Once the company office was set up, Xu Ye became a completely hands-off boss where the fruit shop was concerned.
Fruit sales dropped considerably in winter anyway, and with Li Tongwen and Xu Wanying there, the two of them could manage fine. Xu Ye planned to give each of them an extra three hundred yuan a month — because Yang Fei used to be the one who stayed at the shop doing deliveries, and now that he was handling procurement at the company, the shop’s workload naturally fell to the two of them.
On Thursday, Xu Ye met with the company’s several salespeople and handed out their business cards.
Seeing their own cards, the salespeople found it quite novel, because the title printed on every one of them read “Business Department Manager.”
Then Xu Ye launched into his lecture. “Everyone — do you know the single most important quality for doing this line of work?”
The salespeople were, in fact, all Xu Ye’s seniors, but somehow he came across as more mature than they were, carrying a natural air of leadership. Jiang Wei had actually worried that these older students wouldn’t take him seriously given how young he was — but after a few days of dealing with him, they treated Xu Ye with real “respect.”
“It’s shamelessness.”
Xu Ye answered his own question. “In this line of work, having face means having no face, and having no face means having face. Either way, I’ve already given you your titles. Don’t go thinking that because you’re young, people will look down on you when you go pitch a partnership. If you think that way, then you’re the one looking down on yourself.”
Jiang Wei had been keeping the books, with Ruan Xiaolu watching beside her, but hearing Xu Ye launch into a lecture, they both instinctively set down what they were doing and pricked up their ears.
“You’ll definitely get rejected at first — you might even get thrown out. But none of that matters.”
“Let me ask you all: before you fall asleep, or when you’re alone, do you ever think back to some embarrassing thing you did in the past, and the moment you think of it, you feel ‘god, I really made a fool of myself’?”
“Yeah!”
Xu Ye smiled. “I used to think that way too. But the truth is, nobody actually cares about you. Even if you genuinely embarrassed yourself at the time, no one afterward keeps it in their heart — only you keep remembering it.”
“Smart people only ever look at the present and the future. They don’t get hung up on mistakes and foolish things they did in the past. I’m telling you all this because I want you to understand — when you’re out running business, if you get cold looks, get thrown out, or get cursed at, whatever you do, do not carry any of it as a burden. Every one of us lives for ourselves.”
Jiang Wei and Ruan Xiaolu were both a little taken aback. Neither had expected the usually grinning, never-serious Xu Ye to sound so genuinely convincing when he got into this kind of big-picture talk.
“I’m saying all this to inoculate you in advance. What I want to talk about next is: when we run into merchants — clients, really — who aren’t put off by us, how do we go about closing a partnership with them.”
“Step one: create demand for them. Make them understand what kind of benefits partnering with us will bring. Have you all seen the movie The Wolf of Wall Street?“
“…”
Xu Ye held forth, riffing entirely off the cuff. He talked with the salespeople for about an hour before the short meeting finally wrapped.
Once they’d all left, Ruan Xiaolu sat propping her cheek in her hand and asked with interest, “Boss, that Wolf of Wall Street you mentioned — where can I watch it?”
“You want to watch it?”
“Mm.”
Xu Ye smiled. “My roommate has the uncut version on his computer. I’ll send it to you tonight.”
“Yay~”
…
Friday afternoon had no classes.
While Xu Ye was eating lunch in the cafeteria, he messaged Chen Qingqing to ask roughly when they’d be coming over, so he could prepare in advance.
She replied quickly, saying they’d set off Saturday morning at nine and arrive around ten.
Xu Ye asked again, “How many rooms should I book?”
Chen Qingqing: “Two double rooms is fine.”
Xu Ye: “Huh? Then where do I sleep?”
Chen Qingqing: “???”
Chen Qingqing: “Don’t you live in the dorm?”
Xu Ye: “I could book three rooms — and the two of us share a double.”
Chen Qingqing: “Denied!”
Xu Ye: “I just want to spend a little more time with you.”
Chen Qingqing: “No!”
Xu Ye: “At most I’d just hold you and we’d talk.”
Chen Qingqing: “Not yet.”
Xu Ye: “Fine, I’ll do as you say.”
Xu Ye: “Message me when you set off tomorrow.”
Chen Qingqing: “Okay, I’m going to eat.”
Xu Ye: “Good girl, eat plenty.”
Once he’d gotten the details sorted, Xu Ye tucked his phone back into his pocket and dug into his food. Seeing Li Tongwen sitting across from him looking distracted, he asked offhandedly, “Li Tongwen, the financial aid still hasn’t come through?”
Li Tongwen nodded.
Xu Ye was puzzled. “That’s not right. I asked the counselor, and she said it’d come this week.”
Li Tongwen said, “Maybe it just needs a bit more time. Xu Ye, don’t go asking again — I’m worried the counselor will find it annoying.”
“Give me your phone.”
Li Tongwen didn’t understand what Xu Ye meant, but handed his phone over anyway.
Used to an iPhone, Xu Ye found Li Tongwen’s off-brand domestic phone painfully laggy now. Luckily there wasn’t much installed on it. Xu Ye opened WeChat, found the counselor, and sent a message straight over:
“Dad, I’m almost out of living money. The teacher might have forgotten to send out the financial aid — could you transfer next month’s allowance to me first?”
Xu Ye saw the words “typing…” appear in the top-left corner.
He quickly typed again: “Ah! Sorry, teacher, I sent that to the wrong person.”
Su Tong replied soon after: “It’s fine. The aid will be disbursed by five o’clock this afternoon at the latest. /smile.”
Xu Ye replied with a “thank you, teacher” and handed the phone back to Li Tongwen.
Li Tongwen immediately opened the phone for a look, and the moment he saw the chat history, his face flushed bright red.
If it had been him, he’d have gladly gnawed on plain mantou for days rather than bring himself to send those messages to the counselor.
Xu Ye smiled. “Relax, the counselor won’t read too much into it. She knows your situation, and she’s probably already guessed I was the one who sent that message.”
Meanwhile, over in the office, Su Tong — also eating lunch — shook her head and laughed. This wretched Xu Ye. Two reminders this week wasn’t enough, so now he’s using Li Tongwen’s phone to nag me too.
She said as much, but she knew Xu Ye wasn’t doing any of this for himself, so she still messaged the faculty leadership to confirm. Once she got a definite reply, she messaged Xu Ye directly: “The aid will go out this afternoon.”
Xu Ye replied instantly: “Great. /blowing a kiss.”
(End of Chapter 143)