Even Through Tears, We Had to Finish It

"When the Flowers Bloom?" Li Qiang's eyes lit up. "That name's not too bad."

Zhang Wei nodded with a smile. "That's right, Good Scenery is a lotus flower. I'd say, Boss Feng, you really are a man who cherishes flowers."

Feng Jun merely smiled without speaking. I hope you'll still be laughing in a minute.

To find a woman ugly enough, he had opened nearly a hundred cameras in the spatial realm before picking one. That hadn't been easy.

Li Qiang scrolled through his phone and quickly found When the Flowers Bloom. "Huh, her profile picture is a classroom desk. Her Moments are visible, but I can only see ten photos... No personal photos."

After a pause, he looked up at Feng Jun. "Interesting, but Boss Feng... you need to help me add her."

Feng Jun rolled his eyes at him. "Do you need me to teach you how to add someone? Don't you know how?"

Of course Li Qiang knew how. He had just learned today, after all.

Brother Qiang the Mighty: Hey, beautiful. I made a bet with my friends that I could add you. Accept, and I'll send you a hundred-yuan red packet.

About ten seconds later, the screen displayed, "When the Flowers Bloom has accepted your friend request. You can now chat."

She was quite straightforward. Another message immediately followed. "Handsome, where's my red packet?"

Li Qiang copied Feng Jun's move and sent her a fifty-yuan red packet, then began frantically browsing through When the Flowers Bloom's Moments.

She posted a lot—one post every day or two, sometimes even several in a single day.

Li Qiang nodded. That's more like it. As a beauty, she gets harassed too much in daily life, so she can only post more on Moments.

But after scrolling for quite a while, he finally said dejectedly, "I'm telling you, there aren't any pictures of her... Though there are plenty of food photos."

Zhang Wei was also leaning over to look at her Moments. Hearing that, he spoke up. "That's perfectly normal, isn't it? Some beauties like posting photos, while others don't. She's confident in herself."

Li Qiang blinked, feeling that made some sense. Yet for some reason, he also had a faintly ominous feeling in his heart.

Just then, messages from When the Flowers Bloom came one after another, asking why he had only sent fifty yuan. Her tone got worse each time.

Zhang Wei laughed. "She really is a beauty... What a temper."

Li Qiang continued copying Feng Jun and sent a video call request.

When the Flowers Bloom's reaction was much the same. She stressed that she wasn't a beauty. "These days, doesn't the word 'beauty' just refer to gender?"

"Pretty reserved... I've noticed that women these days are all better than the last at pretending. So damn pretentious," Li Qiang muttered with a laugh, then started typing again.

He sent video call requests again and again. Under his insistent persistence, When the Flowers Bloom finally accepted the call.

Zhang Wei had been tilting his head, happily drinking while watching the phone screen. Suddenly, he sprayed out a mouthful of liquor and began coughing violently.

"Fuck!" Li Qiang shuddered from head to toe and directly threw his phone away. "..."

Fortunately, the private room had wooden flooring, so the phone did not break.

Zhang Wei coughed and laughed in fits, laughing as though he were about to choke to death.

"Holy shit," Li Qiang said with a dark expression. "What the fuck... Who did I offend? How did I add some fat old hag?"

At first glance, When the Flowers Bloom looked at least fifty years old. She was not only extremely obese, but exceptionally ugly as well. Her hairline was receding, her eyebrows sparse, her eyes tiny slits, and her nose bridge flat. She had a lion-like nose with both nostrils turned upward, and her lower lip stuck out farther than her upper lip—a classic underbite.

Even more disgusting, little red spots covered her face in patches, leaving it pitted and uneven. Who knew whether it was a skin condition or an endocrine problem.

Li Qiang was beyond furious. Fuck, I spent fifty thousand yuan just to add someone like this?

But seeing everyone cackling with laughter, with the hostesses laughing so hard their spring scenery was showing without them noticing, he could not hold it in either. He gave a self-mocking laugh. "Boss Feng, impressive... You're really impressive!"

Feng Jun was laughing loudly too, so hard he could barely catch his breath.

Amid the laughter, Li Qiang's phone on the floor spoke up. "Handsome boys, is this fun?"

Feng Jun hurriedly waved a hand to indicate that he had not watched the video, then pressed a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture.

Li Qiang was ultimately good at handling people. Though he was already furious, he steadied himself, walked over, and picked up the phone. "My friends were just messing around. There was no bad intention. Sorry for disturbing you, sis."

After saying that, he ended the video call, turned around, and glared viciously at Feng Jun. Through gritted teeth, he said, "Boss Feng!"

Feng Jun finally managed to stop laughing, though his shoulders were still shaking. Panting, he asked, "So? I definitely wasn't lying... Ugly enough, right?"

"Fuck," Li Qiang replied, baring his teeth. "I swear, I've never seen a woman this ugly in my entire life!"

"Then there's no problem," Feng Jun said solemnly. "Looks like I won this bet beyond dispute."

The hostesses burst out laughing again. One of them actually laughed so hard she slid beneath the sofa.

"Fuck," Li Qiang wanted badly to curse, but it was inconvenient to lose his temper with Feng Jun.

Turning slightly, he noticed Zhang Wei clutching his stomach with laughter. His face darkened. "Dawei... You're paying all fifty thousand."

"Why should I?" Zhang Wei immediately objected. "We agreed on this long ago. I'm only paying twenty-five thousand... If you want me to pay all of it, fine. Give me a reason."

Li Qiang's mouth twitched. Expressionlessly, he said, "For the rest of your life, won't you be living off this joke?"

"That does make sense," Zhang Wei said with a nod, then broke into loud laughter again. Among their close friends, chances to encounter embarrassing situations like this were rare. This was something they could talk about for a lifetime—whenever they remembered it, they would laugh.

Compared with that kind of happiness, money was nothing.

Still, he did not want to pay fifty thousand. "Then I'll add a little. I'll pay thirty thousand... You ran into an ugly woman. If it had been a beauty, would you have given her to me?"

Li Qiang argued confidently, "But I helped you test the waters. You can't deny that, can you? And even if I won, Boss Feng would be paying on your behalf. That's also true, isn't it?"

It was not that he lacked money. The key was that this was already irritating enough. If he had to pay too, he figured he would be angry enough to cough up blood.

"No," Zhang Wei shook his head, still laughing. "Thirty thousand, no more. Otherwise, report it to the police and say Boss Feng organized gambling involving a particularly huge sum, with an extremely bad impact."

"Fuck," Li Qiang's face grew even darker. "You're still joking around?"

Feng Jun had recovered by then and quickly reminded him, "Send her a red packet. Send When the Flowers Bloom a red packet."

"Send her my ass," Li Qiang said, baring his teeth. He raised his hand and opened his phone, but froze the next instant. Then he sucked in a cold breath. "Holy shit..."

Seeing this, Zhang Wei hurried over and craned his neck to look at the phone.

When the Flowers Bloom had sent more messages—quite a few of them.

First, she had asked for the remaining fifty-yuan red packet. Later, seeing no response from them, she had actually sent a threat. "Handsome, I only asked you for a fifty-yuan red packet because you're handsome. Don't force me to get rough."

The final message was especially threatening. "Do you know who I am? I'm not joking with you. If I don't see your red packet within ten minutes, I'll send people to find you. Blocking me won't help... I can locate you directly!"

"Psycho!" After steadying himself, Li Qiang directly blocked her.

Zhang Wei, however, agreed with Feng Jun. "Why bother? It's only fifty yuan. Even if she's bluffing, it's not like you're short of that little money."

Li Qiang stared at him darkly. "Then you pay it. I don't have money!"

"Haha," Zhang Wei laughed again. The fact that Qiangzi was haggling over fifty yuan showed just how badly he had been hit today. "I really will be living off this joke for the rest of my life."

The hostesses laughed along for quite a while, finding today's events far more entertaining than a holiday comedy movie.

The other two hostesses were somewhat afraid of making Li Qiang angry, but the one beside Feng Jun was not. "Boss Feng, that trick of yours is simply incredible. Can you teach me?"

Hearing that, Li Qiang and Zhang Wei exchanged a glance. An absurd thought rose in both their hearts: Could Feng Jun really use his Sixth Sense through a phone to find a specific person?

The feeling was truly absurd, but no matter what, the two women Feng Jun had found—whether the beauty or the ugly one—had been spot-on.

The beautiful one had been breathtakingly gorgeous, while the ugly one had been terrifyingly hideous.

Was this really a coincidence? Probably not.

Feng Jun, however, explained to the hostess with a serious expression, "Sixth Sense is just a pure feeling. I don't know how to teach it, and you can't learn it."

Just then, Li Qiang's phone rang. He picked it up and looked at the number. "Huh, this is an impressive number... Hello, who's this?"

A woman's voice came through the receiver. "Li Qiang, right? From the TV station. Your Boss is Old Duan, isn't he? You blocked me? You've got some nerve... Just wait until I come find you!"

"..." Li Qiang could not help baring his teeth. "Sis, I was just joking. My friend blocked you; it really had nothing to do with me. I'll take you off the blacklist right away, and I'll send the fifty-yuan red packet immediately."

He was good at reading people. He might be willful, but he understood very clearly just how difficult it was to deal with someone who could obtain his phone number through ChatChat in such a short time and learn his background.

Not to mention anything else—just getting this phone number was impossible without some status.

So he decisively admitted defeat. Fifty yuan... really was nothing.

However, When the Flowers Bloom was not so easy to appease. "Handsome, how many fifty-yuan notes do you think it took for me to find you this quickly? You're at Mingjue Club right now, aren't you? Dare tell me which private room you're in? Don't make me go room by room to identify you."