Jiang Luo pointed at him again: “I’m warning you clearly—doing business is doing business. Don’t tell me you can’t resist those temptations.”
“Only you know if you have any mischievous thoughts in your heart!”
“Messing around out there, aren’t you afraid of getting sick?”
“I’m not! I already said, I’m not! I came back!”
Wang Chuang surrendered: “Alright, alright, how many kicks have you given me already?”
Jiang Luo glared: “Tell me! Are you still going out fooling around?”
“No, no, no!”
Wang Chuang hurriedly begged for mercy.
Jiang Luo scowled: “Go take a shower. What’s that smell? You stink!”
Wang Chuang protested: “I was going to take one anyway!”
Jiang Luo tried to kick him again, and Wang Chuang quickly dodged into the bathroom.
Outside the door, Huo Zongzhuo, who had heard the whole scene, quietly chuckled.
When the room fell silent, he knocked.
Jiang Luo opened the door, surprised to see Huo Zongzhuo.
Huo Zongzhuo handed over something: “You left your pager in my car.”
“Oh, almost forgot.”
Jiang Luo took it: “Thanks for bringing it over.”
Huo Zongzhuo didn’t come in and didn’t leave right away either. He stood there, arms crossed, smiling: “So principled—doing business is just business, no foot massages.”
Jiang Luo didn’t invite him in; there was no reason to sit—they’d just eaten and talked.
He closed the door but teased one last time: “Huo Boss, you don’t usually get foot massages, do you?”
Huo Zongzhuo: “I never do.”
To make sure Jiang Luo believed him, he added: “Really.”
“Then you’re quite principled too.”
Jiang Luo neither fully believed nor disbelieved, raised an eyebrow, said “bye,” and closed the door.
Once closed, Wang Chuang peeked out: “Who was that? You ordered food?”
“Your head’s what I ordered.”
Jiang Luo pushed his head: “Go shower, get clean.”
Back in his room, Jiang Luo ate a piece of pastry, then opened the pager box.
Once powered on and set up, it beeped. He pressed the keys and saw a Chinese prompt showing an incoming number.
He called it from the bedside landline. After two rings, it connected. On the other end, Huo Zongzhuo’s voice came through: “Got it working?”
Jiang Luo: “Knew it was you.”
“Got it?”
Huo Zongzhuo: “From now on, use this number to contact me.”
“I’ll call you too, with this number.”
Jiang Luo felt Huo Zongzhuo was practically teaching him step by step. Smiling, he said: “Come to think of it, I don’t really have any reason to call you.”
Huo Zongzhuo’s voice remained gentle: “If you don’t, I have reasons.”
“What reasons?”
Jiang Luo leaned against the headboard, phone to his ear, chatting casually.
Huo Zongzhuo: “For example, just to check if you’ve been getting foot massages.”
Jiang Luo laughed.
Huo Zongzhuo: “Or, to see if you want to come over and work with me.”
Jiang Luo smirked: “Still haven’t given up?”
Huo Zongzhuo: “I can’t. I’ve never met a guy as sharp as you.”
Jiang Luo teased: “You have such a good impression of me, huh?”
Huo Zongzhuo admitted: “Yes, indeed.”
Here, Jiang Luo was using the pager and the hotel landline to call Huo Zongzhuo’s Motorola, talking back and forth comfortably.
Meanwhile, in Haicheng, Zhu Yu and his crew, known as Brother Yu, had finally tracked down the Second Silk Factory’s apartment building after days of investigation.
But no matter where they waited, Jiang Luo never appeared.
Zhu Yu decided to go directly to the door.
When they arrived, Jiang Jianmin wasn’t home; only Zhang Xiangping was there.
Seeing several burly men, she wondered who they were looking for and if they had the wrong person.
Hearing them angrily demand Jiang Luo, she immediately realized he had gotten into trouble outside.
Naturally, she denied Jiang Luo was home, saying he wasn’t their son.
She quickly called Su Lan, telling her that Jiang Luo had caused trouble outside, and they had to deal with it, since he was their child.
When Su Lan and Zhao Guangyuan arrived in Zhao Shuo’s car and met Zhu Yu and his crew, they confirmed these men were indeed looking for Jiang Luo. They asked what he had done to offend them.
Zhao Shuo, smoking, hands in his pockets, said: “If you claim my brother caused trouble, first explain what he did.”
Zhu Yu saw the family’s distinguished appearance, the car—they were obviously wealthy. Doubts crept in.
Zhu Yu wasn’t stupid, but not very clever either. He told Zhao Shuo their boss was a big boss at Dongfang No.1, and Jiang Luo had offended their big boss.
“Dongfang No.1, huh? Fine.”
Zhao Guangyuan remained calm: “I know your boss, Xue Zhizhong, right? I’ll ask him what my son did to offend him.”
Zhu Yu’s heart skipped a beat: wow, what background does Jiang Luo have?
Soon, Xue Zhizhong received a call from the district Public Security Bureau’s deputy director. He asked, relaying a message from a certain planning bureau director, why Jiang Luo had offended him.
Xue Zhizhong: ??
Jiang Luo even had a father who was a director?
Xue Zhizhong smiled obsequiously: “It’s a misunderstanding, really. Young Jiang didn’t offend me, not at all.”
“I just asked because he hadn’t come to our disco in a while, just checking.”
The deputy director, friendly with Xue Zhizhong, added: “Director Zhao has already been transferred to Pudong Development Office. He’s someone their bureau is grooming—don’t offend the wrong people.”
“Of course, of course, won’t happen.”
Xue Zhizhong hung up, quietly wiping the cold sweat from his face.
How could he have imagined that Jiang Luo had a father who was a bureau director? He nearly sent the director’s son off to serve at the bedside.
Xue Zhizhong was baffled, but he couldn’t blame Huo Zongzhuo—and certainly not himself. In his mind, he muttered: “Damn it, all because of that idiot Lu Fuhua! Next time I see him, I’ll give him a few more slaps!”
Idiot!
Deadly stupid!
Can’t get anything done, and now even bringing me trouble!
Meanwhile, in the Zhao family, Zhao Shuo, Su Lan, and Zhao Guangyuan had been worried about Jiang Luo, who had gone to Zhejiang.
At first, Zhao Shuo hadn’t mentioned that night in Huating when he ran into Jiang Luo and got a face full of water, but later, when Jiang Luo had gone quiet, Zhao Shuo, worried his parents would be anxious, decided to tell them the truth. He recounted the encounter in Huating and added that Jiang Luo had said they were hypocritical.
Su Lan, hearing this, naturally felt regret and heartache: “We should have brought him back earlier.”
“If we had brought him back, none of this would have happened.”
“Now Jiang Luo must hate us to death.”
Zhao Guangyuan stayed silent, sighing repeatedly, worried Su Lan would feel worse.
Zhao Shuo also sighed, a tinge of regret filling him. He thought that night in Huating, no matter Jiang Luo’s attitude, he should have gone after him and pulled him home. After all, Jiang Luo was his own younger brother.
A few days later, Huo Zongzhuo had other matters and left Wencheng.
Jiang Luo stayed behind, gradually sending out batches of “European-style lamps” and “dolls” from the train station. Following the same routine, once he got the shipping documents, he immediately had Wang Chuang return to Haicheng to see Manager Guo of Pacific Department Store. Wang Chuang then brought back the bank drafts issued by Guo to Wencheng.
In just half a month, from selling only the dolls, they had earned around forty thousand.
Wang Chuang returned, excited: “I specifically checked at the counter. Those dolls and European lamps we sent sold out every day. Seriously, if you were here and saw Manager Guo, you’d know—he grins like the ceiling might fall every time he sees me.”
He added: “We’ve earned more than forty thousand. But Manager Guo—he must be pocketing even more, right?”
Wang Chuang didn’t really care about Guo; he only cared about how much he and Jiang Luo were making.
Ten thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand, forty thousand…
One hundred thousand!
A full one hundred thousand!
Holding the money in his arms, Wang Chuang had never felt so exhilarated.
Wencheng had plenty of shops and commercial buildings.
Wang Chuang and Jiang Luo took the money into a department store to buy clothes. One set after another, Wang Chuang even tried on suits with a belt, proudly showing off.
Jiang Luo laughed at him while he himself wore a suit, hands in his pockets, staring into the mirror as if he saw the confident, dashing Jiang from his previous life.
After changing, the two of them walked out of the mall, bags in hand, arm in arm.
That sense of pride, that exhilaration from making money—Jiang Luo finally felt it again.
Seeing that Jiang Luo now had a pager, Wang Chuang bought one locally in Wencheng too. It was expensive, and he winced slightly when paying, but once clipped to his waist, he strutted around proudly.
He felt like a true boss now.
Jiang Luo reminded him: “Take it easy, don’t get carried away.”
Wang Chuang patted his chest, proudly: “I’m Boss Wang now!”
Then he began to put on a show: “Boss Wang treats you all to dinner! Eat whatever you want, the best of the best!”
“Boss Wang serves drinks too! Only the finest!”
“Idiot.”
Jiang Luo laughed.
And so, Jiang Luo and Wang Chuang stayed in Wencheng until mid-May, accompanying Zhang Zhiqiang and Boss Li as they shipped the final batches of dolls and European-style lamps.
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