Li Yutong was seeing red. She slammed a stack of folders onto the desk with a massive bang. “Zhang Tiao! Don’t get arrogant! You wrote that absolute garbage code and left others to wipe your ass for you. Do you have no shame?”

I simply shrugged, pointing casually at my former colleagues who were eagerly eavesdropping. “Why don’t you ask them? See if they think I’m a burden to this company.”

Zhang Hua immediately threw his hand up, happily leading the peanut gallery. “Not a burden at all! It’s not like I’m the one breaking my back trying to fix that code anyway, so why would I care?”

“Exactly! Zhang Tiao was the only rose among thorns in the IT department. The gender ratio here is already tragic, yet you cold-bloodedly kicked her out. You corporate types really don’t understand the struggles of the working class!”

“I swear, working as a programmer here feels like being a monk in a monastery, boss! I need a female colleague to save my soul!”

Aside from the greenhorns who were too cowed by Chen to make a peep, every single one of the veteran employees stood united behind me, finally venting the frustrations they’d bottled up for so long.

But the biggest shocker was when God K spoke up. The department’s legendary top-tier dev, who usually floated above office politics like an untouchable deity, actually chimed in.

He and I were from the same generation, having joined the company in the same batch. The core framework that currently kept this company fed? He and I had built it from the ground up, fueled by countless sleepless nights.

God K stopped typing. He furrowed his brows, looked dead at Fatty Chen, and coldly delivered a lethal verbal smackdown:

“Manager Chen, upper management promoted you not because your technical skills are outstanding, but because your networking and surface-level business acumen are better than ours.”

“But I’ve worked with Zhang Tiao for years, and I can say this in all fairness: she has never received a single ounce of special treatment just for being a woman.”

“On the contrary, despite the physical limits everyone assumes women have, she has pulled all-nighters and hard-carried this team more times than any man here. Miss Yutong, what right do you have to weaponize gender against a founding employee who has dedicated so much to this place? Do you really think you can just run your mouth and spout empty nonsense without consequences?”

Yutong’s face instantly turned a violent shade of purple. God K’s ironclad logic choked her so completely she couldn’t utter a single syllable. Having dropped the mic, God K gave me a brief glance before turning back to his screen, coldly resuming his coding as if nothing had happened. What an absolute king.

Fatty Chen was a cunning old fox who had survived office politics for years. Seeing the tide turn, he immediately swallowed his pride and softened his tone.

“Alright, fine. What happened before was my mistake, and the company will compensate you fairly, not a penny short. Ms. Zhang, we’ve been colleagues for years. There’s really no need to make things so difficult for each other.”

He shot Yutong a pointed look. “Miss Yutong, what are you waiting for? Go print the new contract.”

“Do exactly as Ms. Zhang requested. Settle her N+3 severance package. And Yutong, you were incredibly negligent last time! The company has clear protocols. Who gave you the right to make decisions on the CEO’s behalf just to save a little severance money?”

What a piece of work. Chen was playing the victim while actively throwing the HR witch under the bus to save his own skin. Yutong looked ready to combust, but she didn’t dare talk back. She shot me a venomous, hateful glare before stomping off to print the paperwork.

Once the contract was brought over, I smoothly signed my name with an elegant flourish. Chen stared at me, his face full of eager expectation. “Can you fix the code now?”

I feigned complete innocence, blinking in exaggerated confusion. “Fix what? I just officially received my severance and signed my termination papers. Why on earth is the boss forcing a total outsider like me to fix the company’s system?”

It finally dawned on Chen that I had been leading him by the nose. Dropping his groveling facade, he took a threatening step forward and snarled, “Zhang Tiao! Are you fucking with me?!”

“Manager Chen, dial it back. If you want me to work, whether it’s full-time or part-time, there has to be a clear process. Black and white, signed on paper. Otherwise, I’m working here unofficially. What if the system crashes later on and you try to frame me for stealing project data?”

I leisurely laid out my terms. “If you want me back full-time, my asking price is seventy grand a month, with a minimum three-year contract, and I hold ultimate veto power over all technical decisions. But, if you just want me part-time for emergency troubleshooting? I’ll give you a friendly rate: twenty-five grand a day. Take your time and think it over. It’s a free market, no need to rush.”

The guys around us were pretending to type furiously on their keyboards, but their ears were practically perked up to the ceiling to catch the drama. Either of these conditions was like taking a carving knife to Fatty Chen’s guts. He had just arrogantly kicked me out; now he had to multiply my salary to beg me back. It was like slapping his own face in public. How could he ever assert dominance in this department again?

But if he hired me part-time, there was no way corporate would approve such an absurd, out-of-process expense. Thinking of CEO Li Shenhao’s threat to fire him, Chen finally gritted his teeth and decided to eat the cost out of his own pocket.

“Part-time! I’ll pay it out of my own pocket!” he growled. “How many days do you need to fix this?”

“Let me calculate…” I mused. “Probably no more than ten days, Boss.”

In reality, all I had to do was click a button to upload the newly optimized version of the code to the server, overriding the old one. It would take less than ten seconds of my life. Ten days meant I’d be pocketing a neat two hundred and fifty grand in cold, hard cash. Fatty Chen was in so much physical pain he almost bit his own tongue off, but he had no choice but to nod in agreement.

I intentionally dealt one last lethal blow: “Oh, and make sure you wire the payment daily, Boss. I don’t do IOUs.”

Feeling incredibly smug, I hugged my beloved laptop and strolled back to my desk. Fatty Chen glared daggers at my back, his eyes full of malicious intent. “You better actually fix it. Otherwise, I’ll make you spit out double what I paid you!”

Ignoring his cheap threats, I leisurely sat at my desk and played Minesweeper for the entire day. Occasionally, when my fingers got itchy, I’d lean over and help the Ivy League valedictorian intern fix a few trivial logic errors.

When the clock struck the end of the workday, I breezed over to Chen’s office, waited for the satisfying ding of the money hitting my bank account, grabbed my bag, and headed home.

Ah, what a glorious day of hard work!