Chapter Twenty-Four: To Be a Beast of Burden

After the meal, it was once again time for everyone to return to their own homes and their own mothers.

After seeing Zhu Qingyan off, Zhang Congwen and Song Jiawei also returned to the cramped little place they rented.

The friendship between men and that between women differ in many ways. Women's friendships require time to nurture, like Shaoxing yellow wine—the longer it ages, the richer the flavor. Men's friendships are much simpler, resembling the drinking buddies one sees on television. Unless there's something fun going on, the two rarely keep in touch.

Zhang Congwen and Song Jiawei were a textbook example of this sort of relationship. So, after they got back, they exchanged a few casual remarks before each retreating to their own rooms.

Life returned to its usual rhythm: Song Jiawei continued going to work, while Zhang Congwen resumed his job search.

He sent out several more resumes, but most vanished without a trace. A couple of companies called him in for interviews, but in the end, he turned them down because the pay was too low. This made Zhang Congwen miss those days not long ago when he was training dogs. It wasn’t so much the ten thousand yuan he’d earned from training two dogs, but rather the sense of ease those days had given him.

Before, he’d been anxious to find a job because he was short on money. But after earning a quick ten thousand from training dogs, the urgency faded.

He wasn’t particularly ambitious; his philosophy was that as long as he had enough to get by, there was no need to rush into being someone else’s workhorse.

But sometimes, being a beast of burden isn’t a matter of choice.

Last night, he’d planned to watch a few animal videos before bed, but before he knew it, it was already four in the morning. Just as he was about to finally sleep, the yowling of stray cats erupted downstairs in the dead of night. Zhang Congwen tried several times to find the source and chase them off, but he could hear them without ever catching sight of a single cat.

In the end, he could only resign himself to the situation and force himself to sleep amid the howls of the strays. So, his mood was far from good as he went to bed.

What made things even worse was that, by ten in the morning, someone was already knocking on his door.

He opened it to find Song Jiawei dressed in a formal suit.

“Why aren’t you at work today?” Zhang Congwen asked sleepily, still half-awake.

“Get yourself together and come with me somewhere,” Song Jiawei said, pulling Zhang Congwen to the bathroom.

“What are you dragging me into the bathroom for? Want to watch your old man take a dump, or is there something else on your mind? I’ll have you know, my orientation is completely normal.” Zhang Congwen, still not fully awake and caught off guard by Song Jiawei’s rapid-fire words, hadn’t grasped what was happening.

“Get out of here. Even if I did have some peculiar tastes, it wouldn’t be for someone like you. Hurry up, clean yourself up, put on some decent clothes, and come with me.” Song Jiawei shot him a look of utter disdain.

Before Zhang Congwen could even ask for clarification, Song Jiawei had him bent over the sink, washing his hair.

It wasn’t until Zhang Congwen had washed his face, brushed his teeth, changed his clothes, and gotten into the ride-share car Song Jiawei had ordered that he finally had a chance to ask, “What exactly do you want from me? I still need to send out resumes today. What if you’re the reason I miss out on becoming a CEO and marrying a billionaire heiress?”

Ignoring the faint hint of complaint in Zhang Congwen’s voice, Song Jiawei replied directly, “I need you to help me negotiate a project.”

“Me?” Zhang Congwen was completely baffled.

Song Jiawei knew full well what kind of person he was. What on earth could possess him to ask for help in business negotiations? And although they’d known each other for ages, Zhang Congwen had only a very vague idea that Song Jiawei worked in sales, but the specifics were a mystery.

He began to suspect that Song Jiawei must have banged his head on a lamppost on his way to work and lost his senses, otherwise why would he have such a crazy idea?

“Fatty, are you sure you’re not joking?” Zhang Congwen asked, still uncertain.

“Joking about what?” Song Jiawei was adamant. “It has to be you—no one else could do it. Listen, if you can help me land this deal, I won’t have to work for six months. And then you won’t need to rush finding a job either, I’ll take care of you for a month or two.”

Zhang Congwen distinctly noticed the ride-share driver glancing at them through the rearview mirror after Song Jiawei’s last remark.

“What the hell! What’s this all about? You making me clean up so thoroughly—don’t tell me your client has a thing for men and you want me to seduce him?” Zhang Congwen said, deliberately exaggerating.

The car lurched a bit at that.

“Keep dreaming. Take a look at yourself—even if I swung that way, you wouldn’t be my type. No one’s going to be interested in you,” Song Jiawei rolled his eyes.

Zhang Congwen put on a serious face, “Even if I tried, I couldn’t see myself in my own mouth. You’d have to try it.”

“Go ahead, strip down right now and let me see.”

When it came to banter, Song Jiawei was never one to back down from Zhang Congwen.

But the driver cleared his throat and decided it was time to intervene. “Gentlemen, just so you know, there’s an audio recording in this car.”

Zhang Congwen and Song Jiawei fell silent at once.

After a while, Zhang Congwen asked in earnest, “What’s really going on?”

He’d racked his brains and still couldn’t figure out what use he could possibly be to Song Jiawei.

Only after Song Jiawei explained did Zhang Congwen finally understand. It turned out Song Jiawei had been chasing after a major client for some time, but hadn’t been able to close the deal. He’d recently heard that this client’s dog was having issues, and that several professional trainers had failed to resolve it. Song Jiawei now wanted to seize this opportunity—if Zhang Congwen could help solve the dog problem, it might be the key to landing the client.

“So you woke me up at the crack of dawn just to make me your workhorse,” Zhang Congwen said with a sigh.

Song Jiawei, thick-skinned as ever, wasn’t about to stand on ceremony. “That’s not a nice way to put it. It’s not about being a workhorse—it’s about helping out your own brother, you know?”

“You really have high hopes for me. If all those legit trainers couldn’t fix it, you think I, an amateur, can?”

It wasn’t that Zhang Congwen didn’t want to help, but if several professionals had failed, this dog must be a real handful. He wasn’t confident he could succeed either. If he couldn’t, it wouldn’t matter—what worried him was the possibility of ruining the whole deal for Song Jiawei.

Despite his concerns, Zhang Congwen couldn’t help but feel a strange thrill at the prospect.

“Don’t worry about it. Just do your best—if anything goes wrong, I’ll take full responsibility.” Song Jiawei waved his hand grandly, as if commanding troops in some ancient army.

Of course, that was just Song Jiawei’s impression. In Zhang Congwen’s eyes, he looked utterly ridiculous.

“All right, then. Have you found out what’s actually wrong with the dog?” Zhang Congwen thought that since he was already on board, he might as well take it seriously.

“Of course,” Song Jiawei patted his chest, full of confidence, clearly pleased with himself.