Chapter 2

At seven-thirty the next morning, I placed the sorted accounts on Ryan’s desk.

At eight-ten, he arrived.

He tossed his bag onto the desk, picked up the top folder, flipped through it, and suddenly raised his head. “That’s it?”

I said, “Everything from the past three years is here.”

“Where is last year’s computer purchase order?”

I turned to the third folder, pulled out that purchase order, and handed it to him.

He took it, glanced at it twice, and slapped it onto the desk. “How did you verify this price back then?”

“We compared quotes from three vendors and chose the lowest one.”

“The lowest?”

He sneered and pushed the order in front of me.

“The same Dell model is $620 on Amazon, and your purchase price was $610. You saved ten bucks and have the nerve to call that a price comparison?”

I said nothing.

He threw a sheet of paper out from the drawer. “These are the new rules for this year.”

“From now on, every logistics purchase must have a budget submitted first, and the process can only move forward after I sign off.”

“For any amount over five thousand, three vendor comparison sheets must be attached, and not one can be missing.”

I looked at the paper, then raised my head and said, “Previously, anything under five thousand didn’t require...”

“Previously was previously.”

He cut me off. “I’m in charge of this department now, so we follow my rules. Any problem?”

I said, “No problem.”

I took the sheet of paper back to my workstation, and Kyle leaned over and whispered:

“Walter, he’s targeting you. Yesterday I heard him tell someone that logistics is basically a retirement home and needs to be cleaned up.”

I did not raise my head and pressed that rule under the glass panel on my desk.

At three in the afternoon, Administration delivered a new batch of office supplies.

Notebooks, pens, and folders filled two large cardboard boxes.

The delivery guy asked where to put them, and I said to leave them with me so I could hand them out.

Ryan happened to come in from outside, and when he saw the two boxes, he walked over and rummaged through them.

“Who ordered this batch of stuff?”

I said, “According to the quarterly plan, it’s time to distribute them.”

He picked up a notebook, flipped through it, and tossed it back into the box. “How much is one of these notebooks?”

“Two dollars and thirty cents.”

“Too expensive. From now on, buy all consumables like this for under a dollar fifty.”

He looked at me. “You spend too freely in logistics.”

I said, “The supplier was chosen through last year’s bidding process, and the price is the contract price...”

“Can the contract be changed or not?”

He cut me off again. “Do I have the final say, or does the contract?”

I stood there without moving.

He waited two seconds, and when he saw that I did not speak, he walked toward his office.

When he reached the door, he turned back again.

“Move that box of good ones to my office. I happen to be short on notebooks over there.”

I moved a box of notebooks and placed it beside his desk.

He sat in his chair looking at his phone and said without raising his head:

“From now on, let me take a look before Administration distributes anything. Don’t move every piece of junk into the supply room.”

I said, “All right.”

When I came out, Harold from Finance was smoking in the hallway.

When he saw me, he nodded.

I nodded too and walked past.

Behind me, he said, “Walter, just endure it. New bosses always want to make a show.”

I turned back and smiled. “It’s fine.”

Back at my workstation, the computer tower buzzed loudly, and the screen flickered twice.

I patted the case, but it kept buzzing.

Kyle poked his head over from next door. “Walter, you should replace that computer. Even the one I retired is better than this thing.”

I said, “It still works.”

At four in the afternoon, Leonard, the supply room keeper, called and said this month’s cleaning supplies were almost gone and needed restocking.

I flipped through the inventory sheet and called him back. “Restock next week according to the plan, and make do for two more days.”

After I hung up, my phone rang again.

It was Building Management, saying the exterior walls of the office building needed cleaning and asking when to schedule it.

I said next week, since this week’s budget had not been approved yet.

I had just put down my phone when Ryan’s secretary, Chloe, came over and said Manager Miller wanted me to stop by.

I knocked on the door.

Ryan was talking to two people, one man and one woman, both unfamiliar faces.

When he saw me, he beckoned.

“Walter, these are two new colleagues. Logistics needs to help them get office supplies arranged.”

“Desks, chairs, computers, phones—have everything ready before work tomorrow.”

I said, “There are desks and chairs in the supply room, but computers need a purchase request.”

“How long does purchasing take?”

“If we follow the process, about a week.”

Ryan frowned. “A week? They need computers for work tomorrow.”

I said nothing.

He thought for a moment and pointed toward the door. “Move the two computers from the conference room over for them to use first. Hurry up with the purchase request.”

I said, “Those two computers in the conference room are for shared use...”

“What shared use? How often does the conference room even use them?”

He waved his hand. “That’s it. Go.”

I returned to my workstation, and Kyle asked in a low voice, “What happened?”

I did not make a sound and went to the conference room to move the computers.

Both computers were newly equipped last year, with systems installed, and they had been sitting unused in the conference room.

I moved them to the two empty workstations and set up the network cables.

When I returned, Ryan was standing beside my workstation, holding a sheet of paper.

“Walter, what’s going on with your attendance record this month?”

He raised the paper.

“On the afternoon of the third, you left early?”

I said, “That afternoon, I went to the supply room to do inventory.”

“Inventory? Who told you to go?”

“Routine inventory is done on the third of every month, and it has always been at that time.”

He slapped the paper onto my desk. “From now on, submit a report in advance before inventory. If you’re not at your workstation, people can’t find you when they need something.”

I said, “Got it.”

After he left, Kyle leaned over and said:

“Walter, on the afternoon of the third, he went out for lunch with someone and wasn’t even in the office.”

I continued sorting out the things on my desk and said nothing.

When it was time to get off work, the cleaning lady came to empty the trash.

When she passed my workstation, she stopped. “Mr. Clark, you’re sitting here? Isn’t this the spot no one sits in?”

I said, “I moved over.”

She shook her head and pushed her cart toward the restroom.

After taking two steps, she turned back again. “This spot smells bad, and it’s even worse in summer.”

I said, “It’s fine.”

When I got home that night, my wife asked how my day was.

I said it was okay.

She said, “You’ve spent your whole life only knowing how to say it’s okay.”

I smiled and did not respond.