Chapter 37.1

“Mr. Yao.” Han Yanyan walked around the tea cart and stood in front of him, her hands folded before her. It was a standard pose, very professional and also very… meek.

“What is it?” It seemed as though Yao Chen had amnesia. He was acting as though it hadn’t been he who had called her by name to 812.

Are you having fun? Han Yanyan mocked inwardly, but her face was tranquil as she said, “You asked me to come here to get my phone.”

“Oh,” Yao Chen seemed to remember. He turned to a bald man beside him and said, “Sanhu, where’s that phone?”

Although the bald man was also wearing an expensive suit, tattoos climbed from the top of his collar all the way to the back of his head. He stopped short only of having the word ‘gangster’ tattooed on his face. The room contained quite a few men in suits, and if they took off their shirts, Han Yanyan guessed that there would be a whole room full of sleeve tattoos.

Yao Chen had come up from the bottom along with his cronies. Now that they had money, they were all dressed like a dog1.

Among them, the front-liner Yao Chen was doing best. If you didn’t know his background, you might think he was a business elite.

Sanhu smiled happily, dug into his pocket, and took out Han Yanyan’s phone. Yao Chen had originally been holding onto it, but now here it was in bald Sanhu’s hands. Who knew how many people had browsed through “Han Yanyan”‘s photos? It was impossible for these highschool dropouts to know what it meant to respect another person’s privacy, let alone respecting a woman.

Han Yanyan had just experienced two years of actual high society and she looked at the group without showing any sort of unease. Calmly, she took her phone from Sanhu and said to Yao Chen, “Thank you for your trouble, Mr. Yao.”

Yao Chen nodded.

“If there’s nothing else, Mr. Yao, I’ll head back to work.”

“Hey now, little sister, don’t go. Come stay a bit with us. Boss Yao is feeling pretty good today, have a few drinks with him,” Sanhu reached out to pull her over. The others followed suit, catcalling and whistling.

Han Yanyan sidestepped Sanhu’s huge paw.

When she had realized in the previous world that she might still retain the skills of “previous Han Yanyan”, she had recruited a fighting coach for herself to hone the wild and untutored skills she had learned under Ding Yao. And she now even had the skillset from ‘policewoman Han Yanyan’ in addition, making dodging something like that a breeze.

Standing still, she turned to Yao Chen. “Mr. Yao?”

Yao Chen, who had just been watching the show, finally said to Sanhu, “Enough, she’s not an escort.”

“It’s just having a few drinks together,” Sanhu smiled, “She wouldn’t have to do nothin’. Ain’t no big deal.”

Before Yao Chen could say anything, however, Han Yanyan lifted her eyes to him and retorted, “That’s incorrect, sir.”

All the eyes in the room turned to her. But ‘Eldest Miss Han’ had seen far greater battles, and the stares slid off her like water off a duck’s back.

With that sort of naivete peculiar to students, she said seriously and in a slightly aloof manner, “I am an employee of Jinhao. Mr. Yao is paying me to work hard. Each private room has its own assigned waiters, and there are only so many of us. Furthermore, today is the weekend and our busiest time of the week. While I’m here my other colleagues will have to pick up the slack, and will inevitably make mistakes due to being doubly busy. This will lead to the dissatisfaction of our guests and affect Mr. Yao’s business.”

Sanhu smiled. “Yes, yes, you’re Mr. Yao’s employee, but we’re all Boss Yao’s brothers. You’re an employee, so it’s perfect if you come have a drink with us!”

Han Yanyan didn’t laugh. “If an enterprise wishes to grow, the worst possible thing is for there to be no distinction between public and private affairs, for responsibilities, rights, and roles to be unclear. Intervention for personal reasons in management performed by a professional undermines the entire management system.”

She had thought to act like a ‘frank and honest’ student, but a little bit of ‘Eldest Miss Han’ in the conference room slipped out.

Though she was obviously a young girl still in school, when she wasn’t careful one could catch a glimpse of a maturity that didn’t quite line up with her age. Yao Chen’s eyes scrutinized Han Yanyan’s face, thinking back to how that face had been less than 20cm away from him last night, how she had tipped him off calmly and briefly. How later in the car, a man had tempted her with money, and this young girl had calmly refused.

A clear head, and a strong will.

“Will y’all just listen to that! She even read me a sermon!” Sanhu slapped his thighs, laughing.

The rest of the men burst into raucous laughter. They were every one of them uncivilized and uneducated. Han Yanyan’s words went in one ear and out the other, but they enjoyed the spectacle of a beautiful girl trying to seriously reason with a bunch of hooligan. It was quite amusing.

Only Yao Chen looked at her with probing eyes.

In a room full of gangsters and rogues, only the biggest rogue of all actually listened to what she was saying. A man’s mind is made up by his seat.2

“All right, Sanhu,” he finally said. “The club is currently busy, let her go and work.”

To Han Yanyan, he instructed, “Have Emily, May and Sakura come over.”

These were Jinhao’s ‘superstars’, each one of them gorgeous enough to bring a man to his knees. Sanhu immediately lost interest in uniformed, lightly made-up Han Yanyan.

She might be beautiful, but she would obviously be no fun when it came to night play. For a man out at night seeking pleasure, a girl had to be energetic enough to enjoy a little rough and tumble.

Han Yanyan withdrew from 812 and called the escorts in. When they heard that Boss Yao had asked for them, the girls went gladly. Not only was Boss Yao rich, but he was handsome, and he owned the club. Anyone who could sink her claws into him was getting a free rise to the top.

She watched them happily enter 812 before returning to the area she was responsible for.

Yao Chen was powerful, rich, and his position was unshakable. What could a man like him possibly want?