Chapter 26: Meeting an Old Acquaintance in a Strange Land
With the arrival of the 2023 graduation season, the class chat group for Class 1, Grade 2016 of Li Mai International High School, which had been silent for over three years, became active again.
This was because the green youths who had scattered to all corners of the country four years ago to experience university life were returning home one after another this summer.
A few students who loved excitement had been gathering people and preparing for a class reunion since May.
Unfortunately, although they started planning early, the date of the gathering was pushed back again and again. Plus, there were always a few “time zone” students who couldn’t match up their schedules.
Some had already graduated and returned to Beijing in April, while others wouldn’t be back until August. The span was nearly half a year. By June, many classmates couldn’t wait any longer and started holding small, private gatherings.
But there were still people who did a roll call of the absentees in the group every day.
So, Guo Duoyu was tagged every day. And every time he was tagged, someone would naturally tease: “Is the Dubai Princess beautiful? Is the Dubai Prince handsome?”
There weren’t many people in Li Mai International High School who were truly good at studying; so after getting their degrees gilded abroad, very few chose to continue their studies.
Guo Duoyu belonged to the rare few. Of course, he would continue studying, but no one expected Student Guo to choose to pursue graduate studies in Dubai, where the cost of further education was the highest.
Mainly because Dubai universities did not offer scholarships to foreign students. The tuition wasn’t high, but the living expenses were deadly expensive.
According to Student Guo’s own confession, his goal in choosing that University of the Emirates was very clear.
Step one: Know a King. Step two: Marry into the royal family.
If lucky, he would ascend to the heavens in one step, and everyone would be able to see him on TV news in the future.
Student Guo’s skin thickness was always ahead of his academic degree, fully embodying the essence of “Invincible when Shameless.”
Bai Fan, who used to have a relatively good relationship with him, tagged him that day and said directly: “Don’t come back. Pull your sugar daddy into the group. We’ll meet with him. He must be in Beijing; he’s easy to book.”
“I’ll emphasize it one more time: a Sugar Daddy is a Sugar Daddy, and a Dad is a Dad. The two cannot be mixed up.”
Guo Duoyu first corrected the principle issue, then replied to the main topic: “Here, let’s make it clear first. Back then, Class Monitor Xiao kicked President Shou out of the group chat. Now I’m going to pull him back. If he comes back, it’s giving me face. If he doesn’t, you guys go take it up with Class Monitor Xiao.”
Bai Fan: “Fine, fine, go pull him quickly. Xiao Yu left the group himself, where did you get so much nonsense?”
Shou Jiaxun was currently standing in the bustling airport departure hall making a phone call. The short message notification sound didn’t attract his attention at all.
—”I’m about to board the plane right now, and you’re telling me my assistant is unexpectedly pregnant and can’t fly. Then may I ask what I should do? For my itinerary over the next twenty-plus days, am I flying solo the whole way?”
On the other end of the phone, the HR manager chuckled bitterly in an attempt to appease him: “Unexpected pregnancy… is indeed quite unexpected, haha.
But President Shou, don’t worry. I happen to be interviewing a general assistant for the PR department right now. I think his conditions fit your requirements perfectly.
I’ll give you a brief introduction now. If you think he’s OK, I’ll have him take a flight immediately to chase after you.”
The HR manager paused for a few seconds. Hearing no objection from the boss, he immediately began introducing the candidate at hand: “Male Beta, age twenty-three, graduated from Royal Sports Academy, major…”
Shou Jiaxun suddenly interrupted: “Sports school student?”
The HR manager emphasized: “Royal… Academy.”
“Royal Sports School,” President Shou emphasized back.
“But the major is Marketing and Planning,” the HR manager added quickly. “The major is relevant.”
President Shou compromised: “Fine, a sports school student must have a good physique. At least he can help me carry luggage… Send me his resume and have him take the next flight to meet me at the destination hotel.”
Five years ago, Shou Jiaxun and Uncle Guo opened a fruit shop, but the two did not stop at doing fresh produce business.
Strictly speaking, it was President Shou who carried forward the cause and forged ahead with various tricks.
He told Uncle Guo: “Third-rate merchants do trades, second-rate merchants do brands, first-rate merchants do platforms. Making a platform costs too much and the timeline is too long. We choose the second tier, which is easy to establish and yields quick results.”
So, in the first year of selling fruit, they barely made any money after covering costs. But after the benefits stabilized, they made persistent efforts and took out loans to open two more “Indeed Loves You Very Much” shops on the same street.
At the same time, they added multiple fresh fruit processing product lines, from fresh fruit juices and sodas to light meal replacements and artistic ice drinks. They specifically served the golden-collar workers in the surrounding high-end office buildings.
After the three shops advanced together, they engaged in specialized logistics for stocking, maintaining a high standard of service while driving down the unit price.
Consequently, people soon came knocking to ask about franchising.
Since then, the semi-direct-operated small shops of “Indeed Loves You Very Much” began to bloom everywhere.
In less than three years, they opened dozens of flagship stores in various business districts in Beijing, as well as nearly three hundred fruit convenience shops.
During this period, countless fruit merchants scrambled to imitate them. However, when they forced their prices down to approach “Indeed Loves You Very Much’s” unit price, they invariably found that selling fruit was nearly unprofitable.
So on the surface, “Indeed Loves You Very Much” was a fruit shop, but in reality, it earned brand cooperation profits.
“Indeed” was now considered a rock-solid existence in the industry. The price paid in exchange was Little President Shou flying around everywhere to drum up business without his feet touching the ground.
This led to President Shou’s accompanying assistant position being either in recruitment or in preparation for recruitment.
Because he only hired Omegas, and Omegas were all very capable of giving birth. Once they gave birth, they couldn’t continue to withstand high-intensity business travel work.
President Shou’s trip this time was to discuss localized landing marketing with an electric car rental brand in North America.
The cooperation identity was somewhat similar to an advertising agency bidding; he needed to provide the other party with a strong landing promotion strategy.
Not only did he have to give a speech and present a design, but he also had to bid on the spot. But because it was the first round of tentative contact, President Shou chose to go alone to the meeting.
He never expected this! Just before boarding the plane, his travel partner dumped him, turning the two-person solo run into President Shou’s actual solo run.
President Shou, alone, dragged one large and one small suitcase, flew for more than ten hours, struggled through the surging crowd after landing, lined up for a taxi, and lined up for hotel check-in.
When he finally got into the booked room, he was covered in sweat and too weak to even wear clothes. His head hit the pillow and he slept like the dead.
After waking up and adjusting to the time difference for a few hours, he still had to iron his “battle robe” personally.
While turning on the computer to review the proposal, muttering the speech draft in his mouth, he hung the shirts and suits in a row and smoothed out the wrinkles one by one with a small steam iron.
Halfway through ironing, he found his complexion looked poor in the mirror, so he hurriedly went into the bathroom to brush his teeth, shower, wash his eyes, and apply a face mask.
He was in such a flurry he almost couldn’t find the door.
The doorbell rang seven or eight times before he shuffled to the entryway in a single slipper. After opening the door and seeing a “tall person” whose head was about to touch the door frame, he asked in a daze: “Hello, are you President Shou Jiaxun?”
President Shou couldn’t help but widen his eyes, ripping off the sheet mask from his face and exclaiming: “Liang Bo?!”
The “tall person” Liang Bo seemed even more surprised than him: “Hey! Is it really you?!”
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