"The financial tycoon rooted in North America?"
Hearing his answer, the woman beside him spoke in astonishment and disbelief, looking thoroughly surprised.
His male friend glanced toward the innermost part of the hall, then asked in a low voice filled with nervous anticipation:
"I heard a representative connected to them will be attending tonight. Is that true?"
"I'm not sure, but being able to cooperate with someone at that level—even on the most basic level—would bring enormous benefits."
He, too, looked toward the social stratum they could never reach, imagining how wonderful it would be if he could get acquainted with someone from there and make an impression.
The young man noticed the figure who had rejected him outright earlier. Anger at having lost face before others flashed through his eyes.
Then, from the corner of his eye, he spotted the two people in front of him: a young man who did not understand French, and a nervous, awkward girl.
After pausing slightly, he suddenly sped up deliberately and chuckled under his breath.
"I'm sure we can at least get some companies to purchase a batch of better 'hearing aids.'"
A social gathering for fame and profit was also an arena where conversational skill won face, status, and influence. Pouring the ridicule he had just suffered onto people of a lower social class made him feel as though he had regained his standing in the circle.
The two people beside him who heard that remark gave Fang Ran and Tang Bing strange looks.
Tang Bing, who had been listening nervously and reservedly the whole time, had not fully caught the sentence at first. It took her a while to sort out its meaning before she realized it was a cruel, veiled joke taking advantage of their weak French!
The expression