Episode 51 Bitch or Godness
Jiang Shu came to visit his old friend Wei Kai today to have tea and reminisce about the past. Unexpectedly, before he finished his cup of tea, he heard a familiar voice.
When the two met here, they were bound to be surprised, but there was obviously some surprise in Xu Yiwei's eyes.
Wei Kai and Jiang Shu were elementary school classmates. His parents were doing business in Japan all year round and were often unable to return home. Wei Kai learned to cook since junior high school, and later developed an interest, and then his career began to take shape.
Today, he has opened five catering businesses in Shanghai, with prices ranging from affordable to high-end, and categories from restaurants to pubs. However, this Shanghai cuisine restaurant is the one he is most satisfied with - the business is not the most prosperous, but he likes the location the most.
Fortunately, there is a moderate amount of traffic here during the day, which allows him to set up a tea table here and occasionally give himself some free time.
"Jiang and I are old classmates. He went to Hong Kong for a few years, and we've only gotten together twice since we came back. I didn't expect that you and I would have such a good connection. By the way, how did you two meet?"
Before Xu Yiwei could think of a good explanation, Jiang Shu actually explained to his friend before her.
"She was working part-time at Eric's shop and was harassed by a group of thugs. I helped her out."
This is the truth, but it is a truncated version.
After hearing this, Wei Kai saw Xu Yiwei nodding awkwardly, and he knew that everything was not that simple.
When the water in the pot boiled and overflowed the lid, Wei Kai came to his senses and took the pot down. Jiang Shu interrupted him and asked Xu Yiwei:
"Your company ordered group meals? Whose idea was it?"
"I've been ordering it. Recently, the previous company terminated the contract, so I was asked to find a new one. It sounds like... Mr. Lin was the one who initially took the lead."
Wei Kai filled the cloud-patterned glass cups in front of the two with tea one by one, and then got to the point -
"Xiao Xu, I've reviewed your food requirements. There's definitely nothing wrong with my kitchen, but your budget... doesn't meet my expectations.
However, I have another smaller shop that specializes in Cantonese fusion cuisine. The prices are a bit cheaper, but it's three or four kilometers further away, so you'll have to pay for the errands. What do you think?"
After saying that, he sent the address of the store over. Xu Yiwei clicked on it and did a quick search - the ratings and overall environment were not bad, but overall comparison was not as good as here. Add to that the daily errand fees, and it was not much less than the overall budget.
Thinking of Jiang Shu's presence, Xu Yiwei was somewhat nervous. In a panic, he took a sip of tea. His lips felt slightly hot as he spoke tentatively:
"Boss Wei, there's actually a Cantonese fast food restaurant next door to us. The owner's wife is a good friend of our CEO Lin..."
"Then why bother talking to me?"
He replied very rudely, catching Xu Yiwei off guard and almost getting burned - he must have felt that the restaurant was wasting its resources doing group meals, but he couldn't let go of this business, so he simply forced her to settle for the second best, either way it would serve his own interests.
Xu Yiwei had seen many aggressive situations. In the past, no matter whether the person in front of her was a man or a woman, she would probably get angry with them at the slightest disagreement. But the other party was not a group of thugs in the bar, and she was not a drinking companion, so she still had to maintain her dignity.
"Boss Wei, let's be frank. My colleagues and I have been wanting to change our cuisine for a while now. Since you said this other restaurant serves Cantonese cuisine and is far away, we won't consider it.
But this store really meets our expectations. I'm just an employee, and the level I can offer you is already the maximum. There's really no higher level. If you really think it's too low, then we can only... talk about it later?"
She spoke without beating around the bush, which made Jiang Shu beside her stunned.
"To put it bluntly, it's just a group meal. No matter how high the price is or how exquisite the dishes are, my colleagues won't appreciate it, let alone my boss."
To put it nicely, her job is to add luster to the team, to put it bluntly, it is just the scraps of business. If she does it well, she is fulfilling her duty, but if she does it poorly, it will give people a chance to criticize her. She doesn't pay for it and she doesn't get any commission, so why should she make herself unhappy right from the start?
If it wasn't because this was her first assignment after joining the company, and she wanted to put up a good fight to impress Lin Ying, why would she bother with so much effort when it could be done with just a few phone calls?
Seeing that Wei Kai hadn't replied for a long time, Xu Yiwei just kept shaking the fairness cup and staring at the tea residue that was gradually settling. He felt that there was no hope, so he wanted to get up and leave. Unexpectedly, Jiang Shu took the opportunity to tease his friend -
"Awei, you've opened so many stores, why are you still so stubborn and so obsessed with money?"
This made Boss Wei unconvinced, and he even spoke in Shanghainese:
"What can I do for you? How can I help you?"
Who would have thought that Jiang Shu also changed his tone, and they started a coded conversation, leaving Xu Yiwei sitting aside, not knowing what was being said.
Until Jiang Shu deliberately ended in Mandarin——
"You don't trust other people's advice, but you should trust mine, right? You have such good skills, it's not good to always be defeated by casual customers."
"Okay, okay, you're awesome now. Everything Mr. Jiang says is right!"
Unexpectedly, after they chatted for a while, Boss Wei actually changed his attitude.
Although she didn't know what they discussed specifically, Xu Yiwei knew that Boss Wei finally fulfilled her conditions for Jiang Shu's sake.
However, he wanted Xu Yiwei to help him attract customers to his newly opened bar. In his stereotype, artists can skip meals but cannot skip drinking.
Just like that, she had finally completed her first mission since joining the company. However, this incident seemed to have made her owe Jiang Shu another favor... It seemed that she could never repay the favors she owed him during this period of time. She couldn't help but wonder, if this were to happen in ancient times, a woman like her who had nothing, facing such a wealthy boss who was always giving her alms, how could she be worthy of saying "I will give myself to him"?
Thinking of this, she quickly stopped talking. After finishing the tea, she took the initiative to thank the two of them and left.
Wei Kai peered out from the second-floor window, watching the girl walk joyfully under the scorching sun until she disappeared into the mottled shadows of the sycamore leaves...
At this moment, in the huge second-floor restaurant, there are only two people in the empty corner tea room.
Wei Kai teased his friend, "Eric said you've changed, but I think it's hard to change your nature. You're always scheming and plotting wherever you go, and you've also got yourself into a lot of romantic troubles."
Jiang Shu rolled his eyes at him and said, "You think too much. I don't have that kind of debt with her."
"I don't have a debt with her, so what about her boss?" He hit the nail on the head, tearing off his disguise:
"Don't think I don't know what you're thinking. I saw it the whole time you and that foreigner came here for dinner. Do you really think you're hiding it so well? If she hadn't brought up her 'boss', you wouldn't have bothered to get involved."
"How could I call that interfering? I called it boosting. You were clearly just trying to test her. You acted arrogant on the surface, but deep down you were eager for cooperation. Just now, you were complaining to me that business was bad at this restaurant and you were looking for a new way to do it, accepting group meals for a dozen people. I'm just trying to test the waters for you. If it doesn't work out, I'll just consider it a friendship, a target audience conversion, and maybe even help out with your other business."
Wei Kai rolled his eyes at him and muttered, "You're better at calculating than I am, why don't you just be my boss?
Jiang Shu chuckled and just drank his tea.
After making a few jokes, Wei Kai suddenly became serious and spoke seriously -
"Don't blame me for not reminding you. Don't put your shoes on in a melon field, and don't adjust your hat under a plum tree. I saw it clearly just now. Xiao Xu obviously has ulterior motives towards you. Now that you have changed your ways... stop doing things that would lead to misunderstandings."
Jiang Shu accidentally swallowed some tea residue, which mixed with the warm water and swirled in his throat, causing him to cough lightly...
"You mean, Xiao Xu is interested in me?"
Wei Kai helplessly "tsk"ed and blamed him: "You've been a scumbag for all these years, and you didn't even see this?"
Jiang Shu was self-aware of his relationship with the opposite sex, but after breaking up with Song Qi, he had completely understood his own feelings. So after returning, he was too lazy to bother guessing whether other women besides Lin Ying had feelings for him.
Even if we put this aside, Xu Yiwei was twelve years younger than him, and Jiang Shu never considered her as a target from the beginning. Although he was a scumbag in the past, he would not accept people of any age.
Although their acquaintance and relationship are always full of coincidences and accidents.
Thinking back on the various experiences I had with her, and touching upon some details, I vaguely felt that something was not right...
A down-and-out girl who met someone by chance, faced with a man who was far superior to her in terms of money, power and status, and who helped her time and again, what else could she feel except gratitude and love?
Seeing that he was at a loss, Wei Kai thought that he was regretting it, and teased him again shamelessly:
"Tsk tsk tsk... Men only love to do two things: one is to lure decent women into prostitution, and the other is to persuade prostitutes to become good women."
Jiang Shu came back to his senses, feeling annoyed. "...He loves to talk nonsense every day."
"What nonsense! This is what Lu Xun said."
Lin Ying had already anticipated that Xu Yiwei would choose the local cuisine restaurant on Wukang Road.
In the list of pending restaurants she sent, Lin Ying saw this restaurant prominently listed, and her memory was slightly revived - she knew that the owner of this restaurant was acquainted with Jiang Shu, so it must have been Jiang Shu who introduced it to her?
He had taken her in for half a month, and after what had happened to her, Jiang Shu had no reason to treat her harshly - Lin Ying understood this. Jiang Shu always looked indifferent on the surface, but deep down he had a bit of a "savior" complex... He was too used to controlling the people and things around him, so he was destined to be indifferent on certain issues, and destined to make people feel dependent on him at certain times.
Otherwise, why would he take in Xu Yiwei in the first place? And even if the girl who received his charity still had something to ask of him, it would be just a piece of cake for Jiang Shu.
But Xu Yiwei is a smart girl. Faced with unfamiliar work content, she not only did not hesitate or look back, but also made full use of all the tools and connections around her. She was not afraid to communicate and solved the problem in advance.
She couldn't help but sigh in her heart - he was simply a congenitally holy body of work, and was completely different from her original self.
Whether it was from the few words Jiang Shu said or from her understanding of Xu Yiwei, Lin Ying actually secretly admired this young girl in her heart.
I admire her for being able to face her own desires and shortcomings at such a young age. Even though her methods are extreme, at least she is always living for herself.
Compared to my situation at the age of 21, it can be said that they are two extremes.
At the age of twenty-one, she always had to think carefully about everything, was always worried about making mistakes, and was always waiting for an external force to pull her out.
So she put her initial work under the arrangement of her father and father-in-law, and put her love on Yan Yiming, who was the most familiar and safest, and even resolutely refused to have sex with him before marriage, because she was afraid of being judged, not only by her father, but also by her peers.
In college, she often heard all kinds of campus gossip. It was about the confession wall being verified, or someone setting up candles for a confession downstairs in the dorm, or someone cheating on their partner, or someone getting caught having sex outdoors and being embarrassed, or even someone accidentally getting pregnant and taking a leave of absence to go home and have the baby, and then someone even got extra credits for getting married...
And in these anecdotes, girls always seem to be the center of the topic, whether good or bad.
It seems that people only have two opinions about women - bitch or godness.
Either she is a bitch who easily goes to bed with anyone, or she is a goddess with excellent character and academic performance. The two are incompatible and there is no middle ground.
Either bitch or good.
If a boy confesses his love in public, everyone will urge them to "get together". If a girl refuses on the spot, it will be considered "disrespectful" or even "disrespectful". If she agrees against her will, she will be called "hypocritical". It seems that it is always like this. The foolproof plan left for girls is as narrow as a line graph, and she must match this trend impartially to gain recognition that "it should be this way".
If boys are put in the same situation, the standard range is as vast as a fan-shaped chart. Within 90% of the range, it doesn't matter how much they spend, but the last 10% is called incorrect sample data.
Boys who take the initiative are brave in pursuing love, while those who are passive are restrained and forbearing. Girls must passively accept love, but cannot actively say they no longer love. They are bound to men forever, unless they are abandoned by them. The reason for being abandoned cannot be her fault, but must be the man's fault. However, over time, people still ignore the man's problems and return to find the woman's fault...
She cannot be too proactive, nor can she lose face for others. Similarly, she must also save "face" for herself.
At that time, she was completely unable to bear the malice, so she avoided it as much as possible, hoping to live every day in an orderly manner and go through her life smoothly.
But after she entered into marriage with Yan Yiming, she realized that a person's life could be so long, so long that she could not see the end or her own position.
It wasn't until she stumbled into motherhood and completely severed ties with her husband's family that she suddenly realized, when she took Ruxing to Jiang Shu's house for dinner, that she realized how short life is. So short that these six years had passed in the blink of an eye...
And she has actually experienced so many things, which she could never have imagined ten years ago - she is already thirty years old.
But she still had so much to experience, and she was only thirty years old.
After get off work, Lin Ying went to the nursery to pick up Ruxing. On her way home, she passed by the gallery and saw that the next door had just finished serving a wave of customers. She leaned over and called out to Sister Chun -
"Sister Chun, I want a serving of barbecued pork rice and a serving of small wontons."
Seeing that it was mother and daughter, Sister Chun immediately smiled happily. She winked and teased Ruxing, while trying to give her a discount.
Lin Ying didn't give in this time and directly scanned the code to transfer the original price.
"You and Brother Li are leaving soon. Please do your business well in the last few days and don't give me any more discounts."
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