The Story of Us (Hiatus)

5

It's been about two weeks since Yibo and his company had been working on this project that they hoped Xiao Zhan would say yes to. Though, the more Yibo talked to Zhan about the bookshop and its history within his family, he became more hesitant about wanting to go through with the project. The bookshop really meant a lot to Zhan as it had memories of his childhood and the last memories of his grandparents and mother. Though they wouldn't be taking ownership of the shop, they'd be giving it a makeover which could take away from those memories.

Though, Yibo has heard one of his rival companies have been looking into a place in this area and Zhan's Shop was the potential target. To protect the shop, Yibo would do the project to keep other companies from taking advantage of Zhan. Yibo had to sit down and tell Zhan of this and Zhan got a bit worried. The rival company a duo owned company between the Jin corporation and the Wen Corporation.

Zhan has heard about it, they were ranked second and third in terms of shares. Yibo's company was first in terms of shares. Both Wen and Jin have been trying to work with Yibo on a future partnership but Yibo has heard about the two companies. There were rumors of scams and making contracts that had loopholes that made it difficult for other companies to counter if they were to drop out of the project.

Since being informed of this, Zhan has been working a bit more carefully and paying attention to was in his shop, "Zhan, to protect you, let us go through with the contract," Haikuan said, "we will not do any changes without your permission and with us working with you, you will be protected from rival companies."

"You are not just telling me this just to get me to agree, correct?" Zhan asked.

"Zhan, I don't think they would joke about something like this," Xuan Lu said.

Zhan looked at her then down at the contract on the table in front of him, "You promise you will be considerate of my bookshop?" He asked.

"Zhan, we just want to protect you and your shop. Part of our business is providing security for our collaborators. You will be protected," Yibo said, "if you do not want to make upgrade changes yet, we understand but we can offer to install the lastest security software and technology. The Wen and Jin corporations play dirty to get what they want and I do not want them getting you into a mess you can't get out of. They will take advantage of you and destroy this place."

Without any further thought Zhan signed the agreement. He doesn't know the Wang's well enough but he was putting his trust in them. As long as Zhan can still own the shop and he has a say in what happens to his business, he will give this a try. He didn't know what it was, but he felt like he could trust Yibo. Yibo has taken a lot of consideration in this project and has been asking Zhan questions if he had any. Yibo was genuinely interested in Zhan's work and he even seemed like he was impressed with it. It felt it was enough to give them a chance.

"This contract lasts a year so if within a year you feel that this project is not to your liking, we can break it," Haikuan explained, "we will be considerate of you and your employees. Like we said, we want to help you more with security at this point if you don't want to go through any other changes right now. We can always discuss future projects and plans. We can meet once a month to talk about that. Since we just started, we will start with updating your security system."

"Alright," Zhan said, "would it require me to close the shop for a few days?"

"We would need at least two days to set everything up but since you are not open on Sundays, we can maybe working with you on setting it up this weekend. You'd be closed Saturday and Sunday but that will be all the time we need," Yibo explained.

"Alright, I suppose that could be fine," Zhan said, "is there anything I need to do?"

"Well, we will have to show you how the new system works after it is installed but that is about it," Yibo answered.

"Alright," Zhan replied.

After all that was said and done, Xiao Zhan left them alone for a bit and actually went straight up to his living space. Zhan felt as if he might have made a big mistake but at the same time he wasn't exactly sure if it was. He looked at the picture of his mother and grandparents.

"Forgive me, but I only did it because I wanted to make sure my bookshop was safe," Zhan said, "if you were here you'd know what to do immediately. This place is the last thing I have left of you. I don't have it in me to know what would happen if I lost this place. Maybe I will lose a big piece of who I am."

As Zhan was trying to calm down, someone knocked at the door. He sighed and went to answer. He was expecting it to be Xuan Lu but instead it was actually Yibo. Zhan stepped aside and let him in. Yibo stepped inside and felt this it was quite cozy. He came to check on Zhan and even try to make sure that he was really okay.

"I am sorry if this is too much for you," Yibo said, "I promise you though, all I am going to do is help you protect this place. My competitors are always snooping around to try and find out what we are up to. They are cunning and I wanted to make sure that your business is protected."

"I know," Zhan said, "it's just a lot to deal with. I never really thought about what would happen if I lost this place. I almost feel as if I will lose a piece of myself if I lost this bookshop. To some it may seem like an average shop but this place is all I have left of my family. It holds a lot of memories."

"I understand," Yibo said, "like we said though, we won't do anything without your permission. As for the security system we will give you, it will make your life a bit easier knowing that you can keep this place safe."

"What got you interested in this place anyway?" Zhan asked, "surely you could have any other place within this area but you chose me. Why?"

Yibo grinned, "sometimes there is more than meets the eye."

Xiao Zhan furrowed his brow slightly at what he said, 'more than meets the eye? What does he mean by that? It not just about the shop or location?'

Xiao Zhan was having a little bit of a hard time trying to figure this man out. He wanted to trust Yibo, but he was hesitant. He just doesn't want to be swindled or anything like that. He feels that Yibo wouldn't do that, but he still questions as to why Yibo chose him. He was going to keep trying to figure that out though.