Chapter 3

The group chat went dead silent.

Adeline was quick to follow up:

[@Leonidas Sterling, I fully support the boss! Say NO to workplace bullying, and uphold standard management procedures!]

Immediately, the usual group of suckers who were close to her began spamming the chat with echoes of agreement.

Not a single colleague from the development team said a word.

Marcus Vance, a senior QA tester, walked past my desk and gave me a subtle, sympathetic look.

The next morning, Adeline showed up at my desk again.

This time, she was carrying an incredibly detailed document.

“Valerian, your off-boarding checklist is still missing a ‘Competitor Commercialization Analysis and Conversion Rate Forecasting Model’ for the Mid-Year Mega Sale.”

My brows knit together.

“I built the backend architecture. You want me to write a marketing commercial analysis model?”

She flinched backward half a step, her voice trembling.

“This is an assignment directly from Mr. Sterling…”

I stared at her intently.

“Fine. I’ll call Mr. Dominic Beaumont, the Tech Director at Astraea Group, right now and ask him if they plan to let a programmer run their marketing strategy.”

Hearing the name “Dominic Beaumont,” Adeline’s head snapped up, her eyes instantly bloodshot.

The next second, she squatted on the floor, covered her face, and burst into loud wails.

“Why do you keep targeting me?! I’m just an employee. What did I do wrong by passing along the boss’s orders?!”

Tristan from Operations rushed over, glaring at me with fury.

“Valerian, are you even a man? How can you make a young woman’s life miserable day after day?”

Disdainful looks surrounded me once again.

“So classless. Just because he knows how to write a couple of lines of code, he thinks he’s above the rules.”

“He refuses to follow management and uses the client to press us down. What a total thorn in the side.”

I pressed my fingertips to my brow and let out a cold laugh. Watching this gullible crowd get played for fools by a few crocodile tears was almost laughable.

I hadn’t said a single cruel word, yet somehow, in their eyes, I was already the villain beyond redemption.

Ignoring the barrage of insults around me, I dialed the direct line to Dominic Beaumont, CTO of Astraea Group, right in front of everyone.

The moment the ringing sound started, Adeline’s crying stopped abruptly.

She stared at me in sheer terror, her face turning pale as a sheet.

“Hello, Mr. Beaumont. This is Valerian Jude Westbrook from Lumina Tech…”

Adeline suddenly screamed like a madwoman.

“Valerian! You’re leaking trade secrets! I’m not processing your off-boarding anymore!”

Her screech was deafening, forcing me to cover the microphone and walk toward the end of the hallway.

“Mr. Beaumont, regarding the low-level high-concurrency settlement engine for next week’s Mid-Year Mega Sale…”

I gave him a brief summary of the revoked authorizations and how my off-boarding was being blocked.

Dominic remained silent on the other end for a moment.

“Valerian, even if you hadn’t called me, I was planning to reach out to you.”

“I’m listening, sir.”

“That HR manager of yours, Adeline, sent me an email this morning. She claimed you were disciplined for personal conduct issues and were trying to wipe the databases and run away. She suggested we replace the lead architect.”

My knuckles tightened around the phone.

Blocking my permanent status, cutting my pay, fabricating rumors, and now going behind my back to defame me to the client.

These people really stopped at nothing to kick me out.

“Mr. Beaumont, that’s completely—”

“You don’t need to explain,” Dominic cut in. “I’ve reviewed the codebase you submitted, and the core algorithms are clearly your own work. I’m not buying her amateurish lies.”

He paused, his tone turning noticeably more severe.

“However, I must remind you: there are only four days left until the Mid-Year Mega Sale.

“If the servers crash because of your company’s internal nonsense, we will sue Lumina Tech directly for ten million dollars in breach of contract damages.”

“I understand. Thank you, Mr. Beaumont.”

I hung up the call, quietly rubbing the edge of my phone without a word.