Ji Changze washed his hands and went out. After two steps forward, he could hear Mother Zhou’s talking to her daughter softly.
“I’m not saying that he has to work harder and more serious, at least do the look. He didn’t even work on his first day. He was surrounded by employees, and they can see clearly. Right now, your dad is in the hospital, and no one in the company is watching. He’s from our family, but he’s like this, what would the employees think? “
Mother Zhou sighed, “Ranran, it’s not that Mom won’t let Changze enter the company. It’s really because he looks like he’s not taking it seriously. Do you know what people in the company say in private? There are all kinds of unpleasant words, and people say that Zhou Family bought his education. “
Zhou Ranran looked embarrassed. Instead of being angry with her husband, she apologized to Mother Zhou in Ji Changze’s place. “I’m sorry, Mom. He may have been absent from formal work for a long time. I’ll tell him. “
Ji Changze wasn’t surprised that Zhou Ranran would speak for him.
After all, the original owner looks one way outside, and when he returns home, he looks another way when he was facing Zhou Ranran.
It’s not that he hasn’t been to the company before. The original owner disliked the position and didn’t want to do it. When he returned, he gave Zhou Ranran nonsense, saying that everyone in the company looked down on him, especially those shareholders.
Everyone thought that he entered the company only because of his wife. He stayed in the company while suffering indignities; how could he have the mind to work?
The original owner also saw Zhou Ranran’s gentle temper. The shareholders were all uncles who watched her grow up and loved her very much, while her husband was the one who fell in love with her, and they would spend a lifetime together.
Being caught in the middle, she was in a dilemma at both ends. It was unrealistic to question those shareholders. Not to mention feelings, her father was ill at that time, and the company’s operation mostly depended on these shareholders. Even if she didn’t understand company affairs, she knew that there was conflict between shareholders at this time.
Therefore, she could only persuade her husband to resign.
In this way, the original owner changed smoothly from ‘I don’t want to do it’ to ‘I have to resign for my wife’.
He not only could stay at home and eat soft rice but also get Zhou Ranran’s guilt and worship.
When her father finally got better but had a car accident coming back from the hospital, her mother could only hold on and preside over the overall situation. Her husband is now doing the same thing as last time. Zhou Ranran will naturally associate it with her husband being aggrieved at the company.
There is no way she would give her mother a hard time with her nature at this time. So, she could only help her husband speak on one side and carefully comfort him on the other.
But, indeed, the shareholders didn’t like the original owner.
They all feel that the original owner was a soft rice man. What kind of painting expert? That only an excuse! His paintings weren’t even any good. If he liked to create paintings so much, why would he say at home for so long and produce nothing?
Either mediocrity or eating soft rice. Maybe both, mediocre and wanting to eat soft rice.
–Although they wouldn’t say it.
Ji Changze deliberately coughed when he walked past. Zhou Ranran and Mother Zhou instantly stopped talking.
Ji Changze first pulled out a tissue to wipe his hands clean, then naturally took an orange and handed it to Mother Zhou.
He asked, “Isn’t the company busy these days? Why are you here?”
Originally, Mother Zhou was a little guilty because she had just spoken ill of her son-in-law with her daughter behind his back. Now, seeing Ji Changze wasn’t the least bit perturbed. He bowed his head and peeled the orange seriously. He was peaceful as if nothing had happened, and her heart suddenly jumped in anger.
“Don’t you know why I came? Isn’t it because of you? “
Mother Zhou was also a good-natured person. As a result, since her husband’s accident, the company began to have a series of mishaps, which made her very worried. She hardly had any rest in so many days.
Zhou Ranran was weak since she was a child, so she couldn’t exert too much energy. Mother Zhou and Father Zhou didn’t want her to inherit the company. They just wanted to wait until later to find a reliable person to be the managing CEO and give her shares. Their daughter just had to wait for the money.
As a result, the plan couldn’t keep up with the change. Father Zhou was still in good health in his prime before, but he was suddenly ill.
He finally got well but suddenly got into a car accident.
The chairman of the board of directors had collapsed, the shareholders only have a few shares, and the people under the company panicked. Who would dare to take over this mess?
Mother Zhou could only force herself to stand at the top, and at this time, she hadn’t asked her son-in-law for help.
But don’t drag your feet!
Even if he was really mediocre, and he wasn’t capable. At least he should look the part, act like it.
He just had to go to work but draw pictures. The whole company was talking about it.
The more Mother Zhou thought about it, the angrier she was. She threw the orange and stood up.
“Changze, our family has never been unkind to you, right? Now, the company is in such a mess, and you are arranged to go to work. You know that the employees below are in chaos. When you do things like this, won’t it be a bad example for them?”
Zhou Ranran saw that she looked like she wanted to hit someone and quickly stood up to pull her, “Mom, calm down. Changze didn’t mean it. “
Ji Changze still sat in the same place and looked up at his mother-in-law, “I did it on purpose. “
Zhou Ranran was stunned and turned to look at her husband, “Changze?”
With a smile on his face, Ji Changze stood up slowly, put the peeled orange in his wife’s hand, and whispered, “I explained to Mom, you should go upstairs and rest first. “
Zhou Ranran was hesitant. She looked at him and then at her mother.
Mother Zhou was still in anger. Seeing this, she smiled angrily, “Oaky, Ranran, go upstairs. I want to hear his reasons for doing this on the first day of work. “
Seeing Zhou Ranran still hesitating, Ji Changze reached out and touched her head gently: “Be good, go. “
Zhou Ranran nodded and went upstairs.
Mother Zhou kept watching her daughter go upstairs before sitting on the sofa again, “Say it, let me hear it. You were the one who wanted to work in the company, and it’s you who couldn’t work well when you got to the company. Ji Changze, you were a high-achieving student, and your grades are good before. So, why can’t you do such small things well?”
That’s true, but it’s precisely because the original owner realized that he was a high-achieving graduate, and now that the old father-in-law was lying in the hospital, they still didn’t give him a high position. He deliberately messed up because of his heartfelt indignation.
But of course, Ji Changze couldn’t say that. He was still smiling and responded in a warm voice.
“Mom is saying, I certainly wouldn’t do bad at those little things. “
He actually couldn’t do it well. He hasn’t studied or recalled most of the memories. The original owner had forgotten about those things for a long time.
“I did paint on purpose when I was at work and also let others see it on purpose. It’s to let everyone in the company know that I can’t do anything well. “
Mother Zhou’s expression was full of anger; she stood up again, “What do you mean? You intend to make trouble, right?!”
“Mom, don’t be angry. You haven’t thought about why I haven’t talked about going to work for so long? When Dad collapse, I suddenly proposed to go to the company?”
Mother Zhou’s first reaction was that this boy wanted to seek power while his father-in-law was away.
It’s not just her conspiracy theory. It’s because the way that Ji Changze and Zhou Ranran have been eating soft rice since they got married made people unable to think otherwise.
She didn’t say what was in her mind but coldly snorted: “How would I know what you’re thinking? “
Ji Changze took orange again and slowly peeled it while smiling and looking up at his mother-in-law.
“Zhou’s equity is divided into five parts, three shareholders, scattered shares, dad’s hand, mom’s hand, and Ranran’s hand. “
He divided the peeled oranges into five halves and laid them on the table one by one.
He had well maintained the long, slender fingers because of his long habit of eating soft rice, tapped the orange on the far left, and pushed it aside.
“Shareholders’ shares aren’t much. “
He moved to the second orange and pushed it away again, “The possibility of integration for the scattered stocks is too low. “
The third piece, “Dad is unconscious now, and it seems to outsiders that we aren’t sure whether he could wake up. Besides, whether Dad has a will hasn’t been made public, and no one knows what’s written in his will. “
He then pushed over the third orange.
Ji Changze put in order the remaining two orange pieces and looked at Mother Zhou, “It’s just you and Ranran. “
Mother Zhou wrinkled her eyebrows: “What do you mean?”
“Now the chairman is in a coma, and the employees at the bottom are definitely not praying for the chairman to wake up too soon and making a plan for the worst, thinking what if the company couldn’t survive? Do they want to change jobs or ride a donkey to find a horse and work while looking for a job?”
(TNote: ride a donkey to find a horse = work with what you have until you find something better.)
Ji Changze asked, “During this time, are there a lot of people leaving Zhou’s?”
Mother Zhou looked up and down at her son-in-law suspiciously, but in the end, she nodded her head.
“When they leave their jobs, they feel that the company is unstable and that Dad may not wake up. Mom, don’t worry. As family members, of course, we hope Dad could wake up, but the employees are different. “
“A company is said to be a family, but in fact, don’t employees work for money? Who would really stick to a dying company? Most people see that the situation is unfavorable and get out as soon as possible. Now that Dad is like this, the employees find it difficult to say who’s hands the company will fall into in the future. “
“And in their eyes, the company is struggling between two people right now. “
With One orange in his left hand and one orange in his right hand, he handed them both to Mother Zhou, “You and Ranran. “
Mother Zhou was stunned: “But Ranran is the only daughter of her father and me. We have only one daughter in our life. Aren’t both of what I and her father own, hers?”
“You think so; others may not. “
Ji Changze took this orange representing Zhou Ranran and put it in his hand, “You also know a lot of people. In this circle, how many people are fighting for money, father and son turn against each other, husband and wife scheme against each other, and it’s not uncommon for brothers to kill each other. Our family knows our own affairs and knows that you and Dad both cherish Ranran, but others don’t know that. “
“Even if you say it, they may not believe it. “
He pointed to himself, “I don’t have any shares in my hand, but I am Ranran’s husband. In the eyes of others, we are one. Ranran has never appeared in the company because of her poor health. At this time, I represent her. I also entered the company while you were in the company. To express how useless, I showed that our skills are utterly incomparable to yours. “
The looks on Mother Zhou’s face gradually turned from anger to suspicion, from suspicion to thoughtfulness, and then to a sudden realization.
Ji Changze threw the orange representing Zhou Ranran into his mouth and ate it. He pointed to the orange in front of Mother Zhou’s eyes.
“Now, in the eyes of others, only you can talk in the company. “
“The company has only one person in power. Well, at least you don’t have to worry about fighting within the company, so as to reassure the employees below. “
“Otherwise, everyone would think that the company has no master, no need for others to scheme on the company, and employees would find another home. In a company, when employees are scattered, the company won’t be far away from dispersing. “
Mother Zhou looked down at the half-circle orange, then slowly raised her face with a new gaze toward her son-in-law, who she always had thought, only had a good-looking face to look at, who had no ability or capacity at all, despite graduating from a good university.
“So, you asked to enter the company and deliberately painted during working hours, just to let others know that you are a straw bag?”
(TNote: Straw bag = having no substance inside.)
Ji Changze smiled carelessly, “If I weren’t a straw bag, as Zhou’s son-in-law, some people wouldn’t look down on me, but would please me, and gather around me, to encourage me to compete with you. “
Mother Zhou, “Then you could have stayed out of the company, to begin with.”
“If I don’t enter the company, and the possibility that I might be a straw bag in the eyes of others would be 50-50. When I enter the company, it is 100%. “
Mother Zhou’s looked at Ji Changze with even more complicated eyes.
“But do you know what others say about you behind your back?”
Ji Changze shook his head, smiled, and his face was filled with four words: It does not matter.
“I don’t listen to what they say, and I won’t lose anything. “
Mother Zhou, “But they all regard you as that kind of person. “
“People live in this world for themselves and their families. What those irrelevant people think of me, has nothing to do with me. “
After all this, Mother Zhou looked into Ji Changze’s gaze and suddenly had some appreciation and complexity.
She thought that Ranran only looked at his face.
Unexpectedly, her daughter’s eyes were good.
Ji Changze obviously had the ability but was willing to hide for her daughter and pretend to be a straw bag.
She didn’t believe it when she said it wasn’t love at first sight.
She stood up straight, solemnly, and bowed to Ji Changze.
The son-in-law rushed up to help her up, she insisted, refusing to straighten her back. She maintained this position and solemnly apologized to him.
“I’m sorry Changze, I misunderstood you. “
“Thank you for drawing while working in the company. Thank you very much. I blamed you before, I really shouldn’t have. “
“Mom, please, you don’t say that. “
Ji Changze quickly helped her up, with sincere eyes and sincere words, “I really like painting, really!!”
“I know, I know how much you have given for Ranran. I have really wronged you for so long. “
Zhou’s mother patted Ji Changze’s arm and looked at him with admiration and care in her eyes for a while.
“Don’t worry. I understand all your good intentions. When we get through it, when Ranran’s father wakes up and the company stabilizes, we will immediately clear your name!!”
Ji Changze quickly refused, “I really don’t need it, Mom. I only like painting. I don’t like working in the company. “
Suddenly, Mother Zhou looked at him with more care and gentleness in her eyes.
To be able to help stabilize their Zhou family.
Clearly, he had such ability and insight but still pretended to like painting.
A good man, but still condemned himself to the label of being a soft-rice man.
He even had to commit himself to not working during office hours and fumble around.
In this world, how can there be such a good son-in-law!?