As he bedded down for the night, he
got a text message from Yin Ting, ‘I forgot to tell you, although people say to
climb high, I think Yong Kai is already very high, you have to carefully
consider your position oh. I know there is an offer on the table and everyone
has their own plan. I’m not trying to interfere; I’m just standing out in the
rain.’ (Zuben: I'm sitting down here but hey you can't see me♬)
Zhenqing frowned, so what are you
trying to say Miss Ying Ting?
Zhengqing was quite satisfied with the
status quo; Qin Wen Yi gave him a lot of support, space to do his own thing,
paid him well and he felt like a valued employee. Qin Wen Yi was also very generous and
trustworthy. Several times in the course of their partnership, Qin Wen Yi had
been the one to extend the olive branch.
When he first met Qin Wen Yi, it
wasn’t an automatically successful negotiation. They met several times and had
lots of chats. Wen Yi did not tell him of the work conditions but talked about
Yong Kai. Zhengqing analysed Yong Kai’s strength and weaknesses, while Wen Yi analysed
Zhengqing’s academic performance and professional experience, things he heard
via word of mouth, resources (Zuben: Sounds droll. Asia and academic prowess. I
dunno any Asians so I dunno if book smart but can't work is a thing there)
He told Chou Zhengqing, Yongkai
needed him.
Zhengqing was impressed: Yongkai
needed him.
He knew with his abilities many
companies wanted someone like him, but he needed a boss like Wen Yi and a
workplace like Yong Kai. He accepted without the thought of the salary. Wen Yi
asked him how much he thought he was worth, Zhengqing gave a high number that
was not modest.
But Wen Yi only laughed and said,
‘You know your worth, but in my heart you are worth more. I hope you understand
that you can get more than you want; this is ambition. Young people must have
ambition or the higher levels will be filled with too many old men.’ In the
end, Wen Yi paid Zhengqing one and a half times his requested salary.
But time proved that being young
was a big disadvantage for Zhengqing (Zuben: Isn’t that because you live is a
seniority obsessed society?). In his rise through the ranks, he encountered a
lot of intentional obstacles and lack of cooperation. But Zhengqing found it
challenging, it excited him and spurned him to work even harder. Zhengqing had
come to Yong Kai on Qin Wen Yi’s behest, and Zhengqing wanted to fight for his
place.
Eventually, he won the executives
over. The veteran board were now respectful to him. He had Qin Wen Yi’s
appreciation and trust. Then, Wen Yi became interested in getting his daughter Yufei
and Zhengqing getting together. Since Yong Kai had no successor, Zhengqing was a worthy
candidate. (Zuben: You could always just give it to your daughter to run)
But Yufei and Zhengqing
remained lukewarm at best. Neither of them was romantically interested in the
other.
Although at the start Zhengqing
considered leaving Yong Kai, that idea was long behind him. As long as Yong Kai
was Yong Kai and Wen Yi was Wen Yi, he was not leaving. There was no reason to
give up long term development for a quick profit.
The next day, Qin Yufei came to see
him and asked him to lunch.
Since he knew it was impossible for
her to like him like that, he was not worried that he was being tested for a
date, so his first reaction was, ‘Have you done something bad?’
‘I may be superficial, but I don’t
do bad things.’
‘Okay, what do you need me for?’
Qin Yufei gave him a casual
look and said, ‘You think too much, can’t two colleagues occasionally eat
together, chat, get to know each other, reach a more tacit understanding of
each other…?’
Zhengqing frowned, ‘It still
sounds a bit shifty to me,’ but he didn’t refuse. So they went to eat lunch.
At lunch, Yufei did talk about work
for a bit but he was still suspicious. When they were half way through their
meal, Yufei asked, ‘Qiu Zong, what do you think of Gu Yingjie?’
‘Very good, he’s practical, hard working,
and promising.’ Zhengqing said; his evaluation completed.
Qin Yufei dawdled for a while and
said, ‘Ah I wanted to say, I am in love with him.’
‘Oh,’ Zhengqing realised this was
the original reason for their lunch. It seems that Yin Ting’s red string not
only moves one’s own peach blossom but also other’s peach blossom. (Zuben: all
those peach blossoms sound so inappropriate. Can’t we just use springtime?)
‘I dare not tell my parents. I
don’t know how my dad will take it. Do you think he’ll oppose us if he knew?’
He wasn’t her parents, how was he
to know? But it was normal to give comfort so he would try,
‘I don’t think you should worry
about this. Did you ask me to eat just to ask about what President Qin might
think?’
‘Of course not,’ she said, ‘Truthfully,
I wanted to talk to you about Xiao Ting.’
Yin Ting? What does she have to do
with Gu Yingjie?
‘What about her?’ he asked.
‘I heard that when she came to the
company to see me, she came by the meeting room and saw you and Yingjie, she
asked you out for a meal. Gu Yingjie thought she was very warm to you and that
she might be interested in you, since she offered an invitation to you. It
might have surprised you since you don’t know her very well, and you might
misunderstand her, so I asked you out for a meal to clarify matters.’ (Zuben:
Poke-noser)
‘…’ Zhengqing was bewildered; black
lines hovered over his head. How could he think that Yin Ting was interested in
him? That girl that was hugged tightly by a god of thoughtlessness. Actually,
he had thought Yin Ting was interested in Gu Yingjie, but he wouldn’t tell
Yufei that, he didn’t want to get Yin Ting into trouble.
‘I wanted to ask you not
misunderstand how she thinks of you. At that time things were awkward with Yingjie,
I did not want to see him. So I asked Xiao-Ting to come and help me get rid of
him.’ Yufei’s explanation was long winded but he focused on one thing.
‘What you’re saying is you were at
the office, but ignored my instructions and refused to come to a meeting. Not
only that you got an outsider to interrupt my conversation with our customers?
What kind of work attitude is this? You have to behave responsibly; you can’t
allow your personal feelings to affect your performance. That is
unprofessional.’
‘Stop, please, stop,’ Yufei cried,
but Zhengqing did not care for her discomfort. He went on and on, Yufei
snapped.
But Zhengqing did not back down. It
was an opportunity to stop Yufei’s irresponsible behaviour. As they returned to
the company, Yufei regretted asking Zhengqing out for a meal.
Zhengqing thought it was a little
strange, in order to prevent any misunderstanding about Ying Ting about him. Just
for a misunderstanding, these pair of friends put up a performance. They really
had no scruples. Also why did Yin Ting give him the red string, and the
grapefruit?
Zhengqing would like to try and
understand but eventually the conclusion was that you could not guess what
women were thinking, it was a waste of time and it did not matter to him.
Later on, Zhengqing had a meeting
with Wen Yi. On his way back to his office, he met Yufei with a strange hesitant
expression on her face. Zhengqing didn’t bother guessing what was up with her
and went on his way; he had a lot of work to do.
He did not expect that the next
afternoon Yufei suddenly rushed into his office to ask him whether he talked to
her father about Gu Yingjie.
Zhengqing was surprised, ‘President
Qin? We didn’t talk about that.’ He said.
Yufei was looked surprised, ‘You
mean that you and my father talked for half a day and you did not mention the Gu
Yingjie?
‘No,’ Zhengqing said confused, ‘It
is your private matter, if you want to tell President Qin then tell him. Why
would I, an outsider, tell him? Why would I be gossiping about this?’ But Yufei
did not seem thankful for his discretion, she actually she seemed more angry.
He was really flabbergasted now,
‘Did you deliberately tell me about him so that I will talk to your dad?’
Yufei’s face darkened, ‘Of course
not,’ she replied and she turned away. (Zuben: I don’t know if it is already
obvious, but I do not like Yufei)
Zhengqing thought about it for a
while, but did not understand. Miss Qin was a usually straightforward person,
when did she become so befuddled and reserved?
The thought of reserved made him
think of Yin Ting. He knows Yu Fei would tell Yin Ting about what was
happening. Yufei would complain to Yin Ting if she had wanted him to help.
To be honest, he did not want to
help and he did not even know if she wanted help. Women are really troublesome,
Zhengqing thought as he sighed.
Later, he called Yufei, ‘Manager
Qin, if you want me to help you talk to President Qin about this matter, I can
still help.’
‘No need.’ Yufei said angrily and
she hung up the phone.
Zhengqing looked at the handset for
a short time, and then calmly put it back in place. Good. If she didn’t want
his help, that was all well and good.
The rest of the day went smoothly.
The next day, Friday, Huizhu was due to return.
She called Zhengqing about meeting
for a meal on Sunday. Zhengqing agreed. The
same as last time, he’d choose the place to eat. Huizhu certainly did not
express an opinion, but she was also thoughtful, she said he did not need to
pick her up, she would drive herself. The two agreed.
Zhengqing’s mind flashed to several
places to eat. He remembered someone criticise his choices as expensive and not
delicious, and the atmosphere is not suitable for dating and so on. So he
decided to take the time to go online to find a restaurant suitable for dating.
But Zhengqing was serious so he did
not use company time to do his research. At night, while he ate his dinner, he
sat in his study and tried to find a restaurant.
He was on a famous restaurant’s
website reading reviews when he came across an ID, Tingting Yu Li 413. The
comment was written a long time ago. He clicked on the ID and it led to a blog
home page. It was a very active blog, there were many restaurant reviews. He
didn’t even need to look at others, just by looking through the blog; he could
find a nice place to eat.
Zhengqing found the blogger very
entertaining as he read through their reviews, while most people wrote one or
two sentences, this blogger reviewed from décor to dishes to the service and
the prices. She usually went to the restaurants twice and made note of it, but
some restaurants she did not visit more than twice. At the end of each review
was a one sentence classification comment: Suitable for dating. Suitable for
business talks. Suitable for flattering. Suitable for loading. Suitable for
family dinner. Suitable for friends. Suitable for meeting with the fool. Suitable
for breaking up. Suitable for anything.
Zhengqing laughed. He had an inkling that Tingting Yu Li 413 was
Yin Ting.
He felt it might be necessary to
consult directly with the reviewer about where to go on Sunday, so he called
Yin Ting.
What the heck is 'suitable for loading'? 🤨
ReplyDeleteI assume it means eating till you can eat no more.
Delete