On the other hand, Lu Bai was also having dinner.
Last time, Weng Yinlin had specially invited him to attend a dinner but Lu Bai knew what the adults were busy with, so he had rejected their invitations a few times. Now, Weng Yinlin was pressuring him by using the old man.
Lu Bai grew up surviving the old man's beatings. Although Lu Bai was unreasonable from childhood, the old man was even more unreasonable and harsh, using feather dusters and sticks to beat him up.
Gradually, he would only yield to the old man.
Whenever the old man said something, Lu Bai could only half-heartedly respond and eat with the so-called Lai Family and their daughter who had just returned to the country.
Of course, he had a cold expression on the whole time. Besides greeting the adults of the Lai Family when he came in, he never looked at them.
The daughter of the Lai Family bit her lip and looked like she was extremely wronged when he didn't say anything to her after she glanced up at him for a few hundred times.
Weng Yinlin was on the sidelines, trying to mediate between their relationship. She had scolded him as being 'unfilial' at least ten times.
After Lu Bai ate a bit, he elegantly picked up the paper napkin and wiped the corner of his mouth. He got up and said, "Sorry, I'm going to the bathroom." Without waiting for the other party to reply, he immediately left.
Finally, Lai Family's parents' faces looked ugly.
Weng Yinlin smiled and apologized, "Lu Bai is a bit proud. It will be better once you get to know him." Heh. However, she was thinking the opposite of what she had said.
The Lai Family's parents could only smile apologetically. In reality, claiming connections with Lu Family was something that the people in the city could only dream about!
After Lu Bai got out of the private room and turned a few corners, he stopped by a narrow end of the stairs and looked out the window where the bright lights outside. Lu Bai pulled out a cigarette box from his pocket and starting to smoke.
He had smoked a few times before but he wasn't really addicted. However, there was a lot going on in the company and it was difficult to sleep after handling everything since it was in the middle of the night. It was very lonely and boring this late, so he had slowly began to smoke in order to pass time. Of course, he only casually smoked.
Lu Bai smoked a bit before gradually spitting out smoke rings. He squinted his eyes and looked through the smoke, unclear as to what he was looking at.
He stood for a while, took out his phone, and casually scrolled through it to see the video Mao Shiyuan sent.
Mao Shiyuan wouldn't dare to send him a boring video so he opened it to check it out.
In this quiet space, even the man's voice became especially clear.
Lu Bai slightly squinted his eyes and the red light in his right hand's fingertips slightly flashed. He watched him (Zhan Yu) serious expression and his determined words.
After Lu Bai saw this, he had actually played it again. Then, he deleted it and sent Mao Shiyuan a text: Come out and drink with me.
After sending the text message, he put out the cigarette. Without turning back, Lu Bai walked straight towards the entrance of the dinning hall.
However, he never anticipated that he would accidentally meet Zhan Qiancheng on the first floor lounge.
Zhan Qiangcheng was dressed in formal attire with an assistant following behind him. In addition to the assistant were three big bellied middle age man. From their appearance, it seemed that they had just finished attending a dinner party and were preparing to leave.
When Zhan Qiancheng spotted Lu Bai from afar, the expression on his face turned cold. Ever since his little brother stopped pestering Lu Bai, Zhan Qiangcheng felt that he could finally lift his face again.
When Lu Bai saw that Zhan Qiancheng was looking at him with hostility, he stopped walking and looked up at this man with interest.
Zhan Qiancheng instructed his assistant, "Help me send off the bosses."
The bosses naturally got the hint that Zhan Qiangcheng wanted to discuss something with Lu Bai. So, they complimented, "Since President Zhan has something to do, we will leave first. We will talk about the specific details regarding the arrangements for our collaboration tomorrow."
"Okay." Zhan Qiancheng nodded his head. Soon after they left him, he saw that they had respectfully stopped walking and chatted a little with Lu Bai when they walked passed him.
Lu Bai impatiently and perfuncterly nodded his head at them and responded a few words.
Zhan Qiancheng waited for everyone to leave before he said, "I'm less than impressed by President Lu's attitude."
"President Zhan is not to be outdone either."
Zhan Qiancheng naturally knew whether Lu Bai was either joking or telling the truth.
For the Zhan Family to develop to what it is today was thanks to the hard work of the many generations. In Shengjin city, their company can be considered to be rich, outstanding, and elite. However, Zhan Qiansheng knew the situation of the company better than anyone else. When their company was compared to the influential Lu corporation, there was a huge distance between them.
Zhan Qiancheng had vision and ambition, so he had always considered Lu Bai as rival. But deep down, he knew that Lu Bai had never taken him seriously. Because of that, every time he saw Lu Bai, he would lose his reasoning and exchange a hostile few words with him. If he doesn't do so, Zhan Qiancheng would feel restless.
"Is President Lu here for work too?"
Lu Bai wasn't interested in answering his question. He just smiled and said, "My mother said that the Zhan Family is good and that the young master from the Zhan Family is very likable too."
His words were light as a feather without any sincere feelings behind it. This caused Zhan Qiancheng's expression to immediately darken.
Lu Bai smiled with satisfaction as he nodded his head. He gestured that he was going to leave, then he turned around and confidently left.
Before Lu Bai had seen Zhan Qiancheng in person, he had heard a little about him from other people. This man was only older than him by four to five years and was also considered one of the young and promising successors of a powerful business in Shenjing city.
After meeting him two to three times, Lu Bai found out what Zhan Qiancheng's fatal weak point was; this man wasn't willing to have his little brother to have any relationship with him at all.
Because of Zhan Yu's recent change of behavior, it gave Zhan Qiancheng the confidence to face him again.
However, Lu Bai can easily break his confidence with just a simple sentence.
Lu Bai suddenly found out that Zhan Yu was pretty useful.
Mao Shiyuan had waited quite a while in the private room before the Lu Bai finally arrived.
When he saw Lu Bai enter in while dressed in formal attire, Mao Shiyuan put back the wine glass he had just picked up and asked in surprise, "Why did you suddenly want to drink with me?"
Lu Bai removed his jacket, loosened the tie around his neck, and unbuttoned two of the buttons on his neckline.
Mao Shiyuan looked up at the male god who didn't reply to his question and began to undress. He was stunned by the man's action and asked, "What are you doing?"
Lu Bai glanced at him.
Mao Shiyuan felt like he got goosebumps all over his body. He immediately stood up, waved his hand, and said,
"If you have something you want to say, just say it. Male god, please don't look at me like that!"
There's no point in using the male beauty trap here. If it was a female that was sitting here, Mao Shiyuan knew that the female would've thrown herself at Lu Bai in less than three seconds.
Lu Bai slowly sat down and he poured himself a glass of wine in the empty wine glass. He took a sip of the wine and suddenly said, "Phone."
"What?" Mao Shiyuan was confused by his sudden response.
Lu Bai repeated himself and said, "Your cellphone."
Mao Shiyuan didn't think much of his request as he took out his cellphone and handed it to him. He asked, "You didn't bring your phone?"
Lu Bai didn't reply, he simply gestured for Mao Shiyuan to unlock his phone.
Mao Shiyuan obediently followed his order and unlocked his phone. Feeling surprised when he saw Lu Bai grab it from his hands, he couldn't help but ask, "You really didn't bring your phone with you?"
After Lu Bai quickly pressed a few buttons on his phone, he returned it to Mao Shiyuan. Only after giving back the phone did Lu Baireplied, "I did."
Mao Shiyuan accepted it back, but he was still a little puzzled after hearing his friend's reply. He asked, "Since you've brought your phone, why did you need mine?"
Lu Bai meaningfully glanced at him.
Mao Shiyuan stared blankly at him at him but then, it seemed as if he finally recalled something as he hurriedly unlocked his phone. He searched his phone for the recording he had of Zhan Yu and Ji Yi and found that it was gone.
Mao Shiyuan exploded, "Lu Bai, are you retaliating against me?"
Lu Bai rejected this idea as he replied, "How does deleting a video count as retaliating against you?"
Mao Shiyuan felt that this man was very difficult to understand, "I'm trying to help you out of kindness! What are you trying to do by deleting it?"
"If you aren't going to delete it, what are you keeping it for? Are you keeping it as a souvenir?"
Mao Shiyuan choked on his words and was unable to respond.
After some time passed, he finally reacted and said, "A-Nan, could it be that Zhan Yu asked you to delete the video? No wonder I feel like there is something fishy going on when you invited me out to drink tonight. It seems that you had dug a pit and waited for me to jump in!"
"Hm?" Lu Bai slightly looked at Mao Shiyuan from the corners of his eyes.
Mao Shiyuan said, "Today, I had a meal with him. He was determined to steal my phone and delete the video. But of course, he wasn't able to!"
However, in the end, he had never expected that Lu Bai would be the one who deleted it.
Lu Bai thoughtfully looked at the sparkling and translucent liquid inside the wine glass.
Mao Shiyuan paid extra attention to the expression on Lu Bai's face. He had an intuition.
"A-Nan, could it be that you're interested in Zhan Yu?"
Lu Bai glanced at him with a smile yet not a smile.
Mao Shiyuan deciphered his expression as--no.
He waved his hand, "I also believe that it is impossible! In the past, Zhan Yu had tried so hard to chase after you, but you weren't interested at all. Now, he can't wait to get as far away from you as possible, so you should have even less of an interest in Zhan Yu."
Lu Bai didn't reply, he just allowed him to guess as he liked. After Mao Shiyuan finished speaking, Lu Bai said, "Recently, I've been taking care of matters in my new company. You should join me."
"Huh?" Mao Shiyuan was so startled by his news that he had almost choked on his wine, "Since when did you start a new company?"
"I began the preparations for the new company two months ago."
Lu Bai continued, "I can't pull myself away from the Lu company, so you can help me take care of some matters regarding my new company."
Mao Shiyuan glanced up at him. It didn't seem like Lu Bai was playing a joke, so he slapped the table with his hand and replied, "Okay!"
Lu Bai nodded his head.
After having two more sips of wine, Mao Shiyuan can't help but ask, "I heard that Zhan Yu moved out of the apartment complex you are currently living at?"
"Hm?" Lu Bai slightly narrowed his eyes.
Mao Shiyuan continued, "I heard this from him today."
Lu Bai squinted at him and said, "You seem quite familiar with him."
Mao Shiyuan dryly laughed, "I'm only trying to help you change his mind. But who would've thought, he had cut off all his escape routes?"
Lu Bai glanced at him, he knew that Mao Shiyuan was purely enjoying the show and didn't feel like this was a big matter.
Mao Shiyuan didn't pay any attention to Lu Bai's expression. While continuing to butt into others' business, he said, "He's very strange. In order to avoid you, he had even used Chu Hua who was abroad as a reason to give up."
Lu Bai's expression slightly changed as he continued to listen to Mao Shiyuan gossip, "What did you do to make him so discouraged to this point? He wasn't willing to turn back no matter what. It seems like he views you as someone extremely dangerous."
Lu Bai took a deep breath. He was somewhat agitated as he said, "Don't mention him them to me anymore."
Mao Shiyuan detected that something was off, so he obediently shut up.
In fact, Mao Shiyuan had misunderstood Lu Bai when he had said, 'don't mention him them to me anymore'. The 'them' he mentioned wasn't Zhan Yu but Chu Hua.
What outsiders didn't know was that while the way Lu Bai treated Chu Hua was different, it was only because of her distinctive charm. His feelings for her wasn't to the point where he loved her to death and back.
In the beginning, Chu Hua was like a bright and dazzling sun that broke into his world. She was beautiful and capable, mature and steady, and strong. Step by step, she had purposely approached him, confessed, and had followed through the standard routine to get closer to him. Even though Lu Bai had seen every stage put into action, he didn't feel disgusted by her. Instead, he had just let her do what she wanted.
Perhaps Chu Hua believed that she was infallible. She believed that his occasional response to her advances was due to his growing affections, so she ran to him and cried about how her ordinary family could not match up to the strong and impressive the Lu Family was. Chu Hua said that she wanted to go abroad to train herself to be more outstanding so that she could proudly stand side-by-side with him.
Lu Bai looked at her and did not say a single word.
While Chu Hua played a weeping beauty, she did not forget to pull down on his neckline and tiptoe, kissing Lu Bai on the cheek. She then buried her head in his arms and continued to sob, "Lu Bai, I love you!"
Chu Hua's display of love did not elicit a response. However, there was no better answer than his allowance of her to stay within his arms and kiss him.
Lu Bai had allowed all of her affectionate actions. This was enough to make Chu Hua intensely proud of herself and confident.
He had mysophobia, and always disliked being touched by others. However, Chu Hua was an exception to the case.
This point was known by many people.
That was why rumors of Lu Bai and Chu Hua being in love with each gradually emerged. Those who saw the two together were even more convinced of the matter.
Even Mao Shiyuan thought that in this lifetime, the only person that could move Lu Bai's heart was Chu Hua.
After the two drank some wine, they bade farewell to each other and went their separate ways.
To be continued...
...