AM Chapter 12

12. Unequal Bargain

Liang Jingren was right, he needed to find a job.

Once he sold the apartment his parents had left him, he would repay Liang Jingren the study abroad expenses with interest in one lump sum, and then completely sever the so-called “father-son relationship” with Liang Jingren.

At that time, he most likely wouldn’t be able to continue living in the Villa. If he didn’t have a job, even renting an apartment would be a problem, let alone his desire to pursue postgraduate studies abroad.

No sooner said than done, Chen Mo, in addition to carrying out his previous arrangements, slowly began searching various recruitment information online and casting his resume widely.

Another week passed, and Chen Mo frowned, looking at the full inbox of junk emails.

He discovered one thing—

Finding a good job was too, too, too damn difficult!

Not only could the HR people not understand human language, but the company benefits listed on many job postings were as illusory as air, and the working hours were so flexible that it was hard to believe. Some well-known and powerful big companies had educational and experience requirements that made people flinch, while developing small and medium-sized companies with slightly more reasonable salary structures wanted to use one person as three oxen!

What were they recruiting?! Superman?!

The most hateful thing was that, apart from the bland and uninspiring email exchanges he had with HR, his inbox even contained advertisements for truck drivers! – Five insurances, two funds, including meals and accommodation, two days off after two days on, with a salary and benefits package higher than that of a certain big factory’s product intern manager!

What kind of big data omniscient calculation determined that a computer science graduate who had studied abroad was suitable for driving a big truck for people!?!

“Sigh…”

At breakfast, Chen Mo’s sighing appearance caught Liang Jingren’s attention, and he asked Chen Mo, “What’s wrong?”

Chen Mo didn’t say anything at first. He used his chopsticks to pick at the beef cubes in his beef noodle soup, failing several times, which made him impatient. While poking the bowl with his chopsticks, he muttered, “Damn, why did I cut beef cubes? I should have sliced them. I’ll stab you to death!”

“…” Liang Jingren silently moved a tube of toothpicks in front of him.

Chen Mo saw it, pursed his lips tightly, frowned, and said, “Don’t treat me like a child!”

“Then, Mr. Little Adult, have you found a job to support yourself?” Liang Jingren’s question directly hit his sore spot.

Chen Mo pursed his lips again and said, “No, I can’t find a suitable one.”

Either the salary was low, or it was too far from home—although Chen Mo also found it incredible that he still defined the Villa as “home” at this time, he did subconsciously not want the workplace to be too far away from the city where he had grown up. He wanted to be able to return to this city at any time.

How pretentious, he clearly never had such thoughts when he was thousands of kilometers away abroad. He even wanted to settle abroad and never come back.

People’s hearts are so unpredictable and change all the time, Chen Mo thought to himself.

“Do you want me to help you?” Liang Jingren said suddenly.

Chen Mo was stunned, looked up at him, and asked, “How can you help? Let me go to your company?”

I don’t want to be your subordinate… Before he could say the words, Liang Jingren directly cut him off, “No, you can’t come. That’s Chen Daxiang’s company. Many people know you. You don’t want to be surrounded by people every day, treated like a young master, do you?”

Chen Mo thought: Although I don’t want to be your subordinate, being a young master sounds pretty good…

“Otherwise, can I work under Strong Bro?” Chen Mo thought for a while and asked again.

Hearing this, Liang Jingren frowned slightly.

Strong Bro’s bar had been expanded into a well-known nightclub in the area in the past two years, and…

Chen Mo had told Lucas a long time ago that Liang Jingren had run a bar. That was the truth, and it was also the truth that the bar had closed down. He had heard it all from Liang Jingren.

After the bar closed down, Liang Jingren didn’t know how he had found Chen Daxiang, and he had even obtained a marriage certificate with Chen Daxiang to become a couple. With Chen Daxiang’s connections and money, Liang Jingren immediately opened a new bar, but that bar was mainly managed by Strong Bro and his several smart and capable younger brothers. Liang Jingren could only be regarded as an investor. He himself was not involved in the operation. These were things that Chen Mo had not told Lucas.

The underage Chen Mo had secretly gone to that bar twice. Once, Liang Jingren happened to be in the bar, and he was immediately discovered—

Liang Jingren shouted his name loudly: “Chen Mo! Chen Mo!”

The more he shouted, the more he ran.

Feeling excited, Chen Mo turned his head to look back and found that all the waiters in the bar were frozen. The originally noisy sound also stopped in an instant.

He suddenly remembered that the homonym of his name was “silence.” No wonder those people were stunned. It was too funny.

“I saw it online. Strong Bro’s bar is now called [Night Shade], right? It’s so big. It is said that the business is getting better and better after a new manager was hired. Where did you hire the professional?” Chen Mo was a little curious, “Are Strong Bro and the others still working there?”

“Yes.” Liang Jingren nodded, but the knot in his brow was still not untied, “Strong Bro is still the manager at [Night Shade]. The professional was dispatched to open a branch in a neighboring city.”

“Oh~ It seems like you’re making a lot of money~” Chen Mo said with interest.

Liang Jingren hesitated and opened his mouth, asking, “…You want to pick up customers?”

Chen Mo didn’t react, “Huh?”

“I really can’t imagine you as a waiter or bartender. Only your face can make a little money,” Liang Jingren leaned back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

“…”

Chen Mo was silent.

After a while, he leaned forward and asked, “So, am I handsome?”

Chen Mo wanted to hear Liang Jingren praise him.

As a result, Liang Jingren didn’t answer but asked, “What? Do you really think you can pick up customers?”

“No,” Chen Mo answered in a second.

It was absolutely impossible for him to serve others, actively provide emotional value, and smile.

Suddenly, Liang Jingren drank a bowl of noodle soup in one gulp, and slammed the bowl on the table with a “bang” as if to vent his frustration, “What a joke for a college graduate to become a male prostitute. Even if you really want to go, I won’t let anyone take you.”

As he spoke, Liang Jingren squinted at him, “No bars or nightclubs in the whole country will take you.”

This is too domineering…

Chen Mo couldn’t help but swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

The noodles seemed a little sticky. Chen Mo didn’t like eating noodles that were too soft, and he also wanted to put the annoying matter of “finding a job” out of his mind as soon as possible. He lowered his head, picked up the noodles from the soup, and casually brushed over the topic, saying, “Alright, you don’t need to worry about my job. You still have to go to work. Hurry up and change your shoes and go out.”

Liang Jingren sat motionless in his chair, without replying, only lowering his eyes and resting his chin on his hand, as if thinking about something.

Just as Chen Mo was slurping noodles one bite after another, Liang Jingren had an idea. He suddenly sat up straight, his hands crossing on the table in a triangular posture, just like the professional negotiators in some TV dramas.

“How about this? I’ll help you find a relevant job. In return, you move out of the Villa and live in the apartment your biological parents left you,” Liang Jingren said.

Chen Mo opened his eyes wide and looked at him, a mouthful of unbroken noodles still in his mouth.

“I know you’re preparing to sell that house. I guess you want to pay me back for the tuition, but I don’t want it. I want you to work hard and live well. That’s how you repay me.”

Repay? What is he talking about?

Chen Mo stared blankly, sucking all the noodles into his mouth, swallowing them almost without chewing.

What an unequal transaction. What on earth is Liang Jingren thinking?

After opening his mouth several times and closing it several times, Chen Mo finally uttered the first “You” word, and the following words came out very naturally:

“You… don’t treat me like your son. I’ve never treated you like a father, not before, and not in the future.”

Unexpectedly, Liang Jingren nodded without the slightest hesitation and said, “Okay, I understand.”

What kind of answer is this?

A sense of unease rose from the bottom of his heart, and Chen Mo’s entire brain seemed to fall into a psychedelic vortex. He was extremely puzzled: Why did Liang Jingren agree so quickly?

–Four years ago, when he shouted at Liang Jingren like this, Liang Jingren slapped him. No, one slap was not enough. Liang Jingren immediately followed up with another slap, two slaps in total.

At the moment, Liang Jingren’s answer, maintaining a completely calm attitude, did not seem to be perfunctory. He was looking into his eyes when he said it, as if… it was an answer that he had thought about deeply and prepared for long ago.

But, isn’t this answer good? Why do I feel so uneasy…

Chen Mo couldn’t figure it out, really couldn’t figure it out, no matter how he thought about it.

On Saturday afternoon of the same week, Liang Jingren went up to the third floor and knocked on his door, saying he wanted to take him for a drive.

Chen Mo quickly interrupted the video he was having with a domestic postgraduate entrance examination institution, changed into new clothes, and chased after Liang Jingren to the garage to pick a car.

“Bumblebee” was scrapped two years ago, but Liang Jingren still had three cool heavy motorcycles parked in the garage. Whether it was because the owner often maintained them, or because Liang Jingren rarely drove motorcycles on the road anymore, they looked as good as new. Because of this, Chen Mo didn’t dare to touch them casually, let alone drive them out privately.

Unfortunately, Liang Jingren’s idea of taking him for a drive was not like before, riding those stylish motorcycles to take him on remote coastal roads and speed along.

Liang Jingren boringly chose a pure black commercial car. After sitting in the driver’s seat, he signaled Chen Mo to open the door in the back and get in the car.

Chen Mo walked around to the passenger seat and opened the door to get in.

The black car drove at a uniform speed on the busy roads of the city, strictly abiding by traffic laws, stopping at red lights and going at green lights, and yielding to pedestrians in front of zebra crossings.

The car was playing soothing red songs by a singer from seven or eight years ago. The two did not talk along the way.

Chen Mo looked out the front window. After about ten minutes, he could tell that they were on the road to Chen Daxiang’s company.

But when he asked Liang Jingren if he was going to take him to the company, Liang Jingren denied it.

“Then how…?”

“Going to another place. It’s very close to the company, just on the way.”

Twenty minutes later, Liang Jingren parked the car by the side of the road and asked him to get out.

After parking the car, Liang Jingren took him on foot to a nearby law firm.

When Chen Mo saw the words “Law Firm” on the plaque in the distance, a sense of unease arose again.

“There’s no need to make your relationship so complicated and formal. You’re both adults, you both have legs, just don’t interact with each other until you die,” said the man in the gray suit, whom Liang Jingren called Lawyer Chen, as he brought two glasses of water and placed them on the table.

At the same time, there were two documents on the table with the title “Agreement on the Termination of Adoption Relationship.”

Chen Mo sat on the same sofa as Liang Jingren for the first time in a long time, but it was under these circumstances.

The sofa was very hard, but he felt extremely weak.

Just like that morning four years ago, when he woke up and found himself tied up and thrown on a small sofa full of dirty clothes.

At that time, Liang Jingren, who had already changed into new clothes, stood tall in front of the sofa, in front of his naked and bound body, looking down at him and saying:

“Chen Mo, admit your mistake. I can forgive you. Let’s pretend nothing happened last night. We… can still be the same as before.”

After signing the agreement on the white paper in front of him, they would really never be able to be the same as before. The relationship between them would become… no relationship… strangers.

“Isn’t this what you always wanted?”

Is it?

“Not signing? I’ll sign first. Please give me a pen.”

Is this what I always wanted?

“I’ve signed it. Lawyer Chen, please take a look. Is this okay? Do I need to put my fingerprints on it?”

Ah… ah… how did things turn out like this…

He really doesn’t want me anymore.