Wu Jinliang was lost in a cloud of fog, while Chu Xiaoxin understood at least a little. Still, he was no expert himself. After hesitating for a moment, he smiled at Song Tianyao:
"A-Yao, it seems you've done your homework. As for me, I hate trouble and love making friends. What I value most in friendship is trust: I trust you, and you trust me. You told me today that you wanted a job, so I'll hire you for a trial period of three months. Your monthly salary will be two hundred and thirty dollars for those three months. If you do well, it'll go up in the fourth month. If you don't, let's not part on bad terms. You can leave on your own."
"If I don't do well, I won't need to collect those three months' wages, will I? What I want isn't money, but an opportunity." Song Tianyao raised his glass. "So thank you for giving me this chance tonight, Young Master Shun. Once we've finished dinner, let's go to North Point Dance Hall Nightclub for some singing and drinks. My treat."
Chapter 7: Thoughts
All three enjoyed the banquet, host and guests alike. Song Tianyao entertained them with amusing tales of romantic escapades from his previous life, and Chu Xiaoxin listened with rapt attention. The Chu Family's second young master reckoned he had spent several years frequenting Hong Kong's pleasure scene, but after hearing about Song Tianyao's experiences, he suddenly felt that his own years of dashing romance had been like those of a trash picker scavenging by the roadside: everything that had passed through his hands had been nothing but faded flowers and withered willows.
Japanese women who played hard to get, Korean women who were demure and compliant, Black women who were uninhibited and fiery, blonde, blue-eyed white foreign girls—there seemed to be none that Song Tianyao didn't know about. Chu Xiaoxin, on the other hand, had never even been with one of those four kinds of women.
The meal lasted until after nine. Song Tianyao said to Chu Xiaoxin, "Young Master Shun, the timing is just right. How about we go to North Point Dance Hall Nightclub now? Brother Leung told me you're the head of a young masters' club for a popular songstress at a certain Dancefloor Nightclub, aren't you?"
"After hearing those stories of yours, I feel like a frog sitting at the bottom of a well, gazing at the sky, even if I am the head of a young masters' club." Chu Xiaoxin grinned. "You're only eighteen. How could you have known so many different kinds of women? Don't tell me you're just that charming."
"Young Master Shun, have you heard the saying? What attracts women to a man isn't his looks or his age, but how much money he has. In this world, there isn't a woman in the pleasure trade who can't be bought with money. It's just a question of how much you're willing to put up." As he spoke, Song Tianyao looked at the alluring songstress beside Chu Xiaoxin. "Miss, I'll give you fifty dollars. Will you spend the night with me?"
"Mr. Song, you do like to joke." The songstress gave him a flirtatious glance and tactfully declined.
Song Tianyao smiled casually and said to Chu Xiaoxin, "I offered fifty dollars, and this young lady thought I was joking."
He took his wallet from his pocket, opened it, and laid all the banknotes inside on the table. Then he spoke again. "If fifty isn't enough, make it a hundred. If a hundred isn't enough, two hundred. If two hundred isn't enough, four hundred. If four hundred isn't enough, eight hundred."
When Song Tianyao stopped at eight hundred, the songstress couldn't hide the delighted surprise on her face. "What if eight hundred isn't enough?"
"If eight hundred isn't enough, I'm not planning to raise the price. I'll take the money to a nightclub and find someone else to have fun with." Song Tianyao laughed, pulled out a hundred-dollar note, and handed it to her. "This is Young Master Shun's tip for you tonight."
Although the songstress knew perfectly well that Song Tianyao had been teasing her, the stack of banknotes was right there on the table, and she couldn't help being tempted, imagining all the while that it might be real. In the end, the eight hundred dollars came to nothing, but a solid hundred Hong Kong dollars had landed in her hand. She knew how to play the situation, too. She slipped into Chu Xiaoxin's arms and said in a cloying voice, "Thank you for the tip, Young Master Shun."
"A-Yao, you're too generous. That's no good; be careful your family doesn't scold you," Chu Xiaoxin said with a smile when he saw Song Tianyao tip the songstress.
Chu Xiaoxin himself spent money with both hands and had often been scolded by his dad, Chu Yaozong, for it. Seeing Song Tianyao spend so generously, he felt that he, who had long been on the receiving end of scoldings, finally had someone he could caution.
"Young Master Shun says I'm too generous. He's my boss now, so I have to listen to him. Miss, would you mind giving the money back?" Song Tianyao said to the woman in Chu Xiaoxin's arms, looking troubled.
The songstress practically sprawled over Chu Xiaoxin as she said coquettishly, "Young Master Shun, you're too much! I finally managed to earn a tiny little tip, and you scolded Mr. Song for being too generous. Now he wants it back."
"You're drinking with me, so how could I let A-Yao pay? Of course I'll pay myself." Chu Xiaoxin took out his wallet, pulled out a hundred dollars, and reached over to tuck the note into the woman's full bosom.
The songstress was clever. She knew that accepting two hundred dollars in tips could leave her with trouble she couldn't easily shake off, so she promptly returned the note Song Tianyao had given her.
Song Tianyao immediately handed it to the songstress beside Wu Jinliang. "Young Master Shun paid his own tip. He's the boss and a wealthy man, so I'll have to pay Brother Leung's for him. I also have to thank Brother Leung for introducing me to Young Master Shun."
Wu Jinliang didn't refuse. What a joke—he only earned a little over a hundred Hong Kong dollars a month. There was no way he could have tipped a songstress a hundred Hong Kong dollars out of his own pocket. Now that Song Tianyao had paid the tip for him, he thanked him several times without refusing.
The three men got up. Chu Xiaoxin and Wu Jinliang headed downstairs, each accompanied by his songstress, while Song Tianyao went over to the coolly beautiful, long-legged mature woman in the corner, who had stopped playing. He took out two hundred Hong Kong dollars and placed them on the low table beside her.
"This is a small token of thanks. Thank you for playing the pipa for more than two hours, miss."
The mature woman's pipa music had continued without a break for two hours. When Song Tianyao came over to give her a tip, he noticed that one of the artificial pipa nails she wore had cracked.
"Thank you, sir." The mature woman took only one note and returned the other to Song Tianyao with both hands. "I couldn't accept such a large tip from you. A hundred dollars is enough."
This was the first time the mature woman had spoken. She had played the pipa throughout the previous two hours without singing. Now that he heard her voice, clear and rounded, neither servile nor arrogant, Song Tianyao felt more at ease with her than with the two songstresses at the table, who had put on coy and coquettish airs.
"I'll come back for drinks. Consider it a tip for next time." With that, Song Tianyao turned, casually slipped on the suit jacket draped over his arm, and strode downstairs.