Ye Chen sat down with Xiao Churan and Dong Ruolin. Wang Tengfei followed them over and took a seat beside Dong Ruolin.
As soon as he sat down, he smiled and asked Dong Ruolin, "Ruolin, I heard you came to Jinling to work at the Dihao Group?"
Dong Ruolin nodded. "I just started."
Wang Tengfei smiled. "What a coincidence. My dad works at the Dihao Group too. He's the deputy general manager of a department. I'll ask him to look after you."
Several people at the table exclaimed, "Brother Fei, your dad is a deputy general manager at the Dihao Group?"
"Yes." Wang Tengfei nodded. "He was just promoted last year."
Someone hurried to flatter him. "A deputy general manager must make several million a year, right? That's amazing! No wonder your family is so rich!"
Wang Tengfei smiled. "Several million is just his salary. My dad has a lot of authority, so he has some other income too. The Dihao Group is working on a hotel project right now. Once it's done, my dad will make at least ten or twenty million."
A male classmate sitting across from him hurriedly asked, "Brother Fei, I want to join the Dihao Group too. I've sent in my résumé several times but haven't heard back. Could you talk to your dad and see if he could give me an internal referral?"
Wang Tengfei nodded and readily agreed. "Sure. Send me your résumé on WeChat later, and I'll put in a word with him."
Ye Chen couldn't help frowning. He really hadn't known that Wang Tengfei's father was an executive at the Dihao Group.
That was rather interesting. He would text Wang Dongxue later and have her fire Wang Tengfei's father.
So he deliberately asked, "Wang Tengfei, if your dad has so much influence at the Dihao Group, why doesn't he get you a job there?"
Wang Tengfei sneered disdainfully. "What the hell do you know? There's no point in me joining the Dihao Group. We couldn't hide the fact that we're father and son, and people would be watching me all the time."
Wang Tengfei went on haughtily, "That's why I'm not considering the Dihao Group at all. I've set up a building materials company. When the time comes, I'll work directly with the Dihao Group through my dad and get its building materials supply contracts."
"Damn!" someone exclaimed. "Won't you make a killing, then?"
Wang Tengfei chuckled. "It's not bad. I should make around ten million a year."
As he spoke, he deliberately looked at Ye Chen and asked, "Ye Chen, what do you do for work now? Don't tell me you've been washing clothes and cooking ever since you married into your wife's family?"
Everyone else at the table burst out laughing.
Ye Chen said calmly, "Besides washing clothes and cooking every day, I also drive my wife to and from work and give her massages and back rubs. Life is endless bliss."
Wang Tengfei's lungs were about to burst with rage. This bastard actually looked as though it were only natural. He really was thick-skinned!
Suppressing his anger, he said through gritted teeth, "Ye Chen, I didn't expect you to eat soft rice with such a clear conscience!"
"Why wouldn't I?" Ye Chen said shamelessly. "I didn't steal or rob anyone. I eat soft rice by my own ability, so why shouldn't my conscience be clear?"
The classmates around them stared dumbfounded.
They had seen shameless people before, but never anyone this shameless!
The thing was, they were all envious too!
After all, Xiao Churan was simply too beautiful. Eating soft rice from a goddess like her was something many people could only dream of!
They were green with envy, jealousy, and hate!
If they had the chance to wait on a beauty like Xiao Churan, what did it matter if they became live-in sons-in-law? Being a live-in son-in-law made them winners in life too!
Wang Tengfei was nearly choked speechless.
Just then, Wang Daokun's wife, Liu Lili, suddenly stepped onto the stage.
After thanking everyone with a smile for honoring them with their presence, she said, "Thank you all for the many gifts you've given us today. Daokun and I are very touched. To show our gratitude, we've decided to announce the details of the gifts here. Thank you all once again!"
Since it was the opening ceremony, announcing the gifts was naturally an indispensable part of it.
Wang Daokun hadn't wanted to do this, but he didn't really have much say, so he could only let Liu Lili do as she pleased.
Many of their classmates weren't surprised, though. People had a tendency to compare themselves with others and show off. Everyone would see who had given what and could judge how their old classmates had fared since entering society.
Liu Lili then began calling out names.
"Thank you to our classmate Zhang Jie for the one-thousand-yuan red envelope!"
"Thank you to our classmate Wang Bei for the pair of gold ingots!"
"Thank you to our classmate Xu Ouou for the jade pixiu!"
"Thank you to our classmate Wang Tengfei for the ten-thousand-yuan red envelope!"
Most of the previous gifts, whether red envelopes or presents, had been worth around a thousand yuan. Then, all of a sudden, Wang Tengfei had given a ten-thousand-yuan red envelope, leaving the classmates stunned.
It was only an opening celebration, yet he had given a ten-thousand-yuan red envelope. That was far too generous!
Many people looked at Wang Tengfei in amazement, praising his generosity.
Wang Tengfei looked pleased with himself. It seemed he had easily taken the lead among his classmates.
Just then, Liu Lili added, "Thank you to Ye Chen and his wife Xiao Churan for an antique painting!"
At that, everyone burst into mockery!
An old painting? Was it even worth a hundred yuan?
Those two were far too stingy! Wang Daokun had opened a restaurant and arranged such a lavish banquet. The food alone must have cost several hundred yuan per person, yet the two of them had come to mooch a meal and given him an old painting? Weren't they afraid people would laugh at them?
Wang Tengfei sneered as well. "Ye Chen, you could afford a BMW 520 and even pay to have it modified. So why did you give your old classmate a piece of junk like that for his restaurant opening?"
Ye Chen smiled faintly. "You don't know where it came from, so what gives you the right to call it junk?"
Wang Tengfei scoffed. "Don't think I don't know what you're up to. You just bought some shabby fake antique and passed it off as something valuable, so no one could tell what it was actually worth!"
He pressed on aggressively, "Tell the truth. How much did you pay for that old painting? A hundred yuan or eighty?"
Ye Chen smiled slightly. "That painting is worth more than all the gifts everyone here gave today put together!"
"Hahahaha!" Wang Tengfei led the laughter. "You really can spout bullshit without even thinking! My red envelope alone had ten thousand in it, and there are over twenty other classmates here. A thousand each would make more than twenty thousand. Are you saying your painting is worth over thirty thousand?"
Ye Chen smiled. "You're underestimating it."
"Ahahaha!"
Now the whole class was laughing.
Everyone thought Ye Chen loved showing off far too much!
What kind of thing had he given them, to dare spout such nonsense? An old painting worth tens of thousands? Who the fuck was he trying to fool?
Liu Lili, standing onstage, also felt deeply contemptuous. Curious, she asked, "Ye Chen, whose antique painting did you give us? Is it really worth tens of thousands?"
Ye Chen said calmly, "A painter from the Qing dynasty. He wasn't very famous."
Liu Lili laughed. "Oh, what a coincidence! My dad is an antiques appraiser, and a particularly authoritative one. His name is Liu Yuesheng. Anyone who knows antiques should have heard of him, right?"
Dong Ruolin exclaimed, "Liu Yuesheng? The antiques expert Liu Yuesheng? I remember him-he's been on CCTV! He's your father?"
Liu Lili smiled. "That's right, he's my dad. He's upstairs right now. How about I ask him to come down and appraise the antique painting Ye Chen gave us?"
Wang Tengfei stood up and said loudly, "Then sorry for the trouble, Lili, but please ask your dad to come down and appraise it for us all. If Ye Chen's painting really is worth more than all the gifts everyone gave today, I, Wang Tengfei, will eat this table on the spot!"