After a brief moment of silence, Mi Cai turned to Mi Lan and said, “Uncle leaving Zuomei is a challenge for all of us. I hope Zuomei continues to improve, as it directly affects the livelihoods of thousands of employees in the group.”
“Big sister, there’s no need for you to stand on a moral high ground and talk to me like this. You should understand what I mean.”
I looked at Mi Lan. This woman’s personality was indeed straightforward. In comparison, Mi Cai was more like a shrewd businessman, always speaking with hidden meanings.
Mi Cai smiled at Mi Lan and said, “Honestly, I don’t quite understand what you mean. However, when we run a business, we must have a sense of responsibility as entrepreneurs. The employees are the foundation of a company’s survival. As senior management, we must create a good working environment for them so they can generate more value for the company!”
“Oh come on, big sister, don’t start spouting your MBA theories at me. My meaning is very simple. Zuomei belongs to our Mi family, and it’s the result of Father’s and Uncle’s efforts. Now that we’ve taken over from them, we must unite. Let me make a statement to you: whatever decisions you make in the group, I will support you as the General Manager!”
Mi Cai did not respond enthusiastically to Mi Lan, only saying, “As General Manager, you must have independent thinking. I hope you can point out my shortcomings in our future work, rather than supporting me unconditionally!”
Mi Lan was somewhat embarrassed by Mi Cai’s words and then changed the subject, saying, “Okay, let’s stop talking about work. Let’s talk about your marriage. When are you planning to get married with…”
I interrupted again, saying, “My name is Zhaoyang…”
Mi Lan gave me a glare and then said, “With Zhaoyang?”
“After Uncle retires and the company completes its transition period, we can start considering the wedding.”
“Oh, then I’ll congratulate you in advance. By then, the group will also have successfully gone public—truly a double celebration!”
At this moment, I wanted to find out whether she had truly ended her complicated relationship with Fangyuan, so I probed cautiously, “Don’t just think about your sister’s marriage. You’re not young either. Do you currently have a steady boyfriend? If you do, it’s time to start discussing marriage.”
Mi Lan instinctively responded with dissatisfaction, “Who do you think you are? Why do you care so much?”
“Your future brother-in-law.”
Mi Lan looked at me with a half-smile and replied, “Oh, it’s the future brother-in-law! Then I’ll have to trouble you, dear brother-in-law, to help me find a perfect husband!”
“You might not be satisfied with ordinary people…”
“How about you go die?!”
“No, I meant, ordinary people might not be good enough for you!”
Mi Lan sarcastically replied, “Even my older sister, such a celestial beauty, ended up choosing a nobody like you. So maybe lowering my standards a bit isn’t so bad.”
Mi Cai seemed very annoyed by our verbal sparring and directly called the waiter, handed him her card to settle the bill, and then signaled for us to leave. Thus, this thought-provoking dinner came to an end.
…
After the dinner ended, it was just past 8 PM. Mi Cai first dropped me off at the old house before heading back to the company to deal with some pending paperwork. Ever since Uncle Mi Zhongde had expressed his intention to step down, she had indeed become much busier than before.
I was feeling bored alone in the house, and since it was still early, I took the lighter and cigarettes that Mi Cai had just gifted me and began walking north along the residential complex.
All the way, I kept thinking about my future career. In fact, after my business entered a period of rapid growth, some management issues had begun to surface. Moreover, the previously well-received “Perfect Travel Plan” had recently received a small number of negative reviews. Indeed, after the explosive growth in the number of tourists, our services had become somewhat overwhelmed. Due to insufficient human resources, some irregularities in service had appeared. These were all pressing issues that I needed to address.
As I walked, I once again arrived at the riverside embankment. Instinctively, I looked down and, sure enough, saw Jian Wei reading documents under a streetlight. This place seemed to have become her second office. But it must be said, the view here was indeed expansive and the environment pleasant, making it easy for one to relieve the fatigue of the day.
As I prepared to walk past her silently, she put down her documents and said, “Do you really have to act like a complete stranger?”
I looked around and replied in a rather absurd tone, “I’m searching for secrets in the dark, so I didn’t notice you.”
“Rubbish!”
I ignored her and continued walking back and forth along the riverside, occasionally kicking pebbles into the river, making “plop, plop” sounds. Finally, Jian Wei couldn’t stand it anymore and snapped at me, “Zhaoyang, do you have ADHD? You haven’t stopped moving since you got here!”
“Then why don’t you just pretend you didn’t see me and go sit somewhere else?”
Jian Wei replied angrily, “Why should I move? This is a huge river. You could even go swimming in it if you wanted. Why do you keep hovering around me like a ghost?”
“What, you think this moat is your own private property? Do I have to submit an application to you before I can walk around here?”
Jian Wei was so angry she couldn’t speak, glaring at me fiercely before lowering her head again in silence and returning to her documents. I continued pacing back and forth on the embankment, repeating my earlier actions, until I felt the urge to smoke. I stopped, took out the cigarette pack and lighter from my pocket, and tried to light a cigarette, only to realize that this brand new lighter hadn’t been filled with gas yet.
Desperate for a smoke, I approached Jian Wei again and asked, “Got a lighter? Help me light this.”
Without holding a grudge over our earlier nonsense, Jian Wei handed me her handbag and said, “It’s in the inner pocket. Take it yourself.”
I placed the expensive Dupont lighter I was holding on the grass, then rummaged through Jian Wei’s bag until I finally found the lighter she had used countless times to light my cigarettes. I lit the cigarette I had placed in my mouth and absentmindedly played with the lighter, amusing myself during this boring night.
Jian Wei finally looked at the lighter I had placed on the grass and asked, “Is this your lighter?”
“Yeah, she gave it to me. I haven’t had time to fill it with gas yet.”
“Oh, that explains it…”
I frowned and asked, “Explains what? Do you think I can’t even afford a lighter like this?”
“I didn’t mean anything else. I just thought you wouldn’t spend money on something like this.”
“Now you’re talking sense!”
Jian Wei smiled slightly, then fell silent again. I was somewhat surprised. Normally, she was so strong-willed, yet today she had repeatedly yielded to me. Was it because I had been more dominant, or had she become gentler?
As I pondered, she finally spoke up and asked me, “How have you been with Mi Cai lately?”
Instinctively, I wanted to say, “We’re getting married,” but I swallowed the words before they reached my lips and simply replied, “Okay.”
Jian Wei nodded and didn’t ask anything else. Taking the opportunity to return the lighter to her, I asked, “How about you? How are things going with Xiangchen lately?”
“…For now, we’re both focusing on our careers. Maybe we’ll consider getting married next year.”
When the word “marriage” came from Jian Wei’s mouth, a strange feeling stirred in my heart. I recalled a few years ago, imagining her in a wedding dress. After a long pause, I replied, “Oh, getting married is good. Getting married is good…”
Jian Wei smiled, a complex expression on her face, and then seemed to remember something as she said to me, “Oh, right, Zhaoyang…Uncle Yang Rongcong might want to have a chat with you recently.”
I was deeply grateful to Uncle Yang and his “Easy Travel Network.” Without his strong support, the “Perfect Travel Plan” wouldn’t have succeeded. I immediately told Jian Wei, “That’s great! I’ve been hoping to thank him in person!”
“Uncle Yang has been paying close attention to your recent business activities. He said he can sense that you have a big idea in mind, judging from your current business strategy.”
I couldn’t help but admire Uncle Yang’s business acumen. For me, creating a “Cultural Path” was indeed a dream worth recording in my life history, and I had been striving hard for it all along.
I asked Jian Wei, “What does he want to talk to me about?”
“I’m not sure exactly. It might be about potential business cooperation, or it could just be a discussion of business insights. Anyway, he really appreciates you as a young man.”
I smiled, looking forward to meeting Uncle Yang again. He and Zhou Zhaokun were both important mentors I had met on my business journey. Without them, I wouldn’t have earned my first fortune.
At this point, Jian Wei checked her watch, closed the documents, and said to me, “Xiangchen is coming back from Lyon today. I need to go pick him up at Pudong Airport now. I’ll go first.”
“Okay, be careful on the way.”
Jian Wei nodded, packed the documents into her handbag, and then stood up and walked toward the riverside…Halfway through, she turned back and said, “When Uncle Yang comes to Suzhou next time, I’ll call you. Your phone number hasn’t changed, right?”
“It hasn’t. Feel free to contact me then.”
“Okay, goodbye!”
Jian Wei’s figure disappeared from my sight, yet it seemed as if she had left behind an unknown secret in the darkness. At times like this, I always felt as if I had flown too far to explore that secret anymore…
…
Under the streetlights, I wandered back toward the old house, but as I was about to arrive, I suddenly stopped. Because once again, I saw Ran Wei’s Ferrari 458. He was standing in front of the convenience store in the residential complex, looking at me with an expression that mixed pain and hatred.
I didn’t respond with any expression, then continued walking toward him with my usual pace. But in this peaceful night, in this very moment, it seemed as if some invisible force had torn through the air, making it surge with tension…
We stood there under the streetlights in the dead of night, staring at each other in completely different postures!
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