CH 11.2

Chen Ying arrives at the Caesars Club five minutes before ten o’clock. 

He doesn’t rush in. Instead, he smokes a cigarette in the parking lot first. 

It seems that he only smoked three cigarettes all day today, and he missed a lot of work. Forget it, you can’t complain about the young miss: she’s the real victim in all this. 

Chen Ying holds a cigarette, thinks for a while, and calls Cheng Jiangyi. “This weekend—you, my brother, and me—the three of us will meet up.” 

“And do what?” 

“Have a parent-teacher meeting,” Chen Ying says, puffing on his cigarette. These inhumane people, will they just leave the young miss’ matters to him? 

What Mi Xi said earlier: ‘If she lives’—he really feels uncomfortable about it. Didn’t she have three years to find a partner? Guardians like them can’t waste time; they can’t just wait and rely on Yue Lao. With them, her three uncles, is there any fear that Mi Xi won’t find a match?

“Parent-teacher meeting, such a high-end event is not suitable for me ah,” Cheng Jiang Yi immediately wants to get out of it.

“Whoever doesn’t come, I’ll send Mi Xi to that person’s house. Raising children is even more high-end.” 

“…” 

“That’s all. I still have something to do. I’ll let you know the specific time and place after I think about it,” Chen Ying says neatly. He hangs up the phone without hesitation, calls Chen Fei this time, and says the same thing, using the same reasoning. Chen Fei completely couldn’t say ‘no’ at all, which makes Chen Ying very satisfied. 

It seems that sending little Mi Xi over to them is a very effective threat, so he should save it for more use.

Chen Ying smiles, takes another puff of his cigarette, calms himself down, and thinks about what he wants to talk about once he enters the room.

A tall man smoking a cigarette, leaning against an eye-catching car with a lazy posture yet dignified appearance—this attracted the attention of quite a lot of women. One woman in a short dress walks by, winks boldly at Chen Ying, and keeps smiling at him. Chen Ying flicks his cigarette, expressing that he’s very busy now. 

The woman doesn’t give up. She walks over to Chen Ying, and says softly, “I’m free.”

Chen Ying curls the corner of his mouth. “I’m not free. I have an appointment with a man.”

The woman freezes for a moment, pouts, and is gone.

After taking the last couple of puffs, Chen Ying looks at his watch. Very good. He’s five minutes late—this is exactly the effect he wanted. He takes the cigarette butt, stubs it out on a nearby trash can, and with slow, deliberate steps enters Ceasar’s doors.

In the private room, Wang Bing has already arrived. Seeing Chen Ying, he hurriedly gets up to greet him. The two of them exchange their business cards, exchange some courtesy, and then sit down together. 

Lu Ya is a competent secretary. When booking a private box, she also ordered wine, a fruit plate, some snacks, and now everything is placed on the table. Chen Ying pours wine for Wang Bing and hands him a cigarette. Wang Bing takes it.

“It’s too stuffy like this, do you wanna call one or two to come in, sing and have a drink with us?”1 Chen Ying leans on the big sofa, with the attitude of an idle young master. 

Wang Bing stiffens for a moment, then shakes his head. “No need, no need. We’ll be talking business, not easy to do that if they’re here.” 

Chen Ying shrugs, takes a puff from the cigarette, then lets it out. “It doesn’t matter.”

At this time, someone knocks twice on the door of the private box. After a pause of a few seconds, Caesar’s manager-on-duty pushes the door open and enters. Seeing Chen Ying’s smile, he says, “Second Young Master, I haven’t seen you here for a long time.”

“Yeah, it’s been a while since there was anything interesting so I haven’t come.”

The manager smiles, gestures his hand towards the ice bucket with the wine bottle in it and says, “Secretary Lu ordered the wine, and I added a bottle of 80-year-old wine on my own initiative. We are here to serve you. If the Second Young Master feels that there is something missing, just let us know. I’ll go out first and won’t disturb you anymore.”

The manager leaves at Chen Ying’s nod. Chen Ying flicks the cigarette ash, and says to Wang Bing, “Food isn’t bad here—what do you want to eat?” 

Wang Bing just smiles. It’s the first time he’s dealing with Chen Ying, so he doesn’t know the details of this person’s preferences. He doesn’t seem easy to deal with. But he took the initiative to contact him to talk about signing the contract again, which is in his favor. 

In fact, Wang Bing himself also needs to get this contract signed, and will need to explain to the big boss. He only intended to bully Liu Meifen a little when he said he’s not signing the contract for the time being, but in the end, the woman refused to play and now the parties might not be signing the contract at all.

Seeing that Wang Bing doesn’t intend to order anything, Chen Ying doesn’t force it. Instead he takes his wine glass, clinks their glasses together, and drinks first. Naturally, Wang Bing can’t refuse, so he also drinks quickly. Chen Ying pours it for Wang Bing again, stubs out the cigarette, eats some snacks, and asks Wang Bing to eat too. Without saying a word, they clink glasses again. 

Wang Bing drinks another glass, obviously relaxing a lot at this point. This time he takes the initiative to pour Chen Ying a glass of wine. Chen Ying looks at his wine glass and says that he suddenly thought of a joke: it’s a dirty joke. Wang Bing understands and laughs. Chen Ying pats him on the shoulder and laughs as well, loud and vulgar. “You do understand.” 

The two begin to talk, chatting about things in the business circle, with gossip and dirty jokes in between. While chatting, they drink several glasses of wine, and quickly wipe out most of the bottles.

Wang Bing is a little drunk, but he’s still sober. He opens the briefcase and takes out the contract. “Mr. Chen, to be candid, this is the contract. We have cooperated for several years, and the conditions have not changed. It’s not easy to explain this to the higher-ups. Now, more than one company wants to negotiate with us, and I have to have a good reason to persuade the higher-ups to continue working with you, right?”

Chen Ying just laughs, ignores the contract, and puts it aside. “Isn’t it easy to talk about the conditions? I was annoyed when I heard them report that Yongkai will not sign the contract for the time being. How could that be? There is obviously a problem with communication.” 

He pours Wang Bing another drink. They both drink. Chen Ying says, “There is no business that cannot be negotiated, only people who can’t do it. I’m thinking they must have failed in their task.”

Wang Bing is very happy. Chen Ying doesn’t continue to talk about the cooperation, and instead says a few other things. Wang Bing is so entertained that he keeps laughing. He hiccups and praises the wine as good. Chen Ying pushes the boat along, saying that he will send a bottle to his company later. Wang Bing hurriedly declines, being polite.

“It’s just wine, don’t worry about it. This contract is very important to us. Mr. Wang is willing to give face, so it’s not like I don’t know what to do. If I lose this contract, I won’t be able to raise my head in front of my father. Those old directors are also right there, waiting to see what kind of joke I will make of myself. So, it’s all thanks to Mr. Wang’s help.” He pours the wine while talking.

Wang Bing is now drunk with wine, his head full of misty soup; he laughs and is quite excited. “Mr. Chen, don’t worry, there is nothing wrong with this contract. It can definitely be signed! Before this, it’s Liu Meifen who was ignorant and didn’t know her position. If I don’t suppress this, it will be difficult to cooperate in the future, right?” 

Liu Meifen. The image of the woman who was crying in the meeting flashes in Chen Ying’s mind. He purposely smiles, full of mischief and meaning. “She is a bit old-fashioned and doesn’t know how to flatter. Mr. Wang is magnanimous, so don’t take it to heart.” 

Wang Bing hears Chen Ying’s tone. His eyes suddenly turn sour, and he lowers his voice, “Mr. Chen has suffered from her too?”

Chen Ying puts down his glass and asks him, “Did you demand to have sex with her?” 

This is a straightforward question and Wang Bing is unable to bear it. “Hey, hey, that’s not what I said.” 

He looks up and sees that Chen Ying doesn’t look unhappy. He’s immediately relieved. “I told her that the contract could be signed right away once she agrees, but she turned her face instead. To be honest, Mr. Chen, your company is really not the only one to talk to me about the ad agency rights. There are many others.” 

“Really? Do people from those other companies have sex with you?” Chen Ying sneers.

Wang Bing is taken aback for a moment—he has never seen someone who speaks so plainly. Seeing that Chen Ying’s face is not looking good, he hurriedly says, “No, how can this be? I was just joking with Liu Meifen. The contract matter is still the same. You see, didn’t I come here specially to meet you to discuss the contract?”

Chen Ying smiles, showing his white teeth. He picks up the contract that has been left aside until now, and without even looking at it, he says to Wang Bing, “Mr. Wang, my family runs an advertising company, not a nightclub, and there is no lady under our employ who can be brought out to service you.”

Wang Bing’s face freezes.

Chen Ying puts away his smile and stares at Wang Bing. “I, Chen Ying, am the general manager, not a f*cking pimp. How f*cking bold of you to want to touch my employees. Go to bed and you’ll sign the contract? F*ck that sh*t.” He quickly tears up the contract and stuffs it into Wang Bing’s glass. “It’s only 40 million, you pr*ck! See if I’ll be heartbroken. Take your f*cking contract and eat sh*t.” 

Wang Bing is dumbfounded, completely not expecting that Chen Ying will turn his back on the contract and say this.

Chen Ying ignores him, stands up while still swearing, slams the door and walks away. Walking out of Caesar’s door, the lingering anger is still there. He wants to have a cigarette, touches his pockets, and remembers that he left the cigarette case in the private box. He gets into the car still brimming with resentment and fires up the ignition.

“Damn him, think I’ll be so f*cking heartbroken over 40 million? Get the f*ck outta here.”

TN: Translating this chapter made me feel all yucky inside. Fuck that Wang Bin guy. What a waste of fictional 80-year old wine. But also, Chen Ying, towards the end, is speaking all in slang about grass and mothers and buddhist nuns that all pretty much mean  ‘f*ck that sh*t’ lmao.

FOOTNOTES:

1There’s no clear noun here, but from context, since he’s doing a ‘dissolute young master’ persona, I’m guessing Chen Ying means a couple of ‘girls’ to accompany them. 

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