Chapter 46 Knowing Difficulty and Retreating

  Tang Ao heard the sound and raised his head, looking at Su Tong for a moment, as if asking with his eyes whether she was in a hurry. Su Tong hurriedly shook her head slightly, indicating that she wasn't in a hurry. Tang Ao smiled at her and then lowered his head to continue what he was doing. Wang Wei didn't notice the interaction between the two, but Feng Wei did. A hint of melancholy flashed across her eyes, and she pursed her lips lightly before lowering her eyelids and continuing with her work.

  After a while, Tang Ao finally showed some signs of being busy, he stretched his waist, stretched out his stiff body from sitting for too long, looked up at the others and asked: "Hey, I was so busy that I forgot about time, are you guys starving?"

  "There's something." Su Tong was indeed hungry, but since no one else had expressed anything, she didn't dare say anything.

  "I'm not just a little, I said a lot of points. Now you're treating me to a buffet, and I can make it worth your while. Do you believe it?" Wang Wei's face was bitter, patting his chest, "I'm now completely broke, boss, you really are one extreme or the other, either nothing is urgent or once you start something, everything else is forgotten."

  "How come I'm not hungry at all?" Feng Wei glanced at him, "That's what I said, people who shout 'I'm hungry' the moment they open their eyes every day are either idle or gluttons."

  Su Tong's face also felt a bit unbearable, although Feng Wei's words were directed at Wang Wei, but the person who just said they were hungry also had themselves, so it was equivalent to being counted as the same type of person as Wang Wei, and together became the idle people in Feng Wei's mouth, or simply rice buckets.

  Wang Wei also sensed that Feng Wei's words were not quite right, but in front of Su Tong, he couldn't say anything, so he could only make eye contact with Feng Wei on one hand and say on the other: "A rice bucket is just a rice bucket, but even a rice bucket has its own value!"

  "Alright, let's not talk about food anymore," Tang Ao finally finished what he was doing and stood up. "This is all my fault, I owe too much debt, I've been busy paying it back, almost missed the most important thing! As compensation, I'll treat you to a meal, are you willing?"

  "Of course! Who wouldn't want a free meal? Only an idiot would pass it up!" Wang replied eagerly.

  Feng Wei also nodded: "Willing is willing, but what level of restaurant you invite me to eat at, that's when it shows sincerity! Having been a supervisor for so long, if you just find some street stall to fool me, I won't agree. You know I'm not easy to get rid of!"

  "No big deal, this is easy," Tang Ao wasn't stumped by Feng Wei. He pulled out a few restaurant location cards from his desk drawer, flipped through them, and picked one out to hand to Feng Wei. "I remember that place, we went there to celebrate after closing that big deal last time, and you two seemed to like the food, taste, and atmosphere pretty well, didn't you? How about I just book that place again?"

  "Alright, I'll give you credit for remembering that I like this restaurant. It's not easy for someone with a memory as bad as yours to recall something like that." Feng Wei's scowl turned into a smile, and she nodded her head, taking the positioning card from Tang Ao's hand and happily going off to make a phone call to locate their child.

  That restaurant, Su Tong also knew that there was a blind date arranged by her family before, which she couldn't get out of no matter how hard she tried. The location was chosen to be there, and when she went on the date, her impression of the restaurant was still quite good. It wasn't noisy, located on a quiet little street, with a building that had a somewhat European-style architecture. There was a row of square pillars surrounding an arched corridor at the entrance of the restaurant, and even though it was winter at the time, there were some artificial green vines hanging from the corridor, paired with some retro-style lanterns suspended inside the corridor, casting out warm orange-yellow light. As a result, the atmosphere of the entire place was very warm and cozy, which is why it attracted large numbers of couples to come here for dinner together.

  After that, Su Tong was reluctant to recall the event. It was her first blind date in this life and probably would be the last one because it had nothing to do with "happiness". After meeting him, she found out that the matchmaker's words were like water in a sponge - there might be some truth but how much depended on the matchmaker's conscience. The man she met was far from what the matchmaker described. He was nearly 10 cm shorter than expected and his education and income were also exaggerated. What's more, he didn't think he was overpraised by the matchmaker and instead had an arrogant attitude, talking as if he was the center of the world with a strong sense of male chauvinism. Even before they finished their first meeting, he seriously told Su Tong that after they got married, she would have to change her job because he couldn't accept a woman who ran around doing news reports all day without energy to take care of household chores and look after him and the kids.

  The final result of this matter was that Su Teng didn't even finish his meal, and he left alone with a belly full of grievances. Later, the man expressed his dissatisfaction to Su Teng's parents through the matchmaker, thinking that Su Teng's behavior represented a lack of family education. Fortunately, Su's mother wasn't an easy-going person who could be bullied, and she had insisted on Su Teng meeting the man because the matchmaker had praised him as a rare high-quality young man, fearing that her daughter would miss out on a good opportunity. Now, seeing that the matchmaker was unreliable and the man himself had poor quality and a huge gap in thinking, he even blamed Su Teng's family education, so Su's mother scolded him, saying that the man almost ran away with his tail between his legs, and never dared to call and harass Su Teng's family again.

  So, Su Tong's only blind date experience ended in a farcical way, and she also remembered that restaurant. Sometimes when she thought about it, she still felt that one bad apple had spoiled the whole pot of soup, because such an eccentric blind date object had destroyed the originally romantic and warm atmosphere of the restaurant.

  It's not just Su Tong who has an impression of that restaurant, Wang Wei also remembers it. He chuckled and said to Tang Ao and Su Tong: "This time is good, with Sister Su together, the four of us going won't be inappropriate!"

  "What's wrong with that? It's just going out for a meal, what's improper about it?" Su Tong asked in puzzlement.

  "Sister Su, you don't know, that restaurant is basically booked by couples, they're all in pairs, two by two. But that one time, Feng Wei's brain went haywire and insisted on going there. We three were supposed to celebrate closing a design order! Two big men, bringing along a little girl... Ah, the scene, just thinking about it makes me feel a bit strange. Anyway, that evening was a disaster, from the moment we sat down to eat until we left, I don't know how many people gossiped about us, those eyes were like daggers, stabbing at our backs. I reckon those people looking at me and Boss Tang, on the surface they didn't say anything, but in their minds they'd already written a thousand-word essay of a certain... ahem... not suitable for minors! Luckily today we don't have to worry about that, four people going, two men two women, no matter how you look at it, it's just two couples having dinner together!" Wang Wei said with a smile.

  Su Tong couldn't help but burst out laughing at his words, and Feng Wei, who had just finished her phone call, happened to hear the last few sentences. She glared at Wang Wei and said, "Don't flatter yourself, Su sister can't stand you."

  "Yeah, Su Jie definitely looks down on me, but as long as she can look up to the boss, that's all right, isn't it, boss?" Wang Wei responded with a smile, and also pulled in Tang Ao to add strength.

  Tang Ao just smiled and didn't directly respond to Wang Wei's words. Instead, he turned his head and asked Feng Wei: "Has the dinner arrangement been made?"

  "It's settled, a table for four. Feng Wei glanced at the time, "We'll set off immediately, and we should arrive just in time. They said business is quite busy over there, so we can't reserve a table for too long."

  Tang Ao nodded, indicating that everyone should go out together. After turning off the lights in the workshop and lowering the anti-theft roller shutter, he called Wang Wei aside, took out his wallet, pulled out 300 yuan from it, and handed it to him.

  "You two go ahead and order something to eat, enjoy your meal." He said to Wang Wei.

  "Boss, what do you mean? You and Su aren't going?" Wang Wei was taken aback.

  Tang Ao nodded: "Yes, we two won't go, there's something else tonight, you two go, oh, right, you drive my car over, don't take a taxi, it's not easy to get one and will waste time, if the table is cancelled that won't be good. This place is close to where I live, Su Tong and I can just walk back."

  "What? You're not going?" Feng Wei had already prepared to get on the car, but seeing Tang Hao not only giving money to Wang Wei, but also handing over the car key, she was surprised and hurriedly walked over, "Why?"

  "We have other things, you and Wang can go." Tang Ao said with a smile.

  Feng Wei bit her lip, feeling a little unwilling. She glanced at Su Tong with her eyes and finally found a good reason: "But even if you're not hungry, you don't eat, but Sister Su is still hungry, right? Sister Su still wants to go eat!"

  "Don't worry, Su Tong is with me, I won't let her go hungry." Tang Ao's smile didn't change, he turned his head to look at Su Tong beside him, "You should have more confidence in my cooking skills now, shouldn't you?"

  "Wow! This sounds a bit confusing! Sister Su, when you need me to call you that, please let me know in advance. If I accidentally call you the wrong name, Boss Tang will be unhappy and deduct my salary, what can I do?! Wang Wei immediately chimed in with a smile, "However, Sister Su, since we're compatible, I'll give you a friendly tip: you must test Boss Tang more often, keep him hanging, don't let him get his way easily!"

  "Hmm, I've remembered this conversation. When it's time to evaluate your work performance and decide whether or not to give you a raise, I'll take this into consideration. Actually, I was planning on giving you a raise next month anyway..." Tang Ao stroked his chin, with an air of mystery and suspense.

  Wang immediately changed his stance upon hearing this and said to Su Tong: "Su, actually I was starving earlier and my brain short-circuited, so I wasn't even clear-headed. To be strict, our Boss Tang is a rare good man, you don't need to consider it anymore, if you miss this chance, there won't be another one!"

  "Wang Wei, are you going to eat or not? If not, I'll just head home myself!" Feng Wei had already walked away and was standing by the car, seeing Wang Wei still chatting with Tang Ao and others, she immediately shouted out in annoyance.

  "Go, go, go! Eat, eat, eat! Walk, walk, walk!" Wang hurriedly responded and shook the car key in his hand with a smile, "Bye bye, Boss Tang! Sister Su will come often in the future! We're going to have a big meal now!"

  After finishing speaking, they ran to get on the car. Tang Ao and Su Tong waved goodbye to them and turned around to walk slowly in the direction of home. Although it was still a bit cool on this spring evening, the air was very good. This time was when others had finished dinner and came out for a stroll. There were many people on the road, and there were also passing cars. Su Tong wasn't particularly afraid, but to be safe, she still walked closely beside Tang Ao. At this moment, she had a question in her mind, but she didn't know whether she should ask or not. She hesitated several times, and finally, Tang Ao noticed it.

  "Do you have something you want to say to me?" Tang Ao asked proactively.

  "Never mind, if you think I'm asking something inappropriate, just pretend you didn't hear it." Su Tong was afraid he asked too abruptly, so before speaking, he gave Tang Ao a preventive warning, "You... do you know Feng Wei... she..."

  "Are you asking me if I know that Feng Wei has a crush on me?" Tang Ao supplemented her question and nodded, frankly telling her, "Yes, I do know about this. At first, I didn't notice, but as time went by, even a man's dull nerves can't help but feel it. If I said I didn't know, there would only be two possibilities: either I'm stupid or I'm pretending to be ignorant on purpose."

  "So those things you did tonight at the restaurant and all that were also intentional?" Su Tong asked.

  Tang Ao smiled: "Alright, let's just say that Wang Wei likes Feng Wei, I know that too. As for Feng Wei... well, she's been blinded by her own biases, being overly fixated on something that's impossible. She's always cold and hostile towards Wang Wei, but I think emotional matters should be left to fate. I don't plan on forcing them together or playing matchmaker. At least let Wang Wei create his own opportunities and try his luck. I think those two are like sworn enemies most of the time, but who knows, maybe there's still a chance for them.

  As for me, I've always thought that if a man is pursuing a girl he likes, but she doesn't like him back, it's perfectly fine to reject him directly and cut off his hopes. After all, men have thick skin and can take the blow. A swift rejection is better than leading him on. But if you reverse the roles, it's not that simple. Women are more sensitive and have thinner skin, so you need to be more considerate of their feelings. It's best to let them down gently, so they won't feel embarrassed later.

  Of course, I'm no expert in emotional matters. If what I said is wrong, please remind me so I can correct myself."

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