There's a chat group for pets in my neighborhood.

The appointment was for 7 p.m., but Lu Fang arrived downstairs at 6:30 p.m.

They were supposed to meet at the barbecue stand, but since he was already there, he figured he might as well go upstairs and see what his brother was up to.

I took the elevator all the way up to the ninth floor. This is an incubation park where many small and micro enterprises work.

Although it was already 6:30 pm, the end of the workday, many companies were still bustling with people and brightly lit.

Because Zhong Yue hadn't told him the company name, he didn't know where to look for him.

Just as Lu Fang was making a phone call to Zhong Yue, a burst of loud cursing nearby caught his attention.

"Zhong Yue, are you fucking out of your mind?"

He took two steps closer, and through the glass door, Lu Fang saw the once sunny and cheerful Zhong Yue standing with a scruffy beard and bowed head in front of a portly middle-aged man.

The man pointed at Zhong Yue's nose, spitting everywhere.

"I hired you to make money for me, and look at you now! What day is it? How many leads have you tracked? How many deals have you closed?"

"You've dragged down the entire department's performance all by yourself."

"Boss, I've been trying my best to follow up these past few days, but the quality of this batch of leads is just too poor. I've been running around outside all day..." Zhong Yue wanted to argue for himself, but was ruthlessly interrupted by the boss.

"What do you mean you've been out all day? Isn't that what you're supposed to do? Let me tell you, I only care about sales, I only care about results, understand? If your sales are good enough, I wouldn't care if you went to work and slept every day!"

Zhong Yue stood still, clenching his teeth tightly, without uttering a single word of resistance.

Seeing his cowardly appearance, the boss became even more aggressive, saying, "By the way, besides the sales targets, did you finish the posters and videos I asked you to make?"

"I really don't have time..."

"If you don't have time, then squeeze it in! I pay you a month's salary precisely for this kind of work!" The boss slammed his hand on the table, then threw a stack of proposal papers at Zhong Yue's face. "If you don't have it by tomorrow night, you can forget about your performance bonus this month!"

Standing outside the door, Lu Fang watched this scene with eyes that seemed to spit fire.

Who could tolerate being treated like this by their former best friend?

However, Lu Fang did not rush forward recklessly. Going there now would only make Zhong Yue more embarrassed, and would not change anything.

So he took a deep breath, turned around and went downstairs to wait for Zhong Yue's arrival at the agreed place.

It wasn't until nine o'clock that Zhong Yue, looking exhausted and apologetic, finally arrived. He plopped down on a small stool at the barbecue stall and apologized repeatedly, "I'm sorry, I had so much to do at the company, I'm late, I've been waiting for a long time."

Looking at the once spirited boy whose back was bent by the weight of life, Lu Fang could only shake his head bitterly: "Actually, I haven't been here long either. I've been looking around, and the environment here is not bad."

"It's been a long time. Let's eat and chat," Zhong Yue suggested.

"Boss, add ten more skewers of mutton, ten more skewers of kidney, and two bottles of chilled Urumqi beer!" Lu Fang shouted to the stall owner, casually opened two bottles of beer, and handed one to Zhong Yue.

"Dry!"

The two glass bottles collided heavily, creating white foam.

The cold alcohol slid down his throat, finally easing some of the weariness in Zhong Yue's eyes.

As the sizzling, oily skewers were served, the two ate them while chatting casually about their recent lives.

After a few rounds of drinks, the conversation naturally turned back to their university days.

"Old Zhong, do you remember that final practical exam in our junior year?" Lu Fang took a bite of juicy mutton and recalled with a smile, "Old Wang brought over that stray dog ​​with comminuted fractures. Everyone in the class thought it was hopeless, but you just wouldn't believe it. You stood in front of the operating table for more than four hours and managed to piece those broken bones back together, one by one. From then on, the name 'Zhong the Cutter' became famous throughout our department."

Upon hearing the familiar name, Zhong Yue paused for a moment with his chopsticks, which were holding peanuts, but quickly resumed.

He chuckled self-deprecatingly, "That's all in the past. I used to handle a scalpel every day, now I'm typing on a keyboard and using a mouse. And you know what? If I were to pick up a scalpel again, I might not be able to handle it properly."

"How could that be?" Lu Fang put down his chopsticks and looked at him sincerely: "Old Zhong, others may not know you, but don't I know you well? Back then, you slept in the bunk above me, and you were the most diligent person in the whole dormitory. The scalpel was your life, how could you not be able to pick it up?"

Zhong Yue didn't reply, wiped his mouth haphazardly, and said in a casual tone, "Let's not talk about those old grudges. You know what, I've found that I actually have some talent for sales. Although the boss of this company has a bad temper and the work is a bit busy, I can still make about six thousand yuan a month."

"If I had gone to work as an assistant at a pet hospital after graduation, I'd be making at most three thousand now. I'm much better off now."

The mainland authorities did not expose Zhong Yue's lies.

The average salary in Yanling City is just over four thousand yuan, so Zhong Yue's six thousand yuan is indeed quite good.

Lu Fang was able to earn more than 10,000 yuan entirely because of the sales bonuses brought by Fangzhou Yanxuan.

"How's Uncle doing?" he asked.

"The situation is relatively stable, but the cost of dialysis is still considerable. Fortunately, my job pays well, so I can barely manage. Don't worry." Zhong Yue downed his beer in one gulp and smiled nonchalantly. "By the way, don't just talk about me. What have you been busy with lately? Pet hospital salaries aren't high these days, are they? You can probably only make a maximum of three thousand a month."

"I went to a pet store."

"A pet store? I remember you went to a veterinary hospital after graduation, why are you suddenly working at a pet store?" Zhong Yue asked with concern, "Are you not feeling well working at the pet store?"

"The situation is rather special; he was fired by the dean." Lu Fang's face was expressionless.

"Damn it, what kind of lousy pet hospital is this? You're blind! Back in our major, you were number one in theory. Any pet hospital would be a huge success with you around. How dare you close it down!" Zhong Yue shouted, waving his hand, clearly drunk.

"It's okay, a pet shop is fine too, just use it as a temporary measure, we'll switch to another hospital and keep going." Although his own life wasn't great, Zhong Yue always kept his brothers in mind.

"By the way, how much do you make a month at your pet shop? I'll treat you to this meal; I can afford it." Zhong Yue staggered to his feet and insisted on paying the bill.

He had always treated Lu Fang like a younger brother. Now that Lu Fang had come to see him, and wasn't doing very well, how could he, as the older brother, let him treat him to a meal?

"It was a little over ten thousand last month."

"A little over a thousand is actually fine, the cost of living isn't high."

"Wait, Young Master Duo?!"