When he woke up early the next morning, Lin Chu found that Chen Jinyu was already gone.
The bed showed traces of two people having slept in it, and there were messages from her on his phone.
"I'm off to work."
"I made you breakfast in the kitchen."
"Kisses."
"What do you want for dinner tonight? I'll make it for you."
Lin Chu: Uh.
A jolt shot through him, and he was suddenly wide awake.
'Uh oh.'
'This feels like she wants to start a life with me.'
Bare-chested, Lin Chu walked to the kitchen and saw food laid out on the dining table.
There was a sandwich with beef, greens, mushrooms, and caviar, kept in an insulated container.
A glass of freshly squeezed orange juice with a lid on it.
And two hard-boiled eggs, which were even peeled.
Looking at how thoughtful it all was, Lin Chu was silent for a moment before shaking his head with a small smile.
For some reason, a song lyric popped into his head: "The beginning is always wonderful, every single minute..."
He'd had this sort of thing when he first started dating Li Yaoyao, too.
It wasn't just Li Yaoyao; his three previous girlfriends had done the same.
'But then, the "good nights" stopped, the sweetness disappeared, and all that was left was a cup of bitter coffee.'
Tsk.
'My heartbreak PTSD is no joke.'
...
Lin Chu took a bite of the sandwich.
The savory flavor of carbs mixed with meat, vegetables, and caviar instantly exploded in his mouth.
Huh?
'I missed the dried scallops.'
Hidden inside were specially prepared dried scallop morsels, providing just the right amount of chewiness.
'As expected of a Michelin-star chef. Her skills are really something else.'
'This is a hundred times better than McDonald's.'
In that moment, Lin Chu felt like his stomach had been well and truly conquered.
However...
'My heart is sealed in cement.'
'Eating and sleeping together is fine, but anything else is off the table.'
After a leisurely breakfast and a quick shower, Lin Chu didn't snoop around her house and went straight downstairs.
As far as the eye could see, her home looked truly luxurious. All sorts of mahogany furniture, curio shelves, porcelain, tea, red wine, calligraphy, paintings, and art pieces were arranged in a neat and orderly fashion.
The large living room on the first floor even had a fitness area and a gaming area.
In the gaming area, there was a setup with three large curved-screen monitors. He could only imagine how awesome it would be to play on.
'Living in a house this awesome, and she's still lonely, empty, and cold?'
'Truly... people are never satisfied.'
Lin Chu mused to himself. When he got to the shoe cabinet, he saw a new pair of socks and a note.
"My new athletic socks, they're unisex. You can make do with these for a day."
Lin Chu: ...
He sighed, tore open the packaging, put them on, and left.
He hailed a cab.
Less than ten minutes later, Lin Chu arrived at the gym.
Geographically, his gym, the restaurant Ensue, and her house formed a near-perfect equilateral triangle on the map.
...
"Boss, morning!"
Seeing Lin Chu walk in, the young woman at the front desk stood up and greeted him with a smile.
Her name was Cui Xiaodan. Her looks and figure were above average, and she was pretty sharp.
"Morning."
Lin Chu nodded at her, glanced toward the workout area, and asked casually, "How have the last couple of days been?"
Between going back to his hometown and his trip to Ye City, he had been away for ten days right after taking over the gym. You could say he was a rather hands-off, Zen-like boss.
"Same old, same old."
"A few new potential customers came by, took one look at the prices, and all ran off."
"The old members are pretty happy, though. They've been coming more often, like their gym memberships have suddenly appreciated in value."
"Some people even asked if I could help them transfer their memberships to someone else. They said they'd be willing to do it at half the current price."
Cui Xiaodan complained helplessly.
Lin Chu just shook his head and smiled, offering no comment. He only asked, "Where's Da Lei?"
She pursed her lips toward the gym floor. "He's here. Probably working out inside. I just heard his obnoxious grunts from the bench press."
Lin Chu headed toward the workout area as well.
These two, Cui Xiaodan and Wang Lei, were currently the only employees left at the gym.
Wang Lei wasn't particularly tall, but his muscles were solid and bulging. A real musclehead.
Since there were no clients, Lin Chu worked out with him for a bit.
Health is wealth, of course. Although he was still young, it was best to start maintaining it early.
He continued until his phone rang.
A glance at the screen showed it was a call from Lu Ming.
He said he and Xiaolu were coming over around noon and, by the way, wanted to introduce him to a female university student.
Last night, Xiaolu had sent his WeChat contact info over, but the girl hadn't even taken the initiative to add him.
Lin Chu didn't ask about it, nor could he be bothered to overthink it.
'Right now, my whole M.O. is not just doing whatever I want, but also just letting things happen as they may.'
'Whoever wants to make the first move can make the first move.'
'I'll only make a move when it's the right time.'
The call connected.
"Brother Chu, you at the gym? We're here!"
Lin Chu: "Come on in. How many of you?"
"Four."
'Four?'
But Lin Chu didn't ask any more questions. He'd find out soon enough.
Sure enough, about ten minutes later, just as he was finishing his rest, Lu Ming, Xiaolu, Liu Junfeng, and a long-legged girl in a JK uniform and white stockings walked in.
Both men were carrying flower arrangements with red ribbons that read "Grand Opening" and "Wishing You a Great Fortune."
He hadn't held a grand opening ceremony; he'd been in a hurry to go back to his hometown and hadn't invited them.
This was them making up for it now.
"Boss, we're here for memberships!"
Lu Ming shouted with a grin.
Lin Chu couldn't help but laugh as he took the flowers. "Xiaodan, hurry, bring the POS machine! Lock the doors and release the hounds! Don't let them escape!"
The three men joked around for a bit, then sat in the lounge area, each with a bottle of Gatorade, smoking and chatting.
"What made you decide to open a gym?"
Liu Junfeng asked.
Lin Chu: "To work out... I was bored anyway."
Lu Ming: "Drinking all night, working out all day. The workout is just to be able to drink better."
Liu Junfeng added, "And to improve performance in... certain areas."
The three men looked at each other and smirked.
Xiaolu and the JK girl pretended not to understand, sitting quietly without a word.
Lin Chu figured this JK girl was probably the one Xiaolu had mentioned wanting to introduce him to. She had that aloof, ice-queen vibe and didn't seem to smile much, but her looks and figure were undeniably top-notch. She was the type of girl you'd see on the subway and ride a few extra stops just to keep looking at her.
'Of course, that cold demeanor must be a social mask.'
'I wonder what she's like in private.'
A mischievous thought even crossed Lin Chu's mind. 'Let's see how long you can keep up that cold front.'
He deliberately ignored her, not even bothering with the courtesy of asking her name.
The group chatted for a while longer.
"What's the plan for today?"
Liu Junfeng asked.
He seemed pretty bored on days without a get-together.
Lu Ming looked at Lin Chu. "Brother Chu, what do you want to do?"
"I'm planning to buy a car this afternoon."
Lin Chu said casually. He'd already looked into it and picked one out last night while getting a massage.
"Oh? Now that's in my wheelhouse. What kind of car are you thinking of buying, Brother Chu?"
Liu Junfeng said immediately.
Lin Chu: "A Yangwang U8."
He only had about 2.8 million on hand right now, so a car worth a little over a million would be more than enough.
'Once I have more cash, I'll get a supercar or something. No rush.'
Besides, he had to consider the license plate issue.
In Peng City, you needed to win a lottery to get a license plate for a gasoline car, but not for an electric one.
Although his cash flow was decent, in a first-tier city like this, he was still basically part of the proletariat.
No house, currently no car, the gym property was rented, and as for high-end, solid connections, he had none.
It really felt a bit like he was "faking it till he made it."
'Of course, everything I want, I'll definitely get. It won't even take a few months.'
"Great car!"
Liu Junfeng instantly got excited. "Buy it! Hurry up! Once you get it, let me take it for a spin in the water first! Great minds think alike, I wanted to buy that car too, but... heh, I already have three, so I figured I'd skip it."
"It's a really nice car. I have a friend who already bought one. He was originally going to get a Land Rover Defender, but after thinking about it, he decided the U8 was the better choice."
His three cars—an Alphard for business, a Bentley, and a GTR—perfectly covered all his needs.
However, they were all a few years old.
He had probably also spent a lot of money on that club he was running.
He could probably scrounge up over a million, but there was no need.
The coolest feature of the Yangwang U8 was that it could drive in water, essentially acting as a boat. While it wasn't that fast in the water, it was cool enough and a great gimmick.
Plus, for the same price, the sense of luxury in a domestic car crushed that of joint-venture or imported cars.
A million-yuan car was nothing special in Peng City. You couldn't really flex with it, so you might as well go for novelty.
"Let's go. We'll grab a bite at Ensue, then go pick up the car."
Lin Chu stood up with a smile.
Lu Ming had already strode ahead to the front desk. "Hey beautiful, sign us up for four gym memberships."
He swiftly scanned the code and paid.
Cui Xiaodan knew he was the boss's friend, so she skipped all the tedious steps and just did the facial recognition scans.
Liu Junfeng teased, "President Lu is the real baller, buying me a gym membership and all. Thanks, boss. I'll kowtow to you."
The girl in the JK uniform and white stockings also offered a reserved thank you, "Thank you, Brother Ming."
As her face was scanned, she gave her name: Du Xiaoman.
Lu Ming grabbed Liu Junfeng's arm and cursed playfully, "Shit, you think I'm rich? Wait till Brother Chu treats you to a meal at Ensue. You'll eat until you question your existence. Last time, he ordered a bottle of Romanée-Conti and dropped three hundred thousand on an ordinary meal."
Liu Junfeng paused for a second. He suddenly understood why Chen Jinyu wanted to get to know Lin Chu.
However, since Du Xiaoman and Bai Lu were right there, he was careful not to gossip about what happened between Lin Chu and Chen Jinyu last night.
He had to be careful what he said.
"Alright, alright, stop hyping me up. I'm hungry, let's go. Leizi, Xiaodan, come eat with us. Just lock up the gym for now."
Lin Chu said, sounding quite impulsive.
It wasn't like any random walk-in customers were going to show up to buy a 20,000-yuan membership anyway.
Hearing this, both Cui Xiaodan and Wang Lei were stunned.
'He's taking us to a gathering like this?'
Cui Xiaodan, however, didn't refuse.
'Ensue... that's Ensue!'
Although she felt a little embarrassed, she braced herself and decided to go. 'A free meal there is a definite win!'
Wang Lei, on the other hand, smiled and declined, "Boss, it's a gathering for you and your friends. I probably shouldn't go, right?"
"Let's go!"
Lin Chu couldn't be bothered to waste words. Just one was enough.
'With this many people today—seven of us—dropping five hundred thousand on a meal isn't too much, right?'
'A double rebate will cover the cost of the car.'
Lin Chu thought idly.
'My main gig is being the guy who always picks up the tab for his friends.'
Treating people to meals was his primary money-making venture.
...
...