Cheng Gong drove Qin Huai to the hotel.
Along the way, Cheng Gong enthusiastically introduced A City’s famous landmarks to Qin Huai, suggesting that if Qin Huai wasn’t in a rush to leave, he could arrange for Qin Huai to stay in A City for a couple more days.
The natural scenic spots, university snack streets, historic sites, and even several popular check-in spots online that have gone viral over the last two years, Cheng Gong introduced them all, clearly having prepared beforehand.
After these introductions, Cheng Gong naturally shifted the conversation to the Imperial Restaurant where tomorrow’s birthday banquet would be held, taking the opportunity to praise Qin Huai’s pastries, which made the cover of this year’s "Taste" annual issue, expressing that with Qin Huai in charge of the banquet’s pastry, guests would certainly be very satisfied.
After the compliments, Cheng Gong smoothly transitioned the topic to the Hao Weidao Company, narrating a brief account of their boss Han Guishan’s impressive journey from scratch, and his deep love story with his wife Wang Jing.
Finally, he wrapped up with an amusing story about the real star of the birthday banquet, Han Youxin, catching a bottle of Hao Weidao soy sauce during his childhood celebration event.
The entire conversation had a clear beginning, progression, and end, with complete storytelling and good structure — a remarkable work report.
Throughout, Qin Huai listened quietly, occasionally providing feedback where appropriate.
Qin Huai felt Cheng Gong was truly a very unique spirit.
If one were to interact with Cheng Gong normally, he would definitely be an extraordinarily normal person.
Quick-thinking, meticulous, eloquent, with extremely impressive work capabilities — a model worker among employees.
He didn’t resemble a spirit at all.
Among the spirits Qin Huai knew, most had some oddities due to their obsessions, regardless of being in any of their middle or final incarnations.
Bi fang, the un-amnesic Bi fang, a professional medical incident creator, a bad delivery reviewer, Yunzhong District’s most famous lonely elder; even when he stayed indoors as a homebody, legends of him circulated throughout the community.
Chen Huihong, a plant spirit of the final era. Among spirits, she’s considered normal, but among ordinary people, at times her enthusiasm would go overboard.
Qu Jing, a bird spirit of the final era. Her abnormality needed no explanation; before she awoke, Chen Huihong and Luo Jun were most worried she’d suddenly die.
Gong Liang, a Scammer of several past eras, a legendary figure who divorced his wife three times for the Three Heads Banquet, still considered normal among spirits.
Wang Gen Sheng, a Xiezhi, forty years without falsifying accounts, a righteous professional accountant with unquestionable credibility.
Still in elementary school, the dispersed luan bird should just focus on being a diligent student doing homework daily.
Compared to these somewhat abnormal spirits, Cheng Gong was so normal that it seemed a bit abnormal.
His most abnormal aspect was his special tasks.
Upon exiting the vehicle, Cheng Gong professionally helped Qin Huai with his luggage. After some consideration, Qin Huai asked, "Assistant Chen, as President Han’s life assistant, you must be quite busy normally, right?"
Cheng Gong was surprised that after speaking for so long, Qin Huai’s primary concern was whether he was busy or not. A bit startled, he quickly composed himself and replied, "Being a life assistant means handling numerous trivial tasks; it can’t really be considered busy."
"I’ve been with President Han since he first founded Hao Weidao Company. He’s treated me well, so it’s only right I devote myself fully."
Recalling Cheng Gong’s earlier narration of Han Guishan’s entrepreneurial history during the ride, Qin Huai remembered that Han Guishan started as a traveling vendor from south to north, selling various goods, accumulating a significant amount of capital with his wife, and deciding to start his own business, which became today’s Hao Weidao Company, primarily dealing in soy sauce.
Hao Weidao was founded 13 years ago but initially wasn’t selling soy sauce; it concentrated on labeled seasoning products.
If Cheng Gong started working with Han Guishan during Hao Weidao’s inception, given Cheng Gong’s approximate age of 35 and his undergraduate education, he would have been working at Hao Weidao right after graduating from university — a true veteran.
Qin Huai felt he might have started to grasp Cheng Gong’s personality and more information about him.
Taking advantage of the birthday banquet, he would need to have a good chat with Cheng Gong’s boss, President Han.
He hadn’t met this generous patron who paid 50% deposit yet.
To pay a deposit without even meeting, the boss was indeed generous.
As Cheng Gong mentioned, the hotel was right near the Imperial Restaurant. "Near" was an understatement, the hotel was directly next to the Imperial Restaurant, a left turn and 30 steps out the door.
As A City’s most famous high-end restaurant, whether the dishes at the Imperial Restaurant matched its grand name, Qin Huai couldn’t say, but the decor certainly did.
One word to describe its decor — expensive.
So expensive that when Qin Huai passed this restaurant during university, he wouldn’t dare even peek at the menu prices.
Cheng Gong reserved a private room — 666. When the two entered the room, Zang Mu and a young man were already seated inside.
"Master Zang, sorry for the delay, the way from the airport was a bit congested. This is Qin Huai, Master Qin. Master Qin, this is Master Zang Mu. I hope both of you can put forth your best efforts for tomorrow’s birthday banquet."
Zang Mu appeared around forty, with no expression on his face, wearing deep grey attire, clearly not a talkative individual just by his outward appearance.
Zang Mu stood up, nodded, and greeted Qin Huai, "Pleasure to finally meet you, Master Qin. Your guo’er is indeed deserving of its reputation. As early as January, I specifically went to Huang Ji to try them. They truly deserve to be featured on the opening cover of "Taste". Happy to collaborate with you for this birthday banquet."