“Dingbei, the li qi in the Su family’s blood is too heavy, we need to rein it in.”
Su Ping Nan, looking at Su Dingbei, who was as much like him as two peas in a pod, said in a rare moment of good advice.
“Su Ping Nan, I understand.”
Su Dingbei knew her second brother was trying to help.
Su Ping Nan, looking at the girl whose sharp edges were beginning to show, sighed: “Grandfather was right, Big Brother shouldered all the weakness and honesty of our generation. You have to listen to Grandfather, be more polite to Big Brother and Third Brother in the future.”
“Okay, I don’t know why I get so annoyed whenever I see them.”
Su Dingbei, for once, showed a hint of girlish shyness.
“Dingbei, study hard. In the future, there’s a kind of power whose might is countless times more potent than brute force. I want you to help me control it.”
Su Ping Nan’s expression was serious.
Su Dingbei tilted her head and thought, her skin as white as snow, yet with the same resolute features as Su Ping Nan: “What kind of power?”
“Money.”
Su Ping Nan felt much more at ease after leaving Su Dingbei. This girl’s worldview was pretty out there. But she had one good quality, she always kept her word.
Thinking about the future, a female thug becoming a female scholar, Su Ping Nan found it quite amusing.
Su Dingbei stood in the wind and snow, holding a business card, her expression complicated.
The card was simple, a pale gold card with just three words on it, “Su Ping Nan.”
Below that was a mobile phone number, and on the back, a single line of poetry: Don’t let your youth slip away in vain.
“Why is this guy changing so much?” the tough girl’s thoughts were surprisingly delicate.
The card seemed simple, yet it exuded an air of outrageous arrogance.
“This is my personal card, you’re the first person I’ve given it to. Third Brother is soft-hearted, Big Brother is weak, they won’t get anything out of this.”
Su Ping Nan’s eyes held a hint of arrogance, but it couldn’t completely hide the disdain in them.
“What’s it for?”
Su Dingbei’s expression was serious. She could sense her brother’s hesitation when he gave her the card.
“Jinshui Group will be fully expanding in Wu City soon. The first step is setting up offices in the nine towns and eighteen villages of Changyang County. You can use this card to withdraw 200,000 yuan at any point in the group.”
Su Dingbei tilted her head: “Su Ping Nan, are you trying to learn from Chao Gai?”
Su Ping Nan smiled: “A bandit leader, what’s there to learn from him?”
“You trust me so much? I’m only sixteen.”
Su Ping Nan looked at Su Dingbei seriously: “I trust you, because you are Su Dingbei.” There were words he didn’t say, about a Su Dingbei who at 20 years old had willingly walked the path of no return for her brother.
The icy snowflakes startled the pondering girl awake. Su Dingbei scratched her head in frustration. She had promised her brother to become an excellent businessperson, but her abysmal grades would probably not even get her into a decent high school.
“This is bad.”
The girl muttered quietly.
…
“Study, go and study hard for me.”
Su Ping Nan tossed a phone number for a mining university professor to Su Wen Wen, his tone serious.
“Learn about safe mining methods, the precautions for various technologies, master them all.”
Su Wen Wen nodded.
“Before we kill anyone else, we need to learn how to defend ourselves. So you are my top priority.”
After sending off Su Wen Wen, whose face was pale, Su Ping Nan chuckled a little. Su Wen Wen had this problem of getting sleepy whenever he read. He wondered if this time, he would actually change.
“Nan ge, I found the person you need.” Zhang Tong ran excitedly into Su Ping Nan’s office.
The renovation of Jinshui Pavilion was moving quickly. A team of chefs capable of creating culinary wonders was an urgent priority. Su Ping Nan immediately thought of Zhang Tong, his lucky star, for this task.
Su Ping Nan laughed heartily, tossing a pack of freshly opened Soft China cigarettes at him: “You really are a talent, kid. Where did you find this guy this time?”
It turned out Zhang Tong’s way of thinking was truly different from ordinary people. The person he’d found for Su Ping Nan was a canteen master chef.
Wu City Knitting Factory was a state-owned enterprise that was practically shut down. This factory was famous in Wu City not for its products, but for its canteen.
The canteen was famous because of one man, Lin Zun Li. His family had been cooks for generations, and by the time it got to him, he’d learned a whole set of culinary skills. But due to the special circumstances of his time, he ended up working in a factory. Unfortunately, his skills were truly exceptional, and a worker, by some twist of fate, ended up being the master chef of the canteen.
Li San was a worker at the Knitting Factory. He had bad luck, after high school he took over the factory, and its performance had been declining ever since. He didn’t have any big aspirations, so he just went with the flow.
One day, Guo Guangyao, his junior high classmate, came to find him. Guo Guangyao had been a tough guy in junior high, and while Li San was in the same class, he rarely interacted with him. He felt like this guy would end up singing “Prison Blues” in the slammer one day.
After graduation, everyone went their separate ways. Li San only learned about Guo Guangyao’s news the last time he was drinking with some classmates.
His classmate said with an envious tone: “You remember Guo Guangyao from our class?”
Li San nodded.
Then his classmate said enviously: “That guy’s doing great, he’s working with a really powerful big brother, making money. He’s wearing suits now, smoking Soft China, and has a whole bunch of guys working under him.”
Li San scoffed at the time, saying, “What good can those guys do, they’re rich one day and broke the next. It’s better to be like us, living a steady life.”
Today, when Guo Guangyao stood before him, Li San finally understood why his classmate had sounded so bitter.
A black, stylish off-road vehicle, a sharp suit, and a bodyguard holding a mobile phone, suddenly Li San realized that he’d been a fool all this time.
(Please like, collect, and rate if you enjoy this. When will I get to sign a contract? If you can’t accept it, please collect it. The first update is here!)