Zhao Ming turned up in a very flashy orange Porsche.
Xu Ye showed him around the company first, and on the way downstairs Zhao Ming asked curiously, “How many people do you have now?”
“Ten exactly, counting me.”
“Badass.” Zhao Ming put his thumb up. “What were you actually thinking when you put money into that movie? A company this small, five million in one go — weren’t you afraid of losing it?”
Xu Ye shrugged, unbothered. “If you’re thinking about losing it from the start, why open an investment company at all? You’d be better off just keeping your head down and getting a regular job.”
“Fair point.”
“So how are things with you now? Still rotating through departments at your uncle’s company?”
Zhao Ming shook his head. “No chance. I’m group leader of the fifth general group in Investment now.”
“Not bad. Group leader already.”
“Don’t rub it in. Nobody in Investment has less say than the general group. Basically every project that reaches me is something the first four groups passed on, or picked over and left. And of course my uncle’s given me an ultimatum on top of it — I have to produce some results in the next two years, or I stay exactly where I am.”
The moment he heard that, Xu Ye threw an arm around Zhao Ming’s shoulders and laughed. “Boss Zhao, how about the two of us work together?”
“Work together? How?”
“My company was only set up recently and not many projects come to us yet. Lisheng Capital is a big firm — even if you’re only leader of the fifth general group, plenty still lands on your desk. Share the proposals with me, and if I like the look of one, we invest in it together.”
“You make it sound like investing alongside you is a guaranteed win.”
Xu Ye laughed. “At least so far, my judgment hasn’t been wrong. And if you don’t trust me, you don’t have to invest.”
“That’s no good. If you make money I’ll never stop kicking myself.”
Xu Ye pressed him. “So are you in or not?”
Zhao Ming pulled a face. “I need to think about it.”
“Fine, take your time. The partnership only runs a year anyway. After a year your old man won’t need you.”
“You’re going to turn the world upside down in a year?”
Xu Ye said it with complete confidence. “In a year Qingye Investment will be a big name in the investment world. Will I need you then?”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. The way you are right now, you’re really asking to get hit.”
“Where are we eating tonight?”
“A place I go to a lot. The food’s good. After that I’ll take you for a foot massage.”
“Are we actually going?”
“Your old man does what he says.”
“You’re not taking me to one of those foot-massage places that aren’t above board, are you?”
“Get lost. Is your old man that kind of man?”
“Looks like it.”
“Looks like your ass.”
Zhao Ming was an open-handed sort. It was only the two of them eating that night, but he ordered several dishes anyway.
The restaurant was upscale, and the meal certainly wasn’t cheap.
Over dinner they talked a great deal about the economy, investment and related topics.
Zhao Ming had certainly drifted through his university years, but he had grown up steeped in this world and was hardly clueless. Listening to Xu Ye lay out the economy over the next few years with flat certainty, he was in fact very curious — curious how a college student came to know this much.
After dinner Zhao Ming took Xu Ye to a foot-massage parlor.
The place offered more than basic massage and pedicure services; there were also sauna rooms and hot-spring rooms upstairs. Zhao Ming plainly wasn’t there for the first time. He led Xu Ye in with practiced ease, and after half an hour of foot massage they went up to the sauna together.
They had barely sat down before they were both streaming with sweat. Xu Ye wiped it away with a towel and asked, “Last time I came to see you at your company, I noticed you have a lot of women working there, and their eyes light up the second they see you. Be honest — has anybody tried to get with you these last two months?”
“Plenty of them.”
Zhao Ming laughed. “There was one just this morning.”
“Go on, tell me. How did she come on to you?”
“I went to the office kitchen for coffee. The printer’s over there too. The moment she saw me walk over she stuck her backside out and pretended to be looking for something she’d printed, and then wiggled it around in case I somehow missed it.”
“And you didn’t even take the bait?”
“Christ. Am I that easy?”
Zhao Ming laughed in exasperation. “I went to a different foot-massage place with a friend a while back. Now that woman was operating on another level.”
“Tell me.”
“Right as it was finishing, she got all pitiful and told me not to come again. Said money isn’t easy to come by these days and I should be saving it properly, and if I really missed her I should just book the cheapest package and she’d do the same job for me anyway. Told me to put money aside and marry a good wife, not someone like her. Said if she wasn’t doing this for a living in her next life, she’d marry me.”
Zhao Ming was waving his arms around as he told it. “I heard all that at the time and just about fell for it. Damn — it was only afterward that my friend told me she says exactly the same thing to every customer. I never went back after that.”
“Now that’s what you call a real honey trap.”
“You have no idea how good her acting was. It’s a waste, a woman like that not being an actress.”
“Don’t say that. It isn’t easy for her either. What if she has a father who gambles, a mother who’s seriously ill and a little brother who’s good at school?”
“Haha. You’re something else.”
……
It was already nine thirty by the time they came out of the foot-massage parlor.
Zhao Ming dropped Xu Ye off near the company and then headed home on his own. He had barely got in the door when he found his uncle Zhao Wenhua sitting on the sofa waiting for him.
Zhao Ming had been in a cheerful mood, and the moment he saw his uncle the smile came straight off his face. He scratched his head. “Uncle. What are you doing here?”
Zhao Wenhua stayed where he was and asked in a low voice, “You vanish the moment work ends. Where have you been fooling around this time?”
“Uncle.” Zhao Ming explained quickly. “I really wasn’t out fooling around today. I went to have dinner with that Xu Ye.”
“Take a look at him. Two years younger than you, and through his own hard work he’s already started a business and is making money. And you? Day after day, never serious about anything.”
Zhao Ming was used to being shouted at by now. He came forward and said, “Uncle, there’s something I want to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“Xu Ye told me today that his company was only set up a little while ago and not many projects come to them. He wants to work with me — pick projects out of the ones we receive, and then the two companies invest in them together. What do you think?”
Zhao Wenhua didn’t answer. He put the question back instead. “And what do you want to do?”
“The way I see it, everything that gets dumped on me is what the other groups picked over and left anyway. If that’s how it is, we might as well try working with Xu Ye. If an investment comes off, everybody’s happy; if it fails, somebody else shares the loss. And I think Xu Ye has a strong nose for the market. He seems able to tell in advance which industries will make money and which won’t.”
Zhao Ming warmed to it as he went on. “He told me today that these two years are the golden period for investing, and that the investment climate at home will get worse year by year from here. He even predicted that US-China relations will change within three years — no actual fighting, but possibly a trade war…”
Zhao Wenhua listened for a good while, his brow drawing tighter and tighter, and only when Zhao Ming had finished did he ask, “He said all this?”
“Yeah.”
“You should see more of him from now on. That kid has a quick mind. Stay close to him and you might learn a lot.”
Zhao Ming nodded. “Uncle — so the partnership?”
“Do it however you think best.”
“Understood.”
……
In the middle of August the school dorms were naturally not an option.
Xu Ye had no choice but to do what Zhang Xinzhou had done and check into a hotel near the company.
He had barely got back to his hotel room when his phone rang.
At this hour Xu Ye didn’t need to look at the caller ID to know it had to be Chen Qingqing. He answered and put her on speaker, then set his suitcase down on the floor and started taking clothes out of it. “How are you so punctual? I’ve only just got to the hotel and here you are calling.”
Chen Qingqing’s voice came through a moment later. “What kept you out this late?”
“Had dinner with a friend tonight, talked about work for a while.” Then he added quickly, “A guy, by the way.”
Chen Qingqing was lying face down on the bed with her legs swinging in the air. Hearing that, she pouted. “I didn’t ask.”
“I just didn’t want you reading anything into it. Last time, with Manning—”
Before Xu Ye could finish, Chen Qingqing cut him off. “All right. You’re not to bring that up again.”
“Fine. I won’t.”
“Are you about to shower?”
“It’s fine. I can shower and talk to you at the same time.”
“It’s so boring with you gone.”
“Missing me already?”
“A little~”
“Ten days or so will go by fast.”
“I don’t care. Next time I’m going back to Shanghai with you.”
“Qingqing~”
“Mm?”
“I love you.”
“I… love you too.”
(End of Chapter 282)