Chapter Twenty-Four: Being Let Down

  At ten o'clock, I and Anan appeared on time in the conference room of the Kamihara Group. The one who greeted us was a middle-aged man with a short stature, his flat face like a persimmon wearing a pair of glasses with a square frame, behind which a pair of small eyes would occasionally flash with cunning light.

  "I'm really sorry, Mr. Fang. Our manager had an urgent task to attend to out of town today. Why don't you and this lady go back first and contact him when he returns?"

  The middle-aged man said very politely.

  "When can he come back?" Anan looked at me and turned his head to ask him.

  "This is hard to say, maybe a few weeks, maybe a few months, he was sent to a branch company by the general manager."

  "Would you mind telling me his phone number? I need to communicate with him over the phone." Anan said unequivocally.

  "This...this doesn't seem right..." the man muttered.

  "We arrived on time as scheduled today, and your company, Shengyuan Group, is also a well-known large enterprise. I don't believe that the sales manager of your company doesn't even have basic credibility." Anan said with a straight face.

  "Hey, Mr. Fang, please don't be angry, our manager really has a temporary task... Otherwise, let me go ask for instructions... You guys wait for a moment." The man's face was full of smiles as he apologized repeatedly and then hurriedly left.

  "Anan, I think I'm going to be unlucky... Is it because of me that you're also unlucky?" I said to Anan, as if smelling the familiar scent of bad luck.

  "Just wait and see, I don't know what they're up to." Anan furrowed his brow, comforting me.

  Time passed minute by minute, but the middle-aged man still hadn't appeared. Anan and I waited anxiously.

  "Anan, I'm in a bad situation, I'm really afraid of dragging you down." After pacing back and forth like a caged beast for several rounds, I said to Anan again.

  "Let's see how things turn out first, okay?" Anan continued to comfort me.

  I know Anan didn't have the confidence either, he was just comforting me.

  I stretched out my hand, turned over my palm and looked at it. It was still the familiar lines on my palm. I stared hard at it, wishing I could see clearly the twists and turns of the lines. If this were a dense forest, I thought I would have gotten lost in it already. Suddenly, I couldn't help but miss my grandmother so much. How great it would be if she were here with me! She could tell me whether or not I would get fired by my boss.

  But even if Grandma were here, could she have saved me from this wretched fate? The thought sent a chill down my spine. Who can help me shake off this curse? My misfortune and bad luck seem to be congenital, just like the ugly woman's curse in my dream - can I ever escape it?

  "He's here." Anan's words broke into my thoughts.

  The middle-aged man just pushed open the door and came in.

  "Mr. Fang, our manager wants to speak with you personally." The middle-aged man said to Anan, holding a large mobile phone that looked like a brick.

  I anxiously watched Anan take over the phone, anxiously watching him listen intently with his ear to the side, anxiously watching his lips open and close.

  A moment later, Anan returned the mobile phone to the man.

  "Su Xiaomei, let's go." Anan turned around and said to me.

  "What? And what about this order..." I hadn't finished speaking when Anan had already grabbed my arm and was pulling me outside.

  "Please go slowly." The middle-aged man said with courtesy and relief behind his back.

  Under Anan's pull, I stumbled down the stairs, but as soon as we reached the second floor, Anan stopped and directly entered an office with an open door at the corner.

  "Excuse me, which room is General Manager Zhong in? I have an appointment with him." An Nan asked politely to the people in the room.

  "The second one on the east side will do." said a young man wearing a white shirt.

  "What's going on? Are we supposed to meet their general manager?" I asked in puzzlement as we walked out.

  "Hmm, I've never seen anyone so deceitful. Since they're deceiving us, we'll deceive them too. Can't find the sales manager? I want to see the general manager and ask them what they really want to do." Anan said in a low voice.

  I nodded vaguely, but in my heart I didn't hold out much hope.

  When we knocked on the general manager's door, we found two people sitting inside. One was a woman leaning against a dark brown leather chair, with short hair that reached her ears, around thirty years old, with a good face and tight facial features, a pair of big and spirited eyes shining brightly, looking like a clean and capable woman. The other was a man sitting in the black leather chair opposite her, with a slightly bald head, fat head and big ears, a thoughtful expression on his pale face, as if they were discussing something.

  "Hey, Manager Zhao, you've returned from your trip so quickly?" Anan asked in a strange tone as soon as she saw the man sitting on the black leather chair.

  "Ah, Mr. Fang......this......" The man called Manager Zhao suddenly turned bright red in the face, he scratched his nearly hairless scalp with his short and thick fingers, awkwardly stood up from the chair, his facial expression was a mix of crying and laughing, his mouth half open, but no words came out.

  Anan no longer spoke, he stood quietly in front of Manager Zhao, staring at him with eyes that held a smile.