Li Jie was seething inside with almost incandescent rage. He tried to keep on top of it, but the nervous looks the other bus passengers were giving him, proved that he was doing a poor job of it.
He’d had another blazing row will his wife Zhang Li this morning. In front of their daughter, no less. In the first day he had set eyes on Zhang Li, he’d been tongue tied by her. The years hadn’t
changed that state much. He tried to force the image of his wife from his thoughts, only for his daughter to take his wife’s place.

The look of contempt on her young face. She sided with her mother always now, regardless as to whether Zhang Li was even right in her criticisms of him. Li Jie’s hands tightened on his briefcase, a faint snarl appearing on his lips as the tension amongst the other passengers in the bus increased another notch.

There was a palpable air of relief amongst the other passengers when Li Jie stepped off the bus. The walk from the bus stop to his place of work was not long, just a few streets. Nowhere long enough for his rage to subside.

The signs outside proclaimed the building to be a petrochemical research facility. The military bearing of the ‘civilian’ security hinted at it being anything but. Li Jie swiped his card through the reader and made his way though the first of several military checkpoints. The guards became more belligerent with each passing checkpoint. Which didn’t help with Li Jie’s seething anger. They were there to protect Li Jie and his fellow researchers, and of course, their research.

The guards didn’t seem to grasp, or were unable to grasp, that simple concept. Treating
Li Jie with contempt and as an annoyance to their already futile existence. Li Jie clocked in with a minute to spare and headed to his work station. The other molecular biologists were already busy at their terminals. The room quiet but for the rapid tapping of fingers against keyboards and the whir of cooling fans.

Pulling out his chair, Li Jie dumped his briefcase next to his keyboard, sat down and typed in his password.

“Li Jie! My office. Now!”

Li Jie sighed. What did the useless prick want now? He stood again made his way into Zhang Wei’s office. He started to shut the door.

“No! Leave it open!”

Leaving the door half open, Li Jie stood in front of the large wooden desk. There was no seat. A large painting of Xi Jinping dominated the wall behind Zhang Wei. “What time do you call this?” Li Jie glanced at the clock on the wall. It had just gone seven in the morning, the time they officially started the day’s work. He opened his mouth, not in time “Such tardiness is not acceptable!” Zhang Wei shouted.

Ahh, so it was one of them then.

“I am reporting your poor time keeping!”

“Sorry sir. I will see that it doesn’t happen again.” Li Jie bowed subserviently, not sorry in the slightest. The project must be behind schedule. The scientists were never party to the timescales set by the military, which seemed to be set arbitrarily more on the whim of their military overlords than upon any recognisable scientific consideration. Not one of any of the previous project leaders had come from a scientific background, or even education. In fact Zhang Wei’s predecessor could barely even write a coherent sentence let alone understand the first thing about molecular biology. It was akin to leaving a four year old alone in charge of an armoury full of weapons. He was still shouting and yelling at Li Jie, who had switched off and was ignoring him.

Zhang Wei had gone to the well thumbed page on the manuscript for motivating those under your command. The page that said that all workers will immediately improve productivity if you single out your best worker and chew them out so that every other worker could-hear. That might work with some uneducated peasant in a backwater province. Not so much in a room of highly educated individuals at the top of the chosen research fields. Li Jie imagined repeated, smashing Zhang Wei’s head into his fancy and totally impractical desk.

Li Jie was summarily dismissed when Zhang Wei ran out of breath and insults. Suitably invigorated and full of fervour to do the will of the people, Li Jie wondered how is life had gone to shit so quickly and thoroughly. The room was still quiet, the sound of keys being pressed tapering off as each scientist contemplated the path and life choices that had led them here and formulated possible extraction plans.

Li Jie was so tired, tired of it all. None of it was as he had been promised. The wealth, the lavish lifestyle, still hadn’t materialised. Every time he had asked years ago, it had always been the same answer. “When the task was complete”. Yet whenever the task at hand was completed, the rewards never materialised, or were on the way. They had been ‘on the way’ ten years now. A fact his wife never let him forget.

It was twenty hundred hours and Zhang Wei promptly left his office. The rest of the scientists hastily shut down and logged off the equipment that they had been using. Li Jie could guarantee that not a scrap of work had been done or achieved is the last three hours.

The passengers on the bus were subdued, everyone tired, needing sustenance and sleep. Li Jie was the same, not looking forward to a night of moaning and recriminations. There was a small pile of what looked like possessions outside his door. As he got closer, he could see that they were his and that they had been well rummaged through by passer-by’s. There was a note stuck to the door. Beyond anger he ripped it off. The lock on the door shiny and bright in it’s newness. New lock on the door, what was left of his worldly gods dumped outside to be stolen. Deep down he knew that it had been coming. Now that it had, he was strangely relived. He collected what little of his possessions were left. Mainly scientific journals and pictures of his academic years. Of a better time. He duly noted that all the pictures left for him to collect, did not have his wife-ex wife now-, or his daughter in them. She had gone to great lengths to cut them out of his life. Destroying all the pictures would have been quicker, but she knew the removal would be more wounding for him.

Exhausted emotionally and physically, he trudged to the nearest motel, where his bank card was declined. Back outside and another slow trudge to the nearest cash machine. Which just swallowed his card and informed him to contact his branch.

Li Jie just stood staring at the machine. He probably would have stayed stood there all night, had a passing police patrol not moved him on. With no money, there were few places he could go, so he plumped for the simplest and easiest option. The guards at the checkpoint ignored him as he walked through them unchallenged. He knew them all, as they knew him, but everyday they challenged him regardless. Yet now, when he was arriving at a suspicious time, they spared him not a glance.

He curled up in a corner of the lab and went to sleep.

The night hadn’t been good. He felt terrible and was hungry. He cleaned up as best as he could and tried to formulate a plan going forward. Repeating the same mistakes over and over was stupid. He had to change. Zhang Wei arrived at eight am, smelling strongly of alcohol. Li Jie knocked on his door.

“Go away! I’m busy.”

Li Jie stood his ground. “I need to speak to you sir.”

“Later. Fuck off.”

Li Jie went back at ten am, the rest of the science team furtively watching him, knowing something was amiss and fervently wishing they weren’t involved. Zhang Wei was slumped on his desk, dozing. Li Jie woke him up.

“I told you to fuck off.”

“I need to speak to you sir. It’s important.”

“What?”

“I need time off.”

“Not happening.”

“Just a day. My wife has kicked me out. I need to arrange accommodation, sort out my finances.”

“Do it in your own time.”

The walls were shielded, only land lines could provide phone access outside and they were monitored twenty four seven. Nor could he leave the building during the day to use his mobile which was locked up in security. And banks weren’t open during the night.

“I need a day off sir.”

“I told you not happening. We are behind schedule.”

“Sir this is important. I have no money, no place to stay, to wash.”

“Your social incompetence is not my fault.”

“I’m due leave sir. It’s almost the end of the year and I’ve not been able to take my allotted holidays.”

Zhang Wei looked at him slyly. “You can have one day off. But it will cost you four days of your entitlement. Take it or leave it.”

Li Jie wanted to smash his fist into Zhang Wei’s face. He gritted his teeth and watched Zhang Wei’s face smile as he wallowed in the knowledge of the pain and distress he was causing. Li Jie didn’t really have an option. “Thank you sir.”