Scholar and Brawler - Ch 6

Lu Meng suspected he was in for a treat when the host at Paragon welcomed Cao Ren like family and seated the two of them without leaving menus. Tempted as he was to ask about the arrangement, Meng bit his tongue instead. No sense in wrecking the surprise.

A baby-faced, apron-clad man emerged from the kitchen with a basket of bread. Though his girth rivaled his height, he zipped over to their table in a matter of seconds.

"Hey there, Ren." The chef peered at Meng as if trying to place him. "Have I met your friend before?"

"Probably not. Dr. Lu Meng, this is Xu Zhu, the man in charge of the food around here."

Meng smiled. "And what excellent food it is."

"Thank you very much. I've got just the thing for Ren." Zhu turned to Meng. "How about you? What are you hungry for?"

"Anything, really. The whole menu looked good to me last time I was here."

"Is it all right if I surprise you?"

Meng glanced at Ren for advice and received a nod in return.

"Sure."

Zhu grinned. "You won't be sorry." He left the basket on the table and hustled back to work.

Ren and Meng went through the still-warm bread, which had been baked with a savory herb blend that they could only guess at, while discussing Meng's new lease and moving arrangements. After their planning was all squared away, the conversation returned to twists it had taken earlier in the evening. Ren asked how Meng had gotten into history although it bored him to slumber in high school.

"When taught poorly, history is dead and dull. Taught well, it's very much alive."

"Oh?"

"In high school, we got a long list of factoids without much in the way of context or meaning. Naturally, we understood the importance of big bang events like the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The rest was like the ledgers of a store that went bust years ago. Names. Numbers. So what? It's all long gone anyway."

"That's exactly how we learned it. I'd cram for the test and forget it all the next day."

"As would I. Anyway, I went to university without a major in mind. I liked to read and write and analyze, but I didn't know where to apply those interests. All I could do was take a variety of liberal arts classes to see what I liked best. My dorm mates had been raving about a particular professor, and there were a few spaces available in her section on totalitarian governments. So, to make a terrible pun - I gave it the old college try, and the rest was history."

"I've heard worse from cousin Yuan. Tell me more about this course."

"It was all about whys and hows, about the fear and lack of critical thinking that leads people to become part of a dangerous hive mind. On the flip side, we discussed how such attitudes could be dismantled over time. There were specifics, of course, but they fit into the narrative. Instead of memorizing laundry lists, we learned true stories worth retelling. When you know the mistakes of the past, you can avoid them in the future. And you can remember how to succeed, which is just as important."

"Just like business trends," Ren mused. "That ledger comparison is a good one. Some people focus on short-term numbers without any thoughts on what will happen in the long run. They pay employees peanuts and then wonder why they can't retain skilled workers. They go with cheap solutions that cost them time and money down the road. They waste windfall profit instead of using it wisely."

"That's my old place in a nutshell. Things break. Sometimes they get fixed. Sometimes the fix holds up. With the price of rent, you'd think they could afford to get it right the first time." Meng shook his head with a wry smile. "I bet the owner is driving around in a gold-plated Lamborghini with their idiot friends on executive payroll."

"Your building is a Noble property."

Meng nodded.

"We've dealt with them. Your suspicions aren't far from the truth."

Xu Zhu returned from his culinary domain with two sizzling cast iron platters atop wooden trivets. He deposited the skillets on the table, leaving pot holders along with them. "Dig in and enjoy! Just be careful not to burn yourself."

Meng's surprise turned out to be swordfish accompanied by rice and chunky fruit salsa. "Excellent - and just when I'd been thinking about ordering seafood. What did you get?"

"Blue rare steak. Zhu is one of the few I trust to cook this properly." Ren cut off a small piece. "Care to try it?"

Though Meng had never been much of a steak fan, he exchanged samples of dinner with Ren. A polite nibble turned him into a convert.

"I thought steak had to taste like shoe leather. This is something else." Meng followed up the tender, flavorful meat with a chunk of roasted potato. "It's juicy, it almost melts in your mouth..." He trailed off into a nervous smile. "Oh, that sounds bad."

Ren shrugged. "It's fine. I'm glad my meat passes muster." And as Meng sputtered with a barely contained gale of laughter - "Sorry. I'm not helping." But he seemed more amused than embarrassed.

"No worries." Rather than compare the steak's texture to the firm flakiness of his swordfish, Meng swallowed his giggle fit and decided on a topic not laden with innuendo. "So you had been talking about business. How did you get into your line of work?"

"About the same way that you decided on a career. I tried it out and it suited me." Ren took a swig of water. "I had no idea what I wanted to do after high school, and I didn't worry much about it. My grades were reasonable, but I never saw myself as an academic type. I was good at football but not great enough to go pro. That was fine with me. As I've said, games lose their fun when taken too seriously."

"Quite understandable."

"I thought about trade school until cousin Cao graduated university and bought a building to manage. He did so well that it was only natural for him to take on more property. Cao offered me an internship to talk with tenants and help him keep things organized. That led to a job and my first go at management. I started small - maintenance budgets, minor renovations, and so on. Later, I took over a property of my own. I now look after several, including the brownstone you're moving into. I handled every aspect of that building from acquisition to what you saw today."

"Impressive. Your work really does suit you."

Ren smiled. "There's nothing like seeing a project come to life."

"That's about how I'll feel when I get this damned research paper done."

Lively career discussion turned into sluggish appreciation for the food as Ren and Meng polished off dinner and relaxed into a contented sprawl. Sensing that dessert was out of the question, the host left their dinner check on the table instead of making his customary inquiry.

Meng reached for the leather folio, not realizing that he had been beaten until he wound up with Ren's hand instead.

Ren had begun a comment about this being his treat. He stopped mid-sentence when Meng did not pull away. In the low light of the restaurant, he seemed to be blushing.

Meng's mouth fell open before he had any concerns about being presumptuous. "Next time I'm paying."

"That's right." Ren grinned. "You still owe me a beer."