bookbashuk Chapter 58 Li Baoqing's Lies
Chapter 58 Li Baoqing's Lies
Chapter 58 Li Baoqing's Lies
"Nothing much." Li Baoqing placed his hands on his lower abdomen, tilted his head back, and said, "I just feel like you're a little—you know."
"What's up?"
"That's a bit greedy. It's just setting up two computers for someone, is it really necessary to ask for 1500?"
"What? Is 1500 a lot?"
"Not enough?! I think you're pretty greedy."
"It's a clearly marked price, only 750 rubles per person, where's the overcharging?" Hu Yi stroked his chin: "A few hundred rubles is nothing to businessmen like them, they wouldn't even care about that little bit of money."
"It's their business if they don't care," Li Baoqing advised sincerely. "We're all Chinese, I think—"
"Alright, alright," Hu Yi interrupted him impatiently. "It's not that I absolutely have to make money off him, but I've come up with a new idea."
"What idea?"
With a "ding," the elevator arrived at the first floor. The two stepped out of the apartment building one after the other. Hu Yi shaded his eyes with his hand, gazing at the white clouds in the sky, and smiled with narrowed eyes, "Baoqing, do you know what my special talent is?"
"You? You—" Li Baoqing glanced at him sideways: "Pretty boy, not bad looking at all."
"Nonsense. I'm talking about special skills, you understand? A particular skill."
"Your special skill—" Li Baoqing bit his lip thoughtfully, "You can drink quite a bit, you have a good alcohol tolerance."
Hu Yi glared at him, annoyed. "I'm talking about a special skill that can make money!"
"You can make money drinking!" Li Baoqing clapped his hands. "I heard from Brother Yan that there are a lot of young, wealthy women in Moscow who like to go to bars to have handsome young men accompany them for drinks; they're really willing to spend money!"
"Really?" Hu Yi asked doubtfully, "Men can earn money by accompanying others for drinks?"
"Of course you can! As long as you're willing to put in the effort, you'll definitely earn a lot!" Li Baoqing pretended to sized him up. "I think you're quite a catch, just a little too thin. How about it? Want to consider it?"
Hu Yi paused for a moment, then suddenly snapped out of it, shoving Li Baoqing so hard he stumbled, and snapped, "Pah! I think you're more suitable! Damn it, you almost got me off-topic!"
Li Baoqing chuckled mischievously twice: "Alright, alright, let's get serious. What are your special skills?"
"You know computers!" Hu Yi straightened his back. "I'm not bragging, I've been an expert on computer hardware and software since high school. If I hadn't come to Russia back then, I might be the owner of a computer assembly shop now."
"Are you perhaps planning to open a shop?"
"That's not realistic, but I can install computers for a fee, and repairs are no problem either."
Li Baoqing frowned and pondered for a moment: "It sounds somewhat feasible. But—who should we install it for? Log into Google? We don't even have a phone in our room, how will people contact us? Come to our dorm room?"
"Going to GG is too expensive, we don't have that kind of money right now, and it's not necessary." Hu Yi shook his head: "I've thought about it, let's target Chinese students in the school first, they live nearby, we can come to their door to make appointments."
Li Baoqing gave an awkward smile: "We're classmates, how could you possibly ask me for money?"
"What's there to be embarrassed about? Wuga is my classmate too. We both get paid to do the same thing, right? It's called—um—selling services for payment, it's perfectly legitimate." Hu Yi was a little excited: "We can go together, make money together, what do you say?"
"But—but—I don't know much about computers," Li Baoqing said in a muffled voice. "Besides, there are only so many Chinese people at school. How many of them would be willing to pay us to build their own computers?"
"Give it a try. It's not difficult at all. You'll get the hang of it after a few tries with me." Hu Yi's eyes were full of encouragement. "I've noticed before that most of the Chinese students in Building 6 don't have computers. They're all potential customers. Besides, the new students will be arriving in two months, and there will definitely be a lot of people who need help setting up computers then."
"Alright, I'll give it a try," Li Baoqing reluctantly agreed. "How much will it cost? One thousand rubles is definitely too expensive for a student, and seven hundred and fifty is also a bit high."
"Yeah, you're right. We can look for similar gigabytes (GGs) and get a reference for their quotes." The two discussed this all the way back to their dorm and then pulled out the Chinese newspapers Zhou Dali had brought back from renting a place a few days ago, starting to look through the gigabytes page by page. However, after flipping through them for a long time, they couldn't find a single gigabyte about assembling a computer.
"No one's logging into GG, which means this—well—this market hasn't been discovered yet." Hu Yi neatly stacked the newspapers beside him and asked, "Do you have any?"
"No. But," Li Baoqing said, holding a recent copy of the magazine "Lu Xun" in a daze, "hey, Lao Hu, there's a Chinese restaurant in this ad looking for a chef. What do you think, maybe we could give it a try?"
"A Chinese restaurant? Keep chopping vegetables? Haven't you had enough? Are you addicted?"
"It's not a cutting board, it's a chef."
"Cook? Just the two of us?" Hu Yi chuckled. "Forget it! How many dishes can we even cook properly?"
"What's so difficult about it? It's not like you've never cooked before." Li Baoqing smiled憨厚ly. "Why not give it a try? I learned a few tricks from Huang Hai's kitchen, maybe I can do it. Chefs earn more money and have more stability, it's definitely better than you tinkering with computers on and off."
Hu Yi thought for a moment: "Restaurants usually require experienced chefs, right? Can someone like you, who's just filling in, really do the job?"
"Experience isn't a problem. Isn't cooking for yourself a form of experience? Besides, we've worked in the kitchen before, so we're at least more experienced than the average person, right?" Li Baoqing said dismissively, "This is Moscow! Not back home. There aren't that many good chefs here. Good enough is good enough."
"That's true." Hu Yi stroked his chin. "How much do you get per month?"
"Salary negotiable, but it'll definitely be more than what I earned chopping vegetables before." Li Baoqing couldn't contain his excitement. "Think about it, Lao Wei earns over a thousand US dollars a month. Even if we earn a little less than him, eight hundred a month would be fine, right? Or even five hundred!"
"You can make a good amount of money. But I've never even touched a master chef's wok, so I definitely have no chance. It's more reliable to stick to assembling computers for people." Hu Yi smiled hesitantly. "Don't get your hopes up either. Can you really cook after three months at the chopping board? If it were that easy, everyone would be a chef, and how could you earn such a high salary? Besides, even if experience isn't required, you're still too young."
"Hmm—you make a good point." Li Baoqing sat on the bed with his brows furrowed for a moment, then threw down the simply bound magazine in his hand, got up and walked towards the door, saying as he went, "Whatever, let's give it a try. I'll go make a call and ask about the situation first."
Hu Yi sighed softly, opened his notebook, tore off a piece of paper, thought for a moment, picked up his pen, and neatly wrote "GG" in Chinese.
Two large characters.
After thinking for a moment, he felt that the title was a bit too straightforward, so he crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it aside, then tore off another piece and wrote: "Computer Installation Consultant".
A bit stiff. Hu Yi shook his head, preparing to change the title to "Breaking News." He closed his eyes and imagined it for a moment, feeling the whole page looked silly, so he simply abandoned the title and wrote directly on the paper: "Student, do you need a computer to help with your studies or enrich your spare time? Have you encountered difficulties purchasing one due to a lack of computer knowledge or poor Russian language skills? Don't worry, now all of this is solved: for just 500 rubles, an experienced professional will accompany you throughout the entire process of purchasing your ideal computer, including free installation of a Chinese operating system, hardware debugging, and long-term free fault diagnosis and repair services. If needed, please go to Room 505, Building 6, Hu."
As he finished writing, Hu Yi paused slightly and decided to omit the character "Yi" from his name. He picked up the simple letter and looked at it several times, preparing to post it on the information board downstairs. Just as he was about to get up, Li Baoqing returned to the room beaming: "It's done! The head chef has asked me to come for a meeting tomorrow afternoon."
"What? You're really going?" Hu Yi was greatly surprised. "Didn't they ask about your situation?"
"I asked a few simple questions, like age and experience," Li Baoqing said with a mysterious smile. "I didn't tell the truth."
"Oh? What did you say?"
"I said I'm twenty-four this year, and I had relevant experience in China before. After coming to Moscow, I worked as a cook in a restaurant kitchen." Li Baoqing said smugly, "Hey, that's not entirely a lie. I did cook a few dishes in the Yellow Sea area, you've eaten them, right?"
"Hey, you've got a knack for lying, haven't you?" Hu Yi laughed. "But your face does look old enough; you could probably pass for thirty and people would believe you."
"Nonsense! Where am I old?!" Li Baoqing said, slightly embarrassed. "Hey, I didn't mean any harm by lying, I just didn't want them to look down on me. Besides, a chef's job is just to cook, as long as the customers are satisfied. Honestly, my cooking isn't bad, is it?"
"My cooking isn't bad either, but we're cooking in the dorm with an electric stove, just making the same few dishes over and over again. How can that be compared to Lao Wei and the others wielding big ladles on the stove?"
"Hey, just apply what you've learned to other situations. Cooking, when you get down to it, is nothing more than the combination of ingredients and seasonings, and the control of heat. The principles are all the same. Just figure it out and you'll get the hang of it."
"You're really confident. I don't think they're that easy to fool." Hu Yi chuckled, looking at him. "Come on, see how my 'GG' is written?"
Li Baoqing took the paper, glanced at it, and frowned, saying, "What is this? I thought you were quite cultured, but it's all just plain language. It's not elegant at all."
"You don't know anything, this is called the vibrancy of life." Hu Yi snatched his little penis and turned to leave. Li Baoqing laughed smugly behind him, "Don't worry, it doesn't matter if you don't make any money. As long as I get this job, you'll be living the high life from now on!"
The China Dragon Hotel, where Li Baoqing applied for a job, was located near a residential area on the outskirts of Moscow, not far from the Friendship University. The hotel was large with many seats, but its storefront and interior decoration were rather simple compared to the Huanghai Hotel, giving it the feel of a roadside food stall or a company canteen.
It was just past 3:30 in the afternoon, and several employees were lounging lazily in the restaurant, as if they had just woken up. Li Baoqing sat awkwardly at a table, opposite him a plump, middle-aged man with a kind face and a slight Jiangsu-Zhejiang accent. After a few brief greetings, the head chef stared at Li Baoqing's face and asked, "Are you really—twenty-four years old?"
Li Baoqing's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't expected the other party to see through his lie about his age at a glance. He could only bite the bullet and say, "Yes, really. I'm twenty-four in the traditional Chinese age reckoning."
"Only twenty-four years old in the traditional Chinese age reckoning?" The head chef chuckled. "I can't believe it. You look quite mature, but I didn't expect you to be so young."
Li Baoqing was stunned for a long time before realizing that the other party hadn't figured out his real age. He immediately breathed a sigh of relief, cursed inwardly, and smiled ingratiatingly, saying, "Yes, yes, I've always looked older than I am since I was a child."