Then again...
Truth be told, there were plenty of "good girls" out there too.
Lin Chu wasn't actually angry. He just found the whole thing amusing, even fun.
He'd had a lot of feelings welling up inside him over the past two days.
He didn't actually mind spending money on a woman, but there was one condition: she had to be worth it.
'I'm good to you because I hope you'll be good to me in return, not so you can take it for granted and still think I'm not doing enough.'
As this thought crossed his mind, the last bit of his resentment dissipated, and his heart grew as calm as the moon shining on a great river.
"You're all from Brother Feng's club?"
Lin Chu clinked glasses with Tangtang again and asked casually.
"Mhm."
She nodded with a smile. "Friends of Brother Feng, you know. I used to be his colleague, but I was at the Peng City branch. We met while working on a project together. He might be a bit of a flirt, but he's a good guy."
"Whoa, CICC again? Impressive."
Lin Chu was discovering that birds of a feather really do flock together.
In this circle, at least, he hadn't met anyone who wasn't impressive.
"Impressive? What's so impressive... I'm just an ordinary office worker, and I've already been fired."
She shrugged and smiled.
"Oh?"
"Why?"
The corners of her mouth curved up into a meaningful smile. "Because my mom retired."
Lin Chu: ...
They looked at each other and both burst out laughing.
'Nice, nice. So very finance circle of them.'
...
After they had chatted for a good while, everything else was ready—the drinks, the food—and everyone gathered at the table.
"To our esteemed guests, our... well, there are no leaders here, so to our dear friends, our handsome gentlemen, and our beautiful ladies! First, I'd like to announce the rules for tonight's party. Have fun, get wild, but no taking pictures, and absolutely no posting on your social media!"
"Alright, that's the only rule. Let the party begin! I'll start us off!"
Liu Junfeng, using a special drinking trick he must have picked up from someone from the Northeast, took a bottle of beer, swirled it twice to create a vortex of foam, and then chugged the entire thing in one go. GLUG, GLUG, GLUG.
Lin Chu: ...'Holy shit!'
"Brother Feng, that mouth game is insane!"
Lin Chu was the first to laugh and applaud.
Everyone instantly burst out laughing.
As the beer went down, Liu Junfeng flipped Lin Chu the middle finger. 'Damn it, you distracted me. I almost choked.'
Lin Chu really enjoyed gatherings like this.
From Lin Chu's personal experience, he'd gradually discovered something after getting into a relationship—his circle of friends grew smaller and smaller, mainly because he was spending more and more time with his girlfriend.
Even arranging to meet up with friends for some skewers had to be done in secret.
Otherwise, he had to bring his girlfriend along.
Either way, it was always awkward.
Every woman claimed to feel insecure, and with that insecurity came a need for control. To prove you cared about her, loved her, and had her in your heart, you had to constantly submit to her demands.
It was a no-win situation.
...
They ate.
"Brother Chu, it's only been a little while, how come you've already got a new girl by your side?"
It was the date of Liao Zhibin, the Beef Hotpot Prince. Lin Chu didn't even know her name, but she suddenly decided, for whatever reason, to tease him.
The couple hadn't been around earlier; who knows what they were up to.
Probably caught up in the heat of passion, they'd likely gone back to their room for a bit of "exercise."
Lin Chu glanced at her and was about to say something, but Tangtang beat him to it, saying with a smile, "He's abandoned the darkness for the light. He's my man now."
Oh?
Lin Chu turned to look at her.
Tsk.
'Impressive.'
'As expected of a femme fatale from the finance world. Her emotional intelligence is truly off the charts.'
Of course, it was just talk, something to say for the occasion, but even so, it made him feel quite comfortable.
"Damn!"
"You two, impressive, very impressive! Already got a nice little blend going on!"
Liu Junfeng laughed, his tone full of teasing.
Lin Chu chuckled to himself. 'Heh, "blend"... a truly brilliant choice of words.'
He smiled and raised his glass. "Let's have a drink..."
...
Eating.
Drinking.
Singing.
The hotel had a well-decorated KTV room. Some people sang, while others started a game of Guandan.
This card game had, at some point, quietly replaced Texas Hold'em as the new favorite at their social gatherings.
The trend was supposedly started by some big shots in finance from the Imperial Capital and Shanghai. As the saying goes, when those at the top have a preference, those below will eagerly follow suit. And so, it quickly became all the rage.
Sometime after that exchange at the dinner table, Lin Chu and Tangtang had successfully linked hands, looking for all the world like an intimate young couple.
In these scenes of debauchery, amidst the dazzling lights and flowing wine, love at a party often lasts only a few hours. When you wake up the next morning, you don't even know who the other person is.
Not telling each other their real names was part of the unspoken understanding between adults.
Enter the body, but not the life.
Lin Chu, of course, was well aware of this.
When he had a moment to use the restroom, Liu Junfeng followed him in. While they were peeing, he glanced over at Lin Chu. "Holy crap, you're a real donkey!"
Lin Chu: ...
Speechless.
After washing his hands, he slung an arm over Lin Chu's shoulders and whispered in his ear, "That chick has a boyfriend, you know. He's away on business trips all the time, though. Not a good guy himself, of course, but you should still be careful."
Lin Chu: "Uh."
"Doesn't that just increase my attack speed?"
He replied with a smile.
Liu Junfeng let out a sly laugh, getting it instantly. He pulled out his phone and added Lin Chu to a group chat.
One look at the group's name left Lin Chu stunned.
"Of all the heroes, only you and Cao."
It was a subtle name, a line from a literary classic, but Lin Chu got the hidden meaning instantly.
'It was a Thief Cao's Group! The character for "Cao" was a homophone for the word "fuck." '
"You guys are wild. You're not the group owner, are you?"
Liu Junfeng laughed. "Of course not. Nothing said in that group has anything to do with me. I'm a good person who strictly adheres to core values."
Lin Chu met his gaze and said with a smile, "Me too."
...
Happy times are always fleeting. In the blink of an eye, it was already past one in the morning.
"Alright, time to wrap it up, everyone! Tonight's party has come to a perfect conclusion! Good night, and... be safe."
Liu Junfeng announced with a loud laugh. Everyone had had plenty to drink, so they all began to disperse.
Lin Chu took Tangtang back to his room.
「Once inside the door.」
A strange feeling quietly stirred in his heart.
「A short while later.」
She let out the same exclamation of amazement as Liu Junfeng.
...
「The next morning.」
The first thing Lin Chu did was grab his phone. He glanced at it and saw several new messages from An Qingning. He ignored them.
On WeChat, Zhang Peng had sent a message: "Bro, I found a gym in Futian. It's surrounded by high-end office buildings, so the location is excellent. The owner is emigrating and wants to sell. It's 1,200 square meters in total and has a swimming pool on a mezzanine level. It's still in normal operation. The owner's only condition is that we have to honor the remaining time on old memberships and finish all the private training sessions. Basically, the customers can't get screwed over."
"The annual rent is 900,000, and we can sign a ten-year lease. There's no transfer fee. They currently have sixteen employees, with average monthly salary costs of around 200,000. The rest of the expenses are hourly wages, utilities, and basic operating fees."
"But business is bad right now. This month, they've only signed up six new members. They secretly dropped the price of an annual pass from 4,800 to 2,400 and have to hide it from the old members... Feels like the operation is losing money."
When Lin Chu saw this message, his heart stirred.
'This could work.'
'I'm not trying to run a business, I'm just trying to farm money.'
"Sounds good."
"Set up a dinner with the owner. Let him pick the time. The place is Ensue. My treat. You come too."
Zhang Peng: ...
Speechless.
'Are you really going to treat Ensue like it's a Shaxian Grand Hotel?!'
"What's wrong?"
"Is something the matter?"
Just then, Tangtang, who was beside him, woke up. Her eyes were still heavy with sleep. Without any makeup, she didn't look much different from when she was fully done up. In fact, she had an air of fresh, natural beauty.
"It's nothing..."
"Hiss..."
Lin Chu had just finished speaking calmly when he felt the great dragon of his destiny being seized from under the covers.
...
...