Chapter 44

Part two: The Allure of Business. Chapter 44: It wasn't as if we were having an affair

Zhang Ke felt he had done a lot of stupid things that day and needed to do some damage control with Tang Jing, so he described offering Cao Guangming a cigarette as a deliberate psychological test. "Guess what expression he had?"

Tang Jing had played the good girl for so long that the rebellion in her bones was stirring. She saw nothing wrong with what Zhang Ke had done and was both excited and curious. "What expression did he have?" Her innocent eyes were like a clear pool, like the limpid color of the sky, without a trace of impurity. They made Zhang Ke too embarrassed to keep making things up.

Du Fei raced back to the classroom and spotted Zhang Ke. Having just heard about him offering the director of the Political Education Office a cigarette, he kept winking excitedly at him.

Zhang Ke patted his forehead and thought, As long as I keep my image pure in Tang Jing's eyes, that's enough.

After that, the teachers for the main subjects each came to show their faces in the classroom. Every one of them asked who Zhang Ke was as soon as they came in. Each time, Zhang Ke wanted to give a proper introduction, but just as he shifted forward to stand, the teacher would say, "I just wanted to put a face to the name. No need to stand." Their strange looks left Zhang Ke thoroughly dejected.

The first day of school passed just like that. After school, he first saw Tang Jing onto her bus. Perhaps because Tang Xueqian had squeezed onto a bus with the transport bureau leaders that morning, the bus was not crowded. Afterward, Zhang Ke went to a public phone booth and called Xu Si to ask whether she would come over to help him with his schoolwork.

Xu Si hesitated for a while on the phone before agreeing. Zhang Ke went back to the school cafeteria, bought some food, and hurried toward Fortune Garden, afraid he would run into Du Fei and get waylaid. Then he remembered that Li Zhifang had chosen Du Fei as class monitor, and Du Fei wanted to put in a better performance. He probably would not come loafing around his place for a while, so there would be no need to find an excuse to send him away.

Xinhaitong Building was not far from either No. 1 High School or the Fortune Garden residential complex. Taking a bus meant following the ring road route, which was slower than cycling. When Zhang Ke arrived at Fortune Garden carrying the food, he saw Xu Si's yellow bicycle parked downstairs.

Xu Si stood at the foot of the stairs holding a stack of documents. Seeing the food containers in Zhang Ke's hand warmed her heart, and she came over to help carry them. Just then, someone passed by, and Xu Si guiltily turned away.

Zhang Ke laughed. "It's not as if we're having an affair. You're my big sister Xu Si. What does it matter if someone sees us?"

Although it was a studio apartment, it had both a kitchen and a bathroom. Once they opened the door and went inside, Xu Si handed Zhang Ke the documents and took the food into the kitchen to heat it up. The documents were all résumés submitted by applicants. From the kitchen, Xu Si told Zhang Ke that the office phone had not stopped ringing all day; just answering calls had left her ears still aching faintly. Zhang Ke leaned against the doorframe. Xu Si swept her hair back, revealing her slightly reddened ear, which still bore the imprint of the receiver.

Zhang Ke remembered that he should give Xu Si the money first, lest he forget when she left. "I'll put four hundred yuan in your bag..."

"How can I let you pay?" Xu Si hurriedly put down the pan she was holding and tried to come out to stop him.

Zhang Ke chuckled and blocked the kitchen doorway, keeping Xu Si from coming out. She raised an arm to push him aside, but he caught her wrist. "You can't get all the office supplies by bluffing people."

"Even so, we can't use your money. I'll find a way." Xu Si struggled a few times, but she was not as strong as Zhang Ke. Instead, she seemed to be leaning into his arms. Her breathing grew a little uneven, and she stepped back.

"I'm the one who dragged you into this, after all. Of course I have to take responsibility for you." Zhang Ke dipped his head slightly. Xu Si had taken off her black tortoiseshell glasses after coming inside, and her flustered, embarrassed expression was exceedingly lovely. "Just think of it as working for me."

Zhang Ke became an outsider at school, ignored by the teachers and unloved by his classmates. In the blink of an eye, the weekend arrived.

All the applicants wondered why Haiyu Trading had scheduled the interviews for the weekend. They could have racked their brains and still never guessed that the person with the final say at the office could only spare time on weekends. Otherwise, the interviews would have had to take place at night.

On September 6, Zhang Ke arrived at Xinhaitong Building feeling refreshed and energetic. The dozen or so shortlisted applicants were already sitting in the lobby, waiting for the interviews to begin. Puzzled by Zhang Ke's arrival, they all craned their heads to look.

To make himself look more mature, Zhang Ke had abandoned his usual sneakers, jeans, and T-shirts. He wore a short-sleeved shirt with a fine blue check, navy casual trousers, and gleaming leather shoes. He did not look like a sixteen-year-old boy, but the lingering boyishness in his face kept him from looking as old as he had hoped.

Seeing everyone in the lobby looking his way, Zhang Ke felt no fear of a mere dozen or so pairs of eyes; he had developed his mental resilience long before his life had been reloaded. He merely reminded himself, This time, I'm choosing employees who can get things done, not holding a beauty contest. Don't keep picking decorative beauties for your department like you used to.

Xu Si was organizing the interview materials in the manager's office. Seeing Zhang Ke enter the office, she came out with a stack of résumés and went into the meeting room with him. Zhang Ke noticed that the instant Xu Si stepped out of the manager's office, everyone's gaze shifted to her, men and women alike. To keep her appearance from affecting her work, Xu Si had deliberately dressed more plainly. Her hair was casually tied in a ponytail, she wore no makeup at all, and she had on black tortoiseshell glasses with plain lenses, needlessly making herself look several years older.

"These are in the same order they'll be coming in." Xu Si handed the résumés to Zhang Ke. He and Xu Si had gradually shortlisted these people together, and he quickly went through them again. In less than a week, they had received six hundred résumés in total. The recruitment advertisement offered quite generous compensation, and with state-owned enterprises showing little improvement in performance lately, many people had been laid off. From those six hundred résumés, they had selected sixty applicants for brief telephone conversations, finally choosing only nineteen to attend that day's interviews.

They had made no special arrangements in the meeting room. Zhang Ke and Xu Si sat on one side of the conference table, while the applicants came in one by one and sat on the other side to talk with them.

Although the newspaper advertisement had called for one office clerk, one cashier, and two salespeople, Zhang Ke hoped that everyone hired this time would be able to handle sales work.

Zhang Ke knew that the questions asked in job interviews did little to help select genuine talent. Assessing an applicant's abilities required some unconventional ideas. For instance, successfully persuading an eighty- or ninety-year-old woman in a women's bathhouse to put on a bra you produced would prove your ability. Of course, Zhang Ke did not voice this idea, which would clearly earn him an eye roll from Xu Si. He simply followed the usual procedure for the initial interviews, looking at how thoroughly the applicants had prepared. The more thorough their preparation, the more it at least showed that they were relatively responsible people who valued the opportunity.

Zhang Ke set the stack of résumés aside, pointed to his eyes, and asked Xu Si, "Do I look a little more mature?"

Zhang Ke was tall and straight, half a head taller even than the statuesque Xu Si. His face was lean and sharply defined, and exposure to the blazing summer sun had given his skin a very healthy, amber-like hue. He had also deliberately made his gaze look a little sharper, giving it a sense of determination and persistence.