Chapter 22

Cheng Minzhi felt that she was disturbing her daughter’s phone call here, so she gestured to her office and decided to go back first.

Without her mother around, she felt much more relaxed.

On the phone, Zhou Sujin said, “Opening a store over there does suit my aunt’s preferences.”

“Have you done the market research?” he asked further.

The joke she made to Zhou Sujin just now about making it convenient for him to buy things was just to lighten the mood, and she hadn’t expected a response.

Wei Lai replied, “Yes, we have.”

They also analyzed the consumption habits and preferences of nearby residents, and after comprehensive consideration, they decided to settle in Jiang’an Yunchen. Currently, they have enough funds at hand, and she plans to open one or two more stores this year.

They would accelerate the pace of expansion next year. Their competitor, Fumanyuan Supermarket, had over seventy stores in the city, whereas they only had one-fifth of Fumanyuan’s stores.

With the increase in stores, various risks would accompany them. However, the supermarket’s existing management team lacked sufficient risk awareness and risk management capabilities.

“Mr. Zhou, including yourself, do you have any connections or resources?”

“Are you putting the responsibility on me?”

“Yeah.”

She was straightforward.

Zhou Sujin entered the bedroom, and lightly closed the door, and since he was on the phone with the opposite sex, he didn’t walk towards the bed but stood by the window and drew the curtains.

The Thames was quiet at this time.

He spoke into the phone, “Are you putting the responsibility on me? What do you want me to do?”

Wei Lai held her breath and said directly, “I want you to be a risk control consultant for Wei Lai Supermarket for two years. Can you?”

Zhou Sujin: “…”

He remained silent for a moment, then, without a hint of laughter in his voice, he said, “Do you think I can?”

To have the second young master of the Zhou family, the president of Kunchen Group, become a risk control consultant for a small supermarket in Jiangcheng, anyone would think she was daydreaming.

“You used to do venture capital. Do you still need me?”

“I do. My experience in risk control is not enough.”

Wei Lai directly asked him, “Mr. Zhou, do you consider yourself part of your network?”

“No.”

Glancing at the time, it was almost dawn where he was. He ended the call by saying, “I don’t have time to be a risk control consultant. If you have any uncertainties, you can ask me. Is that okay? I’ll spare two hours for Director Yuan when I go to Jiangcheng next week. Anything else?”

To ask him about uncertainties was also like consulting a risk control consultant. “Thank you.”

Wei Lai asked again, “Mr. Zhou, which city are you in?”

“London.”

“Good night then.”

After hanging up, Wei Lai sat quietly in front of the computer screen for two minutes, then got up and went to her mother’s office next door, telling her mother that she had coordinated it and could reply to Director Yuan.

Cheng Minzhi sighed. Just how much did Zhou Sujin like her daughter to readily offer her own network resources?

“Lai Lai, you’re just boyfriend and girlfriend, not husband and wife.”

Wei Lai understood what her mother meant. Zhou Sujin was just her boyfriend, and she shouldn’t feel entitled to his help, nor should she overstep boundaries.

“Mom, I know. I’m good to him too. Otherwise, he wouldn’t keep giving so much.”

They both got what they needed from their relationship. To play her role as a girlfriend well, she had put in all her effort.

Afterward, Cheng Minzhi returned the call to Director Yuan, specifying when they would meet and asked Director Yuan to wait for a call from Yang Ze, Zhou Sujin’s assistant.

Director Yuan was a man of few words. After expressing his gratitude, he arranged for someone to liaise with Wei Lai Supermarket regarding the storefront lease.

At this moment, Yuan Hengrui was in his father’s office, leaning back on the sofa, feeling extremely frustrated. “Do we have to cooperate with Zhou Sujin?”

Director Yuan countered with a question, “Otherwise? Do you have other connections I don’t know about?”

Yuan Hengrui remained silent. His network consisted only of those who enjoyed eating, drinking, and having fun.

The group was currently facing a bottleneck in the transformation of its core business. Even if he was reluctant and didn’t want to meet Zhou Sujin, he couldn’t act recklessly.

Seeing his son unusually silent, Director Yuan suddenly thought of something. He picked up his teacup and then put it down, pointing at his son across the room, “Let me tell you, don’t go to your so-called master to ask if cooperating with Zhou Sujin will harm you! If you dare to randomly ask for divination again!”

Yuan Hengrui: “…”

Unable to defend himself, he was wronged. When did he say he was going to divine for the company?

Moreover, what’s wrong with getting one’s fortune told?

That master didn’t make baseless claims.

—

When Zhou Sujin returned from London to Jiangcheng, Wei Lai had already signed a lease agreement with Jiang’an Group, with a term of three years and priority for renewal upon expiry.

The designer rushed from Shanghai to Jiangcheng that day to begin designing the 17th store of Wei Lai Supermarket.

Zhou Sujin arrived in Jiangcheng at noon and arranged to meet with Director Yuan.

While Wei Lai accompanied the designer at the store site, she also didn’t have time to have lunch with him.

Jiang’an Yunchen Phase II was only delivered last year. Due to the limited number of commercial properties, Jiang’an Group was particularly cautious in selecting tenants. Currently, only a few high-end Western restaurants had settled in.

“When designing the bookstore, incorporate the number 17 into it,” she told the designer.

Standing in the spacious raw storefront with a height of nearly six meters, the designer was concentrated on brainstorming and didn’t hear what Wei Lai said clearly. He turned his head, “Incorporate what element?”

Wei Lai repeated, “The number 17.”

The designer knew that this was the 17th store of the supermarket, but the previous 16 Wei Lai stores didn’t have any such requirements. He smiled, “Does it have any special significance?”

Wei Lai nodded, “Indeed, it does.”

The designer needed to clarify, “Is it about friendship, family, or love? Different emotions are presented differently.”

After a long silence, Wei Lai said, “I’m not sure how to define it.”

The designer, sensitive to emotions, understood. “Got it.”

He looked at Wei Lai for a few seconds, “Will you often visit the free bookstore in this store in the future?”

Wei Lai answered truthfully, “I probably will.”

With his hands on his waist, the designer looked up and surveyed the storefront. After considering it, he discussed with Wei Lai, “For this location, the demand for study rooms from the owners is basically zero. How about changing it to a free bookstore and a leisure coffee area?”

Wei Lai didn’t hesitate at all; she had similar thoughts before.

Busy until almost five o’clock when she returned to the office, tonight Zhou Sujin was going to their home for dinner. She briefly reported her design ideas to her mother and left work early, buying some fresh produce from the supermarket downstairs to take home.

Her car had just left for a while when the car of Wei Huatian drove into the parking lot.

It had been fifteen years since he last came here.

Because he was never willing to face how he could bear to divorce her back then, he didn’t want to come here.

The adjacent office building, the restaurant not far away, he used to wait for his ex-wife at the supermarket gate every day to go home together. She often fell asleep on the way home due to exhaustion.

Every holiday, his ex-wife was too busy to eat, but she would always say, “Wait until we earn enough money, we’ll retire early and make up for the honeymoon.”

They never managed to go on a proper trip together until they divorced.

The memories of the past were more overwhelming than a flood.

Wei Huatian stayed in the car for a while before getting out. Today, he especially came to see his daughter. Since the wedding banquet on the 3rd, his daughter had been too busy to contact him.

He never used to come here, but now, he didn’t know if he had come to terms with it or was forcing himself to do so.

His daughter was grown up, about to have her own little family. He and his ex-wife couldn’t always stay estranged. Meeting each other was just a matter of nodding and greeting.

Upon reaching the second floor and finding his daughter’s office based on the doorplate, Wei Huatian knocked on the door, but there was no response for a while.

At this time, someone came out of the neighboring office, “May I ask who you’re looking for?”

Wei Huatian didn’t know the person in front of him was his ex-wife’s secretary, “I’m looking for Wei Lai. I’m her father.”

It was the first time Cheng Minzhi’s secretary had seen her boss’s ex-husband. “Mr. Wei, hello. Both Lai Lai and Director Cheng have gone home. Tonight, Lai Lai’s boyfriend is coming over for dinner.”

Wei Huatian was stunned for a moment, then quickly managed his expression. “Alright, then I’ll call Lai Lai. You can go on with your work.”

The last time his daughter came home for dinner, she mentioned that Zhou Sujin was a potential boyfriend. Now they were already together and even met each other’s parents.

His daughter suddenly became distant from him and stopped telling him anything. That feeling was hard to describe.

【Lai Lai, when you’re free, come to your dad’s for dinner.】

Wei Lai was in the kitchen, cuddling her mother, with her phone in the living room, so she didn’t see the message in time.

Cheng Minzhi pushed her daughter’s head away, pretending to be disgusted. “What are you doing? Are you going to let me work? Go, go, talk to Zhou Sujin in the yard.”

Wei Lai said, “No, he’d find me annoying.”

She was always prone to talking too much, and Zhou Sujin didn’t like people around him being talkative; he must find her annoying.

Cheng Minzhi smiled, thinking her daughter was showing off how well she got along with Zhou Sujin.

“Mom’s cooking. How can I cook if you’re clinging to me?”

Wei Lai got up, the kitchen was in the north, and she couldn’t see Zhou Sujin in the south yard.

She had just been to the yard a while ago, and he said she didn’t need to accompany him.

She couldn’t stay in the kitchen all the time, so she washed some fruits and brought them over.

Zhou Sujin was in the yard, looking at documents, and there were still several piles on the table.

Wei Lai’s house was a duplex. The first and second floors belonged to their family, and the third and fourth floors belonged to another household. Occasionally, people from the neighboring upstairs came to the terrace to look down, probably curious about who he was.

The neighboring house had two osmanthus trees planted in the yard, right next to the boundary iron fence, and the fragrance permeated both yards.

The fragrance was too strong, and Zhou Sujin couldn’t stand it, so he stood up and decided to go inside.

When Wei Lai brought over the fruits, she had washed three types and asked him, “What would you like to eat?”

“You eat,” Zhou Sujin picked up the documents from the table.

Walls have ears, and some things were not convenient to say in the yard. If he didn’t eat, she wouldn’t force him. As he went inside, she followed him.

“The osmanthus fragrance smells so good, and the weather is so nice today. Why aren’t you staying in the yard?” Wei Lai said behind him.

Zhou Sujin replied, “The living room is quiet.”

Wei Lai put the fruit plate on the coffee table and sat cross-legged on the spacious sofa next to him. She felt it was unnecessary to be restrained in her own home; her mother would see through it instantly.

She lightly tugged at his suit, “Still wearing this?”

Zhou Sujin hadn’t adapted to being back at his ‘mother-in-law’s’ house, so he kept his suit on.

He took it off, and Wei Lai naturally took it from him.

After hanging up the clothes and returning, she was still sitting cross-legged on the sofa. She asked, “How did your talk with Director Yuan go? I don’t really understand his character in business.”

Zhou Sujin replied simply, “We can cooperate.”

Wei Lai joked, “Is it because of my face that you decided to cooperate?”

Zhou Sujin replied, “No.”

“You should have just said it was.”

Wei Lai reached out to grab some fruit from the fruit plate. Since the coffee table was a bit far from the sofa, she was afraid of leaning forward too much and falling off the sofa, so she grabbed his arm with one hand and reached for the fruit with the other.

From the moment Zhou Sujin entered their house until dinner, she hadn’t said much to him. But the few intimate gestures she deliberately added had successfully fooled her mother.

Tonight, all the dishes were cooked by her mother, and she didn’t let Wei Lai help at all.

When the dishes were served, one side was Zhou Sujin’s favorite, and the other side was hers.

Wei Lai pretended to helplessly say to her mother, “Mom, can you see how different our tastes are? There’s nothing we can both eat together.”

Cheng Minzhi smiled, “That’s great. In the future, no one will have to worry about their favorite dishes being eaten by the other.”

Wei Lai was amused by her mother’s teasing.

The soup bowl was next to Zhou Sujin, and he picked it up to serve the soup.

Cheng Minzhi quickly reached out, “Let me do it. You two eat.”

Zhou Sujin had already served a bowl, so he put it on Cheng Minzhi’s side first, “Auntie, don’t be polite. I didn’t feel like an outsider; I came straight over to work.”

Wei Lai didn’t interrupt. She wasn’t worried that Zhou Sujin couldn’t handle it; he had seen all kinds of situations.

So Cheng Minzhi stopped being polite and took off her apron to sit down.

Tonight there was an extra person at dinner, which was the most fulfilling day for her in fifteen years.

Wei Lai picked up a spoon and started picking out the seafood from the dishes. Tonight, her mother made a seafood stew rice specially for her. She didn’t eat seafood, so she always picked it out and put it aside.

Zhou Sujin glanced at her and handed her an empty bowl.

Wei Lai gave him a grateful look. She hadn’t expected him to be willing to help eat the seafood she didn’t like.

She picked out all the seafood from the rice and pushed it to him.

But until the end of the meal, when Zhou Sujin put down his chopsticks, he hadn’t touched the seafood in the bowl.

It turned out that when he handed her an empty bowl, it was just a gesture, without any other meaning.

They had an early flight to Beijing tomorrow morning, so they didn’t stay too late at Cheng Minzhi’s place after dinner.

After leaving her mother’s place, Wei Lai thanked Zhou Sujin on their way back, “Thank you for preparing such a precious gift for my mom.”

It wasn’t expensive, but it was precious because he put thought into it.

The gift was two vases he brought back from London.

Her mother loved to buy all kinds of vases, and their home had a lot of collections.

Wei Lai went up to the car first and took out her mobile phone from her bag. She opened the notes and handed it to him, “These are several topics that your family might bring up at the dinner table. I have detailed how to respond to them. Take a look, so we don’t contradict each other.”

Zhou Sujin glanced through the notes. “You still consider meeting the parents as an important task?”

Wei Lai replied, “Yes, it’s about having a sense of commitment. Besides, cooperating with you doesn’t put me at a loss. My family supermarket has only opened seventeen stores so far. My goal is a hundred, and I aim to open several more with your support within two years.”

Zhou Sujin said, “Even with two years, you won’t be able to open many more stores.”

Wei Lai looked at him. “Then after the two years are up, you can renew the contract with me.”