Ahead, a sense of the era granite countertop.
Standing in the nearly ten-thousand-square-meter Colosseum were a few young masters, dressed in casual chic, their handsome features top-rate, and supposedly their backgrounds weren't easy to investigate.
In their intermittent conversation, Xu Jingxi, with one hand in his pocket, looked relaxed, presumably watching the decisive match in the arena.
Not sure which horse was racing, the scene was not bloody, quite ordinary.
A subtle conversation took place, a purging that isolated the masses.
Xu Jingxi, backlit by the setting sun, looked over, as if he were looking at her, yet also seemed to be looking at Liu Huaiying behind her, exuding an air of indolence.
Remembering last night's encounter, Leh Ying's face flushed scarlet the moment she saw him.
"Yesterday, BTC transactions hit over a trillion in one second." A friend asked Xu Jingxi, "What about yours?"
Xu Jingxi looked down, subdued in color, and turned the platinum ring on his pinky finger, "Not cashing out, just like to keep it and watch its K-line rise and fall for fun."
His friend laughed, "I am really curious, Kerui is already in dire straits, and you still make a surprise investment, got too much money to squander?"
Xu Jingxi threw a fine bean cake to the horse in the arena and put down the tongs; while wiping his hands with a napkin, he remarked in an understated manner.
"One cannot establish without destroying, it can be revitalized."
His friend sighed, "Your father hopes you wouldn't go into business, but you're doing exactly that."
Xu Jingxi turned and leaned against the countertop, hands crossed nonchalantly.
No matter how well they play, when the family and elders are brought up, these people always intentionally avoid it, whether the mention is deliberate or accidental, never sharing their true feelings, as the topic is sensitive.
His friend, not daring to break his rule and feeling it was inappropriate, shut up and didn't bring it up again, steering the conversation back to digital currency.
With the advantages laid by their elders, they would never worry about food, drink, and entertainment for the rest of their lives. Yet, they only took these luxuries as diversions and always took charge of serious matters no matter where they went.
Leh Ying really wanted to ask Liu Huaiying, who was next to her: What exactly does Xu Jingxi do, does he run his own company?
Liu Huaiying would probably retort again: Leh Ying, do you want to sleep with him?
She dared not ask.
Leh Ying arranged her easel, piled up her pens and materials, smoothed her skirt, sat down, and began to grip the pen and draw lines.
Liu Huaiying came over with a bluster, "Oh wow, I'm late, you're auspicious."
The words were addressed to Xu Jingxi.
Hearing his faint scoff, as indistinct as the dim evening sky.
Leh Ying unconsciously turned to look, within a one-meter distance under the glass canopy, there was a chessboard table, a scattered deck of LV playing cards, several boxes of no-name cigarettes, and a luxury hotel diamond card.
Others were playing cards, watching the Colosseum, but Xu Jingxi sat on the sofa like a loner, playing with his phone.
Typing, sending a text message.
A 'ding' and the screen lights up again; he doesn't even glance at it, not intending to reply to the other party, quite whimsical.
Liu Huaiying handed him a bottle of mineral water, which he gestured to put aside.
"Where to tonight?" Liu Huaiying asked.
Xu Jingxi covered his phone and leaned back against the sofa, "Feel like sleeping."
Liu Huaiying sneaked a glance at him, "Heh, don't tell me you have a beauty waiting for you in your golden house?"
His languid tone carried a hint of levity, "Didn't sleep all night."
Listening to Liu Huaiying laugh even more openly, twisting the cap off the mineral water and toasting to Xu Jingxi.
"Brother Jingxi, wherever you went for tender care, sure kept you up all night."
Xu Jingxi smiled lazily, too lazy to reply.
A buddy who was close to Xu Jingxi turned around blankly, inadvertently revealing, "Brother Jingxi was indeed at Bay Hillside last night, the whole night."
He still had that insipid and uninterested demeanor, smile that wasn't quite a smile.
Oh, those cards on the tea table were Bay Hillside's diamond cards.
They talk about these things without avoiding strangers at all, aren't they afraid she would find their souls disgusting and filthy?
But later on, Xu Jingxi taught her through a chance encounter of passion that no one said you have to love a person's soul simply because you love them.
An inexplicable curiosity rose, what was he doing at Bay Hillside "all night."
Delayed until Liu Huaiying left to have fun down in the arena, when the eyes of the rest present were not on this one-meter distance.
Leh Ying boldly cast Xu Jingxi a puzzled look, and they looked at each other.
When he looked at her, Xu Jingxi's thin double eyelids lifted, lazily forming a gentle arc.
A foreign and ill-fitting word suddenly surged into Leh Ying's mind, called "secret affair."
Her ear tips turned even redder.
Xu Jingxi suddenly chuckled, "Don't recognize me anymore?"
The awkwardness of last night was stirred up again for no reason, but observing him, he didn't seem to take pleasure in exposing someone's embarrassment. Let's just treat it as his way of greeting someone he had just met.
Leh Ying restrained her stare, "What a coincidence, you're here too."
A text message notification 'ding' sounded from a cell phone.
Xu Jingxi looked down at the message on his phone and then tossed it aside, casually replying, "Otherwise, where should I be?"
"Bay Hillside half..." She didn't have the courage to finish her sentence.
Xu Jingxi's gaze returned to her bright, pretty face, lightly mocking as if to say, "Go on."
Not daring to continue talking about 'Bay Hillside,' Leh Ying lowered her head and randomly applied colors.
"I don't understand; it's your private affair," she shifted the subject. "Of course, what do you think of my painting? If you have friends who need oil paintings, you can come to me. The price is negotiable."
Xu Jingxi had no need for paintings from art students and wasn't into the refined pursuit of arts and letters. He watched her delicately lift her hand to start applying and drafting colors on the canvas.
He propped his face with his hand, embodying a noble composure, unmoved, "So these aren't selling?"
Such directness. Leh Ying choked, then fell silent, "I'm not famous; in the past, selling a painting for 200 yuan was considered a high price."
His friends heard the noise and turned back to look at him, "Who are you talking to, Leh Ying?"
"Someone selling paintings, not familiar," Xu Jingxi picked up his phone and left, leaving only his lonely silhouette behind.
Reckless, reckless.
Leh Ying unconsciously curled her lips into a smile. She hadn't noticed how easily she smiled in front of Xu Jingxi. Focusing back on her painting, she picked up the palette as the sky darkened and the lights inside suddenly brightened.
Leh Ying later found out that her name had become known among them because Liu Huaiying, when drunk, would often yell in front of everyone, "I'm going to pursue Leh Ying."
Despite having an official girlfriend, going from one love to another seemed quite normal to him, as long as it was mutual consent—it seemed only natural for him to play around like this.
The crowd around the card table had dispersed, the painting was incomplete, and Leh Ying sat alone, continuing to mix and apply colors.
It was too late to return within the Third Ring, so she stayed at a nearby private villa. Although the winter in Forty-Nine City left everything barren, the villa had a pleasant landscape with high-end leisure facilities and 7-star butler one-on-one service. However, Leh Ying wasn't interested in these luxurious services.
Liu Huaiying had given her a separate room to stay in, and she couldn't help but hear others discussing their abnormal man-chases-woman situation.
During dinner that night at the restaurant, an establishment that was normally closed to the public, several girls mysteriously showed up, dressed beautifully and voluptuously.
It was said that some scions had scattered money for drivers to bring them over just to join in the fun.
Dinner, encountered at the restaurant.
Leh Ying, alone, chose a seat by the window and was just setting down her juice.
Even though the group of girls at the central four-person table tried to keep their voices down, they could still be clearly heard.
"That little sister who paints, Liu Huaiying knocks on her door three times a day. It's exhausting."
"The little sister has been scared to tears several times."
Suddenly, the topic changed.
"Tsk, they're negotiating something with the Xu family again. Could you guys get close enough to listen in?"
"The Xu family? It can't really be him..."
"It's that Xu family at the apex of power. Didn't you see? All those young masters are very polite to the one surnamed Xu."
Leh Ying put on her Bluetooth headphones to listen to music, blocking out the noise, quietly finished eating, and pushed open the glass door to leave.
The most famous feature of Heyuan Villa has to be the private bath. Seeing the sign on the corridor, a playful mood struck her, and she wanted to soak in the hot spring.
Not knowing which of them, a wealthy young master had booked the place, the staff was very enthusiastic. After the introduction, they led her to the changing room.
The voices of two young girls, staff of the villa, came from outside the door.
"The guest in Villa No. 3 has awakened and wants to change to white tea. You go and serve tea later."
"Is it the young master of the Liang family?"
"The most good-looking one in the crowd, the one in the black suit, I'm not sure what his name is exactly."
"He's quite mysterious. The boss, who hasn't come for inspections in hundreds of years, came back specially at noon to receive him. That man must not be a small fry."
"These people aren't easy to serve. You're experienced, you go."
"I'm off work in two minutes, right on the dot. No pay for overtime."
Leh Ying, in the changing room, was lost in thought. Looking again at the private bath number on her wrist, she tied her bathrobe and stepped out the door.
Handing over her clothes to the staff for safekeeping, she said, "I'm just going to Villa No. 3. If you don't mind, I can do it."
With only a few privileged youths visiting the villa today, it didn't take much to figure out they were all together, and chances were she might be meeting someone's girlfriend.
The staff let Leh Ying follow her to the tea room. They gave her a cake of Mount Taimu mother tree Fuding tea and personally escorted her to the door of Villa No. 3. "If you have any requests, you can press the service bell. I wish you a pleasant stay at Heyuan."
It was already 11 p.m.
Leh Ying knew that the bath in the outer chamber of Warm Pool was originally hers, but she also knew that Heyuan Villa's Villa No. 3 was never open to the public, intended only for private long-term residence.
Other than Xu Jingxi, no one else had such treatment.