Even though he was about to resign, Chu Mingcheng still diligently completed his work today.

As closing time approached, he picked up the proposal he had worked overtime on last night and went to the office, handing it to Chen the Skinner, who was busy watching a movie.

"Manager Chen, this is the proposal you gave me yesterday."

Chen picked it up, flipped through a couple of pages, and tossed it back onto the desk. "This still isn't good enough. Revise it again."

"Alright, I'll revise it again tomorrow."

He's finished reading it after flipping two pages? And he wants me to revise it again? He hasn't mentioned this 'urgent' proposal all day!

However, reminding himself that he was resigning tomorrow, Chu Mingcheng suppressed the urge to retort, picked up the proposal, and prepared to leave.

Hearing the word "tomorrow," however, was not what Chen wanted. "Hey, hey, hey, not tomorrow! Stay and work on it tonight. The client is rushing us!"

This time, bolstered by his newfound security, Chu Mingcheng refused outright. "I have plans tonight. No overtime."

Chen the Skinner sat up straight, shifting back into his usual spiel. "Ah-Cheng, why are you being so unreasonable? It's like the great tycoons say, working 996 is a blessing! You should learn to cherish opportunities!"

A blessing?

That was just another brainwashing tactic used by capitalists for exploitation!

Chu Mingcheng let out a bitter laugh. Even if 996 really were a blessing, it would at least come with overtime pay!

"According to the Labor Law, any work exceeding eight hours is considered overtime, and the pay should be no less than 150% of my normal salary. You want me to work overtime? Fine. Pay me for it."

"And don't give me any nonsense about 'learning opportunities.' I'm here to earn a living, not to listen to your lectures."

"Also, after tomorrow, I won't be coming in anymore. Make sure my salary is in my account by the tenth of next month. Otherwise, we can settle this at the Labor Bureau."

Arguing and reasoning with him?

Chu Mingcheng had no interest. He had wanted to part on good terms, but this old scrooge Chen just had to keep pushing, trying every trick in the book to make him stay for overtime. The man was just asking for trouble.

"You—" Chen was momentarily stunned. When he finally processed what was happening, his face fell. "You're quitting?"

"Company regulations state that you must submit your resignation one month in advance. You can't just leave on a whim like this. If you do, the company will treat it as job abandonment."

Chu Mingcheng just shook his head with a slight smile. "Your company never had me sign a labor contract, and most of us don't have social insurance or a housing fund. If we make a scene, you're the one who's going to be in deep trouble, not me."

Seeing his threat had no effect, Chen narrowed his eyes. "I recall you're a local, aren't you?" he said, his voice laced with menace. "If you pull a stunt like this, aren't you afraid you won't be able to find another job around here?"

"You don't need to worry about that. I was planning on working tomorrow so we could all part on good terms. But given the situation... I won't be coming in tomorrow after all. Why don't you just deposit my 29 days of salary into my account tomorrow?"

With that, Chu Mingcheng ignored Chen's ugly expression, walked back to his seat, packed up his things, and left for good.

The colleagues in the office somewhat sensed what had happened. The man next to him was about to ask, but seeing Chen emerge with a dark expression, he immediately backed down.

Leaving the company, Chu Mingcheng felt a wave of relief wash over him.

Quitting really was the best feeling in the world. And since he didn't have the stress of finding a new job, his only problem was figuring out how to explain it to his family. For now, he'd have to keep it a secret. If it came down to it, he'd just have to move to another city and tell them he'd found a great job there.

Back at his apartment, Chu Mingcheng called his landlord to terminate the lease. He had rented the place on the third of the month, and since the third of the next month was only a few days away, he wasn't losing much. The deposit was one thousand yuan. After deducting this month's utilities—mostly the electricity bill from running the AC every day in the hot weather—he got back 854 yuan.

That evening, Chu Mingcheng packed everything he owned into his car and drove back to his family's old house, planning to stay there for the National Day holiday.

Whether he decided to leave town or not, he couldn't go anywhere for the next few days anyway. High-speed rail and plane tickets were likely all sold out, and driving would mean getting stuck in massive traffic jams on the highway. It was better to wait until the holiday rush was over.

His family's old house was located on a mountainside. A narrow, twenty-meter-long path ran from the backyard up to the mountain road, just wide enough for a car. This meant he could move his things without passing his neighbors' front doors; he just parked directly in the backyard.

There weren't many young people living on the island. Most had left to seek opportunities elsewhere, as there wasn't much of a future to be had by staying. Thus, only older people remained. The elder men were fine, but Chu Mingcheng especially dreaded the "aunts and grandmas" of the neighborhood. If they caught him, they could hold him hostage for half a day with their chatter.

And you'd think they genuinely wanted to chat?

No, they were just there to show off their successful younger relatives, comparing them to him. Once they'd put him down, they felt satisfied. Especially since Chu Mingcheng was nearly thirty and still unmarried, he was prime gossip material for them.

He took out his keys, opened the door, and began carrying his things inside.

It was called the "old house," but that was just its exterior. The inside had been completely renovated just two years ago. Since he and his family came to stay often, the house was quite clean.

The house had two floors. The back door opened into a long hallway that led straight to the living room at the front. To the left was a large kitchen, and to the right, under the staircase, was a toilet. The hallway opened into the living room, where they usually ate their meals. Next to the living room was a bedroom that used to belong to his grandparents. They had passed away over a decade ago, and the room had since become a storage space, filled with all sorts of odds and ends.

Stepping out of the living room led to the front yard. It was spacious, about the same size as the house itself at seventy or eighty square meters and contained a water well and a laundry area.

Chu Mingcheng carried his luggage upstairs to the second floor. The layout was simple: two bedrooms and one bathroom. Originally, there had been three bedrooms, but the one connected to the bathroom was tiny—his childhood room—with barely enough space for a small bed. Since no one used it anymore, they had knocked down the wall during the renovation and turned it into a large, dedicated shower room, complete with a bathtub.

As for Chu Mingcheng's room, it wasn't one of the two large bedrooms at the front. He carried his luggage into the small attic.

He was an extremely light sleeper; the slightest noise could ruin his night. He used to sleep in one of the main bedrooms, but the elderly ladies in the neighborhood, who suffered from insomnia, loved to gather outside at dawn and chatter endlessly.

The unending chatter made Chu Mingcheng's temper grow more irritable from lack of sleep. Finally, during the renovation, he invested in a soundproof attic, and it solved everything.

Up there, with the curtains drawn and the door shut, he could sleep so deeply he'd wake up in the afternoon genuinely wondering if the sun had ever risen. The quality of sleep was superb.

Entering the attic, Chu Mingcheng took out the quilt and sleeping mat he had aired previously and laid them out. He'd make do tonight and air them again tomorrow. He put his clothes in the wardrobe, set his laptop on the desk, and decided to unpack the rest in the morning.

After washing up, he lay down on the bed and calculated his current savings.

He'd earned 1,580 yuan yesterday. The deposit refund today was 854 yuan. He currently had a little over 23,000 yuan in his account. He was fairly certain Chen the Skinner wouldn't withhold his salary, so another 6,700-plus yuan would come in on the tenth. That gave him nearly 30,000 yuan to work with.

It was enough for now. All he could do was hope his Codex would pull through and keep him from starving.

As for the future, he wasn't too worried about making money. He just needed to level up some of the more common and abundant aquatic species, and he was confident he could live a pretty comfortable life.