After the contract for the Lanting Liquor project was signed, Ji Ran followed the project team to the distillery to conduct due diligence.
Although Lanting Liquor gave people the impression of being trendy and youthful from the outside, the company was actually family run and its overall atmosphere tended to be rather conservative.
On the morning of the third day, the Fengsheng VP had to leave ahead of schedule because of work, leaving the analysts and the three management trainees behind to continue working.
The analyst took Leo to meet with the financial director, while Ji Ran and another management trainee went to interview the company’s top boss.
The head of Lanting Liquor was a man in his sixties. Not only did he have a fierce looking appearance but he also had an extremely bad temper. Seeing that they were young, he was not very cooperative after several rounds of communication.
When they asked about the company’s core competitive advantage, the old man immediately turned hostile.
“I hired you people to solve problems. If I have to answer every question myself, then what exactly do I need you for?”
The person interviewing alongside Ji Ran was a girl named He Shuhan. She was introverted and spoke in a soft, quiet voice. The old man’s outburst startled her and she looked at Ji Ran helplessly.
“What’s wrong with you?” the old man began glaring at them. “You sent these clueless little brats to interview me. What use could that possibly be?”
One look at this old man was enough to tell that he was accustomed to being flattered. He probably wished he could walk around as though he were the emperor of the world, with everyone else expected to bow before him.
Ji Ran cursed inwardly but a smile appeared on his face as he smoothly took over the conversation.
“Since your company chose Fengsheng, I assume you also recognize our professional capabilities. The interview is only a means to an end. What matters is presenting Lanting’s actual situation accurately, so that the regulatory authorities and investors can have confidence in Lanting’s strength. Wouldn’t you agree?”
The old man snorted. He seemed to accept that explanation and, with an expression full of pride, said, “Lanting’s core competitive advantage is, of course, our baijiu products. This particular liquor…”
The interview finally came to an end and Ji Ran and He Shuhan gathered their things and left the office.
“Finally, it’s over.” He Shuhan slipped the recorder into her pocket and let out a long sigh of relief. “I was so nervous just now. I thought we weren’t going to get anything from him at all.”
Ji Ran nodded. “Fortunately, we managed to get some useful information in the end.”
“It’s all thanks to you.” He Shuhan looked up at Ji Ran, her expression carrying a hint of emotion. “I really didn’t expect you to have changed so much.”
“Hm?” Ji Ran looked somewhat bewildered. “How have I changed?”
“It’s not exactly that you’ve changed. It’s just that the impression you give people is different from before.”
He Shuhan thought for a moment before continuing, “Before, neither of us was very good at dealing with interpersonal conflicts but today, you actually managed to coax that chairman into completing the interview. It feels like you’ve grown so much.”
Grown?
The word felt somewhat unfamiliar to Ji Ran.
He didn’t feel as though he had grown at all. If anything, he often suffered from insomnia, was under enough pressure to feel like he was about to explode and frequently felt as though he was completely useless.
Ji Ran smiled and shook his head. “I just had no choice. I’m actually not good at handling situations like this either.”
“Really?” He Shuhan was genuinely shocked. “You couldn’t tell at all. I thought you handled it extremely well.”
Being forced by Han Shen every day to do one thing after another, being pushed to the verge of breaking down countless times and still having to grit his teeth and clean up every mess afterward…
After going through all of that, dealing with a difficult old man like this could only be considered a minor inconvenience.
“It was all just an act.” Ji Ran smiled and shook his head. “After all, it’s difficult for introverted people to survive in investment banking.”
“Exactly.” He Shuhan sighed. “The workplace is really too unfriendly toward I types. Before, I was even thinking that instead of continuing to swallow this kind of humiliation here, I might as well just go back and get a PhD.”
Ji Ran felt a little envious. “Actually, I’ve considered going back to graduate school too.”
“Then why didn’t you?” He Shuhan asked curiously. “Your grades are so good and your undergraduate background is excellent. You’re completely suited for academic research.”
Ji Ran suddenly remembered the heavy, helpless sigh his father had given when he had said that he wanted to pursue graduate studies.
The man who had once claimed that he would sell everything he owned and do whatever it took to support Ji Ran’s education now felt that graduating from university was already enough.
Both of Ji Ran’s parents had only completed middle school. He had never expected them to have particularly advanced educational perspectives. The fact that they had been able to support him through university was already something he was deeply grateful for.
Ji Ran lowered his eyes and said calmly, “I think going to graduate school after gaining some work experience might give me a different kind of experience.”
“That makes sense.” He Shuhan nodded. “If I hadn’t started working, I wouldn’t have realized that I actually quite enjoy academic research.”
There were many tasks scheduled for the due diligence visit that day. After finishing the interviews, they hurried straight to the factory and by the time they had finally finished everything, it was already evening.
On the final day of the inspection, the people from the company fully embraced the culture of the liquor industry and prepared a farewell banquet for them.
Ji Ran couldn’t stand having to socialize and entertain people every single day, so he found an excuse and slipped back to the hotel.
He really did have work to do. Ji Ran asked He Shuhan to send him the recordings from the day’s interviews, planning to organize and整理 the interview transcript that evening.
Unexpectedly, two minutes later, she replied that the recorder was missing.
[Julian]: What happened?
[Emma]: I lent it to Leo this afternoon. He still hasn’t found it…
Ji Ran then asked Leo as well. Leo said that he might have left it at the factory.
Time was tight. They were scheduled to leave first thing the next morning, so Ji Ran decided to go back with Leo to look for it.
By then, it was already ten o’clock at night.
The workers had already gone home and the entire factory had fallen into darkness. Building after building stood scattered among the mountains, resembling a sleeping monster.
Leo went toward the wastewater treatment station, while Ji Ran headed toward the liquor storage area.
It was late at night and the entire wine cellar was pitch black. The silence was almost frightening.
Ji Ran used the flashlight on his phone to illuminate his surroundings. Finally, he found the missing recorder tucked away in a corner among the wine barrels.
He was just about to leave when a dark shadow suddenly flashed past in the corner of his vision.
Before Ji Ran could get a proper look, a burst of flames suddenly leapt up before his eyes,
The wine cellar was on fire!!
[Woo, woo ]
[Woo, woo ]
A red fire engine tore through the peaceful night of the small town.
Wrapped tightly in his down jacket, Ji Ran sat beside the flowerbed outside the entrance to the wine cellar, watching as firefighters dragged their hoses inside and rushed down into the underground cellar.
Because the fire had been discovered in time, the situation was quickly brought under control.
Ji Ran finally let out a sigh of relief. He stood up and prepared to leave, only to unexpectedly run into the head of the liquor company at the entrance.
Ji Ran didn’t particularly want to greet him but the man walked toward him anyway, his face filled with gratitude.
“Thank goodness you discovered it early. Otherwise, this wouldn’t have been a matter of losing just two barrels of liquor.”
Ji Ran had cursed this man several times in his head already. Being suddenly thanked by him left him feeling a little awkward.
“As long as the losses aren’t too serious, that’s what matters.”
The scene was still chaotic. Before long, the chairman was called away by the police to assist with the investigation.
Ji Ran truthfully told them what he had seen, then got up and left.
“I heard you ran into a fire?” Asher’s call came through before Ji Ran had even made it out of the distillery. “How are you? Were you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” Ji Ran said. “The fire has been put out now. The losses are still within a controllable range and the police and the factory staff are investigating.”
Asher asked, “What about you?”
“I’m fine too…” Ji Ran had not even finished speaking when Leo snatched the phone away from him and shouted loudly into the receiver, his voice full of energy, “Ji Ran is injured but he refuses to go to the hospital!”
Ji Ran: “…”
Seriously? Was he actually going to tattle on him?
“Go to the hospital first,” Asher said. “The work you have on hand can wait for now. The company will send someone over to handle it.”
“There’s really no need to make such a big fuss, is there?” Ji Ran genuinely felt that it was unnecessary. “It’s only a minor abrasion. You don’t need to come all the way here…”
Asher said, “They’re already on the way. They’ll arrive in an hour.”
Ji Ran: “…”
With Asher having already put it that way, there was no point in refusing anymore. He could only nod and say, “Then I’m sorry to trouble you.”
Ji Ran opened the map on his phone and checked the location of the nearest hospital. Leo had originally wanted to accompany him but because he had also seen the figure at the scene of the accident, the police kept him behind to assist with the investigation.
Ji Ran waited for ten minutes outside the factory but still couldn’t get a taxi.
He wasn’t the kind of person who could comfortably trouble others without feeling guilty about it. After hesitating again and again, Ji Ran simply decided to walk back to the hotel.
The due diligence materials could be organized a little later but his company’s routine work could not be delayed.
Ji Ran finished the work he had not had time to deal with during the day, then compiled everything according to the requirements and sent the summary to Han Shen.
There was no reply.
News of the fire at Lanting Liquor had made the local news and Ji Ran subsequently received messages from quite a few colleagues checking on him. He replied to each of them, assuring them that he was safe and only then noticed that his father had sent him a message two hours earlier.
There was something urgent they needed to discuss. Please call back when he saw the message.
Something urgent?
It was almost midnight now. Ji Ran was worried that calling would disturb his parents but he was also afraid that he might miss something important. He first sent a text message.
[Julian]: Are you still awake? Is it convenient to talk?
The moment the message was sent, a call came through from the other side.
“What is it?” Ji Ran asked nervously. “Did something happen at home?”
They had the call on speakerphone and Ji Ran could hear his mother’s voice clearly.
“Why did you take so long to reply? Were you very busy with work? Have you gotten off work yet?”
Ji Ran answered with an “Mm,” then asked again what they had wanted to talk to him about.
There was a brief silence on the other end before his mother said with a smile, “I was thinking that your birthday is coming up soon, so we were planning to come to Shanghai and celebrate it with you. Would that be convenient for you?”
If his mother hadn’t mentioned it, Ji Ran had almost forgotten his own birthday.
Ji Ran had been struggling on his own far from home and the thought of his family coming to visit genuinely made him happy but alongside that happiness, he also felt that it would be somewhat inconvenient.
Right now, he had practically nothing to his name. If his parents came all the way to Shanghai, he wouldn’t even be able to properly host them. He also didn’t want them to travel such a long distance only to squeeze onto buses and ride the subway, counting every single yuan they spent and trying to make one penny do the work of two.
But hearing the cautious, almost tentative tone in his mother’s voice, Ji Ran’s heart softened.
His mother had never traveled for pleasure before. Ji Ran still remembered that when he was in university, his mother had wanted to visit Beijing and have a look around but later decided that it would cost too much and his father had not agreed either, so she eventually gave up on the idea.
At the time, Ji Ran had made up his mind that once he started earning money, he would definitely take his parents somewhere to travel.
“It’s convenient. You can come,” Ji Ran said. “It’s just that I’m going to be busy with work, so I might not have much time to accompany you around.”
“We’re only coming to see you,” his mother said. “We’re not specifically coming here to travel. It’s fine if we don’t go anywhere.”
Ji Ran then asked when they planned to come. His mother said they would wait until his younger brother was on winter vacation.
A trip for three people was not a small expense but Ji Ran was earning an income now and he was willing to give something back to his family.
He asked, “How are you going to get here?”
His mother said, “The train is fine.”
His father added, “A sleeper berth would be better.”
Even without his father reminding him, Ji Ran couldn’t bear the thought of making his parents sit on a thirty hour long distance green train.
Ji Ran had ridden those old green trains himself when he was younger.
The year he graduated from middle school and was accepted into a prestigious high school, his parents had allowed him to visit the city where they worked.
It had been the scorching month of July. Ji Ran had boarded the train with one of his uncles and the green train had been packed with people. It was chaotic, stiflingly hot and filthy. Ji Ran had spent more than thirty hours inside that train.
It was a nightmare he never wanted to experience again for the rest of his life.
Ji Ran opened the high speed rail ticketing app again and began checking the fares. The journey would take more than ten hours and a ticket cost nearly a thousand yuan.
Moreover, there was no high speed rail station in the prefecture level city where his family lived. They would have to travel to the provincial capital before they could board a high speed train, which meant they might even have to spend a night in the city.
After all that trouble, the tickets weren’t even that much cheaper.
They might as well take a flight.
But then three plane tickets would be even more expensive…
Looking at the strings of numbers displayed on his phone, Ji Ran fell into hesitation.
His savings were running low. Even after receiving his doubled salary next month, things would still be rather tight.
A monthly salary of twenty thousand yuan sounded like a lot but after deducting social insurance, housing provident fund and taxes, he would only take home a little over ten thousand. On top of that, he still had to pay the rent for the next quarter, which would immediately take another ten thousand yuan away.
Ji Ran swallowed, his voice slightly hoarse.
“Would a hard sleeper be okay?”
There was a moment of silence on the other end before they answered, “Of course.”
His mother laughed as though nothing had happened. “When we went to work along the coast back then, we rode those green trains too. We would sit in hard seats for a day or two.”
Ji Ran was overwhelmed with guilt.
Several times, he wanted to tell them that perhaps they shouldn’t come after all but whenever he thought of how hard his mother had worked all these years and the injuries his father had suffered while working at construction sites, he found himself unable to say a single word.
He knew very well that it had not been easy for his parents to raise him.
In the early years, when they left home to work, they had always taken on the hardest and most physically demanding jobs. His father had even lost half of a finger while working at a construction site.
Now that Ji Ran had managed to study his way out and build a life for himself, he should properly repay them.
But he was really so tired…
After hanging up the phone, a profound sense of helplessness surged through Ji Ran’s heart.
He had clearly found a fairly decent job.
He had clearly gotten such a substantial raise.
So why hadn’t anything about his life changed at all?
“Bzz-”
His phone suddenly began vibrating.
The caller ID displayed one name:
Samuel.
Ji Ran answered the call, his voice somewhat hoarse.
“Boss, did you need something?”
“You’re not at the hospital?” Han Shen’s voice came through the darkness of the night, impossible to read for any hint of emotion.
“Huh?” Ji Ran was a little dazed.
Han Shen asked again, “Where are you?”
Ji Ran: “…At the hotel.”
Han Shen said, “Come downstairs. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
Why did he need to go downstairs?
Was Han Shen coming over?
But how was he here?
Wasn’t Asher the one who was supposed to come?
And wasn’t this way too fast?
Ji Ran’s thoughts were in complete disarray but he didn’t dare waste any time. After quickly washing his face, he hurried downstairs.
It was already the middle of the night. The entire little town had fallen into silence, with only a single streetlamp still lit outside the hotel entrance.
Not long afterward, a black sedan pulled up in front of Ji Ran.
The driver’s side window rolled down, revealing the deep, sharply defined profile of Han Shen.
Han Shen lifted his eyes and glanced at Ji Ran.
“Get in.”
Ji Ran didn’t particularly want to go. He shook his head and said, “I’m fine. I don’t want to trouble you…”
“Don’t make me say it a second time.” Han Shen lowered his voice, his tone carrying an unmistakable note of command. “Get in.”
The tip of Ji Ran’s nose suddenly stung and an inexplicable sense of grievance welled up inside him.
“You came all the way here just to scold me?”
Han Shen seemed not to have expected such a reaction from Ji Ran. His expression froze for a moment, before his tone gradually softened.
“I’m sorry. I was worried about your injuries. How about we go to the hospital and have them checked?”
Ji Ran said nothing.
Han Shen did not urge him again. He simply waited patiently.
After a while, Ji Ran felt that his mood had finally settled down somewhat. He then opened the car door and got into the passenger seat.
Cressilia: Okay , I might be wrong but I seriously feel Ji Ran’s family isn’t good! His brother doesn’t appreciate his gifts while his parents either ignore him or guilt trap him! 😑😑
✦ ✧ ✦
Cressilia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
The Realm demands coffee. The Realm is not accepting complaints.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · A cold-hearted bossChapter 2 · “Your skirt?”Chapter 3 · Ji Ran was caught off guardChapter 4 · Relax, you bit your lip until it bledChapter 5 · Don’t want toChapter 6 · Women’s clothing and DaddyChapter 7 · Ji Ran hunched over and began to sob softly.Chapter 8 · Rebellion, offense, and self-rewardChapter 9 · I hate it when people flaunt their wealth in front of meChapter 10 · CompensateChapter 11 · Why are you following me?Chapter 12 · Damn, he forgot to take off his leg chainChapter 13 · Ji Ran was indeed still afraid of him.Chapter 14 · A message came from OrcaChapter 15 · Self-blame, anger, and tears.Chapter 16 · You have to pay more!Chapter 17 · Did you come here just to yell at me?Chapter 18 · Just bear with it a little longerChapter 19 · Women’s clothing live streamChapter 20 · Could you come and pick me up?Chapter 21 Part 1 · It’s all an actChapter 21 Part 2 · It’s all an actChapter 22 · The actions could be even more brutalChapter 23 · A slapChapter 24 · He wanted to surrender a part of himself