‘SEE YOU MORNING’ 066 KPI Not Met

‘SEE YOU MORNING’ 066 KPI Not Met

When the morning light of a new day, tinged with a faint yellow hue, illuminated this place from across the road, Li Haojun gave Sienna a ride to work as usual. On the way, he mentioned that he couldn't drive her home that evening because he had to return on time, and Sienna expressed her understanding.
Settling into his seat and booting up his work computer, Li Haojun gazed at the morning light outside the window and couldn't help but think of Qin Wenjing. Was she also up and working in the morning while he couldn't be by her side? This job was allowing him less and less freedom.
As his gaze and thoughts returned indoors, a large red warning flashed starkly on his computer screen: "KPI Not Met."
He hadn't even followed up on yesterday's SM whip incident. After spending an entire afternoon serving clients with all his heart, here was this shabby fish-farming company emphasizing KPI to him. A surge of inexplicable anger rose in Li Haojun. He braced himself and clicked open the notification for the unmet KPI.
The screen displayed: "Employee Work Error Penalty: Spanking Incomplete."
Li Haojun nearly laughed in exasperation. He wondered, is this a legitimate company operation or just kids playing house?
But since he was employed here and drawing a salary, he still had to fulfill his duties. However, Li Haojun adopted a derisive tone when communicating with his line manager.
"I have a notification here saying a spanking KPI wasn't completed. May I ask if the punishment is to be carried out using the whip left behind by my predecessor?"
"Yes, you may."
"Fine. Since the whip belonged to my predecessor, may I ask where the company regulation permitting corporal punishment comes from? Which law does it comply with?"
"Corporal punishment is a personal choice of the employee."
Seeing such evasion, Li Haojun pressed directly, "Even if it's a personal choice, you are the legal representative. Everything happening here must be legal, correct?"
"There is no law here." Li Haojun hadn't expected such an answer. It left him without any grounds to retort.
"Alright then, forget it."
After ending the conversation, Li Haojun immediately went online to verify. He searched for "Kalispell Police Department"—nothing. He searched for "Kalispell City Government"—nothing. There were no regulatory bodies, no violent institutions maintaining order, no public government services. How exactly did this town operate? Oh, right—people just went home and slept? Or perhaps they were all sufficiently upright and kind?
While speculating, the spare parts procurement list jointly drafted by Delilah Flynn and Emmeline Rogers arrived on Li Haojun's desk for approval. They were mechanical and electrical instrumentation engineers. Technically, Li Haojun could have simply approved it outright; it was just a formality. He and the two women weren't in the same field, so he didn't need to question them technically—he was just responsible for funding the company's operations.
But after the incident with Sienna, he wanted to understand this place better by interacting more with others, so he called both women into his office for a meeting. Delilah and Emmeline were also beauties. At first, Li Haojun wondered how much effort these women spent on their appearances and what state their actual work would be in. Later, he abandoned this fixation. Whatever—it was just a fish-farming company. How much worse could they possibly mess up the fish? And besides, this was a company that was encroaching on the time he could spend with Qin Wenjing.
Delilah explained her understanding of the gas and liquid pipelines in the production and laboratory sections of the company, drafting a list of spare parts based on the maintenance manual and historical experience.
"Thank you for your dedication to the company. It seems you've grasped the situation here very quickly. Did you have similar professional experience before?" Li Haojun began with polite pleasantries while shifting the topic.
"No, this is my first job. The company's job responsibility guidelines are very detailed, and if anything comes up, I can ask Paul."
"Hmm? Who is Paul?"
"The robot in the lobby. It seems to know everything about the company."
"Oh, really? I'll have to try asking it sometime," Li Haojun replied, thinking to himself that he definitely needed to ask it about the matter inside the piano bench.
"How did you end up at this company after graduation? Friend referral or some other channel?"
"Campus recruitment. I came here directly. It's not easy to find a job in this small town, so I didn't really have room to be picky," Delilah said, shrugging and shaking her head.
"Didn't you ever think about seeing the outside world? Like the big cities on the West Coast?"
Delilah hesitated, as if pondering.
"No."
"Alright. Thank you for your service here. To be honest, is mechanical engineering your passion?"
Delilah smiled.
"That's a hard question to answer," she said, looking down as if thinking, then looked up at Li Haojun. "When my supervisor asks if I love my major, should I give an affirmative answer?" She looked down again at her clasped hands, then looked up. "What do you think is the probability of a girl liking mechanics?" she asked with a smile directed at Li Haojun.
"It's fine. You're doing very well now. This is just casual chat. So, what are your hobbies in your free time?"
"Well..." Delilah thought for a moment, as if she had none.
Although Li Haojun suspected she might also just go home and sleep like Sienna, he didn't feel comfortable asking directly, so he ended the conversation with some polite remarks.
Later, Li Haojun called Emmeline Rogers into his office. He asked for her opinion on her current tasks and then got straight to the point.
"Out of this batch of new employees, only you have prior work experience at another company. Can you compare the similarities and differences between the two companies?"
"Ha, well, I haven't been here long either."
"It's fine. Just tell me about your previous company."
"My previous company was in the food industry, also local. There are quite a few food companies around—staple foods, non-staple foods, beverages, all sorts. I worked at a beverage company, handling control equipment maintenance."
"I see. Were there many employees working alongside you back then?"
"Not many. Actually, it was quite tiring. I was okay, but the other laborers had to work from dawn till dusk."
"Forced labor? Didn't they have a union?"
"No, there's no union here. It doesn't count as forced labor. It's just that some people must complete a certain number of labor hours within a year to receive basic living security."
"Basic living security issued by the city government?"
"No, there is no government here. It's the social management system that allocates daily necessities. In a way, they are working for themselves."
"So, their wages during that period aren't enough to buy a year's worth of necessities?"
"It seems that way. The work is tough, but luckily it doesn't last too long. One month is enough. Actually, there are other people waiting in line for the job."
"Ah, you certainly know more about the situation here. I've asked other colleagues, but they just graduated and don't really have much to say," Li Haojun continued. "Have those hardworking laborers ever lost their temper, gotten emotional, or gone on strike on the spot? What happens in those situations?"
"That's easy. Replace them. Wait until they calm down and come back to work. Anyway, they have to complete that one month."
Li Haojun had originally wanted to ask if whips were sometimes used to force compliance, but after what Emmeline said, he couldn't bring himself to start that topic.
By the time the work discussions ended, it was almost noon. Sienna made her routine visit to Li Haojun's office to ask about his lunch order. This time, Li Haojun casually closed the door and pulled up the red warning banner for the unmet KPI.
"Did you input this into the system?"
"Yes. When would be suitable?"
Seeing Sienna's timid response, Li Haojun felt a mix of anger and amusement. He hurriedly explained, "No, no, that's not important. I'm just a bit obsessive-compulsive; it bothers me to see it sitting there. Can't you just input into your system that it's been done? Would that work?"
"Falsifying records? That doesn't seem right," Sienna asked.
"I think spanking your butt is even worse. Haven't I explained that to you already?" Seeing Sienna's doubtful expression, Li Haojun wondered if he was putting too much pressure on her. He quickly changed the subject.
"Let's just let this matter pass. Why keep bringing up unpleasant things? It wasn't important anyway."
He looked at her, but her expression remained serious. He wondered if he had handled it too roughly. Should he talk about it in more detail? Thinking this, Li Haojun softened his tone.
"Please sit. Could you tell me—I'm just curious—what options did the company give you at the time?"
"One was a fine and public criticism. The other was a spanking."
"Then why didn't you choose the first one?" As he asked, Li Haojun thought the first option seemed relatively normal, even if it was an overreaction.
"Well, I didn't want that many people knowing I had made a mistake."
Seeing Sienna's uneasy expression, Li Haojun hurried to comfort her. "No, no, anyone could make that little mistake. I don't know why the company procedures are making such a big deal out of it. Don't take it to heart."
"Okay, sure."
"But your weighing of those two options is different from the general understanding. Would you like to hear my analysis?"
"Sure. What's different about it?" Sienna seemed more interested in this aspect.
"Generally speaking, women might value physical privacy more, but you don't. You care more about the external evaluation of you by other group members. Is this related to your life experiences? Typically, from middle school through college, many men would pursue you, and you would assess your own value based on that. Is that right?"
"Oh, but I don't remember."
"Oh, okay," Li Haojun replied, assessing whether she truly forgot or just didn't want to talk about her past. But considering she went home and fell asleep inexplicably, maybe she really had forgotten. Thinking of this, he took out a pen and paper, wrote a simple quadratic equation, and handed it to her. "You learned this in middle school, right?"
Sienna took it, looked at it, and gave the solution. Li Haojun took it back, delighted. "See, you still remember."
"No, I just know how to solve it."
The smile froze on Li Haojun's face. He swallowed the next topic he had ready and wrote out a trigonometric integral, handing it to her.
Sienna provided the answer and handed it back to Li Haojun.
Looking at it, Li Haojun smiled. "You are a promising kid. I can barely remember this stuff myself."
Hearing the praise, a smile finally appeared on Sienna's face...
After finishing the workday, he finally returned on time to Qin Wenjing, whom he had been longing for.
The two ate a simple dinner and strolled in the backyard as usual, inevitably talking about the day's events at work. However, the spring weather was damp, and clouds obscured the stars in the night sky. Finding it dull, they returned indoors.
Qin Wenjing walked ahead, turning back to say, "Ethan, aren't you coming to meet my family?" She deliberately put on a coy act, then began taking off her clothes piece by piece, tossing them onto the floor along the way as she walked toward the bathroom.
Li Haojun knew she was teasing him again, so he followed behind her with a smile, saying nothing.
At the bathroom door, Qin Wenjing casually shut Li Haojun out. She turned on the shower and, rinsing herself, asked, "Is that how you looked at her at her house?"
Li Haojun leaned against the glass door outside, nodding. "Yes." Then he quickly shook his head. "No, no, I was sitting on the sofa, far away. I didn't see anything clearly."
Qin Wenjing deliberately elongated her voice, using an exaggeratedly seductive tone. "Aiya, you didn't see clearly yesterday? Does that mean you need to get a good look now?"
"Yeah, why not?" Li Haojun played along with her, using an exaggeratedly rude tone.
"Aiya, I forgot. Ethan seems to have an unfinished KPI, doesn't he? Are you going to make that up with me?"
"Yeah, I'm going to spank your butt," Li Haojun deliberately rasped in a broken-gong voice, pretending to be a rough person, then opened the door and stepped into the bathroom.
Seeing him enter, Qin Wenjing turned around, screaming "Ah!" as if scared and trying to run away, yet her hopping steps kept her rooted to the spot..