won't be able to explain it to the client. At worst, I'll give you all of this bonus."

Zhou Hongtao clearly realized this as well, and quickly changed his tone: "Xiao Lin, let's talk this out. Let's not talk about resigning anymore. How about this, regarding the project... I'll have Zhou Hao help you with it, and I'll apply for a bonus for you afterwards, how about that?"

In his mind, young people like Lin Zhou were the easiest to manipulate. As long as he handed over this project first, he would have plenty of opportunities to mess with him later.

Lin Zhou almost laughed at their hypocritical behavior. He looked at Zhou Hao:

"Aren't you in charge? Anyway, you were originally in charge of this project, so of course we'll come to you if there's anything. By the way, you can't possibly not even know how to do this basic thing, can you?"

The other party is from a lousy third-tier university, and only attended a few months of tutoring classes. Let alone patching, they probably can't even see where the code is wrong.

Zhou Hao's face flushed red and then turned pale as Lin Zhou spoke. He wanted to refute but couldn't find a reason, so he could only bite the bullet and argue, "How could I not know how? It's just that time is tight right now, so I'm asking you to help me solve it quickly."

Seeing his nephew rendered speechless, Zhou Hongtao's face darkened further, but he still tried to smooth things over: "Xiao Lin, that's right, the most important thing now is to solve the problem. If you stay and fix the patch, I'll give you an extra two thousand yuan bonus, how about that?"

"Two thousand yuan?" Lin Zhou scoffed. "Manager Zhou, when your nephew stole the credit for my project, why didn't you think of this now? Now you want me to clean up his mess and you think you can just give me two thousand yuan to get rid of me? Do you think I'm short of that little bit of money?"

Seeing Lin Zhou's attitude, Zhou Hongtao decided to stop pretending. "Resigning is impossible. If you don't do a good job on this project, I won't let you leave."

"Idiot, this isn't up to you to decide." Lin Zhou pulled out his phone and showed a screenshot of the email he sent to Director Zhang. "I've already sent all the evidence of the project's problems to the director. You two should worry about yourselves first."

Zhou Hongtao stared at the screenshot, his face turning deathly pale.

He hadn't expected Lin Zhou to have such a backup plan, and to have gone straight to the director. If the director really investigated, he might even lose his position as department manager.

The group didn't lower their voices, so their colleagues outside could hear what was happening in the office. They all stopped what they were doing and listened intently.

"Wow, why is Lin Zhou so brave today?"

"Is this still the Lin Zhou I know?"

"Those two idiots deserved to be cursed out long ago. Finally, someone has stood up for us!"

Lin Zhou didn't argue with the two of them any further. After handing over his resignation letter, he turned around and left the office.

As he passed by his workstation, many of his colleagues quietly gave him a thumbs up.

After all, many of them had suffered greatly at the hands of Zhou Hongtao and his nephew.

"Screw you, let whoever wants to do this job do it. I'm not putting up with your dad anymore."

A young man of similar age to Lin Zhou also seemed unable to hold back and rushed into the office.

……

[Emotional value +8, emotional value +16, current emotional value 23896...]

Once downstairs, Lin Zhou looked at the numbers flashing on the panel and let out a long sigh of relief.

Not only did I finally release all the pent-up frustration, but I also gained some emotional points.

It was an unexpected bonus.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves and fell on him. Lin Zhou looked up at the sky and felt completely relaxed.

The troubles at Qihang Technology are finally over, and the upcoming island romance reality show will mark the beginning of his new life.