Lin Fan closed the glass door and silently waited for the zombies to arrive, but suddenly, the zombies' roaring stopped abruptly, as noises from somewhere else drew the horde away.
Perhaps some survivor had been spotted.
"What a mess."
The office was in chaos, with blueprints scattered all over the floor.
"Alas, the cleaning lady is not here, but perhaps it's for the best."
The cleaning lady was over forty, but quite attractive, still full of charm.
The boss's uncle always had his eye on the cleaning lady, sometimes even intentionally taking liberties. It could be said that the boss's uncle was a very sleazy, very perverted guy.
He bent over to pick up the blueprints from the floor, neatly arranging them on the table.
To others, these might just be scrap paper.
But to them, the draftsmen, it was their hard work.
On rainy days, if there was an umbrella, it wasn't for sheltering people from the wind and rain, but specifically to protect the blueprints.
"Where is everyone in the company?"
After he had tidied up, he looked around and found no one.
But he noticed the company's floor-to-ceiling windows were shattered, as if someone had broken the glass and jumped down from the upper floor.
Standing at the edge, he took a glance downward.
Indeed.
There were many corpses lying on the second-floor balcony.
They must have been chased by zombies, breaking the window to escape, thinking to step into the air, but with the force of a thousand pounds, they fell to their deaths.
"Ah..."
He sighed deeply, sorrow overwhelming him like a river in reverse.
His colleagues had been good people, the hard-working sort among the young.
Whether it was working or living, they were up to the mark.
Earning a pittance, yet toiling with the heart of a businessman.
They designed multi-million, even multi-billion dollar mansions, but the salaries they got were pitifully small.
Even so, they had no complaints.
All was for surviving in Huang City.
Suddenly, a deep growl came from the office.
"The boss should... be okay," Lin Fan said doubtfully, looking at the broken wooden door with a somewhat solemn expression.
He wanted to have a proper talk with the boss.
Inside the office, the boss staggered, his body stiff, his eyes already a dull gray that showed no understanding, his mouth oozing a disgusting liquid.
But the boss was ultimately the boss, and there were rules in the company that had to be obeyed.
Although the door was broken, it wasn't an important matter to Lin Fan whether there was a door or not.
He lifted his hand and knocked on the wall.
Thump thump thump!
Unhurried, his voice soft and slow.
"Boss, I'm coming in."
But what greeted him wasn't the usual deceptive smile, the smile that had always been on the face was gone, replaced by a ferocity seen when spotting food.
The boss snarled viciously, then greedily pounced toward Lin Fan.
After turning into a zombie, strength and speed had both increased, without any sense of pain, a truly terrifying existence.
The boss emitted a foul stench.
It was like pork left outside for several days, an abominable, mutated smell.
Lin Fan wasn't disdainful; he knew the boss had been working hard, probably staying up late and working overtime in the company without taking a shower.
At the moment the boss attacked, he swung his blade.
Splash!
Dark blood sprayed out.
The boss's head soared into the air, severed from the body, and with a thud, it fell to the ground.
[Zombie Killed]
[Points +1]
"Boss, I really was watching a movie yesterday, I wasn't lying to you."
"I did plan to come to work, but now the company definitely can't operate anymore, not a single colleague left, really none."
"During this time, thank you for teaching me a lot, I've learned many useful things."
"I'd like to settle this month's salary, let me calculate it for you."
He took out paper and pen.
He calculated carefully.
"Boss, my fixed salary is two thousand five hundred, and I get a five hundred commission for each set of drawings. This month I've worked overtime and completed five sets of drawings, all of which have been approved. That adds up to a total of five thousand," Lin Fan said to himself. As he spoke, he glanced at the boss whom he had already beheaded.
He had neither overcalculated nor undercalculated.
Everything was done by the rules.
What was his was his; what wasn't, he couldn't take.
Even if it was the end of the world, the heavens crumbling and the earth splitting, as long as the rules remained, there was still hope.
"Boss, this is all money I've earned through hard work. As for the odds and ends, I haven't factored those in. You've said that one's vision should be broad and not always get hung up on the small stuff—I understand that. Consider the wind chime a gift to the company," Lin Fan stated in an unassuming but firm tone.
This was what he was entitled to, so he didn't speak to the boss in a negotiating tone.
With a clear conscience, one should rightly stand tall and proud.
"It seems you have no objections, boss."
At that moment, he saw a stack of cash on the desk, with a contract underneath it.
It appeared someone had come to the company to sign a contract with the boss before the apocalypse and left a deposit.
At a rough estimate, that stack of money might amount to tens of thousands.
"Boss, I've come on my own accord, trusting in my own integrity, not to take a single bill more or less," Lin Fan said.
He counted the bills.
He took fifty bills and then put the remaining money back in its original place, not disturbing a single cent.
"Goodbye, boss."
He waved his hand, walked to the company entrance, and looked back at the company that once brought him joy and hope.
Unfortunately, now everything was gone.
Colleagues were gone.
The boss was gone.
Clients were gone too.
The person was still the same person, and the place was still the same place.
He liked this place not because of the environment but because of the colleagues he worked with.
As for the boss ... that was the person who liked to feed them poisonous 'chicken soup.'
The slogan: loyal to customers, serving customers.
But behind closed doors, it was loyalty to the boss, serving the boss, with the boss's interests paramount. There were plenty of customers to defraud, ripping off one wave after another.
The wind chime swayed gently.
Letting out a faint tinkling sound.
He pressed the elevator button.
Roar!
The sound was the source of all evil.
Employees from the neighboring company, having heard the noise, came attacking frantically.
They were very fast, intending to bite Lin Fan to death.
Splurch!
The sound was somewhat muffled.
He didn't linger to look or say more; he entered the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor.
The moment the elevator doors closed, several bodies lay quietly.
He had done everything that needed to be done.
Having received his salary and walked out of the company, he had no more ties to it.
He was now an unemployed wanderer.
Without work, without a source of income.
He needed to find something to do.
Leaving the building.
Riding a shared bike.
Waiting for the green light.
"So empty, so quiet, I'm hardly used to it," he thought as the green light came on, and he rode the bike swiftly through the streets.
"Heading home."
Pedaling the bike, with the backpack containing his salary on his back, he felt a slight heftiness, which was very comforting and wonderful.
Life shouldn't just be about the present.
There's also the future.
That future, filled with unknowns, is what's most thrilling.