Seeing Zhu Kangyu leave the room, the rest of them continued their futile efforts to make Yang Chen drunk. At the end of the day, all they were there to do was to get on Zhu Kangyu's good side. Deep down in their hearts they still felt rather sorry towards Liu Mingyu and this Yang Chen whom they had never met before.
But now that things have gone to the point of no return, they felt awkward talking to Yang Chen afterward. They just pretended as though nothing had happened and started chatting with each other on their own.
Yang Chen asked Mingyu who was beside him softly, "You asked me to accompany you here because you already knew and wanted me to help shield you from that Zhu-something guy right?"
Liu Mingyu bit her lips a little and nodded.
"So you are basically just using me?" Yang Chen frowned.
"Are you angry?" Liu Mingyu raised her head worriedly. She said guiltily, "Zhu Kangyu has been wooing me ever since my university days but I have never accepted him. Things got slightly better when he went to Su Province for work later on. But he would still ask me out every time he came back to Zhonghai. All I've ever wanted from him was for him to give up. But I never expected him to do what he did just now. Although I thought that he was just an ordinary guy in the past, I never knew him to be this cunning."
Yang Chen grinned. "I'm not exactly angry, but I still feel wronged. Being used like a gun by my own lover, it's almost like suffering from alcohol poisoning….."
Liu Mingyu could tell that Yang Chen had other intentions behind his words. How could he even be suffering from alcohol poisoning if he wasn't even the slightest bit drunk? She rolled her eyes at him and said, "Take it as an I owe you. Next time I'll find a chance to make a proper meal for you to pay you back."
"I don't want to eat your home cooked meal." Yang Chen shook his head.
"Then what do you want?" Liu Mingyu asked.
"I want you. I'll just eat you," Yang Chen said right beside the woman's ear.
Liu Mingyu felt her face burn up. She didn't reply anything but just lowered her head. She didn't want these people to find out how shy she was.
Yang Chen didn't continue teasing her. He took a sip of alcohol and said slowly, "Actually… I would rather you make use of me more often, so that I can do more for you."
"Hmm?" Liu Mingyu raised her head, puzzled, staring at Yang Chen.
"I will never be able to give you a complete relationship. All I can do is leave you in the dark. I feel so guilty about it that I would like to make it up to you as much as possible." Yang Chen lowered his volume and said, "That's why, being able to do something for you, to contribute a little,makes my heart feel more at ease. In the future, if you have another guy that you like, I wouldn't be too sad about it even though it might hurt. As long as you can be happy, then it's alright for me to back out as well since I'm the one who's being too greedy from the start."
Liu Mingyu's clear eyes brightened up. In the dim light, her hand held onto Yang Chen's rough palm unconsciously.
"I also want to try hard not to love you, you bad guy. So that when I feel unfair and upset in my heart, I wouldn't feel so bitter and suffocated… But I can't do it. I can't do it right now, and I won't be able to do it in the future either. You have already taken away my ability to do so. So you ought to use your entire lifetime to make it up to me, don't you think?"
Yang Chen smiled unnaturally, nodding his head.
"Say, what are you two talking about? Are you ignoring me, this former classmate of yours?" Zhao Haili who was beside them finally realized what these two were mumbling about. She glared at them disapprovingly.
Liu Mingyu smiled at Zhao Haili apologetically, "Alright fine. Let me toast to you as compensation."
The two women toasted and emptied their glasses. Liu Mingyu was originally from the line of public relations, it was only natural for her to have high alcohol tolerance.
"Why isn't this President Zhu coming back yet?" someone started asking curiously.
The rest found it odd as well. Almost ten minutes had passed already.
"Sigh…" Yang Chen let out a sigh. "Perhaps he has secret woes that he can't disclose."
Everyone stared at him. Zhao Haili asked curiously, "What secret woes?"
Yang Chen laughed mysteriously before saying, "For guys, when they're under too much stress, and not getting enough exercise, their prostate gland… kidney… things like that might start to develop problems. The class monitor who has always been contributing to the country so cautiously, for him to have some minor problems is quite inevitable as well. You should all stop nagging about it so much."
With these words, everyone couldn't help but laugh out loud. This fellow was too mean. He had only just turned things over to make it look awkward for Zhu Kangyu just now, and now he was saying things like Zhu Kangyu having problems with reproduction behind his back. If Zhu Kangyu were to hear this, there's no telling what he might do in a fit of rage!
The door flipped open right at that moment. Zhu Kangyu walked back in not knowing what had just transpired. He seemed to be in a good mood. Even his footsteps were much lighter.
"Why, everyone is laughing so happily. Is there something I don't know?" Zhu Kangyu asked, seeing the laughter on everyone's faces.
Who knew that all these classmates were all staring at Zhu Kangyu, checking him out. And they even focused their gazes on his lower body secretly…
Zhu Kangyu was filled with questions but chose not to speak. He could only suppress his doubts and sat down to continue speaking, "Sorry to let everyone wait for so long. The National People's Congress is going to be held soon, so there're so many things going on. Come on everyone, let's continue drinking."
However, Zhu Kangyu had just raised his glass, and Liu Mingyu said, "Class Monitor, Yang Chen and I have to make a trip back to the company in the afternoon for some matters, so we can only stay until now for today. Let's meet up again next time if there is a chance."
Basically she meant that they were leaving right away, no longer keeping him company.
Liu Mingyu was worried that Zhu Kangyu would do something to target Yang Chen again. She couldn't bear to see Yang Chen suffer just to protect her.
At first, everyone thought that Zhu Kangyu would try to make them stay. However, Zhu Kangyu just smiled casually. "Mingyu is leaving so fast. But we shouldn't delay you if it concerns work. We'll see you two off."
Everyone else agreed and got up to see Yang Chen and Liu Mingyu off.
Yang Chen was fine with it. Liu Mingyu wanted to leave, then he'd leave together with her. But somehow, he knew things were not going to play out quite this simply.
All of them sent Yang Chen and Liu Mingyu out of the private room and all the way out of the clubhouse. They warmly expressed their hopes to gather together again next time, and even praised Yang Chen for how well he could drink.
Yang Chen was secretly swearing in his heart, who said that he was the only thick-skinned one? These people here were all thick-skinned. They could change their expressions even faster than one can flip a book!
Just as they were about to step out of the main gate of the clubhouse, a short and plump man with a crew cut, wearing a striped grey suit walked straight towards them. The man had his head lowered so he didn't seem to notice a bunch of people walking out of the door, and just walked straight towards them in rapid footsteps.
Yang Chen immediately realized something and moved his body sideways slightly, trying to avoid this plump guy.
Little to know that, even though that plump guy's 'accidental' bump didn't succeed, he still moved his body towards one side in a very 'professional' manner—and fell down on the floor!
Yang Chen laughed. He didn't even do anything. Weren't this fellow's acting skills a little too formidable!
"Ouch!"
The moment the plump guy landed on the floor, he shouted out in pain. It was as if he had hit his elbow against the pillars of the door. His tears were almost dropping as he hugged his arm and yelled out loud, "Help! It hurts so much!! Are you trying to kill me!!"
Not waiting for everyone to react, about seven to eight men who were in various outfits suddenly came rushing out from a corner outside the clubhouse. One of them who had a silver necklace hung around his neck, and had slightly curly hair with a squared face shouted anxiously, "Old Fatty! What's wrong with you!? What happened to your hand?"
The short plump guy who were referred to as 'Old Fatty' had an upset look on his face and cried out in pain, "Big Brother! I was just about to enter through the door, and this guy bumped into me! My hand… I think my hand is broken!"
"What?!" That square-faced guy glared at Yang Chen angrily. "You dare to bump into my, Curly Hair Wolf's subordinate?! If you don't give us an explanation today, don't even think about walking out of this door unharmed!"
The group of subordinates immediately helped the pretentious plump guy up, and yelled out after this Curly Hair Wolf, asking Yang Chen to give them an explanation!
Everyone present was well aware that it was a scam. Those people were obviously waiting there to pull one on them.
But at such a high-class clubhouse, how was it possible that not even a security guard was present in sight? How were they allowed to carry out their schemes here? There was something wrong with the matter, and it seemed specially targeted at Yang Chen!
A few people who were sharp-witted consciously took a glimpse at Zhu Kangyu who left the room just now to do something. But Zhu Kangyu's face seemed full of worry. No one could tell anything odd about him.
"You guys are scamming us in broad daylight! If you don't leave right away, we're going to call the cops!" Liu Mingyu probably could guess what was up, but she couldn't say anything without evidence. Since Yang Chen remained quiet, she could only use calling the cops as a threat out of panic to fight these hooligans off.
"Call the cops? Tsk tsk, little woman, how can you be so ignorant of the state of affairs?" Curly Hair Wolf stared at Liu Mingyu with a lecherous gaze, saying, "So what if the cops do come? We are still in the right aren't we? This was your man who bumped into our brother first! At most we can examine his injuries at a hospital!"
"He's not injured at all!" Zhao Haili who was by the side couldn't stand watching this and spoke up for Liu Mingyu.
Curly Hair Wolf smiled evilly. "Injured or not, we'll only find out when we reach the hospital."
Yang Chen was shaking his head down in his heart. Actually this wasn't a matter of whether Old Fatty was injured or not. Even if he were not injured, given these people's 'professionalism', they could very well have caused an injury on the way. Therefore, the crucial point was finding out the true reason behind why this happened.
If it were in the past, the easiest way for Yang Chen to settle this would be to beat all these people up. But if he did that, he would be walking straight into these people's trap. Regardless of whether he hurt or killed them, he would only bring misfortune upon himself. The troubles would only keep on coming, and it would add unnecessary trouble to Liu Mingyu. It wasn't worth it.
After thinking about it thoroughly, Yang Chen had an idea. He said to Liu Mingyu who was next to him, "Call the cops. We'll talk after the cops come."