Chapter 8: 007

007 "Let's play a little game, with a little wager — how about it?"

After leaving the main gate, turning at the crossroads, and walking a few more minutes, Zhao Wenjun stopped in front of a restaurant.

"Right here. The storefront doesn't look like much, but the food's pretty good — especially our Nanxin specialties. Sometimes when I come by I just order a few dishes and have a couple of drinks." With that, Zhao Wenjun walked into the restaurant.

A woman in her thirties who looked like the proprietress immediately came up to greet them. She seemed to know Zhao Wenjun and called out with a smile, "President Zhao, here to eat? The usual three?"

"Mm, add two more dishes. I've got a colleague with me — set us up in a private room."

"You got it…."

The proprietress led the two of them into a private room, then went off to attend to her work.

The dishes arrived quickly — stir-fried clams, pickled mustard greens, jellyfish head mixed with edamame, plus braised Langshan chicken and locally stewed razor clams. The two hearty dishes at the end looked like last-minute additions. Of course, there was also the local favorite, Hualu shaoxjiu.

The two ate and chatted idly. After a few cups, Zhao Wenjun refilled Fang Qingye's glass and suddenly said:

"Little Fang, you're pretty impressive — you actually saw through the whole mystery of the Tenglong Industrial deposit theft case at a single glance."

"President Zhao, what do you mean?" Fang Qingye set down his chopsticks, his face full of astonishment. "I don't know anything about the whole thing."

"We honest folk don't speak in riddles. Xia He reported to Secretary Liu that you gave an example that night… and that example turned out to be identical to the Tenglong case. You still call that an example?!" Zhao Wenjun said with a cold laugh.

Fang Qingye just smiled at that, picked up his chopsticks, and took a bite of food.

"Little Fang, why did you help Xia He? I don't suppose it's only because you're schoolmates?" Zhao Wenjun asked again.

Fang Qingye still said nothing.

Zhao Wenjun didn't press further either. He raised his glass and drained it in one gulp, then suddenly flung open the private room door and called out toward the bar, "Proprietress, do you have a Xinhua dictionary?"

The proprietress clearly didn't understand why Zhao Wenjun suddenly wanted a dictionary. She was taken aback for a moment before answering with a smile, "I think there's one. I'll go get it for you."

After a few minutes, the proprietress returned and handed Zhao Wenjun a dictionary that looked fairly old.

"I couldn't find one for kids, so I got one I used back when I was in school. It's a bit shabby — see if it works for you, President Zhao?"

"That's fine. If it were new, I probably wouldn't be able to use it." Zhao Wenjun took the dictionary with a smile and handed it to Fang Qingye.

Fang Qingye was baffled, not knowing what the other man was up to.

"Let's play a little game, with a little wager — how about it?"

"What game?" Fang Qingye was inwardly on guard, though his face remained calm.

"Take this dictionary, flip open any page, tell me the page number and which character counting from the top — and I'll be able to tell you exactly what character it is."

Huh?

Fang Qingye suddenly thought of the scene in the film *American Dreams in China* where Cheng Dongqing memorized an entire English dictionary on a plane and used it to turn the tables in a negotiation. He had been impressed watching it at the time.

Could this Zhao Wenjun have that same ability?

"So what's the wager?" Fang Qingye asked cautiously.

"If I win, this meal's on you."

"And if you lose?" Fang Qingye asked.

"Then I'll tell Xia He a secret nobody knows." Zhao Wenjun smiled mysteriously.

"Fine." Fang Qingye picked up the dictionary and flipped open a page at random. He looked at it and said, "Page 120, first character on the upper left."

"萼 — the calyx. It's the ring of small green sepals at the base of a flower."

Correct indeed!

Fang Qingye flipped a few pages further back. "Page 147, on the right side, third character counting from the bottom."

Zhao Wenjun thought for a moment before answering, "Should be 甘 — the 甘 in 'sweetness after hardship.'"

"I'm impressed! I lose!" Fang Qingye set down the dictionary and gave a thumbs-up. "President Zhao, memorizing a dictionary is a real skill — that's some serious kung fu!"

"Heh, it's all brute-force effort. I'm a child of the sixties, grew up in the countryside. My family was poor back then, so I only went to school a few years. After reform and opening up, I went to the city for a while to do manual work — stoking boilers for people. There wasn't any entertainment, and I couldn't afford books, so I happened to pick up a dictionary and started reading it whenever I had nothing to do." Zhao Wenjun took another sip of wine and slowly began recounting his past.

"Back then, I stoked boilers all day. The boiler room had electricity at night, so I read this thing day and night… I'm just a farmer's kid — no backing, no connections. If you want to amount to something, how can you not read?"

"Later on the bank was hiring temporary workers. I figured stoking boilers had no future, so I went to take the exam. Didn't expect to actually pass — but all I got was sweeping floors at the bank."

"I saw the tellers at the counter back then — uniforms, nice environment, good pay. I was so envious… So I studied like mad — accounting, abacus — and eventually became a teller myself, then went for further training, and step by step worked my way up to where I am now."

Fang Qingye had never heard anyone tell these stories before. Hearing them now from Zhao Wenjun, he was genuinely surprised and said sincerely:

"President Zhao, you're really inspiring. I admire you."

Zhao Wenjun smiled and continued his topic.

"I know I'm a farmer's kid. My demands aren't high — being able to sit in the branch president's seat would already bring honor to my ancestors. The old president is about to retire, and that seat should be mine. Just when it was within reach, the higher-ups suddenly transferred Xia He in, looking like she was going to take over. I didn't show anything on the surface, but inside I was very indignant."

"Just because she's a graduate student, young and pretty, with people up top backing her — while I only finished elementary school back then, with no background and no credentials, I'm supposed to just let people push me around? Little Fang, you can ask around the branch, even up at the city level — how is my work ability, really? Am I worse than her Xia He?!"

Zhao Wenjun's voice rose a little, startling the proprietress outside. She came in, took a look, and withdrew again.

Fang Qingye listened and said slowly, "You could compete fairly with President Xia."

"Compete fairly? Little Fang, you're too naive." Zhao Wenjun gave a cold laugh and went on:

"You know? When Xia He had just been transferred in, she ranked below me among the branch leadership. But before long, the old president suddenly applied to the higher-ups saying his health was poor and he needed to rest at home. The top approved right away and had Xia He temporarily take charge of the branch's work! Tell me — how am I supposed to compete fairly?!"

Fang Qingye said nothing, falling silent.

"That's when I knew I'd have to use extraordinary means to reach my goal." A flash of ruthless resolve crossed Zhao Wenjun's eyes.

"So you decided to use the Tenglong Industrial deposit theft, stirring things up behind the scenes to blow it up?"

"Right, that's exactly what I thought. The bigger the fuss, the more passive Xia He becomes running things — and the more chance I have." Zhao Wenjun smiled.

"Actually, I spotted the trick in the Tenglong Industrial matter three months ago, and I knew it was someone inside their company sabotaging things. So I came up with the idea of using it to set a trap."

"But the timing was still a bit early. If it came out too soon and the truth got uncovered, there'd be no point. So I pretended not to know and just waited for the moment to expose it. I even got Tenglong's Boss Qian to help me scheme — muddying the waters further to make the investigation harder."

A trace of smugness appeared on Zhao Wenjun's face.

"Boss Qian listens to you?" Fang Qingye cut in to ask.

"Boss Qian is my friend — we drink together all the time. Besides, if he doesn't listen, does he still want his loan?" Zhao Wenjun replied evenly.

Fang Qingye listened, silently raised his glass, and took a sip.

"But just as success was within sight, you stepped in and caused my efforts to come to nothing. I ask you, what benefit did Xia He give you?!"