Saturday morning, inside Dorm 404 of the Foreign Languages Institute's female dormitory area.
The four girls from the English department, rarely all woke up around 8 AM; usually, they'd sleep until noon, waking up from hunger.
Of course, Gu Qingqing was an exception; she usually woke up even earlier than this.
"Quick interview, how do you feel about meeting your future father-in-law soon?"
Xu Manli, wearing pajamas and sitting halfway up in bed, asked Gu Qingqing, who was getting ready in front of the mirror, with a grin.
Besides Xu Manli, the other two roommates, Zhao Wenjia and Chen Yanan, were also lying in bed, staring at Gu Qingqing, their eyes full of gossipy anticipation.
They really hadn't expected that these two had already reached the stage of meeting parents, and Boss Tan had already gone to pay New Year's greetings.
Now, Gu Qingqing was going to meet Boss Tan's father.
When a boyfriend and girlfriend progress to meeting each other's parents, it's considered quite serious, and their relationship is already very stable.
"A bit nervous, I don't know what kind of person his father is,"
Gu Qingqing said somewhat nervously while getting ready.
After discussing with her parents, today's meeting was finalized.
For this, Gu Qingqing specifically went to the mall yesterday to pick out two gifts.
"You two are really unique. You don't usually have many chances to meet, but I never expected you'd already reached the stage of meeting parents,"
Xu Manli continued.
She also got a boyfriend from the same department late last year, but she never thought about meeting parents.
In her opinion, college relationships were merely a way to alleviate loneliness during free time, highly unstable, with a high probability of going their separate ways after graduation, making it completely unnecessary to reach the stage of meeting parents.
However, their situation was a bit different.
Although they belonged to different provinces, their future was almost set.
Boss Tan would definitely settle in Yongcheng, as his business was all here.
And Qingqing, who was already helping Boss Tan manage his Taobao store, would certainly have her career focus here in the future.
"I really envy you two. After meeting the parents, Boss Tan's business is so big, Qingqing, you won't have to worry about finding a job after graduation,"
Chen Yanan sighed.
"You don't have to worry either, you have a factory at home; by the way, how's your dad's factory doing?"
"It's alright. Speaking of which, I have to thank your Boss Tan. Before the New Year, he gave my dad a pretty substantial order, and our small factory had a good year. Oh, and my dad also asked me to ask Boss Tan when he's free, he wants to invite him to dinner to express his gratitude."
Speaking of this, Chen Yanan was actually quite grateful to Tan Jincheng.
She had only asked tentatively at first, but unexpectedly Boss Tan took it to heart.
Not long after, he proactively contacted her father and even visited the factory.
Although her family's factory made auto parts, some parts for electric scooters weren't impossible to make.
After improving the process and passing the sample test, Boss Tan actually placed a large order and paid very promptly.
She figured all this was probably thanks to Qingqing.
"Hehe, I can't decide that, but I can help you ask. I really don't know when he'll be free though; he's been quite busy traveling for business everywhere since the New Year."
"Is it because of that marketing thing?"
Zhao Wenjia also asked curiously.
The official account of Flash Technology, which had been uploading cycling videos to Tudou.com for ten days, had gained some popularity thanks to online trolls and spontaneous promotion by cycling enthusiasts, and because it updated daily.
Usually, when Gu Qingqing watched videos in the dorm, the others would watch along.
The beautiful scenery, cooking their own meals along the way, the process of two grown men going from knowing nothing to looking somewhat presentable, and the narration during the ride were all very interesting.
The videos were shot very smoothly and were also very appealing.
Currently, the comment section already had a stable group of "followers," and it was believed that with time, it would become even more popular.
"It's not just that, there are other things. He came back this time because of a collaboration with his hometown, so he'll probably be traveling for business again after a while."
"So you won't see each other for a while again?"
"If we don't see each other, we don't see each other. Anyway, my study load is quite heavy, it'll be fine after this year."
"Qingqing, you're really working hard too. Not only helping Boss Tan manage the Taobao store, but also self-studying computers. Are you planning to develop in the internet field in the future?"
"What development? Qingqing will become the boss's wife at Flash Technology after graduation. She won't need to develop this or that. If we can't find jobs then, the boss's wife can pull some strings for us."
"Exactly, exactly. At that time, we'll have to ask the boss's wife to take care of us."
"I won't be joining Flash Technology, so you can give up on that idea,"
Gu Qingqing chuckled.
In reality, her career plan was already roughly set, specifically in the internet sector, as Chen Yanan had just mentioned.
Operating the Taobao store made her realize the charm of the internet—that one could open a store and make money without a physical shop.
Moreover, she could gain more customers from all corners of the country and also buy local specialties she had never seen before from other stores, implicitly bringing people closer.
If one day, Taobao stores like these became widely popular, and with the smartphone era her brother described, where a single phone could easily meet all travel needs without cash transactions.
Perhaps, the world would truly become different.
And the "poaching" plan her brother casually mentioned when her cousin came over last time, likely had this aspect in mind; it was just that her brother's time and energy were limited.
As Flash Technology grew larger, he clearly didn't have much energy to invest in the internet.
Since that was the case, she decided to experience the charm of the internet on behalf of her brother.
Gu Qingqing didn't know how far Taobao stores could go, but the development of the internet was clearly not limited to just Taobao stores.
The four chatted idly in the dorm for over half an hour.
Around nine o'clock, Gu Qingqing's phone rang.
"Boss Tan is here to pick you up, right?"
"Yes, I'm going now, you guys can sleep a bit longer,"
Gu Qingqing said, hurrying out with her handbag.
"Not coming back tonight, are you?"
Xu Manli's teasing voice came from behind.
Gu Qingqing, blushing, said,
"I don't know."
---
Golden Coast Residential Area.
Tan Lihua lay on the living room sofa.
The TV was replaying a dialect program called "Lai Fa Jiang Sha Xi," a show that used common, humorous, witty, and colloquial Yongcheng dialect to discuss topics of concern to ordinary people.
Although Tan Lihua couldn't understand a single word, fortunately, there were subtitles.
Almost every city's TV station had such local dialect programs, and Tan Lihua usually enjoyed watching them when he had nothing else to do.
However, at this moment, he seemed a bit absent-minded.
He was alone in the room; Zhang Xupeng had gone to the company, and Tao Qinian was invited today to visit Jinpeng Trade and Jinyi Industrial.
Since it was purely a visit, and both companies weren't large, coupled with Tan Jincheng having his private matters today, these minor tasks were entrusted to the brothers Zhang Xupeng and Zhang Xuhui.
The absent-minded Tan Lihua had the TV on just for some background noise.
The experiences of the past few days seemed somewhat dreamlike to him.
First, he was inexplicably brought to Yongcheng, which had nothing to do with his job, yet it could even be counted as a business trip.
Moreover, the person who brought him was the "second boss" of his hometown county!
Tan Lihua was an employee of a state-owned enterprise.
Compared to his son, he understood the charm of power better.
He was very clear about what kind of power the "second boss" wielded.
Before this, Tan Lihua had never imagined he could interact with such a figure.
Tan Lihua, who had drifted through half his life, was no longer the spirited young man fresh out of vocational school, dreaming of achieving something.
Now in middle age, he had no desires, otherwise, even if his son suddenly went missing, he wouldn't have thought of having another child.
Although the current birth policy had become much more lenient and having a second child wasn't a problem, he was still within the system, which had some influence.
His wife's early internal retirement, besides her own reasons, was also pre-arranged with the factory, a compromise for a second child, giving up her position to someone else.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival of 2004, his son returned, not planning to continue his studies, wanting to start a business.
The Tan family had always been quite democratic.
Tan Lihua didn't have patriarchal thoughts.
Although it was a bit regrettable, he respected his son's wishes.
After venturing out for a year, his son had developed his own ideas, which was a good thing.
Tan Lihua wasn't too concerned about how well the business would do or to what extent it could succeed.
Venturing out was good.
If it didn't work out, he could always use his old connections to help his son.
But who would have thought that this business would grow so big so quickly!
For the New Year in 2004, his son drove a Passat home.
He was quite excited at the time, also gave his mother a good amount of pocket money, and was planning to buy a house in Yicheng, which made Tan Lihua very excited.
After half a year in business, he had a house and a car.
Although most of the money was borrowed, it was a good start.
The debts could be repaid slowly.
Originally, Tan Lihua was even thinking of working hard the next year to help his son.
As it turned out, in less than half a year, not only did his son not need his help, but the Passat was replaced with a BMW, he had a second house, and his second and third companies were also successively established.
Midway, upon hearing this, Tan Lihua, who had come to check things out, was quite panicked, fearing that his son would get carried away after earning some money.
With not much accumulated wealth to begin with, the business was expanding, and if something went wrong, the entire family wouldn't be able to repay the debts.
However, a few more months passed, and the electric vehicle brand his son founded had its advertisements airing on provincial satellite TV, and sales were good.
Tan Lihua felt much more at ease, figuring the whole family probably wouldn't have to repay debts together.
By the end of the year, when he learned about Flash Technology again, his son was already worth over a hundred million yuan! Cars and houses were no longer his pursuits!
It even allowed him to meet people he could never have met before, and those people even tried to curry favor with him.
In a year and a half, Tan Lihua went from understanding to worrying, then to shock.
The complex emotions involved were difficult for ordinary people to comprehend.
"The fledgling eagle will eventually spread its wings,"
Tan Lihua's mind inexplicably echoed this phrase used to describe young people.
Today, he was going to meet his son's girlfriend.
He wondered what kind of girl she was, capable of taming his ambitious son.
(End of chapter)