Seizing Dreams

Ch117.1 – Busy

The chauffeur first sent Zhou Laichun back to his residence before sending Zhou Sheng back. By the time he got home, it was already 11pm, and both Yu Hao and Fu Liqun were asleep. Zhou Sheng groped around in the dark for a cup of water, then drank it down with some hangover medicine before the feeling of an ocean overturning in his stomach finally settled down a little. He looked down at the text messages he had exchanged with Yu Hao at 6pm.

Yu Hao:【You’ll probably be asked out for dinner tonight. I cooked something up myself and ate with Gege.】

Zhou Sheng:【I’ll go back right after eating, it won’t be any later than 8pm.】

Yu Hao:【No need to be so anxious, it’ll always feel a bit more foreign and busy on the first day of work. Jiayou.】

Zhou Sheng went to take a bath, then sorted out the minutes of today’s meeting and sent it to the department’s manager. He worked until 2am before setting an alarm for 6.50am for a morning run, then made his way quietly to the bed and hugged Yu Hao to sleep.

“Get up, Zhou Sheng.” Yu Hao nudged Zhou Sheng.

Zhou Sheng woke up with a start; it was 8:10am.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Zhou Sheng complained angrily.

Yu Hao said, “You looked a little tired, so I wanted you to sleep a bit more……”

Zhou Sheng wanted to get up in the morning for a run, but he had drunk too much yesterday night, and he still had a headache today after his hangover. Yu Hao quickly said, “You won’t be late, breakfast is ready……”

Zhou Sheng changed his clothes then went out quickly to grab his breakfast. He thought of something and returned to kiss Yu Hao.

“Good night.” Zhou Sheng said, “Let’s talk after I come back tonight, I’ll definitely come home early today.”

Yu Hao hadn’t told him about his plans to report for work early. He chased after Zhou Sheng to tidy up his necktie and also took a picture of him, then said, “Bye, all the best for today.”

After he sent Zhou Sheng off, Yu Hao locked the door and went to the library. He borrowed a lot of books on social work, interviews, and local cultural materials by reporters, as well as news articles and other such materials to study. If he was going to profess devotion to Buddha at the last minute then so be it ba, it’s better than not professing any devotion at all anyway.

Zhou Sheng was busy with work at the company for the whole day. On Tuesday morning, the Major Business Department had their own internal meeting, then the department’s manager sent him a project report to organise. The minutes he took for yesterday’s meeting weren’t detailed enough, so another assistant came over to teach him step by step, including what shouldn’t be recorded just in case it could be used against them……in the afternoon, Zhou Sheng had just started on it before he had to go down for lunch. He didn’t have time to sleep during lunch break either. When he rummaged through his bag, there was a bottle of coffee and a pack of hangover medication that Yu Hao had stuffed inside for him.

Zhou Sheng sent Yu Hao a WeChat message to ask if he had eaten. Yu Hao ate a sandwich in the library and chatted idly with him for awhile. In the afternoon, another round of powerpoint presentations for projects were brought around for feedback, and the feedback received was to redo the entire PPT. And next Tuesday, Zhou Sheng would be in charge of introducing the project.

Zhou Sheng, “……”

Zhou Sheng thought you guys are really treating me as Ironman right now, you’re not even considering if I can really do it or not.

【I feel like they’re all loafing off.】Zhou Sheng sent Yu Hao a message,【And fucking Laozi is the only one working.】

Yu Hao:【Of course they’d slack if they have the chance to; everyone’s still getting their salary, so it’ll be okay for them as long as they don’t make any mistakes. This is your own business, you can’t afford to be lazy.】

Yu Hao:【I’ll do it ba, you’ll be very tired after working the whole day and certainly won’t even want to move when you get back.】

Zhou Sheng, “……”

The manager of this department is usually very crafty, and all the employees hated him a lot. But he treated Zhou Sheng very well, and of course it was because Zhou Sheng was the crown prince. He taught Zhou Sheng all the ropes bit by bit and would even specifically bring him out to recruit others now.

Zhou Sheng, “What place are we reserving?”

Manager said, “Haven’t thought of it yet, what do you say?”

“Japanese ba.” Zhou Sheng answered, “I know a Japanese place that has a good atmosphere.”

“Okay.” The manager agreed readily, “When it comes to eating, drinking, and making merry, I’ll listen to you.”

Zhou Sheng faced the project’s PPT. He was about to get an assistant to book the restaurant when he suddenly recalled that he was the assistant, so he had to go and make the reservation. Hopefully there would still be an available room……he couldn’t finish all his work before closing hours again, which made him really want to throw his computer into Zhou Laichun’s office.

At 12am, Zhou Sheng went home with the scent of alcohol lingering on his body. Yu Hao was still awake.

Yu Hao stretched out three fingers, “How many is this?”

“I didn’t drink much.” Zhou Sheng didn’t know if he should cry or laugh, “A little less than yesterday, each drop went into my soul. I wanted to puke every time I drank sake. I’ve gone fucking dumb, why did I choose a Japanese restaurant?”

The supplier didn’t know that he was Zhou Laichun’s son, but he did like Zhou Sheng a lot. The department’s manager just got him to accompany him for a few drinks to get to know the supplier, but the dinner had a much better effect than he had expected.

Yu Hao gave Zhou Sheng a glass of hot milk. Zhou Sheng leaned on the sofa and gasped for breath. Yu Hao placed a hot towel on his face, tidied up his bag, and packed what he might need to use tomorrow, along with two bottles of and a Snickers bar. Zhou Sheng panted for awhile and fell asleep on the sofa.

Yu Hao thought that it really was tiring for him. He used his fingerprint to unlock Zhou Sheng’s phone and saw the message his department’s manager sent him; his manager had sent him a Word document, said that their partner today had a very good impression of him, and praised him for being a talent. He even took a screenshot of his conversation with the partner for Zhou Sheng to see. Then, he specifically instructed him to redo the PPT according to requirements, and a few of his colleagues would go through it with him in a small meeting tomorrow morning.

At 7:30, Yu Hao kept kissing Zhou Sheng, who lay beside him. As Zhou Sheng was kissed over and over again, he opened his eyes and sprang up. “What time is it?”

Yu Hao specifically woke him up a little earlier today. He kissed him and said, “You have a lot of time, go take a bath ba?”

Zhou Sheng became frantic in the car as he flipped over his laptop. He thought that it would require at least 5 to 6 hours for him to redo the PPT, but then he found out that Yu Hao had already finished it for him. Thank God.

“Tonight we’ll be going out to visit a supplier.” After a meeting that lasted throughout the morning, the department’s manager said, “We won’t be drinking tonight, that old CEO can’t drink. But he likes to drink tea. I don’t know much about tea; Zhou Sheng can you accompany him for a chat?”

Zhou Sheng could only say, “okay”, what else could he say? He thought, I don’t know much about tea either you know, and took the chance during his lunch break to complain a whole bunch to Yu Hao while he quickly surfed the net for some relevant information. Yu Hao sent him a tea culture introduction that he got from somewhere. Zhou Sheng started dozing off while he read through it, so he laid down to take a short nap.

He had just fallen asleep when his colleague called him up again and asked him to go to the general manager’s floor for a meeting. Every month there would always be a meeting with the shareholder representatives and CEO that lasts for a day and a half. It started at 1pm in the afternoon, and Zhou Sheng had to sit in on the meeting beside his old man. He couldn’t sleep in the late afternoon either. The general assistant kindly prepared an extra strong cup of coffee for him.

After they visited the supplier, he actually managed to return home at around 9pm that day. Fu Liqun was unexpectedly at home too, and he was using his phone while lying on the sofa. They exchanged gazes; Zhou Sheng pointed inside to ask, ‘is Yu Hao asleep?’ Fu Liqun nodded and said, “I saw him write some manuscript all the way till daybreak, he really was busy enough.”

“My project’s PPT.” Zhou Sheng said helplessly. He loosened his tie and sat down heavily on the sofa.

“Is it that tough?” Fu Liqun asked.

Zhou Sheng nodded, “It’s okay. Actually it’s not much, saying that it’s tough would just be faking it. What about you?”

Fu Liqun shook his head wearily. Zhou Sheng said, “Is the gym open?”

Fu Liqun said, “The ribbon-cutting ceremony was today, Young Madam went in your stead.”

Zhou Sheng nodded. He had sent Yu Hao a message in the afternoon today during a break in the midst of the shareholders’ meeting, so Yu Hao must have known that he couldn’t leave.

“Congratulations on the opening.” Zhou Sheng laughed.

“Ai, tired.” Fu Liqun said.

Zhou Sheng said, “It’s fine as long as there’s money to earn.”

Fu Liqun held up his palm, “After hustling about for most of the month, five members, 17,000 in revenue.”

Zhou Sheng said, “Yo, that’s not bad ma. How much is the commission?”

Fu Liqun said, “Three of them were acquaintances pulled in by the others, while the other two are newly employed salesman who are supposed to act as a bluff. From tomorrow onwards we’ll have to start calling them one by one to urge them to come for their work-outs, and quickly start selling classes.”

Zhou Sheng said, “Not bad, not bad. I’ve been crawling around like a dog for the past three days, but the old man hasn’t even told me how much he’ll be paying me yet.”

“Is there a difference?” Fu Liqun laughed, “The company belongs to your family.”

Zhou Sheng didn’t speak anymore, then he asked again after a while, “How many members do you need to earn your capital back?”

Fu Liqun said, “The first month will be the hardest, we’ll need to at least get 20. As long as we can maintain about 5 to 10 per month afterwards, the company will be financially independent.”

“You can do it.” Zhou Sheng said, “It’s a little easier than I had imagined.”

Fu Liqun said, “I’ll have to sell classes and pull in more people at the same time, otherwise I think that after they distribute the leaflets that’ll be it, and there won’t be anymore follow-up.”

Zhou Sheng said, “You’re already two shades darker now.”

Fu Liqun said, “Now I really envy you people who get to sit in offices, it’s cool there.”

Zhou Sheng said, “Don’t mention that anymore. We had a shareholders’ meeting today, do you know how I felt? Quarterly financial targets, gross profits and net profits, regional strategies, risk assessments……it was like listening to a fucking book written in hieroglyphics. Couldn’t even understand half of it. I could only try to guess what was going on, and I even had to check things on Baidu while listening to them. The fucking old man came down afterwards and asked me not to play with my phone.”

Fu Liqun instantly burst into laughter. Zhou Sheng said, “It’s just like owing a debt for 10 years that you now have to repay in just a month, get it? I just felt like a mentally retarded child as I sat there. The old man didn’t say anything, but even I felt like I was an embarrassment. Fortunately no one asked me for my opinion.”

Fu Liqun said, “It’s always like that at the start, you’ll gradually come to understand more as you go along.”

Zhou Sheng said, “I’ll have to buy some management textbooks to study next time.”

Fu Liqun said, “Do you like this job?”

“I don’t.” Zhou Sheng said without even thinking about it, “But I don’t know what I want to do either, so I’ll just have to do this for now.”

Fu Liqun said, “Ai, money is hard to earn, and shit is hard to eat.”

Zhou Sheng said, “Un, don’t just give me 3,000 at the end of this month, otherwise I’d……I’d……just go to the shareholders’ meeting, and all of us can perish together.”

Fu Liqun bowled over from laughing too hard. Yu Hao opened the door and came out, saying groggily, “You’re back?”

Zhou Sheng hurriedly got up and smiled, “Keep sleeping, I’ll sleep with you.”

In the room, Yu Hao sobered up a little and asked, “Was the PPT okay?”

Zhou Sheng said, “It was okay, everyone praised me for doing it well.”

Yu Hao was still a little uneasy, “Is it going well?”

Zhou Sheng answered, “A lot better than I had expected, there isn’t much of a problem.”

This was the first time the two of them talked in earnest after Zhou Sheng started work. Yu Hao asked again, “Is it tiring?”

“No.” Zhou Sheng whistled as he went to take a bath, and after he took his bath, he came over to hug Yu Hao, “From next week onwards, I’ll come home everyday for dinner.”

Zhou Sheng turned off the lights, and the room turned dark. He hugged Yu Hao, and both of them got intimate for awhile in the dark. Zhou Sheng kept kissing him, as if he wanted to make up for all the kisses during their separation for the past few days. Yu Hao hugged him and kissed him back for awhile too.

“I want to report for work earlier.” Yu Hao said, “There’s a shortage of staff on Ah Ze’s side.”

Zhou Sheng didn’t hear him, he had already fallen asleep.