The Intern Who Didn’t Pay

On April Fool's Day, my supervisor suddenly posted an announcement in the company group chat.

Our new intern, Hazel Matthews, is treating us all to dinner at the new restaurant!

I was too busy to notice the messages in the group chat.

It wasn't until a bunch of people frantically tagged me to pay the bill that I realized they had racked up fifty thousand dollars at the restaurant.

After I sent back a question mark, the supervisor replied dismissively.

"It's April Fool's Day. I was just joking around. Who knew everyone would take it seriously?"

"Besides, you're just a little intern. Isn't it normal for someone new to treat everyone to a meal? Everyone else has done it. Why should you be any different?"

What she didn't know was that I wasn't an intern, but a top-level developer that Mr. Wilson had earnestly invited to join the company.

Looking at her message, I didn't bother arguing.

Instead, I replied directly.

"Since the supervisor said this was an April Fool's joke, I won't take it seriously."

"I won't be going to tonight's gathering. Have fun, everyone."

After sending that, I ignored the supervisor's bombardment of phone calls and turned off my phone.

The next day, Lily Cooper came over to my desk and slammed her hand down so hard the whole thing shook.

"Who gave you the nerve to turn off your phone? You said you'd treat everyone to dinner. What's the meaning of this?"

"Everyone treated people when they were interns. Are you trying to be special?"

"Or do you want us seniors to pay?"

The surrounding colleagues became restless when they heard this.

Splitting fifty thousand dollars wasn't as simple as a few hundred bucks each.

"Hazel, what do you mean by this? Coming in on your first day trying to shake up the workplace and intimidate us?"

"That's right. Everyone else treated people, so why shouldn't you? With this attitude, you still want to become a full-time employee?"

"Today you're paying no matter what, or you can pack up and get out!"

I calmly turned on my computer and poured myself some water.

"Lily, you were the one who said you'd treat everyone to dinner, not me."

"Besides, you said yourself it was an April Fool's joke. Of course jokes shouldn't be taken seriously."

"And when did I ever say I was an intern?"

When the others heard this, they all burst out laughing.

"You're pretty confident, aren't you? One day here and you already think you're a full-time employee?"

"If you're not an intern, what are you? Don't tell me you think you're that tech expert the company hired."

"That person doesn't arrive for another week. You should've drafted your lies better before bluffing."

Everyone laughed uproariously.

I didn't continue to engage with them but turned and went into the break room.

Ten minutes later, a message came through SnapChat.

"You have been removed from the Cloud Technology Department group."

Shortly after, I saw a post on Lily's timeline.

"Some people at this company are really something. Just got here and already acting like they own the place, trying to pull that Gen Z workplace revolution nonsense.

Too bad you ran into me. Don't expect any good days at this company from now on."

All the surrounding colleagues were cheering her on in the comments.

I gave her post a like and left the break room.

When I tried to return to my desk, I froze.

My original workspace was piled high with junk, and my belongings had all been thrown by the bathroom door like garbage.

Next to it sat a wobbly wooden table without even a chair.

Seeing me standing there dazed, Lily laughed smugly.

"Hazel, we have too much stuff with nowhere to put it, so we're borrowing your spot for a bit."

"You'll be leaving soon anyway, so you don't mind, right?"

I shrugged indifferently and walked forward, sweeping all the junk they had piled onto my desk onto the floor.

Various items clattered to the ground.

Lily's eyes went wide, her face flushing red with anger.

She tried to push me, but I grabbed her wrist firmly.

"How long I stay here is my business. Mind your own."

After saying that, I acted as if nothing had happened and reorganized my belongings.

After settling back down, Mr. Wilson sent me a message.

"Ms. Matthews, you arrived early without telling me. I'm still abroad, but I'm heading back now."

"Please forgive the poor reception. I'll have someone arrange a private office for you right away."

Looking at Lily's resentful gaze, I messaged back.

"You're too kind, Mr. Wilson. Let's discuss the office later."

"I'm fine out here. It's a good chance to get to know my new colleagues better."

At noon when I returned to the office, everyone in the tech department was missing except me.

I didn't bother wondering what they were doing but plugged in my USB drive and started working on the project.

It wasn't until nearly quitting time that they all shuffled back in, pushing and shoving each other.

Lily walked over to my desk nonchalantly and tapped on it.

"Hazel, you finished what I assigned you, right?"

Before I could answer, she looked at me with exaggerated surprise.

"You didn't spend the whole afternoon doing nothing, did you?"

"What's this on your computer screen? This isn't one of our company's projects at all."

Before I could respond, she reached forward and yanked out my USB drive.

"Doing other work on company time, and who knows which company it's even for."

"I think you're a spy sent by another company."

"If you want your USB drive back and don't want others to know about this, hand over that fifty thousand."

Watching her smooth sequence of actions, I understood.

She had intended to deliberately ignore me, then threaten me under the pretense that I wasn't working during office hours.

She just hadn't expected to stumble upon my project content.

I said coldly, "Return the USB drive to me now, and there's still room to salvage this."

Lily burst into laughter after hearing this, her face full of disdain.

"Now you're threatening me?"

"I'm giving you three days to pay up, or pack your things and leave."

After saying this, without waiting for my reaction, she pressed the shutdown button on my computer.

All the data I hadn't saved yet vanished.

My chest heated with anger.

I stood up and looked directly into her eyes.

"First, I have no obligation to pay that money. Second, you made me lose this afternoon's work data.

If anyone should be compensating anyone, it's you compensating me."

Lily's eyes looked like they were about to shoot fire.

She immediately called HR.

"This intern is completely out of control! Not only does she owe me fifty thousand and refuse to pay, she keeps talking back in front of everyone."

"Fire this intern immediately!"

The person on the other end was silent for a moment, then spoke with some confusion.

"Intern? We haven't had any interns join the company recently."

The call was on speakerphone, and everyone present froze in place.

Someone nearby seemed to suddenly realize something and grabbed Lily in panic.

"She's not that tech expert the company invited, is she..."

Lily's face instantly went pale, her lips trembling slightly.

The person on the other end of the line continued.

"Probably not. If it were that expert, they would've already told me to open the door to that office."

Hearing this, the group slowly relaxed.

"So she's just some useless person who got in through connections. Just delete this Hazel Matthews's information from the system. If there's a problem, it's on me."

"In all my years as supervisor, what I hate most are people who use backdoor connections."

What they didn't know was that to keep me, Mr. Wilson had already entered my information into the system early on.

That was why HR didn't know about it.

Lily looked at me, her expression somewhat twisted.

"This is what happens when you go against me. I'm giving you two choices now.

Either give me the fifty thousand and I can pretend none of this happened.

Or tomorrow I'll make sure you can't even get through the company doors."

As the clock hand pointed to six, I picked up my bag and stood up.

"I won't be giving you that fifty thousand."

"But I'm warning you, don't lose that USB drive, or the consequences will be serious."

After saying that, ignoring her curses, I walked out the door.

The next morning when I tried to scan my face at the entrance, the turnstile didn't open.

I tried again, and the turnstile's alarm blared throughout the entire lobby.

It wasn't until I called her for the third time that she finally answered leisurely.

"I told you yesterday, you've been fired."

"The stuff from your desk is at the entrance."

Only then did I notice that the pile of garbage at the entrance was my personal belongings.

My cup, desk ornaments, picture framesall smashed to pieces.

Even my laptop screen was cracked beyond recognition.

But I didn't care about any of that.

I kept searching frantically.

"Where's the USB drive?"

I called her again.

"You still have the nerve to ask me for the USB drive? Secretly doing another company's project during work hoursthis proves you're a spy!"

"I've already published the project from your USB drive. This is a warning to you and the company behind you. Next time won't be this simple!"

Before I could speak, she hung up.

Three minutes later, she sent me a video.

In the video, my USB drive was crushed to pieces under her high heels.

"That's what you get for using connections to be a corporate spy. Just wait to be fired by your company."

I didn't bother explaining anymore.

The project was already published.

No amount of explanation would help now.

I cleaned up the debris on the ground and went home.

As soon as I got home, I saw a post.

"Our department got a spy from another company. I caught her secretly writing projects for another company.

Don't let me find out which company it is!"

The post already had high engagement, with comments continuously increasing.

"Wow, the underlying code is directly published. The whole project is leaked."

"This concept is pretty good. Anyone who wants to do it should hurry!"

"This loss is no small matter. This spy is probably screwed."

Seeing the comments, Lily was extremely smug.

She kept clamoring.

"That's right, I had to teach her a lesson!"

I exited the app and sighed.

Looking at Mr. Wilson's concerned message from ten minutes ago, I replied.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Wilson. I've been fired by your employee."

"The project you assigned me will probably have to be put on hold."

"Please decide how to handle this."

Mr. Wilson's response came instantly, and he even anxiously called me.

"Ms. Matthews, I'm truly sorry. I'm already on my way back. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Please give me a chance, give Cloud Technology a chance.

I will definitely give you a satisfactory resolution to this matter. Would that be acceptable?"

Hearing his sincere tone, I could only agree.

"Mr. Wilson, let's talk when you arrive. Don't disappoint me."

As soon as Mr. Wilson got off the plane, he immediately messaged me.

After I briefly replied, I went to the company to wait for him.

Mr. Wilson worked quickly.

The company system had already re-entered my information.

Seeing me return, everyone looked shocked.

Lily blocked my path.

"What, you've come to pay back the money?"

Seeing I didn't speak, she gritted her teeth.

"Fine, if you don't want to pay, I have plenty of ways to make you pay!"

She pulled out her phone and started a live stream.

"Come, let everyone see. This is the privileged princess who got into our company through connections. She's probably some little executive's mistress!"

"First thing she does is scam me out of fifty thousand, then she openly does other companies' projects during work hours! Disrupting the whole company!"

"This person is named Hazel Matthews. Everyone remember that. All companies, avoid her like the plague!"

Before this, I had always used an alias in my team.

Very few people knew my real name.

They were no exception.

The number of viewers in the live stream grew rapidly.

Comments kept scrolling.

"Mistresses these days are so shameless? Not ashamed but proud?"

"Hilarious. One look at her face tells you she has no real skills, just used that face to sleep her way into the company."

"All HR departments, remember this person's name and face, so you don't accidentally hire her!"

Seeing the comments' direction, Lily got carried away and shoved the phone in my face.

"Lily, making false accusations carries legal consequences."

"Everything I said is true, right?" She looked at the other people in the office.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

I lost my patience and called Mr. Wilson.

"Mr. Wilson, when will you arrive?"

Lily stepped forward and knocked my phone to the ground.

"Still putting on an act? Who are you trying to scare?"

As she spoke, she stomped hard on my phone.

"Today I'm going to see justice done. So tell me, whose mistress are you?"

Just then, the office door was kicked open.

Mr. Wilson, covered in sweat, rushed in.

Lily smiled and sidled up to him.

"Mr. Wilson, perfect timing. Our company doesn't allow backdoor connections. Look, I caught someone red-handed for you!"

But Mr. Wilson was furious.

He stepped forward and roughly shoved her aside.

"You blind fool!"

Then Mr. Wilson turned around, smiling apologetically as he extended his hand to me.

"Ms. Matthews, I'm truly sorry. We've wronged you."