The Big Shot's Invitation

At six in the evening, just after dark.

In the parking lot outside Jingtanghui, Chen Jue met up with Jiang Zhe.

"Fourth, not bad!"

"You finally bought a car?"

Jiang Zhe circled Chen Jue's car as if he'd discovered a whole new world, looking it over with great curiosity.

Then he climbed in and felt the steering wheel and interior of the Haoyue, checking out its features before clicking his tongue in admiration.

In Jiang Zhe's mind, Chen Jue had always been the laid-back sort, a homebody with little desire for a house or a car.

Who would've thought he'd suddenly turn up with a new car without saying a word?

It seemed his old college roommate really had changed lately.

"It's not even a good car. What's so exciting about it?" Chen Jue rolled his eyes and waited with Jiang Zhe at the entrance.

About ten minutes later, the main attraction arrived.

It was a black BMW X5 with a Hangzhou license plate. Chen Jue recognized it as an old model from before 2013, meaning it was at least ten years old.

There were two kinds of people who drove cars like this.

Either they had real money and had bought it years ago, or they'd bought an old luxury car secondhand to save face.

If someone were truly rich, wouldn't they trade up for a new model every year? Who would willingly buy a car someone else had already driven?

A middle-aged man in his forties got out. His hair was slicked back, and he wore a casual suit, a tasteful watch, and glasses. As soon as he stepped out, he waved to the two of them.

"President Wang!"

"This is the old classmate I told you about." Jiang Zhe went over and exchanged a few pleasantries. Chen Jue followed his lead, addressing the man respectfully.

While they'd been waiting, Jiang Zhe had already filled Chen Jue in on the middle-aged man's background.

His name was Wang Xing, and he was a vice president at Hengtong Finance, a company based in Hang City. He had significant connections: its parent company had foreign investment, and its business covered new cars, used cars, and auto pawnbroking. In both company size and operating capital, it was at least fifty times bigger than Taisheng Finance.

It was one of the top three auto finance companies in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and it had become a group years ago.

Jiang Zhe had managed to get him out here because he'd recently taken on the interior design of Wang Xing's new home.

The apartment was in Binjiang, a river-view flat over 200 square meters. It had cost at least 25 million yuan, and the renovation budget alone was three million. Wang Xing was clearly doing well for himself.

"Jiang, since your old classmate's here, make sure you put your heart into my place!" Wang Xing looked Chen Jue over, a hint of disdain in his eyes.

If not for Jiang Zhe being his personal designer, the vice president of Hengtong Finance probably wouldn't even have bothered to meet him.

After all, a senior executive like Wang Xing had a busy work schedule. The people he socialized with in private were at least fellow executives.

He wouldn't normally lower himself to go get a massage or have dinner with some junior employee. It would be a waste of time.

Chen Jue could tell that President Wang was putting on airs, and it made him feel uncomfortable.

But his roommate Jiang Zhe kept ingratiating himself with the man and putting in a good word for Chen Jue, so Chen Jue swallowed his annoyance for the time being.

After entering Jingtanghui, the three of them went to the buffet restaurant for dinner.

At the table, Wang Xing spent most of his time talking about his new home. As for Chen Jue's work, he only asked a few questions, as if it were of little importance.

"Chen, I've looked over your résumé."

"Your education is a serious weakness!"

"Our group requires at least a bachelor's degree from a key university for new hires, especially in risk control and technical roles. A correspondence degree won't cut it either." Wang Xing continued to put on airs, picking apart Chen Jue's résumé at the table.

"Don't worry, President Wang. My classmate's work skills are even better than my design skills!"

"Besides, you're the one recommending him, aren't you?"

"You're so influential at Hengtong, with hundreds of salespeople under you. This will definitely work out."

"I'll drink to you! I'll finish mine; you can drink as much as you like!" Jiang Zhe chimed in, toasting Wang Xing and buttering him up. Seeing that, Chen Jue raised his glass too.

"All right! Since you've asked me, Jiang, I'll do what I can to help."

"But let's be clear from the start: I'm in charge of pre-loan business. Risk control is handled by another General Manager Luo. I'll refer Chen's résumé internally, but I can't guarantee that General Manager Luo will take him on!" Wang Xing took a small sip and laid it all out.

In a group as large as Hengtong, the internal workings were complicated. Getting someone hired wasn't as simple as it seemed.

Still, since Wang Xing was willing to help, Chen Jue had some hope of finding another job.

After dinner, the three of them went for hydrotherapy to get to know each other better.

During the session, Chen Jue brought up what had happened at his former company. To his surprise, Wang Xing had heard about it too.

"Chen, you used to work at Taisheng?"

"I heard that old Zhang Chi'an lost hundreds of millions gambling overseas. He put all his assets up as collateral for a short-term loan from loan sharks. Then he fled to Southeast Asia in the middle of the night. Who knows whether he's still alive." Wang Xing chuckled, as though he were sharing some bit of industry gossip.

People in finance loved hearing about companies blowing up and their bosses fleeing with the money.

"Chairman Zhang went to Southeast Asia?"

This was the first time Chen Jue had heard the news, and he was momentarily stunned.

Someone like Wang Xing, an industry big shot, must have more reliable sources. He probably knew far more than employees like Chen Jue, who'd been kept in the dark.

Southeast Asia was chaotic, though. If Zhang Chi'an had fled there with the money, there was a good chance someone would take his kidneys and sell them—not to mention that the stolen money would never be recovered.

Thinking about it, Chen Jue couldn't help feeling sorry for Zhou Yong and the other shareholders.

Their 120 million yuan investment had gone up in smoke.

They could've spent that kind of money eating, drinking, and traveling the world, and still had plenty left over.

After their hydrotherapy session, the three of them headed to the entertainment hall.

Jiang Zhe took Wang Xing to play arcade games. Chen Jue had planned to join them, too.

But the two of them were playing a head-to-head match in The King of Fighters, which only allowed two players, so Chen Jue went over to the darts area by himself.

Thunk~

Thunk~

He threw a couple of needle darts with his left hand.

His touch was still good. Both darts hit the bullseye.

Seeing the +5 +5 prompts on the Attribute Panel, Chen Jue decided that this sort of casual sport was more enjoyable after all.

He was socially awkward by nature and wasn't good at dealing with people.

He'd come out with Jiang Zhe tonight to ask for a favor, and even that was only because money was involved.

If he had a savings balance of eight or nine hundred thousand yuan, Chen Jue figured that even if he ran into the emperor himself, he wouldn't give him a second glance.

Wouldn't it be better to live a quiet, carefree life on his own?

Just as Chen Jue was focusing on the game and throwing his darts with increasing enthusiasm, two portly middle-aged men came out of a private dining room in the distance, arms around each other's shoulders.

"Huh?"

"Isn't that the young man from last time?"

Zhu Hongbin spotted Chen Jue playing darts from afar. He thought the young man looked familiar, so he walked closer to get a better look.

But the moment he saw Chen Jue's scores, Zhu Hongbin's expression changed with surprise. "His darts have improved so much! It hasn't even been a week, has it?"

"He's almost at an amateur level!"

Curious, Zhu Hongbin pulled the President Tang beside him over to say hello.

"President Zhu!"

"What a coincidence, running into you again."

Chen Jue lowered his arm and turned around to exchange greetings.

He noticed the smell of alcohol on Zhu Hongbin. The man had clearly just eaten and drunk his fill.

Maybe it was the alcohol, but he seemed even more enthusiastic than he had the last time they'd bumped into each other.

"Chen, you're really talented at darts!"

"You've been practicing for less than a week, and you can already throw with your left hand like that. I don't think competing professionally would be difficult for you." Zhu Hongbin's eyes lit up as if he'd found a rough-cut gem, and he launched into a vigorous pitch for his own darts club.

"Professional competitions?"

"Are the prizes good?"

Chen Jue was short on money and still had to swallow his pride and ask people to help him find a job. He wondered if there might be some other way to make money.

Since he'd run into this international darts big shot, he couldn't help asking.

"Prize money for domestic competitions usually isn't very high. At most, it's a little over a hundred thousand yuan."

"But international competitions are a different story!"

"They have major sponsors. The champion can earn at least a million pounds a year!" Zhu Hongbin had probably realized Chen Jue was only playing for fun, so he gave him a brief overview of the scale of international darts competitions.

"A million pounds?" Chen Jue's hand trembled, and he nearly dropped his dart. He'd never imagined that prize money for such an obscure sport could be so high.

Converted to yuan, that was well over ten million!

More than the prize money for some Olympic events!

Just then, Jiang Zhe and Wang Xing, who'd played a couple of rounds of The King of Fighters, noticed the commotion and hurried over, thinking something had happened.

But the moment Wang Xing saw the two middle-aged men beside Chen Jue, his expression changed dramatically. He hurried forward with an ingratiating smile. "President Tang! Are you President Tang of the Tang Group?"

"I'm Wang Xing, in charge of business at Hengtong Group. We met once at the investors' conference!"

Wang Xing seemed to know the middle-aged man beside Zhu Hongbin, and even addressed him with a title. Just like Chen Jue and Jiang Zhe around him, he adopted a very deferential posture.

"Someone from Hengtong? I think I remember you." The middle-aged man surnamed Tang glanced at Wang Xing, then put on a show of trying hard to recall him. Clearly, he hadn't paid much attention to the man.

But President Tang was socially savvy. He didn't show any impatience; instead, he patted Wang Xing on the shoulder and thanked him for coming to Jingtanghui, exchanging a few polite remarks.

Chen Jue listened to the high-level conversation and was stunned.

So the portly middle-aged man with his arm around Zhu Hongbin's shoulders was the owner behind Jingtanghui!

No wonder Wang Xing, a vice president at Hengtong Group, acted so deferentially in front of him.

The man was a billionaire worth tens of billions of yuan, a tycoon known throughout Hang City. He was in a completely different league from ordinary people.

And when Chen Jue thought about Zhu Hongbin being close enough to put his arm around President Tang, he was even more stunned.

A former professional international darts player could be friends with a billionaire. Zhu Hongbin must have been quite a big deal himself.

The group chatted in the darts area and threw a few darts.

They were on different levels, so they parted ways after only a short while.

Before leaving, though, Zhu Hongbin made sure Chen Jue added him on WeChat and invited him again and again to visit his club.

After all that, Chen Jue naturally agreed.

A visit wouldn't cost him anything, and it might even turn out to be a life-changing opportunity.

After all, Chen Jue's Darts skill was already close to Lv4. He only needed a few hundred more proficiency points to level up.

At Lv3, he was already at an amateur level. Wouldn't Lv4 make him comparable to a professional?

Thinking about the million-pound prize for winning an international darts competition filled Chen Jue with excitement.

His socially awkward nature meant he couldn't become an influencer or a video creator, but becoming an athlete seemed like a pretty good option.

If he started winning competitions, he could bring in a ton of prize money. It was better than staying in the workplace as someone else's wage slave!

What surprised Chen Jue even more was that after watching Zhu Hongbin and the big shot surnamed Tang leave, Wang Xing—who'd been putting on airs the whole evening—suddenly changed his tune.

He started treating Chen Jue and Jiang Zhe like old friends. Before leaving Jingtanghui, he even patted his chest and told Chen Jue to go to Hengtong Group the next day to interview with HR.

With him personally making the referral, there was a very good chance Chen Jue would get the job.

The complete change in his attitude left both Chen Jue and Jiang Zhe dumbfounded.

First update~

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