Chapter 9: Asking for Trouble_1

After getting their meals, the three of them sat down to eat. They were chatting and laughing when suddenly, the restaurant fell quiet. They turned around and saw that it was Lin Qingya, accompanied by her secretary, entering the cafeteria.

As soon as Lin Qingya entered the cafeteria, her noble and elegant demeanor and her stunningly beautiful face immediately made her the most eye-catching sight in the room. Moreover, with her arrival, the once noisy cafeteria instantly became silent. Many people along the walkways stood up to greet her respectfully.

Lin Qingya had a cool and detached expression, rarely smiling or speaking without purpose. Her powerful aura intimidated everyone present.

Her pace was measured, neither slow nor fast. As she walked by, she would only nod slightly in response to the employees who greeted her. Yet, even such a small acknowledgment excited them greatly after she passed.

Xiao Lingling, upon seeing Lin Qingya, hurriedly bowed her head and stuck out her tongue, saying, "Oh no, it's President Lin!"

Qin Hai laughed and said, "She's not a tigress, why are you all so afraid of her?"

"You're gonna die for talking about President Lin like that! If she hears you, you're definitely in for trouble!" Xiao Lingling was genuinely frightened by Qin Hai's words. As Lin Qingya's footsteps drew nearer, she anxiously gestured for Qin Hai to stop talking nonsense.

"Is she really that formidable? I don't see it." As Qin Hai watched Xiaoling fidget with nervousness, he couldn't help but laugh inwardly, thinking that if Xiaoling knew about his discussion with Lin Qingya that morning about "bottom" matters, she would go insane.

At that moment, Lin Qingya saw Qin Hai, and she noticed that this jerk was still chatting and laughing with the woman opposite him, looking quite cheerful.

"This jerk!" For some reason, simply seeing the smug look on Qin Hai's face made Lin Qingya angry. She had been busily dealing with one problem after another that morning, and here this jerk was, leisurely flirting—totally outrageous!

When Qiao Wei stood up to greet Lin Qingya, the latter unusually stopped in her tracks. Her gaze, sharp as a knife, first fiercely swept across Qin Hai's face before she turned to Qiao Wei and nodded, saying, "Group Leader Qiao, come to my office after work this afternoon. I have something to discuss with you."

After finishing her words, she glared at Qin Hai once more before striding forward.

Qin Hai touched his nose, amused and exasperated. Damn, this woman holds a grudge over a minor misunderstanding from this morning until now. Is it really necessary?

"Wow, President Lin is so beautiful, such a great aura. If only I had her kind of skin!" Once Lin Qingya had left, Xiao Lingling reverted to her bubbly self, visibly excited.

Qin Hai chuckled, "Xiaoling, you don't have to envy her. You're pretty too."

"Don't talk nonsense, how can I compare to President Lin? Her aura is so good!" Xiao Lingling blushed with embarrassment and quickly covered her face with her hands. While Qiao Wei wasn't looking, she also sneakily rolled her eyes at Qin Hai, as if to scold him for his silly talk.

Qin Hai smiled and said to Qiao Wei, "Sister Qiao, President Lin wants to see you. This is a good opportunity. I think you should bring up this morning's incident with her."

Qiao Wei shook her head slightly, "Let it go, it's all in the past. I just want to work well now and not stir up any trouble."

Seeing Qiao Wei's firm stance, Qin Hai didn't insist further. From her expression, it seemed she had her own reasons for reluctance.

A short while later, a few other people approached and stopped next to Qin Hai's group.

"Group Leader Qiao, why are you sitting here? Come join us in the private room inside. I'll ask the chef to cook a few more dishes," said the man leading them, who was in his thirties, wore rimless glasses, and had a fair complexion, resembling a scholar. However, the flickering gaze hidden behind his glasses seemed shifty, giving him a sly air, and his smile felt insincere.

"There's no need, this spot is fine, Group Leader Xue. Please don't trouble yourself!" Qiao Wei politely declined.

Xue Hui was the group leader of the second sales team. According to Xiaoling's intelligence, he was best at kissing up and kicking down, extremely two-faced; not only was he a lackey to Jian Ren but also one of Qiao Wei's suitors. Of course, Qiao Wei didn't have the slightest interest in Xue Hui.

Xue Hui glanced at Qin Hai and Xiao Lingling and smiled, "Lingling and Xiao Qin, come too. Though we're in different groups, we're all part of the same department. We should mingle more."

"The private room has the same dishes, no thanks!" Xiao Lingling didn't even give Xue Hui a glance, rejecting coldly, and she discreetly kicked Qin Hai under the table, signaling him not to go either.

Just as Qin Hai was about to speak, a burly guy emerged from behind Xue Hui. The fellow was over 1.8 meters tall, with a broad waist and thick limbs, brutish-looking with his rough face. He leaned over to Xiao Lingling and said with an eager tone, "Lingling, what do you want to eat? I'll ask the chef to make it for you."

This hefty man was named Yang Yong and belonged to the second group. He had a soft spot for the petite and cute Xiao Lingling and had been pursuing her for nearly a month, but Xiao Lingling had always shown no interest in him at all.

"I'm not going!" No matter what Yang Yong said, Xiao Lingling's response was the same, showing clear annoyance.

"Group Leader Xue, there's really no need for such courtesy; next time, I'll treat everyone to a proper meal outside," Qiao Wei said, offering an escape for Xiao Lingling, who was looking increasingly irritated.

"Alright then, the conditions here in the cafeteria are indeed not great. Another day, I'll treat you all to dinner out," Xue Hui said, not seeming to take offense. He promptly led his group away.

However, it wasn't long before he and Yang Yong came over with their food trays again.

"Qin Hai, give up the seat for Group Leader Xue!" Yang Yong stepped forward eagerly, unceremoniously grabbing Qin Hai's shoulder in an attempt to pull him up.

But to his surprise, Qin Hai was like rooted to the bench, and his pull didn't move Qin Hai an inch.

"Why should I?" Qin Hai gave the guy a cold glance.

"Damn, you've grown some guts, huh! Move aside and cut the crap!" Yang Yong paused for a moment, then tightened his grip on Qin Hai's shoulder. Based on his understanding of Qin Hai, he was sure this loser wouldn't dare to stand up to him. After all, Qin Hai had been so weak for some time. If it hadn't been for the protection of Qiao Wei and Xiao Lingling, his kid would have been dealt with by their second group long ago, and there's no way he could have stayed until now, still flirting with Qiao Wei and Xiao Lingling all day.

"Yang Yong, what do you want to do?" Xiao Lingling suddenly stood up, her large eyes angrily glaring at Yang Yong.

"Nothing, nothing, I was just joking with Qin Hai." Yang Yong said with a smile, but didn't forget to glare fiercely at Qin Hai, whispering in his ear, "You just wait, you little shit!"

Qin Hai was speechless, finding it a fresh experience that someone dared to threaten him to his face after so many years! If his brothers knew about this, he wondered if they would laugh their heads off.

Xue Rong observed this scene, said nothing, sat down opposite Qiao Wei, and took out two sheets of paper from his pocket, unfolding them and passing them to her.

"Group Leader Qiao, I've translated that foreign document for you, take a look."

"Oh, really? Thank you so much!" Qiao Wei was elated, taking it eagerly and said while looking at it, "Group Leader Xue, a foreign languages university graduate, translating such material is really an underutilization of your talents."

"Hehe, translating this sort of thing really isn't much for me, but as long as I can help you, I should do whatever is necessary." Xue Rong said proudly, then extended an invitation to Qiao Wei, "Group Leader Qiao, are you free tonight? I'd like to take everyone out for a gathering, come join us."

"This—" Qiao Wei frowned slightly, finding it difficult to accept Xue Rong's invitation, but she had just rejected him once, and with the favor of having translated the foreign document, it was both emotionally and rationally hard to say no again.

Qin Hai saw that Qiao Wei seemed reluctant to accept Xue Rong's invitation, but because of the foreign document, found it embarrassing to refuse, and seemed quite troubled.

It seemed like the time had come for a brother to make an entrance, Qin Hai sighed inwardly; when you're too awesome, sometimes it's impossible to keep a low profile even if you want to.

He leaned over to glance at the translated document and couldn't help but smile wryly, saying, "It seems the translation is not quite right!"

"What did you say?" As soon as Qin Hai finished speaking, Xue Rong across from him changed his expression dramatically, his eyes turning coldly towards Qin Hai.

Yang Yong, with a look of disdain, also stared at Qin Hai, saying contemptuously, "Qin Hai, no offense, but do you actually understand this? With just your junior high level, I doubt you can even recognize all the Chinese characters, let alone this!"

"Yang Yong, what kind of way is that to speak? How do you know Qin Hai can't understand?" Xiao Lingling said indignantly.

Xue Rong looked at Qin Hai with eyes tinged with mockery and proudly said, "Lingling, don't be upset. Actually, we're not trying to belittle Xiao Qin. A junior high school education is quite normal; there are several diplomats in our country who also only had a junior high school education. If Xiao Qin works hard, who knows, he might become a diplomat in the future. But Italian is not like English; it's a very niche language, extremely difficult to learn. It's not like English where you could almost learn it just by listening to a few tapes and memorizing some vocabulary. Lingling, you also study foreign languages, so you should understand what I mean."

Xiao Lingling fell silent; she had to admit, there was some truth to Xue Rong's words.

However, Qin Hai, who was sitting beside them, rolled his eyes at what he heard. Was Italian hard to learn? Was it not Italian he spoke when he chatted with the Italian Mafia boss? And the Italian sisters he hooked up with last month, when they engaged in a threesome, was it not Italian he spoke with them in bed?

Damn it!

In the past, with Qin Hai's personality, facing someone like Xue Hui who was all show and no substance, verbally lashing him would be putting it mildly. However, after thinking it over, Qin Hai ultimately decided to keep a low profile. After all, he had been reborn and was no longer the same Qin Hai as before, and he still wanted to live a peaceful life. Having too much anger was ultimately not good.

But before he could hold back any longer, Xue Rong from across the table targeted him again with a mocking tone, "Xiao Qin, it's okay to have a low level of education, as long as you're willing to learn diligently. You can definitely catch up in the future. Take Italian, for example. It's hard, but if you are willing, I can find time to teach you in the future. Even if you can't reach my level, after studying for three to five years, maybe seven or eight years, you should be able to understand general documents."

"Kid, you've struck it lucky, and you should quickly thank Group Leader Xue. Do you know, whenever Italian clients visit our company, it's always Group Leader Xue who takes care of the translations? Group Leader Xue offering to take time from his busy schedule to teach you is an honor," Yang Yong chimed in from the side.

Qin Hai was dumbfounded. Since some people liked courting death, he couldn't be blamed for what came next!

Qin Hai set down his chopsticks and fumbled in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a crumpled piece of paper and handing it to Qiao Wei.

"Sister Qiao, take a look at this as well," he said.

Qiao Wei, with a puzzled look on her face, took it, and after managing to smooth out the paper, flipped it over and frowned. "Isn't this a piece of paper from a cigarette box?" she asked.

Scratching his head, Qin Hai chuckled and said, "I had nothing else to use while sitting in the toilet, so I had to make do with this... But although the writing is a bit small, it's all clear, no problems."

In other words, he had written it while using the bathroom.

Everyone turned to stone, their faces filled with strange expressions.

For goodness' sake, we are eating, and you just pulled out toilet paper!

Could you be any more vulgar!

Xiao Lingling wanted to laugh, but dared not, as she held it in her face turned red, and she couldn't help but stealthily kick Qin Hai twice under the table.

Xue Rong also discreetly covered his nose, trying his best to distance himself from the paper, his face full of disdain as though the piece of paper was emitting an unpleasant smell.

Qiao Wei shook her head with a bitter smile, saying nothing, but as she looked at the cigarette paper, she suddenly uttered a "Huh" and immediately couldn't tear her eyes away.