A Father and Son Talk Business

"Why are you looking at me? Hurry up and get that Monkey Wine!" Having experienced the effects of the Monkey Wine firsthand, Bai Jianjun was clearly getting impatient.

What kind of parents were these...

Wordlessly, Bai Yang looked at his dad, hesitated for a moment, then said, "Dad, you know I'm in the trading business now, right?"

"And then? If you've got something to say, spit it out. I can tell from your face it's nothing good," Bai Jianjun said irritably.

"What do you mean, nothing good? I'm bringing you a huge benefit this time. With that attitude, if you don't want to hear it, I won't bother telling you," Bai Yang said, feeling glum.

There was nothing he could do. The way the two of them talked had been the same for a decade or two. It wasn't going to change.

Bai Jianjun simply tossed out, "Go on," without a care. He knew his son too well. Bai Yang never broke the law, but expecting him to do something good was just a dream.

"Could you at least take this seriously...? Anyway, here's the deal. It's a long story, so I'll keep it short. Our company has a batch of precious imported timber. Would you be interested in taking it off our hands?"

At that, Bai Jianjun looked at Bai Yang with disdain. "I knew you'd be up to no good the moment you opened your mouth. You've barely started working and you're already planning to fleece your own dad. You saw how good your coworkers are at bringing in business and got jealous, didn't you? Couldn't find anyone else, so you came to your old man for a sale?"

Bai Jianjun waved off Bai Yang, who looked ready to say something through clenched teeth, and continued, "In principle, everything in this family will be yours someday. While your career's just getting started, how could I, your dad, not support you? So go ahead and fleece me, but don't take me for too much."

"..."

Bai Yang stared blankly, utterly bewildered. What was this supposed to mean?

But deep down, he was moved. No matter what, parents always stood by their children. Even if they got fleeced themselves, they didn't care, as long as their kid could hold his head high in front of other people...

But this was all wrong. Bai Yang swore he'd come to bring his dad a good deal!

"You two carry on. I'm going to make dinner," Zhen Guoping said. She wasn't interested in any of this, so she left for the kitchen.

"Dad, our company really does have a batch of precious imported timber. You make furniture, so I figured you could use it. If you're worried I'm trying to fleece you, I'll sell it to someone else," Bai Yang said with a sigh.

Of course, selling it to someone else wasn't an option. He'd sooner leave it to rot over there.

"What kind of timber?" Bai Jianjun asked, then took a sip of tea.

"Red Sandalwood. Um, there's probably dozens of tons."

Pfft... Bai Jianjun sprayed out his tea. He pointed at Bai Yang and coughed for a long while, unable to get a word out.

After finally catching his breath, he pointed at Bai Yang's nose and said, "You little wastrel! That's no way to fleece your own dad. You want to sell me dozens of tons of Red Sandalwood? I think you might as well take over this whole family, then the three of us can go beg on the street."

"What do you mean?" Bai Yang's mouth twitched.

"I mean your old man doesn't have that kind of money. I can't afford it, understand? At first, I thought maybe you had a few tons of ordinary timber, and I'd grit my teeth and buy it from you. But I never thought you'd go this hard—you're trying to bury me in one shot!"

Hearing Bai Jianjun's words, Bai Yang secretly rejoiced. His dad usually acted like money was no object, so it was rare to see him stumped. He took an unhurried sip of tea and said, "Dad, it's no problem if you don't have enough money. I can give it to you at the lowest market price. If that still doesn't work, I can give you a discount. Don't glare at me—is that still not enough? We can do installments, then. I'm the only one who'd give you a deal like this. Nobody else would even dream of it!"

Hearing that, Bai Jianjun relaxed. Without even looking at Bai Yang, he sneered, "Now I get it. You're a con man! You think it's fun to fool your own dad? You think a deal like this would ever land in my lap? Do you think you own that company?"

Bai Yang thought to himself, More or less. Except there's no company. I'm the boss and the only employee!

Then he tried to work out what to say.

From the start, he'd known it wouldn't be easy to offload the timber on his dad. But he hadn't expected it to be this hard. First, his dad didn't believe him, and then his dad still didn't believe him...

"How about this? Tomorrow I'll have the timber taken straight to your factory. If you think it's worth buying, buy it. If not, I'll turn around and take it away. How does that sound?"

It was the simplest, most straightforward solution Bai Yang could think of.

"I'm more and more convinced you're a con man. Your boss lets you do whatever you want? And Red Sandalwood, too? Even if it were compressed wood, you couldn't get that kind of deal..." Bai Jianjun still looked scornful.

"Then don't worry about it. I'll get it over to you when the time comes. All right, it's settled. Well, I'm off. Bye-bye!"

With that, Bai Yang stood up and made a quick escape. The more he said, the more likely he was to slip up. One lie took countless more to prop it up. Where the hell was he supposed to find some trading company to do business with his dad? He'd just rent a big truck, haul the timber over, and be done with it. If his dad didn't want it, Bai Yang would burn it for firewood!

"Hey, hey! Don't forget that wine..." Bai Jianjun called after him.

"I won't. I'll bring it along when I come."

He waved, shut the door, and made his getaway.

Riding his motorcycle through the night toward the villa he was renting, he ran into a few little punks racing their bikes. They invited him to join in, but he couldn't be bothered to even answer.

On a poorly lit stretch of road, several motorcycles roared nearby, and Bai Yang felt thoroughly annoyed.

"You little bastards still haven't had enough? I'll scare the hell out of you! It's not like you can see me anyway!"

Muttering to himself, Bai Yang slammed on his motorcycle's brakes. With a whoosh, he vanished into the night...

Vroom, vroom... Bang, bang, bang...

Faced with Bai Yang's inexplicable disappearance, the punks panicked and couldn't react in time. They went tumbling all over the road with a clatter.

"Mom! A ghost!"

The little bastards scrambled onto their bikes and fled like dogs with their tails between their legs!

A minute later, Bai Yang rode his motorcycle back to the same spot. He glanced at the debris on the ground, curled his lip, and rode off. From then on, rumors spread that the stretch of road was haunted, and those punks never dared come there to race at night again...

Back at the villa he was renting, Bai Yang scratched his head. What was he supposed to do next?

It had only just gotten dark here, and it was nighttime over there too. For all he knew, nights lasted longer over there. He wasn't sleepy, either. He slapped his forehead. Right, he might as well take care of the important business first.

He searched online for places that rented big trucks. Once again, he thanked the all-powerful internet.

It wasn't hard to find one. He quickly found a private rental number and called. The man on the other end had grumbled that it was already nighttime, but the moment Bai Yang said he'd pay ten thousand yuan to rent a big truck for a day, the man said he'd be waiting anytime.

If money could solve it, it wasn't a problem!

"If I lose this ten thousand, I'll be completely broke. But I refuse to believe Dad won't take the Red Sandalwood once I haul it to his factory. Then I'll have money!"

After thinking it over, Bai Yang decided it was worth doing. He got on his motorcycle and headed out, stopping at an ATM to withdraw ten thousand yuan. Then he saw that his bank balance had only three digits left and nearly burst into tears...

He arrived at the agreed meeting place, a barbecue stand in the suburbs. Big trucks with ten or more wheels lined the roadside. When he called, a bald man built like a meatball stood up from a barbecue stall and waved at Bai Yang.

"Want a drink, brother?" the man asked, sizing Bai Yang up.

"You're Brother Yang, right? I'll pass on the drinks. I'm in a bit of a hurry. Where's the truck I asked for?" Bai Yang said, waving him off.

During their earlier phone call, the man had introduced himself as Yang Biao. He certainly looked fierce, but compared to the hulking men on the other side, he was still a weakling...

The man seemed pretty straightforward, but he looked at Bai Yang sternly and said, "Pay first, then I'll hand over the keys. I don't care what you're hauling, but let me make this clear: if anything happens to the truck, you're responsible!"

"Of course. Here's the money. Where are the keys?" Bai Yang promptly pulled out the cash. He didn't have time to waste.

He wasn't worried the man would cheat him or anything. There were so many people in the world—why would anyone be waiting to cheat him in particular? It wasn't as if he had some kind of trouble magnet that made bad things happen wherever he went.

The process was simple: pay, take the keys, leave his motorcycle with the man, then pick it up when he returned the truck. He could ride it if he wanted, as long as he didn't damage it, but he had to leave enough fuel for the return trip.

Getting along with people wasn't as full of deception and scheming as one might think. Who'd want to mess around with those thankless tricks when they could live a peaceful life? At least most people felt that way...

"Young people these days, I don't know what kind of tricks they're up to," Yang Biao muttered, shaking his head as he watched Bai Yang drive off in a heavy truck. Then his eyes lit up as he looked at the flashy sport bike Bai Yang had left behind...