Looking at the fawning David Carter, Brian Cooper once again felt a subtle sense of conflict toward David Carter's mother. In his memory, the youthful and beautiful Mr. Grant was always kind to her students, but because of her chronically ill husband, it was rare to see a smile on her face. In Brian Cooper's recollection, Mr. Grant always wore a stern expression, and in the past, she hadn’t treated Brian Cooper particularly well, nor had she paid him much attention. Their interactions were simply ordinary.

Moreover, Mr. Grant was just one of many of Brian Cooper's middle school teachers. As a student busy with exam-oriented education, after leaving school, he hardly remembered much about his teachers. After Brian Cooper went to college, he stayed on to build his career in the international metropolis where his university was located. As time passed, his memories of his hometown faded even more.

So, when David Carter's mother managed to get someone to pass on a message, Brian Cooper accepted David Carter with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude—well, after all, everyone else in the company was a woman, and they really needed someone to do the heavy lifting. Now that he was the boss, he didn’t want to be as hands-on as he was during the startup days. Besides, an employee’s salary was just about the cost of a few meals at a restaurant, so it didn’t really matter whether he hired someone or not, or who he hired.

Unexpectedly, once he actually hired him, David Carter turned out to be really useful—this young man was reliable, and with him around, all the overtime work could be completely delegated. With that time freed up, he could spend it with his wife and kids—or, under the pretense of working late, sneak out for a private meeting with Elaine Bennett...

Chapter Three: Despised and Resented

While Brian Cooper was planning his evening entertainment, David Carter was already carefully parking the van in front of Xinlong Building. His driver’s license was a product of a “group purchase.” Back then, the driving school, looking to expand enrollment, had set up several “driving training classes” at the school. The tough job market made graduates eager to get certified, whether it was useful or not, so they ended up with a pile of certificates. As for the actual value of those certificates...

Naturally, group-purchased products were all about being cheap. The college students didn’t fuss over the details, and the driving school crammed twice as many students as usual into each car. As a result, the students got only half as much actual driving practice as those in regular classes... Students trained this way could probably be called “road hazards.”

Because these were student certifications, and the driving school wanted to protect its reputation and attract future students, they pulled some strings during the exams. The pass rate was quite high, but in reality, these students had very little real driving experience. Once they got on the road, it was hard not to become “road hazards.”

So, most students didn’t dare drive after getting their licenses. Even the few bold ones, as fresh graduates, couldn’t really afford a car... Only David Carter was an exception.

Driving is a matter of life and death. While other students took a casual attitude during training, using busy schedules as an excuse to skip practice, David Carter attended every class without fail. In his spare time, he mastered the game “Need for Speed” to improve his “feel” for driving. With this experience, a cautious mindset, and a tendency to take care of the vehicle, Brian Cooper felt comfortable handing over the car keys to David Carter after a few tests.

As the saying goes: owning a car creates class divisions. A car is an unmistakable status symbol. David Carter parked the little van in the lot, surrounded by cars that were at least Buicks or Peugeots. The parking lot security guard started rolling his eyes the moment he saw the van. When David Carter carefully finished parking, the guard swaggered over and shouted, “Be careful, be careful! Look at you, all clumsy—must be a newbie, right? When you drive out later, be careful. These are all nice cars, see? That’s a VW Tiguan, that’s a Corolla King. If you hit one of these and break a bumper, even selling your van wouldn’t cover the cost.”

Security guards—if they took off their uniforms and showed up somewhere else, maybe they’d be the ones looked down on. But in this uniform, standing in a high-end place like this... they usually liked to look down on others.

David Carter rolled his eyes hard in his mind: So you think my van is junk, huh? But you’re just like me—neither of us owns a car. What right do you have to look down on my beat-up van... If you want to look down on someone, look down on our boss.

That’s life. David Carter felt contempt inside, but still had to put on a fawning smile, nodding and bowing as he greeted, “Bro, I’m just a delivery guy. The folks in room 1106 upstairs need their goods urgently. Don’t hold me up—if the customer gets mad, we’ll both get a complaint. We’re all just working stiffs, so cut me some slack.”

“Wait!” the security guard barked, then ran inside to call upstairs. Through the glass door, David Carter saw the same arrogant guard nodding and bowing on the phone, looking very respectful. After a moment, the guard came strutting back and shouted, “Take it up, it’s almost closing time. The customer wants you to hurry up... Hey, go that way, use the service elevator.”

Panting, David Carter hauled box after box of goods into the service elevator. He didn’t notice that the Asian mixed-race man who had tailed him in the subway station had already arrived in the lobby of Xinlong Building. Casually, he sat down in the lounge, waved for a cup of coffee, picked up an English newspaper to read, and from time to time, under the pretense of flipping pages, observed David Carter from afar as he busied himself by the service elevator.