Chapter 76: Meeting
Hearing President Zhong's joke, Liu Shang gave him a long-suffering, weary look.
"Come on, President Zhong. You know full well that President Zhang was being pestered by the oil production team leaders to order a new batch of wells, and it was giving him a headache."
"So he came up with a brilliant idea to pass the buck and pushed the whole matter onto me."
"And wouldn't you know it, these team captains hunted me down all over the oilfield."
"When they find me, they don't waste any words. It doesn't matter what time it is, or whether I've eaten or not—they just drag me off for food and drinks."
"And having just one drink isn't an option; I have to drink until they're satisfied!"
"You have no idea how miserable these last few days have been. On one day alone, I was dragged away for five meals and eight separate drinking sessions!"
"It's gotten so bad that whenever I see alcohol now, I feel like throwing up. When I see one of their oil production team's cars, I have the urge to turn and run."
Liu Shang's account was slightly exaggerated, and his mock-pitiful tone was so humorous that it made everyone present burst into laughter.
Even Song Jia, who was sitting to the side, couldn't contain herself and was laughing so hard she was nearly in tears.
Seeing her reaction, and because Song Jia and Liu Shang were about the same age and were classmates, the others at the table began asking them more questions out of curiosity.
As for Liu Shang and Song Jia, they chatted occasionally, but their conversation was superficial, polite, and thoroughly ordinary.
Throughout the entire banquet, the host, Song Guangyuan, remained mostly silent, barely saying a few words.
If anyone at the table was in shock, it was definitely him.
Through the dialogue between Liu Shang and Song Jia, and by observing their expressions, Song Guangyuan could now be certain of one thing: his daughter and Liu Shang genuinely did not know each other.
They had truly never interacted at school.
Recalling his and his wife's inexplicable and frankly ridiculous overreactions, how they'd tried to protect Song Jia *from* Liu Shang… it all finally made sense.
It turned out he really had been worrying for nothing and had been completely off the mark.
His daughter had no connection to Liu Shang whatsoever.
And Liu Shang was not the insidious, calculating person he had imagined him to be.
From the very beginning, the young man had simply wanted to use his skills and abilities to earn some money at his company.
And how had he responded?
He had judged a gentleman by his own petty standards and had deliberately rejected, even tried to drive away, a kid that age.
Faced with this stark contrast, a storm of emotions raged in Song Guangyuan's heart, and he couldn't calm down for a long time.
After returning to his office, Song Guangyuan called Pan Qingfeng.
After listening to Song Guangyuan's story, Pan Qingfeng laughed on the other end of the line.
"Haha! I told you, brother, didn't I? What did I say before?"
"Liu Shang is a really good kid. His character isn't nearly as bad as you imagined!"
"So what do you think now that the truth is out? You finally understand."
"This just shows that President Zhong and I weren't wrong in our judgment of him. The only thing wrong was your own narrow-minded prejudice."
"I'm telling you, brother, a kid like Liu Shang is a gift from the heavens, a treasure who walked right up to your door."
"It would be a real pity if you only used him to make a little bit of money."
"Alright, now that this weight is off your chest, I've said all I need to say."
"It's noon. I'm going to take a nap. Let's talk later when we have time!"
***
That night, after dinner, once Song Jia had returned to her room, Song Guangyuan took his wife back to their bedroom.
He then quietly told her about the day's events, explaining the full story concerning Liu Shang.
After hearing about such a comical misunderstanding and the ridiculous mistake she and her husband had made, Song Guangyuan's wife, Wu Caiyun, shook her head and laughed.
"Well, Old Song, I never thought I'd see the day when you, who have always prided yourself on being an experienced and accurate judge of character, would get it so wrong!"
"But from what you're saying, is this Liu Shang really that good? Is he that exceptional?"
Song Guangyuan sighed softly but still nodded.
"There's no doubt about it. A young man who can be valued and liked by factory leaders like Pan Qingfeng, as well as Xu Tiande and President Zhong, all at the same time... he must have something unusual about him."
"Oh?"
"If that's the case, I'd really like to meet this young man myself!"
***
As time passed, the construction for the nine wells was completed, and the teams began relocating from one well site to the next.
One rare afternoon, Song Guangyuan drove himself and his wife, Wu Caiyun, to one of the sites that was in the process of being moved.
"Is that the kid? Liu Shang?"
Wu Caiyun's eyes were fixed on a young man in jeans, a red oilfield work jacket, and a hard hat, who was supervising the hoisting work at the well site.
Facing his wife's question, Song Guangyuan nodded.
At that moment, a construction tank, being lifted into the air by two wire ropes, suddenly tilted at a sharp angle before it could be loaded onto the truck.
This was followed by a piercing groan from the taut wire ropes, and the tank began to shake more violently.
This sort of thing was relatively common, usually caused by the wire ropes being set unevenly before a lift.
As a result, during the hoisting process, the ropes would sway and shake due to the unevenly distributed force.
This kind of potential safety hazard was something Liu Shang absolutely did not tolerate.
So, after the equipment was stabilized without incident, Liu Shang shot the team members a sharp look.
"What is wrong with you people?"
"Either don't do the job at all, or do it right for me!"
"If I see anything like this happen again, don't blame me for making things difficult for you!"
Seeing Liu Shang's anger, several of the team members immediately admitted their mistake with apologetic smiles.
"Yes, yes, Engineer Liu, you're absolutely right!"
"We were careless this time! It will never happen again, we promise! Never again!"
After the major cleanup at the company, Liu Shang's prestige on the sites was now extremely high.
Putting aside his own capabilities and the backing he had from President Xu and President Zhong, the workers saw how much respect and admiration he received from everyone at the oil production plant. How could an ordinary worker like them dare to be unconvinced or disobey his orders?
Young Engineer Liu was a capable man with real skills.
Watching this scene, Wu Caiyun glanced at her husband and couldn't help but smile.
"You know, that kid is quite impressive."
"In him, I can almost see a shadow of you, Song, back when you were young!"
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