Chapter 12
Luckily, my company looked after Henry after this mission in Beijing.
Henry was extremely delighted about this part-time job. He ran an autocar magazine business in TaiCang city with another boss. He also started to study English at the Wall Street Training Center. Of course, his northern accent didn’t improve that rapidly. But he met his wife there and she was an immigration officer at Pudong Airport.
Years later, they invited me to a dinner to express their gratitude and invited me to their wedding afterwards. I met Henry’s VIP friend again and he was saying something that I couldn’t understand at all once more. Amazing.
It was around the Wen Chuan earthquake period in 2008. Alexie invited his friends and me to a charity dinner at Westin bund. We sat at the first table at the One Foundation charity dinner and then met Jet Li.
Mr. Jet Li was on the stage sharing the details of his survival from the tsunami in Thailand. When they led their family to run upstairs, the water had already reached the height of their throats. He also thanked everyone for their generous donations.
When he stepped off the stage, Mr. Jet Li and I politely exchanged glances and saluted each other. It felt just like being in a movie.
After this dinner, Alexie asked me to follow another mission with our CFO in GZ. She asked us to prepare fake VAT invoices for one VIP client in HuBei province. It’s a common practice that crosses the red line.
Accountant Jimmy was so concerned about whether he should follow this job request. Of course, he had to cooperate to keep his job. I didnt stop them because I didnt want to make boss unhappy.Meanwhile, I was driving to Jiaxin and Changzhou to push for some payments from our clients.
Also, due to my previous experiences with the Thai restaurant, Alexie’s investment in Shanghai began to involve us as well.
We visited his bar project, Lulu Club, and I got acquainted with Lucas, the operating shareholder. He was a musician, a very kind and handsome man from Northern Europe. Dear shareholders, we had Alexie, Lucas, Albert, Fabi, and Peter. Lucas was a musician and upstairs was Fabi’s Italian restaurant with freshly baked pizza.
That was the place where we often held parties. I and Lucas also had many conversations and often exercised together. And I also met his girlfriend Shelly.
Because Lulu club performed outstandingly, they borrowed another place in the nearby community club to launch the ZACA Spanish Market. Meanwhile, Fabi recommended his CFO, Ms. Zhu, to conduct an interview for me. CFO Ms. Zhu also recommended Cashier Xu for the oversight position, and we recruited several new students, including Lee.
Similarly, we began to engage in the backoffice support of the ZACA Spanish market under the supervision of partner Fabi’s CFO.
One day, I got a phone call from Alexie, telling me that Peter had suffered a brain haemorrhage after drinking alcohol. Soon, all of us attended his funeral at the Catholic Church on Jianguo Road, Luban Road.
Fabi needed to deal with the insurance company and the embassy to have his body sent back to Italy. Shareholders prepared some money for his ex-wife. Lucas gave a speech at the funeral in tears.
I didn’t know him very well. But he was very kind to me. Even till now, he still remains in my mind.He was one of my first client in westen restaurant.
This is the part of our life.We all need face it one day.