It wasn\u2019t until her third day in the new office that Lin Wan noticed the empty workstation in the corner by the window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike the uniform cubicles surrounding it, this one had a small, faded sunflower sticker on the corner of the desk. Next to the monitor sat a chipped mug with a half-circle of dried tea stains on the bottom. The drawer wasn\u2019t locked; inside lay an empty fountain pen, a few crumpled sticky notes, and an expired movie ticket stub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The administrative staff said it belonged to a former colleague, Chen Mo. He\u2019d resigned last month, leaving quietly\u2014no farewell party, and he hadn\u2019t even had time to clear out his desk. The company said, \u201cWe\u2019ll clean everything up once the new employee arrives,\u201d so the desk remained in limbo, like an unfinished sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lin Wan wasn\u2019t in a hurry to move in. Every day as she walked past, she\u2019d casually straighten the pen holder that had been knocked askew or water the dusty pothos on the windowsill. One time, after working late, she noticed her mug had been washed, with a new sticky note tucked around the rim: \u201cYour tea\u2019s gone cold\u2014remember to refill it.\u201d The handwriting was unfamiliar, yet it carried a sense of warmth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, she found out it was Old Zhou from the neighboring team. He\u2019d once pulled all-nighters on projects with Chen Mo, and the two of them often ordered takeout from the same place late at night. On the day Chen Mo left, Old Zhou said nothing; he simply washed the mug and put it back in its place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lin Wan finally sat down at that workstation. She didn\u2019t tear off the sunflower sticker, nor did she throw away the movie ticket stubs. She placed her keyboard on Chen Mo\u2019s old mouse pad, and as she typed, her fingertips could still feel the frayed edges where the pad had worn thin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One afternoon, sunlight slanted across the desk, falling on the sticky note. She suddenly realized that some departures aren\u2019t about disappearing\u2014they\u2019re about staying in a different way. Just like this unclaimed workstation: it didn\u2019t belong to anyone, yet so many people quietly remembered it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before leaving work, Lin Wan wrote a line in small handwriting on the back of the sticky note: \u201cThe weather is beautiful today\u2014perfect for a fresh start.\u201d Then she tucked it under the mug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next day, the sticky note was gone. In its place was a small packet of fresh tea and a printed note: \u201cThe tea is new; keep using the mug.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She smiled, put the tea packet in her drawer, and placed it alongside the empty fountain pen and the expired movie ticket stub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city is vast, teeming with people coming and going. There are always some empty spots, and there are always those willing to leave a light on for them. Not every farewell requires a ceremony; some tenderness lies hidden in an unclaimed desk, quietly waiting for the next person to sit down and softly say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Unclaimed Workstation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anecdote","tag-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions\/290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}