Saturday night, Haizhou:
Haizhou was the financial center of Huaxia, a globalized city with a population of over 200 thousand.
More than 10,000 people flocked to the city every day with dreams and dreams of profit, working and fighting hard in the city that was deemed to have endless opportunities, in hopes of building a better tomorrow.
When night came, the place became both heaven and hell, with the rich and privileged partying and splurging away without a care, while the working class would, for the most part, simply hole up in their place, several square meters at most, hoping to see a better life in the days to come.
It was a city that was filled with both opportunities and dangers, like a torrent with treasures at the bottom, with everyone riding on their kayaks and wading through its waters, trying to get a piece of the treasure buried deep within the sands at the bottom—a way of life that could be doomed with a single misstep.
The Coastal International Hotel was one of the more renowned five-star hotels in Haizhou, a place synonymous with 'money dump', as the people that went in and out of the place were either of high social status or simply very rich. A yellow taxi stopped at the front door of the hotel at that moment. Zhang Heng opened the door lazily and flipped a 20-yuan bill to the driver and said, "Keep the change."
"Fare's 25 yuan, mister."
Zhang Heng dug out another five yuan from his wallet, feeling like he was cutting away a piece of his flesh, before getting out of the car and heading for the door of the hotel.
Two receptionists came up when he reached the door and got in his way, saying, "I'm sorry, sir. The venue today is booked by Mr. Liang Chao, and the place would be off-limits to anyone not in proper attire, anyway."
Zhang Heng was stunned for a bit and took a look at his casual attire, before turning his eyes at his classmates, who were all dressed in suits and leather shoes, and realized what was happening.
He'd kept a low profile while he was at school and he hailed from a regular family, which meant that he had never been part of such high-class gatherings. Furthermore, due to having been steeped in the research of the T-Virus, any thoughts of proper dress code escaped his mind entirely, which made the scene at the moment looking rather awkward.
"Zhang Heng? What are you doing here?" Just when he was feeling troubled at how to proceed, he heard a familiar voice from behind. He then turned around and saw a young woman with shoulder-length hair, looking fabulous, looking at him with a rather dumbfounded expression. That young woman was none other than Li Yiru, who invited him to the gathering in the first place.
"Class rep?" Zhang Heng wore a bitter grin and continued, "Well, the staff of the hotel isn't letting me in, so it seems like I won't be joining the party after all."
Li Yiru took one look at Zhang Heng's attire and understood what was happening in an instant. She went up to the receptionists and said, "Please, consider this favor owed to your manager, but could you…"
The receptionist replied immediately, before Li Yiru could even finish. "Oh, it's you, Ms. Li. Well, if he's your classmate, we will definitely be willing to overlook it, just this once. Please come in…"
Zhang Heng was finally able to get inside the Coastal International Hotel, somehow. It was only then he realized that the entire lobby of the hotel seemed to have been booked by Ling Chao, and everyone present was a student from his class.
"Yiru!" A man dressed in black attire and looking rather smart called out to Li Yiru, before taking a glass of champagne and walked up to her in a dashing manner, with a lackey following by his side.
That dashing young man was Liang Chao, the man who had been going after Li Yiru for years to no avail. If one were to just judge the man by his looks and his family background, he appeared a prince charming, wooing maidens. But Zhang Heng, who had been in the same class with him for four years, knew very well that he was nothing but a typical rich playboy.
While he looked proper and dashing on the outside, the man was rotten on the inside. He had ruined more girls than anyone could bother counting throughout those four years.
That dreadful, subservient-looking lackey by his side was named Pan Bo, a man who dedicated himself to sucking up to Liang Chao. As the son of the vice mayor, it was a given that a good number of people would try to get close to him and that lackey of his would be the one who did the job of boot-licking better than everyone else.
"I believe we haven't gotten familiar enough for such a way of addressing each other, Mr. Liang," Li Yiru evaded his advances without making a scene, with a tinge of disgust seen in her eyes for a brief moment.
"Oh dear class rep, you and Mr. Liang here are classmates after all, and such a way of addressing each other surely wouldn't be considered out of bounds, wouldn't you say?" Pan Bo the lackey grinned sheepishly before Liang Chao had even opened his mouth.
Liang Chao wore a casual grin and said nothing. Despite the futility of his efforts for the past four years, he had yet to give up and had gotten used to her cold reception to his advances. However, he nonetheless frowned somewhat when he saw Zhang Heng coming in with Li Yiru. "I assume you came here with Zhang Heng?"
"Not really. We just happened to run into each other at the door." Li Yiru shook her head. Despite her apparent dislike for Liang Chao, he was nonetheless the son of the vice mayor after, and it wouldn't look good if she were to make a scene. As such, she answered simply, without giving it much thought.
"Oh, I see." Liang Chao nodded and then turned his gaze at Zhang Heng, "So, Little Zhang, I heard that you've been working in a rather famous pharmaceutical company as of late. How's work?"
"Not bad, I guess." Zhang Heng smiled faintly while cursing deep down. I don't remember letting the likes of you call me by nicknames like 'Little Zhang'.
"Ah, that's good to hear. If you were to run into any trouble, feel free to seek me out," Liang Chao said pretentiously and flailed his arm about.
"Heh, sure." Wise people stopped the spread of rumors, and 'heh, sure' stopped the flow of conversations. Zhang Heng's inert grin prevented Liang Chao from going further.
"I guess I need to thank you, Zhang Heng." Li Yiru had no intention of talking any further with Liang Chao, turning her attention to Zhang Heng instead.
"Thank me?" Zhang Heng was stunned, puzzled as to what was going on, and wondering if she was about to set him up or something.
"Of all this lot, you're the only one among the classmates who asked about how my grandfather was doing."
Zhang Heng hadn't expected something like that to come up, as the two hardly talked through the years. Li Yiru's parents were the ones running the multinational company and were always busy running about with affairs of the company, which in turn meant that they hardly had any time to see Li Yiru. The old man, who founded the company in the first place and had long since retired, was the one who played with Li Yiru since she was very young. As such, grandfather and granddaughter had a very close bond.
Her grandfather's bleak condition was a huge blow to Li Yiru. As such, she came to remember Zhang Heng very well, for he was the only one who asked for his grandfather in the first place.
Zhang Heng knew right away that he had just landed himself into trouble. He took a peek at Liang Chao, who was right beside them, and saw the other man's expression change. Such playboys would often deem their targets to be off-limits to everyone else, after all.
Worse still, it got to the point that he would become jealous just seeing other guys talk to her, and Zhang Heng knew that side of Liang Chao all too well after four years in university.
As his lackey, Pan Bo definitely knew what was going in his master's head, and promptly took jabs at Zhang Heng. "Oh, so our Little Zhang is so concerned about Li Yiru's grandfather, eh? I wonder if you have any thoughts about anything."
"What did you just say?" Li Yiru frowned and came to regret what she had said, knowing that she shouldn't have said all of that in front of Liang Chao, and it looked like Zhang Heng was about to get into trouble for what she did, and that led her to feel that she had done Zhang Heng a disservice.
Zhang Heng rolled his eyes for a little. Oh yeah, see that? Trouble right there. If he was still the man he had been in the past, he would have just stayed silent throughout the whole deal.
That had little to do with cowardice, however. He was a man with neither money nor power, and it would have taken just a single word from the likes of Liang Chao to ruin him for good. Zhang Heng would have had no choice but to just swallow his cruel remarks, even if he was only doing it for his parents, who had been doing their best to raise him and be concerned for him, despite all the hardships they were going through.
But things were different at the moment.
The likes of Liang Chao were little more than paper tigers in his eyes, so much so that he even considered offending Liang Chao just to earn Li Yiru's sympathy as a part of his plan. He deemed that not only would it be imperative for him to get on the bad side of the rich playboy, but he also had to go out of his way to piss the other guy off, just so to set the other guy up.
Li Yiru saw a sinister grin at the corner of Zhang Heng's lips at the moment, which quickly disappeared, making her wonder if she was seeing things.