KA | Chapter 13

Chapter 13. Clear-headed Degeneration

On the weekend, I wore headphones and went running in the park.

Willow trees were sprouting tender new buds, the grass was green and lush, the lake water was rippling green… everywhere I looked was green. Two cats were hiding behind a locust tree, the mother cat was getting fucked until she cried meow meow, and I stopped to watch, casually timing them as well.

Two minutes later, the cries stopped.

Tsk tsk, so fast.

I kept running along the lakeshore and saw two puppies, a Teddy pressing down on a Poodle.

They were sneaking a hybrid mating while their owner was off guard, enjoying the thrill of different breeds, with differences in skin color, body size, and class all there, truly something else.

Animals only cared about a moment of pleasure. After a few more months, when the mixed-breed pups were born, they would get beaten by their owner and behave.

Spring was the season when everything revived, and also the season when small animals mated. My biological clock had sensed the breath of spring, and I was feeling a little restless too.

Running could ease work pressure, but it could not ease the restlessness of wanting to mate.

That fox spirit had hooked me so badly that I was obsessed day and night, but when I thought about it carefully, I did not know what kind of charm he even had.

He was good-looking, but not the kind of good-looking that was shocking enough to make people lose their minds. He had money, but I was not someone who wanted to jump on every rich person I saw.

Compared with his advantages, he had more flaws.

He squeezed Party B to death, treated employees with sharp words and harshness, acted lofty and superior but was really just a stubborn dead duck with hard嘴, was arrogant and overbearing and penny-pinching, and with a roll of his eyes, he could come up with eight hundred evil ideas… someone like that should not have been my type.

But I just kept thinking about him.

Looking at the two dogs tangled together, a guilty voice suddenly rang in my head: mating with the fox spirit would not produce mixed pups, nobody would find out!

He paid, I did the work, both of us willing, no pregnancy, no responsibility… a pie falling from the sky was landing right on my head, if I did not take it, what was I waiting for!

No!

Unlike dogs mating, I was not some beast with human and machine split apart, this kind of thing had to be done with someone I liked, and there was no liking between us.

The park loop was 10 kilometers. I ran two rounds, left home at 7:30, and after finishing, it was exactly 9.

I bought soy milk and fried dough sticks on the street, and when I got home I saw a traditional Chinese doctor giving my mom acupuncture.

“Mom, what happened?”

“An old problem, the rheumatism acted up.”

The old Chinese doctor inserted needles into my mom’s shoulder, and my mom was grimacing in pain. The doctor said, “Your mom cannot raise her right hand because the sinews and bones in her shoulder have adhered together. They need to be separated with needles.”

Picking at tendons with needles, just thinking about it hurt, and looking at it hurt even more.

“Mom, hadn’t you always been pretty fine before? Why did your right hand suddenly stop being able to lift?”

The old Chinese doctor said, “The small needle knife is done once every 3 days, 5 sessions count as one course. This is your mom’s second course.”

Before, I had too many clients and was always busy signing contracts and running around outside. I had not expected my mom to have already been doing this for so long.

Work was supposed to be for a better life, but now I had gotten things backward.

I said guiltily, “How long does it need to be treated before she gets better?”

The old Chinese doctor said, “Rheumatism, frozen shoulder, and osteoporosis are all chronic illnesses, they cannot be cured. Small needle knives can only keep the condition from getting worse. This kind of illness has to be rested at home. If you catch cold or do physical labor, it can easily cause rotator cuff damage, and then surgery will be necessary.”

When I had a fever as a child, my mom took me to the small clinic downstairs to get an IV drip. Once, after 3 days of not getting better, my mom took me to the hospital to see a doctor. After spending a whole morning registering and getting examined, the doctor still prescribed penicillin in the end. Penicillin cost 100 yuan per bottle at the big hospital and 50 yuan per bottle at the small clinic. Strangely enough, after we went back from the hospital and kept getting it at the small clinic until the fourth day, the fever suddenly went away.

From then on, I came to a conclusion: medicine was cheap to buy, seeing a doctor was expensive. For minor illnesses like headaches, fevers, and colds, things that medicine could solve, I should try not to go to a big hospital.

I had a tough body and could recover after resting for two days when I was sick. My mom was older, and if she got sick and did not take the right medicine for the right illness, she would not recover. Dragging it out would only make the condition worse.

After the old Chinese doctor left, I said, “Mom, don’t just look for cheap treatment and mess around with your illness. What that doctor just said might not even be right. I’ll take you to the hospital this afternoon to get an X-ray and take a look.”

My mom took out a CT film from the drawer and said, “I went to the hospital last month. The doctor said it was frozen shoulder and told me to go for massage every week. A massage at the hospital cost 100 yuan each time, while the old Chinese doctor just now charged 30 yuan each time. I let the old Chinese doctor massage me twice, and I felt there was some effect. Then the old Chinese doctor said the small needle knife worked faster, so I had it done.”

“Although it hurt a little, I can raise my arm now.” My mom slowly raised her arm upward and showed off, saying, “Look, this is all better. I’ll do the last 2 sessions, just to consolidate it, and it will be fully cured.”

How could a chronic illness get better so easily? The fact that my mom could take the initiative to go to the hospital meant her rheumatism had already become very serious.

All of this was because she did not want to add a burden to me beyond work.

The sweet soy milk tasted bitter all the way down.

I said, “I signed quite a few deals recently. Next month I should be able to buy some furniture and move into the new place.”

“Once we move into the new house, I’ll sell this one. It should sell for 300,000 yuan, and I’ll keep the money for your renovation and for you to get married.” My mom smiled. “Hey, tell me, when are you going to find yourself a partner?”

I brushed it off, saying, “A partner is something you meet if you’re lucky, you don’t just force it. Don’t worry yourself over me.”

“You’re almost 30 already, and you don’t even know to be anxious yourself. If I don’t worry, who will! Back when you were in school, I wouldn’t let you fall in love early because I was afraid it would affect your studies. Now that you’re working and still not dating, in a couple more years, all the good ones will have been snatched away!”

Actually, before, I had dated a girlfriend, but my mom did not know.

In college, a girl confessed to me. She was gentle and kind, a pretty good person. I went on two dates with her, watched movies, ate, and shopped, and spent almost 1000 yuan, which was about my monthly living expenses. I wanted to keep developing the relationship but did not want to ask my mom for money, so I used my spare time to work part-time at McDonald’s. In the end, because I did not accompany her, she broke up with me.

A salesperson’s salary was directly proportional to their quota pressure. As my salary increased, my sales level got higher and higher, and my work pressure also got bigger and bigger. Every day when I opened my eyes, all I thought about in my head were clients. All my thoughts were on clients, and I really had no time or energy to maintain a relationship.

When I was in school, I had no money to date. After I started working, I had no time to date. So I just stayed single all along.

My dad was my mom’s lifelong shadow. I did not want to be like him, knowing full well I could not give the other person the life they wanted, yet still dragging them into the mess. I might as well wait until the mortgage was mostly paid off, the new house was renovated, and I had some savings in hand before looking for a partner.

The evil voice appeared in my head again: If you don’t find a partner, you can find Shen Yuesheng instead!

Shen Yuesheng said, “Let’s talk next time,” which meant he was telling me to go on him next time!

I knew I had to be responsible for love, but at the same time I also wanted to skip love and feed my body first.

This self-contradictory emotion kept tormenting me, and I did not know how I should choose.

Shen Yuesheng’s social circle was completely different from mine. He had money, so he had a lot of room for error in life and could do whatever he wanted. I had no money, and my life could hardly afford any mistakes. In order to save money, when I got sick I could not go to the hospital, I could not choose my work environment, and if I could not sign contracts I would starve to death.

He was an entrepreneur standing under the spotlight, while I was the mud under his feet. Our statuses were worlds apart, and it was impossible to develop love.

Last time, Shen Yuesheng had already made it clear that he would not cooperate, so I should not waste energy on meaningless things and should not go looking for him again.

So… let it end here.

*

There were still two weeks until the end of the quarter, and this was the crucial time for sales to sprint their quotas. Chen Xi was unhurried, drinking coffee while issuing contracts.

This state should have been pretty much the same as mine, finishing sales tasks early and lying flat.

“Chen Xi, have you finished your quota?”

“Pretty much.”

I was top-tier in mid- and small-sized clients, and after coming to KA, the basic tasks I handled doubled. Chen Xi was top-tier in KA, and his quota was 5 times mine. I was tired like a dog, struggling in a panic just to sign enough for 100,000 yuan in gross profit. Chen Xi, leisurely drinking tea, could handle 500,000 yuan in gross profit.

It was impossible not to feel jealous.

I said sourly, “Every quarter you sign more than 500,000 yuan in gross profit, where do you get all your clients from?”

Chen Xi spread his hands. “80% of what I sign are old clients, as long as they don’t go bad, I always have gross profit.”

So 40,000 out of the 50,000 quota relied on old clients, and only 10,000 was new, while the 100,000 I signed was all new.

It looked like the gap between me and the KA top guy was just a few old clients.

I felt a bit more balanced and pressed on, asking, “Before old clients were signed, they were also new clients, right? The key clients with high gross profit definitely have a lot of同行 watching them. How did you sign them the first time?”

In mid- and small-sized accounts, all the thinking went into grabbing orders and scheming against each other. In KA, all the thinking went into key clients, and there was not much trickiness at work.

Chen Xi was my enlightenment teacher for developing key clients, and he always answered whatever I asked.

“My first key client was Gulin Decoration. The other side’s marketing director had a grudge with Brother Lin. Brother Lin said Gulin definitely would not cooperate with Lanhai. I had no key clients back then, and the assessment pushed me until I had no choice. I went to Gulin 36 times, coaxed and cajoled the marketing director, kept up the public relations for more than half a year, and only then did I make the cooperation happen.”

Gulin Decoration was a leading decoration company nationwide, with an advertising placement framework worth over ten million in cooperation with Lanhai, and fixed quarterly payments of over a million. I had always thought Gulin was Chen Xi’s connected client, and had not expected the signing process to be so bumpy.

Chen Xi looked at the corner of the table, his eyes gradually losing focus, as if he were recalling a bitter past. “At the end of a quarter 3 years ago, I went to Gulin to block the marketing director. He was busy dealing with company chores and did not have time to eat. I was afraid he would go hungry, so I went downstairs and bought two portions of grilled cold noodles, and asked him, ‘Do you want spicy or not spicy?’ He took the grilled cold noodles and said, ‘Let’s eat something good together at night.'”

“That day, I waited for him until 10 at night. From then on, he told me everything without holding back.”

“Key clients are all sharp people. They are richer than me, more experienced than me, and the circles they come into contact with are completely different from mine. To be honest, even now I still don’t know why Gulin cooperated with me. Maybe the marketing director had seen too many schemers and thought I was sincere.”

A bowl of grilled cold noodles had led to a contract for a framework worth tens of millions. Maybe when facing key clients who had seen a lot, there was no need for any flashy sales techniques.

Treating people with sincerity and putting yourself in their shoes would bring rewards in return.

Chen Xi was sincere, while Lin Yiran was sinister. I had never figured out why the two of them got tangled up together.

I probed tactfully, “Mr. Lin is almost 40 this year, right?”

“38. Don’t you dare call Brother Lin old, he can easily trip you up.”

So he was not love-brained, he was still pretty clear about Lin Yiran’s temperament. But since he knew what kind of person Lin Yiran was and was still together with him, that made it even harder for me to understand.

I asked, “Do you need money that badly?”

Chen Xi raised an eyebrow. “What, seeing me in a cheap shirt, you think I’m poor?”

“No.” I waved my hands repeatedly. “I just can’t figure out why you’re with Mr. Lin…”

Chen Xi sighed. “I can’t figure it out either.”

“Brother Lin has a bunch of flaws, and only his face is decent to look at.”

“But I just like him, I’ve liked him for many years, and I really have no way around it.”

Chen Xi had no way around it, and it seemed like I did not really have a way around it either.

Salespeople all wanted to grasp as much information about the client side as possible, but my understanding of Shen Yuesheng had already shifted from work to private life. I wanted to know his emotional history, work situation, family background… my curiosity had completely gone beyond the scope of work.

My feelings toward him were not just “wanting to get on him” and “wanting to sign him.”

Shen Yuesheng was a seductive fox spirit, an addictive poppy flower, a poisonous black-veined caterpillar butterfly… I knew there was danger in getting close, knew I should stop here, but I still could not help thinking about him.

I could not control my brain, I could only watch myself soberly sink into degeneration.