As soon as Dr Qian Ming stepped out of his white Lamborghini Reventon, he saw that his friends had all arrived. It seems he is the late one for today's gathering, looking at the other cars parked securely at their private parking space. Even the cold tycoon of Shen International Conglomerate, who usually arrives late to all their meeting, was already there.
He knew his friends were definitely going to make him drink some shots for being late. It's not as if he would find an excuse not to drink anyway as he needed the drinks to help drown his annoyance from earlier.
He strolled into the bar like he owned the place. Well, technically, his friend, Lin Yan, was the owner of the bar so. Not even bothering to ask for directions as he was overly familiar with the bar. After all, the group of friends casually meet there from time to time.
Immediately he entered their exclusive private room; the booming sound from the bar had died down quite a lot.
"And he finally shows up," Lin Yan said upon Qian Ming's arrival. He gestured with his hand like he was bowing to welcome a king.
"You look pissed. Did someone crash your car?" Feng Mingli smirked.
"Hello to you guys too," Qian Ming said with a hint of annoyance as he grabbed the nearest glass of wine.
"Hey! That's mine!" Fu Yanlin cried out like he was being bullied.
"Get another one!" Qian Ming spat out furiously.
"Okay! Okay, calm down. I didn't steal your girlfriend. Not that you had one, by the way," Fu Yanlin with a smirk. Clearly mocking Qian Ming with the last sentence, he said as he grabbed an empty glass of wine for himself. He was not really pissed because Qian Ming took his drink, though.
"Well, at least I was not the one who got dumped for a café boy," Qian Ming retorted back, emphasizing the 'café boy'.
"You are the only one who calls him that!" Fu Yanlin replied.
"Well, his family owns a café, and he runs it himself," Qian Ming said.
"Yeah… yeah says the one who would not run his family business," Fu Yanlin replied.
"…! How does that even fit in the argument?" Qian Ming said. His expression quickly switching from a perplexed look to a questioning gaze.
And that was how Qian Ming and Fu Yanlin started another round of bickering. More like childish bickering because they were actually the closest amongst them. There was never a gathering amongst them where these two were present, and they didn't bicker.
"Sometimes, I wonder if they are gay, but they just don't realize it yet," Lin Yan whispered to Feng Mingli, who was seated by him. It wasn't really a whisper, but the ones he talked about didn't seem to hear him a word he said as they were in the middle of their childish bickering.
"I think I would support their relationship. But speaking of gay...," Feng Mingli smirked, wiggling his eyebrows up and down. He trailed off with his speech as his gaze landed on the person who had barely spoken a word since he arrived. He had only graced them with his signature nod, which seemed to be the highest form of acknowledgment he knew.
Smack!
As soon as Lin Yan realized the direction of Feng Mingli's thoughts, he smacked him at the back of his head.
"Aw! Hey! What was that for?" Feng Mingli cried out in an aggrieved tone, rubbing the back of his head. 'Damn! That hurts!'
"Would you rather he does it?" Lin Yan stated plainly.
Knowing who the 'he' in Lin Yan's statement was, Feng Mingli turned towards him to check if he heard him. He was greeted with the scowling expression on Shen Zihao's face, meaning he heard him.
'Crap!' was all Feng Mingli could think of.
"Well, now we know he can make another expression," Feng Mingli said as he scratched his head while laughing stupidly at himself.
Smack!
What Feng Mingli said earned him another smack at the back of his head from Lin Yan.
"Hey!" Feng Mingli cried out with an expression that read, 'Could it be that you are just obsessed with smacking me,' as he looked at Lin Yan.
Lin Yan really seemed to enjoy bullying him as he was the youngest amongst them.
The private room seemed a bit lively as the group of friends interacted with each other, well, most of them.
Shen Zihao just sat there with one of his long legs crossed over the other. Apart from the expression he made at Feng Mingli's comment, he could have as well not been there. He had one hand slung over the headrest of the chair he sat on while the other held a glass of wine, which he twirled around and drank from once in a while.
One glance at this full-figured hunk, and you could see the superior and attractive aura emanating from him. He was the epitome of handsomeness, with his dark obsidian black eyes that only seemed to hold a cold gaze. Though his stoic expression never seemed to leave his perfectly chiselled face with his sexy lips arranging in a thin line, he could still have a long stretch of women from all social status reeling after him.
He had a powerful presence like a medieval emperor who owned the whole world. In a real sense, he actually was known as the 'emperor' of the business world. He had the entire business world wrapped around in his hands. He was basically the crème de la crème of the elites.
And Feng Mingli's statement of him being 'gay' was really not unfounded. Though he wasn't gay, the sexual orientation of the mysterious President of Shen International Conglomerate was the talk in H City. Once, the press had a sighting of him with a female companion but were later disappointed after finding out that she was his sister. He was one of the most desired bachelors. That's assuming he wasn't topping the ranks. Although he could have any woman, he desired. Still, he never had any presence of a female companion around him except for his relatives. He seemed to drive women crazy with just his gorgeous looks and status but never allowing them to come close to him. Hence stemmed the talks of him being gay.
After a while, Fu Yanlin finally asked Qian Ming the question everyone wanted to know the answer to.
"So, what got you riled up earlier anyway?" Fu Yanlin asked.
"Just a patient…," Qian Ming answered. It seemed like he didn't want to say more than that. But the ever slow-witted Fu Yanlin questioned, "The patient you told me about earlier?"
Qian Ming sighed.
Fu Yanlin had already said a part of the cause. He could no longer leave it hanging as his friends now had their ears perked up, waiting for his response.
He had called up Fu Yanlin when he was done with the first case of suicide attempt patient, so Fu Yanlin only knew about that patient. Since Qian Ming just finished working on Yunqing before he left for their gathering, Fu Yanlin wasn't aware.
"Not that one. I had another surgery before coming here, nothing major, though. A family brought in a girl slit her own wrist and had already lost a lot of blood before she was brought in." Qian Ming said.
"I mean, why do they even do that when they have loved ones who cared about them?" Qian Ming asked. He sounded a bit solemn.
Though Fu Yanlin could be slow sometimes but after listening to Qian Ming, Fu Yanlin pat Qian Ming on his shoulder as he offered him a glass of wine.
They all knew how the word 'suicide' or something in semblance affected Qian Ming. From the description alone, they were able to grasp the situation. Though, he didn't seem to place much significance on a suicide attempted patient rescued by a random person. But when it came to families bringing in a loved one who attempted to kill themselves, it always seemed to prick him hard. It made him think of himself.
There was now a slightly awkward silence in the private room. No one said anything. They all just sipped from their wine glasses. They didn't want to make Qian Ming sadder than he already is by bringing up the past.
The man who had not spoken before finally said a few words, "When do you plan on taking over the Qian Hospital." Trying to break the silence and restore the previous ambiance of the room.
"Not any time soon, I guess," Qian Ming replied.
"Come on, bro, you need to do that soon. I'm tired of always paying for my check-ups," Fu Yanlin replied cheekily while tugging at Qian Ming's shoulders.
"Yeah! Me too!" Feng Mingli said, joining in on the fun.
Lin Yan just smiled and shook his head at the shameless acts of his friends. The pleasant environment had been restored.
With the way they spoke, one would think they couldn't afford to pay for the check-ups. Meanwhile, each of them could pay for at least half of the people in H City's check-up for a month and still not be broke.
Well, one of them could pay for the whole city but who's comparing?
After several minutes of chatting, the group of friends disbanded as they all left to their various destinations.