Chen Xuan did not linger. He followed the man leading the way to the sixth floor.
When the elevator doors opened, a corridor covered in dark carpeting stretched out before him. Most of the rooms on either side were offices or VIP lounges. At the end of the corridor stood two burly security guards. As Chen Xuan passed them, he glanced at the bulges around their waists.
Judging by their shape, they were not guns, but something like retractable batons.
The man in the suit stopped outside an office and knocked.
“Manager Wang, Chen Yan’s family member has arrived.”
“Come in.”
There were three people inside the office.
Wang Hai sat behind a spacious desk. He was around forty, somewhat overweight, and wore a gold watch on his wrist. A tattooed man sat on the sofa beside him, while another man in a security supervisor’s uniform stood by the window.
Wang Hai looked up and sized up Chen Xuan.
He already knew that Chen Yan’s brother who had been comatose for ten years had awakened, but he had not expected the man to recover so quickly. Not only could he walk on his own, but there was also little trace of the frailty one would expect from someone who had been seriously ill for years.
“You’re Chen Yan’s brother?”
“That’s right.”
“What’s your name?”
“Chen Xuan.”
“You’ve recovered pretty quickly.” Wang Hai pointed to the chair across from his desk. “Have a seat.”
Chen Xuan sat down and placed his phone beside his leg. He got straight to the point. “Where’s the contract?”
Wang Hai did not take it out immediately. Instead, he lit a cigarette first.
“Why didn’t Chen Yan come?”
“I’m here to confirm the debt on her behalf. Once we’ve settled the amount, any procedures that require her personal involvement can be arranged for another time.”
“She’s an employee of Huangting. A family member can’t represent her.”
“If I can’t represent her, then there’s no need to continue this conversation. We’ll settle it at the police station.”
Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Xuan stood up and prepared to leave.
Wang Hai was clearly surprised by this turn of events. He narrowed his eyes and looked over the young man he had previously dismissed.
“Stop.”
The man in the suit immediately moved to the side, blocking the way out.
Chen Xuan turned back to Wang Hai.
“What is it? Are you willing to talk to me now?”
Wang Hai stared at him for a moment, then took a contract from the drawer and tossed it onto the desk.
“Read it yourself. It’s all in black and white. She signed every page, and there’s even her fingerprint at the end. Huangting didn’t force her to sign it.”
Chen Xuan picked up the contract and read it from beginning to end.
The contract was seven pages long.
The eighty thousand yuan was wages Huangting had advanced to Chen Yan. She was required to repay it through her base salary and drink commissions within a year. If she voluntarily resigned before the agreed-upon deadline, she would have to repay not only the eighty thousand yuan, but also the costs Huangting had paid for her training, accommodation, and clothing, as well as the breach-of-contract penalty—for a total of one hundred and eighty thousand yuan.
The terms of the contract were indeed harsh. One could even say that they had been designed from the very beginning to prevent Chen Yan from taking the money and leaving Huangting.
But there were no signs that the terms had been added later.
The paper, ink, and binding were all in order, and every page bore Chen Yan’s handwritten signature. The final page contained not only her signature, but also her fingerprint.
Chen Yan had been desperate to get the money to save her brother. She had known the conditions were harsh, but she had signed anyway.
There was no denying this debt.
Chen Xuan had no intention of arguing with Huangting over one hundred and eighty thousand yuan. Let alone one hundred and eighty thousand, with the medical skills, alchemy, and feng shui techniques he possessed, making money would be no difficult task once his body had fully recovered.
He had come here today simply to confirm whether the terms had been added afterward or had already been present when the contract was signed.
If they had been added later, he would never acknowledge them. Since they had been included from the beginning, however, all he could say was that Chen Yan had accepted them herself.
There was no need to try to wriggle out of such a debt.
“There’s nothing wrong with the contract.”
Chen Xuan placed it back on the desk.
He took out the bank card his father had given him.
“There’s eighty thousand yuan on this card. I’ll return it to Huangting now. As for the remaining one hundred and eighty thousand, give me seven days. Within seven days, I’ll deposit every last cent into Huangting’s account.”
Wang Hai stared at the bank card on the desk but did not reach for it.
“I already told you on the phone yesterday. The two hundred and sixty thousand has to be paid in full, all at once.”
“Seven days. And she won’t be coming back to work during those seven days.”
“Fine. You can take a month to pay me if you want. But since the money hasn’t been repaid, then we’ll follow the rules in the contract. Have your sister come back to work. Her annual leave was already used up when she had to take care of you in place of your mother. She has no leave left now, so she has to work according to the terms of the contract. She took an advance on her wages, after all. Taking the money and refusing to work isn’t acceptable.”
The two men stared at each other. The office gradually fell silent.
“Since we can’t reach an agreement, I’ll come back in seven days.”
Chen Xuan picked up the bank card and stood up to leave.
Wang Hai glanced toward the door.
The man in the suit immediately blocked it.
“Did I say you could leave?”
“What? Are you planning to unlawfully detain me?” Chen Xuan asked with a smile.
“Don’t make reckless accusations. We’re all law-abiding citizens here. Why would we detain you?” Wang Hai let out a laugh. “Call Chen Yan and have her come here right now. She’s the party who signed the contract. Whatever conditions there are, we can discuss them clearly in front of her. She knows better than you how lenient our terms are and how good the benefits are.
“You’ve never been out in society, so you don’t know how cruel it can be!
“Eighty thousand yuan. Your family borrowed from every relative and friend you had, and someone still gave you eighty thousand yuan. Do you know what that means, young man?
“Without that eighteen-hundred-thousand-yuan employment contract she signed, how could we have advanced her eighty thousand yuan? Without that advance, you wouldn’t even have been able to scrape together the money for your lung infection treatment. Your family would probably have been thrown out of the hospital by now, and you would already be dead at home.”
“You’re right. No matter why you gave us the money, that sum really did give my family one last breath. That’s the only reason I’m sitting here talking this through with you today. Otherwise, this conversation would never have happened.
“As I said, I’ll pay you every cent in seven days. Until then, my sister will not be coming back.”
“You’re completely disregarding the rules now.”
As soon as Wang Hai finished speaking, the tattooed man on the sofa stood up. The two security guards from the corridor also entered the office and casually closed the door behind them.
Chen Xuan glanced at them.
“You can’t even wait a few days for one hundred and eighty thousand yuan? Huangting can’t possibly be that short of money.”
“This isn’t about the money. It’s about the rules.”
Wang Hai stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray.
“Young man, put yourself in our shoes. Huangting has been operating for so many years. If everyone acted like Chen Yan—taking the money, then quitting whenever they pleased, and telling us to wait a few days whenever they felt like it—how would we manage anyone in the future? Where would that leave Huangting’s reputation?”
“She’ll repay the money she took.”
“But you can’t pay it now.”
“Looks like there’s no point in trying to reason with you.” Chen Xuan shook his head.
“Young man, you need to follow the rules before we can reason with you. If we throw the rules out the window, how is our hotel supposed to keep running?” Wang Hai clearly hadn’t understood what Chen Xuan meant. He continued, “Like I said, if you haven’t fulfilled the contract, you have to come back to work. There’s nothing else to discuss. Call Chen Yan right now.”
“I gave you your chance.”
Chen Xuan rose to his feet.