Tit For Tat (Beloved Enemy) - Chap 2

Yuan Yang reluctantly poured two cups of tea.

Yuan Lijiang moved over to the couch and sat down to discuss business with Gu Qing Pei. Now he has to work immediately.

Gu Qing Pei spread out his notebook and took notes intently while he listened to Li Jiang talk.

Yuan Yang was sitting on the sofa beside Gu Qing Pei. His vision was so good that he could see clearly even three feet away. Gu Qingxi’s words were very nicely written, especially when they’re written out with a pen. The characters were written roughly with a thick strokes, each word accounted for two lines, and they looked masculine and full, signalling a very powerful hand.

Yuan Yang has always never liked men who over-modify their appearance to the table. Although Gu Qing’s was finely dressed, if one carefully observed the details, one can easily see that he was a person of good quality. Many would not observe this and since Yuan Yang could, it caused some disdain in his heart.

Yuan Yang was accustomed to living in a dog house with scruffy-looking men who had no manners. But when faced with Gu Qing Pei, a very meticulously dressed man who pursued the high quality of life, he could neither understand him or nor feel comfortable by him. Therefore, he did not think that Gu Qing Pei’s words could be written with such rough and imposing manners and he could not help but see more. Such contradiction!

1]….Gu Qing Pei is a neat person so by Yuan Yang’s theory his writing should also be neat ….so he is interested in him more…

Yuan Yang was seat opposite to his father and he felt someone staring at him. After feeling that inquisitive gaze on him, Yuan Yang lifted his chin and slowly glanced at his old man, and turned his face away.

Yuan Li Jiang said, “What I said to Mr. Gu you should also listen always care about what you do. Hear my words, starting today you will work here and will obey Mr. Gu as if he’s your commander. His command is your everything, just like in the military.”

Yuan Yang felt a sudden jump in his temper and a fire rose in his heart. He was a man with a very bad temper and once ignited it takes a lot of effort to hold it back. Somehow he managed to resist the anger flowing through him. If he had not given his promise to his grandmother before her death, he would never stay here for another second.

Gu Qing Pei waved his hand and said, “Hey, Yuan Director, there’s no need to be so serious. Although I am eleven years older than him, I’m still young. I’d rather communicate with him like a friend than be in a superior or an inferior relationship.” He also shot Yuan Yang a good-natured smile.

It was a pity that Yuan Yang did not buy it. In his heart, he felt Gu Qing Pei was not being genuine with him. He also felt that it was necessary to ignore him.

Gu Qing Pei noticed the expression on Yuan Yang’s face and knew it was going to be impossible to work with the prince-ling brat. To deal with such a person, he would have to either come in soft and compromise on his own rules, or harden up. The problem was, he wasn’t sure what method he should follow in taming this brat. Yuan Yang was different from all the people he had dealt with before. This whole thing is really a hot potato. Yuan Li Jiang gave him so much power. It’s no use to give up politely, it was best if he could use it all wisely.

Gu Qing Pei decided to use morals and obedience to try to domesticate the brat, but at the same time, he resolved himself not to be soft in his attitude towards him. He must be in the company as a normal worker. If he was even once treated as a Prince, then there can be no way to manage him in the future. Gu decided if this method was unsuccessful, then he can only use the crudest method in provoking the boy so he could form a grudge against him. Finally he will have a legitimate reason to send Yuan Yang away, and paying a little physical price for a calmer future was also the best policy in the worst case.

Once he had the basic idea, Gu Qing Pei’s heart felt more stable. He could also happily ignore Yuan Yang’s indifference.

“Yuan Yang, after you come to the company you still have to be more formal, but in private you can call me uncle.”

Yuan Yang wrinkled a frown, “How old are you?”

This was the first sentence that the boy had addressed towards him.

Gu Qing Pei smiled, “Thirty-three.”

Yuan Yang’s idea was that the boy would really take advantage of it….. One mouth would be older. “Why would I call you Uncle when you’re only eleven years older than me? When you are my dad’s age, we can discuss it then.”

Yuan Li jiang shouted, “Yuan Yang, If you can’t be polite then shut up.”

Yuan Yang scoffed at him. Yuan Li Jiang continued to berate him, “Do you want to call him brother now? Are you the elder brother or the younger?”

Yuan Lijiang turned towards Gu and laughed, “Can you correct this guy’s twisted character for me? I’m not giving the task to you as your boss, but as your big brother. I solemnly entrust him to you, and my son really needs you.”

Gu Qing Pei nodded with a smile, and thought Yuan Li Jiang was good at convincing thousands of people. This guy should have been a politician, he was so good at making people listen to him. Gu knew he has lost this round.

Yuan Li Jiang patted Gu Qing Pei’s shoulder. “I have personally wanted to see him here for a while. I will go first. Let Little Zhang show you two the company. The office upstairs is a bit small and the one downstairs is big but it’s under renovation. For the moment, you can use the smaller one, later once the renovation is done you can choose where you want to be.”

Gu Qing Pei replied, “Director Yuan you are too kind. The office I am sitting is right now is pretty good. We don’t need to waste time over this, do not delay your other meetings. Let’s go quickly.”

“Okay, Yuan Yang, come here.” He titled his chin at his son and walked outside.

Gu Qing Pei rose but immediately sat back down and concentrated on finishing his tea before leaving the office.

Five minutes later Gu Qing Pei left the chairman’s office. He could probably guess what Yuan Li Jiang had said to his son. It could be seen from the gloomy face of the old man that it certainly wasn’t anything he was happy to say.

Gu Qing Pei shook his head with a smile and but was too embarrassed to show anything on his face.

He walked over and patted him on his back. “Come on, come into the office with me, let’s talk.”

Yuan Yang hesitated stiffly for a bit but then followed Gu Qing into the office.

Gu Qing Pei pulled out a tin from his briefcase and shook it. “The top Junshan Maojian tea, my former boss sent it, you want to try it?”

Yuan Yang’s stared at him with an ambiguous look on his face.

Gu Qing grinned and started moving the tea set neatly. “You can’t stand me, right? You couldn’t even make tea.” He continued making tea, “I was promoted to the position of office director in the third year of my job. The Director, in fact, is still a diverse person. He wanted nothing to do with dilemma. When he goes out and eats with the leader, he will never be able to eat enough, but he will have had exercised.”

He washed the tea and poured the amber tea in a pear shape pot. The teapot had painted flowers on it with a quaint colour, it looked very nice.

He poured the tea into two cups and picked up one of the bowls with his long fingertips. He smiled and handed it to Yuan Yang, “Taste it.”

Yuan Yang never drank tea in such exquisite, small tea cups. The diameter of the tea cup was smaller than half his finger. He reached out to pick it up and squeezed it directly from Gu Qing’s fingers. Gu Qing’s fingers shook from pain and half the tea spilled out, but fortunately it didn’t spill on anyone’s clothes.

Yuan Yang was a little embarrassed and a little angry. He didn’t want to take such a small tea cup and drink that shit. What troubled him most was the artsy style of drinking it.

Gu Qing Pei poured him another cup. That time, he didn’t hold out the cup to him, instead he placed the cup in front of Yuan Yang and allowed the younger man to pick it up on his own.

Yuan Yang picked up the teacup and drank it. He said openly, “What do you want to say? Just say it, don’t beat it around the bush.”

Gu Qing grinned and widened his eyes. “Yuan Yang, we have just enough time in the morning to discuss your career ideas. I have to understand you before I can think of where precisely to train you.”

When Gu mentioned this, Yuan Yang was dissatisfied. He whispered, “I have no career ideas, I never thought of doing business.”

“What do you want to do, lead troops to fight?”

Yuan Yang narrowed his eyes, “At least I won’t be spending all day sitting in the office to watch the stock.”

Gu Qing Pei looked back at his computer screen, laughing calmly, “It’s a very careful observation. It’s a lot of fun to lead a fight, and even I want to try it. Unfortunately, it is an era of peace. You have great ambitions but you have no talents for the general society. In fact, managing a company, running a project, and conquering other companies….There are many similar situations like these on the battlefield. You must understand how to deploy troops, repatriate people, integrate resources, allocate and utilise resources, and also you need to understand the situation of the enemy, understand the current situation, and must have the means to have courage and planning. Here also you are fighting against people. This is no smoke firing like in the battlefield, don’t you want to try it for the fun of it…?”

Gu Qing’s Mandarin was very good and his voice was very contagious. When he spoke, most people will be taken away by him.

Originally, from the beginning Yuan Yang was filled with disdain, in the end actually heard a few words, although he still does not believe them, but at least he looked at Gu Qing’s attitude…..which was not bad, there was not so much hostility.

Gu Qing Pei didn’t intend to say too much. He spoke a lot and was still suspicious. Although he didn’t mind bringing the princeling to a subdued position…he didn’t have the right situation now. He wanted to establish his position and power in the company and he wouldn’t let anybody ride him.