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“Dingbei, the ferocity hidden in the Su family’s blood is too strong—we need to rein it in.”
Su Pingnan looked at Su Dingbei, who seemed cast from the same mold as him, and spoke more kindly to her than to others.
“Su Pingnan, I understand.”
Su Dingbei knew her second brother meant well for her sake.
Su Pingnan sighed as he looked at the girl whose ferocity was already showing. “The old man was right—the eldest has taken on all the weakness and honesty of our generation. You’ve gotta listen to the old man’s last words, so be polite to number one and number three from now on.”
“Okay. I don’t know why I get so mad when I see them either.”
Su Dingbei showed a rare trace of girlish bashfulness.
“Dingbei, study hard. In the future, there will be a kind of power whose force is countless times that of violence—I want you to help me master it.”
Su Pingnan’s face was earnest.
Su Dingbei tilted her head and paused to think. Her skin was as fair as snow, yet she shared the same resolute features as Su Pingnan. “What kind of power?”
“Money.”
After saying goodbye to Su Dingbei, Su Pingnan felt much more at ease—this girl had very odd values, but one virtue: whatever she promised, she would absolutely do.
Thinking of a future where a female tough becomes a female academic star amused Su Pingnan.
Su Dingbei stood dazed in the wind and snow holding a business card, her expression conflicted.
The card was simple: a pale-gold card with only three characters, “Su Pingnan.”
Below was a mobile number, and on the back a single line of poetry: “Don’t waste your youth in idleness.”
“Why has this guy changed so much?” The tough girl’s thoughts were surprisingly delicate.
The card looked simple, yet it left an utterly arrogant impression on others.
“This is my personal card—you are actually the first person I’ve given one to. Number three is soft-hearted, number one is weak. Giving them this won’t do them any good.”
Su Pingnan couldn’t hide the look of disdain in his eyes.
“What use is it?”
Su Dingbei looked earnest. She could sense the hesitation her second brother had when giving it to her.
“Jinxiu Group will expand fully in Wucheng, and establishing offices in Changyang County’s nine towns and eighteen townships is the first step. With this you can withdraw 200,000 yuan at any location of the group.”
Su Dingbei tilted her head, “Su Pingnan, are you trying to be like Chao Gai?”
Su Pingnan smiled, “A bandit chief—what’s there to learn from him?”
“You trust me that much? I’m only sixteen.”
Su Pingnan looked seriously at Su Dingbei. “I believe you because you are Su Dingbei.” There was a sentence he didn’t say—in his previous life, Su Dingbei had resolutely chosen an irrevocable path for the sake of her second brother when she turned 20.
The cold snowflakes snapped the thoughtful girl awake. Su Dingbei scratched her head in distress. She had agreed to become an excellent business talent for her second brother, but her bottom-ranking grades meant she probably couldn’t get into any decent high school.
“This is bad,” the girl murmured softly.
…….
“Study—go and study seriously for me.”
Su Pingnan tossed a mining university professor’s number to Su Wenwen, his tone serious.
“Study safe mining methods and all technical precautions—master them completely.”
Su Wenwen nodded.
“Before we can beat others, we must first be well defended—so you are the top priority.”
After sending away a pale Su Wenwen, Su Pingnan couldn’t help but smile. Su Wenwen had the habit of getting sleepy when reading. Perhaps he could fix it this time.
“Brother Nan, I’ve found the person you needed,” Zhang Tong excitedly ran into Su Pingnan’s office.
Jinxiu Pavilion was being furnished quickly. Assembling a kitchen team that would astonish people was the next most urgent task, and Su Pingnan immediately thought of Zhang Tong as his lucky man for the task.
Su Pingnan laughed heartily, tossed a just-opened pack of Zhonghua over and said, “You’re really a talent—where did you find someone this time?”
It turned out Zhang Tong’s thought process was indeed different. The candidate he found for Su Pingnan was a head chef from a cafeteria.
Wucheng Knitting Factory was a state-owned enterprise on its way to shutting down. What it was most famous for in Wucheng wasn’t its products but its cafeteria.
The cafeteria was famous because of one man, Lin Zunli. His family had been cooks for generations. He learned excellent skills and because few qualifications were required during this era, he ended up working in kitchens very early in life. His skill was so good that, through a twist of fate, a lowly kitchen hand eventually became the cafeteria’s head chef.
Li San was a worker at the knitting factory. He had been unlucky—after landing a job at the factory after completing high school, he didn’t get much benefits. Also, he didn’t have much ambition and just lived from day to day.
One day, his middle school classmate, Guo Guangyao, found him. Guo Guangyao had always been a tough, rough type. Though in the same class, Li San rarely interacted with him. Li San thought this guy would sooner or later be behind bars.
After graduation, everyone’s path diverged. Li San only learned of Guo Guangyao’s situation the last time he drank with a few classmates.
A classmate enviously said, “Do you remember Guo Guangyao from our class?”
Li San nodded.
Then the classmate said enviously, “That guy’s amazing now—he’s hooked up with a very powerful boss in business, so he now wears suits, smokes Zhonghua, and has a bunch of underlings.”
Li San at the time sneered, “What good end will such people have? Nobody knows when this sort of money will suddenly disappear—better for us to be steady and honest.”
Only when Guo Guangyao stood in front of him today did Li San understand why his classmate had sounded so sour.
A black, imposing SUV, a crisp suit, and underlings holding big mobile phones—suddenly Li San felt like he had been a fool before.
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