Furthermore, there was another reason why Wendy Lynch hadn’t quit her job immediately. Based on the patterns she had figured out so far, the contents of the emails were closely tied to her daily life and work.
She suspected that if she truly quit and just slacked off at home, the future emails would likely degrade into trivial updates, like what delicious takeout she ate today or what good TV show she watched tomorrow. Therefore, until she achieved financial freedom, Wendy was highly unlikely to start slacking off.
Moreover, according to the rules of the emails, the larger the platform she was on and the higher her position, the greater the value of the information she could obtain. As a level S3 employee, even if she knew a leadership decision was flawed, all she could do was try her best to mitigate the potential risks and negative impacts. However, if she were promoted to middle management—levels S5 through S7—she might be able to offer her own suggestions. If she reached upper management—levels S8 through S11—she could even directly alter the entire direction of a decision.
Suppressing her thoughts, Wendy took her new ID badge. Unlike the white intern badge, the new one had a green frosted metal casing. The front was printed with the company logo, and the back featured her ID photo and basic personal information.
Within Titan Engine, ID badges were graded by color. From lowest to highest, they were:
Entry-level employees (S3-S4): Green
Middle management (S5-S7): Blue
Upper management (S8-S11): Black
"Evans specifically mentioned your name to Vice President Lynch. He said you not only know first aid but are also incredibly reliable," Ms. Campbell said. "The HR department made a special exception and expedited your regularization process."
Putting on her badge, Wendy chatted with Ms. Campbell for a few more moments before leaving the office.
When she came out, quite a few people noticed the change in her badge. The girls who had gathered around earlier to ask about cosmetics secretly gave her a thumbs-up. Wendy smiled and mouthed a thank you, but in her mind, she was already anticipating the news from Yvonne Adler.
By three o’clock in the afternoon, an assistant from the sales department suddenly walked up to her cubicle. "You’re Wendy Lynch, right? Come with me to the large conference room. An important client wants to see you."
Wendy instantly knew what this was about. As she followed the assistant to the conference room, her steps were much steadier. Just as they reached the door, she heard Evans’s familiar laughter coming from inside.
Pushing the door open, she saw the conference room was full of people. Vice President Lynch of the sales department sat at the head of the table, with Evans sitting right beside him. Seeing her come in, Evans immediately stood up and reached out his hand to her.
"Miss Lynch, we meet again." Evans’s eyes were full of admiration. "If it weren’t for your quick reaction yesterday, I’d probably still be lying in a hospital right now. I’ve already told your company’s leadership that you played an indispensable role in facilitating this collaboration with Verdant."
Vice President Lynch smiled and nodded at her. "Wendy, Mr. Evans specifically mentioned you to me several times, saying he must properly thank you."
Evans took out a black velvet card box and a white envelope from his briefcase and handed them to her. "This is a lifetime Platinum Card for Verdant Beauty. It’s the highest-level membership card at Verdant Company, granting you VIP services at our stores worldwide. In addition, this check is to thank you for saving me yesterday."
Wendy caught a glimpse of the number "100,000" on the check, and her heartbeat suddenly sped up. She suppressed her excitement and politely tried to decline. "Mr. Evans, it was just a small favor yesterday. You’re too kind."
"This definitely doesn’t count as a small favor." Evans pressed the items back into her hands. "If it were anyone else, they might not have been as calm and professional as you were. This is just a small token of my personal appreciation."
Vice President Lynch also chimed in from the side. "Wendy, Mr. Evans is completely sincere, so just accept it. This is what you deserve."
Seeing that the leadership present had also spoken, Wendy no longer declined. She accepted the card box and check with both hands. "Then I will respectfully accept. Thank you, Mr. Evans, and thank you to the company."
Evans smiled even more happily as he watched her accept the gifts. He looked at Vice President Lynch. "Mr. Lynch, I hope that in the days of our collaboration ahead, we can frequently see outstanding talents like Miss Lynch."
Vice President Lynch nodded repeatedly. "Of course!"
As an S3 corporate drone who had just been regularized, she naturally wasn’t qualified to participate in such a massive project involving millions. After saying her goodbyes, Wendy returned to her cubicle with the Platinum Card and check.
She secretly opened the card box to take a look. Exquisite patterns were engraved on the silver-white card, and her initials were on the back. The check looked similar to what she had seen in TV shows, but this one was a cash check. It could only be withdrawn as cash directly, and it had a three-month time limit, after which it would automatically become invalid.
Just as she was wondering when to go to the bank to withdraw the money, her phone suddenly buzzed. It was a message from Yvonne Adler:
"Ms. Lynch, a minivan just pulled up to that raw marinated seafood shop and delivered a bunch of fresh stock. The new batches have already been put in the display cases! Should I buy them now?"
Wendy immediately replied:
"Yes! Buy them now! Send me his payment code, and I’ll pay for it!"
Twenty minutes later.
Wendy returned to the office area holding two bags of raw marinated seafood. Transparent food containers were stacked inside the bags, revealing glimpses of an orange-red sauce, and a rich garlic aroma wafted from the openings.
Yvette Walsh, who had bought cosmetics from her yesterday, leaned over. Her eyes lit up as she stared at the bags in Wendy’s hands. "Wow! Wendy, treating us just after becoming a regular employee?! It smells so good! Is it raw marinated or cold dressed?!"
As soon as she said this, a few other colleagues who were slacking off also gathered around, chiming in all at once.
"Wow, that’s a lot!"
"I saw Wendy being called away by Vice President Lynch’s assistant earlier. Is she preparing for a double promotion?"
"Wendy is so amazing! She might just become an S4 tomorrow!"
Wendy waved her hands and explained, "It’s not a treat. There might be something wrong with this shop’s raw marinated seafood. After eating it yesterday, I had diarrhea until I collapsed. I went back to confront the boss, and he actually said it was my own problem! So, I specially bought some rapid test strips to test it!"
Hearing this, many people were stunned. This was a reason they hadn’t expected at all.
Just as her voice faded, a sour tone came from diagonally behind her.
"Maybe your stomach is just sensitive, and that’s why you had diarrhea. Is there a need to make such a big fuss out of nothing? Besides, I also ate this shop’s raw marinated seafood yesterday, and I was completely fine. Maybe you ate something else and didn’t notice. You even went out of your way to buy test strips. Are you planning to demand compensation from the shop?"
The person speaking was a colleague from the same team, Carmen Sutton, a level S4 employee.
She had been working at Titan Engine for four years, but she had very few friends. Yesterday, when Wendy was selling cosmetics, she had thrown her weight around as a senior employee, demanding lower discounts and free gifts. However, Wendy hadn’t agreed, and the two had ended up parting on bad terms.
It seemed she had held a grudge since then, and now, seeing an opportunity, she immediately jumped out to make trouble.