Four-Faced Buddha [To My Shore] - Chap 5
Chapter 5 The Light Is Gone
2024-10-13 07:09 Category: Four-Faced BuddhaTurn off the lights
The spacious and bright conference room still smelled of fresh leather from the recent renovations.
“Xiao Xiao, these are a few promising projects that our team has selected after initial screening, which align with our ‘Pinfeng Venture Capital’ strategic development direction and have market potential. Take a look. If there are no problems, I’ll have my team finalize the letters of intent and begin due diligence.”
Several thick business plans were pushed in front of Fan Xiao. The old man who had just spoken said kindly, “These materials are very complicated. If you don’t have the patience to look at them, just sign them.”
Fan Xiao sat beside the old man, his eyes slightly lowered, gazing at the dappled shadows cast by the stray hairs on his forehead. He chuckled softly, the pleasant sound fading away as it filled the entire office.
He slowly raised his head, his gentle gaze replacing the previous gloom. His voice was extremely pleasant, and he was now using it to negotiate.
“Vice President Xu, please use job titles when you’re at work, otherwise it will cause confusion for the employees.”
The old man, whom he called Vice President Xu, frowned slightly, then burst into laughter, like an elder who dotes on his juniors and lets him have his way.
“Then let’s listen to Xiao Xiao, oh, no, let’s listen to President Fan.” He pushed the document that needed to be signed towards Fan Xiao again. “President Fan, this document?”
Fan Xiao looked grateful, but ignored the documents in his hand. His gaze swept over the attendees one by one, and finally he asked, “Who is the head of the administrative department?”
After a brief silence, a man in his thirties stood up from the last seat and said somewhat nervously, “Mr. Fan, I am the head of the administration department.”
“May I ask you something?” Fan Xiao said with a smile, but his gaze didn’t quite reach his eyes. “When meetings of department heads and above are held in China, are the general manager’s seats placed together with those of the employees?”
“This…” The administrative manager who was called out glanced quickly at the old man next to Fan Xiao, pursed his lips, and replied with a forced smile, “This has always been how the company ranks people.”
“Always?” Fan Xiao raised an eyebrow. “As far as I know, this should be our company’s first formal meeting, right? And you’ve only been here for two months.”
The recorder’s fingers stopped on the keyboard, and the room fell silent.
Seeing no one voiced their support, the head of the administration department broke out in a cold sweat and had no choice but to change his tune: “This was my oversight. Next time, I will definitely adjust the seating arrangement according to President Fan’s request.”
Fan Xiao smiled, seemingly unconcerned: “It’s not that serious. I just returned to China and there are many things I need to learn. Thank you for your guidance. Please sit down.”
In short, it was even more chilling than a direct rebuke. Everyone instinctively lowered their breath, averted their gaze, and focused their attention inward, no longer daring to entertain the spectacle.
“As for these materials, I will take them seriously.” Fan Xiao finally got down to business. “We can’t let Vice President Xu, who is already so old, have to go through all this trouble.”
He stood up, ending the first routine meeting which had only lasted five minutes.
“That concludes today’s meeting. The investment director will send these project materials to my office later. Oh, and could you please also send over the projects that weren’t selected? I’ll flip through them when I’m bored to refresh my Chinese character skills.”
After saying this, the tall man left the office first, unaware of the cold glint in the old man’s eyes behind him.
Fan Xiao’s office faces west, which does not conform to the Chinese custom of bosses sitting facing south.
In broad daylight, heavy curtains were drawn, and only one lamp was on in the room. On the desk were two thick stacks of project proposals; one stack contained projects that had passed the initial review, and the other contained those that had been rejected.
With his well-defined fingers, he reached past the already evaluated projects and picked up the rejected project proposal.
After flipping through a few books, Fan Xiao’s gaze paused in the dim light, and he held up the newly acquired project proposal to his eyes.
Besides the project name, the cover of the proposal also included the name and logo of the submitting company. Fan Xiao pondered for a moment, then reached out and opened the drawer on the right side of his desk.
He rummaged through the clutter and found a business card. He held it between two fingers and placed it on the project proposal, where the same words overlapped.
“Bohai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.” Fan Xiao uttered a few words softly, then suddenly smiled and said, “I had almost forgotten about you, and now you’re trying to get back at me.”
He placed the unread business plan on another stack, crumpled up his business card, and threw it into the trash can. The word “travel” could still be vaguely seen on it.
When You Shulang received Fan Xiao’s call, he was packing his things to leave work.
The phone had been ringing for a while. You Shulang picked up the phone, imagined the reasons why three or five men might be calling, and then swiped the green icon.
“Kakuenka, Mr. You.”
Two months later, the deep, magnetic voice, accompanied by a soft, nasal tone, once again reached You Shulang’s ears, suddenly reminding him of the delicate smoke carrying the scent of rouge in the air, and the gentle smile on the man’s face as he struck a match. You Shulang suddenly realized that his professional habit was incurable; he had just been considering how to deal with Fan Xiao’s plea for help on the phone.
“Hello, Mr. Fan.” His voice was relaxed. “What made you decide to call me?”
A helpless laugh came from the other end of the phone: “What should I do? I’m lost.” And a coquettish tone, like that of a lover, followed by, “And in this city, you’re my only friend, Mr. You.”
Holding the phone a little further away, You Shulang thought that he wasn’t really wrong. He should have been mentally prepared before answering this man’s call, including enduring the gentle and affectionate tone that comes with the Thai language.
It was almost an hour later when You Shulang saw Fan Xiao. He parked his car by a dirt road, rolled down the window, leaned out halfway, and smiled at the man leaning against the luxury car next to him, saying, “How could you leave yourself here?”
The man shrugged in a Western style: “I don’t know either. I feel like I was following the navigation the whole time, but I still encountered a dead end and ended up here after going around and around.”
You Shulang got out of the car, the pebbles under his feet rubbing against the soles of his thin leather shoes. He walked over to Fan Xiao and noticed that he was still wearing a trench coat in the sweltering July heat.
Although he was tall and slender, he still looked quite strange.
“Is it cold?” he asked.
Fan Xiao shook his draped trench coat and wrapped it tightly around himself with the fabric on both sides: “I’ve been in tropical countries for too long, and I can’t stand the chill in the mornings and evenings here.”
You Shulang nodded, took out a cigarette from his pocket. The hour-long drive had made him crave a cigarette, and he didn’t have the habit of smoking in the car.
“Want one?” After seeing Fan Xiao shake his head, he put a cigarette in his mouth and asked casually, “Did you get lost at the airport last time too?”
Fan Xiao paused for a moment, then smiled and replied, “Yes, I’m naturally bad at directions and always get lost, even in Thailand.”
You Shulang raised an eyebrow, a cigarette dangling from his lips, thinking to himself: With Thailand’s land area, it really takes some skill to get lost.
The evening breeze swept across the open fields, carrying the fresh scent of grass and trees to the two of them. The tall grass and trees rustled, and the clouds on the horizon were tinged with a faint rosy hue.
“Actually, getting lost can be quite interesting sometimes.” Fan Xiao leaned on the car, rested his right hand on his neck, and lazily stretched. “You can see a lot of different things.”
He gestured with his chin toward a large tree nearby: “Look, there’s a bird’s nest over there. While I was waiting for you, I saw a baby bird, whose downy feathers hadn’t fully grown in, fall out of the nest.”
At first, You Shulang found it somewhat interesting, glancing through the dense foliage. But as he listened, he paused slightly, his hand holding the cigarette tucked between his fingers, and turned to look at the man who had spoken.
The description of the objective facts is flawless in its language. It’s not unreasonable for a man to show no sympathy for the death of a fledgling bird. The problem lies in Fan Xiao’s calm, even envious, tone, which leaves You Shulang with an indescribable feeling.
Fan Xiao’s gaze remained fixed on the tree: “You said it fell because it was careless? Have you heard what they say in the animal world?”
You Shulang and Fan Xiao leaned against the car side by side, You Shulang exhaled a puff of smoke and asked, “What do they say in Animal World?”
“Ninety percent of the time, if a fledgling falls out of the nest, it’s because its siblings are fighting over food and push it out. It could also be that its parents prefer the other chicks and don’t want to waste the food they worked so hard to find because of it.” Fan Xiao’s eyes gleamed strangely, but he quickly concealed it when he turned to look at You Shulang. “What do you think might be the case?”
You Shulang was unwilling to continue the topic. Looking at the increasingly pale clouds, he said, “Let’s go. We still have a long way to go on the way back.”
“Aren’t you going to save it? That fledgling shouldn’t be completely dead yet,” Fan Xiao suddenly asked.
You Shulang was certain he hadn’t misread the scrutinizing and cold look in Fan Xiao’s eyes this time. He slowly asked, “How do we save it? Put it back in its nest? Won’t it be pushed off again?”
Fan Xiao leaned down to meet You Shulang’s gaze, his tone chilling: “You know that even if you send the fledgling back, it will still meet its fate. So why did you save that child? Did you think that by saving him, he would no longer suffer from illness and would become healthy?”
You Shulang: “!!”
The nearly burnt cigarette between his fingers scalded his hand, but You Shulang was completely oblivious! Looking at the man so close to him, he felt an unprecedented sense of oppression. This man, with his gentle face and kind smile, now had a cold, deep gaze, like the surface of a sea on a cold winter night—absolutely unfathomable, yet brimming with turbulent waves.
“Shouldn’t we always leave a glimmer of hope for life?” You Shulang looked back at Fan Xiao firmly. “Besides, I’m right beside him! To be able to save him but not to is not mercy, but cruelty that destroys one’s own conscience and the conscience of society!”
“The Great Dao is fifty, and the Heavenly Dao is forty-nine. The Heavenly Dao is missing one, but it leaves a glimmer of hope, is that so?” In his light words, Fan Xiao’s cold gaze shattered like broken glass, and he regained his former gentleness, smiling as he said, “It’s a little embarrassing to say, but I still want to tell you that my company paid for that child’s medical expenses, and he should be able to grow up healthy.”
After saying that, he squatted down and looked up at You Shulang at close range: “So, thank you, Mr. You, for your decisiveness and courage at that time. You gave him a chance to live.”
“!”
They were so close that You Shulang could even feel the warm breath from Fan Xiao’s mouth and nose. He stared blankly at the man in front of him, his heart feeling as if it had been gripped by a huge force and then suddenly released. Faced with such delightful news, his first reaction was not happiness. The man in front of him was as gentle and kind as warm jade, yet he always seemed unpredictable and elusive to him.
“Let’s go, I’m very hungry,” Fan Xiao said to the silent You Shulang. “I’ll treat Mr. You to dinner tonight as a way of expressing my gratitude.”
You Shulang finally came to his senses. He suppressed the turmoil in his heart, stubbed out the cigarette butt in his hand, and said calmly, “I have work tonight, let’s do it another day.”
“Work? The progress of the new project?”
How did you know?
The sunset finally faded, and the thin beam of light on the horizon was swallowed by darkness…
