Having achieved financial freedom, I reorganized my workplace.

Chapter 79 Emptiness is a free man in the human world, yet not a free being in the human world.

Chapter 78 Emptiness is a free man in the human world, yet not a free being in the human world.

With Wu Di gone, only Lin Chen and Tang Yuwei remained in the room. The polite atmosphere dissipated, replaced by an awkward silence.

Li Bowen cleared his throat and poured tea for the two of them, his fingertips gripping the rim of the teacup, his movements much more restrained than before.

Tang Yuwei lost her appetite for tea and quietly moved closer to Lin Chen, her shoulder gently touching his arm, as if trying to convey something.

Lin Chen understood immediately, looked up at Li Bowen, and said in a calm tone, "Teacher, I didn't come here today for any other reason. I just wanted to see you and your wife."

Forget about using connections.

Li Bowen glanced quickly at his wife beside him, and finally spoke, but the integrity in his words had long since vanished, and his words were hesitant and stammering, revealing a deliberate flattery: "Lin Chen and Yuwei, you are both good children. Lin Chen, you have always been excellent in both character and academics, and Yuwei is even more so—she is pretty and has even been able to get a job at the Xinhai Provincial Company headquarters. She is truly promising, and makes her teacher proud. It's just that—"

Haha, what you're saying has no backbone at all, and it's even a bit incoherent. It sounds like a compliment. Teacher, are you alright?

"Li Bowen, what's there to be embarrassed about when you're a student? Really." At this moment, Li Bowen's wife couldn't stand it anymore and came over to interrupt.

Li Bowen then took a deep breath and lowered his voice as if afraid someone would hear: "It's like this, it's my daughter, Jiaojiao. You've all seen her. We've spoiled her since she was little. Her grades are bad, and she's wild. Now she often... After graduation, she can't even find a decent job. We, the two of us, only have this one daughter. Although we have some connections, we really can't bear to see her suffer in a small place. We have no other hope, we just want her to stay by our side and have a stable job. I saw that Yuwei is in the Organization Department of Xinhai Provincial Company, and she's in charge of campus recruitment, right?"

I understand now, I completely understand.

After going through all this trouble, it turns out they wanted to get their daughter into the headquarters of Xinhai Provincial Company.

No wonder it turned out this way.

Kexinhai Group's provincial headquarters is not a place that just anyone can get into. Normally, they only accept master's degree holders from 985 or 211 universities. Even graduates from Tsinghua and Peking University would fight tooth and nail to get in. Back then, his resume was ignored. With Jiaojiao's qualifications, she probably doesn't even qualify.

Looking back now, Li Bowen's previous argument that "rules prevail over unspoken rules" is like slapping himself in the face—it's a jarring rebuke. But what can you do when you're human?

The teacher's wife quickly chimed in, pulling Tang Yuwei's hand with a warm, urgent touch: "Yuwei, could you help Jiaojiao make a connection? It doesn't have to be a fancy position, even a quiet, back-office or administrative job would be fine, as long as she can get into the provincial company, we'll be content."

These words were too blunt, and Li Bowen's embarrassment deepened.

Tang Yuwei was startled by this sudden plea, her fingertips stiffening. A hint of difficulty crossed her face, and she said tactfully, "Teacher, campus recruitment is indeed under our department's jurisdiction, but I'm just an ordinary employee and don't have much say. I can do my best to keep an eye out, but I really can't guarantee it will work out."

"Just do your best. It's always better to have someone say something." The teacher's wife quickly agreed, afraid that she might change her mind.

Li Bowen seemed to have lost his temper, and said somewhat irritably, "We won't force you. If you can help, then help; if you can't, then forget it. This spendthrift daughter is beyond saving anyway; it's her fate."

The teacher's wife glared at him, then turned to Tang Yuwei, her tone softening, with a hint of ambiguity: "Just be more attentive within the rules. We'll all be on the same side from now on, so help each other out and look out for one another."

This is reality. So-called integrity is mostly self-proclaimed when there isn't enough incentive to gain. When it comes to matters concerning one's own interests, unspoken rules are more effective than anything else.

Yuwei didn't respond much after that, but she always said the same thing: "Teacher, I will do my best. I'm sure I'll pass the resume screening. As for the interview, that's up to her."

It's almost time.

The teachers insisted that Lin Chen and Yu Wei stay for dinner, which was incredibly enthusiastic, but Lin Chen and Yu Wei firmly refused. In the end, the teachers personally escorted Lin Chen and Yu Wei out, all the way to the gate of the residential area, and bowed several times.

That's really shortening my lifespan.

As a teacher, a person of integrity and upright character, it's understandable that he would ask for favors for his daughter, but something just feels off.

Lin Chen never expected that when the two of them came to ask for help, it would end up with the other way around.

So funny.

After they came out, Tang Yuwei happily put her arm around Lin Chen's shoulder and said, "Your expert should be fine."

Lin Chen looked at her and asked seriously, "Can you really get their daughter into the provincial company?"

Tang Yuwei waved her hand, a shrewd glint in her eyes: "You're overthinking it. It's definitely not going to work. His daughter's qualifications are just too poor. Even if she passes the resume screening, she'll definitely be rejected in the interview. I don't have that kind of ability."

"Then Teacher Li might not help me, right?" Lin Chen raised an eyebrow.

"He definitely will," Tang Yuwei said confidently. "He doesn't know I don't have the ability. As parents, we will hold on to even the slightest hope. For Jiaojiao's sake, he wouldn't dare not do such a small thing."

A strange feeling crossed Lin Chen's mind. He looked at Tang Yuwei and said with a hint of self-mockery, "So, am I being a little despicable?"

Tang Yuwei laughed and gently poked his arm with her fingertip: "Class monitor, have you forgotten about Wu Di from earlier? Compared to his blatant audacity, what is this? Besides, if you really become an expert in the future, just help the teacher a bit more, and we'll even things out, right?"

Those words were a wake-up call.

Lin Chen suddenly understood.

Compared to the unscrupulous and despicable tactics in the workplace, this is merely using someone else's strength against them. Besides, Li Bowen himself harbored selfish motives. In this situation where everyone gets what they want, no one is inherently more noble than the other.

The second day was the skills practical exam. The examiners were mostly teachers from XX Hydropower School, but they were all relatively young.

The entire assessment was extremely difficult, truly befitting of expert questions. It was on a completely different level compared to questions for senior engineers, and far exceeded the norm. The examiners also set up very tricky problems.

Many test takers came out feeling heavy-hearted and lost, and a few girls even burst into tears.

It felt as if we had experienced a separation of life and death.

This created an extremely tense and serious atmosphere at the scene.

Lin Chen had bad luck and signed up for the most difficult question: the start-up and shutdown operation of a centrifugal pump and troubleshooting the problem of no water output. However, the easy question was not that easy either; it was just a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Once inside, the two examiners seemed to whisper to each other.

After Lin Chen gave his exam number, they seemed even more certain of something. They came over and whispered in Lin Chen's ear, "The entire exam will be recorded on video and audio. We examiners are not allowed to speak, so don't say anything out of the ordinary either. Just pay attention to my gestures, and I'll give you hints."

Lin Chen was startled. It seemed Li Bowen was really going all out. He hadn't expected to receive this kind of "special treatment" as well.

One day, God opened his eyes, and I felt inexplicably embarrassed.

The exam officially began. Lin Chen followed the procedure step by step, first taking safety precautions and putting on his waterproof suit. Two instructors stood on either side of him, like two great protectors.

However, they weren't there to supervise Lin Chen, but rather to help him block the cameras. One of them noticed that Lin Chen's clothes weren't quite right and he was a bit clumsy, so he carefully straightened them for him.

I won't go into the details of the exam process.

Anyway, there wasn't a single dull moment; it was ridiculously smooth.

Lin Chen already had solid practical skills, and with the help of the two examiners' subtle hand signals and cover-ups, he completed the entire process without any delays. He did not take any detours in troubleshooting and completed all operations in just twenty minutes, and the fault was successfully eliminated.

As Lin Chen walked out of the examination room, he felt as if he had experienced a farcical yet real drama.

After completing the written and practical exams, the top 30 scorers in both the written and oral exams advanced to the final review stage. The reviewers then conducted a final review and made a decision on the materials submitted by the participants.

To ensure fairness and impartiality, Xinhai Group spared no expense this time. The judges participating in the review were different from the examiners for the practical operation. There were a total of five people participating in the expert review, with Professor Li Bowen still as the group leader, and the others being professors from other universities.

Several of them were at the vice-principal level.

Thirty people participated in the final review, and ten had to be selected. To be honest, it was quite brutal. Basically, everyone's materials were very "solid," all of them were thick stacks.

However, these reviewing professors are not from Xinhai Group and cannot judge the quality of these so-called "achievements." They usually just look at the published papers, the journals in which they were published, and the size of the awards they received to make their evaluations.

After looking at the materials for a while, everyone started to make their judgments. As if they were all in tacit agreement, they put the "good" materials in the middle and put all the "bad" materials aside, which meant they were eliminated.

Li Bowen had been keeping a close eye on Lin Chen's materials. Every time he saw someone take Lin Chen's materials out, he would quietly take them back.

Half of the materials were quickly eliminated, and then another inconsiderate professor took out Lin Chen's materials. This time, Li Bowen directly said to him, "Professor Ma, I think this person's materials are still acceptable. Why don't we take them back first?"

After Li Bowen finished speaking, he took Lin Chen's materials back and placed them in the middle.

In the end, after much back and forth, there was still one spot that couldn't be filled. There were only ten spots left, which was the quota set by Xinhai Company. However, there were still 11 people on the field, so one person had to be eliminated.

The professors reviewed the materials repeatedly, until they were thoroughly exhausted. Then one professor took out someone's materials, and at that moment, Professor Liu spoke up: "Brother, please be lenient. This is my man. Please help him out." After saying that, he put the materials back.

Another professor held up a document and said, "This person's document is so-so, how about we take it?" Another professor, Zhao, stopped him, saying, "This person specifically asked me to take it. The document isn't that great, but it's passable. Let's give it a shot." After saying that, he put the document back in.

After all that back and forth, still no result was reached. Finally, someone picked up Lin Chen's materials again: "How about we go with him?"

This person lacks innovative material; they only have one award-winning work.

At this moment, Li Bowen quickly spoke up again: "This person ranked first in the total score of the written test and the interview. We can't just look at the materials. I think it would be too unfair to share them."

Principal Li immediately understood what was going on and came over with a smile: "Professor Li, is this one of your people? You could have said so earlier, you've been silent all this time."

Li Bowen: "Hehe, he is indeed my student, but I'm not saying I'm protecting him. He is indeed very capable."

""

"What about the last one? Who should we eliminate? Hurry up, let's finish this and go eat."

"Professor Ma, why don't you send one out? You seem to have three already."

"Okay, okay, really, if we don't do these things next year, it's so painful, so painful."

When Lin Chen was a child, he didn't understand why a thin rope could tether a huge cow and make it work for its owner for its entire life until it was exhausted.

At this moment, he finally began to understand.

All cows have one extremely fatal weakness: their noses are very fragile. The nose is the thinnest part of their skin, with the most dense nerves and the most sensitive part. If you pull on its nose, it will not be physically injured, but it will be in excruciating pain. So even if you pull on it with a small rope, it cannot break free and can only keep its head down and work in the fields day after day until it dies.

And what about people? Aren't they the same?

Life is too short. From the moment we are born, we are busy rushing around every day, living in a hurry, and competing every day. Everyone is afraid of living an ordinary and mediocre life, so we strive, compete, and even fight day and night until death.

The ox is tethered by a real rope and cannot break free; it can only remain so.

But what about the people?

There are no ropes on a person's body, yet it seems as if there are countless ropes binding them: fame and fortune, responsibility, desire, women, family, friendship... all of these bind you tightly.

Kong is a free person in the human world, but not a free body in the human world.

Just like this expert exam, whether you're a candidate, an examiner, or a final reviewer.

Ultimately, we are all puppets led by interests and rules, and no one can escape the bondage of this reality.