The company decided to downsize using what seemed like a fair method—an anonymous online vote. Whoever got the most votes would be let go. The boss gave us one day to cast our ballots. The next day, when Mr. Reid announced the results, I was shocked. The entire company had only 198 employees. All 197 votes went to me. I stood up with a bitter smile, ready to process my termination. But Mr. Reid stopped me. “Wait. Look at this first.” He opened the online voting system’s records. All 197 votes had been cast in the exact same second. I understood immediately—this wasn’t a fair vote at all! Mr. Harrison Reid announced: “The layoff is suspended for now. IT department, investigate this voting system first.” Then Harrison glanced at me. “Clara, you stay.” Vivian Matthews, the project manager, was the last to leave. As she passed by, she lightly patted my shoulder. “Clara, don’t worry. I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding.” I nodded. When only Mr. Reid and I remained in the conference room, he placed a document in front of me. “This is your performance record for the past six months.” I looked down. My rating was “Outstanding.” “Why do you think an employee with perfect performance reviews would be unanimously voted out by the entire company?” Harrison’s question hung in the air. I stayed silent, my mind racing. Vivian always presented my PowerPoint presentations during work reports as “our team’s results.” Technical problems I’d solved after working until midnight were claimed as her achievements the next day. Last quarter’s most important project—she screwed it up, and I pulled three all-nighters to salvage it. I thought if I just worked hard and treated people kindly, I’d eventually earn recognition. Turns out, in their eyes, my tolerance just meant I could be pushed around. “Mr. Reid, why are you helping me?” I looked up at Harrison. Harrison leaned back in his chair. “I’m not helping you. I’m helping the company eliminate parasites. This company needs real talent.” I understood immediately. “I’m giving you one week,” Harrison said. “Find the parasite.” “I’ll need help.” I looked at him and stated my condition. Harrison seemed to have expected this. “IT will cooperate with you. Officially, starting now, you’ve been suspended and need to process your termination immediately.” “Alright.” I nodded. When I walked out of Harrison’s office, my coworkers’ laughter stopped abruptly. Vivian was the first to react. She walked over with her coffee mug. “Clara, finished talking with the boss? How’d it go? Everything okay?” I looked at her and smiled. “It’s fine.” “Mr. Reid asked me to resign. I’m leaving.” I clearly saw a flash of barely concealed triumph in her eyes. “What? How could this happen…” She covered her mouth dramatically, pretending to be dismayed. “Well, don’t be too upset. Think of it as a vacation. You can find work anywhere, right?” The surrounding coworkers chimed in. “Yeah, Clara, don’t take it to heart.” “Vivian’s right. A new job might be better for you anyway.” I looked at these people. They were like vultures circling. “Thanks for your concern, everyone.” After speaking, I turned and went back to my desk.
Early the next morning, I began processing my so-called termination. According to procedure, I needed to transfer all my unfinished work to the project manager—Vivian Matthews. She sat at my workstation with a handover checklist, like an inspector. The project she was responsible for—I’d pulled several all-nighters last month to finish it. “Why does this data look wrong?” Vivian pointed at a report on the screen. My heart sank. I leaned in to look. That was the final version I’d submitted last Friday. I’d checked it at least ten times. There couldn’t be any problems. “I remember everything was fine when I handed it to you.” “Really?” Vivian raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I’m misremembering, or maybe you accidentally messed it up?” She turned to a coworker at the next desk and smiled. “Well, Clara’s been under a lot of stress lately. Mistakes are understandable.” She said “understandable,” but her expression clearly said “see, she’s just incompetent.” “But it’s a small issue. I’ll fix it.” She appeared very magnanimous, picking up the mouse to help me correct it. I watched her randomly modify my spreadsheet, and a bad feeling rose in my chest. I couldn’t confront her on the spot. I needed evidence. I straightened up and casually picked up my water glass. “I’m going to get some water.” I turned toward the break room. She didn’t know I’d already started the screen recording function on my computer. Her every move was being captured. I lingered in the break area for a moment before returning to my desk. She had “found” three of my “mistakes.” By the end, I’d become a waste of space with questionable abilities in the entire department’s eyes. And she was the perfect manager who’d salvaged everything and showed mercy to her incompetent subordinate. The handover finished. I carried my small cardboard box, ready to leave. Vivian even “kindly” walked me to the elevator. “Clara, let’s keep in touch.” She waved at me with a smile, triumph practically overflowing from her eyes. I walked to a coffee shop at the corner across from the company and found the most secluded seat. I pulled out my USB drive and copied the video I’d just recorded. Putting on headphones, I slowed the playback speed to one-third. At exactly fifteen minutes and three seconds into the video. I clearly saw Vivian’s fingers, in the gap between rapidly switching windows. Precisely click open a subfolder in my work files. Then she selected a document named “Final Backup – DO NOT TOUCH.” Without hesitation, she pressed Delete. That document was the most original, most complete backup of real data for the project she was responsible for. My heartbeat nearly stopped in that instant.
I extracted that crucial video segment and sent it to Harrison via encrypted email. Five minutes later, my phone vibrated. It was Harrison’s brief reply. “Continue.” Very much his style. He didn’t want the process. He wanted results. One video could only prove Vivian was guilty of deleting my files, but it wasn’t enough to directly link her to those 197 votes. I needed more direct evidence. I pulled out my work phone and dialed an encrypted number. The call was answered quickly. “Hello, Clara.” It was Lucas Gray from IT, the person Harrison had assigned to help with my investigation. He was a recent college grad with great technical skills but an introverted personality. He rarely spoke at the company. I’d once helped him out when older employees were giving him a hard time. “Lucas, can you check if there were any unusual operations on Vivian’s work computer yesterday between nine and ten AM?” I asked in a low voice. “Sure, give me a moment.” Lucas agreed readily. I picked up the now-cold coffee in front of me. My brain was like a machine running at high speed, replaying every detail of the situation. Why would Vivian do this? Just to get rid of me and eliminate a potential competitor? No, the cost was too high. The file she deleted must hide a bigger secret. Half an hour later, Lucas called back. “Clara, I checked. There’s nothing.” His voice sounded a bit dejected. “She just sent and received emails, browsed the intranet—exactly like a normal employee.” The lead had gone cold. But I wasn’t giving up. I leaned back on the coffee shop sofa, forcing myself to calm down. Same-second voting. That absolutely couldn’t be 197 people manually clicking. It must have used some kind of script or program that completed all operations instantly through a single command. If there was no problem with Vivian’s own computer… Then where was the “server” that executed this program? That platform that could centrally control, or rather, could be exploited for unified operations… A thought suddenly flashed through my mind. Cloud server! The company had rented a large cloud server so employees could work remotely anytime, anywhere. All employee accounts could log in through specific ports and authorizations. That platform had extremely high permissions. Theoretically, if someone obtained high enough access, they could absolutely perform batch operations. I immediately grabbed my phone and called Lucas again. “Lucas, don’t check individual computers! Check the cloud server! Check all backend login logs at exactly 9:31 AM yesterday!”
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