Chapter 31: Thirty-One: He’s a good boss!

Thinking about the promotion and raise today, Ji XiaoYu couldn’t keep himself from laughing. He went directly to the security department office and found Yang YiPeng sitting at his desk, cigarette butt in his hand and staring at a document in a daze. On the wall behind him was hanging the golden banner that was presented yesterday.

He walked before him and saluted with a “snap”, saying loudly, “Captain, good morning!”

Yang YiPeng jumped, almost getting burned by his cigarette butt. He quickly extinguished it in the ashtray, then stood up and scolded with a laugh, “Fuck, you almost gave me a heart attack this early in the morning.”

Ji XiaoYu laughed “heehee” and said, “Captain, I’m sorry, I’m just so happy.”

“You wear all your thoughts on your face like a kid. I used to think you were pretending to be stupid, but I finally figured it out today, turns out that…….” Yang YiPeng didn’t finish, smiling and shaking his head, “I say, Mr. Ji XiaoYu, you’re really skilled. I thought yesterday was exciting enough, but I didn’t expect it to be even more exciting today. You’ve been with the company for just less than three months, but you still earned so much of Cheng Zong’s favor and appreciation, rising than a flying rocket. Do you have some trick you can share with me?”

Ji XiaoYu scratched his head, a bit confused, “I don’t know, maybe that I’m kindred spirits with Cheng Zong?”

Well, that’s the only explanation. Yang YiPeng was done with this nonsense, so he put the contract in front of him, “Sign it.”

Ji XiaoYu didn’t look it over, asking “Sign where?”

Since this wasn’t the first time, Yang YiPeng wasn’t surprised. He pointed to a few places to show him and Ji XiaoYu signed in a very casual and neat manner.

Yang YiPeng then joked, “Mr. Ji XiaoYu, congratulations on the realization of your dream from when you first entered the job – good fortune and riches. Isn’t it necessary that you treat us in celebration of your happy occasion?”

“Thank you, Captain!” Ji XiaoYu smiled cutely and was a little embarrassed to say, “I’ll treat, but, but I want to save up money. So I can’t spend a ton. I can’t afford steak, Japanese-style food, or whatever. Is there somewhere cheap and affordable?”

“You’re really honest, daring to say anything,” Yang YiPeng lamented, and then joked, “You’re still so young, what are you saving money for? To build a house, marry a wife, and give birth to two fat dolls? Hahaha!”

(t/n, babies are called fat dolls in China)

Ji XiaoYu’s face suddenly went red. He stammered and said, “N-no way. Anyway, I have a use for it, so I have to save more money.”

He had just discovered that he liked men, so he wouldn’t be thinking about marrying a wife in this lifetime.

But it didn’t matter if he couldn’t marry a woman. He already had the little white egg. So, in the near future, there would be a fat doll and after that, the two of them would be able to spend their days together.

Yang YiPeng had had enough laughter. “Okay, I won’t tease you anymore. I don’t mean to extort you by taking advantage of your weakness, it’s just a chance for everyone to have fun together. Otherwise, your colleagues may start thinking differently, because nobody likes a cheapskate. A lot of things have happened these past few days and the company’s doing a big safety hazard investigation for the end of the year. Let’s have barbecue at the Screw Street Night Market Friday night. The delicious barbecue bar there is good. The guys go there often. A dozen yuan per person is enough for the meal, so it won’t cost much. Those off-duty can go straight there and then pack some up and bring it back for those on-duty. What do you think?”

Ji XiaoYu said gratefully, “Okay, I’ll just go with what you said, Captain! But I’ll have to trouble the captain to help me let my colleagues in the security department know. I don’t have their contact information.”

“No big deal, I’ll send a message in the security department’s group chat.” Yang YiPeng said as he pulled out his phone. He tapped a few times, typing about the meal. “I say, Mr XiaoYu, why haven’t you joined the group chat yet? You haven’t even given me a phone number.”

“I didn’t have a phone before, so I didn’t give you a number. I just got one yesterday,” Ji XiaoYu explained, taking his phone out of his pocket. “But I don’t know how to use it very well yet. I don’t know how to join a group.”

“It’s very simple. My old man is over seventy years old, but after two days of learning, he’s better than me at playing around with it.” Yang YiPeng took a casual glance at Ji XiaoYu’s phone and was suddenly shocked. “Fuck, isn’t that the latest version of rotten fruit? It’s actually the gold edition! Didn’t you just say you can’t spend money freely because you’re going to save it? How can you afford to buy such an expensive phone? It’s too extravagant!”

Ji XiaoYu rushed to clarify, “I really can’t afford it, Cheng Zong gave it to me, saying it’s needed for my work, so that it’s convenient to contact me at any time.”

What kind of reason is that? Laozi has worked hard for Cheng Zong for more than ten years, but he’s never said he’d give me a rotten apple for work convenience! Yang YiPeng stared at Ji XiaoYu while thinking this outrageous thought. He could see that he didn’t look like he was lying. He suddenly thought of the gossip that he had accidentally overheard recently and his mood became more complicated. After a long moment, he asked in a roundabout way, “Ji XiaoYu, what do you, what do you think of Cheng Zong?”

Ji XiaoYu replied without hesitation, “He’s good, very generous, he’s a good boss!”

Although he knew Cheng Zong had faults such as a bad temper, a small heart, moodiness and elusiveness, and so on, Ji XiaoYu could ignore those minor problems because he was so bold and generous towards him, promoting him and paying him such a high salary.

Yang YiPeng laughed, feeling a little sympathetic towards his boss in that moment. Cheng Zong had been so successful in his career, but he had never understand emotions very well, it wouldn’t be easy for him.

After the group message was sent, Ji XiaoYu asked, “Captain, what am I supposed to do now?”

“You’re on standby. Wait for Cheng Zong’s call. I’m not in the position to assign work to you now.” Yang YiPeng shrugged and pointed at the chair in front of the office. “You sit and wait for a while. I’ll file your contract with the personnel department, then come back and find a place to take you to practice driving. You’re going to be driving for Cheng Zong in the future, so if your driving skills aren’t good enough, that won’t be good.”

Ji XiaoYu wanted to say that his driving skills were pretty good and that he didn’t need more practice, but he was afraid that Yang YiPeng wouldn’t believe it, so he obediently agreed.

After Yang YiPeng left, he sat on the chair with nothing to do at the moment. He picked up a copy of the “Ning City Evening News” from the newspaper rack and flipped it open.

As a result, he looked inside and found his big face foolishly displayed at the top of the page. There were two lines of bold black words underneath: A child was brutally abducted by traffickers, this beautiful young man dashed forward with no thought for his personal safety and fought the evildoers.

Ji XiaoYu: “……”

Strange, wasn’t the second half of the interview yesterday taken over by Wang Qiang? How come I’m still the protagonist of this article? After carefully reading the contents of the article, he found Wang Qiang was only mentioned somewhere casually in the middle, only taking up a sentence. Basically, it was all a narrative about and praise for himself. The words were extremely exaggerated and full of drama. Reading it, he broke out in goosebumps.

Ji XiaoYu couldn’t stand to look at it anymore, so he immediately turned the page to look at other things.

After he had read a few pages, Yang YiPeng came back and waved a hand at him, “Come, let’s practice driving.”

Ji XiaoYu followed him to the parking garage.

Fang DaXing saw Yang YiPeng from the dispatching room and immediately ran out to greet him, “Captain, hello!” Turning his head, he reprimanded Ji XiaoYu, “Why are you late again, kid? Do you think not enough money was deducted from you yesterday?”

Ji XiaoYu heard this and his heart froze for a moment, but before he could answer, Yang YiPeng opened his mouth first, “You probably don’t know yet, since the decision was just made, but Ji XiaoYu has upgraded to Cheng Zong’s personal bodyguard and driver starting today. So you won’t be in charge of him anymore. The personnel department should issue a formal notice soon.”

Fang DaXing, “……”

Looking at the shocked and shriveled expression on the team leader’s face, Ji XiaoYu puffed out his chest without realizing and in this moment fully understood the meaning of the idiom – to be bold and elated!

Yang YiPeng led him to a parking space and pointed to a new mid-range car and saying, “You will use this car in the future. You’re only getting it because the company is giving it to you. The costs can be reimbursed, but don’t just mess around with it. If you’ve destroyed it after a few days, like hell Cheng Zong will go forward with having you drive for him.”

Ji XiaoYu smiled and said, “Captain, you can rest assured, I absolutely won’t!”

Yang YiPeng was apparently not reassured as he said, “I’ll take you to the training ground first, saving myself from being ditched halfway by you, kid.”

So Ji XiaoYu had to go to the passenger side and then Yang YiPeng drove out from HongSheng himself.

After more than half an hour, they arrived at a spare training ground at a driving school. Yang YiPeng got out of the car and gave up the driver’s seat to Ji XiaoYu.

Yang YiPeng stood on the sidelines and shouted, “Concentrate your attention! Always observe the situation before and after! Don’t mix up the throttle and brake pedals……”

Before he could finish his words, with a “whoosh” sound, Ji XiaoYu rushed forward in the car. In the field where many roadblocks had been set up, he made beautiful and smooth turns to the left and right, flying all around. An ordinary car would have crashed in the face of this F1 racer momentum. The sand-covered ground threw yellow sand towards the sky and Yang YiPeng, who was on the side of the field, watched as if viewing a special effects movie scene. This was what was people called ‘super cool’.

Yang YiPeng: “………”

Five minutes later, Ji XiaoYu came to a stop and got out of the car with a neutral expression on his face. Next to him, Yang YiPeng felt he was completely unrecognizable, as if he were a newly discovered unearthed artifact.

Yang YiPeng wiped his face, opened his mouth and spat out a few grains of sand with a “pei pei pei.” Then he patted Ji XiaoYu on the shoulder, and said earnestly, “Young man, your future prospects are good.”

Ji XiaoYu also spat out a mouthful of sand, laughing and showing his teeth, “Thank you, captain!”

(Originally posted at tailor31415.wordpress.com, please read there)

……

Since his driving skills were recognized, Ji XiaoYu just spent the next two days doing nothing. Every day at the security office, he read the newspaper and drank tea. The idleness made him anxious.

Every day he waited for Cheng YuTang to call and summon him, so he could make a big splash showing off his talents. But unfortunately, his new phone hadn’t rung in two days. It lay quietly in his pants pocket on the free side, having become a silent partner to the little white egg on the other side.

And then he realized, Cheng Zong had still been recovering from his injury at home for the past two days, so he hadn’t needed his bodyguard and driver.

Ay, Cheng Zong, please hurry up and get better soon!

On Friday morning, when Ji XiaoYu was bored with the newspaper and folding it into a plane, the theme song of “Chicken Run” suddenly sounded from his pants pocket. He was startled and quickly pulled out his phone. He saw the letters “YuTang” jumping cheerfully on the screen.

Ao ao ao, Cheng Zong has finally summoned me!

He couldn’t wait to answer the phone. “Hey, Cheng Zong?”

“Mmm, it’s me, come to my office now.”

“Yes!”

Ji XiaoYu immediately left to the security department, racing like the wind to the elevator lobby to ride the special elevator.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Oh no, this thing’s still too fast, I’m a little dizzy.

When he reached the top floor, he staggered out of the elevator again.

Who knew if it was intentional or just a coincidence, but Cheng YuTang just happened to be outside the elevator. And he rushed forward to catch him. “What’s wrong?”

Ji XiaoYu’s eyes spun like spirals as he said, “I, I’m a little elevator sick.”

Cheng YuTang remembered the situation when the little thing came up for the first time to deliver a food order. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. To reduce the stimulus, he supported him and walked them to his office, “Come in and rest for a while.”

So Zhao BaiXin and all top-level employees of HongSheng in the open office top floor area watched as the president personally escorted his newly-appointed personal bodyguard to his office.

In the office, Cheng YuTang put Ji XiaoYu on the sofa, then turned and handed him a glass of water. Ji XiaoYu took it in a daze and drank two big gulps.

Cheng YuTang took the glass back and, nonchalant, took a sip from the glass right where the water-stained lip print was. Then he put down the glass and asked, “How are you, better?”

“Mhm, much better,” Ji XiaoYu said as he recovered his mind. Then he asked in reply, “Cheng Zong, what about you, is the injury on your arm healed?”

It had only been two days since he had seen him. Why did he feel as if it had been a long, long time?

Cheng YuTang’s heart suddenly felt both sour and sweet.

He had been waiting at home for two days, but the little thing didn’t even make a call with his phone. His 520 yuan didn’t go to use at all. Even if Ji XiaoYu didn’t understand the modern slang that everyone from age 8 to 80 knew, he had told him to use it, not to save it. He had been slapped in the face and now he really wanted to kill someone!

(t/n: CYT told him he had put 520 yuan on the phone for calls; in Chinese, 520 is one of the Chinese number slangs as a homophone for ‘I love you’ – so he confessed with the phone last chapter and JXY was too oblivious ignorant to get it)

This mountain wouldn’t come to me, so I had to go to the mountain. It had seemed impossible to expect this guy to take the initiative, so even though his injury hadn’t completely healed, he had still come to the company today.

Seeing Ji XiaoYu looking at himself with concern at this moment, the anger that had built up in Cheng YuTang’s heart over the past two days finally dissipated a bit. The little thing was still didn’t have much of a conscience, but he had just not done well with expressing himself. So he said softly, “Pretty much, it no longer gets in my way.”

“That’s good!” Ji XiaoYu rubbed his hands in excitement. “Cheng Zong, do you have any tasks for me to do? You weren’t here for the past two days, so I didn’t have anything to do. I almost died of boredom!”

Cheng YuTang: “……”

“Cheng Zong, what’s wrong with you? Why does your expression look a little bad?”

“It’s nothing.” Cheng YuTang took a deep breath, trying to suppress the impulse to spank a certain someone, “No tasks for the time being, but you’re my bodyguard now. You have to stay right next to me. Otherwise, in the event of an unexpected danger, I’m afraid that it would be too late for you to come over.”

Ji XiaoYu looked around in confusion. “No way, it’s so safe here. What’s danger?”

Cheng YuTang said with a straight face, “The reason an accident is called an accident is that an accident is something unexpected. It refers to things that people usually can’t imagine, that they think are impossible to occur. So we should take precautions at all times, to guard against accidents and disasters and act in advance.”

This remark coincided with the idea that Ji XiaoYu had been instilled with every day after joining the security department. He suddenly thought of the countless things that could happen to Cheng Zong. Yeah, there could be a gangster who unexpectedly showed up, taking him hostage or robbing his fortune or something. So, he said in awe, “Cheng Zong, you’re right, I understand!”

With that, he went to the door and stood upright on guard next to the door frame.

Cheng YuTang didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or cry again. Originally, he wanted to take advantage of their authority to trick him a little, but he didn’t expect the little things to take it so seriously. The look of naivety and seriousness on his face really made a person both love and hate him.

He said tactfully, “You don’t have to be so tense. Relax a little. You can freely move around the area inside my office, as long as you don’t go too far away, so that you can always notice the movements on my side. If you are tired or sleepy, take a break. There is a small lounge in my office with a bed, some snacks, and a small TV set, you can use it all casually.”

Well, he had made someone install the TV set early this morning. And he had also ordered the canteen to bring up the snacks just now too. He was just so considerate and thoughtful.

“Wow, isn’t that great!” Ji XiaoYu couldn’t help but laugh from joy. Cheng Zong is really living it up! Being his bodyguard is too comfortable!

When Cheng YuTang saw that he was so happy, his lips finally curved up a tiny arc. “Alright, I have to work, you do whatever you want.”

“Okay!”

So Ji XiaoYu went to the lounge to watch TV and eat a snack.

At noon, the president led his personal bodyguard to go to the dining hall to eat, letting him eat whatever he wanted to eat and drink whatever he wanted to drink – except for alcohol.

Ji XiaoYu thought about it while he was feasting, ay, how come it seems a bodyguard has it better off than the president? Cheng Zong has to work hard and I don’t have to do anything myself. Just sleep then eat and drink then sleep. I really couldn’t find such a good job with a lantern.

He decided, in any case, he would have to grasp this golden rice bowl and he would aim to be Cheng Zong’s personal bodyguard for life!

My child, Daddy’s not only going to save money for your milk powder and diapers, but also try to earn money for when you marry and have a child in the future!

The little white egg glittered dimly in his pants pocket, but unfortunately its father was enjoying his meal too much and didn’t notice.

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Footnotes:

1. To be bold and elated (扬眉吐气), idiom meaning a feeling of exaltation upon fulfillment; to feel very proud and self-satisfied

2. can’t find it with a lantern (打着灯笼也找不到): idiom, hard to find something even with a bright light aka something difficult to get or rare to find

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so many great moments in this chapter ?