Chapter 29: You Were Born When I Was Already Old

  Lan Jie looked at Tang Yi with a surprised expression as he walked towards the bathroom, wondering why this young man wanted to see his daughter.

  Chen Da and Kaizhi were also confused at first, but after thinking about it, they felt relieved. Perhaps Secretary Tang thought that the mother-daughter duo had suffered because of him and had a kind heart.

  "So I won't hide it from Sister Lan anymore. 'Do you know who he is? It's Tang Secretary, the one your husband almost killed, now he's the secretary of the Yan Shan County Committee.'"

  Lan's sister was stunned, her heart racing with anxiety, thinking that Tang Yi wanted to take revenge on her and her mother. With a sob in her voice, she said: "Director Chen, please help us out, we've suffered enough as a mother and daughter. You, you go beg Secretary Tang for mercy, I'll leave Yanqing right away..."

  Chen Da waved his hand and smiled: "What are you thinking, Secretary Tang is a Bodhisattva with a kind heart, he must have been moved by sympathy. Don't worry, I didn't know about your mother-daughter affair, now that I do, I won't let those little rascals mess around."

  Tang Yi came out of the bathroom dressed neatly and said to the two: "Lan sister, Chen brother, let's go."

  Lan sister still didn't quite believe them, and hesitated: "I, I'm still on duty."

  Chen Da smiled and said: "What's there to be afraid of? I'll just give Xiao Wan a shout, no problem."

  Lan sister knew that she couldn't win the argument, so she reluctantly nodded. Tang Yi said, "What's the point of saying goodbye, just quit directly." This kind of work is supposed to be a legitimate massage, but after a long time, even the most reserved woman will become corrupted. Tang Yi didn't want Bao'er's mother to become a loose woman that anyone could have, nor did he want Bao'er's young mind to be harmed.

  Lan's sister heard that Tang Yi was the county party secretary and felt a little intimidated. When she heard Tang Yi's words, she didn't dare to respond.

  Chen Dahe felt a bit strange, looking at Tang Yi and then at Lan Jie, thinking to himself: "Could it be that Secretary Tang has taken a liking to her?" He said aloud: "Alright, I'll call Xiao Wan over."

  Chen Da dialed the extension on the bedside cabinet to the manager's office, exchanged a few words with Manager Wan, and hung up the phone with a smile: "He'll be here in a minute."

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, it wasn't long before Manager Wan rushed over, hurrying in and smiling apologetically: "Director Chen, what's going on? You were just saying something unclear earlier. Who wants to leave? Is this young fellow dissatisfied with something?"

  Chen Dahao smiled and said, "How can that be? It's like this, Xiaolan is planning to resign, you help her with the formalities." Lan Jie's lips moved slightly, looking at Chen Dahao and then at Tang Yi, but in the end she didn't dare say a word.

  "Resign? Why?" Manager Wan asked in astonishment.

  Tang Yi hastily went to see Bao'er, somewhat impatiently: "No reason, I just don't want to do it anymore."

  Tang Yi's words were met with a frown from Manager Wan, who said, "This matter is a bit difficult."

  Chen Da saw that Tang Yi's face was not good and immediately glared with his cow eyes: "Xiao Wan, I told you to do it quickly, what are you dawdling about?"

  Manager Wan was also somewhat angry, he didn't want to offend Chen Dahai, but his uncle in Yanqing was also a figure with head and face, usually the leaders of the city came to him very politely, who knew that a young man from a county would be so arrogant to himself, even if you look at Chen Dahai's face, you are too arrogant!

  Moreover, Manager Wan had a bit of personal feelings, Lan Jie was one of the few masseuses he hadn't touched yet, and he couldn't bear to let her go without tasting her.

  "After some thought, Manager Wan said: 'Resignation is possible, but according to the contract she signed with the company, she should repay the training fees.'"

  Tang Yi frowned and said: "How much money? I'll pay."

  Manager Wan smiled and said: "Alright then, you wait here, I'll go get the contract." He turned around and walked out of the room.

  Tang Yi saw that Lan Jie's gaze was somewhat strange, and Chen Kun explained: "Lan Jie, it's like this. Old Chen probably told you that I'm the victim who was stabbed by Zhuo Dajun. However, I didn't know that I would cause so much trouble for you mother and daughter. I want to do something to make up for it." Tang Yi thought of how he had caused Bao'er to wander and suffer in a foreign land at such a young age, and his words were indeed sincere.

  Lan sister listened to him speak sincerely, thinking that this young secretary was quite humane, but when she thought of the contract again, she was a little worried. When the entertainment city recruited people, it was written very clearly that they could either pay for the massage therapist training themselves or have the company advance the payment, but if the company advanced the payment, the training fee would be 5,000 yuan, and afterwards, 300 yuan would be deducted from their salary every month for three years, including interest. Lan sister didn't have the money to pay for the training herself, so she had no choice but to sign her name on that contract which was like a slave contract. Now seeing Secretary Tang wanting to help her quit, she was both expecting and worried that Secretary Tang would regret it after seeing the contract.

  When Manager Wan rushed over and handed the contract to Tang Yi, Tang Yi slightly frowned: "Five thousand yuan?" Manager Wan smiled: "That's the training fee. If you breach the contract and quit, you'll have to compensate the company 10,000 yuan as stated in the contract."

  Chen Da and Ting listened and smiled: "Xiao Wan, let's make a deal, forget about this money."

  Manager Wan smiled and said, "Of course it's easy for Director Chen to say that. In that case, I'll just collect the 5,000 yuan training fee. After all, the company has rules, not a single cent can be waived, and there's no way to balance the accounts. The finance department won't do it either!"

  Chen Da's face fell and he said in a low voice: "Xiao Wan, don't you even give your brother this little bit of face?"

  Manager Wan smiled and said: "This is not a matter of face or no face, the company's system I also can't do anything about it? Unless you find my uncle?"

  Chen Da's eyes widened in anger, but Tang Yi waved his hand and picked up a package from the bedside cabinet. He took out a bank card and handed it to Chen Da: "Brother Chen, go withdraw 10,000 yuan, the password is five 8s."

  Chen Da and responded with a "yes", glared at Manager Wan, turned around and walked out. Manager Wan heard Tang Yi loudly instructing Chen Da to do something, Chen Da obediently responded, but his heart was already racing, quickly realizing that he might have made a mistake.

  He thought of chatting with Tang Yi again, but saw that Tang Yi had already sat down on the leisure sofa by the window, closing his eyes to rest, as if he didn't exist. Manager Wan was also annoyed and thought, "You can love whoever you want, but today I won't give you any face."

  "Lan sister, go change your clothes, we'll leave in a bit." Tang Yi suddenly spoke up, Lan sister hastily responded, with a joyful smile she exited the VIP room, seeing Secretary Tang's demeanor, it was impossible to deceive herself.

  Lan sister almost returned with Chen Da and, Lan sister wearing a red leather jacket, red pants, red high-heeled shoes, also had a certain kind of young daughter-in-law's charm.

  Chen Da threw the stack of money in his hand to Manager Wan: "Count it!"

  Manager Wan never thought that someone could easily take out tens of thousands of dollars. He was just trying to make things difficult for Chen Dahe and also give the young man a lesson, planning to back down after saying a few more words, so that Chen Dahe would know his place. But unexpectedly, he encountered someone who didn't care about tens of thousands of dollars at all. Manager Wan regretted it a bit, but now saying something about returning the money would be too embarrassing. Seeing Chen Dahe's unfriendly gaze, although he was somewhat regretful, he wasn't afraid either. After all, he was from the county bureau, and his uncle had connections in Yanqing, so if he really wanted to cause trouble, he didn't need to fear him.

  Lan sister looked at Manager Wan's hand with a stack of money and felt a pang in her heart, but she didn't dare say anything more.

  Tang Yi, Chen Dahe and He Lan left the entertainment city and got into Chen Dahe's Santana. He Lan gave directions to Chen Dahe while saying to Tang Yi: "Secretary Tang, I will slowly pay back that 10,000 yuan, but I'm not doing this line of work anymore, I'm afraid... it may take a long time to pay you back..."

  Tang Yidao said: "Don't worry, I'll return it slowly." He actually didn't want this money, as long as Bao'er was willing to yield, but there was no reason for that, so he could only agree for the time being.

  Santana slowly turned into a bungalow area in Yanqing, looking at the dilapidated small houses on both sides of the street, Tang Yi frowned.

  Under Lan's guidance, the car stopped at a hutong entrance. Lan got out of the car and led Tang Yi and Chen Da into the hutong. There were more than a dozen simple and dilapidated wooden houses crowded in the hutong. In front of the wooden houses was a stinky ditch. The people here didn't care much about hygiene, and they would directly pour leftover food into the ditch. The smell filled the air.

  Lan sister took the key to open a wooden house lock, seeing this dirty wooden house, Tang Yi's heart was sour, and asked: "Where is Bao'er?"

  "No, lock the door, it's safe."

  Maybe heard Lan sister's voice, the wooden door was just pushed open, and a small shadow had already jumped out of it, and plunged into Lan sister's arms. It was a beautiful girl with a full head of small flowers, wearing a white sweater, snow-white knit pants, and red leather shoes, just like a doll, lovely to the extreme.

  Tang Yi saw this delicate and lovely girl, his mind buzzing with thoughts, for a moment, his thoughts drifted away to who-knows-where, as if he had returned to the dreams of his past, those beautiful and colorful dreams.

  "Hello Uncle Tang, hello Uncle Chen." Under Lan's guidance, Bao'er cleverly greeted Tang Yi, Chen Da and Ju Zhang with a bow. Chen Da laughed happily, "This little girl is really sensible."

  Tang Yi also came back to his senses and smiled, saying: "Yes, she's very sensible." As he said this, his nose was slightly sour, his heart ached, and he gently turned his head away.

  She's very sensible, I know.