Tit For Tat (Beloved Enemy) - Chap 8
Early the next morning, Gu Qing Pei went downstairs at seven o’clock in the morning. Yuan Yang car was parked in the underground parking lot where he got off yesterday. He was smoking near the car.
He wore one of the new suits he had purchased yesterday, and with his wide shoulders, long legs, slender but muscular body, he looked like a poster boy for the suit standing there.
Gu Qing Pei said hello with a smile, “Yuan Yang …..you’re early!!”
Yuan Yang looked up, cut off the butt of the cigarette and started the car.
“Pretty early it seems, have you eaten yet?”
“No.”
“I asked Lao Zhao, the company has breakfast, quite good I hear, so later we can go to the company and eat there.” Gu Qing Pei got seated, reached out and turned on the radio, switching it till a news channel came on.
Yuan Yang glanced at him but did not speak.
Gu Qing Pei glanced back at him and thought Yuan Yang hasn’t spoken to his father yet. Otherwise this kid would not be so calm.
He asked tentatively, “Did you not discuss about your work experience with your dad?”
Yuan Yang did not even look at him. “I do not live with him.”
Gu Qing Pei continued, “Oh, how often do you go home? My parents are out in the rural area. I go back every month or two. When you are living so close, you must go home more often.”
Yuan Yang frowned at him, “You talk too much.”
Gu Qing Pei’s eyes narrowed, “I am responsible for you.”
Yuan Yang’s already black face turned even more black. This early in the morning he was already pissed that he had to meet Gu Qing Pei this early in the morning. Why did Gu Qing Pei also kept talking and talking? He really wanted to shove something in his mouth and shut him up.
After reaching the company, Gu Qing Pei sat on his chair and said, “Get me a morning porridge. I do not love eggs, so if there is no porridge then get noodles.”
Yuan Yang paused, turned around and glared at him fiercely, with a stomach full of anger.
He went downstairs and had a leisurely breakfast, and then after finishing bought Gu Qing Pei’s, and carried it upstairs.
At this time, his cell phone rang. He looked and found it was Peng Fang, who was two years younger than him and a childhood playmate. This kid was not willing to endure hardships, life and death situations and therefore didn’t enter the army with him. He was now doing business, which was an impressive feat.
Press the answering call button, he answered, “Hey, Peng.”
“What are you doing?”
“Working.”
“Did you say work, did I hear you wrong? Which college did you go to? Didn’t you want to go back to the army?”
“Fuck cannon, army is where I want to be instead I was forced by my father to work in his company.”
“Ha ha ha ha, interesting, what are you doing there? Standing as a security guard?”
“Fuck off.”
“I see how long you went without work, but why can’t your dad let you go?”
“Ah, not only my dad did not let me go, but also he found a stupid job for me, talking about him makes me angry.”
“What happened?”
Yuan Yang was angry and could not help but bash Gu Qing Pei roughly.
Fang Peng was laughing till his stomach cramped from pain, “This man has got steel balls. We have the guts to provoke the old or small, and certainly we never get beaten, in fact we don’t even know what it tastes like. I’ll help you to teach him a lesson.”
“No, I promised my dad, I won’t start troubles with him. This man who dresses so fashionably knows what the situation is like. I don’t believe he can’t grasp the situation.”
Peng laughed at him, “Too interesting, but Yuan Yang, if you want to go back to the army, I say it is not realistic, and your file is always checked. Who will dare to help you against your dad’s back? Aren’t you thinking about what to do later?”
“I know, don’t repeat it…makes me upset.”
“No, don’t be upset. But you might as well accept the reality. In fact, the world outside is not bad, wonderful pleasures of the world are available.
“Maybe one day waking up I’ll figure it out, don’t advise me now, whoever advises me will be going to the emergency room.”
“OK, OK you fuck…. come eat with me tonight.”
“OK, text me the address on the phone.”
“Okay.”
Hanging up the phone, Yuan Yang recalled he was still holding Gu’s breakfast in his hands. The time was half past eight. Yuan Yang knew Gu Qing will stare him to death.
Back in the office, Gu Qing Pei was talking to a manager. When Yuan Yang entered the room, Gu stared him to death just lie Yuan Yang predicted. He also indicated what Yuan Yang has to do with his eyes.
Yuan Yang put the breakfast on the coffee table, sat on the couch in front of his office, and began to play games.
After more than half an hour, the manager went out and Gu Qing Pei shouted from inside, “Xiao Yuan, come in.”
Yuan Yang picked up the headphones from the table and plugged them into his ears and continued to play his game.
Gu Qing Pei called twice and when he got no response, he went and opened the door to see Yuan Yang focused on playing games on his phone. Gu Qing Pei went and pulled his headset down, “Come in, you didn’t come in when I called? If you don’t come in, I will pull the cable.”
Yuan Yang looked at him impatiently. “What are you doing?”
“Come in.”
Yuan Yang was so annoyed by that he wished Gu would die, yet he still got up and aggressively walked into the office.
Gu Qing Pei sat down to his breakfast and while eating, he said, “You punched your timecard this morning?”
Yuan Yang’s fist pounded like a hammer on the table, and the soup spilled out. Fortunately, Gu Qing Pei moved in a timely manner, and not a drop dirtied his pants. He shook his head. “This young man is really explosive.”
Yuan Yang bit his teeth in anger, “You nag me all day, aren’t you tired?”
“I don’t nag only you. I asked everyone in the company to abide by the rules and regulations. You and I are no exception. Of course, I don’t need to punch the time-card but I still do. But you want me to ignore your tardiness, that I can’t because I was not kidding you the other day. In fact, those words I uttered that day was meant for you. You’ve been a soldier, I believe you are very organized and disciplined, and the only reason you cannot do it is because you are not willing to do it. You hate the place fine, but I do mind if you think that you can break the rules. If I give you leeway then I should give everyone an exception…so no one will be allowed to be exception.”
Gu Qing Pei looked at the table, “Now it’s time to punch the card. Within an hour you can save …. 50$. In the future, serve my breakfast within twenty minutes if me asking for it. You don’t get to eat before I do. A little bit of rules for you to understand.”
Yuan Yang clenched his fists and really wanted to pick Gu up and beat him badly. Nobody dared to enrage him again and again ……so again and again, this Gu person aimed at him from the beginning, almost a lifetime of patience was used for Gu Qing Pei , and he doubted how he was going to tolerate any further.
Gu Qing Pei looked up at him, “Go do that”
Yuan Yang restrained his impulse to kill, and left the place before his self-control vanished.
Gu Qing Pei waited for him to go, and secretly he felt relieved. Every day he seemed to touch the end of Yuan Yang’s patience and every day he succeeded in it. In fact, that was not good, Yuan Yang had already beat him up twice and he had already informed Yuan Lijiang about it.
As a result, Yuan Yang did not show any signs of calming down yet. Instead, he was too forbearing. He was really worried about enduring so much. One day there was going to be serious consequences of all this restraint once it breaks.
If things could be resolved peacefully, Gu wanted to avoid getting beaten up in the future but Yuan Yang was too upset, and completely regarded working in the company as an issue that runs opposites to his own interests, and even stopped himself from moving forward.
The serious issue was that Yuan Yang has a serious disgust for this work and it was impossible to reverse this kind of thinking that easily. Yuan Yang blatantly disregarded the rules and even after so much warning still showed no signs of changing himself. Yuan Lijiang had really landed him a troubling one.
The company started working efficiently quite quickly and in the afternoon, the manager submitted the first draft of the attendance system in front of him.
The employees worked aggressively twice as hard to please the new leader and it was equivalent to change of dynasty.
Gu Qing Pei went through the draft carefully and read through it again just for good measure and made some slight changes so that the people who wrote it can go back and immediately change it.
After the clerk finished the changes made by Gu, it was distributed in the company’s mail system. All departments also made paper copies to learn it by heart.
Gu Qing Pei deliberately opened the door, handed a copy to Yuan Yang and said, “Attendance rules are to be strictly followed and implemented as written. All violations of the rules shall be punished, take a closer look.”
Yuan Yang dragged it directly and threw it into the trash.
Gu Qing Pei added, “There is an electronic version in the email address of the company so go read that.”
Seeing Yuan Yang disregard him, Gu Qing Pei didn’t feel embarrassed, instead said, “You go to the shop with the old Zhao in the afternoon. I heard the car for me has arrived in advance so go and check it if there are any problems. Starting tomorrow drive that car.”
Yuan Yang said, “You have hands and feet, you will not drive yourself?”
“If you want me to drive myself, but also hire drivers to do it….that doesn’t make sense. This is also a part of your job, so now go say hello to Zhao, and bring the car over carefully.”
Gu Qing Pei walked out of his office, while Yuan Yang still sat in his sofa, thinking about how to teach Gu a lesson.
The two of them didn’t know much about each other and Yuan Yang didn’t know how to catch him at his mistakes. If only his father was not involved in this, he would have thought about ten thousand ways to make Gu Qing Pei kneel and beg before him.
Yuan Yang pulled his hair thinking of it.
In the afternoon, Yuan Yang went with Zhao to get Gu’s car back and people had already started to leave work. Gu Qing Pei came down carrying his laptop bag and saw them standing in the front of the building. He asked, “Has the car come?”
Zhao handed the key to Yuan Yang, “Gu, come and check it out.”
“That’s okay. It’ll just be used to travel from home to work. Xiao Yuan, let’s go.”
Gu Qing Pei didn’t mind the company giving him that car, anyway, it wasn’t his, so as long as it matched his identity and status it was enough. So he let Yuan Yang drive him home.
Zhao Yuan had invited him for dinner and he had to change clothes before he could go see her.
Although they had been divorced for many years, the relationship has been maintained well and they met regularly to update each other about their lives.
After he had sent him home, he left. Yuan Yang had some friends and brothers to meet in the evening for dinner. After dinner, he went to a young man’s new bubble bar to cheer up. In the evening, he had a good time with his friends and complained about Gu. He felt a lot better.
After Gu Qing Pei changed, he drove his own car to meet Zhao Yuan. By then Yuan Yang was already busy getting drunk at a hotel with a few buddies.
