Chapter 44: The Temptation of Going Home
Liang Bo finished his call in the hallway and went to the nearest restroom. After tossing about for ten minutes or so, he returned to the conference room to retrieve his computer, only to find that Shou Jiaxun hadn’t left yet.
He was alone, sitting at the head of the conference table nearest the projection screen, sideways, using the remote to flip through a set of slides introducing the brand value of “Guoran Loves You.”
Liang Bo pushed open the glass door and watched a few slides with him, but soon couldn’t help frowning and speaking up. “Who made this?”
It was hideously ugly. One look and you knew it was the work of a novice. Every page was a pile of photos stacked with text, made to look like a photo album.
Let alone showing this to a client, using it internally as training material would lower the employees’ aesthetic standards.
An advertising company, no matter how poor, couldn’t be poor in style. The PPT was the facade.
In principle, for something this ugly, the boss would definitely “turn off the light” on it in minutes.
But Shou Jiaxun was watching it with relish. His ears heard Liang Bo’s question, but his thoughts were still stuck in the slides. It took a few seconds for him to snap back, muttering an irrelevant answer: “Oh, there are so many photos I didn’t even save… Where did this kid dig them up?”
“If not from you, then from Guoran,” Assistant Liang made a reasonable deduction. “With so many photos of President Guo, it seems like they moved President Guo’s private album out here.”
“Not really…” Shou Jiaxun used the remote to quickly rewind a few pages to show Assistant Liang. “There are mine too.”
Liang Bo, finding it both funny and annoying, walked up to him, pulled out a chair, sat down, leaned in close, and lowered his voice. “President Guo still hasn’t actively asked you to come home?”
Shou Jiaxun’s face was full of dejection. He sighed and groaned, then turned off the slideshow, closed the laptop, and stood up to walk out on his own.
Who could understand his current mood?
He pretended to run away from home out of spite, only to turn it into genuinely being swept out the door. If he had known this, he should have hurried up and looked at apartments today.
Liang Bo followed behind him, whispering a suggestion. “How about I give you the key to that home next to No. 4 High School, and you stay there tonight?”
Shou Jiaxun appreciated his kindness and trusted his character, but objectively speaking, their friendship hadn’t reached that level yet.
So he just shook his head with a chuckle. “Thanks, but I can’t always rely on others to take me in…”
Halfway through his sentence, he was suddenly interrupted by a middle-aged male employee in the open office area, about the same age as Uncle Guo, waving at him.
Seeing Shou Jiaxun look his way, the man immediately stood up, called out “President Shou,” and walked quickly toward them.
Liang Bo took a step back to facilitate his conversation with Shou Jiaxun while lowering his eyes to glance at the badge hanging on the man’s chest.
Brand Department Supervisor, Fan Xiao.
Supervisor Fan held an unsealed envelope in his hand, opening it as he walked. By the time he reached Shou Jiaxun, he pulled out a gold-backed invitation with red text.
“President Shou, just in time, you’re back. This… will you go with us?”
Liang Bo lowered his head to look at the invitation with Shou Jiaxun. The theme was “Beacon Cloud Prosperous Age,” with subtitles reading “Top 100 Internet Marketing Summit.”
The time was tomorrow. The location was not local.
Shou Jiaxun nodded. “When do we leave?”
Supervisor Fan: “Flight tomorrow morning. The conference lasts two and a half days, but the content relevant to us is concentrated on the day after tomorrow. So we’ll return the day after we finish listening. If you’re going, I’ll notify administration to book your ticket immediately.”
Shou Jiaxun waved the hand holding the invitation toward Liang Bo. “Book one for Little Liang too.”
Meaning he agreed to go and was taking his assistant.
“Okay.” Supervisor Fan nodded immediately, but instead of stepping back, he took a small half-step forward. “President Shou, there’s one more thing.”
“Go ahead.”
Supervisor Fan grinned sheepishly, his expression looking somewhat difficult. “The PPT I sent you just now, did you see it?”
Shou Jiaxun frowned, but the corners of his mouth lifted in a slight smile. “A rookie… Mmn, just graduated? Did you recruit him?”
Supervisor Fan pouted and shook his head, lowering his voice to whisper a complaint: “I recruited him, but I didn’t interview him. I had something come up temporarily that day and went out. When I came back, President Guoran had already made the decision for me. Then I saw the stuff he made…”
Shou Jiaxun put away his smile, grabbed Supervisor Fan’s arm, walked a few steps away, pushed open a vacant negotiation room nearby, entered, and closed the door. But he didn’t sit down. The oppressive atmosphere skyrocketed instantly.
Liang Bo didn’t dare follow them in. He stood close to the crack of the glass door, guarding it while listening to the two talk inside.
President Shou’s tone was quite serious. “First of all, no one is born knowing everything. He didn’t do it well, but you can see his attitude is correct and he put his heart into it. You could try to teach him, rather than letting him present a piece of trash to make a fool of me.
And I remember very clearly, the stuff you made when you first joined the company was also very average. I didn’t fire you directly, did I?
Secondly, if you’ve confirmed he can’t handle the work in your team, then of course you can return him to the HR department. Transferring him or persuading him to quit is HR’s business. You recruiting a qualified team member again is your job. If you execute that normally, no one will say you have a problem.
But you complaining to me right now is a huge problem. Do you expect me to go to Guoran and accuse him of overstepping his authority to do your job? Do you think I would do that?”
Supervisor Fan appeared to be an Alpha, older than President Shou and taller than President Shou, yet his head drooped lower and lower as he was scolded by President Shou.
After speaking, Shou Jiaxun pulled open the glass door and left directly, leaving the department supervisor in the small room to reflect on himself.
Liang Bo couldn’t help but reveal a lovestruck expression, silently lamenting in his heart: He’s so fierce, I love it.
Immediately, he asked himself: Do I have masochistic tendencies?
Thinking of this, Assistant Liang quickly retracted his silly smile and lamented again: Good thing he wasn’t fierce to me.
The situation was very obvious. The company couldn’t do without President Shou, and President Shou couldn’t do without President Guo. If their genders matched and their ages were compatible, they would probably have been together long ago.
As it stood, Guoran treated Shou Jiaxun like a son, and Shou Jiaxun said he and Guoran were brothers, partners, and companions. Anyway, simply put, Guoran was his “home.” Now that “home” didn’t want him, he was listless and uncomfortable all over.
However, as long as the side of “home” relaxed a little and indicated “Uncle still wants you,” President Shou could resurrect on the spot.
Guoran’s office door was rarely closed. Seeing Little President Shou, he hollered anytime: “Hey, you, come here.”
Probably a habit formed from selling fruit at the stand, whenever Shou Jiaxun heard his uncle summon him, he would run over eagerly regardless of time or reason: “Uncle, what’s up?”
Guoran picked up a printed A4 paper from the desk and held it up in front of Shou Jiaxun. “I went to see an apartment for you at noon. This complex has a good environment, relatively new renovation, over sixty square meters of interior space, small two-bedroom. Key is it’s a low floor, grounded, suitable for elderly living.”
Speaking to this point, he paused slightly to think, touching his forehead. “But your dad doesn’t count as elderly, right? His age should be about the same as mine. Anyway, it’s definitely no problem for a temporary transition. When do you plan to pick him up?”
Hearing Uncle Guo say he was finding an apartment for his dad, not for him, the speed of Shou Jiaxun’s “HP recovery” was fully displayed on his face.
Liang Bo sat back at his station, leaning sideways against the desk, resting his chin on one hand, almost laughing out loud along with Shou Jiaxun.
—Lacking the element of “Home” in his horoscope?
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