The supervisor sent the photo and invited them to sit down first, then hurried out to establish communication.
“There are even official stamps.” Chen Yekai looked at the letter of introduction and casually said.
Zhou Sheng said casually, “Got a few during my internship, and it just so happened to be of use now.” Then he leaned backwards and draped one arm around the back of the sofa Yu Hao was leaning on, looking like he was bored stiff.
Director Huang came over very quickly. He was called Huang Zheng. Before coming over, Chen Yekai had investigated him. He was in his forties and put on his glasses as he walked into the reception room. He looked down at his phone, then looked up at Zhou Sheng. The supervisor said, “This is our Director Huang.”
Zhou Sheng nodded. He got up to shake hands politely, “First time meeting you. Hello, Director Huang.”
“Oh! Oh!” Huang Zheng said, “Hello, hello! What a delight! It truly is a delight! For a friend to come from afar! This is such a delight!”
Huang Zheng spoke with a heavy southern accent. Zhou Sheng handed him the business card Yun Lai Chun made for him — he still kept the ‘Yun Lai Chun’s Director of the Major Business Department’ business card that had been prepared for his promotion. Chen Yekai handed him another business card, and there was a bunch of English words on it. Yu Hao thought, would it really be okay for you guys to do this? You’re that certain they don’t know English??
“No need to check it.” Zhou Sheng smiled at Huang Zheng, “That’s my Dad.”
“Oh! Yes, yes! A tiger father would not beget a dog son! Hahaha!” Huang Zheng had checked Yun Lai Chun in a hurry, and the first photo that popped out was ‘private entrepreneur’ Zhou Laichun. After his face was slimmed down, and his skin smoothed out, he bore a 70% resemblance to Zhou Sheng.
“Un.” Huang Zheng read the original letter of introduction before accepting it, “Why didn’t anyone receive the notification?! This is too unreasonable! Useless!”
Chen Yekai said, “The children in the department have all gone off on a holiday, and we don’t know who was the one who was supposed to contact your company. Before coming over, they said that they had given your company a call and said that everything was arranged. Lang Hui welcomed us to come here for an inspection as well.”
“It’s okay! It’s okay!” Huang Zheng said, “It’s a delight to have friends coming from afar ma! What…what are your demands? Your Yun Lai Chun is in the food and beverage industry, and your company is huge! We can take the chance to learn from each other!”
Chen Yekai showed Huang Zheng the picture on his phone, “The health products you distribute. Our Director Zhou took them…”
“My Dad.” Zhou Sheng explained to Huang Zheng.
As soon as Zhou Sheng spoke, Chen Yekai shut up. Huang Zheng quickly nodded with a smile. After a short moment, Chen Yekai continued, “Our Director Zhou took them, and thinks they’re quite effective.”
“That’s for sure!” Huang Zheng said, “Our products are consumed daily by the Queen of England, Elizabeth!” When he talked about the company’s products, Huang Zheng’s spirits soared in an instant and switched to brainwashing mode. He started introducing it to Zhou Sheng, and talked about the senior Bush, Barack Obama, Elizabeth…he was gabbling non-stop.
“…in it is something called the Gold of Life…”
“Antioxidant enzyme antibody.” Yu Hao said to Chen Yekai.
Only then did Zhou Sheng remember and said to Huang Zheng, “He is our business consultant, and he’s my assistant.”
Chen Yekai talked to Yu Hao in English for a bit, and both of them nodded with a tacit understanding.
Chen Yekai said, ‘his usage of idioms is really interesting,’ while Yu Hao had answered, ‘It’s so hard for me to keep myself from laughing’.
Huang Zheng said, “Yes! That’s the ingredient!”
Yu Hao had seen their PPT for the publicity of their product and had remembered that phrase. He actually didn’t really know what it was. Zhou Sheng stood on tiptoe, placed his ankle on his knee, and shook it a bit, “I never ate it myself, so I’m not very sure. But my Dad likes it a lot and wanted to see if we could collaborate in some way. If appropriate, we could take some of your products back to distribute, or you could come over to develop some channels.”
“So that’s it!” Huang Zheng lowered his voice as he faced Zhou Sheng and said sternly, “Let me ask the sales director to come and introduce the products to you first.”
“No need!” Zhou Sheng waved his hand and reached into his suit’s inner pocket. Yu Hao quickly felt about in his bag and took out an iron cigarette box. Zhou Sheng took the cigarette, then Yu Hao fished out a lighter to help him light his cigarette. Huang Zheng quickly said, “Smoke mine, smoke mine.”
“Smoke mine.” Zhou Sheng had gotten quite a lot of good cigarettes from his company.
Yu Hao lit it for Huang Zheng, and Huang Zheng said, “We have several kinds of products, the one your father eats is just one of them! It needs to be combined with other products to be more effective! You don’t know…”
Following that was another introduction of their products that lasted for nearly half an hour. Yu Hao thought, fortunately we ate a lot in the morning so we’re not hungry now. Zhou Sheng finished listening to him patiently and nodded.
“I don’t take them.” Zhou Sheng said, “My Dad’s a fan of your company, so there’s no need to talk any further. The effects must be very good. I’m more concerned about the profit model, I’m not sure how it’ll work in Ying City.”
Speaking of profit models, Huang Zheng was suddenly enlivened again and Yu Hao thought, we’re finished. If things continue like this, they’d probably have to talk until 6 PM, and even then, they still may not have gotten any useful information out of him. Huang Zheng continued to talk incessantly as he introduced how his team became zealous through this and that and the volume of sales they had completed in the past year. Then he shouted to the outside, “Bring our sales report over!”
Zhou Sheng looked at the report out of courtesy and sighed, “It really is well managed.”
Huang Zheng said, “Have you had lunch? Let’s go out for a meal, we can talk as we eat!’
Yu Hao said, “Do you have any pamphlets?”
“We do!” Huang Zheng called two people over and said to Yu Hao and Chen Yekai, “They’re my deputy generals, my right and left-hand men! They’re all our people!”
A deputy general carried a stack of pamphlets over for Yu Hao, reserved seats at a restaurant, then took them out for lunch. They ordered Hunan cuisine for lunch, and Zhou Sheng only ate a little before stopping. During the meal, he chatted with Huang Zheng, and Huang Zheng kept nodding as he listened.
“People from food and beverage families.” Huang Zheng was grinning from ear to ear, “Officials for three generations are the only ones who know what eating and clothing are truly about! Are you married?”
“No, I’ll have fun for a few more years ba.” Zhou Sheng said, “I’m not in a rush.”
Yu Hao thought, Why are we talking about this now? He took his camera out and took pictures of Zhou Sheng and Huang Zheng. Zhou Sheng was even sitting in a relaxed manner as he draped an arm around Huang Zheng’s shoulders. After the meal, they started toasting each other. Zhou Sheng got the two deputy generals down first, lest they spouted nonsense to Yu Hao, then he started chatting idly with Huang Zheng.
When they were almost done with their meal, Chen Yekai took the initiative to settle the bill. Zhou Sheng now knew the complete composition of all eighteen generations of Huang Zheng’s ancestors, including how he had dropped out of junior high, started from scratch, unloaded cargo and sold insurance, and travelled intensively before finally establishing his own brand distribution.
In the end, the two of them started calling each other brothers, and Yu Hao kept taking pictures from the side. Huang Zheng lit another cigarette for Zhou Sheng and asked someone to settle the bill. When he found out that Chen Yekai had already paid, he flared up.
“How could that be?” Huang Zheng said, “How could that be?! Aren’t you giving me too little face! Hospitality! Where do I put my face now?!”
“Ai it’s okay.” Zhou Sheng said, “Gaining a brother like you after making this trip is worth more than anything, right? It’s just one meal, why fuss over it with your little bro?”
Chen Yekai took out another wooden box and said, “These are the tea leaves that our Director Zhou asked us to bring over; it’s a little token of our regard.”
Huang Zheng floated straight up to the clouds in an instant. Zhou Sheng had drowned him in so many honeyed words, and now he was so smug that he was starting to sound incoherent.
“Come to my villa for the New Year!” Huang Zheng said, “Don’t go back anymore! I’ll ask my wife to cook a few more dishes. You guys have never celebrated the Spring Festival in the South. There’ll be blooming clusters of flowers and resplendent decorations…”
Zhou Sheng said, “No, no……”
Yu Hao said, “Director Zhou, are we still going to the other one in the afternoon?”
Huang Zheng half-sobered up in an instant, “Do you guys still have other arrangements?”
Competition amongst pyramid scheme organisations was also very fierce. Although Lang Hui did have a certain volume, it was not considered the biggest. When Yu Hao entered the restaurant, he could hear the adjacent room and the room beside it hosting team building meals before the New Year. One room was singing《Grateful Heart》, while another was singing《Love’s Dedication》.
Compared to the situation ten years ago where fools who were so dumb that they couldn’t be deceived abounded everywhere, over the past few years pyramid scheme companies had fully deceived the surrounding counties and cities. Now, they were on their way to central China, where Ying City was located, to develop downlines. Evidently, the market prospects here weren’t very good anymore.
Zhou Sheng waved his hand. Huang Zheng thought for a bit and said, “I have to go to the bathroom, let’s continue talking after I get back!”
“Why don’t I just order 20,000 sets first to go back and try?” Zhou Sheng said to Chen Yekai, “After the New Year, get them to send someone over to train our sales team?”
“10,000 is enough.” Chen Yekai said, “They don’t have that many goods.”
One of the deputy generals were lying on the sofa in the room, while the other had gone out to hail a cab. Yu Hao pondered for a moment, then said, “I want to see their production line.”
“They get their goods straight from abroad.” Zhou Sheng said, “There’s no production line for you to see.”
“Let’s look at the packaging workshop then.” Chen Yekai said, “Get Xiao Hao to take a few photos; it’ll be better for us when accounting to Old Director.”
“Ask him ba.” Zhou Sheng said, “Don’t know if they’re willing.”
Not long after, Huang Zheng came back. Deputy General A supported Deputy General B, and a Porsche and Land Rover came from the company to come pick them up. Huang Zheng asked them to rest in the company.
Yu Hao, “We still have…”
“Ah, no, no, no!” Huang Zheng said, “Take a seat first please!”
Chen Yekai said, “But we shouldn’t disturb you.”
“Don’t go, don’t go! Don’t go yet!” Huang Zheng said, “I’ll have a short discussion with the company’s mainstays, and I’ll be right back. Give me twenty minutes!”
Huang Zheng left in a hurry. Yu Hao tossed Zhou Sheng a meaningful glance. Zhou Sheng leaned on a sofa in the reception room and loosened his collar, frowning deeply. He felt quite uncomfortable from drinking and closed his eyes; he was still thinking. He held Yu Hao with one hand and hooked him with his fingertips.
Yu Hao even felt a certain misconception — this play was really too realistic, and he almost thought that he really was here to discuss a business deal with Zhou Sheng.
Sometimes, he would think that if he were straight and didn’t date Zhou Sheng, then they might still spend their lives together in some other way…just like what Zhou Laichun said before, that he wanted to let him do business with Zhou Sheng. After graduation, he may have followed Zhou Sheng to Yun Lai Chun and learned to be his assistant.
Then he would accompany Zhou Sheng. With just one glance from him, Yu Hao would know what to do, and within the entire corporation, he would be the only one who could persuade Zhou Sheng, and he would be the only person in the world who could deal with Zhou Sheng…he would quarrel with Zhou Sheng and would also be willing to take a knife for him as well. He may even train his alcohol tolerance to help Zhou Sheng block drinks, just like what Situ Ye does for Lin Ze.
Chen Yekai went out to pick up a call. Zhou Sheng suddenly said with his eyes closed, “Do you still remember the first time you met me?”
“Un.” Yu Hao answered with a hint of a smile in his eyes, “20,000 sets, one set is 4,500, 90 million.”
Zhou Sheng continued asking, “Describe it?”
Yu Hao said, “I won’t.”
Zhou Sheng opened his eyes and shifted over to pester Yu Hao, “Describe it a little ma.”
Yu Hao said, “Behave yourself, this is someone else’s company!”
Zhou Sheng smiled to himself, “I still remember the first time I met you, let’s trade?”
“No.”
“Say it!” Zhou Sheng urged, “Or I’ll hit you.”
Yu Hao said, “We’ll talk when we get home. No dating at work, it’ll affect my performance later.”
Zhou Sheng said, “Give me a hint.”
Yu Hao answered, “The basketball match for new students.”
Zhou Sheng rubbed his head and said, “Forgot that, I stood out?”
Yu Hao said, “Un…sort of.”
Zhou Sheng said, baffled, “I did?”
At this time, Chen Yekai returned after his call, so the two of them stopped talking.
“Huang Ting has arrived at the airport in the neighbouring city.” Chen Yekai said, “I’ll go over and hide the car keys under the car to keep him on standby and wait for backup.”
Zhou Sheng nodded slightly, and the two of them didn’t continue talking any further. Yu Hao saw that something had started outside through the French windows in the reception room. A group of people were shouting crazy slogans and clapped as they ran around in circles. Looking at them like this, they really did seem like those buzzing flying mosquito men in Fu Liqun’s dream.
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