Chapter 423 Roommate Reunion
“Lao San, Lao Liu, you’ve come. Come here, quick. Let me give you an introduction.”
When Fan Kun saw Ding Ning, his smile froze slightly, but he still greeted him very warmly.
“Lao Er, long time no see!”
Ding Ning nodded with a smile. Since Fan Kun could treat him like this, this meant that he had put aside their previous dispute. This was something he was willing to see.
“Come, let me give you an introduction. This is my girlfriend w.a.n.g Yeru, of the w.a.n.g Family from Yan Jing.”
Having a broad smile, Fan Kun gave an introduction, with slight pride in his tone. “Yeru, they were my good roommates at college: Zhao Xin and Ding Ning.”
Wearing a print broad V-neck silk-rich dress, w.a.n.g Yeru exposed a large area of her chest and had a LV handbag on her forearm, imperceptibly giving off the superiority of a person of a powerful family from Yan Jing from head to toe. When she saw the two handsome guys Zhao Xin and Ding Ning, her eyes brightened a bit, but she only nodded in a reserved manner.
When she found that although Zhao Xin was dressed in a low profile, his clothes were famous brands, which obviously showed his good family condition, her smile became warmer.
But when she saw Ding Ning’s white sports clothes, which made his good figure even better but were apparently stall goods, a scornful look appeared and vanished in her eyes.
“h.e.l.lo, sister-in-law, I’m Lao San Zhao Xin, and this is Lao Liu Ding Ning.”
Zhao Xin greeted w.a.n.g Yeru with an elegant smile.
“No, Fan Kun and I are not married yet, and we are only girlfriend and boyfriend. Don’t call me sister-in-law because it will make me look old. Just call me Yeru.”
Apparently, w.a.n.g Yeru treated Zhao Xin much more warmly than she did to Ding Ning. She volunteered to hold his hand and didn’t let it go and also leered at him. “Brother Zhao, you must drain more cups tonight.”
“Okay, no problem.”
Zhao Xin silently withdrew his hand and said tactfully.
An unhappy look appeared on Fan Kun’s face and then vanished. Anyone would feel uncomfortable when he saw his girlfriend seduce another man in his presence.
In powerful families, so many women had a dissolute private life. Obviously, w.a.n.g Yeru was one of them. Ding Ning was so worried about Fan Kun’s judgment. “Why does he always find such lascivious women? This woman won’t have any connections with me tonight.” It happened that she did not take him seriously, so he was relaxed standing on the side with a smile but without words.
“Lao San, Lao Liu, Yeru and I will still have to wait for several of her friends. You can go to Kaixuan Hall now, and Lao Da and Lao Wu have already been there.”
After a dry cough, Fan Kun said to Zhao Xin and Ding Ning.
“Lao Da and Lao Wu have also come! Great, Lao Er, you are more attractive to them.”
w.a.n.g Yeru kept leering at Zhao Xin, who had experience in handling women but still felt a little uncomfortable. Hearing these words, he hurriedly took Ding Ning’s arm walking inside. “We haven’t seen Lao Da and Lao Wu for a long time, so allow us to go in now.”
“Okay, go in now. When Yeru’s friends come, we will go in then.”
Fan Kun was relieved. In the past, when many of the women several of his roommates liked saw Zhao Xin and Ding Ning, they immediately fell in love them. Now w.a.n.g Yeru was obviously interested in Zhao Xin. No wonder, he was nervous.
“What backgrounds do the two friends of yours have? That man surnamed Zhao seems to have a rich family, while at first sight, I can say the one surnamed Ding is a poor wretch. Try not to keep in touch with such people in the future”
w.a.n.g Yeru pursed her lips and educated Fan Kun curtly.
“We are brothers from the same dormitory. Why do we need to care about family conditions when making friends?”
Fan Kun was unhappy and answered back indifferently.
“Oh, you are angry with me, aren’t you? Remember, if I have not liked you, could your Fan Family’s small and valueless company have survived in Yan Jing?”
w.a.n.g Yeru raised her brows and shouted imperiously, “Birds of a feather flock together. Communicate with people of high positions, never the gra.s.sroots. In the future, you will be my w.a.n.g Family’s son-in-law. If you continue to be brothers with such lower-cla.s.s b.u.mpkins, you will make our w.a.n.g Family lose face. How will others think of us? Do you want them to say that all friends of our w.a.n.g Family’s son-in-law are clodhoppers from the mountains? I will feel ashamed even if you don’t.”
“Can making friends so complicated?”
Fan Kun retorted, but he was apparently unconfident.
“Why not so? In our Yan Jing, we will judge the person before we make friends, and we will make friends with those who are in the same cla.s.s as us. In a while when my friends arrive, don’t let your friends disgrace me. My friends are all children of prestigious powerful families, especially the one from Yan Jing. She has a very great background and is preparing to open a company in Ninghai. By then, you will need to show yourself well. If you can make her happy, your Fan Family will be prosperous with a few of her words.”
w.a.n.g Yeru reminded him reproachfully.
“Okay, I see.”
Fan Kun did not like this theory of w.a.n.g Yeru, but he did not want to damage their relationship, so he answered with distress.
Ding Ning had very sharp ears and heard w.a.n.g Yeru’s words clearly, but he only gave a soft smile. “It seems that the w.a.n.g Family is not powerful in Yan Jing; otherwise, w.a.n.g Yeru will never need to fawn on others.”
“Lao San, Lao Liu, you’ve finally come. Come, come, come, light a cigarette.”
As soon as the two of them entered Kaixuan Hall, their dormitory’s Lao Da and Lao Wu came over with great joy, took out a pack of CHUNGHWA cigarettes, and gave one to either of them.
“Great, Lao Da, now you can afford CHUNGHWA.”
Zhao Xin took the cigarette, lighted it, and joked with a smile.
“No, this is a matter of ‘face’. If you don’t take a pack of high-quality cigarettes when you go out, others will look down upon you.”
Lao Da Liu Jie puffed with a sigh, looking wretched. The high spirit he had at school had long gone, and the wrinkles on his forehead had become much deeper, suggesting that he didn’t live happily.
“Don’t say that, Lao Da. It is not easy for us brothers to reunite, why do you mention such unhappy things?”
Lao Wu Song Dong patted Liu Jie’s shoulder and comforted him.
“What’s wrong, Lao Da? I’ve heard that you are a medical representative in Gusu, aren’t you? Is it that a difficult job?”
Ding Ning was somewhat confused and asked. A medical representative’s work was toilsome because he often had to get business deals from hospitals, but the commission was lucrative.
“Alas, Lao Liu, you don’t know how fierce the compet.i.tion is now, and hospitals are also terrible. Every day I invite hospital leaders to dinner and entertainment and they come every time, but when it is time to sign the contract, Christ, they won’t give me any profits.”
Liu Jie shook his head with a forced smile. He was only in his 20s, but he looked like a man of more than 30. Apparently, he had become much older than before.
“Drugs have huge profits! If the hospital leaders ask for rebates, you can raise their prices. How can you drug salesmen have no profits to collect?”
As medical college graduates, both Zhao Xin and Ding Ning knew the unwritten rule that hospitals claimed rebates. After hearing Liu Jie’s complaint, Zhao Xin felt a little puzzled and asked.
“It is easier said than done. Drugs do have huge profits. A pill of 20 cents can sell for ten yuan in the hospital, but the leaders of the hospital will ask for so much. We have to spend money inviting them to dinner, right? Everyone will try to get profits, including the executive, deputy executives, department directors and deputy directors, doctors in charge, and the medical department. With such costs removed, the money I finally get is only my labor payment.”
Gloomy-faced, Liu Jie shook his head time after time. “As for raising the prices, even if the patients don’t protest and will have to accept them, those extremely greedy guys will continue raising the rebates. Finally, it is us medical representatives who will suffer. If our tasks are not finished, we won’t get the commission, and our basic wages will also be reduced. I have just got the basic wage in two months in a row. It is hard to make money, even harder than going to the heavens.”
“The truth is that the relationships of your medical company’s boss are not strong enough.”
Zhao Xin went straight to the heart of the matter.
“What can I do though I know that? I can’t get into a company whose boss has strong relationships. If I can get in, I can easily make money. Who doesn’t want to go there?”
Liu Jie snuffed out the cigarette b.u.t.t in the ashtray, heaved a sigh, and said.
“How have you been recently, Lao Wu?”
Liu Jie had been defeated by social reality, looking decadent, but Zhao Xin could not help him, so he had to wisely change the subject.
“Me? My life is decent. You know, I opened a small bar near the college town. I am not as good as those excellent ones but better than those poor ones. From time to time, I can fool around with a young beauty. It’s not bad.”
Compared with his roommates, Song Dong was a little strange: He disdained worldly affairs. He was an outstanding student in ad design, but he had no interest in his major. After graduation, he borrowed money from different people, opened a bar with it, and had been living a befuddled life with drinks.
Ding Ning knew the bar, but he had never visited it. He knew that opening the bar was a way of degenerating for Song Dong because he had been hurt too deeply.
In fact, that also had so much to do with Ding Ning. At college, Song Dong had a crush on a beautiful girl in his department. After the two of them confirmed their love relationship, that girl made Ding Ning her acquaintance through him and broke up with him, and then she went to pursue Ding Ning, who was speechless about it.
Although Song Dong was reasonable and knew that he could not blame Ding Ning, but this had inevitably made an irreparable crack between them. This was why Ding Ning knew that Song Dong opened a bar near the college town but he had never visited it.
After the Green Cloud Gang was founded, Ding Ning specially asked Feng Jun to take more care of that bar, so Song Dong’s life could be so leisurely and relaxed.
“Didn’t those punks go to collect the protection fee from you? Both good people and bad guys live in the college town area, where there is so much profit. I am a forensic doctor, but I have several friends working in the Public Security Bureau. If anyone is so stupid to make trouble, just tell me, and I will tell my friends.”
Finally, Zhao Xin showed his superiority as a forensic doctor and patted his chest to promise.
“It’s useless to call the police. Previously, those punks came to collect the protection fee time and often, and I did want to call the police, but it was useless. As soon as you called the police, they ran. After the police officers left, they would return and could destroy my bar. Police officers could not protect my bar 24 hours a day, and I could not afford their protection fee. I had no other ways but to accept the punks’ conditions. No matter how much they wanted, I paid them, as long as they allowed me to make a living.”
Speaking of this, Song Dong became highly spirited and said mysteriously, “But I have been lucky recently. Those unruly punks were driven away by a group called Green Cloud Gang. Since then, no one has ever come to my bar to collect the protection fee. It is better than the police.”
“Oh, this Green Cloud Gang is not bad. It doesn’t even charge for protection.”
Zhao Xin felt usually strange and said.
Song Dong gave a gloating smile. “You are wrong. The Green Cloud Gang does charge for protection, but it doesn’t collect the protection fee from my bar.”
“Why? Is the boss of the Green Cloud Gang your biological father who has lost contact with you for years?”
Zhao Xin made a comical remark.
“Get lost. Of course, it’s not that.”
Song Dong aimed an angry kick at him, but Zhao Xin avoided it with a smile.
Ding Ning was shocked. “F*ck, has this guy found that I made this happen?”
But Song Dong’s answer made him utterly speechless. He was as motionless as a piece of board and didn’t know whether he should cry or laugh. “Sure enough, narcissism is not Zhao Xin’s patent, but the tradition of our dormitory.”
Sitting cross-legged complacently, Song Dong said in a mysterious tone, “The head of the Green Cloud Gang is a stunning beauty, who collects the protection fee from all the bars but mine. I suspect that she loves me secretly.”