Chapter 3

Shen Huaiyu stared blankly at Cheng Lang. After a long moment, he smiled gently. "Mm."

"Cheng Lang!" The floor manager hurried over, drenched in sweat. "You slacker, skipping work again!"

Cheng Lang casually tossed the empty milk carton and biscuit wrapper into the trash, instinctively defending himself. "I wasn't slacking off. Don't you dare dock my pay—"

"Stop dawdling. Come with me, Chen wants to see you." The floor manager grabbed Cheng Lang by the arm and pulled him back. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

"Chen!"

In the manager's office on the third floor of White Jade Capital, Han Mingchen sized up Cheng Lang before him. He had handsome phoenix eyes, red lips, and pearly teeth, but there was always a faint, almost imperceptible wickedness between his brows that somehow made him seem unreliable.

Cheng Lang blinked and looked innocently at Han Mingchen. Then he called out again, "Chen."

Han Mingchen snapped back to his senses. Remembering the boss's instructions, he said gravely, "You got lucky, kid. The boss brought some guests to White Jade Capital today and happened to see you warming up the crowd onstage."

Han Mingchen paused and looked at Cheng Lang, his gaze unfathomable. "Do you know what the boss said?"

What did he say?

Cheng Lang seriously thought over the standard lines for this kind of story and carefully ventured, "Good. This man has caught my attention?"

Han Mingchen: "..."

Author's note:

Thanks to Xiahou Mian for tossing me a landmine (づ￣3￣)づ╭

Han Mingchen: I never should've asked that. My fault!

Chapter 3

Han Mingchen took a deep breath and decided to make it quick. "The boss said that starting tomorrow, you'll be White Jade Capital's new star performer. The stage is yours every night from nine to eleven. Do a good job."

Cheng Lang raised his brows in surprise and looked at Han Mingchen.

Han Mingchen had thought the kid was about to offer some polite words like, "Thank you for the boss's appreciation. I'll devote myself completely until my dying breath." Instead, Cheng Lang frowned slightly and cautiously reminded him, "Chen, I'm only part-time."

Han Mingchen did not understand. One brow lifted. "So?"

Cheng Lang explained, "I work at the bar for two hundred yuan an hour. Every night, I work from eight until midnight—five hours. With drink commissions on top of that, I'm guaranteed at least three thousand yuan a night, and it's settled daily."

If he used the prime hours every evening to warm up the bar, that meant Cheng Lang would lose two hours of time selling drinks and could only earn four hundred yuan in hourly wages. That was far too much of a loss. And if Cheng Lang remembered correctly, the pay for resident performers at the bar seemed to be settled monthly. In other words, he would not even be able to get those four hundred yuan each night right away; he would have to wait until the end of the month.

Han Mingchen: "..."

Han Mingchen pressed at the space between his brows and said weakly, "Go discuss your pay with the HR manager. The bar won't shortchange you."

"And what about drink commissions..." Cheng Lang remembered that singers' commission structures seemed to differ from the cut that servers like them received.

"Enough!" Han Mingchen cut him off and unceremoniously threw him out.

After leaving Chen's office, Cheng Lang did not rush to find the HR manager. Though they were all bar employees, the HR department kept normal office hours, nine to five. Cheng Lang would not find anyone if he went now. He might as well hurry back and sell drinks.

The system could not help reminding him, [Do you still remember your mission?]

Cheng Lang replied with a cheeky grin, "What's the rush? Even a vicious male supporting character needs work hours, doesn't he? It's not time to follow the plot yet. What's wrong with making some extra money at my part-time job?"

The system fell silent.

Cheng Lang headed back with a grin. As he passed the restroom, he heard a crisp slap, followed by someone angrily cursing, "Do you know who you are? You actually dared to cause trouble at White Jade Capital. Are you tired of living?"

Tilting his head, Cheng Lang looked at the men's restroom, whose door bore a sign reading "Under Repair, Do Not Enter," and frowned.

Meng Tianye covered his cheek and glared at the man before him. "Yeah, I'm tired of living. If you've got the guts, kill me! You were fooling around outside and I caught you. How do you still have the nerve to act like you're right?"

"Fooling around?" Lu Chengxuan sneered as he looked at his furious little lover, who clearly had no idea of the immensity of heaven and earth. "Have I treated you too well and given you the wrong idea? You're nothing more than a male escort I keep."

Meng Tianye's face immediately turned deathly pale.

Lu Chengxuan stepped past Meng Tianye and opened the restroom door. At a glance, he saw Cheng Lang standing outside.

Lu Chengxuan's expression darkened. He said coldly, "Since when did White Jade Capital's rules allow employees to eavesdrop on guests' conversations?"

Cheng Lang, who had merely passed by, pointed at himself with an innocent expression. "I wasn't eavesdropping. I was just passing through."

Naturally, Lu Chengxuan did not believe Cheng Lang's excuse. "A first-floor server just happened to pass by the restroom in the second-floor VIP area?"

Cheng Lang earnestly explained, "I came down from the third floor."

"Enough!" Lu Chengxuan did not want to waste words on someone like him. He warned coldly, "You'd better keep today's matter to yourself. If I find out you dare spread rumors outside—"

Lu Chengxuan snorted and turned to leave.

Cheng Lang rubbed his nose and was just about to leave—

"Stop!" Meng Tianye came out of the restroom and stared at Cheng Lang with a grim expression. "What did you hear just now?"

Cheng Lang turned around, looked at the bright red half of Meng Tianye's face, and could not help saying, "What I heard isn't important. If you don't do something about that face, the whole of White Jade Capital will probably know what happened very soon."

Meng Tianye's expression turned icy.

Cheng Lang sighed. "Wait here."

As he spoke, Cheng Lang went to the kitchen and got ice and a towel, intending to apply a cold compress to Meng Tianye's face.

When he returned, Meng Tianye was still hiding in the lounge of the second-floor VIP area. Cheng Lang was slightly surprised. He had thought Meng Tianye would leave immediately.

Meng Tianye's expression was equally unpleasant. He had originally intended to leave, but for some reason, perhaps because Cheng Lang had already seen him at his most miserable, he did not want anyone else to see him like that. So he simply stayed to see what Cheng Lang intended to do.