Seizing Dreams

Ch112.1 – Negotiation

“How much money do I have to give you before you’ll let me be with your son?”

Translated by: DMlations/Zryuu
Edited by: Amelea, FistFullOfDollars and Juurensha

—

Fu Liqun said, “I don’t want to be administrative staff, and I can’t be one either. Yangming’s family got him an internship as a HR personnel. Since he’s studying psychology, it barely fits. I’m thinking, why don’t……”

 

Fu Liqun fell silent for a long time. Zhou Sheng started frowning.

“……the three of us partner up and do something together?” With earnest expectations in his eyes, Fu Liqun drew a circle, within which was himself, Zhou Sheng, and Yu Hao.

Yu Hao understood what Fu Liqun meant, but he and Zhou Sheng didn’t answer. Although Yu Hao had a profession in mind, he has always listened to Zhou Sheng’s call when it came to the major events in life. As long as Zhou Sheng agreed, he would be okay with it as well.

So he looked at Zhou Sheng to indicate that he was leaving it up to him, and that it would be fine if he agreed.

But Zhou Sheng didn’t reply. In this silence, Fu Liqun felt a little uneasy, and added after a while, “Your sis-in-law said that she would wait for me for three years. Including this year for me to do an internship, I have four years. I think, no matter what I’m like, I’d at least have to turn myself into something decent within these four years……”

“……of course, it’s not like we’d start earning millions right after graduation.” Fu Liqun explained, “We just need to prove to her dad, my parents, your dad……that we’re ‘ambitious’. After all, just based on our age alone, it’s not possible to be a CEO or anything like that……”

Yu Hao could tell that Fu Liqun was a little nervous, especially when he kept trying to explain his intentions. In fact, this was actually a thorn in Zhou Sheng’s heart as well, so maybe they really could plan this out properly.

 

“Zhou Sheng, I’ll say something you’re not gonna like to hear,” Fu Liqun said, “No matter how much you torment yourself, you’ll still end up going home to takeover your father’s company. There’s no point in staying mad, isn’t that right? I know you often think about this too, you just want to prove to your father that you can takeover his company, that it’s no problem who you want to be with……”

“What does Gege want to do?” Zhou Sheng interrupted, “Sell milk tea at the college entrance?”

Fu Liqun shrugged and looked at Zhou Sheng. Zhou Sheng fell into deep thought again. He has never been the type of person to make casual promises without thinking it through first, but since he didn’t say no straight away, Fu Liqun knew that Zhou Sheng was seriously considering it.

“Let me think about it for a few days.” Zhou Sheng said.

“Young Madam hasn’t said what he wants to do yet.” Fu Liqun asked.

Zhou Sheng said, “He listens to what I say, so he doesn’t mind anything.”

 

Fu Liqun said, “Then tell me, where do you want to go for your internship?”

The aroma of black tea filled the living room. Yu Hao added a little milk to it and took sugar off the shelf. He pulled down a rope from a shelf in the living room where several bottles and cans were placed, and there were some pictures attached to the rope.

A selfie in Mt. Tianqing’s restaurant, where Zhou Sheng stuck his tongue out while Yu Hao was in the background;

Shi Ni’s smile in the amusement park;

 

The picture of a breakfast plate Yu Hao took after waking up from Chen Yekai’s Chichén Itzá dream;

During the cold winter, Ou Qihang smiling as he made a “yeah” gesture at Yu Hao;

As well as the group picture taken backstage at the college’s anniversary performance, where Zhou Sheng sat overbearingly in the middle of the sofa. It looked like a magazine cover with six super handsome guys as they were illuminated by the backstage light.

“I want to be a reporter.” Yu Hao said to Fu Liqun, “And expose all of the bastardly crimes in this world.”

“WOW——!” Zhou Sheng immediately applauded enthusiastically.

Fu Liqun nodded helplessly and said, “Then you should be a reporter, you’re really suited for it. I won’t drag you into this.”

 

After night fell, Yu Hao sat on the bed cross-legged while Zhou Sheng laid down and looked at him. They looked just like two children.

“What are you looking at?” Yu Hao was trying to get the water out of his ears that had gotten in during his bath; it had been sloshing around inside for a night.

“Beauty.” Zhou Sheng said, “You’re even more handsome than when we first met.”

Yu Hao used to starve all the time in the past, but he has been eating well ever since he was with Zhou Sheng. His skin was better now too, and he was seldom exposed to the sun since he only skateboarded in the evenings. He had fair skin and delicately beautiful facial features, and looked just like a pretty boy. When he went out with Zhou Sheng, a lively guy from the sports department, he was like a beautiful cat doll walking a wolf dog; people often snuck shots of him and girls would chat him up. Fortunately, as soon as strangers saw a Zhou Sheng who was protecting his food, they would never approach them. Zhou Sheng was constantly on alert, ready to bark and bite at any time, which managed to save Yu Hao a lot of trouble.

Zhou Sheng took a cotton swab and helped Yu Hao get the water out of his ears. Yu Hao obediently turned his head and didn’t dare move, “Do you want to sell milk tea with Gege?”

Zhou Sheng smiled, “Do you want to join CCTV?”

 

Yu Hao, “Hahaha……”

Zhou Sheng, “Don’t laugh.”

Yu Hao, “You’re the one who made me laugh!”

“Alright.” Zhou Sheng put on a handsome smile. Ever since they got together, as long as they were alone, Zhou Sheng would look at Yu Hao with a smile. In the beginning, Yu Hao still teased him for looking dumb, but he got used to it afterwards and ended up smiling at him as well. The two of them would smile as they looked at each other, and they could look at each other for the whole day.

“99 out of 100 entrepreneurs die.” Zhou Sheng threw the cotton swab away and laid down to say, “I didn’t want to deal a blow to Gege, I don’t think it’s realistic. But you can try to join CCTV.”

When Yu Hao heard Zhou Sheng being slick, he wanted to laugh. He said, “Why don’t we both get an internship at the newspaper company ba.”

“Let me think about it again.” Zhou Sheng said in a daze.

The next day, Zhou Sheng accompanied Fu Liqun out for a “stroll”, and Yu Hao knew that Zhou Sheng was a little tempted —— both of them left home and went to the downtown area for a casual stroll, that is to say, they were there to observe. When they took Li Yangming and everyone in the dormitory out before, they would occasionally hold up a bowl of hot and sour noodles to discuss how much a bowl would earn, the rent, the cost of the shop front and wages, how many bowls they could sell each day……and so on.

When Yu Hao was at his poorest, he had worked almost all kinds of jobs, so he naturally knew how the industry worked. From the opening of the milk tea shop to the quarrels during their deals with the landlord, buying milk tea power, squeezing as much out of the workers to make full use of labour costs, registering and calling out numbers of customers at a hot and sour noodle shop, how cafes and restaurants guard against theft at the cash register, the cost of rental spaces for claw machines, the operations of a private tutor training centre……when anyone talked about the bottom rungs of society and its industries, he was well aware of all of them. Zhou Sheng was right. If only Zhou Sheng and Fu Liqun went to start up a business, then they would surely lose money.

But with Yu Hao around, there was a chance for salvation, enough that their project would be able to hang on by a thread for some time.

Summer vacation was nearing its end, and the torrid heat seemed to have lit the entire campus on fire. There wasn’t a single gust of wind in the mountains. Yu Hao stuck to a shady area as he walked; he had returned to college to collect internship forms for himself, Zhou Sheng, and Fu Liqun. Xue Long was in the middle of speaking grandiloquently into his phone. He counted three forms before throwing them to Yu Hao. Yu Hao stuck some pictures on them; they would need to hand these to the company they were interning at after school starts, then take it back after their three-month internship and return it to the college.

Once third year ends, their fourth year would begin; the entire college seemed to exude an air of ‘not knowing what to live for’, and it seemed just like the world was ending. All the courses of the first half of the semester were over. The college turned into a hostel; students all turned into transient guests, and everyone either played games all day or waited for the holidays to start while idling their time away. Students finally underwent a marked differentiation in this year — the hurdle of employment and jobs easily removed everyone’s guises and made them reveal their true forms.

 

Students who had connections lived life every day like they were in a drunken stupor, in any case, their family already had it all planned out for them. Poor students without any connections, on the other hand, were trying to hide the anxiety on their faces.

Yu Hao stood gasping for breath as he waited for the bus. He was so hot that he was just like a fluffy, polite Samoyed dog now. A luxurious car stopped in front of him.

The window rolled down, and Zhou Sheng’s family chauffeur was inside.

Yu Hao thought, they’ve come at last. He has always had a hunch that Zhou Laichun would look for him in private the year before graduation.

Previously, he had even simulated such a scene with Chen Yekai as they laughed all carefree. They imagined Zhou Laichun saying the classic line, “how much money do you want before you’re willing to leave my son”. In the end, what Chen Yekai taught him was, “Ask him for a hundred million yuan, plus 7% of his company’s shares. I’ll help you with the sum. After some financing and leverage, you can counter by buying his company instead.”

At the time, Yu Hao almost laughed to death because of Chen Yekai. One and a half years after coming out, Zhou Laichun was finally ready to negotiate with him.

“Mr……Yu?” The chauffeur said.

 

“Call me Young Madam.” Yu Hao was becoming more and more kickass now.

Chauffeur, “……”

Without waiting for him to ask, he opened the car’s door, and the chauffeur hurried out to close it. Yu Hao sat in the back seat and said, “Let’s go bei.”

The chauffeur kept glancing at Yu Hao through the rearview mirror. Evidently, Zhou Laichun’s instructions weren’t effective; it was beyond their expectations for Yu Hao to be so understanding.

“Focus on driving.” Yu Hao said patiently.

That tone of his sounded so much like Zhou Sheng’s that the chauffeur immediately began paying attention to what was in front of him. The luxurious car drove to the foot of Mt. Yunding and stopped in front of the stir-fry shop.

Yu Hao casually slammed the door shut, but he was in a very complicated mood. Zhou Laichun chose to meet him here? What does that mean?

 

The stir-fry shop was both old and small, but the air-conditioning was strong inside. Zhou Laichun’s back faced the entrance, and he was eating a plate of stewed liver tips and pickled rabbit meat by himself. There was a bottle of beer and two disposable plastic cups next to his hand. Yu Hao had eaten at this shop many times and would never get sick of it, so he immediately felt hungry right after he took a whiff of the fragrance of the boss’ stir-fry.

Yu Hao pulled a chair out and sat opposite Zhou Laichun. He took a pair of chopsticks and asked, “Who’s treating?”

Zhou Laichun answered, “I will. After what happened the last time, I haven’t had a good meal with you yet.”