So What If the Beautiful Campus Belle Loves Money? (19)

Shi Zheng took out her phone and called back.

The phone rang several times before Hua Jinchen picked up. The background was rather noisy on his end, but it quickly fell quiet.

"Hello?" His voice came through, betraying no particular emotion.

"Sorry, baby. There were still a few details about the Forum I needed to confirm with President Gu one last time, so I had to hang up in a hurry."

Shi Zheng spoke naturally. "We're done talking now. You said you were nearby. Where are you now?"

There was silence on the other end of the line for a few seconds.

In that brief silence, a soundless undercurrent seemed to surge between them.

They both knew perfectly well that the excuse was laughably flimsy.

There was no way Hua Jinchen hadn't noticed something was wrong, and Shi Zheng knew he must have grown suspicious.

Strangely, though, neither of them explicitly pointed it out.

"I'm at the Yunding Club," Hua Jinchen finally said. "You don't have to come over."

His tone was far from warm, even a little cold.

Shi Zheng was about to go along with it and say, "All right, then," when Hua Jinchen abruptly changed tack. "Forget it. Suit yourself."

Then he gave her the club's exact address and private room number.

"Got it," Shi Zheng replied.

"Mm." Hua Jinchen hung up.

Listening to the busy signal, Shi Zheng lowered her arm.

Shi Zheng: [System, what's Hua Jinchen's current favorability?]

System: [Hua Jinchen's current favorability: -50.]

Shi Zheng: [The situation is more promising than I expected. I thought it would reach -100.]

System: [Host, he clearly already knows you had intimate contact with Gu Yanshen. Why did he choose not to bring it up directly? Could he have some particular fetish, such as a cuckold fetish?]

Shi Zheng: [A cuckold fetish? No. People like Hua Jinchen and Gu Yanshen value face above everything else. They may not genuinely care about me as a person, but they definitely care about winning and losing against other men.]

Yunding Club.

At that moment, the atmosphere in the private room was rather tense.

Hua Jinchen sat alone in the middle of the velvet sofa.

Several whiskey glasses already stood empty on the coffee table in front of him, and he held a fresh one in his hand.

Expressionless, he silently drank glass after glass, paying no heed to the people around him who were trying to persuade him to drink.

"Hey, I say... Young Master Hua isn't himself today, is he? His face is frighteningly dark. What set him off? A broken heart?"

"No way, right? Who could break Young Master Hua's heart? It'd be good enough if he didn't break someone else's. Surely he hasn't been made to wear a—"

"Shh! Are you looking to die? How can you say something like that? If Young Master Hua hears you, do you still want to stay in this circle?"

Even so, the two exchanged a knowing look, each seeing the same suspicion in the other's eyes.

"Brother Zhao, Brother Huang, you're close to Young Master Hua. What's wrong with him? If he keeps drinking like this, he'll probably end up in the hospital."

Zhao Yong immediately shook his head, his expression saying, "Don't drag me into this." "How would I dare ask? It's Young Master Hua's private business. If he doesn't want to talk, who would dare ask?"

Though they thought they were keeping their voices down, the private room was only so big, and Hua Jinchen wasn't drunk. Their words drifted into his ears in fragments.

A green hat?

Heh. Those bastards guessed pretty damn accurately. Why had he never seen their brains work so fast before?

He tipped his head back and drained the rest of the liquor in his glass.

The fiery liquid burned his throat, but it couldn't suppress the restless gloom churning in his heart.

Just then, his phone vibrated.

He glanced at the caller ID, his gaze shifting slightly, then got up and went outside the private room to answer.

A few minutes later, he returned, his expression seemingly a few degrees colder than when he had left.

The oppressive air around him made the people who had been whispering among themselves fall silent instinctively.

"Someone's coming over later."

Hua Jinchen sat back down on the sofa, dropped those words, and picked up the bottle to pour himself another drink.

"Someone's coming? Who? A man or a woman? Who has enough face to make Young Master Hua wait in person?"

"Could it be the one we caught a glimpse of last time... the one saved in his phone as 'Little Wildcat'?"

"Young Master Hua is finally willing to bring the treasure he's been hiding away in a golden house out for the brothers to meet."

The others also showed curiosity and anticipation, the new gossip doing something to dispel the oppressive atmosphere from before.

Anyone Hua Jinchen would bring up and wait for of his own accord was highly unusual in their own right.

Seeing that he wouldn't answer, the group stopped pressing.

But their conversation naturally steered clear of their earlier sensitive speculation, turning instead to guesses about what illustrious personage was coming: a campus belle from some school, or a newly debuted celebrity.

Time passed, second by second.

Another half bottle of liquor was consumed, but the person they were expecting still failed to appear.

The atmosphere in the private room gradually shifted from anticipation to impatience.

Someone muttered, "Why aren't they here yet?"

The glass in front of Hua Jinchen was empty again.

He held his phone, its screen dark.

No one dared casually ask him about it.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated again, and the screen lit up.

This time it wasn't a call; it seemed to be a message.

Hua Jinchen unlocked the screen and glanced at it.

The next second, everyone in the private room clearly saw the last trace of calm on Hua Jinchen's face shatter completely, replaced by a savage, menacing look.

The veins stood out on the back of the hand gripping his phone, as though he might crush it the next moment.

"Young... Young Master Hua?" Huang Siyuan, who was closest to him, jumped in fright and spoke tentatively.

Hua Jinchen sprang to his feet, the force of the movement knocking over an empty glass beside him. The sound of breaking glass was particularly piercing in the silence.

Without looking at the people around him or even leaving a word, he grabbed the coat beside him and strode straight toward the private room door, an aura as terrifying as a storm about to break around him.

"What happened?!"

"The person he was waiting for didn't show up, so why did Young Master Hua leave himself?"

"Why did Young Master Hua look so awful?"

"Come on, let's follow him and see. What if something's happened?!"

The private room immediately descended into chaos.

Everyone exchanged looks. No longer in any mood to drink and have fun, they crowded out of the private room after Hua Jinchen.