24 Absenteeism ? (1/2)

The next morning, while lying on his bed, Zhao Yao felt something wet licking his face.

As he opened his eyes, his adorable cat Mango, was on his bed staring blankly at him with its tongue out.

”What are you licking me for?” Zhao Yao asked helplessly while placing Mango back on the floor. Looking at the other side of his bed, Matcha, with its underside faced up, let out a loud growl. Recalling last night, Zhao Yao wondered how long he had stayed up playing with his phone again.

Looking at Matcha’s fat white belly, Zhao Yao lamented, ” Stupid cat, you just seem to get fatter every day.”

Zhao Yao proceeded to walk out of his room and saw Elizabeth lying on the floor, in front of an empty cat bowl. She then tapped the empty cat bowl and looked up at Zhao Yao.

”Don’t we have an automatic cat feeder?” Zhao Yao asked.

”I don’t like the taste and I’m craving for something,” Elizabeth replied. ”I want to eat the cat rice you made yesterday.” As she was speaking, Elizabeth threw up onto the floor.

Zhao Yao took a closer look at the mess Elizabeth made, and it seemed to be partially digested cat food.

This clearly shows that not only did Elizabeth consume the cat food but also took in a greater amount than the last time she had it, leading to her indigestion and her body’s reaction to it.

”You know that you hate eating normal cat food, why did you eat so much?” Zhao Yao bemoaned.

Elizabeth patted the empty bowl and said, ”If I hadn’t tried, I wouldn’t have known that this cat food is so inedible. Hurry, go make me some cat rice, and fish, preferably the Norwegian salmon.”

”You’ll have to settle for the cat food today, I have to make a trip back to the office.” Zhao Yao planned to return to the company to complete the handover of his work as he resigned from his job. It didn’t even matter to him if the company didn’t pay him for this month, he just wished to leave the company as soon as possible.

If not for his sense of responsibility, he would have just not turned up for work, severing any existing relations with the company. Although the job provided him with a few thousand dollars salary, it didn’t make up for all the extra work he had to put up with.

Looking as Zhao Yao hurriedly left the house, Elizabeth grunted and shifted her gaze towards the automatic cat feeder.

Zhao Yao breathed an air of confidence as he stopped in front of the parking barrier of his company in his Porsche Panamera. He was getting stares from the security guards at the booth.

Walking along the corridors, looking at the familiar walls, desks, and chairs in the office, he realized that he unknowingly had not come to the office for almost two weeks.

Just as he sat down at his desk, Yuan Ying walked up behind him and shouted, ”Zhao Yao!”

He turned. ”Hi Boss!” he greeted. He then awkwardly continued, ” Sorry, I’ve been really busy lately, so busy that I can’t report for work.”

”Too busy? You’ve just graduated for only a year and you’re already starting your own business? Just wait till you fail terribly and come begging me for your job back.” Yuan Ying sneered.

Without the slightest change of expression, Yuan Ying said, ” I understand. How about this? As the company has yet to find a replacement for you, could you craft up a handover document, listing all the relevant information, designs, codes…”

Halfway from finishing her sentence, she turned towards another male colleague and said, ”Lee, could you come over? Zhao Yao’s handover document will be passed over to you. You’ll be taking over his work and ensure that everything goes smoothly with absolutely no mistakes. If there is, you’ll be held responsible.”

Lee nodded his head and replied, ”Got it.”

Hence, Zhao Yao carried on with his handover document. Although he had been gone for two weeks, he was still familiar with and responsible for the relevant modules that he had been working on for the past six months.

Moreover, he had a good habit of keeping the files, codes, documents and notes very organized.

He spent his day completing his handover document, went home for the night and then continued the next morning. Around noon, he finally finished the document.

He emailed the document to Lee and left a message in the email saying, ”Lee, I’ve sent you the handover document. Please read through.”