Chapter 11: Unconquerable Vanity
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Sasa set the alarm for five and sat in the living room. Her father got up at six and was startled when he came out of the bedroom.
"Why are you up so early?" her father asked sleepily.
"To meet you guys." Sasa said.
"If you have anything to say, just tell me directly." Her father felt a little guilty and went to the kitchen with a thermos to get hot water.
Sasa followed him into the kitchen. In fact, they knew each other very well. These days, they had been going out early and coming back late in order to avoid Sasa.
"Dad, tell me about the time when someone owed you money." Watching her father pouring water, she stood at the kitchen door and went straight to the point.
Her father didn't answer, and asked as if he hadn't heard her, "Are you hungry? Dad will go downstairs and buy you some wonton soup."
"Dad, I've bought breakfast." She raised her chin and let him look at the wontons on the table.
Her father was stunned for a moment, then said with a smile, "Dad really likes this wonton stew the most." Then he sat down at the table and started eating.
After eating one, he looked up again and slapped his forehead as if remembering something. "Oh, how can we eat wonton stew without vinegar? Daddy will go downstairs to buy some vinegar."
Sasa turned around and took out a bottle of vinegar, a bottle of soy sauce, and even a bottle of oyster sauce from the bag on the sofa, and placed them all on the dining table. "Tell me about a time when someone owed you money."
Her father subconsciously reached for the vinegar bottle. After a few seconds, he yelled with a rebellious look, "Aren't you forcing Dad by doing this? Your mom said Dad was scammed out of money? Dad wasn't scammed out of money. It's just that the project is on hold. We still have to do this project later."
Seeing that he finally let out the secret, Sasa walked to the table and listened to him continue.
"Last year, someone recommended a job to me. Dad signed the contract and gave the other party a portion of the deposit."
Sasa asked: And then?
"Then the project was suspended. But dad tells you, they are not scammers at all. Dad has contact with the person in charge there." The other party answered confidently.
Sasa asked how long the suspension had lasted, and her father said two years.
Sasa felt like there were ten thousand bombs in her head, but she still said softly, "You can give my dad the address of Party A's company."
Her father's face was stern, and he put down his chopsticks fiercely. "That's all Dad's business. You girls shouldn't get involved in these things."
Sasa finally got angry and stood up to ask her father, "Are you crazy? If our family were rich, I wouldn't care about your money, but we still owe money to others. Mr. Yu said that if I don't pay it back, he will go to my workplace to make trouble."
Her father also got angry. "You've lost your temper, haven't you? How dare you talk to your father like that? Don't you make so much money out there, why can't you help your father out in an emergency? Can't you come up with 100,000 yuan?"
His father overturned the wonton bowl.
The two people were arguing so loudly that Sasa's mother came running out of the bedroom and looked at the mess made by the two of them.
Sasa's mother said, "Keep your voices down. If the neighbors hear you, you'll be laughed at."
Sasa looked at the two people in front of her and knew that she couldn't get any useful information out of them. In fact, she had turned the house upside down while they were not at home, but she still couldn't find the construction contract.
The only place she hadn't searched was her parents' bedroom. While they were yelling at her, Sasa trotted into their bedroom and locked the door.
After entering the bedroom, Sasa rummaged through the desk and then under the bed.
Outside the door, the two people who had been tricked by her were still knocking on the door.
"Daughter, what are you doing in there?"
"Don't think too much. Daddy will handle his own affairs."
Sasa said, "Solve it, solve it. What else can you do besides running away? You won't be able to solve the problem at all."
Her father also got excited and said, "I am such a failure. I raised an unfilial daughter like you. You talk back to your parents, block your father's job, and even quarrel with us."
Sasa yelled, "I'm too filial, that's why I'm always taking care of you."
Her mother also interjected, saying, "It's not right for you to say that. We raised you up, and now your parents are in trouble, shouldn't you give something in return?"
Sasa screamed, covered her ears with one hand and continued to flip the pages with the other. She thought she would cry, but she didn't shed a single tear.
Her mother added, "When you were little, you were so weak that I had to carry you to the hospital."
"If you don't get married and have a relationship now, you will be 30 years old next year and you won't even have a boyfriend. If you can't get married in the future, you will still have to live with us when you are old." Her father roared.
Sasa felt like a monkey trapped in a tight spell, almost being forced to roll around on the spot. Finally, she found the contract behind the air conditioner. She took a breath and took a picture of it with her mobile phone.
She suddenly opened the door, and the three of them bumped into each other awkwardly. Her parents had stopped talking. Her mother looked at her helplessly. Her father said, "What did you do? Tell me, are you driving us crazy?"
Sasa threw the contract on the coffee table, took her wallet and left.
The address of Party A on the contract was in Minhang, and she bought the earliest high-speed train ticket to Shanghai.
When Sasa arrived, the company had just started clocking in. Sasa politely told the front desk, "I'm here to wait for your President Wei."
Wei Changbin is the name of the person in charge on the contract.
The receptionist said warily that our General Manager Wei doesn't usually come to the company.
Sasa asked, why don’t you come to the company?
The receptionist gave a hypocritical smile, "Oh, that's not our concern."
Sasa asked, "How often does he come?"
The receptionist thought for a moment and said, "Maybe once every three days."
Sasa nodded and said, "Then I'll wait here for three days. Where is the accountant? Tell me the travel expenses."
The receptionist gave her a strange look and immediately understood Sasa's intention. She said, "Sister, please wait in the next sofa. I need to report."
She said she was going to report, but she didn't do anything. She just sat at the front desk picking at her nails. When it was almost lunchtime, the receptionist was still picking at her nails. There was no movement. Sasa walked up to her and politely asked, "Excuse me, have you reported?"
The receptionist glanced at her phone and said, "I'm so sorry, we're on lunch break right now. Can I report back to you this afternoon?"
Sasa suppressed the anger in her heart, took out the phone number of the person in charge on her mobile phone and showed it to the front desk, "Then I will call your President Wei directly."
She reached out and took the front desk phone and started dialing the number. The front desk didn't stop her and let her do it. It seemed that they were used to it.
The call was quickly connected, and a middle-aged man with a Guizhou accent asked her, "What are you doing? I'm meeting the foreman outside."
Sasa said "I am..."
Before Sasa could finish her words, the person on the other end noticed something was wrong with her voice and hung up.
She was confused. She came here to solve the problem, but the other party didn't give her any chance at all.
There were only a few people in the office. Besides the receptionist, there was only an accountant who looked to be in his late 60s. The receptionist even grabbed a roujiamo and started eating, seemingly unfazed by anything.
Sasa angrily slammed the phone down and said to the receptionist, "Hurry up and get your boss over here, or I'll start a scene and you'll all be in trouble!"
The younger sister was not surprised. She put down her chopsticks and said slowly, "Don't get excited. Our office building has security." She pointed to the camera on the upper right, "And if you make a fuss, we can call the police."
Sasa felt like she was going crazy. She didn't know what to do. It was already noon and she could only find a snack bar to eat some noodles.
The noodle shop downstairs was crowded. She waited for a long time before getting a seat. After sitting down, she ordered a bowl of noodles and wolfed it down. Suddenly, someone called out, "Sasa, why are you here?"
Sasa raised her head and found that it was Sun Ziyi and Shen Qingqing.
The feeling she had after being discovered was like Zhen Duli being caught buying fake goods at a street stall.
Sun Ziyi excitedly shook Shen Qingqing and said to her, "Great, we can share the table."
Chen Qingqing and Sasa met once before the New Year. It was the end of the year when SKP had an event and Sun Ziyi accompanied her to redeem points. Sasa also came to join in the fun. She couldn't really afford anything big, but she just wanted to see the expressions of these rich ladies when they were making decisions about luxury goods. The three of them got together, and Sun Ziyi arranged for them to go upstairs for dinner. Chen Qingqing remembered the mole on Sasa's nose very clearly. She thought this girl had a very charming face, but her eyes were a bit cruel. She also gossiped with Sun Ziyi, but Sun Ziyi thought Chen Qingqing was sensitive and said that she was similar to you, both grew up in a honeypot, had a smooth job, and had never suffered any hardship. Chen Qingqing was skeptical about this and argued with Sun Ziyi for a long time.
The discussion finally ended when Sun Ziyi yelled, "I don't allow you to talk about my friends!"
Sasa sat in her seat and watched the two of them squeezed at the front desk to order food. Shen Qingqing was wearing Celine today and looked very casual. In fact, she also had an impression of Shen Qingqing: Shen Qingqing had an average appearance, with a round and blunt face, not thin or fat, and no sharp jawline. She looked easy to get along with, and there were no signs of surgery on her face. The brand and texture of the clothes she wore were also very good. She didn't look like the kind of socialite who relied on men for a living. She was very comfortable in her every move and looked nonchalant, as if she came to SKP just to buy some vegetables.
She felt that Shen Qingqing was very familiar, and her words were simple and straightforward. She must be a little fool who had never been beaten by the workplace.
After the two of them ordered their meals, Chen Qingqing sat down opposite Sasa before Sun Ziyi, and said in a familiar manner that it was a blessing that she met Sasa, otherwise she would have to wait in line for a long time, and then she put the Xiaohongshu interface on her phone in front of Sasa.
She looked at the interface on Shen Qingqing's phone, which said the top 10 dirty restaurants in Shanghai. The hand holding the phone had a pure white extended nail that extended all the way to the screen.
Sasa adjusted her expression and said, "Yeah, I heard the food here is delicious, so I came here after I got up."
Chen Qingqing glanced at the tote bag next to her, which was brimming with stuff. She asked, "Do you live nearby? We haven't booked a hotel yet, so why don't we go together so we can play together tomorrow."
Sasa said calmly, "I'm just about to change hotels. The one I booked yesterday was too bad. Why don't we take a look together?"
Shen Qingqing said with a smile, "Then let's stay at Capella! Last time I accompanied my husband to Shanghai for business, I stayed there for a month."
Capella costs around 4,000 yuan a night, which is an affordable price for Sasa, let alone for three people. She turned to look at Sun Ziyi and asked her if she wanted to go.
Sun Ziyi snorted carelessly, stretched out his hand and pushed Shen Qingqing, saying that Jiapei Le was very expensive.
Shen Qingqing smiled and said, “It’s okay. They sent me away for a night last time. We are going to the Lin residence. We will let Capella’s driver take us there then.”
"Besides, it's just one night." Shen Qingqing added.
Sasa asked, "Lin's house?"
She knew what the Lin residence was and couldn't help but look at Chen Qingqing twice more. The people invited by the Lin residence were all big internet celebrities and small socialites. Chen Qingqing didn't look like someone who would be invited by the Lin residence.
Shen Qingqing asked in a friendly manner, Sasa, do you want to go with us? We have an invitation.
Thousands of words flashed through Sasa's mind. She couldn't be so vain. She came to Shanghai to do serious business and couldn't be tripped up by these petty vanities. Going to the Lin residence wouldn't save her any money.
Besides, I still have to go collect debts, and I can’t delay my work just for clubbing.
Seeing that she didn't reply, Chen Qingqing tapped the table with her nails and asked again, "Are you going, Sasa? The disco night at the Lin residence sounds like fun! We can take beautiful photos and post them on WeChat Moments!"
Sasa raised her head and glanced at Shen Qingqing.
There are ten thousand confusions in my heart.
"OK."
Sasa said with a smile, a decent smile on her face, and her dull face was shining again in this small noodle shop.
This time, she still failed to overcome her vanity.
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