“Oh, isn’t this General Manager Gao? Why are you eating soup at this small stand?” Everyone squatting around with a bowl of soup in hand and slurping noisily turned to look.
“My stomach is not feeling well,” Gao Feng said, patting his beer belly as he sat on a small wooden stool. “A bowl of hot soup will warm it up.”
“Hey, boss, hurry and get Manager Gao a bowl of hot soup. Hurry, ‘cause Manager Gao is a busy man. Manager Gao, I’m told that you’ve just landed the All Power Garden project. Oh my, that’s a huge investment, over 100 million yuan, right? You yourself will make 20 million yuan and perhaps more. Nowadays, making big money isn’t all that easy. Hey, boss, hurry up with the soup! You should take it as a huge compliment that Manager Gao wants to eat soup from your stand. I know for a fact that Manager Gao always takes his morning tea in a five-star hotel or something like that.”
A group of migrant workers came to the soup stand and cried out for more soup and chili sauce.
“Hey, hey, step aside and don’t try to push to this side. Don’t you see Manager Gao is eating soup here? These people, they are so uncultured. There are only two things in their lives: food and money. They’ll do anything for money. Manager Gao, once you’ve secured that 20 million yuan in hand, the migrant workers of the entire city would be stunned out of their wits!”
As the migrant workers broke their baked buns into pieces and stuffed them into their soup bowls.
Manager Gao looked up. “You’re not eating soup?” He said.
“No. I’m just strolling around, you know. I’m not busy these days anyway. I saw your Toyota Crown from a distance, your license plate number is: one six eight eight eight. Wow! How lucky! Good fortune all the way, as they say, right? Although you parked around the street corner, I spotted it right away.”
General Manager Gao stood up to leave without finishing the soup.
“General Manager Gao, see you later! Hey, boss, you probably don’t know him. He is General Manager of Hong Fa Real Estate Development, Ltd. Oh, we are thick buddies, you know.”
General Manager Gao Feng’s car vanished without leaving behind a shadow.
✲ ✲ ✲
“Hey, isn’t this General Manager Gao? Why, you’re here to take a bath?
Gao Feng looked annoyed. So did his client.
“What a client! It’s a convenient excuse for your dear wife, right? Ha! Ha! Ha! It isn’t easy to be a man these days. I’ve seen General Manager Gao come in three times a week, but never with a client.”
“You’ve been following me?”
“Oh, no! I don’t have the guts. The boss here and I are thick buddies, so I’m here often to lend a hand: ‘General Manager Gao still wants No. 18, Miss Lili!’ Oh, what a wench, dewy fresh, lovely, and the way she does her work! Miss Lili likes to tease, too, and calls you ‘Boss Ma’”.
Gao Feng was really irritated now.
“Hey! Here comes Boss Ma, hurry and take good care of him! Okay, get Miss Lili. General Manager Gao, you don’t really need to use an alias. The girls here are all very professional and will never betray their clients. Unlike that Lewinsky who sent the evidence Clinton left behind for DNA test. I’ve read in a newspaper that there is a reporter in the South who specializes in collecting used condoms from girls and saving them in the fridge so he can use them for blackmail. I told Lili she should never do that, no matter how much money people will give her. Lili! Hurry! Boss Ma has been waiting here!
Without a word, General Manager Gao turned and left.
✲ ✲ ✲
“Oh! Isn’t this General Manager Gao? Why, you have time to come and pick up the kid yourself. Your dear wife used to do that every day.”
“I am not busy today.”
“Must be once in a blue moon, ‘cause you’re juggling ten thousand things every day.”
“Why are you here? Your kid goes to school here, too?”
“Me? No, I’m here only strolling around, having nothing important to do anyway. I’ve heard that the crime rate has gone up recently. Several neighboring cities have had children kidnapped. Did you read about the real estate tycoon whose son was abducted and the kidnappers demanded a ransom of 500,000 yuan!? They got the money, but killed the kid anyway. How sad. The kid was only 12 years old. General Manager Gao, how old is your precious son now?”
General Manager Gao turned his face away. More and more people came to the school’s entrance to pick up their kids. Small peddlers cried out loudly in the crowd to push whatever cheap little commodities they were carrying.
“General Manager Gao, you gave your son a really good name: ‘Gao Hao’. Hao, meaning mid day sun in the sky, right? The little fellow is quite handsome, like you. He sits in the middle of the third row of 7th Grade, Class 5, doesn’t he? Good grades. Member of the Student Council, too. At the school’s sports meet last week, I saw the little fellow winning second prize. Isn’t that something?”
“Why don’t you go and pick up your kid?”
“My kid doesn’t need to be picked up. Lives close to school. Just a few steps away. Not a very good school. The kid doesn’t study hard, either. A few days ago the kid whined about transferring to a better school. I said ‘transferring to a better school? I can’t even pay for the tuition of this school!’”
The bell rang. School was dismissed. The crowd began to push toward the school’s entrance.
“Hey, General Manager Gao, I see your son. Gao Hao! Your dad is over there! Your dad is here to get you home in his car. See that? 16888! General Manager Gao, the little fellow has heard us. Your precious son is easy to recognize. With that birth mark right between the eyebrows. A sign of being blessed!”
Without a word General Mangaer Gao pushed his son into the car and crawled in himself. Before leaving, he lowered the window and said to me: “Come to my office tomorrow.”
“Okay, see you tomorrow, and I’ll be there on time.”
The next morning I received the wages General Manager Gao had owed me for two long years.
(2004)