Huang Xiaopang: "There's a welcome dinner today. President E booked three tables at Songyue Building. The whole department is going to eat and drink for free, she just announced it in front of everyone!"
He Kao wondered: "Welcome dinner, is there a new employee joining again?"
Huang Xiaopang: "What were you doing just now, daydreaming? President E brought over the new employee to introduce to everyone, greeted each person individually, even you got a greeting. I saw you nodding too!"
He Kao pointed at his headphones: "I was listening to something, didn't pay attention, didn't hear a thing."
After listening to Huang Xiaopang's account, He Kao finally knew that around five o'clock in the afternoon, Gao Xue'e brought someone into the open space, introduced them to everyone, saying this was the new employee joining the department. His name is Qian Guran, and he is a PhD student in Urban Planning at Chunhua University's School of Architecture.
He Kao was so focused on listening to the recording at the time, totally unaware while sitting at his workstation. Qian Guran went around greeting everyone one by one, and when he arrived at He Kao, He Kao even nodded.
Turns out it was his subconscious reaction, yet he had no recollection of it in his memory!
Huang Xiaopang: "You're really too focused on work, hurry up and get off work to drink."
He Kao took off his headphones, shook his head, and said: "I'm not going today, can you let President E know for me?"
Huang Xiaopang: "Are you not feeling well?"
He Kao: "Just not in a good mood, don't want to go!"
Huang Xiaopang: "You're kind of weird today, buddy."
He Kao's reaction was indeed unusual. In Huang Xiaopang's impression, he had always been smart and obedient, the standard "model child" in the eyes of the neighbors.
At work, unlike Huang Xiaopang who would often banter with the leadership, He Kao was very considerate of others' emotions, reading the room was almost an instinct ingrained in his bones.
He Kao wasn't the type of social butterfly who could easily get on with everyone, in fact he had a slight social anxiety, but he was very sensitive and mindful of his own behavior, accustomed to avoiding conflicts as much as possible, not displeasing others.
Gao Xue'e had a habit, whenever there was a new employee joining, she would organize a welcome event like team building, even if busy she would find time to go out for a meal, and the places were pretty high-end.
Gao Xue'e was quite assertive with her subordinates, these gatherings were generally mandatory, even using overtime as an excuse wouldn't work. Since joining, He Kao had never missed such an event.
Huang Xiaopang had no objections in this regard because he was a foodie, each time he would shamelessly order a few dishes he wanted to eat the most, anyway it came out of the department's event budget.
For He Kao to not want to go today indeed felt strange to Huang Xiaopang, but he didn't persuade him and instead patted his shoulder: "If you don't want to go, don't go, I'll let them know, say you're not feeling well today.
But don't forget to notify President E, send a WeChat message or something, otherwise she'll bring it up with you later."
No way would He Kao attend the gathering today, he hadn't finished listening to that recording, and his mind was occupied elsewhere. After importing the processed audio file back into his phone, he returned alone to his apartment to continue listening.
In the apartment, he heard the name and address of the second informant, and was taken aback again - it turned out to be Gao Xue'e.
Huang Xiaopang had just mentioned that Gao Xue'e was in a bad mood today, so He Kao realized the reason. President E had just encountered something strange last night, it would be odd if her emotions were stable.
Upon hearing Gao Xue'e's name, it seemed to remind him of something, pressing the pause button, he sent President E a message saying he wasn't feeling well today and couldn't attend the gathering.
President E quickly replied to the message, criticizing him for not asking for leave earlier if unwell, not when everyone was already gathered.
He Kao replied: "President E, so sorry, I'm really not feeling well today!" He thought for a bit and added, "Today's departmental gathering was a sudden notification, I wasn't aware in advance, couldn't ask for leave earlier."
The leadership obviously wasn't too pleased, yet he didn't have his usual unease, instead not yielding, returning a somewhat resistant reply, it felt quite different from usual.
This might have been because of his bad mood, and more probably because he had just heard a "secret" about Gao Xue'e, facing her now with an inexplicable psychological advantage.
This mindset was rather strange, even utterly unfounded, yet it was precisely this subtle. He then continued listening to the recording, after a while Gao Xue'e sent another message—
"I meant that next time you're unwell, ask for leave earlier! Are you feeling better now? If still unwell, it would be best to visit the hospital."
Of course, He Kao didn't go to the hospital, after finishing the recording, he started from the beginning, carefully re-listening to the ninety-minute conversation.
While listening, he occasionally paused, took out paper and pen, recording and organizing quite a bit of content. Once he finished the second round, he brought three full sheets of writing into the bathroom and burned them.
Then he opened his laptop, found a deeply nested hidden folder, stored the audio file here, and even renamed it with a featureless name, burying it among a heap of chaotic, unreadable, routinely generated system files.
Such a file bundle was what programmers commonly referred to as a "shit mountain", then he completely deleted the original file from his phone.
Right then a sudden knocking echoed, startling He Kao unexpectedly. He got up to open the door and found Huang Xiaopang standing outside along with a man sporting a smile.
He Kao: "Why are you here?"
Huang Xiaopang sidestepped into the place: "I came to check if you're still in one piece, seems like you're alive!"
The man at the door explained: "President E heard you're not well and sent us to see if there's anything you need help with. Coincidentally, I also live in this apartment, on the same floor as you, what a coincidence!"