Please Be More Serious Chapter 9

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s 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.’

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, s.p.a.ce 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 a.n.a.lyzed Yong Kai’s strength and weaknesses, while Wen Yi a.n.a.lysed 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 cant 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. Wen Yi became interested in getting his daughter Yufei and Zhengqing 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.

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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.’

‘…’ Zhengqing was mollified; 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 G.o.d 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 her 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 att.i.tude 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 cla.s.sification 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.

❀ Chapter 10...