Cheng Jemin was fully utilizing his silver tongue, trying to convince these few attractive girls to join his army of selling apples, when he never expected someone to ask him to go to the security office. This left him stunned. Looking at the two men behind him, who looked serious and regarded him like a class enemy, he firmly refused, "I'm not going to the security office."
The man in his thirties, who was a bit overweight, sneered coldly, "Kid, you're still being stubborn at this point? Don't you know where you are? Do you think you can still run away?"
At this moment, Cheng Jemin noticed that the girl he thought was as good as Gu Xixi was standing to the side, gloating with a smug look on her face. The other girls were also winking and blinking their eyes.
This action made Cheng Jemin suddenly realize that he was most likely being mistaken for a bad guy, and they were taking it upon themselves to be the heroes who caught the bad guy.
"Teacher, I'm actually a student at this school. I came here mainly because we want to organize an event and need some students to help. I just went to the work-study office, but the teacher wasn't there. I needed the help urgently, so I thought I'd try to contact the students directly," Cheng Jemin rubbed his hands and explained softly.
In Cheng Jemin's mind, once the misunderstanding was cleared up, everything would be fine. However, the security guard looked him up and down and laughed, "We've seen too many of your kind of scams. No more talk, let's go to the security office first!"
Seeing the security guard's attitude, Cheng Jemin felt like a scholar facing a soldier. However, he wasn't afraid, as he had come with a clear conscience. What was there to be nervous about?
"Cheng Jemin, why are you back at school?" An elderly man passing by suddenly greeted him.
Seeing the elderly man, Cheng Jemin was also extremely excited. This was the professor who taught calculations in their department and had always been very kind to him, an excellent student.
"Professor Zhang, I came to do some work," Cheng Jemin quickly walked to Professor Zhang's side and said respectfully.
"Professor Zhang, is this really your student?" The security guard, seeing Professor Zhang, quickly walked over and asked politely.
Professor Zhang nodded, looking puzzled at Cheng Jemin. Seizing this opportunity, Cheng Jemin quickly explained his purpose. When he heard that Cheng Jemin was almost taken to the security office as a scammer, Professor Zhang laughed, "Little Li, you must have made a mistake this time. Cheng Jemin is an outstanding graduate of our school this year, assigned to the provincial water conservancy bureau. If he were a scammer, he wouldn't come here."
"Oh, this is really a case of family not recognizing family. The main reason is that some college students were scammed recently, so we have to be extra cautious," the security guard laughed awkwardly.
Although Cheng Jemin was quite upset, he couldn't really argue with the security guard's point. Moreover, he had suffered no loss, so he went along with it, "Strengthening the security of the school is the duty of the school's management. Your diligence will provide more security for our school."
Seeing that Cheng Jemin not only didn't show dissatisfaction but also agreed with him, the security guard's opinion of Cheng Jemin improved greatly, and he apologized repeatedly.
Although Cheng Jemin wanted to chat more with Professor Zhang, Professor Zhang was in a hurry to teach a class. After asking about Cheng Jemin's current job, he left reluctantly. The two security guards also left.
"Senior, I'm sorry. We were too sensitive just now, mistaking you for a bad guy. I'm really sorry!" The petite girl who had been talking to Cheng Jemin quickly apologized after everyone left.
Seeing the apologetic look on the girl's face, Cheng Jemin couldn't get angry. He said cheerfully, "It's okay. Your self-defense awareness is actually a good thing." He waved his hand and prepared to continue looking for collaborators. This time, he planned to contact the student council to see if they could help organize things.
"Senior, are the benefits you mentioned earlier real?" A tall girl asked.
The girl asked again, "Do you really need a hundred people? If so, I can help organize them, but our first principle is that the wages must be paid on the same day!"
"Of course, I'm only hiring you for one day. Do you think I'd let you chase me for your wages?" Cheng Jemin felt a bit happy when he heard the girl's words. No matter what, if the girl could help him organize people, it would be a big help. He continued, "If you can help me organize the people, I'll pay you a hundred yuan."
A hundred yuan was about half a month's salary for a white-collar worker at the time. For these students, if they were frugal, it was almost two months' expenses.
"Then it's a deal. I'm Xu Meizhen. Nice to meet you, Senior!" The plump girl's eyes sparkled as she extended her hand to Cheng Jemin.
Cheng Jemin shook hands with the girl and said with a smile, "Cheng Jemin, I hope we can cooperate well and achieve mutual benefits!"
After a few words, they agreed on the time and place to meet. Cheng Jemin also learned that the petite and delicate girl was named Li Yijing, but the other two girls didn't introduce themselves.
Handing over the task to Xu Meizhen so smoothly made Cheng Jemin very happy. On his way back, he felt a bit disappointed. The girl who went to the security office, why didn't she tell him her name?
Thinking back to his school days, Cheng Jemin vaguely remembered that there was a girl who liked him. Whenever they met, she would look at him with deep affection, as if she wanted to hold his hand. However, at that time, Cheng Jemin's heart was set on Gu Xixi, so he never developed any romantic feelings with any girl.
This regret weighed heavily on Cheng Jemin's heart, and he silently reminded himself, "Cheng Jemin, you already have Gu Xixi. Don't daydream. Thinking too much would be irresponsible to Xixi!"
"Brother Er Meng, what do you think Brother Cheng is planning to do with all these colorful papers?" In a small warehouse, Sun Xiaozhu was picking apples from a bag and asked Sun Er Meng, puzzled.
Sun Er Meng, annoyed, said to Sun Xiaozhu, "You were the one who went shopping with Brother Cheng. If even you don't know, how would I?"
"More than two thousand yuan! Just for these colorful papers, it cost more than two thousand yuan! My goodness, I was sweating just thinking about it!" Sun Xiaozhu shook his head and muttered, "When we were buying the paper, I told Brother Cheng to just buy the big red paper, which is cheap and festive, but he wouldn't listen. What could I do?"
Just as Sun Xiaozhu was muttering, Sun Zhihai pushed the door open and walked in. He looked at the pile of red apples that almost formed a small mountain and said to Sun Xiaozhu, "Xiaozhu, call Brother Cheng and tell him I've found the people!"
Sun Xiaozhu agreed and walked out of the warehouse to the convenience store to make the call. Sun Er Meng, who stayed in the warehouse, carefully placed a big red apple on a small pile and then said to Sun Zhihai, "Brother Zhihai, do you think Director Cheng can really sell all these apples?"
Sun Zhihai had been thinking about this for a long time but had no answer. However, he had always been the leader of the village's companions. If even he was confused, it would be too embarrassing. After hesitating, he gave a hesitant answer, "It should be fine, right?"
"If Director Cheng can't sell them, I don't think we should let him bear all the loss. After all, he came up with this idea to help us! Even if the deal doesn't work out, we should still be considerate, right?" Sun Er Meng said firmly after a moment of thought.
Among the people who followed, Sun Zhihai found Sun Er Meng the most troublesome. Sun Er Meng was a bit impulsive but incredibly loyal. Therefore, most of the young people in the village respected him. To make Sun Er Meng listen to him, Sun Zhihai had thought of many ways.
But what was the result? He had tried everything, but Sun Er Meng still spoke to him with his head held high. Unexpectedly, Cheng Jemin had only interacted with Sun Er Meng a little, and he had already won him over.
Looking at the pile of colorful papers and thinking about the price Sun Xiaozhu mentioned, Sun Zhihai felt a pang of pain. Just the paper cost two to three thousand yuan, and if you added the other expenses, it would be even more!
"Brother Zhihai, my share isn't much, but I should contribute a bit," another man who was picking apples said solemnly.
Sun Zhihai gritted his teeth and said firmly, "Don't worry, I'm not a miser. If we really lose money, we'll all pitch in to help Director Cheng."
After saying this, he squatted down to pick apples, placing the big ones in their respective piles while muttering to himself, "Director Cheng, I hope your plan works. Otherwise, I'll be in big trouble this time!"
"Brother Cheng said he's on his way," Sun Xiaozhu ran in excitedly.
"Good, that's good," Sun Zhihai said, clapping his hands and preparing to stand up. At that moment, the warehouse door was pushed open, and two or three dozen middle-aged women in various clothes walked in.
"Are we washing apples? Zhihai, let's start now. Make sure the wages are right, don't shortchange us!"
"Zhihai, what are we doing? Are we putting the apples in bags? I'm the best at that!"
"Hehe, this paper is so pretty, I want to stick it on my windows at home!"
The cacophony of voices instantly filled the entire warehouse.
PS: The ranking on the new book list has dropped sharply, and I'm a bit heartbroken. This week, I'm flying solo, so I can only rely on all the brothers to give me a boost! I'm confident in the sprint ahead!