Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins
Years of Heartflutter · Page 203 of 214
Li Dadong was deeply hesitant. It was not a question of his studies—anyone who has been to university knows that a student's personal time is quite ample, and that in certain courses without strict management, the lecturer does not even take attendance. So long as you pass the exams, they turn a blind eye. Going to Yang Juehuan's company would therefore not eat into Li Dadong's study time, and besides, for Li Dadong this was a remarkably good opportunity.
With university graduates saturating the market, finding a job had become a most severe problem. As university education became widespread, people no longer held college students—the former "advanced intellectuals"—in such awe. For a university graduate looking for work, there was scarcely any difference from an ordinary vocational college student or even a technical secondary school graduate.
A diploma represented nothing much. Positions were saturated; there simply were not enough posts to absorb the fresh graduates, to say nothing of the many graduates from previous years and the young people waiting for work.
Li Dadong had never looked for a job himself, but hearing and seeing it every day, with television and newspapers reporting on it constantly, he could see it plainly enough and understood the current situation quite well.
So Yang Juehuan's invitation had moved him. And Li Dadong understood very clearly that what Yang Cenbin was doing was not creating an opportunity for him to pursue Lin Yanhe, but rather helping him face squarely his relationship with Lin Yanhe and step out of the shadow of his feelings.
"Little brother, where are you?" Li Dadong hesitated for a long while without reaching a decision, so he decided to call his cousin and talk it over with him.
Nowadays nearly every family had only one child, which made cousins the closest thing to brothers and sisters. Li Dadong had been on good terms with this cousin since childhood, and whenever something weighed on his mind, he liked to seek him out for advice.
"Big brother, it's you—what's up?" Li Dadong's cousin answered the phone.
"Little brother, are you free? I've got something I'd like to hash over with you," Li Dadong said.
"Oh, sure. Hang on a bit—I'll go ask my boss for leave," his cousin said.
"I'll wait for you, then. Come to my place and have a couple of drinks with me," Li Dadong said.
"Got any food at your place? Forget it—if your dad, my uncle, sees the two of us drinking, he'll be after us again," his cousin said. "Come to the food stalls behind Commercial Street. My treat—I just got a commission today, so let's celebrate."
"All right, I'll be there in twenty minutes," Li Dadong said.
"About the same for me. Let's meet at Old Wang's barbecue stand," his cousin said.
After hanging up, Li Dadong's cousin turned and walked into the manager's office next door. "Manager Liu, my cousin just called—he needs to see me about something. Can I leave a bit early today?"
"No problem at all. If you've got business to attend to, go ahead," Manager Liu said with a smile and a nod.
"Thank you, Manager Liu," Li Dadong's cousin said, then turned and left the office.
Some of you may already have guessed—that's right, Li Dadong's cousin was Li Dagang, Yang Ce's good friend from high school. And Manager Liu had lately come to vaguely understand something of Yang Juehuan's background, which was why he was especially considerate toward Li Dadong.
After Yang Ce bought the house, there were many small matters and procedures he had no time to handle himself, so he sent Bao Lin to take care of them. Bao Lin had failed to handle the last matter properly and was worried Yang Ce might think poorly of him; now, seeing that Yang Ce had yet another task for him, he scurried off to see it done, wagging his tail like a happy dog.