bookcurios Chapter 1071 Going to Work at the Foreign Firm
Chapter 1071 Going to Work at the Foreign Firm
Gui'er's heart skipped a beat, but she pretended to hesitate: "I'm afraid I can't do the work of a foreign firm. I've heard that those places have very strict rules."
"Don't worry, I'll put in a good word for you, they won't give you any trouble." Du Jianbang patted his chest. "That assistant manager is from my hometown, I trust him. If you'd like, I'll write you a note right now, just go directly to the foreign firm to see him tomorrow, and I'll put in a good word for him later." As he spoke, he took out a pen and paper from his pocket, wrote his address and name on a blank space in the newspaper, and handed it over. "Just say I introduced you, it'll definitely work, but you'd better not mention anything about my work, you know what I mean."
Gui'er took the note, folded it neatly, put it in her schoolbag, and quickly stood up to thank him: "Thank you so much, Mr. Du! I was just worried about not having any connections."
"No need for thanks, it's all because of Director Sha." Du Jianbang stood up and straightened his clothes. "Do a good job, and if you need anything, come to me anytime."
"Alright, alright." Gui'er watched him walk away, the smile on her face gradually fading. She squeezed the note in her pocket, her fingertips slightly cold—Dafeng Trading Company was an old British trading company, and there must be a lot of news coming and going; this was indeed a good opportunity to gather intelligence. However, Du Jianbang's "good intentions" were shrouded in a hidden agenda of surveillance; in fact, his words just now contained a considerable amount of probing and warning.
She glanced down at the job advertisements in the newspaper; they were all for hostesses in restaurants, or permanent positions. She figured no one would want her for a summer job. After much deliberation, she decided to give it a try.
Back in the classroom, Lin Peishan was already chatting with her group of friends, all about where they went shopping and traveling during the summer vacation.
This person said, "Luckily, the Japanese were pragmatic and stopped the military exercises, otherwise our family wouldn't have been able to go on vacation."
The man said, "That's right. My father has been busy dealing with the foreign company's affairs lately and has hardly come home. Yesterday he finally said that he's waiting for the holiday to take the whole family to Macau for a vacation and to take a look at the new house we bought in Macau."
Gui'er originally wanted to go over and tell Lin Peishan about the part-time job she had found, but she felt it wasn't the right time to do so, so she had to wait.
It wasn't until the teacher finished class and announced the holiday that the students started packing their things. Lin Peishan came over and asked, "Gui'er, what are your plans for the holiday? I've made plans with Liu Lanfang and the others to go to Macau for vacation together."
Gui'er told Lin Peishan everything Du Jianbang had said, and then said worriedly, "He specifically mentioned Professor Xu and Professor Meng, and said that they were 'showy,' so they might be being watched."
Lin Peishan's face darkened: "These spies have noses like dogs. Professor Xu and the others often talk about the War of Resistance against Japan in class, so they've probably already taken note of it. We need to tell Zhong Yu about this as soon as possible and tell them to be more careful." She thought for a moment, "Don't get involved. I'll go talk to Zhong Yu myself; it'll be safer."
Mentioning the part-time job at the foreign firm, Lin Peishan frowned: "Those spies are cunning. Why would they give you benefits for no reason? Maybe they want to use the job to monitor you or set a trap for you."
Gui'er was also quite uneasy: "I also feel something is amiss, but I really need this salary right now. Besides, I'll go check it out tomorrow, and if something's not right, I won't go to work."
The next morning, Gui'er found the Dafa Foreign Firm at the address on the slip of paper. The red brick building stood on Queen's Road Central, its brass revolving doors turning smoothly as Westerners in suits went in and out, a faint smell of cigars lingering in the air. She gave the assistant manager's name and was led by a waiter to the office on the third floor.
The assistant manager, surnamed Huang, sported a mustache. Upon seeing Du Jianbang's note, he put on a smile: "Of course, we must give Mr. Du face. Miss Sha, are you a university student? How's your English?"
Gui'er replied, "It's alright, there's no problem with daily paperwork."
Manager Huang nodded and pointed to an empty table by the window: "Your job isn't heavy. It's just sorting out correspondence and copying some documents. The monthly salary is thirty yuan, and it will be increased if you do a good job." He handed over a stack of English letters, "Try it out today and translate these."
Gui'er took the letter, sat down on the hardwood chair, and began translating. The letter mainly contained orders for cotton yarn and machinery, nothing unusual. Gui'er had worked at a foreign firm before, so handling these kinds of documents was naturally no problem for her. Manager Huang flipped through the documents beside her, glancing at her every now and then, but didn't ask any questions.
During her lunch break, she went to the tea room to get water and overheard two typists chatting: "The new Miss Sha, was she introduced by Mr. Huang, who is from the same hometown?" "I heard she's Mr. Du's sister, so they're taking extra care of her." The rest of their words were hushed and not clearly heard.
As he finished get off work in the evening, Manager Huang said with a smile, "As expected of someone recommended by Mr. Du, you work efficiently and do a very good job. You can officially start working tomorrow."
Gui'er happily agreed. After getting into the car that Acheng had come to pick her up downstairs, she felt quite tired. Acheng said, "Miss, our family is not short of money, why do you have to work so hard?"
Gui'er smiled and said, "I'll have to enter society eventually. This is just a little early preparation." Actually, she didn't want to say that, according to her memory, the Japanese were about to occupy Hong Kong. She was afraid that the pawnshop wouldn't be able to open then, so she needed to quickly accumulate social experience so that she could find a job later. Of course, it would be even better if she could make some money along the way.
Back home, Wu Mingqiang, upon hearing about her job search, said, "Miss, if you were to become a doctor, well, everyone respects doctors, so that's fine. But to become a clerk in a foreign firm, being bossed around all day, how could you stand that? Why don't you give up? The house in Macau will be almost finished with renovations soon, and it needs furniture. I've already ordered it—top-quality mahogany furniture. We can have it delivered from here, and we can go take a look while we're at it. I've heard that Macau's atmosphere is different from Hong Kong's, so it's a good place for a vacation."
Gui'er shook her head and said, "I've already made arrangements with them. I'll only stay for a few days. I'll leave early. Many of my classmates are also going to Macau for vacation, so I can visit them then."
In the days that followed, she went to work at the foreign firm every day and got to know some colleagues. In this era, those who could work at a foreign firm were at least considered middle class. Although they didn't live in villas, some managers were quite wealthy and had cars. So it was not surprising that Gui'er was picked up and dropped off by car every day.
The owner of this trading company is British, but he was scared away by the Japanese military exercises and fled back to England. Now all the business has been handed over to the Chinese manager who stayed here, and some employees have been laid off. However, the overall atmosphere is still okay. Sometimes when Gui'er is busy, she has a feeling that she has traveled back to the modern era and is working in her old office, except that there is no computer.