Disobedience To Control chapter 4
Call Me If You Miss Me
Since that day, Yang Xiaobei had disappeared from Song Siheng’s world.
The weather gradually cooled down. The office building arranged for the final glass cleaning.
Foam sprayed from high-pressure water guns flowed down the glass.
Song Siheng was unusually restless. Just then, Li Ke pushed the door and walked in.
“We have an online meeting at 9:30. It’s with the overseas team. The agenda was sent to your email yesterday. If you didn’t see it, it’s okay, I printed it out for you.” Li Ke said as he placed a stack of materials on his desk.
“Got it.” Song Siheng quickly flipped through it, “What’s the situation over there?”
Li Ke smirked, “Same old story.”
Recently, Song Siheng had been troubled by cooperation with several overseas companies. Their products had only entered the international market at the beginning of the year. It took them a long time to recruit someone suitable for the position of overseas market manager, and they had only found a suitable candidate last week.
During this time, there was chaos on that end, and all overseas operations had to be personally handled by him.
Although Song Siheng had studied abroad, he found it difficult to handle the constraints of the overseas market. Going back there now would be facing various restrictions. Dealing with the constantly changing execution standards was very uncomfortable for the product end.
Internal meetings at Sincheng were always resolved within an hour. But such external meetings were not up to him. It was only after more than twelve o’clock in the afternoon that the meeting finally ended.
The meeting didn’t go smoothly. Song Siheng’s original plan was to concede five percentage points to the other party, leveraging their supply chain to smoothly launch the product.
However, the other side was not easy to deal with either. They seemed to have grasped Song Siheng’s desires and made an outrageous demand, wanting to take away ten percentage points of their profit. Song Siheng already disliked bargaining, but for the sake of this move, he had to reluctantly make a painful sacrifice.
After the meeting, Li Ke instructed the legal department to draft a new agreement. When he returned to the office, he noticed that Song Siheng’s mood was off.
“Not happy?” Li Ke leaned against his desk.
“They’ve gone too far.” Song Siheng spoke frankly.
“It’s our first time, inevitably we’ll be taken advantage of. It’ll be much better when our market share goes up.” Li Ke softened his tone, trying to console him.
Song Siheng naturally understood these principles.
He twirled the black pen in his hand three times, then suddenly threw it into the pen holder half a meter away with a slap.
“Hey, that’s a pen.” Li Ke immediately retrieved the pen, opened the cap, and checked it.
After confirming that the pen was not damaged, Li Ke turned back and instructed, “We need to go somewhere in a couple of days.”
“Where to?” Song Siheng took off his suit jacket and casually draped it over the back of the chair.
“The overseas company. The business visa has been approved.”
“Hasn’t their director already taken office?” Song Siheng detested long flights.
“He was poached from a competing company. I think it’s better for you to go there in person. These foreigners, you can’t read their minds.”
Sometimes Song Siheng wondered if he had given Li Ke too much power. He never liked to socialize much with others. Professional managers took his money, so naturally, they had to work for him, that was only fair. He had never considered the need to maintain a relationship with his subordinates.
Song Siheng pondered for a moment before reluctantly nodding.
“Are you going to play tennis tonight?” Li Ke casually asked before leaving.
Song Siheng replied with a grunt of affirmation.
Li Ke nodded and then left. When Song Siheng had his own plans, Li Ke didn’t need to drive him. This was an unspoken rule they had long established.
Before leaving in the morning, Song Siheng specially brought a new set of training clothes and placed them in the trunk of the car. The style wasn’t much different from before, except that the shorts were replaced with long pants that covered the entire legs.
After autumn arrived, the sky in Jiangcheng darkened earlier. Song Siheng, dressed in casual clothes as usual, drove to the tennis club.
However, halfway there, his phone vibrated again.
He swiped to check and saw a WeChat message from his coach.
“Sorry, Mr. Song, I have something urgent today. Our lesson needs to be postponed until tomorrow.”
Seeing the main road ahead starting to congest, Song Siheng became furious. He began to consider whether he should continue to cooperate with this coach.
He was about to send a WeChat message to Li Ke, asking him to arrange dinner for him, when he noticed that the road ahead looked somewhat familiar.
The car happened to arrive at the intersection near the club he had visited last time.
Almost involuntarily, Song Siheng stepped on the gas pedal and accelerated forward. Soon, the car stopped at the entrance of the club.
It was just getting dark, and it wasn’t yet lively. Song Siheng’s hand rested on the steering wheel as he glanced towards the entrance.
Five minutes later, he put on a mask and a black baseball cap and got out of the car.
The security guard at the entrance eyed his attire several times. Song Siheng ignored him and walked straight in.
Passing through the familiar gray corridor, crossing over half a wall, and walking further inside, there was only a three-person band performing on stage.
It was probably some unknown original love song, without drums or familiar melodies.
Song Siheng found a seat in a corner and sat down.
Half an hour later, people gradually started to enter through the door. The seats next to him were filled one by one. But Song Siheng still hadn’t seen that figure.
Impatiently, he raised his wrist to check the time.
Someone nearby started smoking, and the smell of cheap cigarettes entered his nostrils. Song Siheng coughed, then suddenly stood up from his seat, the chair making a loud noise as it scraped against the floor, attracting the attention of those around him.
Frowning, he walked out. Passing by the bar, he casually glanced inside. Still, he didn’t see that person.
“Who are you looking for?” The bartender saw his actions and inquired.
Song Siheng didn’t want to answer, but thinking that he was currently wearing a mask and a hat, he reluctantly spoke after a moment, “Where’s the waiter who used to work here? The tall guy with short hair.”
As he said this, he raised his hand and gestured a height about half a palm higher than himself.
“Oh, you mean Xiao Yang?”
Song Siheng was taken aback, remembering the ugly sheep in the pencil drawing. “Yes.”
“Today is Wednesday, he has the day off.” The bartender explained with a smile, then asked, “Are you a friend of his?”
Song Siheng’s Adam’s apple rolled, but he didn’t answer.
The bartender was enthusiastic, “Is he your classmate? I’ll let him know when he comes back.”
Song Siheng cleared his throat, reluctantly confirming, “No need, I was just asking.”
Then he turned and walked out. A student?
As soon as he stepped outside, Song Siheng took off his duckbill cap, opened the car door, and threw the mask and cap onto the back seat.
Starting the engine, he drove off. But after driving about ten meters, a red warning popped up on the dashboard.
The fuel tank was dangerously low.
It was just his terrible luck that Li Ke hadn’t driven his car recently. Normally, when the fuel tank was almost empty, Li Ke would refill it in advance.
Song Siheng slammed the steering wheel in frustration.
The car emitted a sharp, continuous honking sound. Nothing was going smoothly this evening.
Ignoring the cursing of the car owner behind him who had opened his window, Song Siheng drove straight to the nearest gas station at the next intersection.
After driving two kilometers, Song Siheng finally found a gas station before the car stalled.
“98, fill it up.” He rummaged in the armrest compartment for a while and found the fuel card Li Ke had handled, handing it over.
The attendant outside took the fuel card, inserted it into the machine, and after five seconds, returned it to Song Siheng.
“Sir, the balance is insufficient. You can reload it at the convenience store over there.”
Song Siheng had no choice but to park the car in the nearby parking space and angrily stormed into the gas station’s convenience store.
It was late at night, and a wall of mist had formed on the glass door of the convenience store.
He took out his phone, intending to pay as per the clerk’s instructions when the convenience store door suddenly opened again. A comical opening music played.
That day, Song Siheng wasn’t wearing glasses. He only saw a brown giant figure through the mist-covered glass.
A few seconds later, he realized that it was a huge teddy bear, holding a box of discounted yogurt in one hand.
Then, he saw the bear raise its hand to remove its brown headgear.
The face under the headgear, no matter how he looked at it, seemed familiar to him.
“So coincidental?!” The bear spoke first.
Song Siheng had to turn around and face the pair of big black eyes. Perhaps from being in the headgear for too long, the person in front of him had already soaked his short hair.
Encountering each other in this setting, in this attire, would be awkward for anyone.
However, the person in front of him was calm and composed, smiling and waving his paw at him.
“So coincidental,” Song Siheng squeezed out two words between his teeth.
He quickly retrieved his fuel card and turned to go back to the car.
“Hey, wait for me!” The brown bear behind him shouted loudly through the glass.
Three minutes later, Song Siheng’s car was finally filled with gas. His hand rested on the steering wheel, gears engaged, waiting for a foot on the gas pedal to drive away from the gas station.
With a bang, the passenger door was pulled open from the outside.
A person with soaking wet hair unceremoniously sat in the passenger seat.
Unable to maintain his composure any longer, Song Siheng asked, “What are you doing?”
“I thought you were coming to find me,” he said excitedly.
“You’re mistaken,” Song Siheng replied, his patience wearing thin.
The person didn’t budge. Instead, he leaned closer, his face inches away from Song Siheng’s, staring straight into his eyes.
“Aren’t you leaving?”
Song Siheng couldn’t understand his question.
“To the hotel,” his lips were close.
The driver’s seat of the sports car was not spacious, and Song Siheng felt a bit suffocated.
Soon, a slightly cool hand slipped under his sweater and gently caressed his waist. The familiar sensation sent shivers down his spine.
Song Siheng instinctively wanted to push him away, but somehow, he didn’t move.
Taking a deep breath, his brain had yet to make a rational decision. The phone on the center console vibrated.
It was Li Ke’s call. He pushed the person’s face away and grabbed the phone, swiping the screen.
“I understand. I’ll be back.”
Li Ke said there was an emergency meeting overseas, and he needed to return to the company.
Song Siheng hung up the phone. Two rows of long, black eyelashes blinked in front of him, and the damp ends of the hair almost touched his lips.
He pointed outside, “Get out.”
The person in front of him hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly took a step back and left the passenger seat.
As Song Siheng was about to close the car door for him, the hand suddenly reached in again and snatched his phone from the center console.
“Hey?!” Song Siheng subconsciously tried to grab it back.
But he dodged it directly. Half a minute later, he handed the phone back to Song Siheng.
Looking down, Song Siheng saw a new number in his phone contacts.
Starting with 137 and ending with 031.
There was only one word in the note: Yang.
Song Siheng closed the car door and drove off in the opposite direction.
A gradually fading shout came from behind, “If you want to find me! Then call me!”
【📢Author’s Note】
The persistent sheep who left his number. This interlude segment ends, returning to the present tense at the beginning.