Work Prophet

Ten minutes had passed, yet there were still fewer than five lines of code on the screen.

The middle-aged man's forehead was beaded with sweat, and his back was already soaked with cold sweat.

Wang Guowei sat to the side, crossing his legs, sipping beer, and said with a stern face.

"Write! You can't even handle such a simple request? Did the company hire you just to fool around? Let me tell you, if you can't finish it in five minutes, don't even think about leaving tonight."

"No, no, no, don't be like this, Xiao Wang... I admit I might have had a bad attitude towards you before."

"You think this is a personal grudge?" Wang Guowei raised his voice, slapped the table, and said with a distressed look.

"Tan Yonglin, how can you think that way? I'm criticizing you for your own good, to urge you to improve. Don't tell me you can't do it; this is a precious training opportunity the company is giving you. You need to seize it. When I was your age, I was grabbing all kinds of tasks."

After speaking, Wang Guowei turned to explain to Li Yu and the others, "That's just how he talks. Always acting all noble, as if he genuinely cares about you. When I first came out of college, I was completely fooled by him.

"And this guy has a special skill. If he wants to mess with you, he won't make it obvious. He'll just wait for you to make a mistake, no matter how tiny, and once he catches it, he'll blow it out of proportion.

"I still remember once I used the wrong formality in an internal email, and he criticized me in front of everyone for about ten minutes, saying only that way would the lesson sink in."

"Ah, there are indeed many such people in the workplace," Hao Xiaoxiao and Zhang Yanlin nodded in agreement.

Tan Yonglin was sweating even more, "You guys are still young, don't let impulsiveness lead you down the wrong path..."

"Did I allow you to speak?" Wang Guowei asked, "You have no sense of workplace etiquette."

"I'm willing to apologize for my past actions," Tan Yonglin said as he frantically reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet.

"Okay, how about this, I'll compensate you. Name your price, and if it's not enough, I'll go to the bank."

"What do you take me for, a robber?" Wang Guowei sneered, "If you don't want to write code, then go play basketball."

"Uh, what?" Tan Yonglin was somewhat baffled.

But Wang Guowei had already wobbly stood up, "Let's go to the court. If you can beat me, I'll let you go."

With that, he headed towards the door.

Tan Yonglin glanced at the two emotionless men in black suits and sunglasses standing still in the background.

Reluctantly, he changed into sports shoes.

Li Yu and Hao Xiaoxiao followed behind, and as they went downstairs, Zhang Yanlin whispered to Li Yu.

"Hey, are we going a bit too far? What if Tan Yonglin reports this afterward?"

"Don't worry, they'll handle it." Li Yu pointed to the two emotionless PR department employees ahead.

He had just used one of the employees' wishes to make tonight's team-building happen.

What An Yixin was concerned about was a different matter, as she walked with Wang Guowei. "Ha, are you okay to play basketball in this state?"

"You don't understand." Wang Guowei shook his head, "It's not that I'm confident in myself; it's that I have confidence in Lao Tan. Even if I'm drunk, he still can't beat me."

Obviously, Tan Yonglin didn't agree with Wang Guowei's statement. Once on the court, scenes of winning championships by himself against strong opponents flashed in his mind, boosting his confidence.

Still cautious about Wang Guowei changing his mind, Tan Yonglin hid his delight and kept downplaying his abilities, "Sigh, I'm getting old; how could I beat you young folks?"

The group arrived at a nearby park's basketball court, but there were no free hoops. A PR department staff member approached a group of teenagers playing basketball, offering them three thousand yuan for their ball and court use.

Wang Guowei then tossed the basketball to Tan Yonglin, "You attack first."

Tan Yonglin picked up the ball, dribbled twice, "We really don't need to..."

"Why so much nonsense, hurry up and attack!" Wang Guowei urged.

"Alright then." Tan Yonglin shook his head, with a masterly demeanor, then did a simple dribble between the legs, only for the ball to hit his ankle and fly out.

"Uh, this doesn't count," Tan Yonglin quickly said, "I was just testing the waters."

"Doesn't count, my foot, it's my turn to attack." Wang Guowei didn't indulge him; this wasn't a company match, what he said doesn't count offhand.

Next, it was Wang Guowei's turn with the ball, but he really was a bit tipsy, his steps unsteady, so he simply leaned into Tan Yonglin, starting a post-up game towards the basket.

Tan Yonglin was confident. At the last company sports day, he could hold his ground against two-meter centers and surely wouldn't budge to Wang Guowei, who was under 1.8 meters.

Contrary to that, after contact, Tan Yonglin, though robust, was pushed back three or four steps.

Before he could regain his stance, Wang Guowei leaned into him again, making him stagger.

Wang Guowei, along the way, steadily came to the basket and easily scored.

Tan Yonglin supported his knees and panted heavily. Just these few rounds of defense left him more exhausted than an entire court game.

Meanwhile, Wang Guowei had picked up the basketball on the three-point line, ready to start the second challenge.

He racked up a score of eight to zero in no time until the ninth ball slipped due to a shaky wrist, switching possession.

Tan Yonglin waited so long, finally grasping a chance. He realized he might not beat Wang Guowei and aimed to score at least one, to lose less humiliatingly.

Receiving the pass, Tan Yonglin took almost no time before shooting, yet the shot he pinned his hopes on was just slapped away by a large hand right after it left his fingers.

"Damn, I've longed to block you; you take forever to shoot, every move is so slow that I can't even pretend comfortably."

After this forceful block by Wang Guowei, he felt invigorated and loudly exclaimed, "Again!"

Tan Yonglin stood stunned, seemingly bewildered by his sudden basketball skill decline, although he used to easily go 1v5.

…

Li Yu waited until Wang Guowei had his fill of playing before driving to find Zhang Yanlin and his previous boss.

The group drove through the night city, stirring trouble wherever they went, leaving chaos in their wake.

They continued untangling themselves until dawn, visiting everyone's bosses one by one. Li Yu then drove each person home, told them they didn't need to report for work the next day, and finally returned to his own place.