"Of what?" Lin Shanghuai closed his eyes and said slowly, "Do you think I'll eat you? I'm just letting you work here."
"But," Qi Sui nervously clutched the hem of her clothes and murmured, "Sister Liang said this place isn't good. It's chaotic and not where a good girl should go."
Lin Shanghuai opened his eyes at this and sneered inwardly.
Good girl? Good place?
What counts as a good girl? What counts as a good place?
This woman stood here, still pretending, and even found a male waiter as a partner, talking about marriage. Did she really think he was stupid?
"Oh? Is that so?" he said coldly.
But Qi Sui became interested and kept repeating the concepts Sister Liang had instilled in her—
"AIDS," "a den of iniquity"—she described Wanzi Qianhong as a place where demons came. Lin Shanghuai unceremoniously rolled his eyes and curled his fingers into a fist, rapping her head hard.
"That's enough. The club now offers free health checks. If you're not up to standard, even the gods can't get in. As for being a den of iniquity, you're here to work as my server, not to spend money gambling, understand? How much money do you have to waste?"
This ignorant country woman.
But Qi Sui still wrung her fingers and stammered a refusal: "No, it's fine. I think my current job is pretty good. And at the restaurant, I can have little popsicles. I'm satisfied."
Eat, eat, eat. All she did was eat.
Look at her face, how round it had become.
Qi Sui wasn't fat. Her face was just slightly round, making her look cute and childish.
But in Lin Shanghuai's eyes, Qi Sui had refused him, making him lose face, so he found everything about her annoying.
"Even if you can't afford a small western-style house?"
Qi Sui smiled, her cheeks puffed up into a soft curve. "I know I can't afford it. But my parents said that in this life, you shouldn't earn dirty money. I can't betray my parents' conscience."
Boring.
Boring words.
Boring, idiotic, yet sincere words, hot enough to make people unable to speak.
"Well, then, forget it..."
Lin Shanghuai said lazily.
Why would he help someone for no reason? Did he think he was some kind of Virgin Mary?
He didn't consider himself a good person.
He had come to Hongcheng with his sick grandfather, just to find a place to be free.
This country woman was fine, but just fine.
To make the Lin family completely give up on him, he needed to become a more despicable, unscrupulous scumbag.
With that thought, he lost interest and waved his hand boredly, "Since that's the case, you can leave. I'll have someone send you that hundred yuan later. You don't need to worry about the rest."
Qi Sui stood stunned for a moment, then moved her feet to walk out, but just as she pushed open the door, the man behind her called her back:
"Oh, and I'll remind you of one thing—you were right about that."
"This place isn't a good place, and the people here aren't good people. Little country girl, you'd better watch your step."
His voice was long and casual. He had included himself in that statement, but he probably didn't care at all.
Qi Sui thought so as she walked out of the private room and stood at the door, staring blankly at the gold-rimmed door.
She felt—
This mission target was very dangerous.
She shook her head, was led downstairs by a waiter, and waited in the reception room on the first floor.
Meanwhile, Chen Ping sat in the employee break room, his face filled with dejection. In front of him were the clothes he had worn when he arrived. He searched through them thoroughly but only managed to scrounge up a little over thirty yuan. Coming up with a hundred yuan was a pipe dream.
He could get a hundred yuan from the card shark, but that money was already in the pot. There was no way to withdraw it now.
He didn't understand why this Young Master Lin was targeting him. Was it because he had handed him a match last month? Or because he had done something that annoyed this Young Master Lin and had completely forgotten about it?
But how could that be?
Even if he had done something, how could he forget?
After all—
After all, he had such a beautiful face.
It was different from theirs, who were from the countryside, and different from Qi Sui, who had been pretty since childhood. It was a completely different face—one that clearly grew from rich soil and abundant rain, a face of luxury.
Chen Ping had grown up in the countryside, but his mind was not confined to the rural environment. Since childhood, he had consciously made friends with classmates from wealthier families. He knew well that if he wanted to succeed, his only path was to leave the countryside, leave the small village that had raised him, and make a fortune in the bustling county or provincial city, imitating those rich businessmen to transform himself into gold.
But it was too hard, just too hard. His family was too poor. His parents had even arranged a detestable child marriage for him, binding him forever to the muddy farmland.
He couldn't accept it.
How could he accept it?
After seeing how wonderful the world beyond the village was through his friends, how could he willingly stay in the village, locked in a lifelong marriage with a woman he didn't like, even despised, living a life he hated?
Especially after seeing the young masters at Wanzi Qianhong. He had seen waiters kneel before those "young masters," enduring slight mistreatment in exchange for tips. He had seen men and women sell their bodies for a fortune.
Here, human nature and dignity were as fragile as paper, leading Chen Ping to believe—as long as he could make money, he was willing to do anything.
He never wanted to return to the countryside where if you didn't work, you didn't eat. He didn't want to be judged by gossiping elders, and he didn't want to toil in endless fields.
He had seen the "Young Master Lin" who had been the talk of the club recently. In fact, he had been the first to meet him on the day Young Master Lin arrived.
But he had been foolish. He had thought Lin was just an ordinary customer. After being scolded by him, Chen Ping had dismissed him.
But who knew?
Who could have known?
Young Master Lin's family had a red background, and his father ran a famous coal washing plant in the provincial capital. The Lin family was a sprawling clan with many scions; any one of them could not be offended.
If only he had known, if only he had known...
He scratched his head in frustration, thinking about the hundred yuan, feeling even more suffocated. His luck was at rock bottom. He decided to just borrow some money from others to fill the hole for Young Master Lin, at least to avoid making a worse impression.
With that thought, he was about to stand up when he heard a familiar voice from behind the wall. The voice was muffled, as if in conversation with someone else.
Chen Ping leaned closer, thinking it sounded like Boss Huang's voice. He wanted to confirm his guess, but unexpectedly overheard a shocking piece of information—
"Sir, you mean to say—"
"That Lin Shanghuai is a man without balls?!"
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Author's note: Sorry, dear readers, I'm late (one knee down, right hand over heart, standard knightly bow). There will be another update to make up for it. Wait for me about two hours.