Chapter 56.2
At the headquarters of Cang Huan, the staff of the assistant department were very serious today.
Wei Tian put down a bag and whispered to her colleague, “What’s going on today? Everyone seems to be very serious.”
“Shh,” her colleague said. “Today is the quarterly report meeting and the general manager of the branches will come for a meeting. You haven’t passed the internship period so don’t go to the president’s office today. You can’t afford any trouble.”
Wei Tian hurriedly nodded.
After a while, once everyone began to speak, she carefully asked, “The other day, I read a news report. I didn’t expect the senior members of our company to like an actor.’
“Are you talking about Li Zhao?” Her colleague smiled. “He looks good, his acting skills are great and I really like him. Even Special Assistant Qin is secretly watching the dramas shot by Li Zhao. This is our department’s open secret.”
Wei Tian nodded and gave snacks to her colleagues.
At the end of the quarterly report, Yan Ting sat in place without moving. Qin Xiao saw that he didn’t seem to be in a bad mood and whispered, “Sir, is there a problem with the contents of the meeting?”
Yan Ting shook his head. “The child at home wants to sell things and is in very high spirits. How can I let him have a fun time?”
“Arrange buyers for him?” Qin Xiao suggested. “Children who are half-grown have a freshness for things they haven’t done before. If you are worried that he isn’t having fun, you can hire someone to act as a buyer to let Mr Li have some fun.”
Yan Ting nodded. “Make the arrangements now.”
Not long after, Qin Xiao returned with a strange expression. “Sir, there was an accident after things were arranged.”
“What happened?”
“By the time the person I arranged arrived at the market, Mr Li had sold out of items and two aunts are arguing over who will buy the last few kilograms of sweet potatoes. The scene was full of people watching and we couldn’t squeeze in.” In order to comfort Yan Ting, QIn Xiao especially added, “Mr Li is quite talented in doing business. He can even conquer fussy aunts.”
“He did a great job.” Yan Ting adjusted his sitting posture and inexplicably felt a bit… proud.
Li Zhao himself didn’t expect the two aunts to quarrel. He wanted to persuade them but the two aunts roared, “Adults are arguing. Young people should go to the side!”
He was yelled at and crouched back in place, hand holding his chin as he listened to the two aunts quarrelling.
“I saw it first!”
“I grabbed them first. If looking at something first makes them yours, I see that this guy is so handsome. Can he be my grandson?”
Li Zhao’s hand on his chin moved to cover his face.
Seeing that the two aunts were becoming noisier, Li Zhao was worried about any physical problems. He went to the next store to borrow two plastic stools and had them speak slowly while bringing them bottles of water.
“Aunties, please speak slowly. You look so good but you can’t affect your appearance because you are angry.” Once the two aunts took a few sips of water and their anger wasn’t so heavy, Li Zhao dared to come up to them and smiled. “There are so many stalls in the market selling sweet potatoes yet you are willing to come here to buy from me. It must be because you sympathize with my story, right?”
The two aunts didn’t speak. They just saw such a good-looking young man smiling and talking to them and felt good. They weren’t kind. They just came to see the fun once the saw others buying.
“You look good and you’re compassionate. You shouldn’t be upset about this trivial matter.” Li Zhao folded his hands together like the mediator on a village committee. “It is the blessings of these sweet potatoes that they are valued by them. Otherwise, how about I give these sweet potatoes to you for free?”
“Young man, I’m not so cheap as to take advantage of a young man.”
“Oh, so I am?”
Seeing that the two of them were going to argue again, Li Zhao quickly interrupted them. “I’m giving them to you because of your kindness, not because you’re taking advantage of me. At a glance, I can tell that you are from good families. How could you be greedy about me?”
The two aunts looked a bit better.
Li Zhao took two plastic bags and separately packed the sweet potatoes. “The two of you rest a bit. I have a cousin who is also selling sweet potatoes here. I will help him with his stall.”
“Where is your cousin? I’ll buy it!”
“I’ll buy it too! I’ll buy 10 kilograms!”
“I’ll also buy 10 kilograms!”
“Aunt, it isn’t good to take so many sweet potatoes. You should buy a little bit to take back to eat.” Li Zhao took the two aunts and the watching people to Xiang Zhen’s stall. Many people in the market had run to Li Zhao’s stall to watch the excitement. In front of Xiang Zhen’s stall, there wasn’t even an old lady willing to look at him.
Xiang Zhen, the self-proclaimed strength actor and killer of mature married women, finally felt the ruthless abandonment of these mature married women. Once he saw Li Zhao come over with two aunts, he was shocked. Li Zhao had provoked the most unavailable people in the market?
After the two aunts bought more than 10 kg of sweet potatoes from him in one go, other people watching from the crowd also bought sweet potatoes and Xiang Zhen was busy collecting money.
Xiang Zhen sighed with relief after finally sending away the last customer and he squatted on the ground to start making money. Previously, he never felt that 5 jiao was expensive. On this day, he felt it wasn’t easy to earn 1 jiao.
“Xiao Li, how did you persuade those aunts and uncles to buy your things and bring the guests to my side?” He just saw it. An uncle had been suspecting that his sweet potatoes were authentic just an hour ago. After Li Zhao came over, this uncle cheerfully bought 2.5 kg.
The uncles and aunts are very cute. As long as you warmly greet them, they are generous.” Li Zhao counted the money in a good mood. “I wonder how Brother Zhang and the others are doing?”
He was teammates with Xiang Zhen and both of them sold out before the task time ended.
Cute?!
Xiang Zhen doubted his ears. Buying two of his big sweet potatoes and also giving him a small one could be considered generous and cute? He felt that Li Zhao might’ve misunderstood these words.
“Zhao Zhao, Teacher Xiang, this is your next task.”
The staff handed the task card to the two men.
“Under the premise of not using the sales of the sweet potatoes or personal money, take care of the problem of food and clothing.” Xiang Zhen finished reading the contents. “Is this not letting us eat?” The program is doing this and not giving us food expenses. It would be a joke for others.”
“The director said that we are a black-hearted program and don’t need to prepare lunch for the guests.” The staff member smiled wickedly. “Please refuel and find a place to eat. The program’s crew has ordered a whole roast lamb and I want to rush back to eat.”
Xiang Zhen gulped. If he had known then he wouldn’t have sold all the sweet potatoes just now. Then he could eat some when he was hungry.
“I have money.” Li Zhao reached into his pocket and pulled out 35 yuan.
Seeing these 35 yuan, the staff member seemed to think of some unpleasant memories and his face turned green.
“Where did that come from?” Xiang Zhen’s eyes lit up.
“The program group gave me money for the journey yesterday and I didn’t use it all.”
Behind the monitor, the director hit his thighs with regret. Why did he forget about this? Since the other five guests used up all the money, they forgot that Li Zhao had 35 yuan left. If they knew then they would’ve taken it back.
“In the morning, I saw a noodle store next to the market. The largest-sized vegetarian noodle soup is only 8 yuan.” Li Zhao put the money in his inner coat pocket and buttoned up his coat. “Go Brother Xiang, I invite you to eat noodles.”
Xiang Zhen was moved to tears. It was noodles, hot noodles. It was great that he didn’t have to beg for food.
Noon was the time when the noodle store was full of villagers wanting to catch up. Li Zhao and Xiang Zhen didn’t want to abandon the small store and looked for two empty seats to sit down.
“Apart from us, are there any other show guests that are so miserable?” Xiang Zhen wiped his face in a sour manner. “How good was the crew’s words in the beginning? They would bring me to experience the rural scenery and enjoy nature. I didn’t expect their routine to be so deep.”
“The program group didn’t lie to you. There are many places in the countryside that look like this.” Li Zhao pushed a bowl in front of Xiang Zhen and helped him open the disposable chopsticks. “Now it isn’t the busy season. If it was the busy season then the villagers would get up at dawn and go home at night.”
“You know so much about rural life. Have you stayed in the countryside?” After drinking the broth, Xiang Zhen finally felt alive.
“I spent 10 years in the countryside when I was a kid.” Li Zhao didn’t elaborate. He just bowed his head and started to eat the noodles.
Li Zhao wasn’t full with a bowl of noodles but he thought about how there were four guests waiting to be fed by him and he bought a bag of vegetable buns with bread and four bags of soy milk. Then he went back to feed them.
Once they found Zhang Kui, he was crouching on the ground with a lifeless expression. A child walked by and hesitated for a moment before taking out a bag of cookies and placed them in front of him. Zhang Kui looked at the biscuits and then the child, thinking that this kind child might’ve misunderstood something.
“Hahahahaha.” Li Zhao and Xiang Zhen saw this scene and callously mocked him.
“You…” Before Zhang Kui could speak words of condemnation, he saw the food in Li Zhao’s hands and suddenly changed his face. “You must be good people who came to help me.”
Zhang Kui thought about how he was a member of the opera society and could eat whatever he wanted…until he came on this show. For a few mouthfuls of buns, his face could be thrown away.
Soon, the other guests came over and squatted contentedly at a corner of the market, eating vegetarian buns worth a few jiao and drinking a bag of watered soy milk.
“See this, if you don’t read well then you can only be like them, squatting in the vegetable market and eating buns and bread. They can’t even afford meat.” A mother led her child past and whispered about children who didn’t go to lessons.
The guests eating buns, “……”
They also wanted to eat meat but they had no money!
“Hahahahaha.”
The crew behind the monitor gave a happy and nasty laugh. The entire place was filled with a pleasant atmosphere.
The author has something to say:
Baby Ting Ting is very worried. Baby Zhao Zhao went to the kindergarten to sell and he is worried that Zhao Zhao’s small toys and picture books won’t be sold.
Thinking about it, he smashed his savings piggy bank, put all the coins in his pocket and decided to support Baby Zhao Zhao’s cause.