Chapter 154: The High-End Secrets of the Trade

"So, what can we even do today?"

Chen Fan rubbed his dark circles. Though still sleepy, he had no wish to waste too much time on mere slumber.

Embracing the innate thriftiness of an accountant, Chen Fan weighed various options, calculating how to maximize the utility of his obedient maid for the day.

Taking on odd jobs was out of the question—such labor could be done anytime. Since the system had graciously unlocked a talent tree for him, he ought to accomplish something grand and sophisticated so as not to let the opportunity go to waste.

"Hmph, why am I stressing over this right now anyway? The cards are already in my hand; I can switch identities whenever I please. No rush, no rush. Sleeping to prolong my life is much more urgent." Chen Fan yawned and lay back down.

...

"It feels like the morning sun is gradually drifting away from me. My biological clock is getting more irregular by the day." Chen Fan gazed at the clock hand pointing close to twelve, offering a consoling sigh to express his lingering sentiments.

Half the afternoon had already passed, and his two roommates were missing yet again. Chen Fan couldn't help wondering just how many alluring worlds existed out there, considering how those two bolted outside day after day.

The only difference was that a few flyers had been slipped through the crack of the dorm door, presumably dropped off during the morning rounds.

"Fried chicken... cold drinks... postgraduate entrance exams... TOEFL and IELTS... Yuan-Yu Import and Export Commodity Fair..."

Chen Fan's gaze lingered on this sophisticated promotional flyer. He had grown thoroughly tired of hearing about the previous items when arriving at school, leaving only the trade fair as a fresh and unfamiliar face.

To verify the authenticity of the flyer, Chen Fan pulled out his phone to look up its origins. Goodness gracious, it turned out to be a national-grade trade fair held twice a year.

"How could an exhibition with such high prestige and class send flyers to our school? It hardly fits their image..."

Chen Fan felt somewhat skeptical. The flyer even bore a unique security code. Scanning it with his phone revealed it to be the genuine official website, and the flyer contained no information related to money, merely inviting current students to actively visit the exhibition and broaden their horizons.

"It feels like an opportunity has knocked." Chen Fan grinned and tucked the flyer away. With such high specifications, paired with his own abilities, wouldn't this be equivalent to Hulu Brothers battling Transformers?

After hastily wolfing down lunch, Chen Fan followed the address listed on the flyer. The exhibition center was fairly close to the university town; taking a bus got him there in under an hour. Chen Fan had briefly noticed students riding bicycles right before boarding the bus, and both methods of transit had arrived at practically the same time.

From the exterior, the entire convention center resembled a tank tread, though Chen Fan checked the information board and saw the architect stubbornly insisting it represented a blue whale. He decided not to dwell on it.

"Holy cow, it's so huge inside."

"My gosh, there are so many people."

"Goodness, look at all these foreigners—both Black and White."

In the presence of such a grand and magnificent event, Chen Fan felt like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden; his cultural vocabulary fell completely short, leaving his mouth filled with nothing but blunt exclamations of awe.

The exhibition hall was divided into two levels. The outer ring was designated for general visitors, allowing sightseers and prospective partners to roam freely, while the inner area was where actual business negotiations took place—the gathering grounds for the heavy hitters.

A checkpoint separated the inner and outer zones. Only individuals wearing the appropriate credentials were permitted entry to prevent unauthorized people from accidentally wandering in. After all, being a trade fair, the dual goals were to promote external relations while actively fostering business collaborations.

"This is a household-grade artificial intelligence robot developed by Huaruai Technology. It is lightweight and compact, allowing it to easily squeeze into many blind spots previously inaccessible. Allow me to demonstrate."

Chen Fan watched as the flat, UFO-style robot smoothly bypassed every obstacle along its path, plunged straight underneath a sofa, swept away dust using the powerful suction of its magnetic chassis, and gracefully arrived at its designated position. The entire process took barely over ten seconds.

Subsequently, the demonstrator moved the sofa away to reveal a spotless floor underneath. Opening the robot's built-in storage compartment, not only ordinary dust had been collected, but even accidentally dropped jewelry lay resting safely inside.

"It certainly is quite intelligent. What a pity it falls vastly short compared to my Elder. At least this robot doesn't crack dirty jokes." Chen Fan muttered softly under his breath.

A commotion erupted not far away, instantly shifting Chen Fan's gaze toward the source of the noise.

"Why hasn't the Swahili translator you hired arrived yet? A full half-hour has passed since the agreed-upon time, and the foreign clients are already here. What do you expect me to do now?" The suit-clad man walking in front had a flushed face and a hurried tone, sensing the urgency of the situation.

The man trailing behind him wore a similar outfit, though his posture was markedly lower—clearly a subordinate. "Manager, I'm calling them again, but... but the phone is powered off. Let's wait a little longer."

"Wait? I'd love to wait, but can you tell the foreign clients to wait? A whole bunch of people waiting around for a single translator—does that look appropriate?" The manager came to an abrupt halt, spun around, and said with a stern face, "Let me tell you, if this business deal falls through today and the chairman holds me accountable, I'm making sure you get the boot before I'm fired. Figure out a solution right now!"

Shi Lezhi was now reaping what he had sown. Originally, this translator had been recruited from the university town. Although lacking official translation certification, the person had two years of volunteer teaching experience, passed oral proficiency tests, and could handle daily business communication with ease. The crucial point was the cheap asking price—more than half off compared to regular professionals.

As a field sales grunt, he might labor bitterly for three months and still not earn that much money. Tempted by greed and desperate to accumulate enough bride price sooner, Shi Lezhi had hardened his heart and walked down this path.

Yet disaster struck precisely at this critical juncture. The translator had become unreachable, gone who knows where. In short, calamity was upon him. Although the exhibition was brimming with talent, most were amateurs looking for excitement, and Swahili wasn't as popular as English; finding anyone who could speak it at all was already a stroke of luck.

The real problem was that they didn't just need someone who could speak it, but someone fluent, possessing more than just a basic daily vocabulary—after all, this was a business arena.

With so many conditions stacked together, qualified candidates practically ceased to exist. Even if one existed in this vast sea of humanity, was he supposed to shout through a giant megaphone?

Rent one from a peer agency? Shi Lezhi had considered this route as well, but it was unfeasible. On one hand, whether others would agree was a question; on the other hand, the asking price would undoubtedly be astronomical. Since it was temporary employment, both the translator and the intermediary agency would demand extra pay, and the company's finance department would certainly not approve any additional budget. The deficit would inevitably have to come out of his own pocket.

"Ugh, what do I do? Shi Lezhi, you truly lost your mind this time." Shi Lezhi clutched his head, utterly helpless.

Chen Fan had initially watched the spectacle for a moment, but failing to catch what the pair were arguing about, he soon bounced off to wander elsewhere, stopping before a language bulletin board to examine the words one by one like a child learning to read.

"Good heavens, are all these strings of letters supposed to be English?" Chen Fan scanned down line by line, discovering that the letter groupings varied on every single line, differing wildly in both length and composition.

They all shared one common trait—Chen Fan recognized none of them.

"Ah, so this is a list of foreign client companies." Chen Fan cross-referenced with a translation app to decode the English title.

Language-illiterate Chen Fan continued translating down the list one by one, only to find that the subsequent entries failed to translate at all. He wondered curiously, "What language are these? Why do they look so much like English?"

Two figures brushed rapidly past Chen Fan's side, heading straight toward the entrance checkpoint. Chen Fan took a closer look and realized they were precisely the two men who had caused the commotion earlier.

"I don't care! If we can't find a suitable Swahili translator, I'm sending you in to negotiate later."

Shi Lezhi said with an expression of pure anxiety, "Manager, please, don't... I stutter even in English, and as for this... this sock-whatever language, I can't even use hand gestures to communicate."

"Then go off to develop the desert with them and don't come back."

"So this language was something like Swabala-blah-blah..." Chen Fan instinctively assigned a phonetic label to the unfamiliar tongue. Though he hadn't heard clearly, he muttered unconsciously, "Tianhe Logistics and Transportation Company."

"Why did they give it such a sinicized name, haha." Hearing himself finish reading the name, Chen Fan chuckled.

The two men heard the familiar name, froze momentarily, stopped in their tracks, and turned their heads to stare at Chen Fan.