Chapter 492: Tongtong’s opportunity and choice

The next day, two reports appeared on the news.

First: the boss of HK oil company, C City, H Province, had turned himself in to public security.

Second: Hucheng announced the full resumption of its services in C City.

Neither of them hinted at any direct connection to the other.

Still, placing them side by side, it was not hard to sniff something out. They had the same location, C City. HK was one of the enterprises involved in the gutter oil affair and C City was where Hucheng’s employees had been attacked for a couple of days, effectively paralysing their services.

Therefore, things actually could not be any more obvious.

Hucheng had suffered revenge in C City from exposing the gutter oil affair, and its domineering female CEO had vowed to pursue the matter...now, in so short a time, it had been resolved. A storm had blown over just like that, with Hucheng’s thunderbolt-like methods and the rumours coming from the community in C City intimidating countless people.

Beneath the Weibo post that Lu Zhixin had previously made:

Boss Lu rocks!

Justice always wins!

“......”

Various words of praise, carrying joy and affirmation, filled several hundred pages.

Hucheng’s capabilities, Hucheng’s willingness to step up, Hucheng’s conscience, even Lu Zhixin’s own acclaim and image...the image and value of Hucheng’s brand rose to the max.

“Can this be considered justice?” Lu Zhixin smiled and asked while on the way to the airport.

“Of course! With your reputation of exposing gutter oil despite the dangers, the public will all stand on your side,” Old Jin said.

“Thank you,” This was the second time Lu Zhixin was giving her thanks to Old Jin.

Old Jin was about to say something in reply.

“Rest assured,” Lu Zhixin continued at once, “I will make use of this chance to get Hucheng listed as soon as possible. Your shares will at least double in value...of course, I don’t advise that you cash them out. They will only be more valuable in the future.”“I believe that…” Old Jin patted the head of Little Jinshan beside him, “I’m not selling them. My son still has to enter the Director’s board in the future.”

Little Jinshan looked at Lu Zhixin, “Would you sell your shares?”

Smiling, Lu Zhixin shook her head.

“Well, how about you marry me then?”

“Why?”

“Because I wanna be head of the Director’s board!”

They all laughed.

……

Xu Tingsheng departed a day later than Lu Zhixin. He accompanied Old Jin home before flying to Xihu City the next day. That day, while leaving Little Jinshan at home, Old Jin still brought a whole squad over.

Of the Binzhou Thirty alone, twelve of them came. At the end of it all, there were twenty plus people in total.

Their purpose of their current trip was primarily entertainment.

That aside, they were also going to consider franchising Bright Brilliance and buying flats too. It seemed a perfectly natural thing for coal bosses to go around buying flats everywhere with their money. According to Old Jin, they had already set their eyes on Ning Garden’s second phase of flats which had still yet to be announced.

Before getting on the plane, Xu Tingsheng gave Huang Yaming a call.

“Money, a lot of money’s flying over…” Xu Tingsheng said, “Get things ready over at the bar and find some people who can hold their drink better. Tonight’s going to be world-bendingly crazy.”

When the plane arrived at Xihu City, cars from Hucheng and Bright Brilliance were already waiting outside the airport.

Huang Yaming and Tan Yao personally received them at the airport.

As Xu Tingsheng had expected, after reaching the hotel and taking a bath, the coal bosses all energetically charged to Bright Brilliance.

This place did not lack women. There were hundreds available from Wu Kun’s side. It did not lack wine too as Bright Brilliance was itself somewhat high-end. Huang Yaming was giving it unreservedly his all with all these ‘gods of fortune’ here.

The main thing was that it was not easy to find people who could hold their liquor. There existed an innate gap between the alcohol capacities of northerners and southerners. Moreover, their opponents that night would be a bunch of coal bosses who had ‘long roamed the battlefield’.

The other side had more than twenty people. Huang Yaming could not very well produce fifty, sixty people and use human wave tactics, though.

Close to thirty people awaited them in the private room.

Xu Tingsheng spied Tongtong amongst them.

“I know that you aren’t willing to drink too much at times like this. Still, you probably will have to tonight. You can’t ask men to help you drink. Ultimately, there was only Tongtong I could think of,” Huang Yaming explained.

Xu Tingsheng nodded and walked over to Tongtong, smiling, “So you got a replacement at work?”

Tongtong smiled radiantly, nodding as she answered, “My younger brother came here to be a security guard originally. Then, Boss Huang gave him a chance to learn wine management from me. There aren’t many customers today; he’ll be fine.”

“I’ll be troubling you. Right, you seldom drink nowadays. Will you be okay?” Xu Tingsheng asked in a low tone.

“I, I’ll be fine,” Tongtong hastily emphasised before lowering her head and saying, “Also, it won’t be any trouble. It’s always been me who helps you to drink. Ever since the first time we met...I can’t do anything else for you, just this. I hope that...it’ll always be me. Don’t let anybody else help you, alright? Don’t let anybody else snatch away my happiness.”

Xu Tinsheng smiled, replying, “As expected of someone who became a manger. You’re so adept with words now...in that case, make sure not to overdo it later.”

While Xu Tingsheng was aware of some things, he could only pretend that he was not aware of them.

“Yep,” Tongtong nodded and sat down happily beside Xu Tingsheng.

They did not discuss business the entire night.

In the words of Liu Twelve of the Binzhou Thirty, he was very satisfied from one glance at Bright Brilliance as there was nothing to look into. What remained on whether to invest and cooperate was primarily character. From where could one’s character be seen? Well, from the wine table.

This was the common understanding in this era, from the bureaucracy to businesses to ordinary citizens.

Witnessing one’s true abilities on the wine table, thereby developing relationships.

Excepting Lu Zhixin, this was Xu Tingsheng’s first time witnessing what alcohol capacity really was. It was not just one or two people too but a whole bunch. Did coal bosses do nothing but drink everyday? Was there nothing else they had to do?

Even though they had gotten some girls over from Wu Kun who were already openly helping Bright Brilliance by now, even despite their numerical advantage, Bright Brilliance still had a hard time fending them off.

People were falling like flies.

Time and time again, Huang Yaming and Tan Yao had to beg for mercy, “The two of us still have to oversee things. We’ll drink later...we’ll only fall later, we’ll fall for sure. We definitely won’t run.”

Xu Tingsheng drank quite a bit too. Still, the majority of it was drunk by Tongtong on his behalf. As she was a beauty and one of the bar’s managers, the coal bosses mostly gave her face as she substituted for him.

It was evident that Tongtong’s alcohol capacity had truly declined as compared to the past. Still, her bearing had not deteriorated in any way. Her magnanimous, forthright and graceful style along with an intelligent manner of speaking in her professional attire won her continuous applause and cheers from both sides.

She seemed to have truly merged the manner of a woman of an entertainment centre out in the community and the bearing of a manager of Bright Brilliance perfectly.

She was the Tongtong who had once admonished Lu Zhixin at Starry Splendour: ‘Stop being so troublesome, you stupid bitch! Stop being such a nuisance when the men are talking’.

Meanwhile, she was also Bright Brilliance’s manager, Tongtong, who was becoming increasingly experienced and reliable.

Once in a while, she would sit down beside Xu Tingsheng, making use of her inebriated state to lean on his shoulder and smiling happily as she daringly gazed straight at the side of his face. Wu Kun had told Tongtong to know to be satisfied with what she had...still, certain thoughts simply could not be suppressed even if one wished for it.

“I know that I’m unclean, that I shouldn’t have wild thoughts...in that case, I’m fine like this,” Tongtong thought.

The lategame arrived as a few of the coal bosses finally toppled too. Whatever the case, the drinking session had been a successful, joyous one as Bright Brilliance had properly fulfilled its role as host.

He Twenty-seven, in his early thirties, walked over with a glass of wine in his hand.

Xu Tingsheng stopped Tongtong who was already very inebriated and got up, raising his wineglass to receive him.

He Twenty-seven smiled, shaking his head, “I already drank with Boss Xu earlier. For this glass, I wonder if it would be convenient for me to specifically toast Miss Tongtong?”

Xu Tingsheng was taken aback.

“Forget it, I’ll be direct. I wonder if Miss Tongtong is Boss Xu’s woman?”

Xu Tingsheng hesitated for a bit and shook his head.

“Great. In that case, I’ll shamelessly say this. Miss Tongtong, I was enraptured by you tonight. I’ll toast this glass first; it’s easier to speak when drunk,” He Twenty-seven downed that glass of wine before continuing, “I wonder if Miss Tongtong can consider leaving together with me?”

Everyone’s gazes were drawn by this audacious confession.

Hoots and cheers resounded…

“Little He’s famous for being generous with the women he likes. If you follow him for a few years, you’re guaranteed of tens of millions even if nothing comes of it in the end,” Someone from Binzhou spoke on his behalf, “That would be more than you working here for two lifetimes, right?”

“Yeah. What kind of life wouldn’t you be able to lead then?” Another person added.

Those remaining, still somewhat sober girls that Wu Kun had sent over to accompany them in drinking wine looked at Tongtong with gazes full of envy and jealousy. How they wished it was they who had caught his eye.

This was actually the best way out for girls who worked in entertainment centres, what many of them yearned for.

Tongtong got up to stand beside Xu Tingsheng. She did not immediately give a reply.

Someone from Binzhou said, “I say, stop pretending! What the heck do you have to think about? I just heard from the girls that you used to be one of them as well. What’s there for you to…”

“Shut your trap!” He Twenty-seven ordered coldly.

“Miss Tongtong, I am really serious about this. How do I say this? You’re the kind of woman in my imagination, the kind I want. The feel and vibe both feel very right. Because it’s so hard to come by, I was a little too direct. Still, I’m actually not a dastardly person. You can learn more about me before deciding,” He said sincerely and humbly, his tone not overbearing in the least.

“I…” Tongtong raised her head and looked at Xu Tingsheng.

Xu Tingsheng shifted his gaze away.

This was Tongtong’s own decision to make. While Xu Tingsheng had changed a part of her fate, allowing her to leave the entertainment centres and make it to where she was today, he had no way of giving her more...such as a man who truly loved her, etcetera…

Tongtong was not a young girl who had not experienced the way of the world. There was much that she had gone through. This might actually be a good thing for her. She should be the one deciding on her own.

He Twenty-seven’s gaze was very sincere. Though it was too early to talk about devotion what with this only being their first meeting and all, one could tell that he was not lying when he said he liked Tongtong a lot.

Actually, that he was willing to come forward and speak in such a manner at a place like this was already sufficient to show a lot of things.

Everyone’s gazes converged on Tongtong.

“I...if I refuse, will you be angry? Will it affect the cooperation?” Tongtong asked carefully.

“...No. I’ll just be sad,” He Twenty-seven smiled wryly.

“In that case, I...I want to apologise. I really like my current life. This place has the...has so many things that I like. I don’t want to leave it. So, I’m so sorry.”

He Twenty-seven sighed despondently and refilled his glass.

“You’ll still accept this wine, yeah?”

“Yeah.”