Chapter 080-Char-grilled Bullfrog
Fu Yansheng signaled the server to hand over the wine list to Ye Qinru, letting the other order for them.
Ye Qinru asked the server next to him, “Do you have any recommendations?”
The server said enthusiastically, “Would you like a bottle of Lafite?”
Ye Qinru asked, “Is it an ’82 vintage?”
Fu Yansheng laughed as soon as he said this, as if Ye Qinru had asked a very amusing question.
The server said, “Uh, I’m so sorry. We only have a ’96 of ’00 Lafite on hand. If sir wishes, I can tell the manager and we should be able to have a bottle transferred in half an hour at the earliest…”
Ye Qinru waved his hand and said, “It’s fine. Forget it”
He flipped through the menu, picked a bottle of red wine from a French winery. When he read out the name, he asked Fu Yansheng if he’d heard of it.
Fu Yansheng said, “I’ve had it once. It’s sweet, no astringency. It’s not bad.”
“Then we’ll have a bottle.” Ye Qinru handed the wine list back to the server and explained to Fu Yansheng, “I still have business this afternoon, so it’s not advisable to drink too much.”
“No matter, a bottle is good enough to liven things up.” After the server left, Fu Yansheng continued, “In fact, it’s not out of the question if President Ye wishes to have some ’82 vintage Lafite.”
“No need, no need.” Ye Qinru explained with a slight smile, “When I go out socializing, people often make jokes about the ’82 vintage around the dinner table. I was just teasing the girl. Actually, for people who really like to drink red wine, the quality of some thousand yuan a bottle red wines from the smaller wineries is no less than that of the well-known brands. Mr. Fu has studied economics and he must know what’s driving the price of wines to sky-high prices. What need is there for us to follow that fashion?”
Fu Yansheng smiled and said, “President Ye is a sensible person.”
Qi Yu was surprised. Just now, Ye Qinru had sounded so serious when he was talking to the server. He really thought that the other party wanted to drink an ’82 vintage Lafite. He never expected that he was just teasing her.
Ye Qinru glanced at Qi Yu and said, “Besides, this is the first time I’m meeting Qi Yu. I might give him a scare if I were to order a hundred thousand yuan bottle of wine for a simple lunch.”
Qi Yu asked, “Is a Lafite that expensive?”
Fu Yansheng explained, “Speculation in wines have certainly driven up the price to that amount domestically. More than the price of the wine itself, it is its price as a collection piece that has been hyped up.”
Qi Yu’s eyes shifted as though thinking of something. However, he said nothing.
Fu Yansheng and Ye Qinru continued to discuss wines — from wine making, branding to wine tasting methods and even extending to investment in foreign wineries. Qi Yu felt that this was a meeting between two major wine vendors, preparing to enter into a partnership for a big deal involving wine.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The two also thought up of ways to make an unknown wine into a famous brand.
“Mlgra bo jii, atf dejilas bo atf klcf larfio wera qjrr atf rajcvjgv. Pa wera yf vfilmlber.” Tf Hlcge gjlrfv tlr uijrr jcv rjlv, “P atlcx atlr ybaaif bo Yijc Qlcfgs klcf lr ubbv. Coafg rfaailcu bc atf klcf, j nlrla ab atf klcfgs ab rff atf bkcfg kbeiv yf cffvfv. Kfii tlw atja kf qijc ab lcnfra lc atlr klcf jcv cfubaljaf j ubbv vfji. Po kf’gf remmfrroei lc tsqlcu eq atf klcf, kf rtbeiv fcpbs qgfwlew vlnlvfcvr obg ja ifjra afc sfjgr.”
Fu Yansheng: “Then we’ll invite some famous people to advertise. However, to improve the compelling quality of this wine, you can’t just find any famous person…”
Ye Qinru: “Yes, it should at least be to the level of royalty. For example, we can sponsor a certain prince’s banquet to feature this wine…”
Fu Yansheng: “It’s not easy to get a connection to royalty though and the political circles are comparatively more sensitive. It would be better to find someone to bring this wine to a dinner with Bill Gates. Someone will then secretly takes a photo and then we’ll have the media publicize it. Once it gets a certain level of recognition, we’ll find a well-known director to shoot an art film type advertisement that no one would understand.”
Ye Qinru: “Find a sexy beauty in a slip dress to do the shoot?”
“A sexy beauty?” Fu Yansheng smiled and shook his head. “President Ye isn’t very certain about the positioning of this wine. We’re positioning this as a high-end business wine. Our purpose is to attract the attention of wealthy and powerful people. Associating this wine with something like that would pull down the class of this wine.”
Ye Qinru: “Then what do you think would be fitting?”
Fu Yansheng: “Look for some male actors with good physiques to act as high-class men in suits. We’ll shoot it “Downton Abbey” style and won’t reveal their faces throughout the entire thing. We’ll only show their actions below the neck… pouring wine, serving wine glasses, cutting steaks; their bearings must be elegant. The servant then knocks over the red wine on the table, splashing all over the master’s body, creating a strong visual impact…”
Qi Yu had been engrossed listening to him but when Fu Yansheng brought up knocking over the red wine, he was shocked and he looked at the other in surprise.
Suddenly, Fu Yansheng continued on, “That servant then squats down to wipe the wine off the master. Only his side profile will be shown. The master can’t appear flustered. He just raises his hands, letting the other wipe him down. Only when the servant is done wiping will there be a shot of him smelling the soaked towel, looking as though drunk and intoxicated…”
Ye Qinru said, somewhat excitedly, “I can practically visualize it!”
Qi Yu: “……???”
Ye Qinru explained, “The purpose of not featuring their faces is to allow the audience to substitute themselves into those characters. The scene with the servant squatting down to wipe can awaken the viewer’s inner desire for power and status. The clincher is the scene where the servant smells the wine. What he smells is not only the taste of wine, but also the taste of power…Ah~ah, just listening to what Chief Fu said, I want to taste how delicious this wine is!”
Qi Yu: “…………”
Fu Yansheng smiled, and then quietly glanced at Qi Yu, his eyes with an ambiguity only the two of them understood.
“Preposterous”, Qi Yu grumbled under his breath, angry that Fu Yansheng was disguisedly flirting with him even during an occasion like this. However, he couldn’t help feeling moved by the scene he’d just described. His mind was full of that night, of how Fu Yansheng had poured red wine all over him before then embracing him and kissing him over and over again…
While he was being absent-minded, Fu Yansheng and Ye Qinru had already moved on to a different topic.
The two transitioned from red wine hype to the domestic wine economy, interspersed with some political topics. They then returned to the current situation and the future development of Nanri Technology, finally touching a little bit on the purpose of their meeting.
Speaking of the future of the industry, Ye Qinru was eloquent, his eyes were full of enthusiasm. But as he talked, his enthusiasm suddenly dropped as though he had touched upon something weighing on his mind.
Fu Yansheng put in a well-timed question. “Is President Ye dissatisfied with the current situation?”
Ye Qinru asked, “I am the youngest among all the executives of Nanri Technology. What could I be dissatisfied with?”
Fu Yansheng: “I think your Weibo post a few days ago was quite interesting.”
Ye Qinru: “Which one?”
Fu Yansheng: “Your post about the charcoal-fired hot pot burning away the ‘bullfrog’s’ ideals. As an amphibian, a bullfrog itself has no ideals, and yet you assigned it ideals and said that they’ve burned to death. I used to read news describing children who’ve done better than others since childhood as “bullfrogs”. Maybe you were using this to refer to yourself or someone like you, to metaphorically express that your ideals are being suppressed. Of course, if my interpretation is wrong, don’t take it to heart. You can just take it as me just joking.”
Ye Qinru looked at Fu Yansheng, smiled faintly, and gave a toast, “Brother Fu understands me.”
Qi Yu secretly exclaimed, it turned out that such a simple sentence could be interpreted like this in Fu Yansheng’s eyes!?
Ye Qinru took a sip of wine and sighed with emotion, “Nanri Technology is a domestic technology giant. This is already the highest professional goal that I think a person of my status can achieve… The French writer Le Pen once said that there is no free will once you are part of a group. I didn’t understand it before, but now I do. Even in Nanri, I am but one ordinary talent among the numerous gifted scholars. Everything we do is just for the will of a few handful of people, shamelessly seeking personal gain. You, I, all of us are just tools. There is no way to achieve our personal ideals through this path.”
Fu Yansheng: “So Ye Xiong wishes to go at it alone?”
Ye Qinru: “I am considering this idea.”
Fu Yansheng: “Brother Ye is very courageous, but in this era, it’s not easy to start from scratch. After all, social classes in the country has started to solidify. Even for a person like Ye Xiong, striving to win resources from the bigshots is tantamount to throwing an egg against a rock.”
Ye Qinru’s brows furrowed lightly.
Fu Yansheng: “However, if you really want to start from scratch then you’re just like our Si Yuan Group, preparing to open up a wasteland in the field of science and technology. Right now, we also have nothing. Well, not exactly. We do have backing.”
Ye Qinru turned towards Fu Yansheng, looking rather interested. Fu Yansheng gave him a brief sketch of the current status of the Si Yuan Group’s Science and Technology Development Department. But through all of it, he never mentioned anything about wanting Ye Qinru to come over and join them. He said, “Our main purpose for meeting you today is to get to know Ye Xiong and make friends, so let’s stop the talk about official business here.”
Ye Qinru: “…”
Afterwards, Fu Yansheng naturally changed the topic and they chatted about the wind, flowers, snow and moon.
Two hours passed quickly, and Ye Qinru obviously still wanted to continue but Fu Yansheng put it to a timely stop, saying that he didn’t dare delay Ye Qinru’s business that afternoon.
After the meal, Qi Yu excused himself to go to the bathroom first. Ye Qinru and Fu Yansheng were left alone in the room. Ye Qinru said to Fu Yansheng, “I heard before that you were Huansheng‘s first-class master negotiator. Even hearing about you a hundred times is no comparison to seeing you in action.”
Fu Yansheng: “Ye Xiong gives me undeserved praise.”
Ye Qinru: “However, Li Qing said that you’ve been working in a brokerage firm and refused to leave for a better post. Even she’s wondering why you suddenly became a lobbyist for the Si Yuan Group’s young boss… After observing you two for some time, I think that I’m beginning to understand.”
Fu Yansheng: “What do you mean?”
Ye Qinru’s tone seemed to overflow with a hint of jealousy. “During our meal, while we were chatting, whenever you said anything, Young Master Qi’s eyes would linger on you.”
Fu Yansheng smiled lightly, “It is true that he admires me a bit…”
Ye Qinru: “Hmph, if I had a little backer who worshiped me and looked at me like I’m some idol, I too would be willing to go through fire and water for him.”
Fu Yansheng stretched out his hand and said, “He respects capable people very much. Although he’s still studying, but two years go by very fast. Now is when he is short of staff. If President Ye would be willing to come join the Si Yuan Group, you will definitely obtain his regard in the future.”
Speaking up to here, Ye Qinru had long understood. “We will talk in detail another day.”
The two shook hands, and Fu Yansheng whispered, “The management team for the department hasn’t been fully formed yet. At present, there’s only one assistant who is in charge of liaising with the domestic office on Qi Yu’s behalf. That person is a diehard fan of yours.”
“…Oh?” Ye Qinru said, feeling some sense of novelty, “Male or female?”
Fu Yansheng: “Male.”
Ye Qinru raised his eyebrows. He had no shortage of female fans, but male fans seemed to be relatively rare.
Soon after, Qi Yu came back. He officially said goodbye to Ye Qinru, saying that he might be returning to California tonight.
By the way, Qi Yu remembered, “Speaking of the ’82 vintage Lafite, I have a few bottles at my home in the US. They were given by my dad’s friends in his early years. If President Ye wishes, I can bring a couple of bottle with me next time and we can enjoy it together over dinner.”
Ye Qinru was taken aback and he suddenly laughed out loud, “Young Master Qi is really lavish. That’s all right then. I’ll wait for your ‘next time’.”
————
【Little Theater】
Fu Yansheng: Wu Shuang is a fan of yours. He’s read all of your 6,000 plus Weibo posts.
Ye Qinru narrowed his eyes: Interesting…
Wu Shuang:? ? ? What are you doing selling me out when I just did what you said!?
Hmm, Wu Shuang and Ye Qinru… is this a potential ship I smell?🤔😏
Thanks for the chapter! ❤
Bwahaha I love our sneaky fox ml. Way at it throwing your friend under the bus like that 👏👏
Sorry was supposed to be a comment on the chapter 💙
I smell a side cp 👀
Thank you for the chapter!
patpat for Wu Shia g, who just get sold easily like that….
*Wu Shuang
Hahahaha Wu Shuang seems so advertiseable and easy to sell. Waiting until now for Fu “Master Black-bellied” Yansheng to sell him is already stretching it thin… And Qi “Little Black-bellied” Yu is also promoting the selling of Xiao Wu ah~ Ehehehehehe maybe Ye Qinru will buy into it for a sweet side CP oh~~
How to be sold by your friend 101. XD
Thank you for the chapter! 🙂
thanks for the chapter!
Poor Xiao Shuang
Noooo~ xiao Shuangshuang was used as a bait to draw the narcissistic lovestruck CEO in LOL Will it going to be a side CP? Their chemistry is kinda promising, an innocent nerdy shou and an unbearable heart-shaped eyes gong. I wanna see it pls~
On the one hand Fu Fu you little shit xD on the other hand, Wuwu DID say he almost fell for the brainwashing. Why not just give in all the way hehe