Chapter 291 - Double Standards

Little Bei was learning idioms. When she heard Shao Xi’s words, she immediately started forming a sentence with an idiom she had learned. “Daddy, you’re quite ‘lucky with women’ today.”

Shao Qihai: “Little Bei, don’t spout nonsense.”

Previously, he had actually hoped that the children would help him. Now, it was becoming painfully obvious that it was more likely that they would dig a hole to entrap him. For example, today, Shao Xi was digging the hole and Little Bei was filling it with soil. It was infuriating.

Shao Qihai spent two days acknowledging this reality and completely gave up on the thought of asking Shao Dong and Shao Xi to help.

Rather than waiting for them to help, he might as well do it himself. At least he wouldn’t do himself in.

Shao Qihai was right, but he had overlooked a fact—the kids’ actions weren’t something he could decide. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t be scammed if he didn’t want to be scammed.

It was rare for Shao Qihai to make a trip to Ocean City. After settling the matter, he even met his friends in Ocean City to deal with company matters.

Shao Qihai had given it some thought when he had first established the transportation company. Other than seeing that there was a market, the main reason he did this was to make sure the people who had retired with him were taken care of.

Not all retired soldiers would get arranged jobs, especially those who retired after just two years or those who retired due to injuries. Still, many people learned a lot from their experiences in these two years and lived well after retiring.

However, many of them still missed the past and didn’t have decent jobs. They could only go home and farm.

That was why Shao Qihai had established the transportation company. The people he recruited basically retired this way. Most of these people were skilled and knew how to drive well. Although the situation had been chaotic for a period of time due to his fake death, the business was currently developing steadily and expanding.

Nowadays, the transportation company was famous for its integrity, for many people knew that it had been set up by retired soldiers. The people inside were skilled, and accidents were less likely to occur on the way.

One had to know that the people who drove trucks in that era were most afraid of being robbed of their money or goods on the road. Should that happen, they wouldn’t even have a place to cry. Once they experienced such a loss, it would be disastrous.

However, such a thing was unavoidable. The criminals would put some glass shards on the road to puncture their tires. Even if one didn’t want to stop, one had to.

Shao Qihai’s transportation company had also encountered such a situation before. Occasionally, he and Jiang Feng would personally transport the goods themselves because there were some roads that weren’t very peaceful, and they would always encounter trouble there. However, these difficulties had basically been taken care of. Now, their transportation company had become a force to be reckoned with among those people, and generally, they wouldn’t make a move on them anymore.

As a result, the name of the transportation company slowly became famous. When the transported goods were snatched or the delivery was delayed, the driver wasn’t the only one out of luck. The owners of the goods were helpless too. Since there was a transportation company that guaranteed to deliver the goods to their destination, customers were definitely willing to choose them for their business.

During this period of time, Shao Qihai had collaborations with many clients, some of them from Ocean City. However, this time, he was there to discuss a big deal. The other party was a big company.

Working with a big company was beneficial. If there was one company, there would be a second and third company in the future. Business would only get better and better.

Shao Qihai had come this time to have a nice talk. Later on, Jiang Feng also rushed over. They had been in contact since the beginning, and it had been three to four days since then. Finally, the negotiation was completed and the contract was signed.

According to etiquette, it was unavoidable for them to eat together after the negotiation was completed. Actually, eating with the clients was serious business too, and Shao Qihai couldn’t bring the five kids there, so he went alone. In the end, he bumped into the other party’s daughter and niece at the restaurant.

Since they had met, they took advantage of this opportunity to eat with them. Later on, they even had a few drinks with Shao Qihai.

The two young ladies were very good-looking. The daughter was obviously interested in Jiang Feng, but the niece seemed to be interested in Shao Qihai. After Shao Qihai calmly explained that he was married with kids, the young lady drank a glass of wine and got a little tipsy.

Later on, the two young ladies bugged Jiang Feng and the others to tell them old stories. They were especially interested in what had happened to them previously and said that they admired people like them the most. They kept clapping their hands and asking Jiang Feng to tell them more.

Jiang Feng was also a little interested in the young lady, so Shao Qihai was prevented from leaving. In the end, he returned very late.

Although they didn’t live together in Ocean City, Shao Qihai would still go to the rental house after he returned and before setting off every day.

As soon as Shao Qihai entered, Xiao Wu sensitively twitched his nose. “It smells like alcohol.”

“I drank a little.” Shao Qihai quickly explained, “I’m not drunk. Xiao Wu, where’s your mommy?”

“Mommy is busy,” Xiao Wu answered. Little Bei also walked over and sniffed Shao Qihai. “Why is there a perfume smell in here? Daddy, you sprayed yourself with perfume.”

“No.” Shao Qihai hadn’t expected Xiao Wu and Little Bei to have such sharp noses. Just as he was about to explain, Shao Xi removed a long hair from his body.

“Long hair. Looks like we didn’t see wrong. Daddy ate with a girl.”

Shao Qihai: “You saw me?”

Shao Xi nodded. “That’s right. We went to eat too.” He looked at the long hair in his hand. “You ate until late and even drank. This hair was still on you. Looks like the two of you sat very close.”

Shao Qihai looked at the hair. “No, she just drank too much and almost fell when she got up. Maybe it accidentally landed on me when I went to help her up.”

“You even went to help the young lady?” Shao Xi shook his head. “Looks like you’re quite considerate, Daddy.”

Shao Qihai: “Little Xi, what are you trying to say?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to let you know how big of a deal this is. If I hadn’t removed the hair from you, according to the television dramas, you and Mommy would have quarreled. You two might even have directly gotten a divorce.”

Little Bei put her hands on her hips and concluded, “Daddy, you’re dishonest.”

Shao Qihai: “It was just a simple meal. What’s dishonest about it? Besides, it’s just a strand of hair. It’s not that serious, right?”

“Yes, it is, Daddy. Did you forget that you two even drank? From what I can see, you’re looking for your next partner.”

Shao Xi shook his head again. “Daddy, you haven’t gotten a divorce yet. Aren’t you a little anxious? How can you let Mommy down like this? You’ve disappointed us too much.”

Xiao Wu and Little Bei stared at Shao Qihai. Shao Dong also looked helpless.

Shao Qihai: “No, I didn’t do anything… Besides, Little Xi, aren’t your words very contradictory? Previously, when your mother ate with some other guy, you said that there was nothing wrong with it. You said that my marriage to your mother only existed in name. How come everything your mother does is right, whereas I only had one meal and I became a sinner?”

Mu Jingzhe could do no wrong, and her eating with a man was fine because they were already practically divorced. However, when the same thing happened to him, the marriage had a binding effect again.

The same marriage only had restrictions on him and was effective exclusively on him. These were exactly the double standards that Mu Jingzhe always talked about.

“You little baddies.” Shao Qihai looked at the five kids and shook his head. These definitely weren’t his children. Definitely not.

Shao Qihai squatted down and pinched Xiao Wu and Little Bei’s noses. “You two puppies have such sharp noses.”

“So do you.” Shao Qihai scooped Shao Xi up and carried him on his shoulder while tickling him. “You’re getting more and more mischievous. I have to teach you a lesson.”

Shao Xi laughed out loud as he was being tickled. “Let go of me! Ha ha! Let go of me quickly…”