BF Chapter 16

When Xu Shen arrived at the company the next morning, he retrieved his lucky gold coin; the item had been placed right in the most eye-catching spot on his office desk.

He picked it up casually, holding it between his fingers and gently twirling it, staring blankly at the sunlight streaming in from outside the window, lost in thought until his secretary brought in coffee.

“Did someone come to my office this morning?” he asked.

The secretary informed him that half an hour ago Zhan Shili had come over personally, set down a document, and left.

Xu Shen nodded, dismissing the secretary.

He sat down, picked up the document beside his hand, and flipped through it. It was a debt claim acquisition agreement that Zhan Shili had instructed someone to draft overnight. Knowing that he didn’t have any suitable manpower at the moment, that person had even considered this for him.

Xu Shen leaned back into his chair, tapping his fingers gently against his lips, smiling silently.

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The meeting with the head of the Ryder Fund was scheduled for a week later. Xu Shen had someone contact the other party’s secretary three times before he finally got a brief opportunity for an in-person meeting.

Zhan Shili had a sudden matter and could not accompany him, so Xu Shen brought his secretary along. The meeting location was a private teahouse that the other party frequented.

After arriving and sitting down, they waited for twenty minutes before the person they wanted to see finally arrived.

Xu Shen introduced himself and handed over his business card; the other party tossed it directly onto the table without even looking, leaning back into the sofa and saying, “I know you, the illegitimate son Xu Shiji newly acknowledged into the family.”

Not only was his attitude arrogant, his words were also rude.

Xu Shen said frankly, “Mr. Gao, I’ve heard so much about you.”

Gao Yongcheng smiled with disdain and contempt: “Heard so much of what? I heard you came back from Wall Street. Did you know who I was before?”

Even if he hadn’t known him before, he had inquired clearly. This man was the President of Ryder Fund Greater China, a British Chinese based in Hong Kong. Previously, due to business matters, he had conflict with Xu Shiji and harbored a deep grudge against him. He naturally looked down on Xu Shiji, let alone Xu Shiji’s illegitimate son.

Before coming, Xu Shen knew that this transaction wouldn’t be negotiated easily. He simply went straight to the point: “I came here today to represent Zhaoqi’s desire to talk with you, Mr. Gao, about the acquisition of those two old industrial buildings in Mong Kok.”

“Are you trying to acquire it or just outright rob it?” The other party mocked, “I heard that just as your Zhaoqi conveniently wanted to buy the buildings, something happened to Ma Shide, and you directly obtained the industrial building debt claims from the bank, causing their debt restructuring plan to completely go up in flames… quite interesting.”

Xu Shen remained unfazed: “It was the Ma Family themselves who had issues and were investigated by the Securities and Futures Commission. The bank also had to consider their own interests.”

Gao Yongcheng sneered disdainfully, “You really are just like your old man. Young man, business isn’t done like this; stop learning those low-class tricks from your old man.”

Xu Shen didn’t care in the slightest about the sarcasm in his words. Seeing that the tea in his cup was almost finished, he filled it up for him, holding the teacup with both hands and handing it in front of him: “Whatever my father did inappropriately before, or whatever misunderstandings there were between you and Mr. Gao, I as his son offer my apologies on his behalf.”

He adopted a low posture, yet remained dignified and courteous, neither meek nor arrogant.

Gao Yongcheng leaned back against the sofa, sitting motionless and looking at him, while Xu Shen kept holding up the cup without putting it down. Half a minute later, Gao Yongcheng sat up, took the teacup, rubbed the cup handle, scoffed, and set the cup back down heavily onto the saucer in his hands.

“It’s getting late, I’ve made plans with friends to go to a horse racing club. Excuse me.”

With the person already departed, the secretary hurriedly pulled out a paper towel to hand to Xu Shen: “Young Master Shen, he really is taking things a bit too far…”

Xu Shen set down the teacup silently, slowly wiping off the hot tea splashed on the back of his hand. His drooping eyelids concealed the emotions in his eyes. After a long while, he said softly: “Forget it.”

On the return drive, Xu Shen leaned back in his chair the entire way, somewhat absentminded.

The secretary in the front seat suddenly turned around to tell him that the residents of those tenement buildings they intended to acquire were causing a scene again, with a large group of people gathering at their project site to hold a sit-in demonstration.

“Mr. Zhan has already gone over; he said he’ll handle this matter and asked you not to worry, Young Master Shen.”

Xu Shen immediately ordered, “Drive over and take a look.”

The car was parked by the roadside. As soon as Xu Shen turned his head, he saw Zhan Shili surrounded by the crowd across the street. He had brought only two or three subordinates with him and was negotiating with the other party’s representatives.

Even though it was just a silhouette, that man was still the center of attention among the crowd, remaining calm and composed as he handled the passionate, agitated rioting residents.

A light drizzle began to fall, and the rioting crowd was finally persuaded to leave. Zhan Shili turned around and spotted Xu Shen’s car across the street. His phone vibrated at the same time, a new message came in: [Come here.]

Zhan Shili told the others to go back first, then walked across the road alone, stopped by the car, bent down slightly, and knocked on the car window.

The window rolled down, and Xu Shen’s face filled his field of vision just as he had hoped. The rainy mist divided the worlds inside and outside the car; on this clear and cold face, there was a moment where his expression seemed exceedingly distant, and the gaze staring at him also masked a probing look. But the next second, a familiar arrogant, coquettish smile appeared, and Xu Shen raised his chin slightly: “Need me to invite you into the car?”

Zhan Shili opened the car door and sat inside, bringing with him a slightly cool, damp feeling. Xu Shen handed him a paper towel, casually pulling another one out to help him wipe at his wet hair.

Xu Shen did it naturally, and Zhan Shili accepted it just as naturally.

“What are those people outside demanding?” Xu Shen threw down the paper towel and asked, “Dissatisfied with the compensation price?”

“Not entirely,” Zhan Shili explained in a few words, “most people indeed want to take the opportunity to jack up the price, but there are also some stubborn ones who don’t approve of Zhaoqi’s new city plan, believing that creating a future metropolis will destroy the cultural landscape of the old neighborhood and ruin the natural environment here, refusing to move no matter what is said.”

Xu Shen said dismissively, “Living so naively really isn’t easy.”

Zhan Shili refrained from commenting, only offering, “In the eyes of these people, this is called idealism.”

Xu Shen’s secretary reported the information collected earlier at an appropriate time: “There are mainly two resident representatives who have been organizing the protest activities. One of them is a social worker named Zhang Youwei; he used to be a lawyer who engaged in extreme behavior to uphold justice for his client once and had his law license revoked. He is the one who has been taking the lead in preaching that our new city plan is improper and unenvironmental, inciting a lot of people.”

Xu Shen sneered, “He really is an idiot.”

The secretary continued: “The other person is named Zhuang Rong, the owner of a tea restaurant over here. We talked with him privately before, and it was nothing more than him opening his mouth like a lion to demand astronomical prices. When unsatisfied, he calls over friends and gathers a crowd to cause trouble and make things hard for us. He has lived here for forty years, has good popularity with many neighbors, and many people listen to his calls.”

Xu Shen understood. “So of these two people, one is aloofly principled while the other is greedy.”

What he hated most were precisely these two types of people.

“I won’t let them have their way.”

Zhan Shili noticed the displeasure that he had been suppressing since earlier, but he didn’t ask anything: “Let’s go.”

By the time they returned to the company, it was already time to clock off. As they got out of the car, Zhan Shili took the initiative to extend an invitation: “Seren, how about having dinner together?”

Xu Shen didn’t accept, “No, I haven’t finished my work. I’ll go back to my office and have a sandwich.”

Zhan Shili didn’t insist: “Next time then.”

Xu Shen indeed had quite a bit of work to do. Ever since Xu Shiji handed the Mong Kok project over to him, that opportunist Deputy Manager Fang began to look to him for every cue. Liao Zhihong was still lying in the hospital, so besides the work on the project, he also had to attend to the big and small affairs of the entire Real Estate Development Department.

It was already past nine in the evening when he truly finished work. Xu Shen went downstairs to get his car, and just as he walked up to his parking space, he saw Zhan Shili’s car parked right next to it. Zhan Shili was leaning back in the driver’s seat resting his eyes, as if waiting for him there on purpose.

Xu Shen walked over, and this time it was he who reached out to knock on Zhan Shili’s car window glass.

Zhan Shili opened his eyes, rolled down the window, saw him, and tilted his head to gesture: “Get in, I’ll drive you back.”

Xu Shen went around to the front passenger seat, glancing at his wristwatch as he sat into the car: “You didn’t wait here for me for hours, did you?”

Zhan Shili said, “Went back to the office to handle some things, just came down and saw your car was still here. Waited for less than ten minutes.”

Xu Shen asked with amusement, “Why didn’t you send me a message? If I hadn’t left the whole time, would you have just kept waiting here?”

Zhan Shili gave him a glance and answered, “Half an hour at most.”

Xu Shen nodded: “So your patience lasts only half an hour.”

Zhan Shili said no more, starting the car.

Only after the car drove out of the Zhaoqi Building did he ask Xu Shen, “Your meeting with Gao Yongcheng to discuss the acquisition didn’t go smoothly today?”

“Haven’t you guessed it all already,” Xu Shen said lazily, “Eyes higher than the top of his head, pulling rank based on his age.”

“Had your pride pulled down by him?”

“What pride could I have,” Xu Shen laughed self-deprecatingly, “calling me ‘Young Master Shen’ is just others flattering me. To put it nicely, I’m the Fourth Young Master of the Xu family; to put it bluntly don’t they all call me an illegitimate son, a bastard?”

The car stopped to wait at a red light. Zhan Shili pushed open the armrest box and gave him a candy.

Xu Shen smiled and sighed: “Nic, is this really the only trick you know to coax me?”

Zhan Shili, unruffled, said: “As long as it works on you, it’s fine.”

Xu Shen complained, but he still unwrapped the candy and ate it.

The phone Zhan Shili had set on the armrest box suddenly began to vibrate; the caller ID showed Xu Zikang.

He glanced at it and hung up immediately.

Xu Shen asked him: “You’re not answering?”

“Don’t want to answer calls while driving.” Zhan Shili shook his head slightly, not taking it to heart in the slightest.

“What if he had something urgent?” Xu Shen chewed the candy in his mouth, saying slowly, “It really doesn’t matter to me, I can go back by myself too. If he really has something urgent, you should go see him. I can sympathize.”

Zhan Shili saw the vibrant spirit coming alive in his eyes again, his gaze pausing as he said, “Not going.”

Xu Shen chuckled softly.

Half an hour later, Zhan Shili’s car stopped outside the Xu family mansion, just like the previous few times.

Unbuckling his seatbelt, Xu Shen said a “see you tomorrow” and was about to push the car door open when Zhan Shili, thinking of his laugh just now, suddenly reached out, grabbing his arm and yanking in back.

Xu Shen fell back into his seat, and Zhan Shili had already leaned over, pressing close and staring into his eyes.

Leaning against the seat, Xu Shen didn’t move, a smile playing on his lips.

Zhan Shili caught a faint trace of sweet fragrance; it was the smell of his candy, tinged with the scent of the man himself.

“Seren, today you have permission to kiss—do you want to kiss?”

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