Chapter 6: Drinking
The subway station, Goethe City.
Reidon was on the crowded subway. It was strange that a few strong men in T-shirts suddenly got on at a station. They seemed to work in the same group. They deliberately elbowed their way to Reidon and surrounded him, separating him from the others.
Then the burly men each held a piece of white paper as if they wanted to hide Reidon. The people next to them could not see Reidon, and Reidon could not see the outside.
They all stood with their backs to Reidon. When Reidon asked them to move aside, they completely ignored him.
But Reidon felt the subway wasn't crowded all of a sudden after the burly men gave him a relatively wide space.
This was too strange.
Reidon seriously suspected that they were gay and wanted to take advantage of him.
And at the station where he was about to get off, the four strong men got off with him and disappeared into the crowd of people.
Reidon had to go to the company.
He didn't plan to quit his job as an insurance salesman.
Because the system could suddenly appear and disappear at any time.
He still had to have a stable job.
Thirty thousand dollars was only a small fortune.
When he came near the company's building, Reidon thought that it was early to go to work. After breakfast, he went upstairs.
When he arrived at the twenty-sixth floor, there were already many employees.
In fact, the worst insurance salesmen like Reidon didn't have to come to the company every day. Their most important task was to knock on doors to introduce insurance.
As long as there was an insurance order, they could go anywhere.
However, today was Monday, and the company had a regular meeting every Monday.
Reidon came very early.
"Good morning, the worst salesmen."
"Did you sell the last insurance? Did you fail again?"
"I suggest you sell it to your aunt! Ha-ha!"
His colleagues' taunts were common to Reidon, but he was unconcerned about what they had done.
He initially came to this city for making money.
But he didn't earn much money, and it was very difficult for him to have a meal. He had ambitions, but he could only do the basic work and get money to take a meal.
At 10 o'clock in the morning, the company's regular meeting was held as usual.
The meeting room was filled with employees of the insurance company. Some of them transfigured because of their good performance and they also got bonuses at the meeting.
However, Reidon was heavily criticized because he could not sell an insurance for months.
The boss even said the employees should feel ashamed if they performed like Reidon.
Reidon's reputation in the company was the worst. There was no worse insurance salesman than him. He was the worst person for the job.
The boss of the company criticized Reidon in front of everyone so that after the regular meeting, no one wanted to talk with Reidon.
The regular meeting wasn't finished until noon. Reidon was hungry.
He went to a spaghetti restaurant.
But before he could enter the door, his phone rang.
It was a customer's phone call.
"Mr. Cross?"
"I want an insurance. Please come over later."
"Oh! Okay, sir. I'll be right there."
Reidon was overjoyed.
Cross was a doctor who still needed an important insurance. Having been talking to him for two months, Reidon still could not persuade him.
Just as Reidon was about to give up, the phone call suddenly came.
Reidon immediately stopped having lunch.
He took a taxi to the agreed location, a restaurant.
On the way, he tidied up his clothes.
Cross wanted to buy an expensive insurance.
He was a customer so that Reidon needed to treat him to dinner, which was almost an unspoken rule.
Fortunately, Reidon's company paid for the meal.
When Reidon came to the restaurant, he booked the best private room and ordered two bottles of good wine.
Then he waited for Cross at the door.
He had waited for more than half an hour.
Reidon was professional and greeted him with a smile.
But he didn't expect Cross brought a group of people here. Those people looked like his colleagues and they planned to have a meal with him.
At the dinner table, wine was always the most important thing.
The group of people toasted each other, drank, and chatted to find reasons to pour more wine.
Reidon felt extremely uncomfortable. From morning till now, he didn't even have time to have a mouthful of food before he kept drinking.
It was extremely uncomfortable to keep drinking like this.
But in the workplace, drinking was a necessary skill, so Reidon didn't show that he was unpleasant.
He still drank one cup after another.
"Reidon, I'll buy this insurance for your sake."
After drinking quite a bit, Cross put his hand on Reidon's shoulder and said drunkenly.
"Of course, I won't forget your recommendation. I'll give you a gift later!"
As he said that, Reidon secretly slipped a few bills to Cross.
Cross was full of smiles and his mouth reeked of alcohol.
He deliberately squeezed the bills and put them into his pocket.
But he still looked very dissatisfied.
"He's really greedy."
Reidon cursed in his heart.
But he didn't give him more. He could only apply for so much money from the company.
If he gave Cross more, he would have to pay for it by himself.
He came here to make money, not to give him money. If he exceeded the amount the company permitted for him, then Reidon would lose money.
Although Reidon had thirty thousand dollars now, he didn't want to give his own money to Cross.
"Don't worry. At the next time when you buy insurance, I will definitely give you the best discount."
Cross was still very unhappy. He was just eating alone.
Reidon knew that he had offended Cross. Cross might regret buying the insurance at any time.
Reidon knew that he had to show some courage.
"I didn't treat you well. I'll drink this."
As he said that, Reidon picked up a bottle of wine and drank directly.
This was a bottle of high alcohol content wine.
Reidon forced himself to drink it in one gulp.
At this moment, the servers who had always kept their heads down suddenly had a sharp look in their eyes when they saw Reidon drinking too much.
With the look flitting across their eyes, the servers talked to the intercoms on their shoulders in a low voice. Then, they looked meaningfully at Reidon who was plied himself with drink.