Wendy Lynch quickly packed up the raw marinated seafood on the table and tossed it into the trash can by the door.
Although this batch didn’t test positive for any issues, the mere thought of her five explosive trips to the bathroom yesterday afternoon completely destroyed her appetite for it. As she finished her McDonald’s combo meal, she pondered how to handle the problem at hand.
The simplest solution, naturally, was to take time off. She could ask for two days of leave and stake out the Tideworth raw marinated seafood shop. Every time they restocked, she would buy a portion. Eventually, she was bound to catch the problematic batch.
While she was still miles away from having financial freedom, the five-hundred-yuan monthly perfect attendance bonus was no longer a significant amount to her. With this in mind, Wendy took out her phone, ready to call Ms. Campbell and ask for time off.
However, just as she scrolled through her contacts, a delivery driver in a bright yellow uniform walked past her. Wendy’s gaze locked onto his retreating figure. Her hand holding the phone paused, and her eyes suddenly lit up.
Taking leave to stake out the shop was straightforward, but the thought of the lifetime platinum card and the hundred-thousand-yuan check Evans was going to present today made her hesitate. The future was not set in stone. If she suddenly took two days off now and missed the follow-up meeting with Evans’s team, wouldn’t all her previous efforts be in vain?
Chewing on her straw, her eyes scanned back and forth across the street. Suddenly, she spotted a girl in an Uber Eats uniform standing under a nearby bus stop sign, looking down at her phone. Wendy immediately got up and hurried over.
"Hello, could I bother you for a few minutes?" she asked, trying to keep her tone as gentle as possible.
The girl looked up with a hint of confusion. "Yeah, what’s up?"
"I wanted to ask you something," Wendy said. "About how many orders do you deliver a day? How’s the income?"
Hearing the question, the girl clearly mistook her for someone looking to join the delivery workforce. She sighed, tapped her phone screen, and showed her the rider app’s income page. Wendy took a look. It was yesterday’s earnings—the delivery fees plus customer tips totaled a mere one hundred and forty yuan.
"If you’re thinking of getting into this, I really don’t recommend it," the girl said. "I used to hear people say you could easily make eight or nine thousand a month just doing this casually. Let me tell you, that’s all a lie! I’ve been doing this for over a month now. On my best day, I made two hundred, and I average about five or six thousand a month."
Hearing the number "two hundred," Wendy felt reassured. She leaned in slightly and lowered her voice. "Here’s the thing. I’d like to ask for your help. You know that Tideworth raw marinated seafood shop by the mall entrance up ahead? I need you to keep an eye on it for the next two days. Whenever they get a new batch of stock, buy a portion for me. Then, send me a screenshot of the receipt. I’ll cover the cost, and you just have to deliver it to my office. I won’t let you do this for free. How about I pay you two hundred yuan a day?"
The girl blinked, looking puzzled. "It’s that simple?"
Wendy nodded. "Yes! Just that simple!"
Instead of agreeing right away, the girl asked, "I remember that Tideworth shop is on the delivery apps. Why don’t you just order from them directly?"
Naturally, Wendy couldn’t tell her what might happen in the future. Instead, she embellished the story of how she had eaten their raw seafood yesterday afternoon and ended up with severe diarrhea.
"I went to confront the owner afterward, but he stubbornly refused to admit it was a problem with his food and even mocked me!" Wendy explained indignantly. "I’ve eaten plenty of raw marinated seafood before, but I’ve never had non-stop diarrhea like that! So, I went out of my way to buy some testing strips."
As a delivery rider, the girl had clearly seen the kitchens of many restaurants. She knew very well that the hygiene standards of some places were definitely lacking, but this was her first time meeting a customer who was so determined to get to the bottom of it. She didn’t laugh at Wendy. Sometimes, society needed people who were dead serious about these things!
After a moment of thought, the girl nodded earnestly. "Alright, I’ll help you out!"
The two of them added each other on WeChat. It was then that Wendy learned the girl’s name was Yvonne Adler.
Wendy transferred one hundred yuan to her upfront, followed by her company address and phone number.
"This is the deposit. My name is Wendy Lynch. If you have any questions, call me anytime," Wendy instructed. "When you buy it, make sure to get a little bit of everything. No matter what new items they restock, buy one portion of each for me."
Yvonne flashed an OK gesture. "No problem! I’ll start keeping an eye on them right now. If they put out fresh stock, I’ll contact you! Don’t worry, Ms. Lynch!"
Saving the address, Yvonne added, "I’ll go wait by the mall right now. You can count on me."
Watching Yvonne speed off on her electric scooter toward the mall, half the anxiety in Wendy’s heart finally settled. This way, she wouldn’t have to let taking time off affect her work, while still keeping a close watch on the shop’s stock. It was the best of both worlds.
She glanced down at her phone. It was still early. She quickly polished off the rest of her hamburger in a few bites, grabbed her bag, and hurried toward her company. On the way, she thought that if she could successfully get her hands on the problematic seafood and prevent the upcoming tragedy in time, this four hundred yuan would be the best money she had ever spent.
Wendy sprinted into the office, clocking in at the very last minute. Just as she tossed her backpack onto her desk, she saw Regina Campbell standing at the door of her office, waving at her.
"Wendy, come to my office for a second."
Suppressing her excitement, Wendy pushed the door open. Regina was looking down, signing some documents.
"Have a seat," Regina said, looking up with a smile as she pushed a document across the desk. "This is your permanent employment confirmation. Human Resources just approved it. From today onward, you are officially a full-time employee of Titan Engine!"
Looking at the confirmation letter, Wendy felt a surge of genuine excitement. While Titan Engine wasn’t a universally recognized tech giant on its own, its potential for growth was immense as a subsidiary of ByteDance.
Titan Engine utilized the standard job grading system typical of major tech companies. Because their team belonged to the logistics department, their corresponding job grade fell under the S series, with levels ranging from S3 to S11. Someone like Wendy, who had just been confirmed as a permanent employee, was classified at the S3 level.
According to normal procedures, every employee underwent a comprehensive evaluation at the end of the year. If their performance in all aspects was satisfactory, they could apply for a promotion.
From what Wendy understood, as long as one’s level reached S6, there was an opportunity for a lateral transfer to ByteDance. This meant that, following the standard timeline, she could potentially be transferred to ByteDance in as little as three years. Even though transferring to the parent company wouldn’t result in a massive base salary increase, the year-end bonuses and various stock options would be extremely lucrative.
According to information Regina had previously let slip, her former direct supervisor had transferred to ByteDance after reaching the S6 level. Their income had instantly skyrocketed from an annual salary of over two hundred thousand yuan to over a million.
Even though she now possessed a cheat ability, the temptation of a million-yuan annual salary still left Wendy highly expectant. After all, the uncertainty of her cheat was too great. Relying entirely on it to make a living was unrealistic, which was exactly one of the reasons why she hadn’t resigned.