Chapter Forty-two: Grace

  However, Du Le soon discovered that he was not the only one who didn't fit in with the banquet. At another table in his corner, a round-faced, chubby little boy, also in casual clothes (at least he wore a shirt), was facing a plate piled high with food, opening his big mouth and gobbling it down non-stop.

  The fat man's busy movements were almost as if he had been starving for several days. His behavior was extremely uncouth, but slightly better than some animals, at least not using his nose to dig.

  Du Le took a look around the venue and suddenly wanted to go over and remind Paozi to pay attention to his image.

  But looking around, there aren't many people standing around Fatso, probably also scared off by his appearance, no one dares to get close. Probably also because the venue is big enough.

  Du Le couldn't help but shake his head, people are different, there's a gap! Looks like I'm still pretty good after all.

  Du Le didn't expect that his head-shaking action was caught by the fat man's unintentional glance. The fat man made a swallowing motion, then smiled at Du Le, raised the wine cup beside him, and toasted from afar.

  Du Le felt a bit embarrassed, not knowing if Pangzi had seen his disdainful expression. But it was fifty paces laughing at one hundred paces, no need to worry about it too much. Anyway, everyone is the same. Seeing Pangzi toast himself, Du Le quickly changed his mood and also raised his wine cup, smiling in response.

  Suddenly, all the lights in the hall dimmed, and then a huge beam of light shot towards the entrance next to the main stage of the banquet hall.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, let's applaud warmly to welcome Mr. Li Ze, Chairman of Fuyang City Chamber of Commerce, Director of Oriental Group, and his wife."

  Li Ze walked into the banquet hall with his wife, led by the hotel's welcoming receptionist.

  Du Le Shun looked over and indeed it was the middle-aged man he had saved that day, as well as the noblewoman who had sought his help at the time. It turned out they were Li Ze and his wife.

  The audience applauded warmly until Li Ze stood in the center of the podium and gestured his thanks.

  "Today is the 10th anniversary of Oriental Pearl's opening and also the 35th year since I, Li Ze, started my career. Here, I would like to thank everyone who has helped..."

  Du Le could only stand up with the crowd and walk to the front of the stage, listening to Li Ze's speech.

  I didn't know much about Li Ze to begin with, and Du Le only listened to him half-heartedly. He was thinking about how he could build a relationship with Li Ze later on, so that his business in Fuyong City would go more smoothly.

  It's not that Du Le had once saved Li Ze, so the other party would be grateful and respond to his requests. Du Le never thought about these things. Du Le deeply understood that in this world, it's better to rely on oneself than others. Besides, sometimes some debts of gratitude are not necessarily a bad thing.

  Actually, it's mainly because others haven't taken the initiative to express their gratitude, and Du Le doesn't want to be too proactive in asking for it. If he does that, people might think that his act of saving them was done with an ulterior motive.

  Li Ze's speech on the podium was not finished yet, when Du Le saw the fat man standing beside him again.

  The fat man looked at Du Le with a curious face, sizing him up and down. Du Le saw the fat man's movements and knew what he was thinking, so he smiled and pointed to the fat man's shirt and pants, indicating that he wasn't much better off than himself either.

  The fatty was taken aback, looked at his own clothes with a sudden realization, and burst out laughing. He then stretched out his hand to Du Le: "Hello, my name is Li Shoufu."

  "Hello, I'm Du Le, nice to meet you."

  "Hehe, I'm also very happy to meet you."

  Li Ze's speech was not long and soon came to an end. He seemed to have announced a few things, but Du Le didn't pay much attention because it wasn't his concern.

  As soon as the speech was over, Du Le was quickly pulled by Pangzi to a table: "Want to come and have one?"

  Du Le looked at the fatty taking a piece of chicken wing from the plate and handing it over, almost rolling his eyes. Is this necessary? Has he not eaten for several days?

  "No, I still have some in my bowl." Du Lejuan refused.

  "What would you like to eat? Don't be polite, there's plenty more over there." The fat man pointed to the other table with food.

  Du Le nodded, feeling like the fatty was taking him home for dinner or something. Suddenly, he felt that the fatty's politeness was cute and smiled, "You're welcome, I'll add more after we finish eating."

  Fatso heard this and looked at Du Le with a surprised expression, paused for a moment before asking: "Don't you recognize me?"

  Du Leqi said strangely, "What's the point of knowing you?"

  The fatty seemed like he wanted to say something, but stopped himself and continued talking to Du Le about food and drink, as if nothing had happened.

  Anyway, it doesn't matter. Du Le took the opportunity to exchange culinary experiences with Pang Zi. At least, Pang Zi was the only one who spoke sincerely to him.

  The atmosphere was very warm and harmonious, Du Le felt that talking to Pangzi was very relaxing, the stiffness of coming to the banquet slowly disappeared.

  Before long, Li Ze and his wife walked over to Du Le's table together.

  "Mr. Du, hello." Li Ze slightly bowed and said respectfully, "It's an honor to have you here in person. My wife has already told me that fortunately we met last time, thank you for lending a helping hand, thank you for saving my life."

  Du Le hastily stood up and said, "Director Li, you're being too polite, it's just a small effort, whoever saw it would lend a helping hand."

  "Du Xiao brothers, if it weren't for your righteousness and bravery, plus the gift of medicine, I, Li Ze, wouldn't be standing here. Your kindness, I will not forget."

  "Yes, Mr. Du, please accept our sincere gratitude." Mrs. Li said beside him.

  Du Le was about to speak when the fat boy beside him suddenly interrupted: "Dad, is Du Le really the benefactor who saved you?"

  "Outrageous!" Li Ze rebuked, "This is Mr. Du, how can you address Mr. Du by his full name?"

  Pangzi turned around and said to Du Le, "Du Le, it was you who saved my dad, thank you for saving my dad."

  "No need to thank me, anyone would have lent a hand if they had seen you." Du Le felt overwhelmed by Li Ze's family's enthusiastic gratitude and didn't know what to say for a moment, instead repeating his previous words over and over again.

  It turned out that Li Shoufu was the son of Li Ze, and Du Le somewhat understood why the fat man could eat and drink so freely at the banquet, without anyone stopping or advising him.

  "Mr. Du..." Li Ze was about to say something else.

  Du Le interjected, saying with embarrassment: "No need to be so polite, Mr. Li, you are older than me, I don't dare to accept such a title, just call me Du Le."

  Li Zeqi looked at Du Le with a smile and said, "Alright, can I call you little brother? You can also call me Uncle Li. As soon as my body recovers, I wanted to invite you out for a good meal to repay your kindness. Coincidentally, it's the 10th anniversary of Dongfang Mingzhu, so there are many things to take care of and I couldn't come find you immediately. That's why I sent you an invitation letter. So, please don't mind."

  "How could this be? I'm delighted and it's all happening so suddenly." Du Le said with a smile.

  "I heard you've just taken over a food factory in Nanshan Industrial Zone and are preparing to resume operations. Our Dongfang Group has several chain supermarkets in Fuyong City, I wonder if we can plan to purchase some suitable products? Li Zeyan looked at Du Le with approval, young and ambitious, indeed heroes emerge from youth, smiled: "Of course, if possible, Dongfang Group is willing to invest 10 million yuan in your factory, increase production, as a fixed supplier of our related products, to meet the demand of supermarkets."

  Dule could naturally see that Li Ze had good intentions towards him. Perhaps, before inviting Dule, Li Ze had already conducted some investigation on him and knew the situation of his factory. Whether it was supplying goods to the supermarket or investing, he was finding ways to repay him. Moreover, this repayment was not explicitly stated, making people feel comfortable in their hearts.

  However, Du Le had his own considerations. Du Le's confidence in the new product "Delicious Xuan Convenient Noodles" was undoubtedly huge, and he didn't lack funds either, so he didn't want to accept too much kindness from others because of this. Therefore, Du Le could only refuse investment and choose to supply goods.

  But Li Ze's idea was different, although he gave Du Le two choices, but he actually hoped that Du Le could accept the investment and did not intend to care about whether this investment was losing or making money. Supplying supermarket is more like a business deal, which does not meet his requirement of returning a favor.