CH 30.2

After Ning Wan had picked things apart for him, Fu Zheng finally seemed to get it. Though his face drooped a little, he still seemed to have a few doubts. "But there are also some good bosses..."

"Well, maybe there are," Ning Wan curled her lip. "But the partner who wrote this email definitely isn't one of them. Look at all the nonsense written here. 'The best lawyers are often those who are able to persevere through the hardest work'."

"Now we're getting into the third biggest illusion of the workplace. When you, a newbie to this job, read these words, surely you'll feel that 'When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on man, it will first fill his heart with suffering1'. The boss must have given you the dirtiest, most tiring jobs to test and hone you, because you're the most reliable among the employees. So long as you endure this, one day you'll have your day in the sun, right?"

"I'm telling you, once you start thinking like this, you're finished. All the most terrible jobs will land in your lap, just because you're the dumbest, the least resistant, and you don't think too much."

She rolled her eyes, "Anyway, what's with this old-fashioned, corny writing style? What the hell is wrong with the guy who wrote this letter? They should have just said bluntly: 'Only by enduring hardship can you make a lot of money!' That would be far more motivating that telling people that they can become excellent lawyers if they suffer. Everyone currently working here is a lazy ass who doesn't want to bother thinking too hard or being too flexible. Why become an excellent lawyer? To go bald? If you're going to paint a pie in the sky, you should be more specific. A strong lawyer is not only bald, but rich! That's the kind of thing to write! Simple, crude, and attractive!"

Ning Wan shook her head, commenting, "What sort of writing level is this? I can't believe this person is actually a partner! They don't understand how employees think at all! "

She glanced back at Fu Zheng only to find that he was in even lower spirits than before. He even looked a little crestfallen.

She couldn't help but sigh. In the workplace, the easiest spirits to break and blacken were those that belonged to sweet and naïve people like Fu Zheng. Once they became cognizant of the dark side of society, they weren't able to accept it. Their views on life crumbled simultaneously, and it took a long time to pull themselves back together.

Just as Ning Wan was about to comfort Fu Zheng, she heard him say, "Do you know which partner wrote this email?"

"I don't. Sometimes the senior staff takes turns to write it." Ning Wan patted Fu Zheng on the shoulder sympathetically. "But I do know that this person is an idiot, and I'm reasonably sure that it's Gao Yuan."

She didn't know if it was a hallucination, but for the barest instant, Ning Wan felt like Fu Zheng's eyes shone with the grudging light of bitter resentment.

"Don't look so hateful!" she cautioned. "You're too obvious. So what if we know that it's Gao Yuan? We're his inferiors, and he's our superior. Being able to identify the boss's scams are just for self-defense. Next, we'll get to the advanced class."

Saying this, Ning Wan turned on her computer and began to reply to the routine law firm email as Fu Zheng watched--

"Thank you, boss, for your encouragement! I'll do my best to emulate the behavior that you model for me every day. I will treat the firm like my own home, bear hardships and work hard, and do my best to learn in a down-to-earth manner. It's my duty and pride to one day become an excellent lawyer!"

Before Fu Zheng's dumbfounded eyes, Ning Wan finished writing and smoothly clicked Send.

"Didn't you just criticize this email from every possible degree?!" he immediately questioned her two-faced attitude. 

Ning Wan looked him in the eye as if he was an unruly, unteachable boy. "This is the new skill in the workplace that I want to teach you next - how to disobey the boss. No matter how stupid  the things that come out of the bosses' mouth, never refute it to their face. Just tell them what they want to hear. Look at this email of mine. Don't you think it'll give my boss the impression that I'm clever and obedient?"

“……”

"Do you get it?"

“……”

"Do you know what sorts of subordinates the bosses like the most? Not clever, intelligent ones, but dull, foolish ones. Having too many ideas or too much personality sometimes isn't a good thing at a job. It means that you have edges and corners, that you're probably disobedient and not too easy to fool. If the boss supports you, that might come back to bite them later because you're not blindly loyal. A boss doesn't want to train their own competitors, or give some other lawyer the chance to do so. They prefer you to be a single-minded fool who only works hard and thinks of nothing else. That's why we should, in moderation, build up such an image in their minds. While out in the field you can give full play to your abilities, but don't contradict your boss in other matters. Just say a few perfunctory 'yessirs' and 'mmhmms', and flatter them a bit."

Looking at Fu Zheng's expressionless face, Ning Wan patted him on the shoulder comfortingly. "It's okay, the advanced course might be a little difficult, but practice makes perfect. Digest it slowly, and if you have trouble, you can practice a little more. I'm perfectly willing to be your test dummy."

"Go on, try flattering me!" she said righteously. "It's okay, I can handle it!"

“……”

Fu Zheng was completely nonplussed by her lack of shame.

Ning Wan, on the other hand, was feeling quite proud of herself. Beginners in the workplace were quite simple after all. After all she had taught him today, Fu Zheng would surely admire her. "Next time we have a chance, I'll give you a few tips on how to shift blame and slack off on the job..."

Fu Zheng pursed his lips and went silent for a moment. Finally, he couldn't help but ask, "You're talented and good at handling cases. Even if you and your boss have a natural class conflict, why are you picking up bad habits like blaming other people and loafing off?"

"There you go, spoken like someone who's never been under attack in the workplace." Ning Wan winked, but when she spoke she sounded earnest. "Listen, if one could follow a good mentor and get into a good team, who wouldn't want to work hard and make progress every day? The problem is that good teachers and teams are very hard to come by. Oftentimes, whether or not you get a good boss is just determined by luck. If you're matched up with a bad boss and don't learn how to slack, other people will dump all the dirty work on you."

"If you happen to get into a bad team, firmly believing that a lotus growing out of the mud will not be stained2 will only get you marginalized, which is of no benefit. Sometimes, blaming other people and slacking off is your last resort for protecting yourself. If others wish to blame you, you can deflect it; if the boss has arranged for you a meaningless piece of busywork, don't just throw yourself at it doggedly like an old ox. Get rid of it if you can, and if you can't, then you must know how to snatch time away from it to spend on better things, and complete it in as little time as possible."

She smiled. "So don't look down on the skills of blaming and slacking. I don't want to use them either. It's just what life has forced me to do."

Fu Zheng was quiet for awhile after hearing this with a thoughtful expression on his fact, seeming to see slacking off and deflecting blame from a different angle for the first time. Just when Ning Wan thought that he had been enlightened, he gave her another blow--

"In a good law firm, employees should not need to have to learn how to skive off and play the blame game to protect themselves. If it's so, then it's the firm that needs to be reorganized."

The way he said it, his words, his viewpoint, were all as if he was the boss. Ning Wan was so pissed off she almost died.

"You really are naïve! Do you think life is that simple? 'If the environment you're in isn't great, then change the environment'? Only in your imagination are things so beautiful! In life, we can only adapt!"

However, Fu Zheng only looked at her in return and said assuredly, "I promise you, there will be change."

Ning Wan couldn't help but shake her head. She had better take more care of Fu Zheng while she could. Thankfully they were out here in the community, where the sky was high and the emperor was far away3. Otherwise if this silly, sweet little fool entered HQ and had to deal with all those complicated interpersonal relationships, he wouldn't even know how he died!