Chapter 11: China and France are also friendly

Before leaving, Gu Weiyi went to the barber shop to trim his messy long hair. After the trimming, he looked at himself in the mirror several times and complained to the barber that he had cut his hair too short. The barber asked him if he was going on a date.

"No... I went to discuss business... Maybe it could be considered a date, I don't know. She was the one who approached me first, and she had the final say on whether or not to go on a date."

"That's too forced. It seems you don't like that girl either. If you really love her, you'd want to lock her up in your room all the time on a date. Just reject her directly, or she'll be even more heartbroken." He continued, "Hey, are you free tonight?"

Gu Weiyi smiled and waved his hand.

"I have a patient who's not doing well. She told me about her childhood, but I don't really understand. I advised her to rest, but she refused to work. I'm a doctor, and I don't want anything to happen to my patients."

"Flowers don''t tell, they show."

The barber pulled a mimosa flower from the vase on the counter and put it in his shirt pocket.

"I'm here, which floor are you on?"

Li Wenjing saw the message he sent and replied: "Just wait for me downstairs, I'll take you to the meeting room."

As soon as the elevator got off, he was waiting outside. His hair, which had almost reached his shoulders, had been cut off. Li Wenjing found it strange and stared at him, "Did you cut your hair?"

"It's weird, isn't it? The barbers on New Street in Mombasa are all artists. They insisted I grow my hair long and tie it in braids, saying it would look cool. I refused and said I'd cut a little bit, but they ended up cutting off a lot and told me all Asians cut their hair that way."

Li Wenjing laughed and said, "You've never been to the 10-yuan barber shop on campus. The barbers there are all excavator engineers. They can just flatten things with a single blow."

Then, she looked at the flower on his chest. He said it was a gift from his barber. She said sarcastically, "You get flowers when you go get a haircut. Your barber really likes you. It turns out that guys with good personalities, who know how to clean up, are all gay. Straight guys are dirty, messy, and bad. At least one of these is true."

"no……"

Before he could explain, she received a call saying that the conference room was urging them to come back. Tea and fruit were already laid out on the large conference table. The dean, vice dean, and chief engineer sat in the front, while Zhang Zhaochuan and the others sat on small benches in the back.

Li Wenjing was preparing a PPT on the stage. The dean waved to her, and she clicked the mouse twice without moving.

"Wenjing is so ignorant. Doctor Gu was in such a hurry, but she didn't tell me earlier. Nothing is ready yet. I'm so sorry! Wenjing, go to my office and get the cigars from the bookshelf."

"Director, Dr. Gu doesn't smoke. He says it's unhealthy."

As he spoke, the dean extinguished the cigarette in his hand and smiled apologetically at Gu Weiyi, "Then let's have Maotai, and the can of tea next to it."

This time, Gu Weiyi didn't refuse. Li Wenjing gave him tea and wine in a gift box. He held his head and said, "You are too good to me."

"Doctor Gu is a client of our hospital, and the client is God, boujour, boujour..." The director wanted to show off the few French words he had just learned to express his hospitality, as if speaking French made him more advanced and made people feel at home. But he said a few irrelevant words, which sounded like he was calling him a stupid pig. Instead of returning to France, he moved to a farm and raised a group of small animals.

The employees in the back row tried to hold back their laughter. Li Wenjing bit her lips a few times to suppress her laughter, and turned around and left, making the excuse that the information had not been printed yet.

Gu Weiyi said awkwardly, "Dean, you can just speak Chinese. It's my native language."

"Doctor Gu, you're a talented young doctor who graduated from Oxford. Building a hospital for our African brothers is a good thing, and our unit fully supports it! We had a last-minute discussion today. The rainy season is coming soon, and prefabricated houses are prone to leaks and water ingress, so let's build concrete ones."

“Tribal villages don’t have that much money right now, and the special fund allocated by the Health Federation to build a hospital cannot be used.”

"It's donated by our unit to society. Doctors just need to take a few minutes to cooperate with the photo-taking and publicity."

The medical point was made appear by Li Wenjing like magic. Gu Weiyi looked at Li Wenjing with his mouth open. The dean asked Li Wenjing to come to the table to introduce the project and gave her the responsibility.

Still puzzled, he asked, "Why are you so nice to me? Are all Chinese people so hospitable?"

"We've been promoting this recently, and you just happened to come across it. Our unit does similar charity projects in Africa every year, promoting China-Africa friendship." Li Wenjing raised an eyebrow, "China and France are also friendly."

"Then...thank you so much. If you need my help in the future, just come and find me."

He grinned and didn't ask any more questions. Li Wenjing breathed a sigh of relief and handed him the drafted contract. Just like last time, he flipped through the pages and signed his name directly.

The dean was also very happy. He stood up, shook his hand, and said with a smile, "Let's have lunch together. After lunch, Xiao Li and the construction team will leave immediately. We guarantee that it will be completed within a week, and everything will be ready for you. China speed."

Gu Weiyi continued to thank him. He lightly said, "It's not easy for us Chinese to make a living in Africa. We need to get to know more people. Dr. Gu has other relatives in Mombasa. Please come and join us."

"Relatives? And you want to invite my dad?"

"That's great, Dr. Gu's father, whenever you're free, let's get together and keep in touch!"

"My father is not Chinese..." Gu Weiyi put away his smile and looked at Li Wenjing, "Wenjing?"

"Dean, I won't eat. I need to prepare materials and call people."

Li Wenjing didn't dare to look at him, and hurriedly left the meeting room and ate alone in the cafeteria.

"Mademoiselle, may I have the honor of having lunch with you?"

When he spoke French, his voice was as rich and soft as Gustav's, exuding the sweetness of wine, but his accent was a little thinner and more innocent than his father's.

"Aren't you going to have a big dinner with the boss?"

"Come and eat Chinese food in your cafeteria."

He sat down across from her, pulled a golden wattle from his shirt, and placed it among the fake flowers in the vase on the dining table. The flower was so conspicuous, like gold, that it seemed even more like fake flowers. Then he placed the gift box on the table and pushed it to Li Wenjing. "Please return it to the dean for me. They're so enthusiastic, saying this is the best wine and tea in China. They keep asking me to keep it, and I can't find a chance to return his gift."

"If I don't return it, I'll be called ignorant again. Giving gifts and dining is Chinese etiquette. If you want, I can take you to sing and get a massage, or even charter a plane to Southeast Asia. I can't accompany you on this. It's your man's business."

Li Wenjing lowered her head, picking at the peppers in the dish, never looking at him. "Last time you said there were few female engineers, and that companies basically didn't hire women. Apart from work environments, we couldn't get into dinner parties or massage parlors to discuss projects. It's the same for us, too. We always decide things over dinner, except for the drinks and massages."

"Do you think I really want a massage? If you keep saying that, I'm going to get mad."

"Aren't you angry now?"

"A little bit, so I'm looking for you to give me an explanation."

"There's nothing to explain. I used the rules, as I said yesterday. Unspoken rules are also rules." Li Wenjing raised her eyes slightly. He stared at her, frowning. Li Wenjing thought for a moment and said, "Every year, the company does some face-saving projects. You are not the only one. The money is not given for free. It's a trade-off of interests. I'd rather give it to you than give it to others for eating, drinking, gambling and whoring."

"You know my relationship with Gustav. I'm going to help you get the project, right?"

"No, no one can force you if you don't want to," Li Wenjing said. "The contract has been signed anyway. We're doing you a favor. How the leaders explain this to Gustav, and whether Gustav wants to go along with it and return the favor, is his business."

"Well, I guess it's going to fall through. My dad doesn't care about me and won't even donate to the county."

Gu Weiyi finally laughed. Li Wenjing thought he would be very angry and wanted to wait for two days before talking to him, but he didn't say anything reproachful. Even the little bit of anger he had when he first came seemed to have disappeared. To Li Wenjing, this was too strange and too relaxing.

She couldn't figure out his temper, and was afraid there was something he hadn't said, so she asked him directly, "Are you still angry with me?"

"I've never been mad at you. I'm just surprised you know so much... How do you say it in Chinese?" He thought for a moment. "Relationship? Connection?"

"I'm quite vulgar, always talking about money."

"You've helped me so much, I'm very grateful to you. I won't be angry no matter what you do."

Li Wenjing's heart moved, and she opened her mouth, but no words came out. She just buried her head and took two mouthfuls of rice. She bit into the chili pepper, and the spiciness burned her tongue so much that it hurt so much that she almost cried.

In her house, no matter what she did, they accused her of doing it wrong, which was useless. They laughed at the things she liked, so she simply stopped saying anything and swallowed everything she said like water.

Gu Weiyi continued to speak: "To be honest, I really don't like the favors you mentioned, the drinks, the meals, the massages and the foot washing. Things have already been settled, how can I be angry with you? Don't do this next time, okay?"

"It's hard to say," Li Wenjing cleared the plates and stood up, "but I'll let you know next time."

"Wait! There's more!"

He called her again. Li Wenjing turned around and saw that he had a serious face. She couldn't help but feel nervous.

"I'm not gay."

"Well—what does it have to do with me?"

"You didn't say that this morning, and I haven't explained it yet."

"Oh, I'm leaving first."

Li Wenjing's face was frozen with endurance. She walked out of the cafeteria quickly. After she was out of his sight, she grabbed the railing and laughed so hard that she couldn't straighten her back.