Chapter 44.2 “Ji Lin, You are no longer the virtuous and thrifty person you used to be!”

As a lawyer, there was no concept of working from nine to five at all. Irregular working hours were the norm. Therefore, Bai Duanduan has long been used to working overtime. However, she did not expect that, somehow, recently Ji Lin’s work enthusiasm suddenly soared.

Since that day, he has worked overtime every day for half a month. Ji Lin, who used to claim that he would never give herself any source of cases, has given her several cases in a row, as if to ensure that she can work overtime every day as well. 

These cases were not bad, and the bid amount was quite good. But somehow, they were particularly eventful and required a lot of time to communicate. For half a month, Bai Duanduan almost made her second home at the law firm. Duan Yun and Xue Wen asked her to meet them several times, but she was not available, and she also forgot about Lin Hui’s matter.

But no matter what, Bai Duanduan felt that she was close to seeing the light of day. Her cases were almost settled and she could finally have a weekend to herself.

What was the weekend going to be like? Of Course, she was going to spend the day in bed!

Unfortunately, weekend plans never worked out, and when Friday came, Ji Lin had the administration department issue a notice—

Team building activities were arranged to be held on that Saturday and Sunday. Mountain climbing on Saturday and trekking on Sunday. All employees must participate. No leave was allowed.

” ‘All employees must participate. No leave is allowed.’ Ji Lin?!What kind of fascism are you running? We’ve never had a history of team building activities at Seng Lin, besides, aren’t you the one who said that? ‘Law firms that do team building activities all the time are idiots, wouldn’t it be better to have that time to review two more contracts and make more money, then not go home and sleep?’ Isn’t that how you ruthlessly contradicted me at the beginning when I wanted to have a team building activity? You thought that team building was a waste of time and money, that it didn’t produce any economic benefits, and it should be scrapped!” 

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“….”&dcpr;

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“Rpd’v vbyv obyv vbl zyo pyup?”

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Ji Lin, however, said seriously, “I have thought about it. It is true that our team cohesion at Sheng Lin is still a little bit poor, and lawyer work is also teamwork. All the lawyers in our firm are used to working alone, and it leads to a limit on the size of cases they can take, which is not conducive to future revenue generation. So I think we need to get to know each other and deepen the camaraderie of our colleagues through understanding in order to work better together and generate better revenue in future. For this, it is reasonable to invest some overtime as an incentive fund in the early stage.”

Ji Lin continued, full of concern, “As for taking a compensatory holiday, it’s not possible.” 

He snorted coldly, “Lawyers have to be in fighting spirit at all times with an alert mindset. When they go on vacation, who knows what they’ll do? Do you know what time of year the school board has the biggest headache? After summer and winter vacations. Because usually the students have a bunch of homework in school and don’t have time to get into trouble, but once they’re on vacation, their brains are idle.” He concluded succinctly, “So, no holidays.”

“….”

Although Ji Lin spoke in a moralistic manner, sounding like the ultimate goal of spending money on the team building activity was to make more money in future, Rong Sheng still felt something was different. He stared at Ji Lin for a while and found that the other party was really serious, so he left resentfully.

His only dying struggle was to change the high intensity mountain climbing to a trek in the forest park on the outskirts of the city plus a stay at a farmhouse. At last it was finalized for a night at a nearby homestay on Saturday and a hike in the mountains of the forest park the next day.

_______________

Soon, the administration department announced the final team building plan in the large office area—

“Tomorrow, Saturday, we will charter a bus to go to a forest park on the outskirts of the city. Considering that this is the first time that Sheng Lin has organised a team building activity and in order to keep up to the theme of letting colleagues get to know each other, deepen the tacit understanding of teamwork and improve cohesion, our lunch at noon will be done at the rented farmhouse kitchen, by everyone working together!”

Almost as soon as this announcement was made, Yang Fan let out a wail, “Oh my God, what’s wrong with our Par Ji? I chose to come to Sheng Lin in the first place because of its cold working atmosphere  where this kind of fake friendship with colleagues doesn’t need to be maintained! At my last law firm I was bored to death with the weekly sports games, moot court and invitations to each other’s birthday parties……”

Wang Fangfang snorted coldly, “So we are your fake friends, huh! Don’t look for me to take care of your aftermath when you get sprayed by customers in the future.”

“Not yet fake? I couldn’t spray the foreign client in English so you helped me spray back in English, but you even recorded the whole thing and made a remix of the audio of the client spraying at me afterwards as your own mobile phone ringtone to remind me of the tragic fact that I was being sprayed at every day! Wang Fangfang, think about it with your conscience, are you a human being?”

“Hahahahahahahaha.”

________________

Anyway, with much anticipation and grumbling, the weekend’s group activity was officially launched.

Early in the morning, with a yawning face and half dazed, sleepy eyes, Bai Duanduan boarded the bus. Yang Fan, although his mouth said no, but his body was rather honest. As soon as he got on the bus, he was very excited and began to mobilize the atmosphere by telling jokes. The only person who showed complete indifference to the event was Ji Lin, the initiator of the event.

As soon as he got on the bus, he turned on his laptop, then pursed his lips, frowned and began to work on his emails…

This behavior soon made Rong Sheng unbearable, “You are the one who pushed for this group building activity, and you are the one who is indifferent now, isn’t it to deepen team cohesion? Then why are you still working as one of the partners? Shouldn’t you take the opportunity to interact with everyone?”

Ji Lin ignored him, his hands continued to crackle on the keyboard, and it was only after half a day that he reluctantly remembered to reply to Rong Sheng —

His tone was somewhat heavy and serious, “I have to earn back the overtime pay that the firm has to subsidise for the past two days.” He rubbed his brow, “It’s indeed a big expense.”

“….”

From his words, it did not seem like Ji Lin was sick, but since he was not sick, this act of him continuing to spend money vigorously while being distressed about it really made Rong Sheng unable to understand.

The good thing was that once they arrived at the forest park, Rong Sheng was relieved.

It was a beautiful place, with fresh air, greenery, birdsong and flowers, and it was very relaxing. This group of firm employees rarely goes outdoors, so it was nice to take a walk along the forest park, looking at the scenery, taking photos and chatting along the way. It was quite enjoyable.

It was only at lunchtime that the group began to have a problem.

The administration department thought they have to grasp the spirit of the boss, so they set up this do-it-yourself activity. Now that everyone has completed the morning walk, they have consumed almost all the calories and were hungry, but they could only look at a pile of fresh chicken, duck, fish, vegetables, melons and fruits in the farmhouse kitchen.

Originally, the owner of this farmhouse was prepared to receive the law firm’s group of people, but unexpectedly, the other party said that they did not need to cook. They were just asked to provide them with food and space. So the owner was happy to be free and took his wife out for a trip…

“I …… don’t know how to cook!”

“Neither do I. The food pictures I usually post in my circle of friends are stolen from my friends’, in order to make my blind date think I’m virtuous and capable. I actually eat takeaway myself.”

“….”

“My wife is usually the one who cooks at home. I can only cook fried rice with eggs.”

…..

As a result, when the matter came to an end, the law firm people waved their hands one after another, saying that they had no intention of cooking, and they really couldn’t cook.

Yang Fan was so excited in the bus that he wasted a lot of energy telling jokes, and now he was so hungry that his face turned into a bitter gourd,  “This is the end, the owner and his wife are not here, and this forest park is so remote that there is not even a proper restaurant around except for the farmhouses, and the takeaway is not in the delivery range, and the other farmhouses have been booked long ago……” He glanced breathlessly at the chicken, duck and fish in front of him, “I didn’t expect that with such rich food ingredients, we didn’t have any clever women…”

That was what Rong Sheng heard when he followed Ji Lin in from outside, and he was not at all anxious, “Cheer up, everyone! We actually have a master here among us!”

For a moment, Bai Duanduan had a bad feeling.

As expected, Rong Sheng looked at her with a smile—

“Now, let me introduce you to our culinary master, Lawyer Bai Duanduan!” He said excitedly, “Because of some chance coincidence, I was lucky enough to have had a taste of Lawyer Bai’s home cooking, and really, let me tell you, after eating it I just wanted to feel that this dish should only be found in heaven and could rarely be heard of on earth. Her cooking really left an indelible and deep impression on me!” 

He bragged for a long time, then looked at Bai Duanduan with an expectant face, “Lawyer Bai, since there is no one else on the scene who can cook, then, you’re on the verge of being appointed to show everyone your hand!”

“….”

You will indeed be indelibly impressed after eating my cooking…Bai Duanduan thought to herself.

But unfortunately it would be a psychological kind of shadow… No, it won’t even leave a psychological shadow, because they will all die…

---

[Small Theater]

After seeing Bai Duanduan smiling at Lin Hui while having dinner:

Ji Lin: What an eyesore of a smile, so flamboyant.

Bai Duanduan(?_?): I simply pursed my lips and smiled ceremoniously…

During Bai Duanduan and Ji Lin dinner date:

Ji Lin: Why aren’t you smiling? Is the food I ordered doesn’t taste good?

Bai Duanduan(?_?): I’m smiling with eight teeth showing

#The daily life of a double standard Partner Ji#

PS: Lin Hui have no familia relationship with Partner Ji ~