"Hello, Mr. Lin. I've seen you before."
Chen Jinyu sent a message in the group chat, momentarily catching Lin Chu by surprise.
He quickly searched his memory.
But for the life of him, he couldn't remember.
He couldn't even put a face to her name yet.
He glanced at her profile picture. Ugh, it was a cartoon avatar, a total libido killer.
He opened her social media feed. There were basically no full-face or full-body pictures, just all sorts of landscapes and food photos.
Heh...
'Her looks probably aren't anything special,' Lin Chu instinctively judged.
He scrolled all the way to the bottom, to her posts from three years ago, and finally saw a picture with her face in it. One look, and Lin Chu was like... holy shit!
'My apologies. I was being shallow.'
'She's gorgeous!'
He also recognized her as the woman he saw today.
He had even glanced her way a few times earlier; his innate "beautiful woman" radar had already locked on. But she was tucked away in a corner, quiet and not drinking. He'd figured she was too conservative, and besides, he was too busy to go strike up a conversation.
At that, Lin Chu couldn't help but look in her direction again.
She wore a white hat with a controversial brand name, a black tracksuit, and white sneakers, looking very sporty. Her legs were quite long, and she was at least five-foot-seven. However, in this kind of setting, her outfit seemed rather out of place.
'Seems she's the low-key type of beauty.'
However, this was the kind of thing that really pushed Lin Chu's buttons.
'It's better for a woman to be dignified in public. Once you're in the hotel room, she can be as wild as she wants.'
'The only downside was her age; she had to be around thirty.'
'He remembered seeing a "Happy Birthday" video in her feed. Although it didn't mention her age, Lin Chu keenly noticed that on the same day, she had also shared a folk song called "A Thirty-Year-Old Woman." The first line went, "She's a thirty-year-old woman, still unmarried..." It was obviously a hint, or maybe a glimpse into her state of mind—something she was too embarrassed to say outright and expressed subtly through the song instead.'
Looking at her now, he couldn't see any trace of her age on her face. She looked like she was barely out of her twenties. But her quiet, elegant demeanor was something rarely seen in a woman so young.
As a salesman, collecting and processing information to analyze a client was second nature. Lin Chu had deduced all this in a very short amount of time.
But what Lin Chu couldn't figure out was: where had he seen her?
"I forgot."
So Lin Chu replied bluntly.
In the past, Lin Chu would have racked his brain trying to think of a witty, non-awkward reply that could grab her attention and leave a great first impression.
But now... he couldn't care less.
'If you want to get to know me, you'll have to be the one to impress me.'
Chen Jinyu: "It's not that you forgot, it's that you never saw me. (chuckles)"
Lin Chu: "Where have you been spying on me?"
Chen Jinyu: "I wasn't spying! I just saw you, but you didn't see me. And you made me angry. Just a little bit. I wasn't really that mad."
Lin Chu: "So you're here to settle a score with me? Aight, I'm out. Let's just delete each other."
Chen Jinyu: "No! That's not what I meant. Umm, I'm the executive chef at Ensue. I offered you the special chef's complimentary dish twice before, and you didn't accept either time. I was devastated. It's really delicious! Aren't you curious at all?"
Lin Chu: ?
He suddenly understood.
A smile couldn't help but appear on his lips.
'To people like her, fine dining is probably something elevated to the level of religion. But for me, it's like a pig eating fancy bran—I just do it to rack up money.'
If it were purely about good food, Lin Chu would probably rather go for street food stalls or a night market barbecue.
"Why did you come to this party today?"
Lin Chu replied, skipping over the topic.
Chen Jinyu: "I've known Ah Feng for several years. He introduced us to investors back when the restaurant was in its planning stages."
Tsk.
'Someone like Liu Junfeng, in the high-end finance world, really has an incredibly wide network.'
"So you're looking me up for... financing? To flirt with me? Or just to make a friend?"
Lin Chu thought for a moment, then sent back a very brazen message.
Chen Jinyu hesitated for at least a minute before replying: "Curious."
Lin Chu: "Then I'll assume it's option two."
Her: "My, you're aggressive."
Lin Chu: "Time is precious. Best wasted on the right person."
In her corner of the crowd, Chen Jinyu felt a flutter in her heart when she saw that message. Those words truly resonated with her; it was a personal motto she had always lived by.
She replied: "Life has many flavors. Best to taste expensive ones."
Lin Chu: "The meter's off. You're a word short. Are you trying to kill my OCD?"
A smile bloomed on Chen Jinyu's lips.
She typed it out again: "Life has many flavors. Best to taste the expensive ones."
Lin Chu: Tsk.
'She's showing some basic compliance.'
'Then again, she could just be flirting back, playing games with me.'
'A thirty-year-old woman isn't some ingenue who's never met a man before. When it comes to playing games, they're second to none.'
"How are you getting back later?"
Lin Chu decided to go for the jugular, tired of wasting any more time with her.
'A sexy little chef, huh?'
Chen Jinyu's eyes froze for a fraction of a second. "I drove here. I haven't been drinking."
Lin Chu: "Give me a ride back to the city. I took a cab here."
Chen Jinyu was stunned again. The twists and turns kept coming. She never expected that someone who could casually drop three hundred thousand yuan wouldn't have a car. But still, this kind of request was genuinely ambiguous.
But he had already made a pretty good impression. She thought for a moment. "Where do you live? I can drop you off right at your door."
Lin Chu instantly understood what she meant: 'It's just a ride, don't even think about sharing a bed.'
So, he didn't reply.
'Fuck, still a waste of my time!'
He grabbed a bottle of wine, got up, and went to go drink with Liu Junfeng.
Chen Jinyu waited for a while without a reply. When she looked up, she saw Lin Chu get up and rejoin the drinking party. For a moment, she was speechless.
'Isn't that a little too... you know?'
'Is his goal that obvious?'
...
"How'd the chat go?"
Liu Junfeng slung an arm around Lin Chu's shoulder with a grin. They walked a short distance away and clinked their bottles. His livestream was still running with over ten thousand viewers, all traffic from the "Carnivals" he'd received earlier. The camera was still pointed at the beautiful women and luxury cars.
"She's tough to pick up. I don't want to put in the effort."
Lin Chu said casually.
"Dude, were you trying to score tonight? You can't be that much of an animal! The lady is a shareholder at Ensue. Even if she's just a minor one, her net worth is easily in the nine figures. She lives in Xiangmi Lake!"
Liu Junfeng lowered his voice, but his tone was quite excited.
Lin Chu glanced at him. "It's not like she's giving me any money. What the hell do I care if she's rich or not?"
Liu Junfeng: ???
"Holy shit, that's profound..."
"Hey, uh, send me your bank account number. I'll ask the lady if she can give you some money."
Lin Chu: ?
"Fuck, are you nuts?"
Liu Junfeng urged him, "Hurry up, send it, send it."
Lin Chu thought for a moment and sent him his bank account number over WeChat.
"Alrighty, I'll go ask."
Liu Junfeng patted Lin Chu's shoulder and walked toward Chen Jinyu, fiddling with his phone as he went.
About a minute later.
Lin Chu's phone buzzed with a text message notification.
--Your China Construction Bank savings card ending in 233 has received a transfer of 300,000 RMB.
Sender: Liu Junfeng.
Memo: Drinks not included.
Lin Chu froze for a second, then scratched his head and laughed.
'What, a kickback?'
'This guy... he's pretty interesting.'
'Real classy.'
...
...