Zhou Yuan continued, “from the moment I met you, when the smart hardware was launched, you said it’s not good; when O2O started, you said O2O wouldn’t work; when internet finance has just appeared, you were not optimistic; when the sharing economy was booming, you said it’s going into a decline. As an observer, I think it’s too easy for you to make a judgement. You just need to say that any new industry has no future.”

Before the director could speak, Zhou Yuan had waved his hand to motion to him not to speak, “don’t be in such a hurry to refute me. It’s statistically safe and reasonable to say that any new industry will go into a decline. Even a broken watch tells the correct time twice a day. Moreover, new things are always more likely to fail than to succeed. If you emphasize only the things that you predicted correctly, people will assume that you are always right. In this sense, you are like a fortune-teller. Oh no, fortune-tellers also need to observe audience’s words and appearances to determine whether to speak in a positive or negative way. But you just need to predict that they all will die. What an easy job!”

After Zhou Yuan finished his lengthy speech, the director’s face and Liu Shuai turned green, while the others all wished that they could stick their heads into their bowls. But they had to admit that what he said was reasonable. However, he shouldn’t have said such things on such an occasion. Moreover, comparing the director to a fortune-teller was way out of line.

“And …” Zhou Yuan continued to speak.

“And?” Liu Shuai could not help but shout out. He was desperate. The director slowly put down his chopsticks, then took a teacup in his hand and slowly drank as he stared at Zhou Yuan with squinted eyes.

“And,” Zhou Yuan continued speaking, regardless of Liu Shuang and the director’s feelings, “you are always garrulous telling us about some superstitions like men should wear a jade statue of Avalokiteshvara and women should wear a jade Buddha. Your status as a scientist aside, let’s see if that makes sense. Take Avalokiteshvara for example, I knew from Journey to the West that Monkey King once scolded that she deserved no husband in her life. So, Avalokiteshvara can never find a lover. Is it unlucky to wear a jade statue of the Bodhisattva who cannot find a love?”

Suddenly, there was a sudden clap of thunder outside. Liu Shuai retracted his head and secretly cursed in his heart that Zhou Yuan was too blunt. However, he suddenly thought of Hong Hai’er who was whipped by Avalokitesvara. His body trembled involuntarily.

The director could no longer maintain his smile. He looked at Zhou Yuan coldly, “You think that you’ve made a lot of progress so you can criticize me now?”

Zhou Yuan didn’t seem to feel any pressure, “anyone can criticize you. This has nothing to do with how much I’ve improved. It’s only about whether you’re right or wrong.”

“Fine, fine, fine!” The director said that three times in a row, then he took a deep breath and turned to Liu Shuai, “I think our company has an overabundant designer. We should optimize the company’s personnel allocation.”

Liu Shuai understood what he meant. Just as he was about to speak, Zhou Yuan said, “are you talking about me? Sorry, you are only a director. Employee appointment is jointly decided by HR and business department. You only have half of the right to appoint and dismiss, not to mention that the company must inform the staff a month ahead of time if they want to fire him. What you have said doesn’t count.”

Hearing that, I broke into a cold sweat. Liu Shuai told me with a bitter smile that there was an even more explosive plot.

The director got angry. “Peng”, he slammed the table and said, “I’m going to a meeting. You can finish your lunch!” He stood up to leave.

Zhou Yuan said, “didn’t you say you would buy us a meal? Pay the bill before you leave.”

Liu Shuai could not stand him any longer. The situation was totally damned. The director was so furious that he even broke out a smile. With trembling hands, he took out his wallet, gave it to Liu Shuai and pressed his anger, “go pay the bill and ask for an invoice”.

“Are you going to ask the financial department for reimbursement?” Zhou Yuan asked.

“No! I will play the Scratch Award!” The director roared and walked away.

See that, the others claimed to be full and left. Only Liu Shuai stayed with Zhou Yuan. Liu Shuai was about to talk it over with Zhou Yuan, but Zhou Yuan asked him first, “why are they angry? Isn’t what I said the truth? ”

“Jesus…” Liu Shuai wanted to cry, “yes, you were telling the truth, or probably the truth.” Liu Shuai changed his tone, “but you shouldn’t have talked like that.”

“Why not?” Zhou Yuan asked him expressionlessly.

……

I understood why Liu Shuai didn’t know how to describe this matter to me at first. It was an accidental trouble out of quarrels. I thought for a moment, then asked Liu Shuai, “so the director really wants to fire Zhou Yuan?”

Liu Shuai shook his head first, then nodded, “he has been talking with the HR manager since he came back.”

“Shit…” I sighed, “does this have anything to do with Zhou Yuan’s soul leaving his body?”

“Absolutely!” Liu Shuai shouted. He needed to vent his feelings, so he transferred his anger on me, “I heard that after a soul leaves the body, the person will change. But I didn’t know that a person without his soul was not even a walking dead, but just a machine, a machine that operates very fast and makes no mistake. But he was, well, completely …”

I thought about the word, “completely impersonal?”

“Exactly!” Liu Shuai agreed, “everyone says that we developers have a low EQ. Judging from the way Zhou Yuan acted at lunch today, I can tell that his current EQ is in a negative value. If he continues to be like this, he won’t even have to wait for forty-nine days but get himself killed in a few days.”

As we were speaking, someone opened the door and came in. It was the director. For a moment, I didn’t know what to say.

Liu Shuai froze for a moment and then said, “Lao De, is this your conference room? ” Then he motioned me to go out with him.

However, the director closed the door and said, “I’m here for you guys. Take a seat, let’s talk about Zhou Yuan.”

Look! Speak of the devil and he just appeard. I had no other choice but to sit down with Liu Shuai, waiting for the director to speak.

The director sat down, looked out of the window, and didn’t say anything. Liu Shuai and I felt awkward. The conference room was extremely quiet. We could only faintly hear the sounds from outside.

After a while, I thought that I should say something for Zhou Yuan. Before I could speak, the director said, “I think what Zhou Yuan said makes some sense.”

“What?” Liu Shuai and I looked at each other, “his words make some sense?”

“Like he said that even a broken watch tells the correct time twice a day,” he suddenly laughed when he said that, “this kid is really talented. If he hadn’t said it, I wouldn’t have realized that I have left others with such an impression when judging industry trends. ”

“Yes, that’s right.” Liu Shuai hurriedly nodded his head. The director looked at him. He realized that he was wrongly nodding, so he immediately stopped.

“You guys feel the same way?” the director asked sharply.