Chapter 7: The Tables Turn

Spending the whole morning probing two people's fortunes in a row was too much for Yang Tao in his current state, so as soon as he closed his eyes he slipped into a deep sleep.

While he slept, he only felt a sudden warm current spread through his body, hot and soothing, and the fatigue in his mind was swept away at once.

He woke up immediately after that, though he was still slumped over the desk.

With his eyes closed, Yang Tao focused his mind and tried to investigate that warm current. In the haze, he found himself in a dark world.

Without anyone telling him, Yang Tao knew this was the deepest part of his own mind. In that darkness, a speck of energy no bigger than a sesame seed was glowing faintly.

As the light shimmered, Yang Tao only felt his energy surge. He had the sense that he could probe four or five people's fortunes in a row without feeling tired.

By combining that with the fortune-teller's knowledge he had fused into himself, Yang Tao immediately understood. That sesame-sized cluster of energy was the fortune-teller's spiritual power.

It could be used to read other people's fortunes, and it could also be used to alter them. But only when that power caused a huge change in one person's future would fortune feed back into him.

So the burst of energy he had just felt must have been the feedback from helping Xu Ruyan.

Before this, Yang Tao had never received any spiritual energy in return. Reading fortunes consumed his own spiritual strength, so he always felt drained afterward.

Now it was different. As long as the spiritual power in his mind had not been used up, it would not affect his spirit at all.

Once he understood all of this, Yang Tao had a much clearer grasp of his fortune-telling ability. He had only obtained it not long ago, after all, and a lot of things still had to be slowly explored and discovered.

Before long, the afternoon shift began.

Everyone woke up groggily, went to the restroom to splash some water on their faces, and then returned to their desks to start working.

Yang Tao rubbed his face. A faint smile touched his lips. Xu Ruyan's feedback had already arrived before the incident even happened. She must have chosen to trust him, and now all that was left was to see what choice Xu Ruyan would make next.

But before Xu Ruyan arrived, a middle-aged man in immaculate clothes with slicked-back hair stormed over and slammed a file down hard on the seat in front of Yang Tao.

With a sharp crack, he drew everyone's attention. Zhang Zhang, sitting nearby, smiled smugly and looked at Yang Tao with delight at his misfortune.

"Yang Tao! What the hell is wrong with you? Do you even want this job anymore? You were absent without leave yesterday, and what is this proposal I told you to revise? It's a bunch of scribbles and makes no sense at all!"

This was Manager Hu. Since Yang Tao had gone to see a doctor yesterday without asking him for leave, Hu had already taken a dislike to him.

After all, he had managed the planning department for so long and no one had ever dared to skip work without permission. Whether people actually showed up mattered less to him; what bothered him was that they had not asked him for leave, as if the people under him were rebelling.

On top of that, Zhang Zhang had complained to him today, and Zhang Zhang had also secretly altered a planning document Yang Tao had written a few days earlier, then turned in the mangled version to him. When Hu saw that proposal, he blew up on the spot.

He had decided to give Yang Tao a little color to see how he liked it.

Yang Tao shot a cold look at Zhang Zhang and Manager Hu. He knew they were deliberately picking a fight, and he did not even bother to look at the proposal. He stood up and said flatly, "I know my own proposal. In this entire company, my planning ability is at least in the top three. If my proposal counts as a mess of scribbles, then Zhang Zhang's would probably not even count as something a dog had clawed together."

"And if Manager Hu won't go bother other people and comes after me instead, does that mean you have a problem with me?"

Manager Hu had been arrogant and overbearing at the company for so long that even when he felt the always-timid Yang Tao daring to talk back, he did not think much of it. He stepped back, lifted his chin, and looked at Yang Tao, who was nearly a head taller than him. "Top three in the company, you say? Go piss in a mirror and take a good long look at yourself. See what the hell you actually wrote."

"I do have a problem with you right now. What are you going to do about it? You were absent without leave yesterday, and you still can't do your work today. So what if I curse at you? I'll fire you, and you'll have nothing to say about it!" Manager Hu said viciously.

When Zhang Zhang heard the fire shift toward him, his heart jumped. But since Hu did not take it seriously, he let out a breath of relief and sneered, "Exactly. Jobs aren't easy to find these days. With your ability, Yang Tao, once you leave this company, where are you going to get such a high salary? You probably wouldn't even make three thousand yuan. And then what would you use to support that girlfriend of yours?"

The others watched from the side with cold eyes, treating it like a show. Not a single person stood up for Yang Tao, and not one tried to mediate. Some even showed looks of gloating.

"Every time, Zhang Zhang is the one who rushes to hand in my proposal. If there's a problem with it, then it's definitely because he changed it on his own. Some things had better be checked first before you come barking like a dog! Who in this company doesn't know you have no real ability and spend all day barking orders?"

"Hu, if you want to fire me, fine, I don't want to work here anymore anyway. As for you, Zhang Zhang, I'm done, and you can forget about staying here too. Better watch your step when you go out from now on."

As he said that, Yang Tao showed a cold, sinister smile.

"What did you say?" Manager Hu could not believe Yang Tao actually dared to curse him to his face. "You son of a bitch, you've gone completely insane. Get the hell out right now. You're fired!"

Zhang Zhang had already felt that Yang Tao was off today, and now that he saw that smile, a chill ran down his spine. He felt as if something bad was about to happen.

The others were also curious about Yang Tao's reaction today. How had the usually timid Yang Tao changed so much? Had he lost his mind?

Work was hard enough to find as it was. Once you fell out with the company leadership, it would be even harder to find a job in the same industry.

"Watch your mouth, or don't blame me if I help wash it out for you." Yang Tao glanced at Manager Hu. "I don't have time to waste talking to you. Pay me my salary now, and I'll leave right away."

"It's a tiny company, and there are still this many damn problems. I never wanted to work here in the first place."

"You want your salary too? Dream on! If you don't leave now, do you believe I'll have security throw you out myself?" Manager Hu said, clenching his fists.

"Who said Yang Tao was being fired?" Just as everyone was watching to see how Yang Tao would get his pay, a cool voice came from outside.

Xu Ruyan had finally made it to work. She had just been about to go find Yang Tao when she heard the noise outside. Coming out to look, she heard Manager Hu say he was going to fire Yang Tao and refuse to pay him.

At Xu Ruyan's voice, the people clustered around the three of them immediately opened a path, and Xu Ruyan walked in slowly.

"Ms. Xu." Manager Hu nodded at Xu Ruyan. He was the boss's relative and had always been arrogant in the company, but when faced with Xu Ruyan, he still felt a little intimidated.

After all, Xu Ruyan's presence was too strong.

When Zhang Zhang saw Xu Ruyan come in, his expression changed. From what she had just said, it sounded as if she was going to back Yang Tao up. If that was the case, wasn't he finished?

When Yang Tao saw Xu Ruyan and noticed the concerned look she gave him, something stirred in his chest. It seemed Xu Ruyan's impression of him had already changed a great deal.

"What's going on? I heard you were going to fire Yang Tao and not pay him. This company isn't ruled by one person's word alone. Everything has to follow the proper process. Explain yourselves."

Xu Ruyan looked around once, paused on Zhang Zhang for a moment, and finally fixed her gaze on Manager Hu.

Everyone was an adult; who could not understand what Xu Ruyan meant? She was clearly standing up for Yang Tao. Manager Hu's face turned ugly, but a rank above crushes a rank below.

"Ms. Xu, here's the situation. Yang Tao skipped work yesterday, and the proposal he turned in today makes no sense at all. I said a few words to him, and he started arguing and talking nonsense."

"Is that so? Because that's not what I heard."

Xu Ruyan said slowly, "Yang Tao already asked for leave when he rested yesterday, and his planning ability is among the best in the company as well. How could he make no sense at all? Maybe someone was stirring things up in the middle. Manager Hu, what do you think?"

"Before the matter is investigated clearly, it's better not to jump to conclusions."

Now Manager Hu's face looked even worse. "Ms. Xu, Yang Tao talked back to his superior. If we don't fire someone like that, how are we supposed to manage the company?"

Xu Ruyan glanced at Manager Hu. "How the company is managed is not your concern. It's mine."

"If anyone knows the inside story, speak up." Xu Ruyan looked around and said.

Zhang Zhang had used other people's work to frame them before, more than once. Everyone knew it in their hearts. But Xu Ruyan was the deputy general manager, lofty and remote. The person they saw most often every day was still Manager Hu, and Hu was the boss's relative. Even if Xu Ruyan backed Yang Tao here, Manager Hu would still remain the manager.

"I'll do it." Yang Tao shook his head and looked at Xu Ruyan.

Xu Ruyan smiled faintly.

Changing a proposal had to be done on a computer, and the original versions of the proposals Zhang Zhang altered were all saved on his own computer. If anything ever came to light, he could still explain that he had just made a careless mistake. He never expected those files to become evidence.

When Yang Tao placed the evidence in front of Manager Hu, Hu's face darkened even further, while Zhang Zhang turned deathly pale.

"So some things really should be investigated first before you draw conclusions. Manager Hu, this company isn't yours. If the boss finds out you've been acting like this, you may not come out of it well either. Know when to stop."

Xu Ruyan said indifferently.

"As for this little Zhang, changing a coworker's proposal and framing a colleague while stirring up trouble, firing him is the better choice." Xu Ruyan made the decision on the spot.

"Yang Tao, are you satisfied with this?" Xu Ruyan asked at last.

"Pretty good." Yang Tao nodded. By then everyone was already stunned. No one had expected the situation to reverse so quickly. When had Yang Tao managed to secure Xu Ruyan's backing?

"But I still want to resign. Could you have payroll settle my wages for me in a bit, Ms. Xu?"

Yang Tao felt that office work really was not suited to him. His horizons and his sense of scale were too narrow; he should not be wasting his time here.

"Why do you still want to resign? The planning department is short one team leader right now. Stay on. With your ability, you could take that job." Xu Ruyan said anxiously, unable to understand why Yang Tao still wanted to leave.

"Let's forget it, Ms. Xu. You should understand." Yang Tao shook his head.

With the deputy general manager's backing, a promotion and raise would have been a matter of minutes. And yet even after Xu Ruyan promised him the team-leader position, he still refused. Everyone was utterly stunned.

Hearing Yang Tao say that, Xu Ruyan fell silent. That was true enough. How could Yang Tao possibly stay here forever?

"All right, then. Later I'll have finance settle your wages. The company wronged you, so I'll have them calculate it at double pay." Xu Ruyan said.

"Ms. Xu, there isn't any rule like that. He's resigning, so settling his wages normally is reasonable. There's no way it can be paid at double rate!" Manager Hu objected loudly.

Xu Ruyan shot him a cold look. If not for him, Yang Tao would not be leaving so soon. Now that he was going, the two of them would need to find another chance if they wanted to keep in contact, so naturally she gave Hu no pleasant expression.

"I'll talk to the boss about it. You don't need to instruct me." Xu Ruyan said.

Yang Tao had resigned. Just after he reached the lobby of the office building, his salary hit his account.

"Ms. Xu, thanks for that just now." Xu Ruyan came out with Yang Tao, and he thanked her.

"It was nothing. With your ability, even if I hadn't stepped in, you could have handled it." Xu Ruyan quickly shook her head. "And if anyone should be thanking anyone, it should be me thanking you."

Yang Tao gave a faint smile. "The company has treated me best, Ms. Xu. It was only right that I help you too."

Just then, Manager Hu and Zhang Zhang came out. Zhang Zhang had already been dismissed, and since he was Hu's lackey, Hu naturally had to see him off for the last time.

"Ms. Xu, please wait a moment." Seeing the two of them, Yang Tao felt something shift.

Xu Ruyan looked at Yang Tao and felt that he seemed to have changed all at once. There was something almost unfathomable in the air around him.

Yang Tao, meanwhile, looked at the fortunes of the two men. He had just received the feedback of spiritual power from helping Xu Ruyan, so of course he wanted to test it.

A fortune-teller could observe other people's fortunes, and naturally he could influence them too. If he had not received the spiritual feedback from helping Xu Ruyan, changing someone else's fortune would have left him badly weakened, perhaps needing a very long rest. But now he did not need to worry about that.