Chapter 25
Lin Yusen carried my backpack,
and I shook his hand as we walked towards the parking lot.
“Are you going to have business
dinners with them tonight? It’s a bit strange for me to suddenly show up… I’ll
rest at the hotel by myself, you don’t need to worry about me.”
“I don’t care about them, I’ll
show you around Chengdu.”
Huh?
Although my purpose is to travel,
I don’t want to interfere with business. I couldn’t help but guess: “Has it
been resolved?”
“Not yet.”
How can you not care? He must be
joking.
But Lin Yusen pulled out his
phone and made a call. "President Qi, I'm sorry, I have something to do
tonight, so I won't be able to have dinner with you… My girlfriend is visiting
Chengdu, and I need to spend time with her, otherwise she'll get angry… We can
talk about it after we get to work; it's the May Day holiday, and I don't want
to bother you too much…"
I stared blankly as he casually
said a few words and hung up, continuing towards the parking lot. I quickly
followed and grabbed him.
"Hey, you really don't need
to come with me? Getting the production line sorted out is important; the new
factory has been inspected and accepted, it can't be left empty… No, you're
being so incompetent!"
Lin Yusen laughed heartily, then
bent down and cupped my face, kissing me. "How can you be so cute?"
"Mmm… you're so cute."
My face was squeezed so tightly I could barely speak.
“We basically figured out the
situation yesterday,” Lin Yusen explained, releasing my grip. “Sister Chen
helped contact two former colleagues, I had drinks with President Qi, and Xiao
Xie went to pry information out of them. We already know which company is
interfering. So, we can leave President Qi's situation to cool down.”
I was puzzled: “Let it cool
down?”
“Yes, let it cool down. Also,
have someone subtly hint to that company that their equipment has some problems
that their technicians can't solve. That's not exactly a lie. Of course, we
can't give them the information directly; they have to find out unintentionally.
President Qi will contact us later.”
Oh…
“Okay.” I continued walking
forward. “Take me to eat quickly, I'm starving.”
At the airport's private car
parking lot, Lin Yusen took out his car keys and unlocked a car.
I glanced at it. “Is this the car
you hired in Chengdu? Didn't you bring a driver?” The company boss is on a
business trip; the proper entourage is necessary.
“No,” Lin Yusen replied, “I
cancelled that van as soon as I got your text. I just rented this myself; it’s
more convenient to have a car these days.”
That makes sense.
I turned to get in the car, but
Lin Yusen grabbed me, his eyes burning with interest: “Aren’t you going to ask
what’s convenient?”
What else could be convenient?
“It’s convenient to travel
around, of course.”
“Wrong.” Lin Yusen shook his head
with a look of utter incorrigibility, leaned down and gave me a light kiss on
the lips, cheerfully telling me the correct answer, “It’s convenient for being
foolish.”
Me: “…”
He was satisfied with the kiss
and went off to be the driver. I didn’t say anything. Once the car left the
parking lot and was on the airport expressway, and it was clear there was
nowhere to park, I called out to him softly, “Lin Yusen.”
“Hmm?” He kept his eyes on the
road, focused on driving.
“Your foolishness lasted a little
too short.”
…I miscalculated.
How was I supposed to know the
distance from Shuangliu Airport to the restaurant was so short?
So, in the next parking lot, we
parked and didn't get out of the car for almost ten minutes…
Next time, I must carefully
consider the terrain before making any promises!
Our first meal in Chengdu was, of
course, hot pot. Lin Yusen said he had already done his research while waiting
for me at the airport, ensuring that we would eat top-notch food that only
locals go to every day.
"Can you handle spicy
food?"
On the way to the hot pot
restaurant, the two of us from Jiangnan inevitably started discussing the issue
of eating spicy food.
"Of course."
"I'm pretty good at it
too!" I immediately showed off. "Actually, I didn't eat spicy food
before, but when I went to school in Nanjing, there were so many spicy dishes
there. The pickled fish near the school gate was incredibly spicy, but so
delicious, so I was forced to learn to eat spicy food."
"I haven't had any training,
but I've been eating it these past few days and it's been alright. I
occasionally go to Sichuan restaurants. Your senior brother Fang is completely
hopeless at this."
"He's so bad? Then next time
we'll treat him to Sichuan food!"
On the short walk from the
parking lot to the hot pot restaurant, we collectively scorned our distant
senior brother Fang, boasting about consuming ten pounds of chili peppers. But
when we arrived at the hot pot restaurant, where the air was thick with the
aroma of spice, we ordered a medium-spicy broth. After just one bite, we each
ordered three bottles of mineral water.
One for cooking, two for
drinking, and we'd order more if needed.
"Shouldn't we get a mild or
a half-and-half pot?" I looked around and whispered to Lin Yusen.
"I heard that if you order a
half-and-half hot pot, the waiter will announce it loudly. Maybe you can just
say so next time? If it's a girl, the waiter might be more considerate."
...But what if they announce it
to the whole restaurant? Don't I have any dignity?
Mr. Lin's character is really
declining!
I looked around. "Shouldn't
you cover up your rinsing motion a little? It's really unsightly for a man to
eat spicy food like that."
Lin Yusen didn't mind at all:
"I can adapt to any situation."
"How have you been eating
these past few days? It's embarrassing to ask for water to rinse your food when
eating with the locals, isn't it?"
"Looks like President Qi is
taking care of me now," Lin Yusen sighed. "There's a restaurant there
that's pretty good. I'll take you there sometime. It doesn't even have a name;
it's just a few tables and bamboo chairs set up on the roadside. It's quite
interesting."
Is this what business banquets
are like? It seems this President Qi has quite the shrewdness of the
underworld.
Speaking of President Qi, I
thought of the production line, and then I remembered the auxiliary material
contract.
Oh right, how could I forget
about that!
I quickly put down my chopsticks
and said excitedly, "Lin Yusen, I forgot to tell you, I think I've
accomplished something big!"
I quickly recounted what had
happened, and as I'd hoped, I received Lin Yusen's surprise and praise.
"Well done, far exceeding my
expectations."
I looked smug.
"Why did you think of doing
that?" Lin Yusen asked me.
"First, I realized
something. The Sheng family wronged me; they should give me an explanation, not
me have to prove my innocence to them. So, I had to be a little
assertive." I picked up my chopsticks again and very seriously heated a
spoonful of beef.
Lin Yusen corrected me: "The
burden of proof lies with the one making the claim. That's called being
assertive, not arrogant."
"You're right," I
readily agreed. There was no need to portray myself as overbearing. "And
then there's the fact that I suffered a huge loss this time!"
"Having already suffered
such a loss, you have to find a way to recover some of it elsewhere. Isn't it
said that crisis is opportunity? I'm trying to figure out where the opportunity
lies, to recoup some of my losses. Since it involves Uncle Sheng, it's easy to
connect it to that contract. You said to focus on the main contradiction; I
think this is the main contradiction."
Lin Yusen smiled: "That's
not what I meant back then."
"More or less. I'm naturally
intelligent and quick-witted," I said proudly. "Anyway, on the way
there, I wasn't sad at all; it felt like I was going to fight a battle, and I
was even a little excited."
Lin Yusen stared intently at me:
"It seems our Xiguang is capable of great things."
"Really? Really?" I
wanted to hear more.
"Of course, being able to
overcome emotional interference, turn a crisis into an opportunity, and
transform adversity into advantage requires excellent adaptability and a
resilient mentality."
Lin Yusen is much better at
praising people than my dad!
He has a theory, unlike my dad
whose ultimate goal is still to praise himself.
Although I knew Lin Yusen's words
were largely exaggerated, I was still overjoyed and eagerly placed a piece of
extremely spicy tofu skin on his plate. "Not at all, it's all thanks to
Mr. Lin's teachings."
The meat wasn't so spicy after
being rinsed in water, but the tofu skin, soaked in broth, was still incredibly
spicy.
Lin Yusen glanced at the tofu
skin and considerately placed a piece of vegetable on my plate. "Don't
just eat meat, eat some vegetables too."
I looked at the vegetables
covered in chili peppers…
Mr. Lin clearly also has an
excellent ability to cleverly trick people.
We're probably the legendary type
who love vegetables but also love to eat, and we actually finished everything
despite the spiciness. When we paid the bill, the waiter glanced at the bottled
water we used to cook our food and asked curiously, "Where are you from?
You can't even handle this little bit of spice?"
"Shanghai," I said
immediately.
"Jiangsu," Lin Yusen
said almost simultaneously. ???
Was this a successful or
unsuccessful attempt to frame us?
"Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and
Shanghai," the waiter said, including the innocent Zhejiang boy, "I
knew it. Next time, don't order medium spicy, just mild is fine."
We left the restaurant in
humiliation, quickly forgetting our lesson, and went to eat spicy roasted
rabbit (and bottled water). By the time we got in the car to go back to the
hotel, my lips felt swollen from the spice.
The car stopped in the hotel
parking lot, and I belatedly remembered a crucial question: tonight… uh, should
I get another room? After all, we've only been together for a few months…
But wouldn't Lin Yusen think that
would be too formal?
I was silently agonizing over my
decision when I stepped into the hotel lobby and bumped into Xiao Xie, Lin
Yusen's colleague who had come to Chengdu with him.
Xiao Xie had probably just
returned from a late-night snack; the smell of spicy hot pot lingered on him.
He was humming a tune, looking cheerfully at me, until he saw us.
His singing stopped abruptly, and
he looked between Lin Yusen and me with a shocked expression, which quickly
turned into the awkwardness of having intruded on his boss's private life.
I felt a little embarrassed too…
coming all the way to see him even though his boyfriend was on a business trip
seemed so clingy. Only Lin Yusen remained calm. "Xiao Xie, I was just
about to look for you."
"Huh?" Xiao Xie looked
blankly at me.
"Your room has twin beds,
right? I'll sleep in yours tonight."
"Oh, right, okay, okay. I'll
go back and get ready right away."
Xiao Xie took off running.
Lin Yusen turned back to look at
me. "You'll sleep in my room tonight."
I smiled, "Okay, do you want
to get ready first?"
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