Chapter 8
Guan Ying's cell phone suddenly rang in the middle of the night. She just glanced at the first few digits of the international area code, and an ominous premonition instantly broke her drowsy sleepiness.
"Zheng Juyong! How dare you?! Don't tell me it's because of the time difference. It's only four hours, and you can't even bear this little hardship! Do you know how important this batch of goods is to the steel plant? The bank's loan and the employees' bonuses all depend on it! Even if you're not doing this for the steel plant, you're doing this for your Qiao Qi. How can you sleep in the cargo yard?"
When Guan Ying heard the news, she was so furious that she almost went crazy on the bed with her hair disheveled. She had thought that his mission was directly related to his own marriage, and he would definitely be sensible. Besides, everything had been arranged by her in advance, and he was just there to clean up the mess. What kind of trouble could he get into? But he managed to get into such a big mess!
"I know," Zheng Juyong said weakly on the other end of the phone. If he could have thought of another solution, he wouldn't have been so desperate as to harass Guan Ying in the middle of the night. "Last night, I slept in the living room. The sofa cushions were too hard, and there was a dog outside, running around and barking..."
Guan Ying couldn't stand it any longer. She felt that he, a man, was still making excuses after doing something wrong. She angrily lectured him, "Are you afraid of dogs barking? You have a dog at home. What excuses are you making for me? Also, there's no bed or window in the dormitory? Wait, why did you want to sleep in the living room? Before you left, I specially asked Jiawei to wash and dry all the sheets for you. You still complain?! Yes, haha, I forgot, who are you? You are the eldest son, the daughter of a wealthy family!"
Guan Ying scolded him in a strange tone, and Zheng Juyong felt very aggrieved: "That's your bed... Didn't you never let me touch it since I was a child?"
When they were young, they were all innocent. When Sister Guanguan was sent to Zheng's house to spend the night, she slept with him on the upper and lower bunks in the children's room. Since one morning, Sister Guanguan found that he had wet the bed, she never let him climb onto her mattress to play again. She would beat him every time he climbed onto her mattress. He naturally learned his lesson after being beaten so many times. Therefore, even though he has grown up now, he dare not easily step out of line.
Guan Ying didn't remember: "Did I? Nonsense... What, are you blaming me now?"
"Alas," Zheng Juyong didn't want to dwell on the beatings he'd received as a child. It was fine if she'd forgotten about it, and he had to save face now. "You've had enough of the scolding. Come up with a solution."
"There's nothing I can do! You can find whoever you want, but I can't do anything about it!" Guan Ying was still angry. Every word he said on the phone seemed to be meant to make her angry.
Zheng Juyong held the phone tightly and looked at the clock on the living room wall. It was just past midnight in the UAE, and it was about four in the morning in China. He had calculated the time long ago and felt that calling back at this time would not make Guan Ying too angry. In the end, he had calculated it wrong. Guan Ying was now like waking up in the morning to find that he had wet the bed again. Her fighting spirit was fully activated, and she just needed to crawl along the phone line to beat him up!
The stray dogs outside the dormitory began barking again. He'd been in bed by this time last night, so tonight he put on his glasses to get a better look. He looked out the window at the streetlight and saw two packs of stray dogs meeting on the road. Someone had just returned from outside, dropping something under the streetlight. Several other stray dogs gathered around to share the meal. Two of them had bellies so swollen they were practically reaching the ground... For some reason, he suddenly thought of Qiao Qi.
For the sake of Qiao Qi who was still waiting for him to come back, he didn't care about his face at this time. He could endure anything.
"Guan Ying, I didn't mean it. Please help me." He spoke kindly.
Guan Ying was as quiet as if she had fallen asleep.
"Are you... asleep? Actually, if you help me, you will be free. Even if, even if Qiao Qi and I owe you one." Zheng Juyong's voice gradually became fragile.
Guan Ying had just been so angry with him, how could she possibly fall asleep? She had just been suddenly called by his name, and she felt completely dazed: both strange and familiar.
It felt strange, because it was the first time Zheng Juyong had called her by her full name. It felt familiar, because it suddenly reminded her of the tone she'd used when breaking up with her seven previous boyfriends. They'd all been so pathetic, as if they'd said, "Guan Ying, please be kind and give me another chance." In the past, no matter how sentimental their words had been, she'd remained indifferent, always decisive. But why, with Zheng Juyong like this, had she suddenly lost her composure? As for what made him different from them, she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"You're thinking about your Qiao Qi now. If you had put half the effort you put into buying out the club, planting trees and raising birds into your work, you wouldn't owe me today." Although Guan Ying was still scolding him, the level had dropped from a hurricane to a breeze.
She stopped ignoring him, and things took a turn for the better. Zheng Juyong fawned over her and quickly picked up her words: "Huh? What club? Planting trees? I only have one dog at home. I'm not old enough to raise birds, haha."
His fawning was too obvious, yet he was also being secretive. Guan Ying felt she had compromised too quickly and felt a tinge of regret. "What club? That Kung Fu Teahouse! You're so well hidden! I've really seen the world with you guys. Such an amazing place hidden in the tiny western part of Beijing! You've really put a lot of effort into pursuing Qiao Qi!"
"Kung Fu Tea? Oh, you mean that one, right? The owner behind that club is Qian Shaowei. I only found out about it when Qiao Qi's agent couldn't make it there and asked me to pick her up there. So, did Qiao Qi take you there? When?"
This was completely different from what she had expected. Guan Ying was surprised and asked, "Qian Shaowei? The famous music program producer?"
"Yeah, you might not know, but his hometown is also in western Beijing." Zheng Juyong sounded quite proud on the other end of the phone, as if he had learned some remarkable celebrity anecdote. "Many celebrities frequent that place, but they don't serve ordinary guests. By the way, why did Qiao Qi suddenly look for you? Did my parents take advantage of my absence..."
On the back of Guan Ying's hand, where she held the phone, a faint scratch from the silver chain was still visible. She suddenly frowned. Her intuition was rarely wrong. The way Qiao Qi treated the club owner at that moment made it clear that she was the most valued guest there. Given Qiao Qi's status, if Zheng Juyong wasn't behind the scenes paying for her services, she must have another financial sponsor.
"If Uncle and Aunt wanted to cause trouble for Qiao Qi, why would they have to wait four years? Qiao Qi herself was concerned about her future mother-in-law's condition, but didn't want to bother you, so she came to me. Don't worry, I persuaded her to stay and tell her to wait for you to come back before figuring out how to meet her in-laws."
"Is that so... Well, she wants to share my worries, but now is not the time."
Guan Ying was convinced by him. This idiot treated his girlfriend more dearly than his parents. She couldn't help but remind him, "By the way, did you ever give Qiao Qi a bracelet? I think it was made of silver, with two capital letters Q engraved on it?"
"How could I possibly give her silver? Her father gave her that chain two years ago, and she wears it all the time."
"Are you sure? Real father?" What if those two Qs weren't Qiao Qi's initials, but stood for "Qian" and "Qiao"? Given Qian Shaowei's age and experience, he could indeed be Qiao Qi's godfather.
"Of course it's my biological father! What's wrong?"
What a fool! If her intuition was correct, Zheng Juyong was... truly pathetic. After all, Qiao Qi was his first love, and with his infatuation, he'd be overwhelmed if he knew more. The Zheng family couldn't afford for him to get into trouble again. She had to get him back quickly. She finally understood why she couldn't be cruel to Zheng Juyong. It was all because of Uncle Zheng and Aunt Zheng!
Unable to bear the thought of being so irritated with such a poor creature, Guan Ying softened her tone, saying, "Nothing, it's not important. Okay, the most important thing now is that you tell me everything that happened at the freight yard yesterday, from beginning to end, down to every detail."
Before Zheng Juyong called her, he had already reviewed the whole thing in his mind many times, starting from when he met Manager Xu through Jiawei's introduction.
Guan Ying listened to him patiently and sighed deeply: "Oh! Okay, from now on, you listen to my instructions and go to bed immediately. Jiawei will pick you up tomorrow morning."
After talking so much, Zheng Juyong's voice gradually became hoarse and weak, perhaps because he was angry. "I, I can't sleep. There will be no workers tomorrow, and all the trucks in the freight yard need to be sorted again before they can be shipped..."
Guan Ying still had a lot of things to remedy and didn't want to waste time talking to him any more. "Your problem is sleeping, so go solve that first. Zheng Juyong, you should be thankful that the most correct thing you did was contact me in time. Even if I scolded you, you deserved it. Now that I'm done with you, go to sleep peacefully."
"I'm not afraid of being scolded, I'm afraid... of wasting your hard work. Besides, what will you do if I go to sleep? There are so many things to do..." At the end, he finally said something sensible.
Guan Ying sat on the bed, gave a wry smile, and cut the Gordian knot: "Go to bed now! Right now! Immediately!"
......
The next day, it was almost noon when Jiawei rushed to the dormitory to pick up Zheng Juyong.
"Brother Juyong, have you slept enough?" Jiawei stood in the corridor outside the dormitory door with a smile, as calm as an outsider.
"Haha, I'm sorry to have made you laugh, Sister Jiawei."
Seeing him look ashamed of regretting his stupid mistake, Jiawei giggled considerately: "Haha~ Brother, why are you so cute? Oh, it's my fault for being careless yesterday. I should have asked Brother Yan to go there after get off work, so that you wouldn't have to deal with them alone. Well, with us brothers and sisters here, everything is a small matter. The workers at the freight yard have already started work, come with me~"
Zheng Juyong hurried out: "Sister Jiawei, where did the workers come from?"
Jiawei waited by the pickup truck: "It's Brother Liu and Brother Qin and the others. They're experienced. Guan Guan said they're the best fit."
Zheng Juyong started the car: "But, didn't they say they were quitting when they finished work last night?"
Jiawei jumped into the passenger seat at this time: "Wow, the car seat is so hot, don't you turn on the air conditioner?"
"Oh, I wanted to adapt to the climate here as quickly as possible, so I turned off the air conditioner when I came back last night." Zheng Juyong turned the air conditioner back on for her.
Jiawei sighed, "Haha~ You don't need to punish yourself like this, you'll get a heat stroke. The manager knows Brother Liu and Brother Qin and the others, and they've already made it clear. Today, they'll sort out the defective goods on the trucks and send the first batch out first."
"Is it still in time? According to the contract, shouldn't the train have left this morning?"
"The management has already appeased the customer. I just delivered a gift. This is also to ensure quality and strive for excellence. The customer will understand."
Jiawei said it lightly, but Zheng Juyong understood clearly that it must have been difficult for Guan Ying to apologize. He said with deep guilt, "The customer didn't give you any trouble, did he? I'm sorry, it's all because of me."
Jiawei giggled again: "No, today's client is a good friend of Daniel's. He was eager to interact with Guan Guan more often so that he could tip off Daniel and do him some favors. You just happened to make his wish come true! You don't know how disappointed he was when he saw that the person who sent him the gift today was me instead of Guan Guan, hahaha~"
Zheng Juyong was puzzled: "Daniel?"
Jiawei pretended to be mysterious: "Haha~ That's another story. Anyway, don't worry about it in vain."
Jiawei wanted to stop there, so he politely suppressed his curiosity. When the car passed a supermarket outside the port, he turned a corner.
Jiawei: "Hey, go straight, why turn?"
Zheng Juyong: "I'm going in to buy some watermelon and ice cream."
Jiawei reacted for a moment: "For the workers?"
Zheng Juyong nodded.
Jiawei sighed, "She really hit the mark! She told me to stop you if something like this happens, and not to buy watermelons for the workers anymore! Let's go!"
"Why? I offended them yesterday, so I have to find a way to reconcile with them today." Zheng Juyong felt that since Guan Ying had specially arranged for someone to go to the client's place to apologize today, he should do the same.
Jiawei thought about it and imitated Guan Ying's tone: "Guan Guan said that as a boss, it is more important to make the requirements clear and pay the workers in full than to give small favors to the workers. According to the rules, it is enough to have ice water on hand. You are making it difficult for the other bosses in the yard to supply watermelon ice cream every day."
Zheng Juyong stopped the car. He hadn't thought about this and felt it was a bit of an exaggeration: "It's not that serious."
Jiawei described it vividly: "Yes~ On this point, I also agree with Guan Guan. Brother Juyong, you can't imagine the interests involved because you have never tasted the taste of working for others. Think about it, if the other bosses at the port all think that our workers have big appetites and too much work, will they dare to hire them in the future? The reputation of the workers is very important. Reputation is important in any business, right? This is how Guan Guan persuaded Brother Liu and Brother Qin to come back to work. You don't think she apologized on your behalf~"
Zheng Juyong thought about it and felt that it made sense, but he still felt that Guan Ying treated customers and workers differently. He muttered quietly, "This is too much capitalist logic..."
Jiawei's ears were sharp, and she giggled again: "You said Guan Guan is a capitalist? Hehehe~ What kind of capitalist is she? And what kind of capitalist would give workers a day's salary for free?"
Zheng Juyong: "A free day?"
Jiawei: "Yeah, pay them the full salary~ And the manager said you'll be the one to settle the workers' subsequent wages."
Zheng Juyong had nothing more to question, so he turned the car around and headed straight for the port.
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