Chapter 203 – When the accumulated number of broken promises exceeded a threshold, children would no longer believe those adults (1)

Not being able to take time off wasn’t a big deal. After all, the company was usually busier on Fridays and her manager’s reason was sufficient. This company treated its employees very well, and her manager treated her with courtesy and warmth, so Ruan Xia didn’t even think about complaining.

It was just that she had already agreed to Little Wang’s request, and she knew that he’d be disappointed when she told him she couldn’t go after all. This chubby kid was too cute. Ruan Xia felt guilty just from picturing his sad and disappointed appearance.

After thinking it over, Ruan Xia decided to ask Song Tingshen for advice. Taking advantage of her lunch break, she called Song Tingshen.

“What are you doing? Do you have time to talk?” The number of phone calls between them had noticeably increased.

Song Tingshen opened his lunchbox. “I’m about to eat lunch. You?”

“It’s almost 1PM. You’re just eating now?” Ruan Xia casually asked, “What are you eating?”

In contrast, Song Tingshen enjoyed this type of everyday conversation very much, so he patiently answered, “I had the assistant go out to buy a business set meal. It’s beef with soft scrambled eggs, stir-fried romaine lettuce, stewed pork with potatoes, and pork ribs soup.”

It was a very detailed self-report of his situation.

Ruan Xia smiled. “That’s a sumptuous lunch. Drink the soup first. I heard doing that is better for your stomach.”

“Okay.”

After laying enough groundwork with small talk, Ruan Xia rushed to the purpose of her call. “Umm, Song Tingshen, there’s something I want to discuss with you. I asked my manager to take this Friday off, but there happens to be something at work that day, so I can’t take time off.”

Song Tingshen was a bit surprised by that. “You can’t take time off? I thought you’re not busy at work?”

Honestly, after he had the company checked out and determined there was nothing wrong with it, even Song Tingshen would occasionally question and reflect on his understanding of the world. Were there really people that ran their companies this way? Giving their employees the highest salary and treatment in the industry with the most leisurely amount of workload. Moreover, Ruan Xia said the receptionist would order a variety of beverages for afternoon tea…

He had frequently said in the past that no one starts a company for the sake of doing charity. After all, profit always ranked first for business people. It felt as if he had been slapped in the face.

“Yeah, but the customer I’m responsible for said he’s coming to this office on Friday, so I definitely can’t be absent that day. What should I do? I already agreed when Little Wang asked. He’ll definitely have opinions if I got back on my word.”

“Your hands are tied.” Song Tingshen took a sip of soup. His expression was very calm. “You can’t take time off from work that day and you can’t quit your job just to participate in this parent-child activity. Little Wang isn’t an unreasonable child. Just properly talk to him about it. He’ll understand. He might mention some conditions though. For example, taking him out to play on the weekend.”

“No matter what he asks for, I’ll agree to it.”

Ruan Xia was looking at it from Little Wang’s perspective. She had similar childhood experiences. For example, her parents said they would take her to a children’s playground in the city, but on the day of, they said something came up. Adults always thought that children would forget things in a few days, but in reality, when the accumulated number of broken promises exceeded a threshold, children would no longer believe those adults.

Song Tingshen said, “So don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to Little Wang too. I’ll do my best to keep him from being disappointed in you.”

“Thank you.”

“But…” Song Tingshen suddenly changed the topic, “I also have something I want to discuss with you.”