Dawn of Life

Lin Yue had just sat down at her workstation when Su Ling sent her a message: "Check your emails quickly."

She nervously opened her email, her brows instantly furrowing. It turned out that Liu Zheng had sent an email to all employees in the early hours of the previous night.

The lengthy article, nearly two thousand words long, can be summarized as a review of the past, gratitude to colleagues, and a vision for the future of the industry, especially elaborating on innovative ideas for new models and operations. The entire article contained not a single word of blame or complaint, yet it easily shook morale, because previously, some of his innovative business models had not had the opportunity to be communicated to the entire team due to Shengxing's lack of approval.

This move, though ostensibly a farewell, was more about planting a seed in everyone's hearts; soon, almost the entire company knew where he was going. If like-minded individuals were willing to join him, that would be a good thing. Especially the last line of the email: "Until we meet again," was full of implications.

When Shengxing saw the email, he turned green with anger. He summoned his IT colleague and gave him a severe dressing-down, asking why the email account hadn't been deleted even though the person had already left the company. The IT colleague felt wronged, explaining that the resignation process had only just reached him.

Then he called Lin Yue over and said sternly, "Check all of Liu Zheng's company accounts and all the groups he's in today, and delete everything that he can use to speak in the name of a company."

Seeing Sheng Xing sitting at his desk, his brow furrowed and rubbing his temples with a sense of helplessness, Lin Yue couldn't immediately discern who the ultimate winner was in this struggle between Sheng Xing and Liu Zheng. Or perhaps it wasn't yet time to determine the winner.

The marketing center couldn't win back the lost customers, so Lin Yue suggested a special exception for the marketing center, waiving performance-based layoffs, since several people had resigned recently. Since they were in need of manpower, Shengxing agreed.

Soon after, the company issued an official document announcing its impending acquisition. Shengxing would continue as CEO, with all managers in the first-level departments reporting to him. The chaotic situation finally came to an end.

After lunch, Lin Yue and Su Ling enjoyed a rare sunny day in early December, a welcome respite from the winter heat. As they strolled around the company grounds, a message popped up on their phones. Lin Yue glanced at it quickly; it was from Sheng Xing's Feishu: "Come over."

When she arrived at Shengxing's office, he was carefully setting out the tea set. After inviting Lin Yue to sit down, he pushed a cup of tea that had been brewed in front of her. Lin Yue looked up at Shengxing and remembered that the last time she had tea in his office was three months ago when he asked her to act as the human resources director.

Time flies, and Lin Yue's three-month probationary period has now ended. During a work report, Lin Yue tentatively reminded Sheng Xing that she wanted him to provide feedback on her work during the three months of probation. He immediately avoided the topic. Lin Yue knew that Sheng Xing had many ideas after consolidating power and was in need of manpower. At this time, she had to seize the opportunity to solidify her position as director, especially to push for salary adjustments.

So Lin Yue did a three-month work review and sent it to Sheng Xing via email, expressing her desire to apply for a permanent position and hoping he would agree. It shouldn't be unreasonable to ask her boss to fulfill his promise with her achievements, right? Lin Yue guessed that Sheng Xing had probably contacted her today mainly about this.

Sheng Xing took a sip of tea and said, "I've read your probation summary, and it's quite good. You've completed all the tasks assigned to you, so there's no problem with you becoming a full-time employee. Your salary will be based on the junior director level, which means a 20% increase from your current salary."

Lin Yue sat opposite Shengxing, nodding repeatedly. She quickly calculated in her mind that after the adjustment, the pre-tax income would reach 25,000 yuan, finally improving her family's standard of living. A long-lost smile appeared on her face.

Then Lin Yue said a string of standard words of thanks and loyalty to appease Sheng Xing. After that, she took the opportunity to bring up another matter: "President Sheng, I'd like to try to get a salary adjustment for Qian Minmin in my team. I mentioned it to you last time, because currently, in addition to her original compensation and performance team, she is also the team leader of SSC..."

Sheng Xing paused slightly in his teacup, then interrupted Lin Yue, saying, "Lin Yue, this isn't the window for salary adjustments. Your situation is a bit special because it was a promise I made to you earlier, so it's considered a special approval. We'll have to wait until the next window for others."

Lin Yue knew that this was not the right time to ask Qian Minmin for a raise, but since the last conversation, Qian Minmin had been working very hard and had done a great job in the salary adjustment and performance appraisal projects.

Another reason is that her salary increase will be reflected in next month's paycheck, and Qian Minmin, as the payroll officer, will definitely see Lin Yue's salary. Therefore, if she can secure this, it will be better for her management.

However, judging from Shengxing's attitude today, she knew that the matter was hopeless, which she could understand. She had just given herself a raise and was now trying to advocate for the team members. From Shengxing's perspective, it did seem a bit like arrogance and greed.

Lin Yue thought she could only talk to Qian Minmin first and try to appease her. So she nodded to Sheng Xing and said, "Understood."

Shengxing then went on to discuss some key tasks following the acquisition. An hour later, Lin Yue emerged from his office. Shengxing raised her expectations: the company could finally be centrally managed after the acquisition, but he also needed to quickly prove himself to the acquiring company. If he couldn't do so in the short term, he might send someone else from headquarters to divert his power.

Afterwards, Lin Yue called Qian Minmin into the conference room. This time, the two naturally sat at one corner of the conference table, quite close to each other. Their recent collaboration had brought them much closer. Qian Minmin had been waiting for Lin Yue to contact her these past few days, because the promise made last time was to help her apply for a salary increase at the end of the year. Now that it was the end of the year, and with the project still fresh in everyone's minds, it was a good opportunity to bring it up with her boss.

Lin Yue avoided Qian Minmin's expectant gaze, first thanking her for her efforts on the project during this period, and then expressing her approval of the overall project results.

No matter how much groundwork was laid, the fact remained that a salary adjustment had not been secured. Lin Yue sighed inwardly and said, "I mentioned a salary adjustment to President Sheng, and he highly appreciates your contributions. However, it's not the right time for a salary adjustment yet, so I plan to apply later."

After saying that, he buried his head deeply.

Qian Minmin's previously upturned lips immediately drooped, and her eyes revealed an undisguised disappointment and resentment. She composed herself slightly, stared at Lin Yue, and said, "Everyone has been adjusted this time along with their job titles. Will there be another window of opportunity at the end of the year? In the past, there was a loophole due to rising prices, but the market environment is so bad now. I think if we can't adjust this time, it will be even more difficult next time."

Lin Yue was uncertain about her future. She had initially thought that having a suitable reason for a salary increase would be enough to apply, but now it seemed that this was just a threshold; whether she would succeed was entirely up to her boss. Although she had mentioned the salary increase for Qian Minmin to Shengxing beforehand, Shengxing's attitude was to see how things went. Lin Yue had subtly conveyed this uncertainty to Qian Minmin, but Qian Minmin interpreted it as a promise from Lin Yue.

Now that the work results have been obtained, what's going on if the promises are not kept?

For Lin Yue, however, her own salary had just been adjusted, and it wasn't wise to rush into advocating for the team; she had to wait for a suitable opportunity to bring it up. But she couldn't tell Qian Minmin this reason, otherwise it would only sow the seeds of greater resentment in Qian Minmin's heart.

Lin Yue could only continue to explain, "I did try to negotiate with President Sheng, but don't worry, I will definitely find an opportunity to help you again before the end of the year."

Suppressing her dissatisfaction, Qian Minmin said, "Then I'll have to trouble you, Mr. Lin. If there's nothing else, I'll go and get back to work."

Lin Yue could only sigh helplessly. Right now, nothing was better than getting her salary sorted out as soon as possible, so she nodded to her.

As I dragged my weary feet out of the meeting room, a WeChat message suddenly popped up.