And so I ended up attending the pool party at Lily's house even though I had reservations against it. Oh, well.
"Thanks for coming." Lily was the only one who entertained me when I showed up. Leon Ling and Wendy Lim were busily speaking to other guests and lounging on the long chairs where half-naked rich people sunbathed. Linda, on the other hand, was giggling in delight as she splashed about in the pool with a dozen other young men and women, all of whom were clad in skimpy bathing suits.
Did they hire supermodels or something?
The servants were the only ones dressed up in full uniforms, but given the scorching heat of the afternoon, I felt sorry for them as they stood under the hot sun and waited patiently for the guests to call them over for drinks, towels or other things.
"Well, you invited me. I couldn't not come." I glanced around before turning back to her. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm all right. But you know how it is at home." Lily sighed, glancing at her stepsister and stepmother. "Those two are finding every chance to plot against me, if possible. Wendy Lim isn't so bad, but Linda on the other hand…she seems more than willing to resort to murder."
"And your parents just stand by and watch her try to kill you? You should be reporting this to the police!"
"Without evidence?" Lily snorted. "I'll be counter-sued by slander. Even though the thugs she hired confessed that she was the one who paid them to assault me, Wendy Lim will then step in and pay the police money to cover everything up. And my father doesn't care."
"Jesus Christ." I rubbed my forehead. Gritting my teeth, I ran a few options through my head and came up with an idea. "I've just gotten a new place. If you want, you should move in with me."
Lily smiled mischievously. "Is that a proposal? Or you want to make our relationship official?"
"Do we even have a relationship in the first place?" I wondered out loud. Lily sulked at that.
"You're supposed to be my boyfriend, remember?"
"Yeah, but weren't we just pretending so that your parents can get off your back regarding marriage?"
"That's what I mean." Lily folded her arms. "Since it's just a fake relationship, you don't have to go that far for me. Asking someone of the opposite gender to move in with you, that's as good as saying you want to make our relationship real and official."
"No, I'm simply offering you sanctuary," I replied with a roll of my eyes. "Not unless you want to continue risking your life by staying here and repeatedly fending off murder attempts from your bitch of a stepsister."
"You have a point." Lily sighed. "I'll think about it."
"Also, you'll be paying your share of rent."
"You greedy, capitalistic…!" Lily threw her hands up in the air in exasperation and began pounding my chest – not very hard, though. "Give me back my feelings! To think I was delighted when you made that offer!"
"Oh, the both of you are very close."
We looked up and saw Linda approaching, her body still dripping wet from chlorinated water. She held out a hand and a servant hurried over to hand her a towel, which she used to wipe her body dry. She ran a hand through her damp long hair and sneered at Lily and me.
"Trash belongs with trash."
At her words, the other rich young people laughed together, their tone condescending and mocking. Lily frowned and leaned over to whisper to me.
"Do they not know who you are?"
"Doesn't seem like it." I wasn't surprised. Young people these days didn't bother to read the news or catch up on current events. The second-generation rich people, in particular, were completely self-absorbed, choosing to instead enclose themselves within their own luxurious bubbles and shut out everyone else.
Not only that, it wouldn't make a good face-slapping CEO story if the antagonists were smart enough to not mess with the protagonist. It was always the same pattern. They insulted the protagonist, calling him weak, pathetic and a loser, only for the protagonist to show off his wealth and power later so that they would be humiliated.
Unfortunately, I couldn't be bothered with such juvenile nonsense with these idiots. I wasn't going to waste my money to flaunt my wealth – hell, I wasn't even rich to begin with. The military contracts were worth hundreds of thousand dollars (or millions of yuan), but they didn't put me on the same level as top billionaires.
Not that I intended to compete with them, of course. But the point was that I couldn't afford to slap these morons' faces with wads of cash like the protagonists of every son-in-law or urban cultivation or metropolitan system stories. What, did you think I was Jiang Bai or Mo Nan or Zhuo Bu Fan or Li Xiao Fan (or somebody Fan, given that almost every urban protagonist was named Fan)?
So I just ignored them, putting an arm around Lily's shoulders and gently pushing her away.
"Let's go get some food," I suggested.
"You're not going to swim?" Linda taunted. "Are you afraid of the water, brother-in-law? Ha ha! Seems like you're just as much of a loser as my sister!"
"Silence, you idiot!"
Leon Ling appeared out of nowhere and slapped his stepdaughter. Linda staggered, and for a moment, she stared at her father in uncomprehending shock.
"Dad…why?"
"Do you know who you are insulting?"
The youngsters suddenly realized the uncomfortable silence that had fallen over their parents, the older adults having come over and overheard their conversation. A lot of them had thunderous expressions on their faces.
"What? Are you telling me that whore Lily found a young master or some big shot?"
"Who are you to insult your own sister?" Leon slapped her again, this time so hard that I could hear the crack across the poolside.
"Mom…" Linda turned to her mother pleadingly, but Wendy Lim simply shook her head.
"You went too far, Linda," she said softly. "Even if you don't like your sister, at least don't speak ill of her in front of everybody, especially her boyfriend."
"So what?" One of the second generation rich children sneered. "That guy doesn't look like much. Why should we give him face by not insulting his slutty girlfriend?"
Another adult – I believed he was that girl's father – came forward and slapped her so hard she fell into the pool.
"Silence!" he roared. "Are you trying to bring shame to our family? Do you not even have the slightest regard for her father, Mr. Ling?"
"I…I…" the girl spluttered, floundering about in the water. Several of her friends pulled her up, but she looked like a messy, sorry sight. She then caught sight of the murderous glower on Leon's face and fell silent.
Wow…were these people absolute morons? Did they not think before they spoke? At this point, they resembled cartoonish, villainous caricatures than real people. The kind who existed solely to attack the protagonist, just so the main character was justified in beating them up (or slapping them around). But seriously, what kind of idiot insulted someone right in front of her father? Was she plain retarded?
This also applied to Linda…I was suspecting that she had a gaping hole in her skull where her brain should be.
While the parents raged at their children, I found it awkward to stay, so I quietly slipped away. Lily noticed and she followed me, guiding me to the kitchen where she could feed me some snacks. She waved for several of the servants to follow, and they gratefully obeyed. I had the feeling they would take any excuse to get out of the hot sun.
Honestly, I pitied them. Even if I somehow became a billionaire, I wasn't going to bother living in such massive estates (what a waste of space) and hire retinues of servants. I would rather spend all that money on more practical projects, building more robots or developing nanotechnology.
I had seen the scrapyard, and the sight of such wasteful consumption horrified me. Pretty soon we were going to run out of space to bury all those junk, abandoned vehicles and obsolete machinery. Already the toxins and chemicals from discarded devices were sinking into the earth, turning it into a veritable wasteland. And these things weren't going to simply disappear.
Somebody had to do something about it…and once I had the wealth and influence, I vowed to clean up that mess. Besides, if someone like me could build a mini-factory within my garage out of the scrap I salvaged from the scrapyard, then I was sure my company could find a use for the whole thing. But I needed the staff and manpower first, of course.
First things first. I decided to feed myself.
"We have chips and skewered meat here. Oh, we're probably going to do a poolside barbeque tonight, once it gets dark." Lily giggled. "Dad bought a lot of expensive, high-grade meat."
"That's…extravagant." I kept the disapproval out of my tone. The rich's lavish consumption never failed to disgust me. Did you know that over 50% of the world's carbon emissions and pollution were caused by the 1% of the rich? That was a terrifying statistics. And the wealthy continued to spend and consume, casually throwing away expensive cars, phones, computers and devices for new, upgraded ones.
It was terrifying. I never imagined I would join the ranks of them, but whenever I was confronted with the illusory fantasy of indulging in a luxurious lifestyle while making billions just from being a CEO (whose job was apparently to sit in his office or at meetings, intimidating his staff with his mood swings and signing documents – seriously, most CEO novel writers had no idea what CEOs really did in reality). However, none of them ever considered the harmful environmental effects that their company policies or lavish consumption wrought upon the sick world.
Already the coastal areas of Country A had been flooded, a result of sea levels rising because of global warming. Despite the warnings in the late twentieth century, the rich and powerful continued to recklessly industrialize, consume, spend and pollute the world in the early twenty-first century, and it became too late for many countries, whose island nations disappeared under the elevated tides forever.
Speaking of swimming…
"There you are, dear sister."
Linda strolled into the kitchen, looking chagrined. Her cheek was still red, bruised from the slap her stepfather gave her earlier. She bowed her head.
"Dad made me come and apologize…so, I'm sorry." She held out a hand. "As recompense, I hope you would accept my invitation. Please, come to the pool and play with my friends. We will all apologize."
She then turned toward me. "You're also welcome to join us, brother-in-law."
"Nah, you were right when you said I'm afraid of the water. I can't swim." I waved her invitation away.
"I'll stay here," Lily said, placing a hand on my arm. "I can't leave my boyfriend alone."
"No, you should accept." Wendy Lim stepped into the kitchen, surprising us with her presence. "Socialize with Linda's friends and expand your connections. It will be good for you. They wish to express their sincerity, so give them a chance."
Lily sighed before finally nodding. She glanced at me worriedly, and I offered her an encouraging smile.
"I'll be right behind you."
"All right then." Lily took a deep breath and followed her sister back out into the garden where the pool was.