Chapter Text
“Shouldn’t the person being interviewed say why they are suited for the job and not the other way around?”
Li Jun tapped his pen on the paper, eyes squinted in a mix of disbelief and annoyance. Who wouldn’t be? The seating area of a dingy for-hire restaurant, without air conditioning no less, was no place to be holding an official “business meeting”. Sweat rolled down his brow, his eyes fixated on his interviewer who had just spent the past 45 minutes trying to persuade him to join his business, grinning like it was already a done deal. Business might not even be the right word. It’s probably more accurate to call it a draft or idea. He’d just leaned back in his chair, and thrown around buzzwords like ‘visionary’ and ‘ground-breaking opportunity’, as if that could disguise the fact that his business was nothing more than a half-baked concept scribbled on the back of a receipt.
“Don’t be like that! It’s not like I’m asking you to manage finances for an underground fighting ring. We already have employees, salaries, budgets, menus, location and supplier figured out. We have the money and manpower to make this happen! All we need you to do is make sure we don’t go under. Come on, Li Jun! All you need to do is look at some numbers and make sure our restaurant doesn’t crash and burn. We can both benefit! You get a job and I get a finance manager.”
Ji Xia was an egotistical fool if he thought he could waltz right in and strike a deal with him without even proposing a minimum salary offer. And when Li Jun asked him for one, what was his response?
“I can’t provide you with one right now when we haven’t even opened up shop yet! Give it a few weeks and I’ll see if I can come up with something. Oh wait, better yet, since you’re going to be my accountant, pick a salary for yourself.”
Ji Xia’s unprofessionalism often had a way of rendering Li Jun absolutely speechless.
Seeing as negotiations aren’t going any smoother, Ji Xia let out a sigh and stood up to rummage the bags behind him. Mistaking this as his cue to leave, and believing that he was finally free from the nightmare that was the entrepreneur in front of him, Li Jun started packing up his stuff.
“Hey, don’t start packing up. We’re not done.”
Lifting a BreadTop-branded plastic bag, a large wad of cash was taken out and tossed to the table. Probably around 20,000 yuan. Unamused, Li Jun lifted a couple of the bills - bait, apparently- in slow, deliberate silence.
“What’s this for?”
“It’s the average salary for money people like you. Well, for the first month anyway. By then, we’ll have a confirmed bottom line. If it’s too low, feel free to leave at any time and keep the money. Oh, this also counts if the restaurant dies before then, though that’ll never happen. Keep this a secret, but I’ve bribed the gods to roll the celestial dice in my favour!”
With a wink, Ji Xia reordered the money not dissimilarly to professional poker players shuffling playing cards, and stuffed it in Li Jun’s front pocket. Li Jun wondered if he frequented casinos in his spare time.
“Do me a favor, Brother Jun. You and I have each other's common interests at heart.”
Feeling the weight in his shirt, Li Jun considered his words. It isn’t a bad deal. There is, at the least, the guarantee of a month’s worth of money. This gave him an okay amount of time to find another job in case things played out poorly.
“I accept,” Li Jun said finally, taking out his pen to sign the contract. He couldn’t even be surprised when Ji Xia failed to provide one.
Writing contracts without too many loopholes in either party’s favour, or statements so painfully vague it became a businessman's wet dream was, unfortunately, one of Ji Xia’s many weak points. It took 4 painstakingly long hours to draft a version that Li Jun considered even remotely adequate.
By the time the pen hit paper and everything was finalised, Li Jun had gone from dying from the heat to freezing in his suit.
“It’s a deal then. Welcome to QingYu. The world’s best to-be restaurant!”
“A good name,” Li Jun nodded, unable to find the strength to say much more.
Ji Xia stood, shaking Li Jun’s hand with the energy of somebody who hasn’t been flipping through paperwork the length of the Hunger Games’ Trilogy, “Whoever breaks this contract shall be cursed by heaven and earth!”
“More like sued to the depths of hell.”
Perhaps it was the exhaustion but when Ji Xia started bursting into laughter, Li Jun did too.