The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 26.1 - Right Here Waiting (1)

Jǐ Yi had thought that the lunch she had with her team director was simply a forewarning. Never had she expected that it had actually been a Hongmen Banquet.

On the afternoon of the day after the Disaster Relief Fundraiser Gala, Jǐ Yi was called to the human resources department. The times she had been here were not many, only the two or three times when they needed her here in person to sign her internship term contract and also her formal full-time employee contract.

When she walked in, everyone was in the midst of talking about last night's nearly 1.5 billion RMB in charitable donations, and while they were at it, also discussing the various opinions on Vanke's Wang Shi and how he would not allow employees of his company to donate more than 10 RMB. Wang Shi was currently in a wretched state from all the curses and condemnation coming from the public.

In this relaxed atmosphere of casual conversation, her eyes sought out the person who had called her.

"Jǐ Yi?" Someone saw her standing in the doorway and beckoned at her. "Come. Your team director had originally wanted to talk to you, but something came up last minute and she's gone out. She left instructions that I should have you go through the paperwork for taking an unpaid leave of absence."

She froze in surprise, for a moment not really comprehending what she was hearing.

Two or three gazes were cast in her direction, curiosity, inquisitiveness, and also other emotions in them.

Instantaneously, the focal point shifted from Vanke's "charity scandal" over to her.

"I've filled in all the forms for you. You just need to sign each document." This person had done the procedures to process Jǐ Yi's internship term and therefore knew her. While she carried on speaking with head lowered, she handed a thin paper file over to Jǐ Yi, as well as a pen.

Confusion over this sudden news overwhelmed Jǐ Yi and left her not knowing what she should do.

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Bewilderedly, Jǐ Yi took the document folder and pen and sat down in the adjacent, unoccupied chair. Because her fingers that were gripping the pen were squeezing so hard, a slight white colour had come into their knuckles.

This was an imposed leave of absence without pay; there were no follow-up arrangements. Jǐ Yi was finally able to figure out in her mind the cause of this entire thing.

From deciding to completely leave her family back then; to going for her graduate studies application interview; to, after going through seven or eight rounds of interviews and written tests, getting her internship opportunity and then beginning every day to calculate out her bus and food expenses and work out how she would save up for rent money on a regular basis; to, finally, successfully going through her internship period and being one of the two student interns who ended up staying on, this entire process had taken a full three years.

But now, without even needing any face-to-face interaction with anyone, her family members had caused all her efforts to be sent back to square one.

In that moment when she stepped out from the office, she felt somewhat as if in a trance. As her gaze fell down the corridor that extended to either side of the door, she did not know where she should go. People walked by her, some with hurried footsteps, some in groups of two or three, laughing as they talked in low voices. It was not until someone behind her stepped out and reminded her that she could go back to pack her things and then go home and have a good rest that she grasped that she needed to gather her belongings and leave this building.