Chapter 327 Please Don’t Be Such a Slick Old Hand

Chapter 327: Please Don’t Be Such a Scheming Old Hand

Su Taotao returned to her office and was busy for over an hour.

When she finally looked up at the clock, it was almost four in the afternoon.

Fu Zhengtu and Fu Yuanhang should’ve been well on their way by now.

She arched her back in a stretch, and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the phone number Xiao Chen had given her.

Su Taotao steeled herself and dialed the number.

It was a call to some factory, and Su Taotao didn’t know who to ask for, so she simply requested to speak to someone surnamed Su.

As soon as the person on the other end heard, they barked into the receiver, ‘Someone for you!’

—"Hey, it’s me—your brother."

"Who the heck are you?" Su Taotao snapped.

—"Me, your own flesh-and-blood cousin (on your dad’s side), Su Zhaotang. Second Aunt said you’d turned your back on family, and I didn’t believe it. I went through so much trouble to track down your number, and now you don’t even remember your own brother?"

Su Zhaotang…

Su Taotao couldn’t recall this person at all. He wasn’t mentioned much in the original book and didn’t seem to have much interaction with the original owner.

The only impression she had was that he was several years older than her and was close with Xu Jiadong, her childhood sweetheart.

Come to think of it, he was probably also close with Zhang Jingan—they must have been classmates in the same year.

"Oh, hello. What’s the matter?" Su Taotao asked.

—"Hah, look at you, all formal now that you’re a factory director. Since when do you greet me with ‘hello’? Anyway, I wanted to ask—is your factory still hiring?"

Su Taotao sidestepped the question and countered, "Aren’t you already working at a factory?"

—"Not for me. It’s for, well, Xu Jiadong—he’s back now. I’m asking on his behalf. I wasn’t planning to bother you with this, but Zhang Jingan said he couldn’t make the decision, that it was up to you as the factory director. That’s why I’m calling.

You and Xu Jiadong used to be so close. If you hadn’t chickened out of rural life and married that nobody, your kid with him would be in grade school by now.

You should’ve seen him—he was completely—"

"Are you done?" Su Taotao cut him off. "Whose brother are you, really? What’s the point of this call? You know I’m married with a husband and child, yet you keep going on about Xu Jiadong and how ‘close’ we used to be. Are you trying to wreck my marriage?"

He gave a greasy laugh. "No, it’s just… Xu Jiadong’s just sitting on cash with nothing to do, so I thought—"

"You thought you’d take his money, and I’d provide him with a job, all while letting him loom around me to annoy me and my husband, is that it?

When I was barely scraping by, you didn’t lift a finger to help. Now that my life is finally a little better, you come to make trouble for me?

I don’t need a ‘brother’ like you. Don’t you dare call me again. We’re done here."

Without waiting for a response, Su Taotao slammed the receiver down with a crack.

These period dramas were the worst—you never knew when some trash-tier relative would crawl out of the woodwork.

Some brother he turned out to be. Screw that!

On the other end of the line, Su Taotao was completely stunned by the scolding. It took her a while to snap out of it: "When did my timid little cousin, who used to scream at the sight of a cockroach, become so feisty?"

She hadn't even finished speaking. Since when was she some money-grubbing lowlife? Xu Jiadong had offered a thousand yuan for a job, but she never intended to keep it all for herself—at most, she'd take a cut of a hundred bucks for making the connection. Why couldn't they let her finish?

Su Zhaotang sighed: "Guess being a big-shot factory boss changes a person, no surprise you can’t be bothered to visit your uncle and aunt. Ah well, guess that cash ain’t meant for me."

...

After hanging up, Su Taotao steamed over it more and more and immediately called the new factory.

Old Gao answered the phone.

She asked Old Gao to find Zhang Jingan and have him call her back as soon as possible.

About ten minutes later, the call came through.

Before Su Taotao could speak, Zhang Jingan, like a damn fortune-teller, cut in first:

—"Did Su Zhaotang contact you? I didn’t agree to his request and only gave him your number when I had no other choice."

Su Taotao: "..."

—"Don’t worry, I’m very clear about the factory’s hiring principles. I just thought, given your *thing* with Xu Jiadong..."

"Zhang Jingan, let me make this clear for the last time," Su Taotao interrupted. "I don’t know why you all keep bringing up Xu Jiadong in front of me, again and again.

From the moment I decided to marry Fu Zhengtu, we were done, period.

I love my husband deeply, my marriage is happy, and I'm living my best life. I’d wiped Xu Jiadong from my memory until you all kept mentioning him. So don’t ever say his name to me again."

There was a long silence on Zhang Jingan’s end.

He couldn’t reconcile the person on the phone with the woman from his past life—the one who abandoned her husband and child for Xu Jiadong, then threw herself at him. Their personalities were completely different.

In this reborn life, folks stayed pretty much the same. Why was Su Taotao a whole other person?

She loved her husband and was living her best life. So why, in the previous life, had she washed her hands of her family to return to the city and marry Xu Jiadong?

And if she had loved Xu Jiadong so much, why had she cheated on him after their marriage?

His rebirth memories began around the time Su Taotao decided to marry in the countryside.

He had been recuperating at home from an injury, and the Su family was up in arms over her boneheaded move, even threatening to wash their hands of her.

For a long time, they hadn’t been in contact.

In truth, if she had waited it out a bit longer, the Su family could have gotten her back to the city. But she insisted on marrying that man.

What kind of man had her so spellbound?

"Zhang Jingan?"

—"My apologies. I understand. It won’t happen again."

After putting her foot down like that, Su Taotao had nothing more to say.

She got lost in her thoughts after hanging up.

The main person hasn’t shown up yet, but these irrelevant people keep coming one after another to act as his vanguard.

Although it doesn’t really affect her, it’s still grating.

She will eventually have to take Chenchen back to visit his grandparents.

No doubt they’ll show up to Fu Zhengtu and try to brush presence in front of him.

It feels like this scenario is inescapable.

Even though Fu Zhengtu wouldn’t care, and she’s already explained everything to him, it’s still grating.

“Mommy~~” The child popped his head in.

Su Taotao stood up and walked over: “Yes, sweetie?”

Chenchen handed Su Taotao half a chocolate he had hidden in his palm: “Mommy eat chocolate, it’s so good~~”

Su Taotao’s heart melted: “No thank you, baby. You have it yourself, Chenchen. If you like it, I’ll get you more next time.”

Su Taotao unwrapped it for him and held it up for him.

The little one took a bite from his mommy’s hand, squinting his eyes in utter contentment.

“What would you like for dinner tonight, Chenchen? We’ll go to the market together later.”

Chenchen tilted his little head and thought: “Noodle soup~~”

“Okay, we’ll see what seafood is available at the market and make seafood noodle soup.”

Chenchen nodded: “Uh-huh~~”

There was a sudden knock at the door. Su Taotao: “Come in.”

The new assistant walked in: “Director Su, there’s an issue with this order. I’ve tried multiple times to collect the final payment, but they refuse to settle unless you personally speak with them, ma’am.”

Su Taotao took the document: “Don’t we usually collect full payment before shipping now?”

The assistant nodded: “Yes, but this one is from three months ago, from a partner organization in the capital. I think they’re giving us the runaround, ma’am.”

Su Taotao glanced at it: “Alright, I’ll take care of it. You can go now.”

“Let me just wrap this up and then we can leave,” Su Taotao said to Chenchen.

Chenchen pulled out some building blocks from his little backpack: “I’ll play with these~~”

Su Taotao ruffled his hair: “Go ahead.”

Su Taotao dialed the contact number on the order, and someone answered quickly.

—“My, my, Director Su is such a busy person. It’s really not easy to get hold of you.”

Su Taotao racked her brains but couldn’t recall who this person was.

She checked the contact name: Wei Hai.

This was probably an order Xiao Lu took from the partner organization.

“Hello, Director Wei. It is indeed hard to get hold of me, usually because of people who don’t honor contracts. You’re a special case, Director Wei.”

The sarcastic remarks didn’t anger the other party; instead, they burst into laughter:

—"Director Su is indeed quick-witted. Let me cut to the chase then—here’s the thing: I want to discuss a business deal with you. I just wonder if Director Su has the guts to take on my order."

Su Taotao replied, "I don’t do business with people who don’t honor agreements. Director Wei, please return my payment first, and then we can talk."

—"Director Su really isn’t afraid of offending me, huh? Don’t worry, you’ll get every cent. I have an export order here ten times larger than this one. Would Director Su be interested?"

Su Taotao: "Orders big or small—I’m interested in any business."

—"Fair enough. I don’t care about the specifics—I’ll act as the middleman and only take a 10% commission."

Su Taotao was stunned, wondering if she had dialed the wrong number. In all her time since crossing over, this was the first time she had encountered someone so boldly asking for a cut.

And doing it so shamelessly, like it’s no big deal, on an official call at that.

This Director Wei was a real piece of work.

"Director Wei, return my payment first. As for your proposal, I’ll consider it carefully."

Before getting the remaining payment back, Su Taotao wasn’t about to go nuclear. She could still demand the money from their unit later—it would just be a pain in the neck.

Unfortunately, there was no phone recording in this era. Even if she wanted to drop a dime on him, she had no evidence.

Director Wei, thinking Su Taotao had agreed to his proposal, readily promised to transfer the payment.

—"I’ll fax Mr. Birmingham’s order to you later."

After hanging up with Wei Hai, Su Taotao sat there, dead quiet.

"You can’t run a clean shop without some dirt." Right now, her operation was still small, with more orders than she could handle, giving her the upper hand. But once the new factory started production and capacity increased, she would face a larger, more complex market and interpersonal relationships.

Wei Hai, a slippery operator, was the first of his kind she had encountered—but he certainly wouldn’t be the last.

Even within their own factory, challenges would arise.

Balancing this market and eradicating such underhanded deals would be a tough road ahead.

Now she began to pray that the Secretary, representing the Party and disciplinary inspection, wouldn’t turn out to be another shady dealer.

And that he would have her back. Otherwise, what a headache it would be.