Si Yanzhuo suddenly felt that he really might have drunk too much. Otherwise, watching Lin Yechen smoothly finish that glass and deftly exchange official pleasantries with the other man would not have left him stunned for so long.
"Assistant Lin, you can really hold your liquor!"
Although Lin Yechen had intercepted the drink, the other man did not feel slighted at all and took the opportunity to strike up a conversation with him.
"With you here, I wouldn't dare show off my meager skills." Lin Yechen delivered the pleasantry with neither servility nor arrogance.
Minister Wang laughed heartily at the flattery. "Come, come! For those words alone, we have to have another."
The private room grew lively again. Assistant Lin took on ten men single-handedly, going back and forth with them without his expression changing.
Si Yanzhuo let out a long sigh.
Shao Ke turned his head. "What is it?"
"I really want to poach Assistant Lin."
Shao Ke glanced at his socially adept assistant and smiled smugly. "You won't be able to."
Si Yanzhuo chuckled and gave him a sidelong look, a cigarette between his lips.
The drinking session lasted until late into the night. Lin Yechen handled the aftermath, dutifully seeing all the drunken officials out.
Only Shao Ke and Si Yanzhuo remained in the private room, along with Si Yanzhuo's assistant, who had collapsed beneath the table.
Amid the silence, Si Yanzhuo suddenly spoke. "Say, where did you dig up someone as capable as Assistant Lin?"
Shao Ke was looking down at the messages Yan Ningke had sent him. At that, he scoffed softly. "What? Jealous?"
Si Yanzhuo thought he would not go so far as to call it jealousy; he just felt a little like poaching him.
Although Yan Ningke was also at a dinner, he