The next morning, still lost in my dreams, my mother woke me up. Groggily, I complained, “Mom, what time is it already? Why did you wake me up so early? Let me sleep a bit longer.”
“Don’t sleep anymore. I need to ask you something.”
“Mom, please don’t ask. I’ve already told you, I have nothing to do with that girl. We really have no relationship at all.” I yawned heavily, closed my eyes, and lay back down on the bed.
“I want to ask what the girl likes to eat. You said she’s coming to our house today, right? I’m going to buy groceries soon.”
“Just buy some lotus roots, sweet peppers, gluten, river shrimp, and maybe make spicy chicken or something like that.”
“Aren’t those all your favorite dishes?”
“Young people’s tastes are generally similar. Just do as you like.”
“This cannot be taken lightly…”
Before my mother could finish, I interrupted, “Just buy them confidently. She will definitely like them.”
Finally, my mother stopped nagging. After a moment of thought, she asked me again, “Have you called to check whether the girl had breakfast yet?”
“Mom, we live in different times. Don’t impose your habits on us. We don’t even know if she’s gotten up yet. You should buy the groceries first.”
“You always say I’m nagging, but I’m doing all this for your own good. Go ahead and call the girl now, and ask when she’s coming over so you can pick her up.”
“I’ll follow all your instructions. Can I just sleep a little longer? Just a tiny bit longer?” I begged.
“Don’t forget what I just told you, okay? Promise me you’ll remember?”
I quickly nodded in agreement. After a few more nagging remarks, my mother finally left my room.
…
After my mother left, I gradually lost my sleepiness. Tossing and turning in bed for a while, I finally took out my phone and dialed Mi Cai’s number.
Mi Cai answered quickly and politely said, “Good morning.”
I replied, “Good morning too,” then asked, “Have you had breakfast yet?”
“I’m eating in the hotel restaurant right now.”
“Oh, you have good habits. It’s indeed the right time for breakfast.”
Mi Cai responded with a simple “Mm-hmm.”
This somewhat awkward conversation made me uncomfortable, so I thought for a moment and asked, “What are you planning to do after breakfast?”
“I’m going to visit some department stores and shopping centers in Xuzhou.”
“So, Director Mi has come to Xuzhou specifically for market research!” I exclaimed.
“No, I came here specifically to see you. The market research is just something I’ll do on the side,” Mi Cai replied earnestly.
I felt uneasy when others spoke to me so seriously, and I remained silent for a while.
Then Mi Cai said, “Xuzhou is your hometown. Won’t you be my tour guide?”
“No problem with that. I have plenty of time anyway.”
“Then I’ll wait at the hotel entrance for you.”
…
After ending the call with Mi Cai, I quickly got out of bed and rushed through washing up. In less than ten minutes, I was completely ready. I really wished those slow women could see how fast I could be.
Without even having a bite of breakfast, I drove Dad’s Santana 2000 to the hotel where Mi Cai was staying.
Soon after, I arrived at the hotel and indeed saw Mi Cai waiting at the entrance. I rolled down the window and asked her, “Are you taking my car or driving yourself?”
Without saying a word, Mi Cai answered with action. She opened the passenger door and sat down beside me. I immediately started the car.
During our drive toward the city center, Mi Cai kept staring intently at a photo inside the car. It was a family photo, with me being very young in it, smiling naively while hugging my dad’s leg.
Mi Cai looked somewhat gloomy, then smiled. I understood that her sadness was due to her late father, while her smile expressed envy toward our family’s unity and happiness.
I pressed the photo frame down, not wanting it to continue stirring Mi Cai’s emotions. Changing the subject, I asked, “I heard that your Zhuo Mei stores in Shanghai and Nanjing are under preparation. Doesn’t doing market research in a third-tier city like Xuzhou contradict your big city strategy?”
Mi Cai shook her head and said, “Actually, there are internal disagreements among senior management regarding Zhuo Mei’s future development direction. Personally, I think Zhuo Mei should focus on second-tier and top third-tier cities. The competition in first-tier cities is too fierce, and it will consume many of our resources. If we can’t achieve profitability, it will soon affect the entire group’s operations.”
I nodded, roughly understanding that Mi Zhongde planned Zhuo Mei’s strategy for first-tier cities, while Mi Cai leaned towards second-tier and top third-tier cities. This kind of divergence would inevitably deepen the conflict between the two. I had a premonition that the future of Zhuo Mei would not allow both Mi Cai and Mi Zhongde to coexist, and as for who would ultimately control Zhuo Mei, I couldn’t easily make a judgment.
Throughout the morning, I accompanied Mi Cai to visit several large department stores and shopping centers in Xuzhou, and we exchanged some views on the market. This was also one of the few common topics we had.
Before going to my home as guests, Mi Cai insisted on buying many gifts for my dad and mom, while I acted as the porter carrying these presents, grumbling, “You really don’t need to bring any gifts when coming to our house. It’s making you seem like my girlfriend.”
“Does it have to be a girlfriend to bring gifts?”
“It’s not like that, but now we’re at the age where elders might misunderstand. When you meet my parents later, you should explain our relationship properly.”
Mi Cai countered, “Then what do you think our relationship is?”
After thinking, I replied, “More like rivals and less like friends.”
Mi Cai shook her head and denied, “I never considered you as a rival.”
“Then what do you consider me?” I asked curiously.
“A friend, a trustworthy friend.”
I smiled and said, “Then when you introduce yourself to my parents later, say it like that. But don’t let that incident change your opinion of me and start blindly trusting me. I’m really not that good of a person!”
Mi Cai shook her head and said, “I don’t want to think too much about a person’s complexity. It makes me tired. So I prefer to trust my intuition.”
“Didn’t you think like that when we first met?”
“No, back then I just thought you were a scoundrel, a rare kind of scoundrel!”
I said, “So, you didn’t judge me by intuition either, or rather, my first impression to you was that of a scoundrel.”
Mi Cai smiled and said, “Let’s not discuss this anymore. After walking around for so long, I’m hungry. Let’s quickly go and taste the food your dad made.”
I grabbed Mi Cai who was walking forward and asked suspiciously, “What did you just call my dad?”
“Ban Die (Dad of Ban)!” Mi Cai answered. Instantly realizing her mistake, she quickly explained, “I just thought it was fun to call him like that, so I followed your way of calling him. I didn’t mean anything else.”
“You can’t call him like that in front of him! He always thought Ban Die is my dad’s name. If you call him that, the matter will really get serious.”
Mi Cai realized the seriousness of the situation and nodded earnestly. Then the two of us looked at each other and suddenly burst into laughter. Her smile at that moment, under the perfect sunlight at noon, made my heart skip a beat.
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