"Are you ready?" Manager Fang was busy, with a table full of documents. Seeing Lin Tianran, he put down his pen and said, "Then I'll take you upstairs."
"Oh... okay." Lin Tianran's palms were sweaty, and his heart was pounding. He anxiously fiddled with the hem of his shirt, following Manager Fang up the stairs.
Fortunately, Manager Fang's steps were not too fast, and his limp was not visible. Manager Fang led him upstairs to the second floor.
"Hey, another newcomer?" A sexy lady in high heels passed by Manager Fang, holding documents. She glanced at Lin Tianran behind Manager Fang, then asked with curiosity.
"Hello, I'm Lin Tianran." Lin Tianran's scalp felt cold. He didn't dare to look directly into the sexy lady's eyes and introduced himself like a zombie.
"Ha!" The lady covered her mouth and laughed when she saw Lin Tianran's introduction. "You're so cute." Then she said, "Hello," and walked away with her high heels clacking.
Manager Fang signaled for him to continue following, and Lin Tianran wiped away some sweat. He was finally led to the document control center.
The document control center was at the end of the long corridor on the third floor. This was where office staff usually made photocopies. There were several large photocopiers inside, as well as a fax machine, laser printer, scanner, projector, and more. Next to them were rows of large cabinets filled with paper files from various departments, which made it all look quite overwhelming. Near the window was a desk with an old-fashioned desktop computer and a small potted succulent plant.
"That's your spot over there." Manager Fang pointed towards the window. "Normally, you'll help your colleagues make photocopies, organize and file documents, and send out some official documents. It's a relatively easy job."
Lin Tianran nodded and kept Manager Fang's words in mind.
Manager Fang then gave him some instructions and demonstrated how to use the photocopier briefly before leaving him alone.
With no one else around in the document control center, Lin Tianran felt more relaxed. He touched the large desk in front of him, which was much more high-end than anything he had ever used!
"Hello there, I'll take good care of you in the future," he said to the small succulent plant, smiling.
Since no one was coming to the document control center at the moment, Lin Tianran turned on the office computer. He didn't have much education and hadn't completed primary school, so his knowledge of computers was limited to playing Minesweeper. Anything beyond that was foreign to him.
The computer desktop was cluttered with many documents, almost obscuring the background image. It was quite overwhelming, and Lin Tianran didn't dare to open any of them for fear of messing something up.
"Hey, newcomer!" a tall man burst into the room, pushing a pile of documents onto the cover of the photocopier.
"Could you make a copy of this stack of meeting records for me? I'll come back for it later." The man didn't wait for Lin Tianran's response and just walked away.
"Oh..." Lin Tianran quickly snapped to attention. His task had arrived!
The documents consisted of about forty to fifty pages of meeting records. Following Manager Fang's instructions, Lin Tianran began carefully photocopying them one by one.
The first copy came out slightly crooked, so Lin Tianran adjusted it carefully. By the second copy, he had improved significantly. He felt quite happy as if he had accomplished something significant, and he became even more diligent.
Some of the documents contained handwritten signatures of the participants, and their signatures were elaborate and difficult to decipher. Lin Tianran couldn't figure out who some of them were.
In one of the documents, Lin Tianran was thrilled to recognize the name Li Yicheng. He used his finger to trace that part of the document and examined it closely.
The signature was made with a pen, each stroke was clear, but not delicate; instead, it was firm and powerful. The three words "Li Yicheng" were grand and imposing, exuding an invisible sense of dominance. His signature was absolutely convincing and carried an unassailable authority.
Even though he was in his twenties, he exuded such an aura. Li Yicheng was undoubtedly a born leader.
While Lin Tianran was admiring, he suddenly heard a furious shout.
"Haven't you finished copying yet?!" The male staff member returned, stood at the door, and stared at Lin Tianran.
"Uh, I'm sorry." Lin Tianran had clearly been startled.
"Are you a tortoise? Copying them one by one? If I give you ten thousand sheets, will you do it the same way?" The staff member rolled his eyes and seemed ready to explode. "Don't you know how to stack them together and put them into the document feeder?"
Then he pressed "Copy," and the sheets in the feeder flipped rapidly, and the photocopier's output tray immediately began efficiently spitting out hot copies. In no time, the entire stack of documents had been copied neatly.
"Wow, that's fast," Lin Tianran said in amazement. Manager Fang had only shown him how to make a single copy earlier, and he hadn't learned about this speedy feature.
"Damn, I must be unlucky. How did they hire someone like this in the HR department?" The male staff member, holding some documents, complained before leaving in frustration.
Although Lin Tianran had been humiliated by someone, he was actually quite happy inside. Look, he had just learned a new skill. That should be a joyful thing, right?
Next time he needed to make photocopies, he would be ready.
After a few minutes of idle time, before Lin Tianran could even pour water on the succulent plant on his desk to foster a connection, a plump middle-aged lady came by. She wore a long skirt that tried to hide her belly but couldn't conceal the two "swim rings" she naturally had. She held a handful of melon seeds and observed Lin Tianran closely with a curious look, the kind of look that a gossiping person would have.
"Hey, I recognize you," the lady suddenly pointed at Lin Tianran with her chubby hand holding melon seeds. "Aren't you the security guard with a limp from the front entrance?"
Lin Tianran noticed that she didn't seem to have any documents to copy; she was just here to gossip. He didn't know how to respond: "Yes, that's right."
"Why?!" The lady chewed on a melon seed with gusto, her eyes fixed on him, expecting him to say something juicy.
"What?" Lin Tianran was at a loss, but for some reason, the words "Why?" spoken by others had touched his sensitive soul. Yes, why was he, a crippled illiterate security guard, allowed to sit comfortably in an office and enjoy such good benefits?
"Manager Fang said they urgently needed someone here," Lin Tianran spoke hesitantly, lacking confidence. "So, I..."
"They urgently needed someone here?" The lady burst into laughter as if she had heard the biggest joke ever, laughing so hard that she almost dropped melon seed shells on the document control center floor. "Hahaha!"
Lin Tianran didn't understand what she found so funny, but he knew she was about to litter melon seed shells on the floor, and he started to feel a bit annoyed. He didn't like people who didn't work properly and instead idled around and took shortcuts during work. If you were receiving a salary from the company, you should wholeheartedly serve the company instead of slacking off.
The lady originally thought he was joking with her. The position in the document control center was one of the most dispensable roles in the entire company. It was simply an assistant position to help colleagues with photocopying and document organization. Even if this position didn't exist, it wouldn't affect the company's operation. However, she realized that he actually believed what he was saying. She muttered, "So, you're someone who's being looked after but doesn't appreciate it."
Chewing on melon seeds, the lady left.
Lin Tianran didn't understand her perspective, but he knew he had to do this job well and not let the company and Manager Fang down.
There weren't many people coming to make photocopies today. During a break, Lin Tianran thoroughly cleaned the document control center, and he neatly organized the documents in the cabinets, numbering them and returning them to their proper places. Unknowingly, the clock pointed to half-past five.
"Hey, don't leave!" A woman dressed in office attire and wearing ten-inch high heels walked in and called out when she saw him.
Lin Tianran had just prepared to shut down his computer when he saw the woman slam a document down in front of him. She spoke in a commanding tone, "The newly drafted sales plan for the next month in the Marketing Department, convert it into a print file using Song Ti 5pt font. When you're done, place it on my desk. I need it for a meeting tomorrow morning."
"Oh..." Lin Tianran hadn't even had a chance to ask questions before the woman hurriedly walked away in her high heels.
The document was a three-page handwritten draft in pen. The handwriting was a bit messy, with numerous corrections and alterations. In addition to tables filled with data, there were long strings of English words scattered throughout. For Lin Tianran, an illiterate, converting this into a print file overnight seemed like an impossible task.
However, he had no choice.
He couldn't keep making excuses or tell others, "Sorry, I'm an uneducated cripple, and I can't do this job."
He had to bite the bullet.
Lin Tianran opened a new document and began to study it diligently.
He had dropped out of primary school before graduating, so he only recognized about eighty to ninety characters from the Xin Hua Dictionary. Still, it was barely sufficient. He had taken computer classes in primary school and practiced using input methods, but it had been a long time. His skills were rusty, and his typing speed was as slow as a turtle. After more than ten minutes and sweating buckets, he had only finished the first line of text from the draft.
Lin Tianran carefully checked for any misspelled words.
Then, he seriously typed on the keyboard to continue...
After completing the first paragraph, his stomach growled loudly from hunger. When he raised his head, he realized it was already pitch black outside. It was past seven o'clock; no wonder he was hungry.
Lin Tianran rubbed his dry eyes and silently encouraged himself.
Meanwhile, Li Yicheng had just finished a day of entertaining clients and was driving to the company. Today was supposed to be his first day working in the office with Lin Tianran, and he was looking forward to it. However, due to business engagements, he had been unable to get away the entire day.
Fortunately, Manager Fang understood his situation. Even before Lin Tianran started his job, Manager Fang had installed a camera in the document control center, connecting it to his office computer.
If there was a chance, Li Yicheng felt that he should give Manager Fang a raise.
He stepped on the gas pedal, heading to the company while thinking with great satisfaction that he needed to quickly copy the video footage from the computer. Then he could go home, take a hot bath, and leisurely enjoy today's footage of Tiantian.
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