Interest Paid in Advance

Hearing that even drunk as he was, Liu Shang was still thinking of her, Jiang Ruolin was deeply moved.

But on the surface, she pretended to be angry. "If you really cared about me, don't mess around like this next time."

"You drank so much high-proof baijiu. How could I possibly not worry?"

"And what if Tan Feng's side had someone with a better tolerance than you, someone who could drink more?"

Liu Shang gave a disdainful chuckle. "For you, I'd even risk my life. How could they possibly beat me?"

"They were nothing but a bunch of little bastards. See? Didn't I clean them up today?!"

When Liu Shang uttered the catchphrase of that chubby Taiyi Zhenren from the future, he had expected to make Jiang Ruolin laugh. Instead, she threw herself straight into his arms and hugged him tightly as she began to cry.

After a long while, Jiang Ruolin murmured, "Why are you so foolish?"

"Never do something so foolish again. I won't allow it either..."

"Hehe, got it."

Liu Shang smiled as he wiped the tears from her soft cheeks. Then, swept up in emotion, he slowly lowered his head and sensed Jiang Ruolin's breathing gradually quickening.

Just as their lips were about to meet, Jiang Ruolin suddenly turned her head away. "No!"

"Wait until the smell of alcohol wears off..."

As she spoke, Jiang Ruolin rose onto her tiptoes and lightly kissed his cheek. Then she smiled, wrapped her arms around his, and continued forward with him.

"There, consider that interest paid in advance..."

When Jiang Ruolin helped Liu Shang downstairs to the dormitory building, Fu Liang and Cheng Meng, who had received the call earlier, were already waiting there.

By then, they had also learned from the other dorms about everyone's heroic drinking exploits at the evening gathering.

The moment they met, Fu Liang gave him a thumbs-up. "Four straight cups of 60-proof baijiu? That's insane!"

Jiang Ruolin then handed Liu Shang over to the two of them, but she still worriedly reminded Cheng Meng, whom she already knew, "Cheng Meng, if Liu Shang throws up again tonight, please help take care of him."

"If anything happens, call me anytime."

Cheng Meng had previously said that he got nervous whenever he met Jiang Ruolin, a celebrity-level figure in their circle.

Now that she was giving him such instructions, he nodded repeatedly. "Sister Ruolin, don't worry. No problem."

Before he could finish, Liu Shang laughed and smacked him. "Call her sister-in-law!"

Cheng Meng froze, then nodded again and again in utter shock. "Oh, oh, sister-in-law, sister-in-law!"

Fu Liang, who was just as lively, copied Liu Shang and smacked him too. "For crying out loud, you really have no sense at all!"

Then he joined Cheng Meng in calling her sister-in-law with a grin.

Seeing this, Jiang Ruolin did not get angry. Instead, she smiled and tacitly accepted it, only turning to leave after watching the three of them enter the dormitory building.

This scene left Cheng Meng even more stunned.

Jiang Ruolin was a jewel-like figure in their circle, yet she had somehow become Liu Shang's girlfriend from his own dorm. This world was simply terrifying!

While all this was happening on their side, the group headed to the hospital was in an even more frantic and disheveled state.

Tan Feng, Zhou Liang, Lu Kai, and the seven or eight people in their group had been almost completely wiped out.

Tan Feng and Lu Kai in particular had passed out dead drunk, and their conditions were even more serious.

After all that chaos, they ended up calling an ambulance from the hospital.

Such a huge incident naturally dragged Song Jia, one of their closest friends, out of her dorm. Along with several other girls, she ran around with them, tending to everyone as they kept vomiting.

It was not until the latter half of the night, after the few of them had been put on IV drips at the hospital, that they regained consciousness and gradually stabilized.

Only then did Song Jia, who had been busy all night, finally explode, venting all the anger she had been holding in.

"What the hell is wrong with you guys?"

"You plotted against him for so long and carefully arranged tonight's gathering, only to plot yourselves straight into the hospital?!"

"And you even dragged the rest of us into running around and waiting on you all night!!!"

Seeing Song Jia lose her temper, Tan Feng, weak all over and with his stomach still burning, looked deeply apologetic. For some reason, his eyes had even grown moist. "Jia Jia, I'm sorry..."

"Shut up!"

"Look at you. If you can't drink, then don't drink. Why were you trying to show off?"

After shutting Tan Feng down with one sentence, Song Jia walked over to Lu Kai. "And you, Lu Kai!"

"Are you trying to get yourself killed? You drank four cups of 60-proof baijiu in a row?!!!"

"You drank yourself unconscious. You're really something!"

Lu Kai pulled a miserable face and waved his hand that was not hooked up to an IV. "Jia Jia, stop scolding me. I was wrong, okay? I know I was wrong. Really wrong..."

"By the way, after I finished that last cup, did Liu Shang drink with me too? And what happened to him after he drank it?"

Zhou Liang, who was just as weak and dry-heaved a few times, chimed in, "That Liu Shang is too sinister and cunning. We really underestimated him!"

"If I'm not wrong, he definitely didn't drink that last cup. Then he must have looked at us with a victorious smile, his eyes full of contempt and mockery, before swaggering off with his prize, Jiang Ruolin. Right?"

To everyone's surprise, upon hearing Zhou Liang's words, Zheng Jiao—the girl who had paid the bill earlier with Liu Shang's bank card—exploded.

"Zhou Liang, let me tell you right now, all your so-called schemes and guesses are complete bullshit!"

"After Lu Kai finished that cup, Liu Shang drank one too. He just had a better tolerance and better drinking manners than you lot. He's already been sent back to his dorm."

"Thanks to you guys, none of us could even afford to settle the 7,000-yuan dinner bill tonight. In the end, Liu Shang was the one who voluntarily swiped his card and paid!"

"And what do you mean, prize? Jiang Ruolin was Liu Shang's girlfriend to begin with! You were the ones scheming nonstop, trying every possible way to make things difficult for them and break them apart!"

"Zhou Liang, what right do you have to call someone else sinister or deceitful?"

"Please, before you talk about others, take a look in the mirror first, will you?"

"Forget it. I'm truly too disappointed in all of you! I'm leaving!"

Zheng Jiao was one of the most good-natured girls in Tan Feng's small circle, and both her family background and academic performance were excellent.

It was the first time Tan Feng, Zhou Liang, and the others had ever seen her lose her temper like this.

Watching Zheng Jiao leave angrily with her bag, Song Jia shot the others a vicious glare before hurrying after her.

At that moment, Zhou Liang slammed his head heavily into the pillow on the hospital bed. "Ah! What a complete mess. We lost everything!"