Push Me Away When I Come, Don't Hold Me Back When I Leave - Chapter 87

Chapter 87: Helping Career, Li Wuya

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After settling Jiang Ruhua to rest in her dormitory, Xia Ruoming drove away from the campus again, setting her navigation to a small pub.

The pub was called White Night, just like Kamio Takeshi in Nameless Town, this pub was opened purely on a whim, with completely unpredictable hours for welcoming guests and closing.

Pushing open the main door with a “wele” sign hanging on it, a hint of sweetness and smokiness already rushed into Xia Ruoming’s nostrils, mixed with faint sweet and sour aroma of liquor and malt fragrance.

The small pub was enveloped in a cozy atmosphere, with warm lighting, wooden furniture, and various whiskey barrels.

Warm, safe and comfortable, Li Wuya’s small pub was always like this regardless of the time.

“Hello, miss, what brings you here?” Li Wuya, who was mixing drinks at the counter, greeted with a gentlemanly tone that extremely mismatched his slovenly appearance.

Li Wuya’s features were actually quite proper, even in the future world he would be considered a young heartthrob, but he seemed to have never taken care of himself, with his greasy long hair tangled in knots, and chin covered in uneven stubble. Though only 26 or 27 years old, he made himself look like he had already entered middle age. If not for wearing the White Night pub uniform, people might think he was some vagrant who appeared out of nowhere.

“How about two glasses of Deanston 2000? Let me treat you to one,” Xia Ruoming sat beside the bar counter, gently tapping it a few times with her finger before speaking.

“Oh? What does this beautiful lady who’s a complete stranger want to treat me to a drink for?” Li Wuya passed over two freshly polished glass cups and took out a bottle of Deanston 2000 from under the counter, “Speaking of which, how does miss know that my little shabby pub has this kind of fine drink?”

“Isn’t it normal for a junior to treat her senior to a drink?” Xia Ruoming swirled the glass in her hand and chuckled softly.

“Hahaha, so you’re a junior from Zhejiang University, just enrolled this year?” Li Wuya also laughed a couple times, then extended his hand as if to shake hands with Xia Ruoming, “Li Wuya, graduated five years ago. Since junior knows about me, someone must have introduced me. What brings junior to seek out this unsuccessful senior?”

“Xia Ruoming, just started at Zhejiang University this year.” Xia Ruoming also shook Li Wuya’s hand.

Hearing the name of this year’s top scholar, Li Wuya’s face seemed to show traces of surprise and suspicion, not only amazed at why this extraordinarily talented national top scholar would come looking for him, but also curious why this top scholar girl seemed to lack that kind of arrogance.

“Looking for senior, naturally I have a favor to ask, but as for what exactly it is, please let senior drink three glasses first, then junior will explain,” saying this, Xia Ruoming took the glass bottle and pushed a glass in front of Li Wuya, filling it with whiskey.

Only Xia Ruoming knew that beneath this slovenly appearance was hidden a former genius youth. It’s just that his ideas were several years ahead of their time, so they never received any recognition. Discouraged, he gave in to his second passion besides programming, drinking, and opened this small pub here.

Knowing Li Wuya was a drinking expert, she also catered to his interests, directly treating Li Wuya to his favorite whiskey.

After speaking, Xia Ruoming also filled a glass for herself and gently clinked glasses with Li Wuya.

“Hmm, it has notes of dried fruit and vanilla, carefully tasting it seems there’s also hints of apple, nutmeg and plum fragrance, the liquor is tart but not astringent, senior’s collection really has good quality.”

“Junior also knows about wine?” Hearing Xia Ruoming’s connoisseur-like comments, Li Wuya’s eyes immediately lit up, feeling like meeting a kindred spirit too late. Usually those who came here were people who knew nothing about wine, gulping it down thoughtlessly, no different from drinking 5 yuan baijiu.

“Just know a little bit, I’m not too familiar with whiskey either. Although both are Deanston 2000, this one is clearly the amber version with added plum, sour plum and sour grape, completely different from the fruit preserve version with lemon fragrance.” After carefully savoring a few more sips from her glass, Xia Ruoming slowly said.

“Not bad, junior is truly a wine lover. Deanston 2000 also has a caramel version, with rich hay fragrance, and also has that bright clove flower fragrance, compared to these two versions, it has quite a different charm, unfortunately it’s very hard to get in China.”

Unlike Xia Ruoming’s careful wine tasting manner, Li Wuya grabbed the glass and downed it in one go, exactly like an old drunkard.

Li Wuya also didn’t stand on ceremony with Xia Ruoming, since she said she’d treat him to three glasses, he just focused on pouring into the glass. Soon Li Wuya had three glasses while Xia Ruoming hadn’t even finished one.

“Junior, now that three glasses are finished… whatever it is just say it directly. However junior, let me say this first, if you want to work here, that’s impossible. This shabby pub can barely support me alone, you probably knew that before coming.” After downing three large glasses of 50.9% alcohol whiskey, Li Wuya showed no signs of intoxication, instead still appearing quite clear-headed.

“That’s certainly not it…” Xia Ruoming shook her head.

“Then what brings junior to find this unorthodox senior?”

“I heard senior used to work in computing, and junior also knows senior’s talent is unparalleled in the world. Junior has a project and would like to collaborate with senior, what do you think?”

“…Junior, you didn’t inquire about my temperament before coming, did you?” Li Wuya glanced at Xia Ruoming’s face, that lightly made-up face obviously couldn’t be called mature, even still had traces of innocence that hadn’t faded. Such a young girl, what kind of groundbreaking project could she have to pique his interest? Probably just came with money wanting him to help make something, wasting his time. “I don’t take paid jobs anymore, and I’m not interested in doing those boring things now.”

“Senior, the collaboration I’m talking about isn’t simply paying you to do some outsourcing, I want to hire you as my chief development engineer,” Xia Ruoming paused, then continued, “Would senior be interested?”

“Puhahaha… Junior, what project could you have that would interest me?” Li Wuya laughed so hard he could barely breathe. His ideas back then were definitely things that could change the state of the internet, but nobody cared at all. Now a junior comes with her own ideas to find him, how similar to himself back then.

Xia Ruoming didn’t get angry, but instead took out a file folder from her shoulder bag and handed it to Li Wuya.

“Senior might want to take a look first.”

Out of respect, Li Wuya also put away that about-to-laugh-to-death expression and accepted Xia Ruoming’s folder, which contained dozens or even hundreds of pages of documents.

Initially he didn’t think much of it, but the more he read, the tighter his brows furrowed. Inside detailed Xia Ruoming’s new raspberry project, future development plans, development direction, market research and so on were all recorded in detail. This was his idea from back then, and even this document was far more detailed and practical than his plans back then.