Dawn of Life

Lin Yue turned around and saw Zhang Gong standing behind her, looking exhausted, with heavy dark circles under his eyes, clearly having not slept all night.

Lin Yue got up and followed him to the conference room. Zhang Gong said with his head hanging low, "Let's go with your standard of 0.5N. I can definitely get N + 1 through arbitration, but I don't want to waste time like this. The arbitration office said on the phone that the coordination time has been scheduled for two months from now."

Lin Yue sighed deeply and said helplessly, "Give me your resume. I asked some close HR friends yesterday, and a few companies still have openings. I'll try to help you." She tried to make her voice sound as gentle as possible, because at this moment, any expression or action would only add to the other person's already bad mood.

Lin Yue was also heartbroken. As an HR professional, she had recruited them one by one, and now she had to send them away one by one. The company was calculating the overall picture, but each employee was a family member facing unemployment. If there were elderly people bedridden at home, or infants crying for milk, she couldn't imagine how she would bear such a blow.

I remember the first time she did this, she couldn't get over it for days, feeling like an executioner. Her direct supervisor told her, "You're not a savior; you can't save everyone. Just be true to yourself." Then, patting her on the shoulder, he continued, "An HR professional who hasn't laid off anyone isn't a true HR professional. This is just the beginning."

During this period, Lin Yue and the HRBP focused on layoff interviews, and their initial strategy was characterized by "fast," "accurate," and "ruthless." As a result, 13 people filled the 200 openings in just two weeks.

Lin Yue stared at the completed layoff list, her heart filled with mixed emotions. Suddenly, a red dot lit up on her WeChat screen. She clicked on it and saw a message from Xiao Feng: "My long-distance girlfriend, can you surprise me tonight and have dinner together?"

Lin Yue stared at the message, her lips unconsciously curving into a beautiful smile. She felt that the stress and stomachache caused by the recent layoffs had been greatly relieved.

Xiao Feng always complained that they rarely saw each other, so he often joked that they were in a long-distance relationship. Lin Yue sometimes felt bad about it.

Just as she was trying to figure out how to respond to his joke, Xiao Feng sent another message: "It's time to get off work. Just get ready and come downstairs. I'm already waiting for you downstairs."

Lin Yue quickly typed on the keyboard and replied, "Okay, I'm coming down now." After replying, she took out a mirror from her bag to check her makeup.

Then I shut down my computer, got up, grabbed my bag, and squeezed into the rush hour crowd in my high heels. As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, I saw a tall, smiling man standing in the office building lobby, looking towards the elevator.

Lin Yue walked quickly over and stood beside him. Xiao Feng naturally took her hand, and amidst the envious gazes of the crowd, they walked side by side toward the car.

That evening, Xiao Feng chose a Western restaurant. Soft music played, and the lighting was gentle. Lin Yue gazed at Xiao Feng sitting across from her. Watching his profile as he meticulously cut his steak, she unconsciously took out her phone and snapped a picture of him.

At this moment, Xiao Feng placed the sliced ​​steak in front of Lin Yue. They looked up and their eyes met. Xiao Feng was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, "Why are your eyes so dreamy? Like they're filled with little stars."

Lin Yue giggled and said, "Maybe they're just putting a filter on you."

At this moment, Lin Yue recalled what Su Ling had said: "Every time you mention Xiao Feng now, your eyes light up. In my experience, you've completely fallen in love with him."

Lin Yue rolled her eyes at her and said, "Don't worry, I'm already quite old, I don't have that kind of love to talk about, it's just novelty at most. After all, beautiful things are pleasing to the eye, and both men and women like them."

But at this moment, Lin Yue had some expectations. With her work going so badly, perhaps heaven would smile upon her and she would find a good relationship.

The next day, Lin Yue was looking at a proposal at her workstation when the phone rang. She glanced at it, and her heart skipped a beat.

It was Liu Zheng calling. In her memory, this was the first time Liu Zheng had ever called her. She quickly picked up her phone, walked to the conference room, locked the door behind her, and answered, lowering her voice, "Mr. Liu, hello."

Liu Zheng's steady and loud voice quickly came through the phone. After a few polite exchanges, Liu Zheng got straight to the point, saying, "Lin Yue, do you have time tonight? How about we have dinner together?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Yue roughly guessed Liu Zheng's intentions. She had just discussed going to Zhengshi Trading with Su Ling a few days ago, and unexpectedly received a call from Liu Zheng today. She was somewhat troubled. Zhengshi and Dasheng were now competing companies, and Liu Zheng and Shengxing were long-time rivals. If she went to meet them and was accidentally seen by colleagues, it would give them something to gossip about. Qu Liang was constantly eyeing her, and he was worried about finding a way to get rid of her.

But she felt it would be a shame not to go, since she still wanted to maintain her connection with Liu Zheng and Qin Lan; having more options was always a good thing. Thinking of Qin Lan, she felt something was amiss; logically, it should have been Qin Lan who initiated the invitation. She guessed that perhaps they hadn't reached a consensus on inviting her.

So she tentatively asked, "Isn't Mr. Qin coming along?"

Liu Zheng learned that Dasheng was recently laying off employees, and also knew that Lin Yue was being suppressed by people sent from Wenxing headquarters and had been transferred from HR director to recruitment director.

He discussed with Qin Lan about poaching Lin Yue directly, but Qin Lan objected, feeling that Lin Yue's personality wouldn't allow her to poach someone from her former company. Of course, Qin Lan also had a ulterior motive she didn't tell Liu Zheng: she felt that the current size of Liu Zheng's company wasn't a good training platform for Lin Yue, and it would be better for her to continue gaining experience at Dasheng. If she could overcome the current difficulties, this experience would be invaluable if Qin Lan asked her to participate in a startup project in the future.

But Liu Zheng wasn't giving up and wanted to arrange a meeting with Lin Yue. Judging from her reaction, he realized that without Qin Lan's intervention, things might not have been resolved. After all, he and Lin Yue didn't have much of a relationship; in some ways, he wasn't even as close as Sheng Xing.

Liu Zheng paused for a moment, then decided to get straight to the point. He asked her directly over the phone, chuckling awkwardly, "Qin Lan isn't coming, but she's still doing consulting for my company. If you're willing to come to Zhengshi, you can still work together. I wanted to invite you to work for my company, but as you know, we're not very big right now, so your salary might be a little lower than it is now. I'm planning to give you stock options to make up for that. As the company grows, you'll be worth even more."

Hearing this, Lin Yue already had the answer in her heart, so she politely replied, "Thank you, Mr. Liu, but I'm not planning to change jobs right now, and I also have something to do tonight. How about we have dinner another time? I'll treat you and Mr. Qin to dinner together."

Liu Zheng knew that Lin Yue was politely declining, so he didn't insist. After exchanging a few more polite words, he hung up the phone.

Lin Yue knew very well that Liu Zheng was calling her over not because he valued her abilities. Given the current size of Liu Zheng's company, Qin Lan, as a consultant, along with two dedicated staff, would be sufficient.

Liu Zheng wanted her to go, but only to use her HR position to poach people from Dasheng, which was clearly not what she wanted. Moreover, Dasheng was currently in a chaotic period, while Zhengshi was in its early stages of development; in terms of stability, the two companies were roughly equal. Another crucial point is that Shengxing didn't trust Qu Liang, so she wasn't entirely without a chance to turn things around.