Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins

And now you're the one destroying that happiness. So I'm giving you a chance, and I hope you'll take it. Of course, whether you want to or not is up to you—I won't force you."

"Let me think it over." Li Dadong was visibly moved by Yang Ce's words. What Yang Ce said was true—these past weeks he really had been avoiding Lin Yanhe.

Because it was so awkward; he did not know what to say when they met. Li Dadong somewhat regretted his rashness. If he had not, in a moment of impulse that day, confessed his feelings in front of Lin Yanhe and her boyfriend, there would be no awkwardness now.

Looking back, the relationship and the feeling between him and Zhiyun had actually been quite good. Zhiyun had relied on him, had treated him as her own elder brother—it was only he who had indulged the wishful notion that such sibling affection would slowly ripen into love.

But all that tacit understanding and beauty was gone beyond recalling. So it was that Li Dadong, sunk in profound gloom, had called up friends from high school to go drinking.

Now Yang Ce had given him a chance to mend his relationship with Lin Yanhe, and Li Dadong hesitated. At bottom, this was Yang Ce's company. Although Li Dadong did not take Yang Ce for the sort who played tricks and stabbed people in the back, he still found it somewhat strange.

"All right, I'll give you time to think. When you've decided, give me an answer," Yang Ce said.

Letting Li Dadong go off to think it over first, Yang Ce fixed a cold stare on Zheng Zetao, who was lingering, reluctant to leave. "What, is there something else?"

"N-no, nothing—it's just—Brother Yang, could you give me your contact information?" Zheng Zetao asked cautiously.

"My contact information? What do you want my contact information for?" Yang Ce frowned.

"Well—well, it's like this. I saw Li Dadong leave in such a hurry, and he didn't take your contact information with him. You told him to think it over, didn't you? When he's made up his mind, if he doesn't have your contact information, how would he let you know?" Zheng Zetao said with a perfectly straight face. "I figured I'd ask on his behalf."

"So that's it." Yang Ce saw through Zheng Zetao's ulterior motive well enough, but he gave him his mobile number all the same.

Zheng Zetao hastily saved it in his phone, and only then, lingeringly, rose to take his leave.

The designer Old Buffon had brought in was truly out of the ordinary. The jewelry designs he produced were exceedingly noble and elegant. Zhao Sisi pulled up some finished drafts on the computer and discussed them with Yang Ce and Lin Yanhe.

"These all look good to me. Get the factory to rush the work—Valentine's Day is almost here. We may be aiming at the high-end market, but there's no shortage of wealthy couples either," Yang Ce said. "From now on, you and Zhiyun can decide this sort of thing between yourselves. Zhang Bin and I are just hands-off partners."

"Zhang Bin? I wouldn't dare let him take it as easy as you. Once he's out of the hospital, I'll have him come in," Zhao Sisi said with a smile.

"Then that's your family business—I won't meddle," Yang Ce said, waving a hand.

Lin Yanhe had a strong capacity for adapting and learning. Though she was not much given to talk, she carried herself with the air of a formidable businesswoman. Of course, that was only on the surface; Lin Yanhe's nature meant she was not, at heart, one of those hard-hearted people.

Such a person could run a business well enough, but she fell short when it came to commanding subordinates. She could only win her people over through sheer force of personality, yet she could never bring herself to treat them harshly, because Lin Yanhe simply could not harden her heart. That was her weakness.

Li Dadong, on the other hand, was exactly the man to make up for that shortcoming. Anyone could see from ordinary dealings that Li Dadong was the sort with few crooked thoughts in him, upright and unyielding—just the right man to manage the company's personnel and discipline.

An iron-faced judge like that—anyone who saw him would surely tremble.

While Yang Cenbin was turning the company's affairs over in his mind, Li Dadong had likewise begun to fret over the day's events. As for Heng's invitation—should he go or not?

To be continued.

702. You Know Yang Ce Too? (Part One)

Li Dadong was deeply hesitant. It was not a question of his studies—anyone who has been to university knows that a student's personal time is quite ample, and that in certain courses without strict management, the lecturer does not even take attendance. So long as you pass the exams, they turn a blind eye. Going to Yang Juehuan's company would therefore not eat into Li Dadong's study time, and besides, for Li Dadong this was a remarkably good opportunity.

With university graduates saturating the market, finding a job had become a most severe problem. As university education became widespread, people no longer held college students—the former "advanced intellectuals"—in such awe. For a university graduate looking for work, there was scarcely any difference from an ordinary vocational college student or even a technical secondary school graduate.

A diploma represented nothing much. Positions were saturated; there simply were not enough posts to absorb the fresh graduates, to say nothing of the many graduates from previous years and the young people waiting for work.

Li Dadong had never looked for a job himself, but hearing and seeing it every day, with television and newspapers reporting on it constantly, he could see it plainly enough and understood the current situation quite well.

So Yang Juehuan's invitation had moved him. And Li Dadong understood very clearly that what Yang Cenbin was doing was not creating an opportunity for him to pursue Lin Yanhe, but rather helping him face squarely his relationship with Lin Yanhe and step out of the shadow of his feelings.

"Little brother, where are you?" Li Dadong hesitated for a long while without reaching a decision, so he decided to call his cousin and talk it over with him.

Nowadays nearly every family had only one child, which made cousins the closest thing to brothers and sisters. Li Dadong had been on good terms with this cousin since childhood, and whenever something weighed on his mind, he liked to seek him out for advice.

"Big brother, it's you—what's up?" Li Dadong's cousin answered the phone.

"Little brother, are you free? I've got something I'd like to hash over with you," Li Dadong said.

"Oh, sure. Hang on a bit—I'll go ask my boss for leave," his cousin said.

"I'll wait for you, then. Come to my place and have a couple of drinks with me," Li Dadong said.

"Got any food at your place? Forget it—if your dad, my uncle, sees the two of us drinking, he'll be after us again," his cousin said. "Come to the food stalls behind Commercial Street. My treat—I just got a commission today, so let's celebrate."

"All right, I'll be there in twenty minutes," Li Dadong said.

"About the same for me. Let's meet at Old Wang's barbecue stand," his cousin said.

After hanging up, Li Dadong's cousin turned and walked into the manager's office next door. "Manager Liu, my cousin just called—he needs to see me about something. Can I leave a bit early today?"

"No problem at all. If you've got business to attend to, go ahead," Manager Liu said with a smile and a nod.

"Thank you, Manager Liu," Li Dadong's cousin said, then turned and left the office.

Some of you may already have guessed—that's right, Li Dadong's cousin was Li Dagang, Yang Ce's good friend from high school. And Manager Liu had lately come to vaguely understand something of Yang Juehuan's background, which was why he was especially considerate toward Li Dadong.