The stewed noodle shop was located at the end of Central Road, a hole-in-the-wall place without even a sign. Two plastic tables were set up at the entrance, their surfaces still wet and unwiped.

Lu Ming chose a spot inside.

"Two bowls of lamb stewed noodles, one with extra chili," he shouted to the owner, then turned to Chen Li. "Do you eat spicy food?"

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"I spent four years in Sichuan, what do you think?"

The noodles were served quickly.

Chen Li took the chopsticks but didn't rush to eat. She first sipped the soup.

"When did you get back?" Lu Ming asked.

"The day before yesterday. Spent two days at home, saw your job posting while scrolling through my phone," Chen Li placed her chopsticks on the edge of the bowl. "To be honest, I checked it three times, thought your account was hacked."

"Why?"

"Lu Ming, you sat behind me for three years in high school, quiet as air. I remember before the arts and sciences division, your total score ranked over two hundred in the grade, and you even failed math once."

Lu Ming took a sip of the soup from his bowl. "You mean it's a contrast, right?"

"No, no, no," Chen Li waved her hands repeatedly. "I mean you've improved too fast."

"What kind of work did you do in Chengdu?" Lu Ming threw out the question first.

Since she said she wanted to try for the HR Manager position, this meal was half an interview.

"Human Resource Management at Sichuan University, after graduation, I joined an internet company in Chengdu as an HRBP."

"The company had up to three hundred people at its peak. I was responsible for recruitment, performance, and employee relations for two business units. Worked there for two and a half years."

"Why did you leave?"

Chen Li paused her noodle picking for a moment.

"The company downsized, first cutting the business line, then the middle office, and finally even HR was cut. I was in the second-to-last batch."

"Did you get compensation?"

"A symbolic amount, over forty thousand." She spoke with a calm tone.

Lu Ming nodded, not probing further.

The wave of layoffs in the internet industry had been the norm these past two years, nothing much to delve into.

"What about after the layoffs? Didn't find anything else in Chengdu?"

Chen Li's chopsticks stopped.

She swallowed the noodles and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

"Searched for three months. Sent out over a hundred resumes, interviewed at more than ten places. Either they cut the salary, or they were those shell companies."

She looked up, her gaze direct.

"Rent in Chengdu is two thousand five, food a thousand, plus transportation and miscellaneous expenses, the N+1 severance ran out in three months. I did the math, staying longer meant either borrowing money to hold on or lowering my standards to take jobs paying two or three thousand."

"So you came back."

"Yes."

Lu Ming finished the last bite of noodles and pushed the bowl aside.

"You managed a company with three hundred people in Chengdu, now you're back to be an HR Manager for a newly registered shell company. Don't you feel overqualified?"

Chen Li smiled.

"Lu Ming, do you know what the premise of being overqualified is? It's having a choice. If I had a choice, I wouldn't be sitting here drinking lamb soup with you."

Her words were candid enough.

Lu Ming leaned back in his chair.

"Let's talk about salary. How much do you think you're worth?"

"In Chengdu, my monthly salary was ten thousand, with performance and year-end bonuses, I took home about fifteen or sixteen thousand."

"You offer me eight thousand, I can accept. But anything less than eight thousand..."

"Ten thousand."

Chen Li's hand shook a little as she held the water cup.

"Administrative and HR combined, you're handling it all alone. No subordinates initially, recruitment, attendance, payroll calculation, administrative procurement, all your tasks."

Chen Li stared at him for two seconds.

"Don't you haggle?"

"No time for that." Lu Ming checked the time on his phone. "Spending time haggling over five hundred yuan in salary is less productive than you using that five hundred to help me get something done."

Chen Li put down the water cup.

"Actually, I have another question." She hesitated for a moment.

"Ask."

"What exactly is your company planning to do? An investment company is a framework, anything can be put inside. But if it's just flipping properties or lending, I won't do that."

Lu Ming looked at her.

Outside, a farm tricycle chugged past, the diesel engine's roar drowning out the noise inside the shop.

After the sound faded, Lu Ming spoke.

"You spent four years in Chengdu, how does it feel coming back?"

Chen Li was taken aback, not knowing why he suddenly changed the topic.

"How does it feel?" She thought for a moment. "Like waking up to find time has stopped. The roads, the shops, even the old man selling candied haws at the corner, nothing has changed, just like in high school."

"Exactly," Lu Ming said. "Nothing has changed. Those who should leave have left, those who stayed are just getting by. A county with six hundred thousand people doesn't even have a decent mall. Young people leave, the elderly and children stay behind."

He paused.

"I want to change this situation."

Chen Li didn't respond.

"The specifics are still being planned, but the direction is set. First, develop industries to support employment. Then, build supporting facilities to keep people here. The third step, attract people back from outside, even attract outsiders to move in."

Chen Li listened and was silent for a long time.

"How much money do you need for all this?"

"A lot."

"Do you have it?"

"I do."

Chen Li looked into his eyes.

The noodle shop's lighting was dim, the old fluorescent tubes buzzing, casting flickering shadows on Lu Ming's face.

She had met all kinds of bosses.

The CEO of that internet company in Chengdu, commanding at financing press conferences, privately scheming to pay less employee social security. She had seen too many people who talked big.

But Lu Ming was different.

Not because he drove a Maybach, nor because he bought a building.

But because when he said these things, he was just like in high school, expressionless, voice flat, as if he wasn't describing a vision, but stating a fact.

"Alright." Chen Li stood up, extended her hand. "President Lu, please take care of me in the future."

Lu Ming shook her hand briefly. "Tomorrow morning at eight-thirty, at the midsection of Yingbin Road in the New District, that six-story glass curtain wall building. You can find it yourself, right?"

"I can."

"By the way," Lu Ming stood up to leave, took two steps, then turned back.

"Try to come up with a recruitment plan in the next few days, and assemble the team as quickly as possible."

Chen Li nodded.

After Lu Ming left.

She took out her phone, found a contact labeled "Mom," and called.

"Mom, I found a job."

There was a pause on the other end. "Where?"

"Right here in the county."

"The county is good, the county is good, close to home."

Chen Li hung up and put the phone in her pocket.

In the past two days since she returned, the five words her mom said the most were "go on a blind date."

It seemed like the only way out for a girl returning to her hometown was to quickly find someone to marry.

She stepped back a couple of steps, leaned against the shutter door of the noodle shop, and looked up at the sky.

The sky in Yunmeng County was indeed bluer than in Chengdu.

...

At three in the afternoon, Lu Yuan called.

"The business license is out."

"That fast?"

"Of course, depends on who's handling it. The company seal, financial seal, and legal representative seal are all done. The bank account is scheduled for tomorrow morning."

"Nicely done."

"There's one more thing." Lu Yuan's tone changed, with a hint of hesitation. "When I went to get the license, I ran into someone from the County Land and Resources Bureau, surname Zhou. He somehow heard about you buying the building and found me, insisting on leaving your phone number."

"What did he say?"

"He said..."

Lu Yuan lowered her voice.

"He said there's a whole hundred-acre industrial land in Shilipu Village that's been listed for two years with no takers, and asked if you're interested."