There were two reasons Xu Ye wanted to bring Yuan Yuqi into the company.

First: the company was very short of people right now, and even if Yuan Yuqi’s education wasn’t much, she was more than enough for a receptionist’s or a clerk’s job.

Second: Yuan Yuqi already owed him a favor, and she happened to be looking for work. If he gave her an opportunity she would certainly be deeply moved by it, and once she was at the company she would, for one thing, work conscientiously and, for another, be very willing to do as he said.

When a company hired, there were two kinds of people it had to have: those who were highly capable, and those who were loyal. For a boss, neither could be done without.

Yuan Yuqi heard him out and asked, completely lost, “What do you mean?”

“I’ve opened a new company and I happen to be short of people. You can start tomorrow. Your pay will be whatever the expected salary on your résumé says.”

Yuan Yuqi’s eyes went wide. She turned in her seat and asked, looking thrilled, “Really?”

“Mm.”

“That’s wonderful!” Yuan Yuqi hadn’t the slightest doubt about it, because she knew that the people who came and went at the Junya Club were all persons of standing in Shanghai. She said, very worked up, “I was thinking that if I hadn’t found a job by the end of this month I’d go back home.”

Xu Ye gave her a smile, drove to the school’s package pickup point, put the parcel Jiang Wei had misaddressed in the trunk, and went back the way he had come to the foot of the company’s building.

“The company’s upstairs. Is where you live far from here?”

“Not far.” Yuan Yuqi smiled. “There’s a subway station right nearby. Forty-odd minutes on the subway, roughly.”

In a big city, a forty-minute commute really wasn’t long.

Xu Ye took Yuan Yuqi up to the company, put the parcel down, and called Zhang Xinzhou over. “Her name is Yuan Yuqi. Do her onboarding paperwork for me.”

“Huh?”

Zhang Xinzhou was a little blank-faced.

Weren’t you off collecting a parcel? How have you been out less than half an hour and come back with another hire?

Yuan Yuqi wasn’t what you’d call pretty — by Xu Ye’s standards, somewhere around a 75. But she was quite tall, around one seventy, and with makeup on and her clothes properly put together she could probably reach an 80.

The front desk was a company’s face, and Yuan Yuqi couldn’t have suited the position better.

“Do it the way I said.”

Zhang Xinzhou rolled his eyes, then went over to Yuan Yuqi with a broad grin and said, “Let me introduce myself. I’m Zhang Xinzhou.”

Yuan Yuqi said promptly, “Hello, Director Zhang.”

Christ!

Somebody called me Director Zhang!

Zhang Xinzhou’s vanity was enormously gratified in that moment. He felt as though he had shot straight up into the clouds, and he was thoroughly light-headed with it.

Just then Lü Cheng came out of his office too and called over to Xu Ye, “Xu Ye. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

Xu Ye went over quickly.

The two of them sat down in the office and Lü Cheng came straight out with it. “There aren’t many projects right now, so I can carry the investment department’s work on my own. But the legal department has to have somebody experienced in charge of it, and preferably somebody hired soon.”

“Do you have anyone in mind?”

Lü Cheng laughed wryly. “Even if I did, they wouldn’t come over here and gamble on you the way I have.”

Xu Ye gave an awkward laugh, and in the end steeled himself and said, “Leave that with me. I’ll get a head of legal in as quickly as I can.”

“Mm. That’s all for today, then. I’ll come in and start properly tomorrow.”

“Good. See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”

…

The head of legal was giving Xu Ye a real headache.

For an investment company the position was extremely important. The school did have a law school, but the students had no work experience and they certainly couldn’t handle being head of legal.

Once Xu Ye got back to the dorm he started going through his WeChat contact list, but he went through it twice and couldn’t find one person who could solve this problem for him.

And just as Xu Ye was stuck on it, Jiang Chao suddenly sent him a message. “Have you recruited Jiang Wei into your new company?”

Xu Ye replied at once. “Mm.”

Jiang Chao: “Is the company far from the school?”

Xu Ye: “Not far, it’s at Jinqiao Wanchuang Center. Twenty minutes by bicycle.”

Xu Ye: “Uncle, my company is short of a head of legal right now. You know a lot of people — could you introduce me to somebody suitable? I won’t pay less than anyone else, and the new company has a lot of room to grow.”

Fudan’s law school ranked third in the country, and as an associate dean of the school Jiang Chao certainly had resources in that direction.

Since he had messaged first anyway, Xu Ye asked while he was at it.

Jiang Chao looked at the message and had to laugh, exasperated.

This boy really will ask me for help with absolutely anything.

Jiang Chao could complain all he liked, but his own daughter was working at the boy’s company now — so all he could do was console himself that helping Xu Ye was helping his daughter. He replied quickly anyway. “I’ll ask around for you.”

Xu Ye: “Great, thanks, Uncle.”

Toward evening Jiang Chao called the dean of the law school, and after a stretch of small talk he brought the matter up in passing. The dean at the other end agreed readily and said he’d help ask whether any former students had been looking for work lately.

And just then Xu Ye got a call from Su Tong, his counselor, telling him to come to the office because there were some things she wanted to go over.

With finals almost on them, being called in by the counselor at this point would certainly be the same as before the winter break last year — remind the class about exam-hall discipline, shut the doors and windows and turn off the water and power before leaving, take valuables with them, and then collect everyone’s summer travel survey.

Xu Ye didn’t think much of it and drove off to the counselor’s office soon after.

But on the way.

He ran into Li Lulu again. She wasn’t alone — there was a boy beside her, and the boy was not Yang Fei.

Xu Ye slowed down and watched from a distance for a while. Seeing the two of them talking and laughing, he had just gone to pick up his phone to take a photograph when the car behind him leaned on its horn. Li Lulu and the boy both turned their heads instinctively, and Xu Ye hurriedly threw the phone aside, stepped hard on the gas and went past the two of them.

Xu Ye wasn’t worried about whether Li Lulu had seen him. He was only thinking: I need to find a time to have a proper talk with Yang Fei about Li Lulu.

They were roommates, after all. He couldn’t stand by and watch him jump into a pit of fire.

“Who’s that, driving that fast?”

The boy beside Li Lulu complained at once. But when Li Lulu saw the license plate, the smile slowly went out of her face.

Isn’t that Xu Ye’s car?

…

Just as Xu Ye had guessed, everything Su Tong had to go over with him was the same old ground.

Once he had noted it all down he was ready to go.

Seeing him in such a hurry to leave, Su Tong said irritably, “You haven’t even taken the summer travel survey. Where are you rushing off to?”

“Heh heh. Back to the dorm to revise.”

“Give me a break. As if I don’t know you — asleep in class, then straight off to make money the moment it’s over. Does that make you a student?”

Xu Ye asked at once, “Su-jie, let me ask you something. What do people go to university for?”

“To find a good job.”

“And what do people find jobs for?”

“To make money.”

“Well, there you are. I’ve cut out the whole middle part and skipped straight to the last step. Isn’t that a good thing? You could at least not encourage me — but criticizing me on top of it?”

“Hey. You.” Su Tong hadn’t expected to walk into it that easily, but she caught up quickly and asked, “What did you just call me?”

“Su-jie.”

“No respect for your elders. Careful or I’ll thump you.”

“Ha, doesn’t it sound friendlier?”

“That reminds me. I hear your fruit shop went under. Didn’t you say business was good? How did it go under?”

“It didn’t go under. I signed it over to somebody.”

“Why sign over a perfectly good shop? Ever since you bought that car I’ve heard a lot of people saying you’re a millionaire now.”

“Who the hell’s making that up?”

Xu Ye said, filled with righteous indignation, “I’m quite obviously a multi-millionaire, all right?”

(End of Chapter 250)