An Ning worked hard all day, having to squeeze in time even to eat and drink. By the time the booth closed, the whole world looked blurry to her.
Fortunately, her hard work was rewarded handsomely.
Zhou Hongjun gave her a raise of three hundred yuan.
She had asked around and learned that interpreters at the China Import and Export Fair typically earned around two hundred yuan, while five hundred was the rate for hiring a professional teacher.
"Xiao An, keep up the good work tomorrow. When this is over, I'll definitely give you a big red envelope."
The Hongjun Bamboo Weaving Factory wasn't large. If tomorrow went as well as today, they wouldn't need to attend the remaining days of the exhibition to ensure their production deadlines were met.
"Don't worry, Director. I'll do my best!"
All that remained in An Ning's exhausted mind were the words "big red envelope." As she walked down the street, she saw smiles on everyone's faces.
Perhaps infected by her good mood, she felt that many passersby were smiling back at her—including a very tall pillar.
It wasn't until she returned to her dormitory, washed up, and lay in bed that she realized what she'd done. A tall pillar, indeed—she'd been so happy she'd mistaken a tall person for a pillar. She really had been carried away by joy.
The next day, An Ning went to the fair as usual. After the buyers' assessments from yesterday, there were even more customers today than yesterday. Zhou Hongjun estimated the factory's capacity and started thinking about closing up before three in the afternoon.
But An Ning felt there was no need to pack up.
"We could make a sign in both Chinese and English with the factory's production schedule and contact information. This is a rare window to the outside world. Even if the factory is too busy to take orders right now, wouldn't it be a shame to just pack up and leave?"
"Xiao An, you've got a sharp mind!"
Factory Director Zhou thought it over—it wasn't easy to get a booth approved. What if there were customers who weren't in a hurry and could accept delivery in six months?
Without further ado, Zhou Hongjun prepared three large cardboard signs with the factory name, contact phone number, and production schedule written on them.
With no orders being taken at the booth, they didn't need as many people there. He left the on-site weaver and An Ning behind while he wandered off at ease.
He'd been so busy over the past two days that he hadn't even had a chance to look at what other products were at the fair.
"You've got it easy."
Director Wei glanced sideways at Zhou Hongjun. He'd assumed that since this was Zhou Hongjun's first time at the fair, he wouldn't know anything and his goods wouldn't sell well. Who would have thought that in just a day and a half, his goods were already sold out six months in advance?
"Haha, just luck. How's business on your end?"
Director Wei sold textiles—his factory mainly produced household textiles like bedsheets and tablecloths.
Textiles were also a highly popular category at the fair. Director Wei had hired a Japanese international student today. His booth wasn't as bustling as Zhou Hongjun's, but his results weren't bad either.
"Getting by. But looks are still what matter."
Even though his own booth was doing fine, Director Wei still went to check on An Ning.
"What nonsense are you talking about? Xiao An is talented. She doesn't get stage fright talking to foreigners, and she's diligent in her work. I was thinking of just packing up the booth since our orders are full, but she gave me the idea to leave our contact information and welcome foreign buyers to visit the factory. None of that was part of her job as a translator, but she was willing to think about it and make it happen."
"Fine, fine. You just got lucky, Zhou Hongjun."
The two friends chatted for a bit until something came up at Director Wei's booth. Zhou Hongjun continued his tour of the fair.
By the time Zhou Hongjun returned to his stall, two hours had passed, with Director Wei following behind, his face full of anxiety.
"Xiao An, I remember you said you majored in law. Old Wei has taken on a business deal—come take a look at the contract for him."
After years of trial and error, the East China Fair now had dedicated contract templates, but there were exceptions—some buyers felt the template contracts weren't comprehensive enough and needed supplementary agreements.
This time, Director Wei had encountered a client claiming to be a large company that wanted to sign their company's unified procurement contract.
After reading through the contract in detail, Director Wei found it hard to fully understand. Suddenly recalling that Zhou Hongjun had mentioned An Ning's specialty was law, with translation only as a minor, he thought to bring it to her for review.
An Ning nodded and took it. She had originally come hoping to take on contract drafting and review work, only to learn after being hired by Zhou Hongjun that contract templates existed. She'd thought it lucky her spoken English was decent, yet here she was, circling back to contracts after all.
"There are several points in this contract that need verification. First, confirm the buyer's identity. Second, the foreign trade operating rights—whether this company has a power of attorney. Finally, this arbitration clause—it specifies the UK. If a dispute arises later, it'll be very troublesome for Director Wei; you'd have to go to the UK to litigate."
An Ning pointed to several spots in the contract. The reason she mentioned verifying the buyer's identity was that over the past couple of days, she'd gotten a sense of where the foreign buyers came from. The contract named a large company that would still be famous many years later, but this company didn't deal in textile products.
"How do we verify that? It's a British company."
"For a company that big, there'll be a phone number or email online. We can search for it on the internet."
By the time Director Wei brought the contract over, the exhibition was nearing its end. Seeing An Ning discussing the contract, quite a few people gathered around.
Over the years, exhibitions like the Canton Fair and the East China Fair, which catered to foreign buyers, had made these factories a lot of money, but they'd also driven some factories to ruin.
It could only be said that there were too many swindlers, impossible to guard against fully.
Take this arbitration location, for instance—when they saw the UK, they only thought the client was a British company, never considering that a dispute would mean going to the UK to sue.
"This contract is more abbreviated compared to the exhibition template. The delivery, exchange rate, and other crucial sections are all too vague. I'm still a student, so I'd suggest Director Wei find a professional lawyer to review it again."
"Definitely need to get a lawyer to look it over carefully. If there's no problem, fine, but if something goes wrong, the compensation won't be a simple matter."
"I've heard before that at the Canton Fair, someone impersonated a company, took goods on credit, and swindled them."
"I've heard of that too, but this client told me they wouldn't take goods on credit."
Director Wei had heard plenty of stories about goods being swindled, so when this client produced a contract, his first reaction was reluctance. But the other party said they wouldn't take goods on credit and would pay a twenty percent deposit on the goods. Plus, since they were from a big company and put on an arrogant air, he'd gotten flustered. If not for the employee's water being too hot and burning his mouth, he'd probably have signed the contract by now.
"Old Wei, so you think there's no problem and don't plan to have a lawyer review it?"
Zhou Hongjun caught the off note in his words—An Ning had said there were issues, and here he was going on about not taking goods on credit.
"How could I? I'm just saying the scams might have upgraded, and everyone needs to be careful."
He broke out in a cold sweat at what An Ning said. Recalling her arrogant demeanor, the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like she was using that attitude to pressure him into signing quickly—how could she possibly think there was no problem?
When Guan Sheng passed by An Ning's booth, he thought of the pretty female employee he'd seen yesterday and figured he'd take another look on his way by. To his surprise, he overheard people nearby discussing contract traps.
Stepping into the crowd, Guan Sheng pulled out his business card.
"I'm a lawyer. My firm is right next door at the New International. If you need help, I can take a look at the contract."
With the exhibition in town, the surrounding law firms had all been advertising heavily. Seeing the name "Shenjiang Law Firm" on Guan Sheng's card, Director Wei found it familiar and handed the contract over to him.
Guan Sheng specialized in economic law, and he could spot far more issues in this contract.
Seeing someone take over the matter, An Ning glanced at the time, quietly called out to Director Zhou, and after stepping out of the crowd, spoke up: "I've learned a lot following you these past two days, Director Zhou. I wish your business ever-growing success and that the factory thrives more and more."
Everyone likes hearing nice words. Zhou Hongjun's smile stretched ear to ear. Thinking of the gains from this trip to Jiangcheng, he settled An Ning's wages for the day and also handed her a big red envelope he'd prepared.
"Little An, with a mind as sharp as yours, you're bound to do great things in the future."
Feeling the thickness of the red envelope, An Ning couldn't hold back her smile either: "Then I'll take Director Zhou's kind words to heart."
An Ning tucked away her wages and only opened the red envelope once she got back to school—inside was six hundred sixty-six yuan.
Two days' wages, plus the red envelope, plus the three hundred fifty she had left over, she now had two thousand sixteen in total.
In the year 2000, the cost of living was low—breakfast was still just one yuan. Spending carefully, that two thousand-plus wouldn't just last her until her ID card came through; it could see her through the rest of the year without issue.
"Where's Little An?"
Guan Sheng confirmed that the contract had problems, and that the scammer had likely been impersonating another company. Director Wei chose to report it to the police.
Only after wrapping things up did he remember he hadn't seen An Ning.
"She's gone back to school. And don't expect her to man your booth for the next two days—she already told me clearly. She's a student and can only work part-time on weekends; there's no way she'd take time off."
"Then I still need to properly thank her. She helped me review the contract—I should at least give her a red envelope. Did you get her contact information?"
At Director Wei's words, Zhou Hongjun slapped his palm: "Forgot."
He and An Ning had exchanged pleasantries for ages, but he'd completely forgotten the most important thing. He'd been hoping An Ning would come back next year to be his translator again.
Now he didn't even know which school she attended.
Guan Sheng listened from the side and learned that the pretty female employee was named An Ning, and that she also studied law.
Maybe she was even his junior from the same alma mater.
First-year high school students at No. 1 Middle School had evening self-study on weekends. An Ning rushed back to campus, changed clothes in the dormitory, and timed it perfectly.
"Ningning, when I came back you weren't in the dorm. This is beef jerky I brought from home."
The moment class ended, Shi Jiayan ran over to An Ning's seat and handed her the beef jerky.
"What do you mean you didn't read my note?!"
Just as Shi Jiayan finished speaking, the boy sitting next to An Ning shouted—and the target of his shouting was clearly An Ning.
"Why would Ningning need to read your note? You've got so many pimples on your face."
Shi Jiayan stood in the aisle, and Dong Da's voice was practically roaring right in her ear. She jumped, startled, and turned around to see that it was Dong Da—the one who had mocked An Ning for ranking first in the grade last time. She rolled her eyes and snapped back irritably.
The classroom was fairly crowded during the short break, and the students who overheard Shi Jiayan's retort burst into laughter.
"Didn't see that coming—so Dong Da, you've got feelings for her, huh?"
"Bold move!"
Someone patted Dong Da on the shoulder.
Dong Da's face flushed bright red. "Who likes An Ning? I heard her dad kicked her out of the house and cut ties with her as father and daughter. I'm just curious what kind of shameful thing she did this time!"
The moment he said it, the surrounding chatter died down.
Some in the class had heard that An Ning had a bad temper and that her parents didn't like her.
But no one expected it to have escalated that far.
Cutting off a father-daughter relationship was something you only heard about in TV dramas.
"You're the one who did something shameful!"
Shi Jiayan was furious, convinced that Dong Da was just a lunatic spouting nonsense. "You know so much about An Ning's family—were you hiding under her bed or something?!"
"I wasn't talking about you, so what's it to you?!"
Dong Da, annoyed by Shi Jiayan's outburst, raised his hand. Shi Jiayan flinched and ducked her head. Dong Da hadn't actually intended to hit her—he was just making a show of it to scare her.
Guys did that kind of thing all the time. Seeing Shi Jiayan cower, Dong Da exchanged a look with the boys beside him. But before he could even start laughing, An Ning yanked Shi Jiayan behind her and drove a kick into his shin.
The scraping sound of desks and chairs grinding against the floor was harsh as Dong Da toppled over. After delivering the kick, An Ning turned her gaze to Zhao Wen, who stood at the classroom door. "Teacher, Dong Da was assaulting a female classmate in our class. I stopped him."
She paused, then added, "During evening self-study, Dong Da passed me a note, but I didn't read it. I spent the entire session finishing an entire English test paper. I don't know how much he managed to write."
With that, An Ning looked down at Dong Da, who was still on the ground and hadn't gotten up yet. She curled the corner of her mouth, her condescending stance both provocative and mocking.