All kinds of supercars were parked beside the entrance of Xuandu nightclub. Compared to the discos which were currently in fashion, the majority of customers of this old-fashioned night club were middle-aged uncles and businessmen accompanying their clients.
Pot-bellied men dressed in suits and neckties were entering and leaving the nightclub. Accompanying them were 'princesses' in miniskirts and itsy-bitsy hotpants. The men were whispering into the ears of these girls with smirks, teasing them.
A pair of black leather shoes stepped out of the nightclub entrance. Lu Ze loosened his necktie while his face was clearly intoxicated. He hurriedly moved ahead of his client and opened the door of the passenger seat of the latter's car.
"President Tang, please."
"Thank you for your hospitality today, Director Song and little Lu. We'll meet again in a few days."
Lu Ze's superior hurriedly walked over and bowed towards the seated President Tang for a farewell. When the car left, he went back into the nightclub to settle the bill. Upon returning, he walked to the curb and stood beside Lu Ze.
"Little Lu, you okay? Here, have a cigarette."
Lu Ze was evidently wasted. Heavily leaning on the electric pole, he could barely keep himself from sitting down on the ground. He took the cigarette from the director and placed it behind his earlobes. However, he was not able to utter a single word and could only shake his head towards the director.
"Tomorrow is a holiday. Go back and have a good rest. Can you go by yourself? Do you want me to call a cab for you?"
"No need, Big Brother Liu. I can...go back on my own. I live nearby. It's just a few minutes' walk. You're going to take a taxi, right? Let me send you off."
After flagging a taxi and seeing off Director Liu by waving his hand as he left in the taxi, Lu Ze staggered ahead and entered a medical store on the way back.
Today, he'd drink a bit too much. In the restaurant, he'd taken seven 100ml shots and drank five to six bottles of beers. Then, after changing their battlefield to the bar, he didn't even remember how many shots and beers he'd drunk.
"Give me two bottles of Like."
A bottle cost 5.5 yuan. Paying eleven yuan, he walked out of the medical store. He felt as if he was floating, having lost all sensation in his feet. Slumping down on the roadside without a care for how much dust there was on the spot, he opened a bottle and downed it without a pause.
A moment later, his stomach violently contracted for a moment before the wine rushed up to his throat, causing him to stoop over and vomit.
The vomit splashed onto his shoes and pants, but he didn't care. In his wasted state, he couldn't care less as he just opened the other bottle and downed that as well. Throwing the bottle into the trash can, he headed home.
As a recent graduate, he was a year into his job, if you counted the internship. Currently, he was a planner in a medium-sized advertising firm. Since his alcohol tolerance was pretty good, he was often asked to accompany clients.
The client he met today was very important, and the meeting was headed on the right track from the very beginning. Without any better option, Lu Ze could only go crazy to set the mood. Even before dinner arrived, he'd already downed a quarter of white wine. As a result, the client also let all his inhibitions loose and drank crazily.
He had not been lying when he said that his home was nearby. Entering an old-fashioned neighborhood, he climbed the stairs to the fourth floor on his hands and feet. As he leaned against the door heavily, he knocked softly.
After getting no response from the first time, he knocked again.
"Who's it?"
"It's me. Open the door."
The door was unlocked. She pushed the door open, but it didn't move since Lu Ze was blocking it with his head lowered and his eyes closed. He was already fast asleep.
"Lu Ze, Lu Ze? Wake up. Come and sleep inside. Get up. I can't open the door."
In the end, she gave a forceful shove, causing Lu Ze to tumble down. Finally, she was barely squeezed out of the door. Upon sniffing the heavy stench of alcohol, her brows creased.
Sighing as if having resigned herself, she raised his arm and placed it on her shoulder. The relatively smaller 160-centimeters-tall girl carrying the 180-centimeter-tall guy was already a common occurrence at this house.
"Zzzz…"
She first threw Lu Ze onto the couch. After all, he was extremely filthy. As a woman who was a bit of a clean freak, she would not allow even her boyfriend, who was covered in dust from head to toe, to sleep on the bed.
Thereupon, she threw an annoyed glance at the two dishes on the dining table. Lu Ze usually came home drunk and would yell "I'm hungry" late in the night. So, even when he had dinner parties, she prepared his meals just in case.
With a sigh, she took the bowls and chopsticks into the kitchen. The food could be reheated and eaten in the morning. Once she had cleared the table, she began to change Lu Ze's clothes.
However, she found a strand of red long hair on his shirt. She grabbed the shirt and sniffed it. Perhaps because of the stench of the wine, she couldn't smell any perfume. Otherwise, Lu Ze would have had tough luck sleeping tonight.
Actually, she was quite trusting of Lu Ze since he'd never stayed out for the whole night. No matter how late it was, he always came back. Moreover, it was hard to avoid those places for dinner parties. She understood all that. Although she held things such as finding attractive girls to accompany clients in contempt, she was helpless before these unspoken rules of the industry. After all, she was also working and should be able to understand how things were.
However, when she saw the strand of red hair in her hand then glanced at the cold dishes in the kitchen, she couldn't help but feel anger despite all her understanding. Clenching her hand into little fists, she punched Lu Ze's back twice. Her punches were quite forceful, causing two muffled sounds to ring out.
"Cough, cough…"
Seeing that he was coughing due to her punches, she lightly caressed his chest again, smoothening his breath.
After all, she usually hit him during his sleep and had developed a procedure so effective that one couldn't help but feel bad for Lu Ze.
Thereupon, she filled a basin full of hot water and helped him clean the dust off his body. Seeing his bruised knee after having fallen due to his inebriated state, she felt bad for him again and blew on it.
After sorting him out, she took out a quilt from the bedroom and covered his body. She glanced at him for a moment standing at her room door but couldn't control her throbbing heart. Skipping over, she kissed him.
Revealing a satisfied smile, she held Lu Ze's cheek and pinched it. Then, she closed the light in the drawing room, returned to the bedroom, and crashed on the bed.
...
At eight o'clock the next morning. Lu Ze sat up on the couch. Still half-asleep, his eyes were squinted. His elbows and knees hurt faintly. Then, he removed the quilt and checked his injuries before lying down again. He was already used to sustaining injuries on the way home. He'd suffered more severe injuries than these as if he'd been ganged up on by hoodlums.
However, at this point, he could no longer go back to sleep again. He stared at the ceiling putty which had already turned old. This thirty square meter single-room apartment in this 20-year-old building was his and his girlfriend's sweet home.
In this metropolis, for two recent graduates to already have their own apartment was pretty remarkable. There were a lot of Lu Ze's batchmates who were still currently packed in the company dorms. However, Lu Ze was still quite dissatisfied with this quality of life.
If it was him alone, he would have gotten by anyhow. However, he also had a girl with him—a girl who was willing to follow him to live in this small broken rented apartment. How long could he let her waste her time following him like this?
The bedroom door was pushed open, and she walked out. Noticing that Lu Ze had already woken up, she gave him a blank expression and headed to the narrow bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face.
"Hey."
"Huh?"
"Didn't you say you'll take me window shopping today? Are we still going?"
Lu Ze struggled to stand up from the couch. When she looked at him, he nodded faintly. He'd already caused her so much trouble, thus keeping their agreement was a must.
As the two squeezed in the bathroom that was less than three square meters wide, Lu Ze unhesitatingly stood by her side and pissed. She had been so used to such a scene. She even playfully smacked his butt a little.
"Hey! I'll piss on your hand!"
The bathroom wall was somewhat cracking, shedding layers of plaster, and a 30-watt CFL could barely brighten the bathroom, but the two could still taste the sweetness of honey in their hearts.
After she changed her clothes, she hugged Lu Ze's arms. Lu Ze locked the door, and the two left happily.
Their humble abode and menial finances didn't matter as long as the two could spend their days joyfully. That was what mattered the most…right?