Short, Light, Free - Chapter 139

“Won’t there be two mes, then?” I asked.

“I will ensure that you two remain safe. China is big, no one will notice that there are two persons in different cities with the exact same name. I’ll give you 70,000,000 when it’s all done and you can live out the rest of your life in luxury. It’s as good as us spending 70,000,000 on your passport to give my son another identity,” he said.

“Give me some time. I need to think about this.”

“Of course. This room is yours for a week. We will be staying here as well and we’ll be paying for all of your expenses. You can raise certain conditions if you’d like. We could record a video proof for you so you can release it to the media if something goes wrong. I just want my son back by my side, safe and sound,” he continued.

I opened my phone’s video recording app. “Good idea. Could you please repeat everything you’ve said? In details. Thanks.”

Yun Huateng smiled and did as I requested. He looked at me when he finished and asked, “So you agree now, Mr. Gou Dan?”

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“Yes,” I acknowledged before stopping the recording.

“You’ll be given a management title in the office tomorrow and I’ll buy a house and car under your name for passport and visa certification purposes.” He inquired, “How’s your English?”

Deciding to remain vigilant, I answered, “Terrible. Will I be doing this if I can speak English well?”

“What about simple grammar?” he tried.

I shook my head.

“I’ll get you a private tutor tomorrow to teach you some basic pronunciations. We’ll then get you to put on a micro-receiver before the interview so you’ll just have to answer the questions the way we tell you to.”

“So the interviewer thinks he’s asking me but it’s actually someone from your side? He’ll prepare the answer and I’ll just mimic him?”

“Yes, so we’ll have to teach you proper pronunciation for a week. It’s all under our control so don’t worry,” he reassured.

I nodded. “Everything’s long been arranged, huh?”

“Yes. Half a month ago. We already had someone with a 70% resemblance, but then we saw you. If not for the slight differences in personality and expressions, I would’ve thought that you’re my son.”

“Alright. I do hope that your son can return to your side safely, but I still need to look out for my well-being. I’ll set up an email soon, and will manually postpone the release of this clip every month. Keep me safe or the public will know of this.”

“That’s reasonable,” Yun Huateng agreed.

“Great. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be going back to sleep.”

I returned to my room and gave Teacher a call.

“Did you get the deal, Gou Dan?” he immediately asked upon answering.

“Yeah, but they want me to go to their city. I’ll only be back three months later. I will pay you then,” I lied.

“They know someone from their own city?” he asked.

“Probably. I’ll contact you if there’s any problem. I’m flying tomorrow so I’ll get some rest now,” I told him.

“Be safe,” he responded before hanging up.

…

The next day, a beautiful, classy, white woman appeared in the suite.

She spoke fluent Chinese and English.

Unlike other tutors, she did not bother going over the basics.

Instead, she made me repeat some simple phrases.

Having passed sixth grade’s English classes, I had some basic knowledge of that language and could more or less understand some American TV series even without subtitles.

However, I was pretending to be completely ignorant so I simply followed after her.

Yun Huateng dropped by a few times. One time, he brought a file over for me to study. “My company’s name is Horse Brand Red Wine. You’ll be the new manager of a project that will require you to head over to a winery in America for a month. Inside this file are details about your villa and sports car. They will be notarized and we will go for the interview in a week’s time.”

I opened the file and saw that the house and car are in Beijing.

“We’re going to Beijing for the interview?” I asked.

“Yeah. Master your pronunciation here first and we’ll go over there next week,” he replied.

I nodded, noting their work efficiency. If I had said that I was quite proficient in English, I would’ve been in the airport by now.

I did not improve even after a week of tuition.

Yun Huateng and his wife came by quite often but I was always facing difficulties. Could they really blame me? I don’t use English in China. Even with sufficient foundation, it was tough to speak the language fluently.

The tuition classes dragged on for another week and on the fourteenth day, Yun Huateng handed me a plane ticket. On the eighth of the month, we took four first-class cabins to Beijing.

The presidential suite was already something I found hard to imagine, so you can picture how amazed I was by the first class cabin and the Rolls-Royce that picked us up from Beijing Airport.

I was basking in pleasant surprise and luxury until Yun Huateng started speaking. “You’d better pass the interview the first time so we can fly straight to America to meet my son the day after.”

“So rushed?” I blurted out.

Yun Huateng looked at me and said, “You’ve delayed our plan for a week and I don’t want more problems to arise because of time issues.”

I nodded.

The car brought us straight to Yun Huateng’s house and I stayed in his son’s room.

I locked the room door and quickly rummaged through his belongings.

There were rows of fountain pens and inks on the study table.

I went to Taobao and searched for the model of those fountain pens and discovered that they were part of a series used by a renowned writer.

Each cost over 100,000.

I chose the most expensive one and stashed it in my pocket.

Same goes for the inks. A small bottle, the size of a nail polish bottle, costs tens of thousands.

I then scanned his shelves and found a diary.

I found it strange that a rich man had the habit of keeping a journal, but I started reading it anyway.

His writing was neat and organized, unlike mine. I felt momentarily ashamed.

Content-wise, he wrote about his daily trifles. What stood out to me, though, was the fact that the father and son met only once a year.

…

The next day, Yun Huateng knocked on my door and told me to get ready to head to the immigration bureau.

There was already a man inside the car when I got in. He greeted, “My name is Li NasdaqK. I’ll be your translator.”

I shook hands with him and Yun Huateng handed a micro earpiece to me. “Stick it behind your ear,” he instructed.

The car drove off.

Things went rather smoothly, as evident from a thumbs up by the interviewer, despite my stutterings.

I strongly suspected that Yun Huateng bribed the interviewer.

Yun Huateng was waiting by the car when I exited the building.

I got in happily.

When I turned to him, he said without preamble, “We’ll fly first thing tomorrow.”