Chapter 17
Located in the Guomao business district, the Haosikai Building is just like all the buildings in this CBD: tall, ugly, and its shiny blue glass curtain wall is constantly creating light pollution.
However, in aerial videos and photos, the Guomao area where Haosikai is located displays an artificial beauty that blends words like tall, magnificent, modern, technological, and commercial, filling those who have never been there with endless longing.
"Son, see that? It's over there." Twenty-five years ago, on a summer morning, the China World Trade Center wasn't as bustling as it is now, but the Haosikai Building already stood there. Cheng Xinhua pointed to this ugly building and said to Cheng Shi, "This is our group's headquarters in China! Impressive, isn't it? Quick, grab my hand, there are too many cars in this area..."
That was the only time Cheng Xinhua took Cheng Shi to Beijing, and perhaps the only time Cheng Xinhua himself ever went to Beijing. However, Cheng Shi's later joining the Haosikai Group had absolutely nothing to do with Cheng Xinhua.
"What's wrong with you? Why are you looking so gloomy? Are you coming home for Dragon Boat Festival or not?"
It was almost 10 years ago, on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, when Cheng Shi was bored and listless in the apartment he shared with Wang Rui and Zhou Qian in Shucun.
"Damn it, leave me alone."
"Hey, Cheng the Casanova's heartbroken? No way!" Wang Rui muttered as he rummaged through drawers and cabinets. "Why hasn't your beauty come today? Is she avoiding me? I'll make room for you two, grab some things and leave. Don't worry, Qian'er's already gone, you two can go all out today..."
"Sigh!" Cheng Shi sighed deeply, "Little Fish... is there."
"What the heck! Seriously?" Wang Rui said, quickly putting down what he was holding and sitting down in the chair opposite Cheng Shi. He asked, "You tested it yourself? How many times did you test it? You need to test it several times, sometimes it's inaccurate. I'm telling you, you're really too careless..."
"What's the rush? Listen to me, there are actually many ways to look at my current situation. But, Mingzhi, what I need most right now is a job."
"Work? You've been out of school for almost a year and you're only now thinking about finding a job? Besides, aren't there tons of jobs waiting for you? Why don't you go for it! Hey, our senior sister still has a position reserved for you, isn't she? Wonder Woman's special assistant, hehe, that's awesome! You said you'd go whenever you wanted, didn't you?" After muttering for a while, Wang Rui's joking expression turned serious as he earnestly advised Cheng Shi, "No, Stone, you're not really thinking of entering the grave of marriage before entering the grave of work, are you? That girl is beautiful, really beautiful, top-notch beautiful, she's like a fairy among us mortals, but the question is, is she old enough to get married? Will she still be able to go to school? To put it bluntly, she's going to be a star, marrying into a wealthy family is a piece of cake for her, do you really think she'd want to marry a poor guy like you who has nothing? Even if she wanted to, would her parents agree?"
“None of what you’ve said is a problem,” Cheng Shi waved his hand impatiently. “What I need right now is a job, but I definitely won’t go to Beth’s. She’s too driven. I don’t want to be a workaholic like her. I love life. So listen to me, the job I want is one that can earn enough money to get by for a year or two. I’ve heard that raising a child is expensive for the first two years, then it gets better. My brother hates kids, so I can’t take his money anymore. Also, I want to figure some things out in the next year or two, but most importantly, the job has to allow me to maintain my ‘self,’ to allow me to continue ‘living.’ So the jobs I least want are Beth’s and the ones I got before, those might make me feel…” I need a 'interesting' job; I want to avoid anything that might provoke me. So I'm looking for a large, long-established company that quietly makes a fortune—ideally, one that's been quietly raking in profits for centuries. Those kinds of companies hire eight people to do the same job, not one person doing eight jobs. Do you understand what I'm saying, Mingzhi? I want to walk into that company and tell their HR: "You can have my strong physique, my handsome face, my friendly smile, and my not-insignificant degree for eight hours a day. All I want in return is a decent salary; otherwise, we'll keep to ourselves." Mingzhi, you're knowledgeable and have a wide network; you have hundreds of positions at your disposal. Do you understand what I mean?
"Got it, you're crazy." Wang Rui, a PhD student in philosophy and the head of the student union's external relations department, cursed Cheng Shi, but then immediately followed up with a summary, "Few jobs, lots of money, and the boss is preferably a landlord's stupid son, got it. Believe it or not, these kinds of stupid companies really exist. I'll let you know after the holiday. I have to go now. Have fun, and give my regards to the beautiful Huang."
Sure enough, as soon as the Dragon Boat Festival was over, Wang Rui immediately sent Cheng Shi a list of companies and positions that met Cheng Shi's requirements. These included a pharmaceutical company, a chip manufacturing company, and an internet company. But none of these companies looked like they belonged to a rich man's foolish son; they seemed more like sweatshops that exploited their employees.
So when Chengshi saw that Haosikai Group was also on Wang Rui's list, he felt that Wang Rui probably didn't understand what kind of job he was looking for at all.
"Brother Mingzhi, did you make a mistake here?" Cheng Shi asked, then briefly recounted Cheng Xinhua's "career" at Haosikai after he was laid off. To his surprise, the philosophy student burst out laughing.
“Brother Stone, that’s ancient history,” Wang Rui said. “What was the economic situation like when you were 10? Don’t you feel the difference now? And look around us, everyone takes nutritional supplements and health products every day. They’re not worthy of their status if they don’t! Besides, your dad was just a distributor back then, not even strictly speaking a member of Haosikai. But you’re different. You’ll be in the head office, sheltered from the wind and sun, and you don’t have to work hard, stockpile inventory, or develop downlines. Let me tell you, Brother Stone, this job is exactly what you’ve always wanted, it’s practically tailor-made for you— ‘easy work, high pay, and the boss is the silly son of an American landlord.’ One of our seniors works in the head office of this company, and he’s in HR. He says that if he wanted, he could slack off there forever, and the salary is amazing. Brother Stone, if I were you, I’d mention your dad during the interview, maybe it’d even get you some points.”
On the day of the interview, Cheng Shi walked alone into the shadow of the Haosikai Building, the words Cheng Xinhua had spoken to him when he first brought him to Beijing and first saw the Haosikai Building echoing in his ears: "Son, see that? It's over there. That's our group's headquarters building in China! Impressive, isn't it? Quickly grab my hand, there are too many cars in this area..."
So Cheng Shi decided that he would never mention Cheng Xinhua during the interview. Later, Cheng Shi indeed did not mention Cheng Xinhua, and he successfully received an offer after only two rounds of interviews that day. The office was located on the 15th floor of the Haosikai Building in a place called "Central Support Department".
"Central Support Department?" Huang Ruoyu asked Cheng Shi, puzzled. "Central? Support? Are you going to the countryside? What exactly does this job entail?"
"Who the hell knows? My HR senior was a complete idiot there. He spent half an hour explaining to me what the 'Central Support Department' was, and I still didn't understand. I bet he didn't even understand it himself. But it's definitely not going to the countryside. He said my position basically doesn't require business trips; it's mostly paperwork. Little Fish, how interesting! I actually went to the head office of Haosikai. When I tell my dad about this and that I didn't even mention his name during the interview, guess what will happen?"
Huang Ruoyu couldn't imagine or guess what would happen, because she didn't have a father and didn't know how a typical father would react to such news—this question was far beyond her imagination.
Narumi's professional career began in a way that was almost comical. Some people might not find it funny, but in Narumi's mind, it was a joke, a joke with a slightly dark undertone.
So from his very first day at work, Cheng Shi diligently studied how to slack off. At the same time, he also tried to walk around the company with a cat-like gait—once, after Huang Ruoyu told him that his lazy, slow, arrogantly masculine gait was "very sexy," he started walking like that almost every time he entered the Haosikai Building. This gait constantly demonstrated Cheng Shi's disdain for work to his tense, hurried colleagues.
For Chengshi, the most exciting part of his job, which was full of jokes, started at six o'clock every evening. When the time came, regardless of whether his other colleagues were competing or not, Chengshi, the new employee, would always calmly put on his coat, nod and smile at his colleagues, and walk into the elevator. When he came out of the elevator, he would say "goodbye" to his colleagues, whether he knew them or not. Then he would swipe a Mobike or Ofo bike on the street and ride for ten or twenty minutes to reach the red and white tenement building he rented in Songyuli. Then he would climb to the fifth floor, push open the yellow-painted wooden door, and enter a room that was sparsely furnished but spotless. The room was filled with the mixed scents of coffee, perfume, and aromatherapy. In the room, a beautiful girl, though her clothes were disheveled, was waiting for him.
This room was nothing like the home of any Haoskai employee, and the girl was nothing like the wife of any Haoskai male employee. And Chengshi wouldn't go straight to dinner like the others; instead, he'd take the pregnant girl directly to bed—sometimes on the bed, sometimes on the floor, sometimes on the simple dining table left by the landlord, sometimes on the uncomfortable sofa. They tirelessly explored every corner of the room… Usually, they'd linger until nine or ten at night before reluctantly getting up and going downstairs to find a small restaurant for dinner.
By this time, the ugly Hoskey Building had become a laughing stock thousands of miles away.
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