Chapter 146: I Like Being on Top!
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Chapter 146: I Like Being on Top!
Luo Yeyong thought seriously for a moment, then said, “That’s true. Tang Xin really hasn’t shown up at all. Tang Zhong, Tang Xin—could it be that the two of them are having an affair?”
William Ji wanted nothing more than to slap the fat off his face. He had made himself so clear, yet the man still insisted on relating everything to the sordid affairs between men and women.
Was that all he cared about?
“Can you use your brain?” William Ji said helplessly. “Why couldn’t they be brother and sister?”
“Brother and sister?” Luo Yeyong shook his head. “Impossible. Tang Xin’s information is easy to find online. She’s said she’s an only child, with no brothers or sisters. Perhaps they’re cousins?”
“But what does that have to do with what I asked?” William Ji sneered. “I asked why Tang Xin didn’t show up.”
“Then… should I go and investigate?” Luo Yeyong asked.
William Ji had been about to refuse, but then he changed his mind. “Fine. Pay them a visit. You smashed their gate, after all. You ought to go there personally and apologize. And make a point of apologizing to Miss Tang Xin for the unpleasantness between you two.”
“Understood.” Luo Yeyong grinned. “Cousin, just wait and see. I guarantee I’ll take care of this for you.”
“You’re doing it for yourself,” William Ji sneered. “Otherwise, I’ll wash my hands of the whole matter.”
“Don’t, don’t. Cousin, I misspoke. My mouth got ahead of me. I’ll slap myself.” Luo Yeyong begged for mercy repeatedly.
“I have work to do.” William Ji dismissed him. He felt there was truly nothing worth saying to an idiot.
“Perfect. I was just about to head back myself,” Luo Yeyong said with a smile.
He drove his dazzling Ferrari out of the villa, then turned around and spat viciously toward the house.
“Pretentious bastard,” he snarled. The fat on his face bunched together, giving him a somewhat ferocious appearance.
“Since you love showing off so much, I’ll just wait and see who turns out to be the biggest idiot in the end.”
William Ji did not see him out. Sitting on the sofa, he repeatedly watched the footage on his computer of Tang Zhong entering and leaving Purple Garden. His eyes gleamed, an evil smile playing across his face as he wondered what to do next.
Luo Yeyong drove back to Purple Garden and parked the Ferrari outside the villa where the Butterfly group lived.
After thinking it over, he drove a little farther, turned a corner, and stopped outside another villa.
Looking at the dented electronic gate and recalling how he had been humiliated, Luo Yeyong seethed with hatred. But he had come on a mission, so he arranged a smile on his face and pressed the doorbell.
“Who are you looking for?” a coquettish voice came through the intercom. The video screen displayed the alluring, charming face of a man.
“Hello…” Luo Yeyong knew that this effeminate man was A-Ken, a top stylist. Back when he had been pursuing Tang Xin, he had looked into the people living in the villa. A-Ken, however, had no idea who Luo Yeyong was. “I’m here to see Miss Tang Xin.”
“You’re looking for our little Xin-Xin?” A-Ken giggled. “Sorry, she isn’t here.”
Click—
The call ended. The screen went blank.
Luo Yeyong stood there in a daze for a moment, then cursed the “freak” a few times before pressing the doorbell again.
A-Ken’s face appeared on the video screen once more. He shouted angrily at Luo Yeyong, “Good grief, do you have ears or not? I told you, little Xin-Xin isn’t here, isn’t here, isn’t here! What are you doing? Aren’t you annoying?”
“I’m here to see Miss Bai Su,” Luo Yeyong said with an ingratiating smile. “I was the one who crashed into the gate outside your villa, and I’d like to discuss compensation with Miss Bai Su.”
“You crashed into it?” A-Ken’s eyes widened. “Good grief! I thought some blind little thief had done this wretched thing. So it was you! Just wait—just wait and see how I deal with you!”
Enraged, A-Ken wanted to rush outside at once and give Luo Yeyong a brutal beating.
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He shouted through the intercom, “How tall are you?”
“One meter seventy-eight,” Luo Yeyong replied. Why was this question so inexplicable?
“One meter seventy-eight? You’re not lying to me, are you?” A-Ken demanded angrily.
This was bad. That fellow was actually taller than him. He probably couldn’t beat him.
If only little Xin-Xin were here.
“I’m not lying. Come out and see for yourself,” Luo Yeyong said.
Just as A-Ken was about to say, “As if I’m going out. Even if I did, I couldn’t beat you,” Zhang Hepburn came rushing into the kitchen in a huge Spider-Man T-shirt and slippers. She emerged moments later carrying a fruit knife.
A-Ken screamed, “Hepburn, what are you doing?”
“Killing the bad guy. The bad guy’s back,” Zhang Hepburn said without turning her head, rushing into the courtyard with the knife in hand.
She said “killing the bad guy” so lightly, as if she were merely saying she was going out to slaughter a chicken and would be back in no time.
And so, on the video screen before A-Ken, Luo Yeyong’s piglike face vanished.
———
———
The Bund. Splendor.
Tang Zhong looked at the address on his phone, then stared blankly at the European-style mansion before him.
That day, Tang Xin’s phone had received a message:
The Bund. Splendor. Eight o’clock.
The sender was “Su San.”
Thus, at ten minutes to eight that evening, Tang Zhong stood before Splendor on the Bund, gazing distractedly at the elegant building situated at the far end of the Huangpu River.
Was this a showdown?
Or a date?
Whatever the case, Tang Zhong had no reason to refuse. Not for any other reason, but because she had sent the address to Tang Xin’s phone.
She had never done that before.
A young waiter in a black tailcoat came out. Looking at Tang Zhong standing by the entrance, he approached and asked, “Hello. Are you Mr. Tang Zhong?”
Tang Zhong glanced at the waiter and nodded. “I am.”
“Miss Su asked me to escort you inside,” the waiter said with a smile.
“Thank you.”
Tang Zhong followed the waiter into the mansion.
The interior was magnificently appointed, every ornament a work of art.
Being inside was like stepping into the dazzling, ten-mile stretch of lights and revelry that had once made Shanghai famous.
Led by the waiter, Tang Zhong saw Su Shan dining on Western food at a table beside the window, where she could admire the rushing river outside.
The gleaming knife and fork in her hands possessed a unique elegance. Her movements were swift and silent as she used her fork to lift finely sliced pieces of meat to her mouth. Her small lips parted slightly as she ate, their rosy curves lifting delicately and creating a feast for the eyes. Her cheeks moved faintly as she chewed slowly, savoring every bite.
When she saw Tang Zhong sit down opposite her, she lifted her face and smiled.
“I like meat. What about you?”
“I like it too,” Tang Zhong replied. “I’d rather die than give up meat.”
“Excellent,” Su Shan said. “The steak here is exceptional.”
“Then I’ll have a steak too.” Tang Zhong turned to the waiter, who had brought over the menu. Pointing at the plate before Su Shan, he said, “Exactly the same as hers.”
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“Very good. Please wait a moment.” The waiter paused. “Sir, how would you like your steak cooked?”
“Exactly the same as hers,” Tang Zhong added.
“Very good. Please wait a moment.”
The waiter noted down Tang Zhong’s request and quickly left.
Watching Su Shan turn dining into an artistic performance, Tang Zhong smiled and asked, “Why did you invite me to dinner?”
“One needs the strength that comes from a full stomach before doing anything,” Su Shan replied. “We may owe many people, but we must never owe our own stomachs even the slightest thing.”
“That makes sense,” Tang Zhong said.
He did not ask anything else, instead quietly appreciating Su Shan’s graceful manner as she ate.
People said that Ban Jieyu possessed the beauty to continue the histories, while Xie Daoyun had the grace to chant poetry in the snow.
Others said that a woman need not wear makeup to possess a complexion like dawn reflected upon snow.
Tang Zhong thought that if a woman were beautiful to such an extent, then even if she were nothing more than a vase, countless men would willingly fight over her—trading insults, spitting, throwing tantrums, tearing at one another, biting, and drawing blood.
Clearly, Su Shan had no intention of being a vase.
She was neither flustered nor shy. Tang Zhong stared directly at her, yet she showed no sign of discomfort.
Cutting the meat, spearing it, chewing—she maintained a smooth, steady rhythm, neither hurried nor slow, gentle as spring water.
Su Shan.
Had her family hoped she would possess the weight of a mountain?
“This place originally belonged to a gangster boss named Du,” Su Shan said softly. “After the country was liberated, the gangster boss fled. Because the previous owner was a criminal, the mansion was spared confiscation instead of becoming the residence of some powerful official. Later, a farsighted businessman bought it and transformed it into the Splendor you see today.”
She did not look Tang Zhong in the eye. She merely concentrated on cutting the steak before her, as though speaking to herself.
Tang Zhong suddenly felt a sense of respect for her.
What reason could there be for a girl who treated even a meal with such seriousness not to succeed?
He thought of Big Beard.
Big Beard was the same kind of person. Whenever he ate, he was utterly absorbed, as though it were the most important thing in the world.
Of course, Big Beard devoured his food wolfishly, as if someone might snatch it away. He could never eat with Su Shan’s elegance.
But their attitudes were the same.
Tang Zhong had once asked Big Beard why he ate that way. Big Beard’s answer had been only three words:
“I’m afraid of hunger.”
Tang Zhong’s steak arrived. He picked up his knife and fork and began cutting it apart. His movements were not as practiced as Su Shan’s, nor as graceful, but neither did he send the meat flying as male and female leads so often did in television dramas and movies.
By then, Su Shan had already set down her knife and fork. After wiping her mouth, she began enjoying the lemon water served after the meal.
She said nothing, quietly watching Tang Zhong eat.
Only after Tang Zhong had finished the steak and eaten two more croissants did she speak.
“Vice President, do you have any objections?”
“Am I still beneath you?” Tang Zhong asked with a smile.
“I like being on top,” Su Shan replied.
P.S. Thanks to YCM, Blood Dragon Tian, the Devoted Man in Love with Smoke, and all the other friends who generously rewarded me.
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