Reversing Heavenly Gang: Starting with a Slap in the Face at Work

Chapter 18 Lai Ge Bao's Choice

Stepping stone or noose?

After an afternoon of meetings, Wang Lang was certain that the order for health products was a trap, a noose about to be put around his neck.

"Then what should I do?" Wang Lang hesitated. "Should I honestly tell Lai Ge Bao to switch to another project, or should I hide the risks and wait to see Lai Ge Bao collapse?"

"Hey old rascal, what brings you back?" Zhu Ge caught him the moment he stepped into the office: "What were your secrets to slacking off as a working person?"

"The Working Class's Guide to Slacking Off" is a joke circulating online that details how to slack off in various professions and situations.

For example, if Wang Lang has business to discuss today, he doesn't need to go back to the company and can leave work on the same day. He just needs to put some thought into the clock-in location.

"Hey, don't even mention it. Today I had the driver give me..." Wang Lang told Zhu Ge about what had just happened downstairs.

"How did the project go today?" Zhu Ge asked curiously.

"As expected... definitely a deep pit."

"So what do you plan to do?"

Wang Lang, feeling guilty, glanced around and whispered, "What do you say about secretly doing something to Lai Ge Bao during the spring selection?"

"Okay," Zhu Ge seemed somewhat surprised, but still chose to support Wang Lang, "It's just..."

"What is it?" Wang Lang pressed.

"It's just... a bit unlike you." Zhu Ge hesitated for a moment before giving his reason: "Although we haven't been promoted, we've never done anything sabotage behind the scenes. But you want to run for team leader... I support you no matter what."

hey-hey--

Wang Lang had an indescribable feeling in his heart, but he just smiled and patted Zhu Ge, "Just kidding. I plan to tell Lai Ge Bao the truth and let him choose between life and death."

Zhu Ge breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. Wang Lang's change really made him suspect that his best friend had changed. He punched him and said, "Then you go ahead and do your thing. I have something to do tonight, so I won't be having dinner with you."

"What's up?"

"My mom and some relatives are here, and I'm going to pick them up at the station today." Zhu Ge had taken leave and was about to leave.

……

At his workstation, Wang Lang had been staring at the team leader's office for five minutes. He had already prepared the risk assessment document, but he didn't know how to bring it up.

If you tell Lai Ge Bao that this deal is unreliable, he definitely won't believe you.

Hiding the risks? That could end up getting you implicated.

ding ding-

Just as Wang Lang was hesitating, Lai Ge Bao sent a message: "You're back? How did the talks go?"

Seeing that Laigebao was pressing him hard, Wang Lang opened the email, clicked send, and sent the risk assessment document to Laigebao's email address.

"Xiao Lang, is that new order ready?" Sister Zhou took off one earphone and peeked out from behind the screen. "I saw Xiao Lai making phone calls in the office all afternoon, he seemed quite anxious."

"That's about enough, I'll talk to him one more time." Wang Lang stood up, glancing at Zhou Jie's screen—a short video from a workplace rant blogger. The blogger was slamming his fist on the table, cursing: "Some bosses, when they're pushing you, it's like they're killing you, but when something goes wrong, they say 'I didn't know anything.' So all the credit goes to them, and all the risk is yours? Are you going to work or to be a stunt double?"

A comment floated across the screen: "Sis, I acted in this episode before, and the ending was labor arbitration."

Sister Zhou watched with great interest, picked up her cup and took a sip of tea, without even glancing in the direction of Team Leader Lai's office.

Wang Lang smiled and walked towards the team leader's office with the documents in his hand.

"Xiao Lang." Sister Zhou suddenly called out to him, taking off her other earphone as well. Her voice was unusually serious. "When you're doing your job, don't take it too seriously. Take care of yourself."

In the office, Lai Gebao was sitting with his legs crossed, sipping tea, his face showing an expression of anticipation for good news: "How's it going? Is it easy to communicate with Li Wei?"

"Good communication, wonderful, it's like a breath of fresh air." Wang Lang sat down and put the documents on the table. "So I'm even more certain—there's a problem with this project."

Lai Ge Bao's smile froze for a moment: "What do you mean?"

Wang Lang pushed the document over: "There are risks to product quality, repurchase data is questionable, and the contract terms are unequal. I've written the details here, please take a look."

Lai Ge Bao didn't look at the document; his gaze remained fixed on Wang Lang's face, as if trying to determine whether Wang Lang was joking with him.

"Wang Lang, do you know what our team is lacking right now?" Lai Gebao put down his cup, his tone turning serious. "We're lacking sales! There are less than two months left until the spring performance review, and this deal is the biggest opportunity our team can seize."

Wang Lang didn't respond, thinking to himself: Stop with the "we" stuff. You're the team leader, your spring performance review score was low, and you're the one who needs the most results.

"You're telling me there's a problem? Then tell me, which project doesn't have a problem?" Lai Gebao started spouting his fallacies.

Every project has its problems to some extent, but it's important to know what the pitfalls are so you can avoid them in advance.

These words sounded agreeable, and Lai Ge Bao's expression relaxed. He picked up the document and flipped through a couple of pages.

Her tone hardened again: "What's the point of writing down all these risks? Are you going to quit just because there are risks? There's no such thing as zero risk in business. Look at the team next door, they took on a much worse project last month, and they're still running."

But Wang Lang could tell that he wasn't really looking at it seriously—his eyes were scanning the pages rapidly, and he was flipping through them faster than he was scrolling through short videos.

Sure enough, Lai Gebao pushed the document aside and his tone hardened again: "What's the use of writing down these risks? Are you going to quit just because there are risks? There's no such thing as zero risk in business. Look at the team next door, they took on a much worse project last month, and they're still running."

"So the group next door got yelled at by Manager Gou for half an hour," Wang Lang said.

Lai Ge Bao choked.

Before he could react, Wang Lang continued, "Team leader, it's not that I don't want to do it, it's that I want to understand it thoroughly. I have a corresponding solution for every risk in this report. If you think you can take it on, we can proceed according to the plan; the risks are controllable."

Lai Gebao's eyes lit up—he liked hearing the words "risks are controllable".

"Could you elaborate?"

Wang Lang sighed inwardly. He wanted Lai Ge Bao to see the risks clearly, but Lai Ge Bao only wanted to hear what he wanted to hear.

Fine, if you want to hear "controllable," then I'll give you "controllable."

"First, we require Li Wei to provide a third-party re-inspection report for the product quality inspection; second, I need to review each piece of promotional material; third, the clause in the contract regarding full responsibility for outsourced operations needs to be revised."

Every single one of them is correct, and every single one sounds perfectly reasonable.

Lai Gebao frowned: "Change the contract? Do you think Li Wei would agree to that? He's the client; you're asking him to change the contract?"

"It's fine if we don't change it." Wang Lang shrugged. "Then if there are any product quality issues, our operations team will take full responsibility, and the compensation will be deducted from our team's performance bonus."

Lai Ge Bao's expression changed.

He glanced down at the document he had just opened, then looked at Wang Lang.

After a few seconds of silence, Lai Ge Bao made a decision—

"Let's not talk about the contract for now. Just keep an eye on the rest. Let's get the project running first."

Wang Lang nodded: "Okay. Team leader, please confirm via email so I can file it."

"Confirm what?"

"Your instructions just now—the contract remains unchanged, the project continues, and so does the evaluation document I prepared."

Lai Ge Bao's mouth was open, feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Alright, alright, send it out."

Wang Lang opened the door, walked out of the office, returned to his workstation, and opened his email—Lai Ge Bao's reply was already there, brief as if he were hiding something:

"Read."

"@Group 4·Wang Lang"

Wang Lang stared at those words for a few seconds, then suddenly found it amusing.

He only replied "read" to a risk assessment report—not even willing to type a single extra word, as if he were afraid that adding even one more word would constitute acceptance.

However, the two words "read" are enough.

Wang Lang saved the screenshot of the email and created a new folder named "Project Archive".

Sister Zhou put on her headphones and continued scrolling through her short videos, as if nothing had happened.

Wang Lang leaned back in his chair, looking at the newly created folder on the screen.

This document can be a stepping stone or a noose.

Lai Ge Bao has made his choice.