By Xing Xu

I got a big surprise that just after the Chinese New Year ushered in, I received an email from Jean-Pascal Laffaille, my former big boss（high level of management team in the Corperation）, from France. I noticed that the email was sent at around 8:30pm Shanghai time. I was really happy that Jean-Pascal remembered the occasion and sent me the email just at the most auspicious moment of our Chinese calendar, Chu Xi, or the Eve of the New Year.

Jean-Pascal's email told that he has been extremely busy in recent months as now he has five grandchildren. Although he does not need to babysit these little ones as most Chinese grandparents would do, he still thought he should be stand-by in case he is called for help at home. he also said that he and Susan, his partner, traveled several places in Europe last year and took a few the so called "in-depth tour".

They spent 2 weeks in the South of Spain, covering Sevilla, Cordoba and Grenada in April last year, and the 3 weeks in the North-West of Scotland in particular on the islands in June. Croatia saw them for 10 days in September and probably for the rest of the year the couple stayed in their own house in Southern France, with or without their children and grandchildren. What an active and enjoyable life they have! And this description depicts my impression on westerner's often very relaxed and care-free retirement life, while the majority of them enjoy travelling around the world.

Jean-Pascal had been to many places and cities in China when he was director of global areas - (except North America and Africa) of the company that I used to work for. China, as one of the emerging economies in the world, was a key business destination that he visited many times, not only in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, but also in many second or third tier cities. Jean-Pascal showed big interest in China, its people (staff members were a good source for him to understand local people), culture and traditions. He loves Chinese food, even the typical Shanghai home-style dishes. The last time we met was about two years ago, when Jean-Pascal and Susan spent one night in Shanghai for transit before heading to Paris. I recommended very simple home-style ? Shanghainese food for dinner in a restaurant very close to the hotel where they stayed. I was quite surprised that they enjoyed very much the food. I admire those who can indulge in high luxury and at the same time, appreciate simple plain basics, just like Jean-Pascal.

Jean-Pascal is a very clever man. he is excellent in mental arithmetic which seems rare among most Western people. I remember once we had a business trip together to visit a potential acquiree in Dongguan, Guangdong province. Our two-hour-meeting was tough and Jean-Pascal took notes in two full pages in his A4-sized notebook. As the first round of interviews before our financial team in the headquarters world involve due diligence, he wanted to make sure some numbers provided by the acquiree were correct. While we were at a cafe at the airport, he asked me and my general manager to double check the numbers presented in the P & L statement (Profit & Loss Statement). Jean-Pascal took his coffee cup while looking at his notebook, I knew he was calculating mentally. Then he sipped his coffee and said, "I found there is roughly a discrepancey of 10% between what they claimed and my calculation. See, they said the revenue is 80 million and after deducting the cost, it is 65million; if the cost of manufacturing was included as so they said, the gross margin should be 15 million. Since the total GS & A (sales & market expense plus administration) was around 11 million according to them, then tax before the bottom line (net income before tax) should have been 4 million but not 4.5 million as they claimed. Or maybe they give the wrong average selling price, then the total revenue would be wrong." He then gave the detailed calculation on the unit weight of their key products and multiplied the annual total cubic tons which reached the global weight of their annual total production. It was so amazing that even with the help of a calculator, my calculation was not as quick as his mental arithmetic. I guess this was one of the reasons why Jean-Pascal was our big boss.

Jean-Pascal was a serious person. I remember once I drove him to Hangzhou from Cixi, Zhejiang province, to visit a client, but I was not familiar with the streets in downtown Hangzhou although I switched on the GPS. Jean-Pascal sat on the passenger's seat, beside me, looked at the GPS very carefully and in the meantime, he tried to grasp the meaning of the traffic boards along the streets. (But I didn't think he could make sense of them, at least not in full.) I was worried a lot as I did not want to give a bad impression to my big boss as a lousy driver. He noticed my concern, then comforted me, "Don't worry Whitney, I'll guide you as per the machine's instruction. You just drive ahead." Then I turned right, turned left, drove through the viaduct bridge according to his instructions. It seemed all went quite smoothly. Then we got down the bridge and turned right again. Until finally, when I drove to the sidewalk in front of the gate of a hospital, then I realized that it was wrong and stopped. He looked at me seriously and I looked at him. Then he said, "It's not my fault, it's the machine's fault." I couldn't help laughing out loudly. He just smiled innocently looking a little bewilded and embarrassed.

Jean-Pascal and I remain in contact after he retired in 2011. Last year his Christmas card did not reach me on time but flying around the world for about 3 months that I received it only towards the end of March, although it was posted on December 19 according to the postmark. I told Jean-Pascal aobut it and said, "Since you love to travel, so does your card. It sneaked off and maybe went around the Africa then came back to Shanghai finally, to the intended destination." So this year's card is still on the way to me, I guess.

Once again, Jean-Pascal asked me if I have made the plan to visit France. He seriously said to me that I should let him know my plan as early as possible otherwise he probably would not be in France.

Yes, I do look forward to that day when I will see Jean-Pascal in France, where, I trust he should take me to tour the most interesting places.

我希望下次能收到這樣的蛋糕，滿足我的退休構(gòu)想?！切?/div>

一張一弛話退休

除夕夜，我驚喜地收到我以前的大老板Jean-Pascal Laffaille先生發(fā)自法國的郵件，看到他發(fā)出的時間是除夕晚上8：30左右上海時間，他真是有心??！在這么一個吉祥如意的中國春節(jié)之夜。

Jean-Pascal說最近他忙壞了，因為現(xiàn)在有了五個孫輩寶寶了，雖然不需要他帶，像中國的爺爺奶奶外公外婆那樣，但他偶爾總要搭手幫個忙的。此外，和Susan一起旅行，依然是他的主旋律。而且，如果不離開歐洲，他會做“深度游”。

他們?nèi)ツ晁脑略谖靼嘌滥喜看藘芍?，去了塞維利亞、科爾多瓦和格林納達(dá)，六月的三個多星期都在蘇格蘭西北部的島嶼倘佯；九月的十多天時間里，又可以在克羅地亞找到他們的蹤跡。其余時間便是在他們法國南部的花園房子里度過閑適卻也充實的日子，有時孩子們也去，十分熱鬧。多么活躍又享受的時光?。∵@就是我腦海中關(guān)于大部分西方人的退休后無憂無慮、自由旅行和周游世界的構(gòu)想。

Jean-Pascal在我以前服務(wù)的公司任全球地區(qū)（北美、非洲除外）總裁的時候，來過中國很多地方。中國是全球經(jīng)濟飛速發(fā)展的一個國家，他會經(jīng)常來中國，北上廣以外，二三線城市也要去。Jean-Pascal對中國很感興趣，人文，傳統(tǒng)，當(dāng)然通過雇員是了解中國人的一個窗口。他愛中國菜，連普通的家常菜也喜歡。兩年前與他和Susan匆匆一晚（取道上海轉(zhuǎn)機回巴黎）相見，我只隨意帶他們?nèi)チ烁Ｖ萋肪频昱缘募页Ｐ〔顺酝盹垼瑳]想到他們可喜歡了。我就欣賞這樣的人，既可享受奢華，也不抗拒樸素，Jean-Pascal就是這樣的。

Jean-Pascal先生非常聰明，心算尤甚，這在西人里面是少見的。記得有次一同去東莞一家潛在被收購的企業(yè)面談，兩個小時的會議頗為緊張，Jean-Pascal在他A4紙大小的筆記本上記滿了筆記，當(dāng)時屬于首輪面談，總部財務(wù)尚未介入盡職調(diào)查，Jean-Pascal想確認(rèn)他得到的數(shù)字是正確的。在機場的咖啡廳，他拿出筆記本，要我和我的總經(jīng)理再核一下對方講的數(shù)字。他邊拿起杯子邊看他的筆記本，我知道他在腦子里算開了，果然，啜一口咖啡，他開腔了：“我看到稅前凈利的差異有10%，你看啊，營業(yè)額八千萬，成本六千五百萬，毛利一千五百萬，他說員工、銷售、管理人員開支一千一百萬，那么稅前凈利是四百萬，而不是他們說的四百五十萬，要不然就是他們的銷售賣價不對，導(dǎo)致營業(yè)額不對，你們算算。”然后他就把最主要的一個產(chǎn)品賣價乘上他們所說的全年總噸數(shù)（可得出單件重量），得出總量，即可核出營業(yè)額。我驚訝地發(fā)現(xiàn)我用計算器尚比不過Jean-Pascal的心算快，這大概就是為什么他能當(dāng)大老板吧。

Jean-Pascal也是仔細(xì)認(rèn)真的人，有一次我開車帶他從慈溪到杭州見客戶，到了杭州市區(qū)認(rèn)不得路，開了GPS。Jean-Pascal坐在副駕上，拿著GPS，又不時看路上的指示牌，我懷疑他不怎么明白。當(dāng)時我很緊張，心想不能在大老板面前出丑啊！他好像看穿了我的心事，安慰我：“別擔(dān)心Whitney，你只管駕，我來指路。”于是我就聽話地左拐右拐下高架，再右拐，直到開上了一家醫(yī)院大門口的人行道，我才意識到錯了，停了下來，我們倆面面相覷，他說：“這不是我的錯，是GPS的錯?！蔽胰滩蛔〈笮ζ饋恚麆t一臉錯愕，尷尬地微笑起來。

自2011年退休以來，Jean-Pascal一直與我保持著聯(lián)絡(luò)，去年他寄給我的圣誕卡一直到快三月下旬才收到，我看郵戳是12月19日，心想這張卡也在環(huán)游世界呢。和Jean-Pascal說起這事：“你的卡和你一樣熱愛旅行，說不定去非洲兜了一圈，才回來它該來的地方?！彼援?dāng)他問我今年的卡收到?jīng)]，我猜還在路上呢！

Jean-Pascal再次認(rèn)真地問我有沒有定下去法國的行程，他囑咐一定要提早告訴他，要不然他很可能不在家。

是的，我也很期待那么一天與他再見面，我想他一定會帶我去一些非常有趣的地方。