Chapter 1

Three days before the New Year's holiday began, the admin department posted the holiday duty schedule in the group chat. Since public relations was a special line of work, someone had to monitor public opinion and client feedback during the break.

I opened the spreadsheet and saw my name, Jeremy Crawford, listed as the person on duty.

I froze. Wasn't my coworker, Bryan Simpson, supposed to be on duty for New Year's?

I walked straight over to Bryan's desk. He was styling his hair in front of a small mirror, looking pleased with himself.

"Bryan, what's going on with the schedule? Weren't you supposed to be on duty for New Year's?" I asked, holding back my anger.

Bryan slowly leaned back in his chair without even meeting my eyes, spinning a lighter in his hand. "Oh, that. I had plans for New Year's, so I switched shifts with you.

"Tickets for that big theme park were almost impossible to get. My girlfriend had to pay a scalper extra just to grab them, and they weren't refundable.

"Besides, no one's going to ask you out anyway. You might as well use the holiday to improve yourself while nobody bothers you. You've been with the company for two years, and you're still stuck where you are."

As he finished speaking, he looked me up and down with a mocking glance.

I laughed out of sheer frustration. If anyone needed to improve, it was him.

He and I had joined the company at the same time. Instead of focusing on his job, he spent every day figuring out how to flatter the managers and undermine people who actually worked hard. Even now, he couldn't use basic Excel formulas that a middle school student could handle.

Even so, his base salary was still two thousand dollars higher than mine.

If I hadn't been handling the company's biggest public relations project of the year, the annual brand maintenance for Starhaven Technologies, and counting on it to improve my standing before asking my manager for a raise, I would have stopped working with an incompetent coworker like Bryan long ago.

I sneered. "Did you ever discuss it with me? I was already on duty during National Day and Thanksgiving. The company clearly scheduled you this time. What gives you the right to switch shifts without my consent?

"I don't agree. I want to rest during New Year's too. I'm going to talk to the admin right now and get it switched back."

At that, Bryan finally turned around and stared at me in disbelief. "Jeremy, why are you being so petty? Haven't you seen the news? The country is encouraging people to have more children and raise the marriage rate. This is a national priority. Do you even understand that?"

His sudden leap to a national issue caught me off guard. How did swapping a shift turn into a matter of national importance?

Seeing that I remained silent, Bryan thought he had intimidated me and grew even more self-righteous. "My relationship with my girlfriend is getting serious right now. This trip to the theme park for New Year's is part of preparing for our marriage down the road.

"If we don't get married, how are we supposed to respond to the country's call to have more children? How are we supposed to help with the aging population?"

He jabbed a finger at me, spittle flying as he spoke. "And what about you? You're single, with no one depending on you. What else do you do at home during holidays besides playing video games? You're not contributing anything to society, and you're not helping with the population problem either.

"If you cover my shift so I can spend more time with my girlfriend, you're indirectly contributing to the country's marriage rate. How can you be so selfish? Don't you have any sense of responsibility?"

I was completely speechless. His shamelessness reached a whole new level. According to him, if I didn't cover his shift, he wouldn't be able to get married and have kids.

"Bryan, without the New Year's holiday, are you incapable of getting married or having children? Get one thing straight. I'm here to work, not to be the security guard for your love life," I said.

The moment I finished speaking, the coworkers who always acted like Bryan's best buddies immediately gathered around us.