Jiang Wei worked efficiently. In under five days the office was more or less ready.
That morning she had even brought in a cleaning company to do a deep initial clean, and if they were pressed for time the company could start operating that afternoon.
Once Xu Ye got the message he contacted Lü Cheng straight away, and the two of them settled on a time — two in the afternoon, at the entrance to Jinqiao Wanchuang Center.
At a little past one, seeing all three of his roommates getting ready to go out, Yang Fei asked, full of curiosity, “Where are you all going?”
Yang Fei was still in the dark about the investment company.
Zhang Xinzhou and Li Tongwen were too embarrassed to say, so they both looked at Xu Ye, and Xu Ye said openly and frankly, “I’ve set up another company. This afternoon we’re going to have a look at the office I’ve rented.”
“You really can’t sit still, can you.”
Yang Fei had no thought of going with them, because he was chasing Li Lulu and had no time for anything else right now.
Xu Ye stuffed his phone into his pocket and was about to leave when Yang Fei suddenly got to his feet, called his name, and then hemmed and hawed as though there was something he wanted to say.
Seeing him like that, Xu Ye said irritably, “If you’ve got something to say, spit it out; if you’ve got a fart, let it out. Don’t go all girly on me.”
Only then did Yang Fei say it. “Could you lend me some money?”
“Money all gone?”
“Mm.”
“It’s only the middle of the month.”
Yang Fei said awkwardly, “I’ve spent a little too much this month.”
Xu Ye asked, “Is two thousand enough?”
“Make it three.” Yang Fei added at once, “I’ll pay you back next month.”
“Fine, I’ll transfer it now.”
Xu Ye sent Yang Fei three thousand and left the dorm soon after — and the moment they were out the door Yang Fei sat straight down in his chair, opened Damai and searched for the concert Li Lulu had mentioned. He tapped in and found that even the cheapest tickets were 480 yuan, and he still gritted his teeth, steeled himself, and bought two floor tickets at 980.
…
Two in the afternoon.
Lü Cheng arrived at the entrance to Jinqiao Wanchuang Center right on time.
Xu Ye met him there and took him up to the company.
Jiang Wei, Zhang Xinzhou and Li Tongwen were already waiting inside, and seeing Xu Ye bringing Lü Cheng over, all three of them were a little bit nervous.
Up to now it had always been Xu Ye leading them, and they were all the same age, so nothing much mattered. But Lü Cheng was visibly a great deal more seasoned, and Xu Ye had already told them he had spent years at an investment company and had a wealth of professional experience. They were all still students, and they were afraid they wouldn’t be able to adapt to a real workplace, so every one of them was more or less on edge.
“Let me introduce everyone. This is Zhang Xinzhou, this is Li Tongwen — they’re both my roommates. And as for this beauty here, her name is Jiang Wei, and she’s our school’s campus belle.”
Hearing the words “campus belle,” Jiang Wei shot Xu Ye a dirty look on the spot.
She detested being called that to her face.
“He’s Lü Cheng, head of our company’s investment department. I’ve given you the gist of his background already, so I won’t go into detail today.”
Once they had all greeted each other, Xu Ye took Lü Cheng on a tour of the company, and finally all five of them went into the meeting room.
Xu Ye took the seat at the very front, made small talk for a few minutes, then turned the subject and said, “Now let’s talk business.”
“First, let me assign positions. Lü Cheng will serve as head of our investment management department, responsible for all of that department’s work. Jiang Wei will be head of our finance department. Zhang Xinzhou will act as head of administration and human resources for now, and when I find the right person later on they’ll take over from you. Li Tongwen, you’ll start as Lü Cheng’s assistant.”
Lü Cheng heard him out and was about to speak when Xu Ye cut him off. “I know we’re very short-handed right now, so from tomorrow, however many people each of you department heads thinks your department is short of, that’s how many we hire. But I have one requirement: I don’t want the kind who just coast along at a company doing nothing.”
“Also… over the summer I’ll be going to one of the projects I invested in before, and I won’t be back until August. We won’t have much on our hands at the start either, so none of you will have a great deal of work to do. Which means, Lü Cheng — the Journey to the West project. You have to see that one through for me.”
Lü Cheng, who had never so much as been entitled to attend a senior management meeting, suddenly had the right to speak at one, and he had the sudden sense of having found his own home ground. He nodded and answered with complete confidence, “No problem.”
Xu Ye held forth for a good twenty minutes, wrapped up with a summary, and Qingye Investment’s first meeting was over. [TL: 青野 takes the 青 from Chen Qingqing’s name and the 野 from Xu Ye’s.]
Once they were out of the meeting room, Jiang Wei found Xu Ye and said a delivery had gone to the school because the address was wrong, and asked him to drive over and pick it up. Xu Ye went straight down, got in the car and left Jinqiao Wanchuang Center — but he had barely driven out of the park before he ran into somebody he knew, at a bus stop near the subway station up ahead.
“What’s she doing here?”
The she Xu Ye meant was precisely the girl who had accidentally tipped the cake onto the floor at the club, at the party Jiang Chao had taken him to a while back.
Just at this moment she was holding an umbrella up, watching the traffic go back and forth along the road with a blank expression.
Her name was Yuan Yuqi. She had come to Shanghai from her hometown at the start of the year to look for work, but Shanghai was wall-to-wall with top graduates, and she had a junior college diploma. She had looked for a long time without finding anything suitable. The job at the club had been short-term to begin with, and not long after that party she was out of work again.
She had been sending out résumés this whole time looking for a job, and as it happened there were a lot of business parks around here. She was on her way to an interview for a clerk’s position at an electrical appliance company — and that was when Xu Ye ran into her.
Without quite thinking about it, Xu Ye pulled the car up beside Yuan Yuqi. He put the window down, and Yuan Yuqi bent to look in — and the moment she saw Xu Ye her expression changed at once. She stepped forward, a little excited. “It’s you!”
Xu Ye waved. “Get in and we’ll talk.”
Yuan Yuqi hesitated, because she had an interview arranged for three that afternoon and it was only twenty minutes away. But after hesitating over it several times, she pulled the door open and got into the passenger seat anyway.
“Thank you for what you did that time.”
Xu Ye gave her a smile and asked as he drove toward the school, “How come you’re here?”
“Oh. I came to this area for an interview.”
“An interview? Did the club fire you?”
Yuan Yuqi shook her head and explained. “No, it isn’t that. I was never permanent staff at the club, I was only working there part-time. I hadn’t worn heels much before, which is why I caused such a disaster that day by accident.”
“So that’s what it was.”
Xu Ye went on, “What position are you interviewing for?”
“Clerk.”
“The pay isn’t high for a clerk’s job, is it?”
“It isn’t, no. But I’ve got a junior college diploma, so all I can look for is things like clerk or receptionist.”
Xu Ye drove as far as the school gate and stopped, then put his hand out to Yuan Yuqi. “Let me have a look at your résumé.”
Yuan Yuqi dug a résumé out of her bag and handed it over.
Xu Ye ran his eye over it. There genuinely wasn’t anything on it that stood out; under skills, all it had was competent use of the three Office programs.
Xu Ye handed the résumé back. Yuan Yuqi took it and said, mocking herself, “With a résumé like mine, it’s very hard to find work in Shanghai, isn’t it?”
“It isn’t hard.”
“What?”
“You’ve already found something.”
(End of Chapter 249)