032 Summer Lotus's Worries

Cao Ting’s words immediately captured the attention of everyone in the office, and they quickly asked what news she had found.

"The City Branch sent a document via the official platform. I’ll print it out for you all to see," Cao Ting said, clicking her mouse a few times.

The printer hummed with a whirring sound, and within minutes, a document with a red header was produced. Liu Meili, who had a restless nature, hurried over to Cao Ting’s desk. After leaning in to peer at the paper for a moment, she exclaimed:

"It’s a big deal, alright. A customer manager at the Pingdong Branch’s sub-office embezzled 500,000 yuan from depositors to fund a gambling addiction. He’s already been criminally detained by the police. The branch leadership has been hit with various disciplinary actions: Vice President Zhang, who oversaw that department, has been removed from his post, and the top leader, President Xue, has been demoted and transferred to the Zhongxiang County Branch as a vice president! My goodness... what a mess."

Liu Meili was a local who loved using Northeastern dialect, likely influenced by the sketches of the famous comedian Uncle Benshan.

The document was passed around among the staff until it finally reached Fang Qingye. He glanced at it; the content was essentially as described, though the document provided more detail. The customer manager, surnamed Li, was a gambling addict who had left his home in ruins, divorced his wife, and was drowning in debt, ultimately turning his sights on the depositors.

As a customer manager, he spent his days interacting with all sorts of clients. Some elderly depositors, unfamiliar with how to operate ATMs, would occasionally ask for help and even disclose their passwords. This man named Li exploited this, quietly transferring 500,000 yuan from a retired woman’s savings into his own account to gamble, only to lose it all.

When the elderly woman recently went to the bank to withdraw money and discovered her 500,000 yuan missing, she immediately called the police. It didn't take long for the authorities to trace it back to Li. He confessed fully, but the embezzled funds could not be recovered. To smooth over the situation, the branch had to cover the loss from its own coffers.

While the elderly woman’s problem was resolved and Li was held for further investigation, the bank was left with a 500,000-yuan hole it couldn't fill. The City Branch initiated a massive accountability review, penalizing a range of people from the president down to the head of the customer department, and then issued the report system-wide.

According to office protocol, Cao Ting was required to log and register the document before handing it to Wu Shengli. Wu would then take it to Xia He—sometimes delegating the task to a subordinate—to receive instructions on how widely the document should be circulated. For sensitive or classified documents, Cao Ting would bypass the circulation process and deliver them directly to Xia He in accordance with security regulations. Since this document was not classified and was meant to be communicated and studied throughout the entire bank, Cao Ting took it to Wu Shengli after registering it.

A few minutes later, Wu Shengli walked over with the document and saw Fang Qingye looking through some files. "Little Fang, take this document to President Xia’s office."

The boss was drafting him for an errand again. Being the newest arrival, he was the easiest target for such tasks. Fang Qingye grumbled silently to himself but took the document and headed upstairs.

Xia He’s office was on the third floor. Fang Qingye knocked, entered, and found her sitting behind her desk, reviewing a thick stack of materials.

"President Xia, this is the document that just arrived from the City Branch," Fang Qingye said, placing it on her desk.

Under normal procedures, a president would read the document carefully before annotating which leaders and departments should receive it. Usually, a leader would hold onto it for a while, and after reading, they would call the general office to have someone come up and collect it for circulation. Normally, the person delivering the file would leave and wait for the call, but today, Xia He stopped Fang Qingye just as he was about to depart.

"Don't rush off. Sit for a moment," Xia He said.

Fang Qingye complied, taking a seat on the nearby sofa.

"I already knew the contents of this document. To be honest, I felt quite uneasy when I heard about this," Xia He said, holding the paper.

Fang Qingye realized she wanted to talk off the record. He dropped his formal tone and asked with a smile, "Senior, what’s the matter?"

"This President Xue was someone I knew quite well. He’s thirty-five this year. You know, the Pingdong Branch is our largest in Jinghai, and its business volume is number one across the board. It’s no small feat to become the head of such a branch at thirty-five. It’s a pity that because of this incident, he’s been demoted and exiled to the remote Zhongxiang County. His career is effectively over."

Fang Qingye understood that the reason President Xue was punished so severely was because he couldn't recover the 500,000 yuan. All levels of the bank had a rule: "For economic cases, if the funds are not lost, the personnel involved receive lighter treatment. If the financial loss is significant, the disciplinary action is increased."

Was Xia He’s emotional volatility today caused not just by the City Branch’s handling of President Xue, but by her own anxieties?

Thinking this, Fang Qingye probed, "Senior, are you worried that something similar might happen at our Nanxin Branch?"

"Yes, Little Fang. You are my junior, and I trust you, so I’ll speak my mind. I am indeed worried. Although our staff seems diligent and responsible, you never know what’s going on in someone's heart. You never know who might cause a disaster. Something like what happened at Pingdong Branch could be fatal." Xia He sighed deeply.

"So, Senior, are you planning to take any measures to prevent this?" Fang Qingye asked.

"Beyond strengthening professional ethics training and tightening discipline, I’m thinking of conducting a survey. I want to look into the employees in key positions—investigate their hobbies, see if they have any bad habits... and look into their immediate family members! I’ve read news reports about husbands who gamble, driving their families into poverty, which pressures their wives at the bank to take desperate risks. Those people aren't suitable for sensitive positions; they need to be transferred!"

Hearing this, Fang Qingye’s lips curled into a smile, and he joked, "Senior, you’re trying to do the work of the Discipline Inspection Commission. You don't just want to manage the staff during their eight working hours, but also outside of them. You want to look not just at their work performance, but also investigate their social circles and hobbies."

Seeing the slightly mocking tone, Xia He frowned. "You don't think it’s feasible?"

"Not at all," Fang Qingye replied bluntly. "First, how much time and manpower would that require? And how would you define a 'bad habit'? Take mahjong, for example—at what stake does it become gambling? How would you investigate how much people are betting? And what about lottery tickets or stock trading? Those are perfectly legal!"

"More importantly, we are a bank, not a government agency, and certainly not the Discipline Inspection Commission. Even though you are the president and internal discipline is part of your duties, the question remains: How would you investigate an individual, let alone their family? That touches on personal privacy. And would the data you gather even be accurate? If you judge an employee’s suitability for a position based on inaccurate data, wouldn't that be biased?"

Xia He was stunned by the barrage of questions. It seemed her idea had indeed been a bit naive.

Seeing her fall into silence, Fang Qingye leaned back into a more comfortable position and smiled. "I actually have a relatively simple method that could resolve your concerns."