After Cao Jinbo finished speaking, his gaze lingered on me... At that moment, I was really in a dilemma. If I refused him, I was afraid he would take the opportunity to make things difficult for me; if I agreed, I was indeed wary of the business he was doing that was on the fringes of the law... So, I didn't want to be in the same boat as him.
After some deliberation, I finally replied, "President Cao, it's a great honor for you to come all this way to invite me today... but I'm really not sure how much longer I can stay in Dali. If you give me important tasks in the future, but I have to leave, wouldn't that be letting you down?"
Cao Jinbo smiled and said, "I know what you're thinking... You're not going to leave so easily. If you wanted to leave, you would have left long ago. You wouldn't have waited until today."
I looked at Cao Jinbo awkwardly.
Cao Jinbo continued, "Outsiders say I don't run clean businesses... Haha, but they don't know that the taxes I pay to the country every year, whether it's personal or corporate, are among the highest. Why is that?... Because when I was young, I made a mistake, and that time I even got my own brother involved... People have to learn from their mistakes, so now I only do legal business, and I wouldn't dare to get involved in anything illegal or disorderly!"
I denied it: "Mr. Cao, that's not what I meant, I..."
He was interrupted by Cao Jinbo before he could finish speaking: "Don't you want to hear what I asked you to do?"
"Uh... go ahead, I'm listening."
Cao Jinbo lit a cigarette and then said, “I have three guesthouses currently in operation in the ancient city, one seaside guesthouse in Shuanglang, and two bars each on Renmin Road and Honglongjing Bar Street… I came to you because I hope you can help me manage my guesthouses and bars as a professional manager… I’m not very educated, and I don’t have the innovative thinking of you young people… To be honest, based on what you’ve done, I think you’re a brave and resourceful young man. It’s a good idea to hire you to do things for me.”
After a brief pause, Cao Jinbo continued, "Cao Xue is my nephew, and he was entrusted to me by my elder brother... I can't let him drive for me for the rest of his life; I think it's time to find a decent person to mentor him. Once he's on the right track, I can confidently hand over these bars and inns to him to manage... But decent people are hard to find, and capable and intelligent decent people are even harder to find!"
I remained silent, but my mind was racing. Having experienced firsthand Cao Jinbo's charlatanry, I didn't know which of his words were believable and which were not.
I finally said, "Cao Xue is actually a pretty good person. It's just that you have a prejudice against him. I think he is capable of standing on his own."
Cao Jinbo asked with a smile, "Do you even believe what you're saying?... Michael, you're a straightforward young man. Just tell me your conditions. This roundabout way of beating around the bush is pointless."
"Mr. Cao, to be honest with you, ever since I left Shanghai, I've had no desire to work for someone else anymore... So you'll have to give me some time to think about this."
Cao Jinbo readily agreed, "Okay, I'll give you time... I'll also let you know that if you're willing to come and work for me, I'll pay you a basic salary of 20,000 yuan a month; in addition, I, Cao Jinbo, don't have any unprofitable businesses. I'm willing to share a portion of the profits with you. The specific percentage will depend on how much sales you can generate. The higher the sales, the higher the percentage."
Objectively speaking, compared to my salary in Shanghai, the conditions offered by Cao Jinbo were already tempting enough. Moreover, the cost of living in Dali is much lower than in Shanghai, so the basic salary alone would be enough for me to live comfortably in Dali... However, what I told Cao Jinbo was the truth: apart from those concerns, I really had no intention of working for someone else anymore; and it's hard to say whether this was another scheme set up by Cao Jinbo.
Many of the industries he's currently involved in are subject to strict environmental restrictions, so he might be trying to use me to win over Sun Jiwei...
Perhaps because I had suffered losses before, or perhaps because I had gained some experience, I was surprisingly calm at this moment. I thought about many possibilities of Cao Jinbo's actions, but I did not imagine myself as a talented person who would be appreciated by Cao Jinbo.
Perhaps I'm not confident enough right now.
...
A short while later, Cao Xue bought the cigarettes and returned to Jiulongju. Cao Jinbo finally changed the subject and said to me, "Didn't you want to sign a contract with me? I have a dinner party later, so hurry up and bring it out so I can sign it."
I quickly took the contract that I had prepared earlier out of my bag and handed it to Cao Jinbo.
Cao Jinbo glanced at it briefly and then signed his name on it.
Before leaving, Cao Jinbo told me to think it over carefully, and then he left with Cao Xue. A weight was finally lifted off my shoulders... At least for now, Cao Jinbo is not my enemy, and I can finish my business at Jiulongju during the Chinese New Year in peace.
Under the blazing sun, I was in a good mood... but then, thinking of Tie Nan and his seaside inn, I felt down again. I had a strong premonition that if he insisted on being so stubborn, the chances of something going wrong would be very high... For now, I still wanted to believe the news from Sun Jiwei's side.
...
In the afternoon, I met with Sun Jiwei and handed him the short-term rental contract I had signed with the guest, as well as the contract I had signed with Cao Jinbo. As always, he was very helpful and personally took me to the Industry and Commerce Bureau for registration. After that, we went to the Tax Bureau and symbolically paid some behavior tax and income tax.
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