Nanjing Restaurant, inside the opulent and spacious "Riding the Dragon" private dining room.
A well-dressed group of men and women were sitting on the sofas in the side hall, cracking jokes, boasting, and roughhousing.
"Young Master Li, who else are we waiting for? I'm practically starving to death!"
One of the young men, with slicked-back hair and decked out in a POLO shirt, couldn't help but complain, as it was already getting close to seven o'clock, and everyone was getting hungry.
"Why the rush, dumbass, aren't there fruit platters and snacks on the table? Munch on those in the meantime."
The youth addressed as Young Master Li snapped back at him, then picked up his phone and sent a voice message to the contact saved as "Yuan clown": "You mutt, it's already half-past six, where the hell are you?"
He was Li Yuhang, the organizer of tonight's gathering, and also a childhood friend of Shen Yuan's.
But after sending the voice message and waiting for a while without getting a reply, he bluntly said, "Forget it, I'll ask them to start serving the dishes, who knows when that kid will show up."
Hearing this, the group of young men and women sighed with relief and got up to take their seats at the main dining area.
And the young man in the POLO shirt who had spoken earlier strolled over with his hands in his pockets, carefree, "That's more like it, no need to wait for the unimportant ones, the important people would certainly never be late."
Li Yuhang shot him a glance but didn't say much. His name was Lin Guangyao, and they had a pretty good relationship, able to call each other brothers when drunk, though sometimes Lin's character was indeed questionable.
"Speaking of whom, who exactly are we waiting for, making us wait so long?"
Once Lin Guangyao sat down, he casually draped his right hand over the shoulder of a girl sitting next to him and asked.
"Shen Yuan, don't you know him?"
Li Yuhang remembered he had organized a bar gathering before, and that had been the first time Lin Guangyao and Shen Yuan had met.
However, everyone got really hammered that night, and by the latter half, the two of them were drunkenly hugging each other's shoulders and calling each other brothers.
"Why invite him?"
Upon hearing the name "Shen Yuan," Lin Guangyao's brow furrowed.
His family owned two factories that produced automobile accessories, making close to ten million in profit per year. Although that didn't compare to Li Yuhang's family wealth, in their circle, his status was significant.
The world has always had a divide between rich and poor—apart from the gap in wealth, there was also a gap in horizons, thinking, and concepts.
Shen Yuan's family had gone bankrupt, and he was no longer part of their circle, even falling to a different social class altogether.
Therefore, Lin Guangyao felt that it was important to draw clear boundaries and cut ties with such "lower-class people."
Lin Guangyao smiled faintly, but a wicked thought surged in his heart.
His cousin had snagged a top-notch car saleswoman, and from the photos he had seen, her legs were plump and long in stockings, her upper half authentic through and through.
Most importantly, when clothed in a figure-hugging miniskirt and white blouse, it was the epitome of office lady allure—no man could resist!
The influencer girl next to him didn't hold a candle to that saleswoman.
He wondered what kind of luck his cousin had stumbled upon to land such a girlfriend.
Actually, his cousin came from a very average family background. His parents, Lin Guangyao's uncle and aunt, ran a small business, and the initial startup capital for their venture was borrowed from Lin Guangyao's parents.
Now, his cousin was a sales manager at GAC Honda, a position he got with the help of Lin Guangyao's parents.
His cousin's family were all beneficiaries of his family's generosity, so Lin Guangyao always looked down on his cousin's lot.
To him, his cousin's family was practically a vassal to theirs.
Especially this cousin, who didn't even qualify to be at this kind of gathering. If it weren't for him bringing him along, how could he even be at the table?
As for his cousin's girlfriend, seeing as she was just a girlfriend and not yet married, he was free to try his luck with her, right?
Who knows, maybe his girlfriend would suddenly take a fancy to him?
Lin Guangyao was delighting in the thought of that photo, vaguely looking forward to it, his hand again mischievously exploring his influencer girlfriend's cleavage.
The dishes were already being served one after another. Seeing that Shen Yuan hadn't arrived yet, Li Yuhang simply told everyone to start eating.
But just then, the door to the private dining room was pushed open and Shen Yuan walked in with a smile, saying, "Sorry to keep everyone waiting."
"Looks like I've arrived just at the right time, the dishes have just started to come out."
"You damn dog, why the hell are you so late?" Li Yuhang couldn't help but curse.
Shen Yuan, making himself comfortable next to Li Yuhang, replied with a smile, "Traffic jam on the road, plus I suspect the Didi driver took a detour. The navigation showed 10 kilometers before I hailed the cab, but when I arrived, the Didi settlement page showed 13 kilometers."
"Damn, there's even a Didi driver who takes detours? Complain about that son of a bitch!"
Li Yuhang chimed in with the invective.
Upon hearing the word "Didi," Lin Guangyao's annoyance grew.
Everyone here arrived by car, whether Mercedes or BMW, and you, motherfucker, took a Didi? No wonder you got stuck in traffic!