In a small county town near the border, Zhou Ruo An sat alone, drinking away his frustrations.
The weather was cold, so the roadside stall had been enclosed with plastic sheeting. The heat was trapped inside the tiny space, and sitting there was actually quite warm.
At the table beside Zhou Ruo An sat several teenage boys. They were probably on school break and had arranged to meet up and fool around together. Their table was piled high with meat, but all they were drinking was soda. Zhou Ruo An watched them with amusement, but as he kept watching, the smile slowly faded from his face. Turning back, he poured himself another glass of liquor.
“Bro, can I have a cigarette to try?” One of the boys leaned over with a grin and asked him for one.
Zhou Ruo An took a sip of liquor and turned his head. “How old are you?”
“Seventeen.” The boy paused, then hurriedly added, “I’ll be eighteen after New Year.”
Zhou Ruo An suddenly remembered the new rule Lin Yi had introduced at the billiards hall: no cigarettes or alcohol could be sold to anyone under eighteen.
He drained the liquor in his glass, picked up the pack of cigarettes on the table, and tossed it over. “Keep them. Wait until after New Year before you smoke.”
The boy caught the pack and looked at the lettering. “Whoa, Huazi.”
Elio’s Notes: Huazi is slang for Zhonghua, a well-known premium Chinese cigarette brand.
The other boys immediately crowded around, their heads practically knocking together as they examined the pack like a newly discovered treasure.
The two tables were close together. Zhou Ruo An stretched out an arm and retrieved one cigarette, lit it, then said with a smile, “I was about your age the first time I smoked.”
Leaning back in his chair, he slowly breathed out smoke. Through the haze, he looked at the boys at the neighboring table and seemed to see himself again in the sweltering heat of that summer…
That day, Zhou Ruo An had swindled someone out of a little money and used it to buy Lin Yi a carton of cigarettes.
He tossed the carton over and waited to be praised. Sure enough, the person opposite him froze. “Huazi? Why’d you buy cigarettes this expensive?”
Zhou Ruo An had been sixteen then, and Lin Yi seventeen.
At seventeen, Lin Yi had been thin and still somewhat green. His brows and eyes were even sharper than they were now, and the fierceness on his face was impossible to hide. But when he smiled, there was something brighter about him too.
Zhou Ruo An copied the way Lin Yi squatted by the roadside, staring at the stream of pedestrians passing before them while putting on an absurdly pretentious teenage act. “Came into a little money. Thought I’d show off.”
He laughed, and Lin Yi laughed with him, cradling the cigarettes against his chest as though he couldn’t bear to smoke them.
Zhou Ruo An had to practically force him before he finally opened one pack. Lin Yi smoked each drag with ridiculous care, savoring every mouthful for several seconds as though he wished he could smack his lips over it.
“Is it good?” Zhou Ruo An waited eagerly for his verdict.
“Feels like I’m smoking gold.”
Zhou Ruo An laughed. “Bullshit.” He grabbed Lin Yi by the wrist. “Let me try.”
Zhou Ruo An remembered Lin Yi lowering his head and staring for a long time at the hand wrapped around his wrist before finally taking the cigarette from his own mouth and offering it over.
That was Zhou Ruo An’s first cigarette, and the first cigarette he had ever shared with Lin Yi. His conclusion was that cigarettes didn’t actually taste very good, but Huazi was excellent for showing off.
Returning to the present, Zhou Ruo An smiled. In the circles he moved in now, smoking Huazi was already considered somewhat beneath one’s status. That was why, although he often carried cigarettes with him, he never offered them to anyone else. The bunch of brats at the neighboring table were, of course, an exception.
Someone lifted the roadside stall’s thick padded curtain, and cold wind immediately shot inside, circled beneath the tables, then burrowed straight up everyone’s trouser legs.
Zhou Ruo An wasn’t dressed warmly. He crossed his legs to steal a little warmth from himself, pinched the cigarette between his fingers, and looked at the man who had just entered. “Everything taken care of?”
The newcomer’s surname was Ren, given name Yu. He was the assistant Zhou Jing Tao had assigned to Zhou Ruo An.
Ren Yu was twenty-seven and extremely shrewd. He had worked at Shengkai Foreign Trade for four years and climbed his way to deputy director in the General Office. He had been waiting for one final push so he could land the full director position, only to be unexpectedly assigned as Zhou Ruo An’s assistant. As other people put it, a fallen phoenix had been paired with a chicken—and, unfortunately, that chicken happened to be a sickly one with no future whatsoever.
Glasses, suit, slicked-back hair—Ren Yu looked even more impressive than Zhou Ruo An.
He regarded the roadside stall with obvious distaste and remained standing beside the table as he answered, “It’s done.”
He was about to continue when Zhou Ruo An cut him off and pointed at the plastic stool opposite him. “Sit.”
Ren Yu looked at the stool, then reluctantly lowered himself onto it. He had only just opened his mouth when the disposable cup in front of him was filled with liquor.
It was locally brewed beer, two yuan a bottle. The taste couldn’t exactly be called good, but it wasn’t particularly bad either.
“Have a drink.” Zhou Ruo An lifted his chin, his tone indifferent.
“I don’t drink,” Ren Yu refused.
Zhou Ruo An gave a soft laugh. “I’ve seen you holding red wine, champagne, even Wuliangye. How come the moment you’re with me, suddenly you don’t know how to drink?”
Ren Yu made no attempt to hide the arrogance in his eyes. “I’m here to assist Fourth Young Master with his work, not to drink with you.”
“In that case, you can go back.”
“Really?” A faint trace of anticipation slipped into Ren Yu’s voice.
Zhou Ruo An nodded as though he were happy for him too. “Really. But I’ll have to submit a report to my father saying you’re incompetent at your job, lazy and gluttonous, insubordinate toward your superior, and that you cursed my parents.”
Ren Yu immediately became agitated. “That’s slander.”
“Yep.” Zhou Ruo An was still smiling. “And what are you going to do about it? I may be the least favored child in the Zhou family, but crushing you would still be effortless.”
Ren Yu sat in grim silence for a long moment before finally picking up the disposable cup and draining it.
“A wise man knows when to yield. Looks like I didn’t misjudge you.” Zhou Ruo An refilled the cup. As the beer slowly poured in, he said quietly, “I’ve only been back in the Zhou family for a month. They spent three years failing to get their holiday gifts through Old Master Jin’s door, and I got them in. Now my father has put me in charge of the electronics factory problem. Ren Yu, following me won’t put you at a disadvantage.”
The instant Zhou Ruo An finished pouring, Ren Yu lifted the cup and drank it dry. Looking at him, he said, “Fourth Young Master, do you really think the electronics factory assignment is some kind of opportunity? Why did President Zhou send you here? Because as far as he’s concerned, they’ve already exhausted every possible solution. Sending you here is nothing more than treating a dead horse as if it were still alive.”
He tapped the tabletop with one finger, eager to shatter what he assumed was Zhou Ruo An’s naive optimism. “The electronics factory contract-manufactures integrated circuit boards for us to sell to Russia. A while ago, an important batch of components for those circuit boards suddenly vanished. The quantity wasn’t large, but ordering replacements would inevitably delay production. On top of that, the factory workers are collectively striking over their benefits, so production has already been forced to stop. If this shipment isn’t completed before the end of the year and we can’t deliver on time, Shengkai will lose all credibility with the Russian side.”
Finding the boys at the neighboring table too noisy, Ren Yu leaned closer to Zhou Ruo An and continued, “This company falls under our third branch. Eldest Young Master has already come here to deal with it. Second Young Master has too. But the workers still refuse to resume production, and those missing components haven’t turned up. As far as I know, the General Office has already started drafting an apology letter to the Russian side. In other words, the company has already resigned itself to the fact that we won’t deliver on time. And at a time like this, President Zhou suddenly sends you here. Isn’t he just sending you around in circles?”
The cigarette between Zhou Ruo An’s lips had burned down to the butt, giving him a somewhat roguish look. He smiled. “If nobody else can solve it, won’t I look even more fucking impressive if I do?”
“Ren Yu.” Zhou Ruo An called his name with unusual seriousness. “Following me comes with risks. Either you die horribly, or you rise straight to the top. Think it through carefully. But if you choose to sit across from me and drink this liquor, then what I need from you is absolute loyalty.”
“Don’t rush to make a decision. We can both spend some time evaluating each other.” Zhou Ruo An crushed the cigarette into the makeshift ashtray. “The company I told you to register—and all those documents I had you arrange—are they done?”
Ren Yu gave a quiet sigh and patted his briefcase. “The company’s business license and the fake certificates needed for its operations are all in here.”
“Mm.” Zhou Ruo A called over the server and paid for both his table and the neighboring one. Amid the boys’ noisy thanks, he said to Ren Yu, “Don’t you like putting on airs? Tomorrow, we’re going to meet those striking workers. Keep that composure for me.”n