Dong Qiangqiang's Story of Leaving Germany

Chapter 1085. South and North

"I'll take Anita home first, then you come with me. Xiaoying is visiting her bestie in Heidelberg this week, so she won't be home." Duanmu didn't even look at Dong Qiangqiang as he spoke. He turned on the left turn signal and, before the oncoming car sped up, he steered the car into the left lane. "Anita, tell me the address. Old Dong, please type it in on the navigation for me."

The navigation system quickly indicated the way to Anita's residence. The evening rush hour had long passed, and there were not many cars and people on the road. But what surprised Dong Qiangqiang was that Duanmu did not speed up the car immediately. Instead, he deliberately drove slowly, as if he was not in a hurry to take Anita back.

Because he was thinking about how to tell Duanmu about his ideas, Dong Qiangqiang didn't say a word after getting in the car. But even his silence didn't affect the pleasant and relaxed atmosphere in the car. Duanmu's mouth was almost never closed. He talked about various topics at will, and even told a few very cold and dirty jokes. It was not until Dong Qiangqiang couldn't stand him talking non-stop and missed an intersection that he interrupted him and closed his mouth reluctantly. At this time, Anita called. Duanmu glanced at Dong Qiangqiang with some resentment and said unhappily: "Who did you say had shallow eyes?"

"There are only three people in the car, who else do you think could be there?" Apart from receiving clients, Dong Qiangqiang had never seen Duanmu so talkative before. He felt a little disdainful, but he didn't know whether it was because Duanmu talked too much or because he was jealous that he had so much to talk about with Anita.

Duanmu snorted and looked through the rearview mirror at Anita who was on the phone. Seeing that she had no intention of ending the call soon, he could only continue to say to Dong Qiangqiang: "What were you going to say just now that would force me to get out of the car?"

Dong Qiangqiang waited until he turned the corner correctly before choosing his words carefully: "I want to go back to Trier tonight. I've been coming here every weekend this month, especially this Friday when I was the busiest. I missed my university and CFA classes. I want to go back early so that I can find a way to make up for it tomorrow, so I won't fall too far behind. I can also get better results in class next week. The landlord also urged me to clean the yard quickly. I've been procrastinating for more than two weeks, and the weeds in the vegetable garden are almost taller than the vegetables."

Duanmu listened without saying anything. He stepped on the gas and the red sports car with its headlights on rushed past a Volkswagen next to it like a cat on fire, almost brushing past it. As the windows were not closed, the three people in the car could hear clear curses coming from the car behind in the whistling wind.

"Haven't you been staying in a youth hostel these two days and reading books at night? Why are you so scared when I ask you to go to my house? Besides, you can read in my guest room." After saying this, Duanmu glanced at Anita in the back seat intentionally or unintentionally. Anita crossed her legs unconsciously, and the lace hem of her long skirt receded on her legs like waves at low tide, revealing a dazzling and healthy wheat-colored complexion.

Duanmu's somewhat straightforward eyes told it all. Dong Qiangqiang knew without looking back where Duanmu's attention and blood were flowing at the moment, so he could only cough dryly a few times to remind the other party to be more restrained.

Hearing Dong Qiangqiang's cough, Duanmu did not look away. Instead, Anita heard the noise and looked up at the two boys in the front row with strange expressions. She smiled and looked towards the rearview mirror. Unexpectedly, her eyes met Duanmu's meaningful eyes in the rearview mirror. Duanmu smiled sophisticatedly and then turned his gaze to the front of the car again.

Dong Qiangqiang knew very well that Duanmu hoped that he would stay in Hamburg to meet clients tomorrow. He had promised Duanmu that he would stay for the whole weekend and return on Sunday night. But on the one hand, he really didn't want to go to where Duanmu and Ye Ying lived, and felt awkward, even though Ye Ying was not at home. On the other hand, he was worried that interrupting the regular learning rhythm for too long would be detrimental to his future studies. As for the third aspect, the continuous customer talks for several days made him realize that he did not have good skills in expanding customers, and he was not interested in this, so he felt tired.

"There are always people coming and going in the youth hostel, especially at night. There are too many people coming in and out, and the noise is loud. The reading effect is not ideal, and the sleep quality at night is not high. Moreover, I have signed up for many courses this semester, and it is not good to travel too much." Dong Qiangqiang explained patiently.

"If reading at the Youth Hostel is not effective, then you should come to my place. When you get tired of reading, we can chat about clients and reports. Speaking of reports, I was very disappointed with your May report, which was too mediocre. Last month's report was a little better. Hey, these words are not from me, but from the evaluation of the clients."

Hearing Duanmu's reluctance, Dong Qiangqiang hesitated for a moment but finally chose to insist. Duanmu didn't say anything after listening. Only Anita's occasional soft whispers could be heard in the car.

The car sped along the empty road, turned a few corners and finally stopped in front of a building with few lights on. The engine was turned off and the three of them stood at the door of the building to smoke. With the flickering lights on the roadside, Dong Qiangqiang noticed that the outer wall was covered with various graffiti, and there were figures shouting and swaying not far away, as if they were painting on the wall. There was an irregular, rustling sound of running water coming from the corner behind the car. Without looking, he knew that a drunk man was watering the wall.

Duanmu diligently escorted Anita to the entrance of the building, and even kissed Anita on the cheek and hand in front of Dong Qiangqiang's astonished gaze. Seeing that Anita was about to do the same to him, Dong Qiangqiang strode forward, opened his arms and gave Anita a bear hug without saying a word, only to feel his chest go soft. He quickly let go and stepped back, saying goodbye while opening the car door and standing between himself and Anita.

Under Duanmu's reluctant gaze, Anita walked slowly into the building.

The car drove towards Duanmu's house. "Speaking of which, Anita is also a miserable person. She never meets her targets, so she likes to stay in places where no one knows her. Wanfu has become her safe haven because of this."

Duanmu's abrupt introduction made Dong Qiangqiang at a loss for words. He had not yet reached a conclusion on not attending the meeting tomorrow, so why did the topic of Anita suddenly come up? Just when he decided to bring the topic back, Duanmu gave an answer.

"Are you really going back to study?" Duanmu seemed unconvinced.

"Otherwise, what good will it do me if I fail the exam?" Dong Qiangqiang's question made a lot of sense.

"Okay, it's okay for you to go back. From now on, I will leave the customer development in the southern cities of Frankfurt, Munich, and Stuttgart to you. By the way, remember to contact as many American companies as possible. They are more open than European companies."

"Okay, no problem." Seeing that Duanmu didn't look unhappy, Dong Qiangqiang was somewhat relieved. Fearing that Duanmu would go back on his word, he immediately agreed.

"I will be in charge of the north from now on. We will be in the south and north respectively, each doing our own job. If there is anything, keep in touch. If it is not a matter of principle, give in. "

Dong Qiangqiang knew what "matters of principle" meant and immediately replied: "Finally, you will be the one to sign the contract. I will not get involved."

"That's fine," Duanmu slapped his thigh, "but you may have to travel back and forth between several places frequently in the future. But you have a car, so it shouldn't be a big problem. Besides, you get paid for catching cicadas."

"Well, I want to discuss something with you," Dong Qiangqiang said hesitantly, knowing that he was not much closer to Munich than to Hamburg. "There is still about a month before the exam, and (my time) may become increasingly tight. I am not opposed to exploring new clients, but for those who have no clue about them, a face-to-face interview may not lead to any follow-up, so can I communicate over the phone first? I will visit them when they are interested."

"Brother, I won't even mention how fierce the competition is in this industry. If you want to sell something, you have to arouse other people's interest first, right? Even if they are not interested, you can still say a few more words if it's a face-to-face interview. If they just call you and you don't show up, and they hang up when they say they will, and they won't pick up even if you call again, how can you arouse other people's interest? So you'd better move around and run around. The only way to arouse customers' interest is to face them directly. Otherwise, it's too difficult for us to sell things by phone with our half-baked level. Besides, what are you afraid of for a face-to-face interview? You wrote the thing, and you have no problem with language. Just explain our advantages clearly, and if it works, it's fine, if not, forget it. Also, don't let me urge you to submit your monthly report..." Duanmu's nagging was even more intense than Xianglin Sao. Dong Qiangqiang's head was buzzing after listening to him, and he hurriedly said that he would do as Duanmu said.

In a blink of an eye, more than a week had passed. After being beaten down several times by a dozen American companies that came to inspect, a little-known small American company finally subscribed to Bochan's second half report. More institutions left messages, saying that they hoped to see Bochan's investment performance in the first half of the year before talking about it. The first batch of popular American long options held by Bochan, Duanmu and Dong Qiangqiang respectively will expire in late July. At that time, they must trade whether they want to sell or not, so it is not difficult to see the rate of return.

So even though this round of sales had little effect in the end, Duanmu believed that catching cicadas had already attracted attention in the market, and what remained was to continue to increase firepower and improve output to make the yield figures look better.

Although China Week ended more than two months ago, its influence is still there. In addition to leading to Japan Week, it also brought Zheng Chunhua and the newspaper to interact with each other. After getting to know each other, the newspaper took the initiative to ask Zheng Chunhua to write about Germany from the perspective of international students. Although the newspaper offered her a low-profile column at the back of the page, low remuneration, and only the size of a tofu block, Zheng Chunhua took it very seriously. Not only did she gladly accept it, she also asked Dong Qiangqiang, Fang Shuang and others to write together, hoping that she could change the Germans' prejudice against the Chinese with her brilliant writing skills.

Mid-July is the last time to apply for the winter semester of university. The preparatory course has ended and the students' grades have been released. Dong Qiangqiang asked Lu Shan to send the university application materials directly to Du Lan, and entrusted Du Lan to personally deliver it to the Foreign Affairs Office to ensure that everything is safe. While working at the Foreign Affairs Office of the university, he unexpectedly saw Li Lei's application letter for the major of national economics at the University of Trier. What made him feel unbelievable was that Li Lei's grades in various subjects were not high, and the highest score was only 7, which was a far cry from his original grades. Dong Qiangqiang was happy for some reason. It was also at this moment that he suddenly felt that he was really different from before.