The drinks were flowing, the music was pumping, and Tao Yong was playing the fool!
He was the sole source of comedy for the night. While others sang for two hours, he danced for two hours.
Maybe he was tired from dancing, or maybe he was just drunk, but he announced he was going out to pay the bill!
All that was left to pay were the tips for the hostesses. It was a rare display of generosity from him—800 for each of the girls, totaling 4,000. That was a hefty sum for a salaried employee!
Less than three minutes later, the manager came in looking miserable. He came straight to Chen Xiao, who had just paid the main bill at the front desk a moment earlier.
"Boss, you have to see this. Your friend is trying to pay with a membership card from the foot massage parlor next door! We really don't know what to do. Could you please see about settling the tip for the hostesses?"
'That guy is something else,' Chen Xiao thought. 'Trying to use a membership card—not even a prepaid one—from a foot massage parlor to pay a KTV bill. Is this clown really my old classmate?' He started to question his life choices.
He'd take care of the bill. To Boss Chen, it was just pocket change.
After that little incident, the night was pretty much over. When Chen Xiao went outside with Meng Jianshu and Liu Bo, they were surprised to find that Tao Yong had already left on his own.
They all said their goodbyes, agreeing to meet up at the farmstead the day after tomorrow.
Chen Xiao had no desire to waste any more time with these people. The only reason he hadn't made an excuse to get out of it was because he had finally managed to get Zhao Xiangjun to agree to come.
If he turned this down, he wouldn't have another excuse to go out with Zhao Xiangjun.
He hailed a cab back to his apartment. He hadn't driven, knowing he would be drinking that night.
The next day at the office, he heard that Feng Feifei had been looking for him yesterday. He was just about to head to the General Manager's office when his mom called.
"Chen Xiao, why haven't you contacted that girl yet? Your Aunt Wang has been nagging me about it!"
He'd completely forgotten. He scratched his head.
"Mom, can I please not go? I promise I'll bring a girlfriend home, how about that?"
"Then bring one home right now!"
"Nothing's even started yet, how am I supposed to do that? Just give me some time!"
"That won't work. Your Aunt Wang meant well. Whether it works out or not, you still have to go meet the girl. Of course, if you already have a girl you're interested in, your father and I will absolutely respect your choice!"
Fine. He figured he'd just go through the motions. He added the WhatsApp contact his mom sent him and saw the name: "People are more beautiful than flowers."
'You can tell from the name she's probably not all that great,' he thought. 'Not very humble, are we?'
Look at Zhao Xiangjun's WhatsApp nickname, "Little Fatty." Even her profile picture was a cartoon of a chubby girl.
The world was a strange place. Some beautiful women were afraid of people knowing they were beautiful, while some plain women were afraid of people not thinking of them as beautiful.
Feng Feifei wanted to see Chen Xiao about the same old thing: she was asking if he was willing to manage a sales department on his own.
Of course, he flatly refused. That would be like cutting off his own lifeline, wouldn't it? He'd worked so hard to get his Diligence Points to 10, and his daily basic stipend had just reached Level 2.
Anyone who tried to change his position now was messing with his money!
You can't force a square peg into a round hole. Feng Feifei found it a great shame that someone with his strong sales skills was unwilling to lead a team.
She really wanted to groom him for advancement: Manager, Director, Vice President!
By refusing to become a department head, he was cutting off his own path forward. This pained her deeply and was the reason she was trying to persuade him a second time.
What she didn't know was that in his current position, he was earning far more than she was as General Manager. She was truly wasting her breath.
「Wansheng Square. Lunchtime.」
Zhao Xiangjun finished her meal with a few colleagues. With some time to spare, they went to browse the high-end cosmetics and electronics sections on the first floor.
When they wandered into the Apple store, a colleague laughed and said to Zhao Xiangjun, "President Zhao, this phone really doesn't suit your status. You should hurry up and get a new one! Or get your sugar daddy to buy you one!"
They loved to gossip. In their minds, a beauty like Zhao Xiangjun had to have a rich patron supporting her; otherwise, she would be wasting her youth.
They called her President Zhao because she had just invested in the store that day, acquiring a 10% stake. It was a joke, of course; in reality, she was still a Gold Medal Salesperson.
In that respect, she and Chen Xiao were two peas in a pod: she didn't like being in a leadership position either.
Zhao Xiangjun laughed. "No, no, I'm not worthy!"
They all burst out laughing.
Later, they ambled into the Huawei Experience Store. Spotting her MateBook X Pro, Qin Xiaomin said, "Xiangjun, you're using such a fancy laptop, but you won't upgrade your phone. What kind of clueless patron do you have?"
Little did they know, when Zhao Xiangjun saw the 15,888 price tag, her first thought was about that spendthrift Chen Xiao. 'Don't laptops that cost 4,000 or 5,000 work just as well?'
But she didn't know that Chen Xiao only wanted to give her the very best.
After leaving the electronics store, they wandered over to the watch section. At the Omega counter, they tried on several ladies' watches, falling in love with them but unable to bring themselves to make a purchase.
While Omega wasn't exorbitantly expensive, it was still a luxury for a group of sales associates.
Looking was fine. But buying one? That would only happen if someone else was footing the bill.
The saleswoman took out a watch from the Omega Constellation series and said to Zhao Xiangjun, "Miss, you should try this on. It would look absolutely stunning on you!"
But Zhao Xiangjun pointed to a different watch. "Let me see that one."
"This one? The men's watch from the Seamaster collection?"
As she spoke, the saleswoman took out the watch. Zhao Xiangjun examined it, looking quite pleased, and then said, "I'll take this one."
"Whoa, look at you being a big shot!"
"What's gotten into you? You usually buy the cheapest clothes, and now you're splurging like this!"
"Xiangjun's buying a men's watch. Is it for her patron? But shouldn't all the big bosses wear a 'Green Water Ghost'?"
Zhao Xiangjun rolled her eyes, not bothering to entertain them. 'A Green Water Ghost? Chen Xiao isn't worthy of that.'
Chen Xiao was always out doing sales, so he needed to look the part. She had noticed he didn't wear a watch, and when she saw this one, it just seemed perfect for him, so she bought it.
The watch cost 51,800 yuan, wiping out half her savings in an instant.
Even the saleswoman was surprised. She'd only asked her to try on the women's watch because she thought the girl was so beautiful and wanted to see how stunning the timepiece would look on her.
She never expected her to actually buy anything, especially seeing her in a sales associate's uniform with no accessories, which suggested she wasn't a big spender.
Their lunch break was short, so after Zhao Xiangjun paid, they had to head back to their store.
On the way back, they continued to tease her.
"Wow, Xiangjun, you're really willing to splash out. Which big shot is so lucky?"
"Exactly, Xiangjun! How much has this guy spent on you to make you splurge like this?"
A patron? Him? Zhao Xiangjun couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Chen Xiao, the guy who couldn't even pay his property management fees.
He'd gotten some bonus money recently, but that small amount hardly made him new money.
They didn't understand her. Her philosophy on spending was simple: spend freely on things that matter, and don't waste a single cent on things that don't.
The deciding factor was whether she thought it was worth it. She didn't earn much each month—what she did make had to go to her parents, her grandmother, and even her nephew and niece—so she rarely spent much on herself.
She didn't chase material possessions, so the amount of money she had wasn't particularly important to her.