Chapter 8

  Fu An Dong slapped the table after Lu You formally confirmed joining our company.

  He sat behind his desk, reminding me to close the door, raising an eyebrow and asking: "Xu Shenshen, did you invite him in?"

  "Yes."

  "So you're just here to make connections for others, huh?" Piao An Dong had been very busy with work lately, often working overtime until late at night, and hadn't had time to take care of his appearance, now looking like a roaring lion.

  "Whether or not you get in is not up to me, I'm just in charge of recruitment. The final say lies with the leader, so yelling at me won't do any good."

  Fu Andong never got along with Lu You, and when Lu You and I were still boyfriend and girlfriend, he never showed any kindness to Lu You. There was once a birthday of mine before which I seriously warned Fu Andong to give me some face and not to bully that big shot; the result was that he didn't even attend my birthday party.

  "You didn't even tell me? I think you're just eager to get him in, facing each other every day, waiting for the old feelings to reignite." He pulled his shirt collar with a bad temper and started scolding me.

  "I shot back: 'If you're so capable, then go fire him yourself. The leaders have already made up their minds, and my role is just a formality. Whether I'm here or not, the outcome will be the same.'"

  "He glared at me: 'Don't think I'm not capable of this.'"

  "Then you're free to go." I turned around and was about to leave.

  "After all these years, brother, I'll give you one piece of advice: Xu Shenshen", Fu Andong said behind me: "Can't you just stop humiliating yourself?"

  I stood still for three minutes, trying hard to hold back from erupting, but this matter was really too difficult. I turned around, took two steps, and slapped the documents in my hand heavily on Pei Andong's desk.

  "I'm telling you, Fei Andong, whether you believe it or not. This matter isn't up to me to decide. Let's take a step back and say that even if Lu You was someone I brought in, what's the big deal? I just want to see him every day, what business is it of yours?"

  I and Fu Andong have been quarreling since childhood, often getting red-eyed and thick-necked, sometimes even fighting with passion, but this has never affected our friendship.

  My dad always says I'm a very stubborn person, which I admit. I like to argue about everything and never back down. This trait is especially evident when it comes to people close to me, so I may unintentionally hurt them without realizing it.

  I think I went too far this time, because Fu Andong suddenly fell silent, not even getting angry, just leaning against the window and muttering in a low voice: "Get out."

  Returned to the office and sifted through several resumes, confirmed the start time with the newly recruited staff one by one, verified this month's salary payment situation, and unknowingly it was already 10 o'clock in the evening.

  When I was carrying my bag back home, I passed by Fei Andong's office. The light was on and the door wasn't closed. He sensed me, slightly raised his head, looked at me expressionlessly for a moment, then shifted his gaze back to the computer screen and continued working with a tired look.

  At the entrance of the office building, I happened to run into Liu Xi. She was wearing a loose bat sleeve T-shirt and denim shorts, with her hair tied in a simple ponytail, which set off her tall and slender figure.

  I greeted her.

  Liu Xi saw that I was somewhat surprised, "Shen Shen, why are you coming home so late?"

  "Uh-huh, added another class. Are you going to see Fu An Dong?"

  Liu Xi nodded: "Has your company been very busy recently? I see him always working overtime, coming back every day at 1 or 2 o'clock."

  I comforted her: "Fu Andong and the others are quite busy. But you shouldn't worry too much either, this period of launching new products might have more things to do, it'll be fine after this busy period."

  She hesitated for a moment and asked: "Then you often work overtime recently too?"

  I roughly understood what she meant, shook my head and said: "I'm not busy, it just so happens that I have something to do today until this late. I signed up for a yoga class, usually after work I go practice."

  Liu Xi heard this and smiled: "Okay, I'll go up and take a look at him."

  That evening, I received an MSN message. A Chinese friend I had met in London was planning to return home and would be transferring in City B, so we arranged to meet up. The next day after work, I rushed to a restaurant beside the school and saw someone standing at the entrance wearing black short sleeves and jeans, looking comfortable and casual, couldn't help but smile, walked quickly over and hugged him: "Lin You, why didn't you tell me earlier that you were planning to return home?"

  He patted me on the back and joked: "I heard you were here, so I rushed back."

  "I'm too excited, are you formally returning to your motherland this time?"

  He nodded: "I guess so, I'll settle in Hong Kong from now on." He said as he walked into the restaurant: "Let's eat and chat at the same time."

  Lin You is my senior fellow in university, a few years older than me. He took good care of me when I was in London and is one of the most reliable friends I have overseas. I got to know Lin You because I interned at his law firm, where there weren't many Asian people, and we also attended the same university back home, so he naturally became my mentor.

  The first time I met him, the impression was on a very bad winter day. In fact, London's weather has always been very bad, with a gloomy fog that presses on people's hearts and makes them feel suffocated. Although we had exchanged many emails and phone calls, because he had been on business in Birmingham before, we had never met in person.

  That morning, I carried my coffee as usual to the office and saw a strange Chinese face in my usual seat, so I spoke up to remind him to find another seat.

  The man looked up at me and replied in standard Chinese: This is my seat.

  "He was simple when introducing himself, 'Hello, I'm Lin You, your mentor.' I didn't expect him to be so young. Lin You does things in a very orderly and steady manner, I had always thought he was a middle-aged man in his thirties."

  After a few words of cold talk, I started moving the materials on the table away. Having "usurped" for a good while, there were quite a few stacks of documents and files on the table. When turning around, I accidentally knocked over the coffee at the edge of the table, spilling it directly onto Lin You's computer. In such an embarrassing situation when meeting for the first time, I almost cried in front of him.

  It's a fortunate thing to run into an old classmate in a foreign land. He didn't scold me, and seeing my troubled face, he even comforted me: "Don't worry, if anyone should cry, it should be me first."