Working, But Then the Zombies Came [Apocalypse]

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Also known as: The Outsourcing War Against the East Third Banner / The Horrors of Houchang Village (All place names are made up. Please don't read anything into them.)

As an outsourced operations worker at a major tech company, Lu Tingting wants to quit on the spot every day.

Outsourced work at a major tech company means earning only half the salary of a full-time employee, getting no benefits beyond borrowed air-conditioning, handling miscellaneous and complicated tasks with no coherent system, being the first told to leave when layoffs come, and having a resume that takes a hit when you look for your next job. It's a thankless job that offers just one moment of superiority: posting a photo of your employee badge and desk on social media.

But life leaves her no choice. The next morning, she still has to get up nervously, go to work, and diligently slack off while grinding away.

Until that day, when blood and severed limbs covered the office floor, and the dim, sweltering conference room became an island of survival.

The good news: her coworkers, who are experts at workplace manipulation, love passing the buck, and are selfish to the core, have turned into zombies she can legally and reasonably blow the heads off.

The bad news: Lu Tingting and her work buddy are trapped in a high-rise conference room, with zombies blocking every floor.

Slacker office worker Lu Tingting: I'm done pretending!

When the boss keeps running their mouth: I used to be timid! Now I'm fighting back!

When coworkers offer their friendly support: I used to keep my distance! Now I'm taking them under my wing!

When her younger boyfriend gets affectionate: Before, she'd say, "We're at work!" Now she says, "Deal with it!"

Playing dirty? She'll smash you!

Taking advantage of the situation? She'll sell you off!

Lu Tingting's survival squad: Our motto is! Okay, understood, received (crossed out)

Life is short! If you don't like it, fight!

Can't keep going? Start over!

**

In a sprawling, densely populated corporate campus filled with towering buildings, how will you survive?

With blood? With courage? With intelligence?

Office workers: With OKRs! With ROI! With performance reviews!

Use operations strategy to empower our zombie-fighting strategy!

Use product thinking to help us seize resources!

Outsourcing is our soul. Outsourced workers are people too, and we're second to none.

1. An apocalyptic ensemble story about the resourcefulness and courage of ordinary people

2. None for now

Prepublication title: The First Restaurant on Mount Qunyu

Blurb:

Ever since she was old enough to understand, Zheng Linmei had always imagined a scene like this:

She was dead.

How she died didn't matter.

What mattered was that her parents finally realized how much they loved her and clung to her body, weeping bitterly.

This fantasy kept her going. It didn't matter that her parents favored the others or that her younger siblings bullied her. She could do all the housework. She could work to pay her tuition. She could endure every scolding and beating, as long as she got just a little, just a little...

The house was dilapidated, and her parents' whispers carried clearly. What use was so much schooling for a disabled girl? The factory boss said his son had taken a liking to Linmei, and he could offer this much for her dowry! Even this money-losing girl could finally repay us...

After she turned eighteen, she never returned to that city.

At thirty-six, Zheng Linmei had endured every hardship and grown thick calluses on her hands and heart. Now she was alone, running a small restaurant, with three meals a day, the changing seasons, one dog, and two cats.

She believed she had done her best to live well, but in the dead of night, a voice still called out: "Why don't my parents love me?"

Her heart was a bottomless pit. No matter how much she threw into it, there was no answer.

Until one day, a man with graying hair knocked on the restaurant door and said he wanted to tell her a story from thirty-four years ago.

That year was the eve of Hong Kong's return to China, and the situation was changing by the day.

At the invitation of a Hong Kong business association, the head of the Qu family, the richest family in mainland China, had been invited to deliver the keynote address at the association's annual investment conference. During the visit, he was kidnapped by Sun Yulin, a notorious gangster of the century, who also abducted his two-year-old daughter.

When she opened her eyes again...

A piece of chalk smacked her on the head.

"Zheng Linmei, what are you daydreaming about?"

The room erupted in laughter.

She had returned to twenty-two years earlier.

Where have the cuckoos gone?

The finest home atop Mount Qunyu.

Mu Xin

Theme: Humanity's will to survive can create anything.