With a series of prompts heard, Jiang Chen felt reassured.
However, when his gaze fell onto the bottle of foreign liquor, he began to get cold feet again.
He naturally didn't recognize the brand of the foreign liquor. But if he were to chug it down in one go, he would most likely end up passed out here.
He was here to be a fawning devotee.
Not to risk his life.
"Would one drink do?"
Leaving was definitely not an option; after all, his status as a fawning devotee had already been established.
If he didn't win over Li Shuru, then the ten trillion fawning devotee funds would be nothing but an unreachable dream to him, as elusive as flowers reflected in a mirror or the moon seen in a body of water.
"Just one drink?"
"No way, no way. You've got to drink at least three!"
"Yeah, three drinks!"
A few girls started egging him on, afraid the chaos wouldn't be entertaining enough.
They just wanted to see a joke, not willing for the fun to end so quickly. Unintentionally, they were actually giving Jiang Chen a helping hand.
"Fine."
Three drinks it was.
With his capacity for alcohol, three drinks shouldn't be a problem.
Seizing the opportunity, Jiang Chen promptly sat down, showing quite the spirit as he grabbed the bottle and glass to pour himself a drink.
"Cough cough cough..."
He'd underestimated the potency of the foreign liquor. When he gulped down the last drink, his chest felt like it was on fire, and he almost vomited, but he managed to force it down in the end.
"I've finished drinking."
Seeing the tears he choked up, the girls were beside themselves with amusement. One girl, laughing flirtatiously, gave him a thumbs-up, "Stylish!"
Jiang Chen wiped his mouth and looked at the affection points.
Still -100.
Unchanged.
Winning over a girl obviously wasn't that simple.
But this affection point system was really too heartbreaking, wasn't it? To actually be negative.
If it were 0, he might have been somewhat content,
He knew Li Shuru, but he hadn't really interacted with her much. Such an exaggerated level of affection points must be the "achievement" of his reputation as a fawning devotee.
"Jiang Chen, have you really gotten over Ai Qian?"
A girl asked out of curiosity.
"I've turned the page with her."
His reply was full of confidence, a far cry from the notorious fawning devotee of legend.
"So now..."
Jiang Chen didn't speak, just silently gazed at Li Shuru, his silence conveying volumes.
The girls looked at each other.
"Hey, you're not thinking of going after our Shu Rui, are you?"
Jiang Chen smiled, not showing any awkwardness. His throat burned, making his voice slightly hoarse as he said with an intriguing tone, "I just want to make friends with Shu Rui."
"Oh… so you just want to be friends..."
A girl teased, deliberately dragging out the last word.
"Drinking is fine, but I'm not interested in you," replied Li Shuru straightforwardly. She seemed completely unfazed by her friends' banter and was quite forthright.
In the end, she poured herself a drink. With her exquisitely manicured fingers clutching the rim of the glass, she gently swirled it, then added another line,
"You're not my type."
Indeed, the beauty from the Art Academy was straightforward.
Jiang Chen, as if he had been sentenced to death even before he took action, kept his composure—perhaps he was accustomed to it—calmly asking, "Then what type do you like?"
Li Shuru tilted her slender, jade-like neck and took a sip of her drink, silent, exuding both sensuality and haughtiness.
One of her friends, counting on her fingers, suggested with an undertone, "At the very least, he can't be inferior to that guy Liang Zhenlun, right? He drives a second-hand Maserati President, and that's worth several hundred thousand even used. Shu Rui's partner would at least have to drive a car more expensive than his."
A more expensive car.
That would have to be over a million, wouldn't it?
The girls from the Art Academy are so damn materialistic!
Jiang Chen felt a bit like he was dealing with a headache.
If it had been in the past, upon hearing such exaggerated mate selection criteria, he would have assuredly gotten up and left, because even selling him wouldn't fetch enough to afford it.
But now, things were different.
He was sitting on a fortune of ten trillion "bootlicker gold"!
What's the concept of ten trillion?
A car worth one million, he could buy one million of them!
That's right.
A whole one million cars!
But damn it.
There were restrictions on how to use the bootlicker gold; it couldn't be spent on himself.
"Driving a luxury car doesn't mean someone will treat you well. As far as I know, Ai Qian isn't happy with Liang Zhenlun."
Jiang Chen was dead serious, but his words immediately elicited hearty laughter from several girls.
"Giggle... Jiang Chen, who told you this? Did Ai Qian tell you? If she's not happy, why doesn't she leave Liang Zhenlun? Giggle, you're killing me..."
The girl was practically in tears from laughter.
Obviously.
In the eyes of these goddesses of the art academy.
Jiang Chen was just a silly, pitiful joke, an object of ridicule.
"You may leave now."
Li Shuru even issued a direct eviction order.
A guy whom Ai Qian didn't want, how could she possibly take interest in him?
"Jiang Chen, what are you doing here?"
Luo Peng appeared nearby, clearly having come to look for Jiang Chen since he hadn't returned for so long.
"I ran into Shu Rui, so I sat down for a few drinks."
As expected of a seasoned bootlicker, even now, Jiang Chen's expression didn't change a bit.
Luo Peng glanced at Li Shuru and the others, and it was clear that he could see the mockery in their eyes.
He had dated a girlfriend in the art academy, so he had quite a bad impression of the place.
The atmosphere in this academy was poor, and its students generally loved to compare and were quite materialistic.
Although he was unclear about why Jiang Chen ended up mingling with them, Luo Peng still quickly tried to take his good buddy away.
Didn't he see how those girls looked at his buddy as if he were a joke?
"Xiaobai and the others are waiting for you, let's go."
He tugged at Jiang Chen, but Jiang Chen didn't move.
"Shu Rui, could you give me your contact information?"
Luo Peng was stunned, looking incredulously at his good buddy, and was instantly shocked.
What's going on?
Could it be that old habits die hard?
Hadn't he just said that bootlickers deserve to die?
"Jiang Chen, I think you might as well not waste your effort, go chase your goddess Ai Qian. Good luck, we're rooting for you."
Jiang Chen ignored the girls' teasing and stared at Li Shuru intently.
Knowing that it was impossible but still forging ahead, that was the bootlicker's creed.
"I've told you before, you're not my type."
Li Shuru was cold, not leaving Jiang Chen any dignity.
Even Luo Peng felt somewhat humiliated, but whether to give contact information was her prerogative, so he didn't have much to say about it.
"Let's go."
He forcibly dragged Jiang Chen away.
"Giggle, true to his reputation as the famous bootlicker of our school, he certainly lives up to the name. But why has he suddenly stopped fawning over Ai Qian and started doting on Shu Rui?"
A girl resting her chin on her hands looked puzzled as she watched the two young men walk away.
"Who knows, he can't even hold onto his own girlfriend, yet he dreams of pursuing Shu Rui, daydreaming."
"Shu Rui, you'd better be careful. Jiang Chen is quite persistent. Even after Ai Qian dumped him, he's still shamelessly pestering her. Now that he's set his sights on you, he probably won't give up easily."
Li Shuru quietly drank her wine, completely indifferent to Jiang Chen's departure.
As a white swan, she would never stoop to a toad in a deep well.