From humble beginnings to the pinnacle of life

Mr. Gao stared intently at me, his eyes so fierce it looked like he wanted to devour me alive.

An ordinary person would have been terrified by the aura of this person in power.

But I kept my back straight, looked up and met his gaze directly, without flinching or avoiding it.

Then, speaking slowly and deliberately, neither servile nor arrogant, he said, "Mr. Gao, please understand one thing. The entire plan for site operation, traffic generation, customer acquisition, and staff allocation is all in my hands. Even if I step down now, without my strategies and detailed experience, how long can you operate it?"

He laughed heartily, his face full of disdain, and said, "I am the operations director of the group headquarters, having managed countless regional projects and achieved millions in revenue. Do you think I'm inferior to a high school graduate who started from scratch?"

I couldn't be bothered to argue with him about such a pointless issue of saving face. I gave a faint, dismissive smile and said, "Think what you want. I'm not going to waste my breath arguing with you."

"I only have one thing to say: return my invested principal, and I'll sign the papers and leave immediately. Consider it a favor you did for me when you guaranteed my loan before, and we'll call it even."

His face grew increasingly grim, and his gaze was fixed intently on me.

I ignored his anger, my gaze slowly sweeping across the spacious and luxurious office, and I deliberately murmured in admiration:

"Mr. Gao's position is indeed comfortable, spacious, grand, and full of prestige. I just wonder, how many grassroots entrepreneurs like me did you climb up to reach this high-ranking director position?"

As soon as I said those words, Mr. Gao's eyes flashed with anger, his chest heaved violently, as if he was about to lose control and attack at any moment.

I didn't stop, and continued to provoke: "I don't mean to look down on you, but you must have had some tough methods to get to your position."

"Just like now, with a casual remark from you, your secretary willingly cooperated in setting a honey trap to frame me. For profit, you're capable of such underhanded tactics; what else wouldn't you do?"

I was deliberately provoking him and trying to anger him.

If he dares to lay a hand on me today, I can ruin his reputation!

I dare to stand up to Fang Heng head-on, so I'm not afraid of a mere office director at all.

Unfortunately, an old hand is still an old hand.

General Manager Gao was furious, but he managed to suppress the urge to take action.

He knew that once he took action...

He is the one who is completely in the wrong, and his carefully laid plan will completely collapse.

He finally just nodded with a cold laugh: "Fine! Very well! Lin Ye, you really have guts!"

I smiled faintly, remained silent, and waited quietly for his reply.

Mr. Gao gave me a deep look, said no more unnecessary words, turned around and strode to the safe in the corner of the office.

With a click, the safe door opened.

Inside, stacks of brand-new cash banknotes were neatly arranged.

Clearly, he compromised.

I felt completely unmoved. This money was my hard-earned capital, the result of countless hours of effort, and I accepted it with a clear conscience.

Mr. Gao, expressionless, pulled out five thick wads of cash and slammed them heavily onto the coffee table.

"Five hundred thousand, is that enough to cover your investment?" he asked in a deep voice, his tone filled with suppressed anger.

"Barely enough." I said calmly, then added, "Could you please find an opaque bag for us, Mr. Gao?"

At this moment, his face was as black as the bottom of a pot, but he still stubbornly endured it.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and found a black plastic bag, then put all five bundles of cash inside.

"Here's the money, sign it now," he said coldly.

Without further hesitation, I picked up the pen and neatly signed my name.

This completely severed all ties between me and the headquarters of this courier company, and this branch.

I put down my pen and calmly said, "I will pack up the paper invoices and all the receipts and send them to you by express delivery later."

"What about the operational plan?" he asked with a gloomy face.

I scoffed and said, "Didn't you say you were the operations director at the group headquarters? Then what use is my proposal?"

Without further ado, I picked up the heavy 500,000 yuan in cash, looked at President Gao, whose face was ashen, and said calmly:

"Mr. Gao, the world is a long road ahead, we'll meet again someday. I sincerely hope that you'll never fall into my hands again."

After saying that, I glanced at the half-opened box of Zhonghua cigarettes on the coffee table, picked it up, and put it in my pocket.

"I've wasted so much time arguing with you, and it's delayed a lot of my business. It's not unreasonable for me to smoke a few cigarettes at your expense, is it?"

Mr. Gao remained silent, not uttering a word, his face as gloomy as a dark night about to unleash a storm.

Without lingering, I turned around, flung open the office door, and strode out.

Stepping out of the headquarters building, my tense body finally relaxed completely.

I actually won this battle; I got my investment back and didn't lose a single penny.

But when I calmed down, all I felt was endless frustration.

I got the money back, but I really lost out.

I lost a whole month of hard work and dedication, the operational strategies I honed through countless sleepless nights, the team system I painstakingly built, and most importantly, the unconditional trust and loyalty of all my brothers.

What hurts me the most is that I have let everyone down.

Now that I'm going back, I don't know how to explain it to them.

At that moment, I suddenly realized that I seemed to have turned back into a penniless, unemployed person.

I stood downstairs at the headquarters building, looking at the bustling streets.

My mind was blank, and I suddenly lost my direction.

What should I do next?

Should I go back to delivering food?

That's simply unrealistic.

Fang Heng kept staring at me. He had contacted all the stations in the area, and no one dared to accept me.

Should I switch to another courier service and start all over again?

It's even more difficult than climbing to heaven.

Mr. Gao is such a petty and vindictive person that he will never let me off easily.

With his connections and power as the head of headquarters, if he just said the word, the entire express delivery industry in the city would unite to squeeze me out, and I wouldn't have any chance to gain a foothold.

After thinking it over and over, I still had no clue what to do.

Never mind, let's go back to the courier station first.

No matter the outcome, I have to go back and give an explanation to the brothers who fought alongside me.

I took a taxi back to the courier station, just in time for lunch.

My cousin, Yang Hao, Luo Peng, and the others had just finished their morning deliveries and were sitting in the shop, covered in sweat.

They were all still tired from their travels, but they were all full of energy.

Several people were gathered together, enthusiastically discussing the afternoon's delivery plans, their tone full of energy.

Seeing their hopeful faces filled me with a bittersweet feeling of guilt, making it hard to breathe.

The more lively and energetic the scene, the less I knew how to start a conversation and shatter all their expectations.

I took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed the gloom in my heart, quickly adjusted my emotions, and stepped into the store.

My cousin was the first to see me return. He immediately looked up and asked, "Yezi, Su Qing said you went to headquarters? What was it about this time? Did it go smoothly?"

Before I left, I specifically asked Su Qing to watch the shop for me, so I suppose she mentioned it to my cousin when she got back.

Faced with my cousin's concerned question, my Adam's apple bobbed.

A thousand words were stuck in my throat, but I couldn't utter a single truth.