Chapter 38

Part Two: The Allure of Business. Chapter 38: Swindling and deception

Haiyu Company had recalled all the staff stationed at its Haizhou office. Fortunately, the lease still had two months to run, and the office furnishings had not all been removed. A few sets of desks and chairs remained, and the telephone and fax lines had narrowly escaped being disconnected.

Apart from those, there was nothing left. Of course, being able to do business under Haiyu Company's name was what Zhang Ke valued most.

The office occupied over a hundred square meters on the twelfth floor of the Xin Haihua Building. The entrance opened into a staff work area, where clear, etched-glass partitions divided the space into twelve workstations. Farther inside were a conference room, a reception room, and a manager's office. Dust covered the floor. From the look of it, the staff had gradually withdrawn after the car accident, leaving papers scattered everywhere without anyone tidying up.

Xu Si still had not worked out what was going on. She asked Zhang Ke, "What exactly is happening? Why am I still completely in the dark?"

"When I asked you yesterday to give me the next three years of your life, I wasn't just saying it casually."

"But what's all this about? It feels as though you're playing house. What am I supposed to do..."

"Xu Si, this isn't for fun." Zhang Ke looked at her, knowing what worried her. Her family had borrowed two or three hundred thousand yuan to get her released, a crushing burden in 1994. "I'm serious about wanting you to help me for three years. Help me for three years, and we can forget about that hundred and twenty thousand."

"Helping you is one thing, borrowing money is another. They're two separate matters. But how can I help when you won't tell me anything?"

"You never took anything I told you before to heart anyway." Zhang Ke pulled over a chair, only to find it covered in dust. He went to the floor-to-ceiling windows and sat cross-legged on the sill. "Do you remember what I told you in the car yesterday about the Xinguang Paper Mill?"

"You asked me to gather information on the Xinguang Paper Mill. What are you going to use it for?"

"There's no hurry to tell you that yet." Zhang Ke beckoned her over to sit beside him. Xu Si leaned against the windowsill, her jeans stretched taut over her long, shapely legs. "Zhitong's father died in a car accident in Haizhou, so Wanqing wanted to close the office here. She mentioned to you before that Zhitong's grandfather was a provincial official. He's actually Xu Xueping, secretary of the provincial Political and Legal Affairs Commission, who's overseeing Ding Xiangshan's case..."

Xu Si stared at Zhang Ke in disbelief, her mouth slightly open. "The Special Investigation Team dropped the charges against me because he..." Her throat felt a little dry. "Why would he help me?"

Xu Xueping's influence had played a part in the Special Investigation Team's final decision not to prosecute Xu Si, but more importantly, the team had accepted Zhang Ke's testimony.

Naturally, Zhang Ke did not tell her the truth. "Your involvement wasn't serious. I asked Uncle Xu to put in a word. I promised I wouldn't let you be hurt again, and that wasn't just talk."

Zhang Ke had said those words before. Xu Si might have been a little touched then, but only a little. She had never imagined that a boy of sixteen or seventeen could offer her any protection. Yet at this moment, she felt like crying. Since she had no idea what to do herself, she felt there was no harm in trusting him.

Zhang Ke continued, "Zhitong was there when the accident happened too. She was frightened, and she still won't speak..." He did not mention rescuing Zhitong from beneath the wheels. Saying too much could make people feel he was using a favor to demand repayment.

"Then does the accident have anything to do with gathering information on the Xinguang Paper Mill?" Xu Si parted her lips.

"It was the major accident I mentioned yesterday. The Xinguang Paper Mill workers' petition was an indirect cause of the July 18 disaster. Oh, of course, gathering information on the mill isn't about holding anyone responsible. Several factors came together to cause the accident, and there's not much point pursuing responsibility. We're just gathering information. There's no great hurry, of course. After all, we don't have the energy to tackle that matter just yet." Zhang Ke changed the subject, looking around. "Look how empty this place is. There's practically nothing here, and in two months we'll have to pay the rent ourselves. But Haiyu Company itself is a valuable resource. I'm counting on making good use of those resources so I can help you repay what you owe as soon as possible."

"But..." Thinking of the practical problems, Xu Si began to worry again.

"No buts. Where do you get so many questions?" Zhang Ke interrupted her. "Apart from an empty office, we've got nothing. Everything has to start from scratch. First, we need to get someone to clean this place, then hire a few employees..." He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out three crumpled banknotes. "I've only got three hundred yuan on me. How much do you have?"

Xu Si blushed and took a few ten-yuan notes from her handbag. "This is all I have," she said quietly.

"Go to the Haizhou Daily and place a recruitment ad. One office administrator, one cashier, and two salespeople. A small ad between the columns only costs fifty yuan. See if three hundred will get us a better spot on page three..." Zhang Ke pressed the three hundred yuan into her hand. "What salary were you originally hoping for when you were looking for work?"

"Five or six hundred yuan a month would have been enough."

"All right. Put the salaries in the ad. Six hundred for the office administrator, eight hundred for the cashier, and a thousand plus commission for salespeople, with year-end bonuses..."

"That much?"

Xu Si's father was a senior skilled worker at the City Agricultural Machinery Factory. Even with wages, bonuses, and all his benefits combined, he made less than five hundred yuan a month. He was delighted if he received an extra month's pay as a year-end bonus.

"How can we make sure the best office administrators, the most outstanding accountants, and the finest salespeople apply if we don't offer generous pay?" Zhang Ke knew Xu Si had plenty of questions, so he urged her to hurry to the newspaper and settle the recruitment ad.

Xu Si was full of doubts. Apart from a few desks, they had nothing: no working capital and no business they could start immediately. If they hired people, they did not even know where this month's wages would come from. Wasn't this too rash? Although the office lease still had two months left, the monthly utilities and property management fees would be considerable. Yet Zhang Ke was not worried at all.

Xu Si genuinely doubted Zhang Ke's supposedly serious attitude. Still utterly confused, she was ushered out by him.

In 1994, most of Haizhou's public institutions and commercial organizations were concentrated in the Qianmen area, which covered less than four square kilometers. The Haizhou Daily building stood right next to the Xinhaitong Building. In less than an hour, she had settled the recruitment advertisement and hurried back to the office.

Zhang Ke was no longer alone in the office. Two women were cleaning the floor-to-ceiling windows with squeegees. "Excuse me..." Someone carrying a bucket came in behind Xu Si, fished a cloth out of the water, and began wiping the desks and chairs.

Zhang Ke was speaking quietly with a middle-aged man. When he saw Xu Si come in, he said, "Xu Si, this is Manager Zhang from Dingming Graphics Studio. As long as we give his studio the office's future printing work, he's agreed to print two sets of business cards free so we can see the results... Manager Zhang, Xu Si is the manager of Haiyu Company's Haizhou office." The man from the graphics studio stared at Xu Si's exquisitely beautiful face, stunned for a moment. It took him quite a while to recover, and he hurriedly fumbled in his pocket for a business card. The person wiping the desks nearby came over, and Zhang Ke continued the introductions. "Xu Si, this is Team Leader Zhou from Fumin Labor Services. We'll need a cleaning company to handle the office's regular weekly cleaning. Team Leader Zhou has agreed to clean it free this time. If you're satisfied, he hopes we'll let them handle the cleaning from now on. Here's Fumin Labor Services' cleaning price list..."

Xu Si opened her mouth to say something, but a look from Zhang Ke stopped her.

Patting her forehead, Xu Si said, "Let's wait until Team Leader Zhou finishes cleaning before we discuss what comes next." Then she told Manager Zhang from the graphics studio, "Let's talk about the business cards in my office."

After handing over the business card Xie Wanqing had left as a template for the graphics studio, Xu Si looked at the three people working hard at cleaning outside, then stared at Zhang Ke. His face was boyish, yet his eyes held a slyness no ordinary boy possessed. "So you've tricked people into coming here again?"

"What do you mean, 'again'?" Zhang Ke tilted his head and innocently pointed at his own nose, then laughed. "If you give Fumin Labor Services all the office's future cleaning work and Dingming Graphics Studio all the printing work, how can you call it deception?"

"Now that I've boarded your pirate ship, I don't even know how to get off." Xu Si sighed helplessly. "My father asked me to invite you home for dinner. You gave us so much money all at once that everyone at home feels very uneasy."

A half-grown boy had turned up with a hundred and twenty thousand yuan, left it, and walked away. Anyone would have felt uneasy. Zhang Ke thought that getting started was always the hardest part, and there was no way to finish everything today. In any case, as long as he was with Xu Si, he did not mind where they went.

It was half past three in the afternoon before the people from Fumin Labor Services finished cleaning all the offices. The windows sparkled, the desks gleamed, and not a speck of dust remained. It truly looked like the branch office of a major company. The Xinhaitong Building was also one of the few high-end office buildings in Haizhou City at the time. They agreed to discuss the contract the next time Fumin Labor Services came to clean, and the cleaners left without giving anything else a second thought.