The milk tea shop was located in the middle of an old street and the entrance of the road was quite narrow yet Huang Mao was still able to drive the car through. It was evident that his driving skills were exceptional.
Qin Yuyang hadn't touched a car in two years nor had he been in contact with a friend who played with cars thus, when he saw Huang Mao, he couldn't help but feel a sense of affection.
"Hello." He walked over while smiling and called, "East Side Cyclone?"
Huang Mao was looking down at his cell phone. When he heard his name, he immediately looked up at Qin Yuyang and then froze.
This kid appeared absolutely gentlemanly; all shiny and beautiful, he was probably a rich guy. The problem was that such a man need to fucking stoop so low to make money?
Huang Mao was stunned and questioned, "Are you really Casual?" The person standing in front made him think that was impossible.
"Well, my name is Qin Yuyang." The other side replied while grinning and asked brightly, "What should I call you?"
Huang Mao lowered his head and examined the other person's hand. This guy was wearing a Patek Philippe watch on his wrist which cost at least 300,000 yuan1 and come on, these were his casual clothes? Take a closer look, it was a Burberry's suit.
As for what brand of shoes and belt he was wearing, Huang Mao no longer wanted to find out. This guy was definitely a rich man either way.
"You can call me Huang Mao." He shook Qin Yuyang's refined hand which had no calluses on his fingers, further confirming his guess immediately.
"Yes, the name is Huang Mao2," he commented while smoothly stroking the yellow bangs on his forehead.
Qin Yuyang was trying very hard to control his expression but he just fucking couldn't help it. "Pfft… sorry… the name, it's a bit too amusing."
"It's okay." Huang Mao must have been numb to this reaction. He waved his hand and pointed to his car while saying, "First get in, let's go for a ride on the 206."
"All right." Qin Yuyang got in and sat beside Huang Mao. He curiously looked at the design of the vehicle and asked, "Is this car easy to drive?" He saw how smoothly Huang Mao had backed up.
"Try it yourself later," Huang Mao answered.
Originally, he was quite skeptical but still believed he couldn't go without taking a risk. Even if the worst were to happen, he could at least go out and relax.
In the end, once he saw the person, Huang Mao's heart became even more uncertain.
"Do you race cars as well?" Qin Yuyang asked.
"No, I'm really not that good at it. Can't you tell from my driving skills?" Huang Mao questioned.
Qin Yuyang touched his nose and smiled again.
Huang Mao eventually couldn't resist and started a conversation. "Dude, with your outfit, are you sure you need to start from the bottom?" He inquired, his eyes sweeping around Qin Yuyang with a hidden appreciation.
"If the tiger falls and the sun goes down, what should I do?" Qin Yuyang was still smiling. He was six foot one3, beautiful and dignified. Sitting in the passenger seat of a sports car, he felt really trapped in the narrow space.
40 minutes later, the yellow sports car arrived at what Huang Mao called the 206. It was a continuous mountain with a road that circled back and forth among the peaks. It was the best roadway to play on with cars and test driving skills.
Once Huang Mao drove the car to the bottom of the hill, he switched spots with Qin Yuyang who was sitting beside him.
One could essentially figure out how good someone's driving skills were after a round on the 206
"Let's go and drive carefully." Huang Mao worriedly said, "Don't force it if you can't drive too fast."
"It's fine." Qin Yuyang quickly adapted to the car and adjusted to his own habits before saying, "These kinds of small curves and paths aren't enough to scare me."
Huang Mao rolled his eyes and thought this kid was truly crazy.
While he was rolling his eyes, the sports car raced out with a whiff. "…" They were only at the first curve when the whole world! All! Changed! It did!
Qin Yuyang easily took Huang Mao around the 206. After returning to the foot of the mountain, Huang Mao opened the door and ran to the roadside. He vomited while excitedly making a phone call. "Ting-Ge, ugh, Ting-Ge…"
Tao Zhenting chided, "Finish fucking vomiting first."
Two minutes later, Huan Mao finally finished vomiting and claimed, "Ting-Ge, I finally found someone who can win against Jiang Yilang!"
"How many times have you said that this year?"
"Ouch…" Huang Mao almost didn't spit out his bile.
Tao Zhenting's voice changed. "Did he drive you to the point of vomiting?" That was impossible, Huang Mao was a veteran in racing.
When Huang Mao repeatedly replied yes to every question, he sat up from the sofa and asked more seriously than before, "Where is he? Bring him to see me."
"Right here." With a complicated look, Huang Mao gazed at Qin Yuyang who was taking a leak on the roadside and said, "Ok, I'll bring him back to meet you right away."
"Is everything all right?" Qin Yuyang looked back at Huang Mao, fastened his trousers and tucked in the hem of his shirt.
"Nothing, Xiao-Yu…" Huang Mao complimented, with admiration, "Your driving skills, I, Huang Mao, guarantees you that in these 49 cities, forget those small fish and shrimp, even if Jiang Yilang personally came, he wouldn't be able to beat you."
Xiao-Yu? Qin Yuyang's heart collapsed. Why wasn't it Qin-Ge or Yang-Ge?
He was a tall, strong man of 6'1.
There actually wasn't a big reason, it was simply because all Huang Mao remembered was the word Yuyang.
Not to mention Qin Yuyang had a tender face that looked quite young.
In reality, Huang Mao was a man in his early thirties, but he was just pretending to be a young teen by virtue of the yellow hair on his head and the acne on his face.
"Who's Jiang Yilang?" Qin Yuyang had some impression of the name.
"He's a rising star in the center of the limelight this year and is quite powerful," Huang Mao curled his lips and said. He then patted Qin Yuyang on the shoulder while saying, " Xiao-Yu, come on, I'll take you to see Ting-Ge. He's the rich man you're looking for."
"Well then let's go," Qin Yuyang said and then looked at his watch after getting into the car. It was almost 4:20 which meant it would soon be the agreed upon time set between him and Su Ranqiu.
Huanling entertainment city was sparsely populated during the daytime so even the waiters attending to the guests appeared to be in poor spirits.
Huang Mao explained, "Xiao-Yu doesn't know, but half of the entertainment industry in the 49 cities is under the control of Ting-Ge."
"What about the other half?" Qin Yuyang asked.
Huang Mao gave him a meaningful glance. "It's up to you."
Suddenly, Qin Yuyang understood that this business wasn't so simple. "…" Torn between wanting money or his own life, he pondered for three seconds before choosing to give up the money.
"Hey? Xiao-Yu…" Huang Mao anxiously grabbed him and asked, "What are you doing?"
"I don't want to take part in the rivalry between forces." Qin Yuyang said directly, "Forget this deal, if you have another, tell me about that instead."
Huang Mao realized what Qin Yuyang was worried about, he immediately slapped his head and clarified, "Look at this mouth of mine, saying all kinds of bullshit. It's not as complicated as you think. Ting-Ge and Mr. Jiang are both serious people who like to play a fair match once in a while. There's absolutely no violence, otherwise, I wouldn't dare say it here."
Qin Yuyang thought reasonably, "Well, then he won't force me to participate a second time?"
"No, it's not compulsory! It's enough for you to beat him once!" Huang Mao explained.
Somehow, Huang Mao finally pushed Qin Yuyang into Tao Zhenting's office. "Ting-Ge, I've brought him here. This is him."
The person sitting on the chair was a handsome man, he looked up to see the person Huang Mao brought in and smiled. "Hello." The man stood up, gestured in the direction of the reception area at the office's left side, and said, "Sit over there."
He wouldn't have done the same if the man Huang Mao invited was an ordinary person.
"Alright." Qin Yuyang nodded and walked over calmly to ask, "My name is Qin Yuyang. May I have your last name, please?"
Tao Zhenting held out his hand and replied, "Hello, Mr. Qin, please ignore my surname, Tao. Just call me Ting-Ge like Ah Mao."
"Hello, Mr. Tao." Qin Yuyang nodded and said, "Let's talk about the race betting." He acted as if he was solely conducting business and didn't want to maintain any relationships.
Tao Zhenting nodded and sat down. "…" It seemed that he was in a hurry.
"Well, Ting-Ge, that's the way it is. Xiao-Yu only wants to gamble once to make a large sum of money and then stop," Huang Mao told carefully.
"Are you sure that you can win?" Tao Zhenting raised his eyebrows and questioned.
"If you don't believe it, I can show you," Qin Yuyang turned his head, "or you can ask Mao-Ge about my driving skills."
Tao Zhenting's eyes turned to Huang Mao who hesitated but agreed, "Yes, Xiao-Yu is very good at driving. I think he should be able to win against Jiang Yilang."
Qin Yuyang disclosed, "Mao-Ge, this is the second time I've driven in the last two years, the first time was this morning." His hands still weren't accustomed to driving again nor was he familiar with the car and roads. "If I drive on a familiar route, I'll have a better chance of winning."
Huang Mao was shocked. He didn't drive for two years?
Tao Zhenting sighed to Huang Mao and said, "Go and pour Mr. Qin a cup of tea."
"Yes." Huang Mao expressed, "I'm really sorry Xiao-Yu, I'll go and pour you a cup of tea right away."
Once he left, Tao Zhenting re-examined the youth beside him. Like Huang Mao, he could see that Qin Yuyang was hundred percent a rich man.
He asked, "In this case, let me get straight to the point and ask, how much do you need to win against Jiang Yilang?"
"One million to make him lose, two million to make him lose badly." This price was his usual pocket money for a month, but he didn't know if the other party would find it too expensive.
Tao Zhenting was stunned, then patted his thigh and laughed, thinking this person was really interesting.
Qin Yuyang saw that the other party was laughing. "…"
"How about this, I'll give you two and a half million and you go all out." Tao Zhenting stopped laughing and said, "It's better to let him get his ass kicked severely."
Then he noticed the twitching corners of Qin Yuyang's mouth, there was a hint of banter in his inquisitive eyes.
Two hundred and fifty, hahaha.
Huang Mao came back looking confused. …What happened? Why is Ting-Ge smiling so happily all of a sudden?
"Xiao-Yu, have some tea." He wanted to quietly inquire about the situation but found that Qin Yuyang was sitting there with a black face.
"Thank you." After drinking tea, Qin Yuyang looked at his watch and said, "Mr. Tao, it's getting late. It's time for me to leave."
Tao Zhenting offered, "Let Ah Mao send you back."
"Ah," Huang Mao immediately agreed, "I'll send Xiao-Yu back."
So Qin Yuyang and Huang Mao came out together. Suddenly he asked, "Mao-Ge, lend me 1000 yuan4 USD, I'll return it after winning the race."
Huang Mao was stunned, but then quickly took out his wallet from his trouser's pocket and gave all the cash inside his wallet to Qin Yuyang. "Take it all, I'll get more if it's not enough."
"This is enough." Qin Yuyang collected the money and stuffed it into his pants pocket. "Can you come with me to buy a cell phone sim card?"
Huang Mao slapped his head, right, they hadn't exchanged contact information yet.
After that, he accompanied Qin Yuyang to the cell phone store to buy a sim card and then drove him home.
"Xiao-Yu, why don't I treat you to dinner?" Huang Mao suggested.
"Not today," Qin Yuyang waved his hand, "I have someone waiting at home. Maybe some other day."
Back at the front of a supermarket near the entrance of the old alley, he asked Huang Mao to drop him off. Then he bought some daily necessities and food from the supermarket before carrying them home in bags in both left and right hands.
Bang
Qin Yuyang kicked the iron gate with his foot. "Xiao-Qiu!"
Inside the house, Su Ranqiu put down his books and his eyes glanced at the alarm clock on the desk— 7:30pm.
After the door opened, Qin Yuyang's tall figure almost occupied the entire frame. He couldn't get in with the things in his hand so he had to turn sideways to come inside.
He passed the bag of food to Su Ranqiu. "I've bought some food so you can eat when you're hungry."
Su Ranqiu held them with open arms and turned around to put them inside the house.
Qin Yuyang closed the door carefully, entered the house, and began to take off his shoes. He placed his leather shoes on the shoe rack next to the door.
The temperature at night was even colder. He took out the slippers and underwear he'd just purchased and asked, "Is there any hot water? I'm going to take a shower."
Su Ranqiu picked up the book but didn't even read for two lines. Then he put it down again and stood up to go to the kitchen. "I use an electric heater to boil water. You can wash first if you want to."
Qin Yuyang gathered his things and walked into the very small bathroom which was connected to the kitchen. "I haven't eaten dinner, so you can heat up the instant noodles I bought for you! Can you?" He asked.
"There's rice in the pot." Su Ranqiu turned his back to him, his voice wasn't very clear.
"Then heat up the two together, I can eat both of them," Qin Yuyang replied.
Su Ranqiu watched silently as he lifted the bucket at the side, began to undress and shower. He didn't feel ashamed at all.
"Have you eaten?" Qin Yuyang asked with concern.
"Yes." Su Ranqiu walked with drooping eyes and took out two large portions of instant noodles from the bag brought by Qin Yuyang.
He took both of them into the kitchen and tied on an apron. With a naked man bathing behind him, he started heating the instant noodles in front of him.
After heating the noodles, he poured the leftover white rice and vegetables into the pot and made a large plate of fried rice.
"You're not eating?" He only saw his own rice bowl on the table, not the blue one that Su Ranqiu had used for lunch.
"No." Su Ranqiu was sitting in front of his desk, staring at the book beneath the lamp.
Qin Yuyang turned around and went into the kitchen to find Su Ranqiu's bowl. He took out a large portion of hot noodles and gave them to him. "I bought something that isn't spicy and less oily. You don't have to worry about getting a bad stomach."
"I'm not hungry," Su Ranqiu said.
"But it's too much, please eat, or I won't be able to finish it all by myself," Qin Yuyang urged while glancing at the two big bowls on the table.
Su Ranqiu didn't speak this time.
Qin Yuyang returned to the table, opened the chopsticks, and began to eat.
This posture and movement distracted Su Ranqiu to the point that he lost his intention to read.
Looking at the delicious bowl of instant noodles, he pursed his mouth, then pulled up his chopsticks and started eating in silence.
For a moment, there was only the sound of two people eating in the room.
"Here." Qin Yuyang poured two cups of boiled water and placed one of them on Su Ranqiu's desk. "Be careful not to knock it down."
Su Ranqiu held back the thank you that almost flew out of his mouth.
His face was expressionless as he ate the noodles Qin Yuyang bought and drank the water Qin Yuyang poured, but his heart was suddenly at a loss.
He brought him back only because he believed that the other party wouldn't get used to the impoverished life and would choose to leave all by himself after a period of struggle. The scene would have been very amusing.
As someone who had never been seriously accompanied by anyone, he acted like a procrastinator and absorbed the warmth sadly and piteously.