Treating You to Dinner

By a little after five, the six women had finished their work and were getting ready to close up the warehouse for the day.

Zhuang Xin finally stretched and said, "How about I treat you all to dinner? We've talked for so long, and we really hit it off."

The six women's eyes lit up at once. "Where are we going to eat?"

"I know a pretty good seafood place!"

"Oh, I'm sick of seafood after eating it every day. How about barbecue?"

"I think Sichuan food is better. It's been ages since I had any."

The girls chattered away noisily.

Zhuang Xin stood beside them, smiling without saying a word. After talking for ages, they still could not decide what to eat.

"How about I decide?" Zhuang Xin finally spoke up, seeing that this could not go on.

"You decide, then..."

For the moment, none of the women knew what they wanted to eat either.

Since Zhuang Xin was treating them, it did not really matter what they ate.

"Alright, follow me." He led the six women to the car, only to find it was far too crowded... Zhuang Xin called Xu Chi. The guy happened to be nearby!

The moment Xu Chi heard there were six girls, he said, "I'll be there in ten minutes," and hung up.

And sure enough, the guy really arrived in ten minutes!

Seeing Xu Chi's excited expression, Zhuang Xin could not help rolling his eyes.

Had this guy never seen a woman before or something?

"Brother Zhuang! There really are six beauties!" His eyes gleamed as he realized all six of them were quite pretty... In the end, his gaze settled on Qiu Qi. "Huh, this beauty looks kind of familiar. Have we met somewhere before?"

Zhuang Xin smacked Xu Chi on the forehead and said irritably, "Qiu Qi. She went to school with us. You forgot?"

"Oh, oh, oh, Qiu Qi..." He remembered now. Wasn't she the girl who had written Zhuang Xin a love letter back in school, only to be rejected by him? Xu Chi had seen her a few times then, and she could only have been considered average-looking.

She had become this beautiful now?

"Hehe! So she's Sister-in-law." Xu Chi could not resist teasing her.

Qiu Qi's pretty face immediately reddened, yet unexpectedly, she did not deny it.

"Alright, alright, let's get going. We're heading to Mi Xin!"

"Mi Xin?"

Xu Chi was startled. "Brother Zhuang, Mi Xin is expensive."

Of course Zhuang Xin knew it was expensive. He seemed to remember that Wen Yaohe, that green tea bitch, had invited him to eat at Mi Xin last time, but he had turned her down.

He had heard that even an ordinary meal there cost nearly twenty thousand.

And without a certain level of status, you could not even get in.

Rumor had it that the owner had an extraordinary background. The people who went there were all officials and nobles, coming specifically for the owner.

Half an hour later, the eight of them arrived at Mi Xin.

Even from the street, they could see the lavish decor. The artificial mountain at the entrance alone was exquisitely carved with lifelike flowers and trees. It was said that when the pond had been built, they had hired a renowned domestic carving master, who spent more than half a year completing it at a cost of over ten million.

Not to mention the five Blood Dragons in the pond. They were the Porsche of fish; a single one had once sold at auction for five million, and they were priceless even if you had the money.

"Welcome!"

Several beautiful hostesses stood at the entrance, their sweet smiles making everyone feel right at home.

Once inside, someone personally led the way and attended to them.

"Give us a private room. A bigger one," Zhuang Xin said with a smile to the beautiful server.

"Certainly, sir. My name is Chen Mei. You can just call me Mei." Chen Mei made a welcoming gesture and led the way ahead of them.

Shortly afterward, they arrived at a private room called "Rose." Perhaps because there were so many women in their group, the room felt softer, with a hint of girlish pink.

"Sir, how is this room? Or would you like to switch to another one?" Chen Mei asked with a smile as she pushed open the door.

Zhuang Xin nodded. "This one will do."

He then took the menu and casually ordered seven or eight dishes, along with several bottles of red wine.

Only then did everyone begin chatting and laughing.

After quite a while, Qiu Qi came over to Zhuang Xin with a red face. "Could you come to the restroom with me?"

"The restroom? You're afraid to go by yourself?" Zhuang Xin found it rather amusing.

But he had hit upon Qiu Qi's sore spot. It was her first time in such a luxurious place, and she might not even know where the restroom was. She was afraid of embarrassing herself.

What she did not know was that it was Zhuang Xin's first time here too!

"Alright! Let's go." Zhuang Xin led Qiu Qi outside, found Chen Mei, asked where the restroom was, and then took her there.

Zhuang Xin stood by the stair railing, calmly scrolling through his phone.

After quite some time, Qiu Qi came out, and the two of them headed back together.

Not far away, an ordinary-looking young man spotted Qiu Qi and froze. "Huh, look. Is that Qiu Qi? What's she doing here?"

"I think so."

The other man with him was also stunned.

Qiu Qi was one of the suppliers under them. Usually, she came to them to purchase goods.

As far as they knew, her business was not very large and she did not make much money. How could she afford to dine at Mi Xin?

"Why don't we go take a look? We didn't bring any female companions anyway. I heard that last time, this girl wanted you to let her take over another project, and she even wanted to start her own company. Maybe we could invest a little."

"Haha! Manager Zhao, what insight!"

"Manager Lu, you're not bad yourself. Your eyes are sharp."

The two looked at each other and laughed, following behind Qiu Qi to the Rose private room.

"It's just an ordinary private room. The bill should be around forty or fifty thousand. If they grit their teeth, they can probably barely afford it. They recently landed a big order and bought quite a lot of goods from me. They even wanted me to extend them about two million in credit. They've been borrowing money everywhere lately, so it looks like they managed to scrape it together."

Lu Kang chuckled and stepped forward, pushing open the private room door.

The moment he entered, he saw all six women inside, and his eyes immediately lit up. Then he looked toward Zhuang Xin and Xu Chi.

But he soon lost interest and turned to Qiu Qi with a smile. "It really is you, Qiu Qi. I thought I was seeing things earlier."

"Ah! You're... Manager Lu, and Manager Zhao." Qiu Qi was also rather surprised to see them.

These two ran the raw-material factory where she bought her goods. Because their business was small and their orders were limited, many people were unwilling to sell them materials at low prices. In addition, they had set up a small processing site of their own. If material prices were too high, their profits would be greatly reduced.

So they had always relied on this supplier for their livelihood.

"Haha! It's me. I saw you from afar earlier and thought I had mistaken you for someone else. Looks like you found investors. You're actually eating here—celebrating your success, huh?" Lu Kang casually took an empty seat.

Zhao Hong also sat down without ceremony and said, "Wow, that order you took recently must be huge. You're drinking red wine that costs over thirty thousand a bottle, and you ordered seven bottles right away. That's two hundred and ten thousand."

"Th-this wasn't ordered by me. It's my first time here too." Qiu Qi's face flushed hotly. If Zhuang Xin had not treated them, she did not know when she would ever have had the chance to come here.