Urban: The Ultimate Anti-996 Employee Never Fronts the Money

The day the earth caved in, Shen Xing was dragged up from the bottom of a nine-meter-deep trench. Someone shoved a liability form into his hands and said, “You're the project manager. If you sign, the company will be safe.” He opened his mouth, but his throat was full of mud. He couldn't get a single word out. When he woke again, it was March 12, 2015. The construction contract for the Binjiang Road utility-pipeline renovation lay open on the table, dated that very day. This time, he spoke first. “Twenty-two months for the project. Three million yuan in upfront costs. Progress payments made monthly.” Everyone in the room froze. The client slammed the table. “Who do you think you are?” Shen Xing pushed three sheets of paper across the table. The borehole numbers were ninety meters off. The sheet piles were embedded less than a meter into the ground. The water table in the sand layer mixed into the backfill was just 0.8 meters below the surface. One point after another, all hard facts that an outsider wouldn't understand. In his previous life, he'd signed this contract. It cost three people their lives, destroyed a company, and swallowed his mother's 60,000 yuan in retirement savings. This time, he said just one thing. “I'm not taking this job.” He didn't want to be the first to try something new. He wanted to be the first not to front the costs. This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Please do not imitate.