After afternoon tea—and after wrapping up his chat with Brother Lu—He Xiaoyuan returned to his desk and continued working on his assignments.
No one in the office was chatting anymore. Everyone went back to their desks and focused on their own tasks.
Before long, Yuan Miao pushed open the glass door and came back from outside, her expression clearly troubled.
“Group Two doesn’t agree to ‘cooperate,’” she said. With that one sentence, the office exploded.
Everyone started talking at once:
“What do you mean they don’t agree?”
“They don’t want to work together?”
Yuan Miao explained, “They mean they won’t cooperate with Group One. They won’t ‘share resources,’ and they’re not interested in ours either.”
“What? They can do that?”
“Wow, that’s arrogant.”
“What’s going on? They just started today, and they don’t care about the resources we gathered by starting earlier?”
Yuan Miao then told everyone what had happened when she went over to Group Two—
Group Two was in another large office on the same floor. Yuan Miao deliberately went around afternoon tea time. Sure enough, everyone from Group Two was there. But the moment she introduced herself, the trainees there went silent, like they were facing an invading enemy.
Later, a male trainee named Qin Chengfei handled the “discussion” with her one-on-one.
Yuan Miao stayed cautious and didn’t immediately mention that Group One had already organized some departmental information. Instead, she proposed cooperation between the two groups, with Group Three joining later so everyone could share resources.
Qin Chengfei rejected it on the spot.
His exact words were:
“If we want to understand the departments, our two groups can each do it on our own. There’s no need for resource sharing.”
“If Group Two ends up gathering more than Group One, that wouldn’t be ‘sharing’—that’d be us helping you.”
“There’s no need. Each group sticks to its own. Let everyone rely on their own abilities.”
Group One: “……”
“Where does he get that confidence?”
“That’s bold.”
“Why not just say everyone should handle everything individually?”
“Got it—basically, we do our thing, they do theirs.”
“Pretty worldly for a bunch of new hires.”
He Xiaoyuan hadn’t expected things to turn out this way either.
Someone asked, “So what do we do now?”
Yuan Miao returned to her desk, yanked off her badge, and tossed it beside her computer, clearly annoyed. “If they don’t want to cooperate, then forget it. I’ve figured it out—Group Two sees us as competitors, not coworkers who joined at the same time.”
“Didn’t you hear what they said? To them, ‘cooperation’ isn’t cooperation—it’s them helping us. Like we’re not good enough, and their group is the capable one.”
Everyone was more or less irritated, and the previously upbeat atmosphere in the office instantly grew heavy.
Then Zhu Xuanmin announced in the group chat that after discussion, HR had decided that in addition to individual scores, there would also be a group score.
Group One: “……”
So the three groups really had become competitors.
Xin Rui spoke up directly in the office, “Don’t tell me Group Two already knew about the group scoring?”
Yuan Miao cursed under her breath.
Zou Fanping said, “Well then, good thing we didn’t actually cooperate with them. If we had, they’d be looking at us like idiots.”
That just made everyone even more annoyed.
He Xiaoyuan, sitting at his computer, lifted his water bottle and took a sip, quietly thinking about how this group score might be evaluated.
He also thought about how tough the management trainee rotation really was. Brother Lu’s earlier warning had clearly not been misplaced.
That night, Group One stayed late again to work on assignments.
It should have been nothing unusual, but after dinner, when they returned to the office, someone mentioned that Group Two hadn’t left either.
Zou Fanping said, “If they want to grind, then let’s grind.”
The office quickly fell silent as everyone focused on their own work.
He Xiaoyuan stared at his screen, writing his assignment, and in the quiet could feel the faint but pervasive pressure of competition settling in.
He took a moment to glance around. Everyone was busy, everyone fully concentrated. It was clearly going to be another night of working late.
He withdrew his gaze and went back to his assignment.
At some point, the phone next to his computer lit up.
He noticed it but kept typing for a bit longer before reaching for his phone.
Lu: “I heard you’ve started group evaluations.”
He Xiaoyuan: “Yes. We got the notice this afternoon.”
Lu: “Did you share the department materials you organized with Group Two?”
He Xiaoyuan: “Of course not. We’re competitors now.”
Lu: “Working late?”
He Xiaoyuan: [Little dinosaur nodding.jpg]
Lu: “If it gets too late, you’ll miss the shuttle back to the dorms.”
He Xiaoyuan: “Thanks for the reminder, Brother Lu. It won’t be too late today.”
And he kept his word. He left the building before eleven and caught the last shuttle back to the employee dorm area.
When he got on, the bus was fairly full. He found an empty seat and had just sat down when he heard two guys in the row ahead chatting casually:
“Are they stupid or what, talking about resource sharing? Like hell I’m sharing with them.”
“This time we really owe it to Qin Chengfei. He pulled us into a group early and told us all about the rotation.”
“I bet he can even get materials from the different rotation departments.”
“Seriously?”
“You didn’t know? He’s got connections in the company.”
…
He Xiaoyuan hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but he couldn’t help overhearing some of it. He didn’t feel much about it. He wasn’t interested in who had connections or what kind. All he wanted was to get through the rotation step by step and see what kind of department he’d end up in afterward.
And also—
He Xiaoyuan pressed a hand to his stomach. He was hungry. He’d eat something when he got back to the dorm.
It wasn’t too late. He could eat, look over some materials, and still make it to bed before one.
The next day, rumors about Qin Chengfei from Group Two having connections in the company spread through Group One’s office.
Before heading out for rotation, people made a few quiet comments:
“No wonder. They probably knew early on about the group competition scoring.”
“If I had connections and could get department materials, I wouldn’t share either.”
“Sigh. Guess all we can do is grind it out ourselves, asking around through every channel.”
“Whatever. Everyone relies on their own abilities.”
That same day, when He Xiaoyuan and four others rotated into a new department, they ran straight into Qin Chengfei and several others from Group Two.
Both groups were rotating in the same department—everything together, even the assignments were exactly the same.
At first, He Xiaoyuan’s group didn’t think much of it. They were all management trainees; rotating together was normal. But later, after everyone had turned in their assignments, Zhu Xuanmin tagged everyone in the group chat:
“Everyone is submitting faster and the quality keeps improving, which is great. Keep it up.”
“However, I just looked at Group Two’s Qin Chengfei’s assignment through a colleague, and I think it’s necessary to show it to everyone.”
The document was opened. Everyone in Group One crowded around the computer, silently reading.
At first glance, it didn’t seem like much. But the closer they looked, the gap between trainees became immediately obvious.
He Xiaoyuan scrolled through the document with the mouse. The more he read, the heavier his heart sank.
Was this really the level of thinking and depth a brand-new trainee could have?
If someone said this was written by a department supervisor, no one would doubt it.
Yuan Miao was already strong enough—but this Qin Chengfei was on an entirely different level.
The office fell completely silent. It wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say that a single assignment had left everyone shaken.
At that moment, no one said another word about connections. Raw ability like this was more than enough to shut everyone up.
He Xiaoyuan recalled what Qin Chengfei looked like during rotation: tall, thin, wearing round, gold-rimmed glasses, looking gentle and unassuming.
And yet this was the kind of work he produced.
He Xiaoyuan let out a quiet breath. He thought that between himself and Qin Chengfei, the gap was probably several Yuan Miaos wide.
Lu: “So? Do you think you’re far inferior to them?”
That afternoon at tea time, the snacks were laid out on the round table, but hardly anyone touched them. He Xiaoyuan took one portion and, instead of staying in the office, carried it to the newly cleared-out pantry next door that was still being prepared for the trainees to use.
He Xiaoyuan sat down at the table, set his phone in front of him, and while chatting with Brother Lu on WeChat, mentioned some of what was going on with the management trainees. That was what prompted Brother Lu’s question.
He Xiaoyuan thought for a moment, then replied: “The gap is real, but I don’t think I’m worse than anyone.”
Seeing that calm yet confident reply on his phone, Lu Chen smiled quietly.
Lu: “Very good. That’s exactly the kind of attitude you need in the workplace.”
He Xiaoyuan: “When you first joined the company, did you also run into a lot of amazing people, Brother Lu?”
Lu: “If we have to put it that way, then I was the amazing one.”
That made He Xiaoyuan laugh.
He Xiaoyuan: [Thumbs-up.jpg]
“Brother Lu, you’re really impressive.”
Lu: “Mm.”
He Xiaoyuan held his phone and stared at that “Mm,” smiling again.
Besides being easy to get along with and approachable, he now had a new impression of Brother Lu—he was funny too.
He Xiaoyuan joked: “Brother Lu is very confident.”
Lu: “Confidence is a necessary attitude in life.”
He Xiaoyuan: [Little dinosaur applauding.jpg]
[Little dinosaur saluting.jpg]
“I’ll learn from you, Brother Lu.”
Lu Chen smiled. The kid really knew how to flatter someone.
Lu: “You can send your assignments to me in the future. I’ll help you take a look.”
He Xiaoyuan froze, phone in hand.
He Xiaoyuan: “Brother Lu, you’d help guide my assignments?”
“Is that convenient?”
Lu: “There’s nothing inconvenient about it. I have more time than you management trainees who stay up late working overtime every day.”
Delight lit up He Xiaoyuan’s eyes.
He Xiaoyuan: “Then thank you so much, Brother Lu.”
[Little dinosaur bowing deeply.jpg]
Lu: “Mm.”
He Xiaoyuan immediately stood up, tossed the empty cake wrapper into the trash, picked up his coffee, and headed back to the office.
He had just sat down at his computer, about to send today’s already-submitted assignment from the desktop WeChat to his phone and then forward it to Brother Lu, when his phone buzzed.
While working at the computer, he picked up his phone and saw that Brother Lu had sent him a sticker—
Lu: [Big dinosaur patting little dinosaur’s head.jpg]
The little dinosaur being patted was clearly the same one He Xiaoyuan often used.
It made him laugh.
Looking at the head-patting sticker Brother Lu had sent, he thought: Does the green dinosaur sticker pack even have a “big dinosaur patting little dinosaur” one?
Does it? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.
He didn’t think much of it. Smiling, he replied: [Little dinosaur behaving obediently.jpg]