Shen Qingxue saw that I didn't say anything for half a day and mistakenly thought I was boasting.
She suggested very delicately, "Zhang Long, after what just happened, I have a shadow in my heart. If we continue to drink here, I wouldn't be interested anymore. Let's go somewhere else!"
I believed it to be true: "Where do you want to go?"
Shen Qingxue suggested, "We've exerted quite a bit of energy from dancing at the party room downstairs. I feel a bit hungry. How about we go out for hotpot? What do you think?"
I replied promptly, "I have no objections!"
When we went downstairs, the rain had stopped.
A refreshing breeze came to my nose, and I immediately felt a sense of clarity and refreshment.
Shen Qingxue led me to a BMW car in the parking lot, took out a remote key from her handbag, and opened the door lock for me to get in.
I reminded, "Don't you worry about a breathalyser check?"
Shen Qingxue realized it immediately and promptly hailed a taxi on the street.
The driver took us to the entrance of a hotpot restaurant by the river.
A waiter greeted us warmly and led us into the hotpot restaurant.
We sat face to face in a private room on the second floor and began ordering from the server.
After ordering the dishes, the server took the menu and left.
I suddenly remembered what had happened tonight and felt somewhat embarrassed. I had to shift my gaze from her to the window, admiring the night view by the river.
Both sides of the river were aglow with lights.
The dazzling neon lights changed with a rainbow of colors. The reflected buildings on the other side were seen in the clear water, and the calm river surface shone with glints.
I was instantly filled with a sense of elation and joy.
When I turned back, I found that Shen Qingxue was staring at me, and I blushed immediately.
Shen Qingxue joked, "Zhang Long, aren't you afraid of being shy? When you danced with me at the bar tonight, it didn't seem like that!"
I countered, "And what about you?"
"Since we're all the same, why be so constrained?" Shen Qingxue smiled, "You haven't answered my question yet. You dropped out of school before you finished middle school. What have you been doing these years?"
It turns out she brought the topic back around again after all that.
I had to make up something on the spot, "My dad saw that I was very mischievous and my grades were bad in school, so he sent me to the Cheng City Foreign Language School to study."
"Oh, that's a prestigious school, not just anyone can get in," Shen Qingxue said gossipy, "How did your dad manage to get you in there? What does he do for a living?"
I said with a face full of resentment, "My dad was in business, but he died in a car accident a few days ago!"
Thinking that her question had touched my heartache, Shen Qingxue apologized to me, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that!"
I replied with no concern, "It's fine. I didn't have much affection for my father anyway, so his death didn't have much impact on me."
Shen Qingxue: "And what about your mother?"
I answered honestly, "My mother passed away three years ago."
"I didn't expect you to be such a pitiful child," Shen Qingxue asked with sympathy and curiosity, "Who do you live with now?"
"My father entrusted me to a woman 18 years younger than him before he died..." The accumulated grievances in my heart had been pent up for too long, and I wanted to vent my frustrations.
I told her everything without reserve, the process of my father having an affair with a university student outside, and that woman becoming his mistress after my mother's death.
Since I didn't know that Shen Qingxue and Lan Xin were university classmates, I didn't mention Lan Xin's name at all throughout the conversation.
Otherwise, I could have gleaned from her mouth whether Lan Xin was really keeping a rich man, as Zhao Liang and Lin Jiao said.
Perhaps because of a shared sense of understanding, after I finished telling her about our family's situation, Lan Xin even cried.
"Ms Shen, I was just telling you about my family's situation, why are you crying?" Looking at her tear-stained face, I felt a bit incredulous.
It's clearly about my family, why is she crying?
After dabbing away her tears with a tissue from the table, Shen Qingxue sighed with a worried expression on her face.
“In fact, my experience is no different from this…”
"Really?" I furrowed my brows, taken aback and asked in amazement, "Ms Shen, can you also tell me about your own experiences?"
At this moment, a server brought over a large cast-iron pot filled with hotpot base ingredients and placed it on the liquid propane stove on the table, temporarily ending our conversation.
Next, another server brought our ordered dishes and several bottles of beer to the table, then helped us pour some lettuce into the pot.
Seeing me watching her with anticipation, Shen Qingxue quickly understood my thoughts and opened a bottle of beer with a corkscrew, pouring it into both of our glasses and said:
"Let's start by drinking first. We don't want to be affected by those unpleasant things and ruin our appetite. When we finish eating, I'll tell you!"
After hearing that, I quickly put aside my curiosity and clinked my glass with hers, eating hotpot.
The taste of the hotpot was good, and our appetites increased.
We drank, ate vegetables, and chatted while doing so.
The atmosphere at the table became more harmonious.
After a few glasses of beer, Shen Qingxue's conversation opened up:
"Actually, my father also had an affair outside, the mistress of whom was his company's executive secretary. I didn't expect that woman would sleep with the vice president of finance he had nurtured and promoted in the company."
"The two of them colluded together, embezzling public funds, and that woman also slandered my father for raping her. As a result, my father was arrested by the police and sent to a detention center."
"After my father was arrested, I resigned from school and went to manage the company for him. Little did I know that most of the company's funds had been transferred by them."
"All our business partners terminated their cooperation with our company, and the bank also terminated its loan business to us. If a solution isn't found quickly, our company will face bankruptcy."
"In order to prevent the foundation my father had worked hard on for years from being destroyed, I decided to find a way to bail my father out of the detention center so he could come and clean up this mess."
"That's why I had Zhao Liang and Lin Jiao arrange to meet with the general manager of Ye Group, Ye Lingtian, tonight. It was because I believed their gossip that said Ye Lingtian could solve all my troubles. I didn't expect that guy to be a pervert; I accidentally fell into the trap they had set for me..."
At this point, Shen Qingxue began to cry.
I said with righteous anger, "That pair of dogs is absolutely despicable. I will beat them up tomorrow to get some revenge for you!"
Shen Qingxue shook her head and said, "Zhang Long, that's illegal to do that. Don't do anything foolish for me. The most urgent matter is to find a cooperator with real power!"
I asked cautiously, "In the range of Cheng City, which company has a cooperator with your company's business matching?"
Shen Qingxue: "Wendragon Group, but I have gone to see Vice President Zhao Defa responsible for the negotiation several times, but that old pervert wants me to have sex with him in order to agree to cooperate with our company!"
At her words, the image of Zhao Defa, coming with a group of bodyguards in a fierce manner to the mall in order to stand up for his son Zhao Liang and daughter-in-law Lin Jiao, immediately popped into my mind.
And the scene of Zhao Defa recognizing Lan Xin and being exposed to my real identity by her, causing him to be humiliated by us in front of everyone, which made me secretly laugh in my heart.
I said without revealing my tone, "Regarding your company's plan to cooperate with Wendragon Group, I might be able to help!"
Shen Qingxue naturally wouldn't believe it: "You're just a kid. How can you help me? Just don't go and make a mess for me!"
Just as I was about to speak, my mobile phone rang.
