The assistant went to Deputy Chairman Qin’s office with his phone.
“Don’t you think your boss is starting to lose his edge? He isn’t decisive enough anymore,” remarked Deputy Chairman Qin randomly as he took the phone from Assistant Wang.
Assistant Wang lowered his head. He remained silent and did not respond to Deputy Chairman Qin.
Deputy Chairman Qin smiled and continued. “Chairman Wang is getting on his age, so he won’t stay in his position for long.”
“He is still the chairman now,” replied Assistant Wang finally.
“We should always plan ahead, right?” said Deputy Chairman Qin airily as though he did not hear what Assistant Wang had said.
Assistant Wang tightened his fists. He knew exactly what Deputy Chairman Qin was implying. He paused and said, “You make sense.”
Deputy Chairman Qin raised his brow. “I’ve always been impressed by your work.”
“I appreciate it, Deputy Chairman Qin.” Assistant Wang smiled politely.
“Oh yes. I recall the herb farmer is called Mi Wei, right? How did you learn of him?” Deputy Chairman Qin changed the subject. He already knew that Assistant Wang was the one who found Mi Wei.
…
“I found out about him online. Since we needed to hire a new herb cultivator, we hired him,” explained Assistant Wang candidly.
Deputy Chairman Qin nodded. He pondered and asked again. “Where’s his hometown?”
Assistant Wang shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t know. We never talked about it before.”
Deputy Chairman Qin glanced at Assistant Wang and dropped the subject. Instead, he said, “Tell your boss to call Mi Wei and get him to come back. Otherwise, how are we going to answer the client?”
He paused and added. “We can’t afford to offend the client. Even if Chairman Wang doesn’t care, you should remind him.”
Assistant Wang acknowledged with his head lowered without speaking further.
Deputy Chairman Qin dropped the subject and let Assistant Wang leave. He proceeded to call his foreign contact and told him to relax and wait.
**
When Huo Yao went to class on Monday, the seat beside her was empty. Yuan Xi was not there for class.
She felt a little puzzled, so she sent Yuan Xi a text message asking where she had gone. However, she did not hear back from Yuan Xi all morning.
When it was lunchtime, Huo Yao called Yuan Xi over the phone.
The phone rang for a long time before someone finally answered it. It was Yuan Xi’s mother who came on the line.
“She has a bad cold, so she won’t be able to go to school.” Mrs Yuan clearly sounded worried.
Huo Yao recalled Yuan Xi texting her on Saturday and mentioning that she was still on campus, so she asked casually. “Has she been home all day on Saturday then?”
Mrs Yuan watched as her daughter slept soundly on the bed. She said softly, “That’s right. She came back on Friday and hasn’t left the house ever since. She didn’t look good when she came back. Since you’re her friend, can you tell me if anything happened at school?”
Was Yuan Xi in bad shape?
Huo Yao felt Yuan Xi seemed completely normal at school.
Huo Yao contemplated and replied. “Nope. She has been working hard at school and she didn’t mention any problems to me.”
Mrs Yuan sighed and said, “Perhaps I’m imagining things then. Anyway, thanks for checking in on her. I’ll let her know you called the moment she wakes up so that she can text you.”
Huo Yao thanked Mrs Yuan and hung up the phone.
