Chapter 6: Intoxicated By Luxury And Gentleness

Qingcheng University has a mountain, and Xueyuan is halfway up the mountain. Ji Zhen Tang walked down the slope, still pondering why Zhong Yu Bai wanted to meet her. Suddenly, Zhong Heng’s car appeared from an unknown direction, and by the time she reacted, he had already stopped tightly in front of her.

Ji Zhen Tang flinched backward in fear.

Zhong Heng jumped out of the driver’s seat.

Dressed in black from head to toe, he looked like an assassin. The zipper of his flight suit was tightly closed, his expression tense, his thin lips lightly pursed. With a textbook-worthy handsome face, he appeared slightly cold.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences was overshadowed by him. His appearance was truly eye-catching.

Ji Zhen Tang felt as if she were being watched by everyone. There were quite a few students around, making her uncomfortable, but Zhong Heng, indifferent, boldly parked the car at the intersection, blocking her way.

“Why didn’t you reply to my message?” he asked bluntly.

“Didn’t I make it clear?” Ji Zhen Tang walked forward and found a spot under a banyan tree to avoid being overheard.

Zhong Heng said, “I don’t like breaking up over text.”

She asked, “Don’t like breaking up via message, or don’t like being dumped?”

He hesitated for a moment, his face darkening, and approached her two steps, lowering his voice by eight degrees, “What did I say that day?”

Ji Zhen Tang dodged left and right a few times but couldn’t escape, glaring at him, “You’re pretending. You weren’t really that drunk.”

“I remember some, not all. Can you be more specific?”

“You said you wouldn’t marry me.”

And he actually countered, “Do you think I could marry you?”

Clearly, he remembered!

“Is ‘will’ the same as ‘can’? Besides, I don’t care if you marry me or not. What’s ugly is your attitude.”

Zhong Heng stared at her again and asked, “So, do you want to marry me?”

Ji Zhen Tang snapped, “Who wants to marry you?!”

“Then that’s settled?” Zhong Heng’s tone was not pleasant. “If you had a stepmother who constantly interfered with you, you’d be more miserable than I am.”

She was exasperated. “I’m not you. Why talk about ‘ifs’? Everyone has their own pain.”

“I thought you were more reasonable.”

“Hurting someone and asking them to reflect? You’re the first person I’ve seen like this. You could teach a course for pretending ignorance.”

“…”

Zhong Heng wasn’t ignorant of social norms, nor did he have low emotional intelligence.

He was just superior. Because he could ascend without needing emotional intelligence, he didn’t have to consider others’ feelings when speaking or show any deference.

He wore his superiority on his face, looking down equally on everyone on this earth. Naturally, he didn’t care how others viewed him. Living in a rose-colored world, he couldn’t be bothered to employ the tricks to please women.

A Birkin bag could buy a lot of love; he didn’t need to lower himself.

“Xiao Tang.”

Neither side yielded. But after a while, Zhong Heng sighed slowly and surrendered.

“If it were you, I could choose not to marry. I never aspired to marriage anyway, so when I said those things that day, it’s because I can’t marry you, and I can swear I won’t marry anyone else either. After all, marriage is just for having children. What’s the use of having a child? It’s just adding another puppet to the Zhong family, giving Zhong Yu Bai another marionette. That’s not the life I want.”

What caught her attention was the phrase: “giving Zhong Yu Bai another marionette.”

Her interest was instantly piqued.

Thinking this had worked, Zhong Heng continued persuading her emotionally, “In my third year of research, I’ll go to New York. If you’re willing to come with me, I’ll buy you a car, buy you an apartment, and you can stay with me there for a year. After a year, we’ll come back. Or if you like the life there, you can stay in the US.”

Ji Zhen Tang said, “Two years later, I’ll graduate and become an outstanding jewelry designer. The jade and jewelry I design will enter the market and be sold at high prices. I’ll establish my own brand, and my worth will increase little by little. With my own abilities, when the time comes, I’ll buy a car without even blinking an eye, and I won’t have to live under your shadow. Isn’t that more enjoyable? My future is bright, and it doesn’t involve you.”

Zhong Heng frowned at her for a long time, then asked seriously, “I’ll ask one thing, have you ever liked me?”

She replied, “When you’re sixty, counting your numerous ex-girlfriends, chances are you won’t even remember my name. If that’s the case, why bother arguing about a meaningless question now? Instead of dwelling on this, it’s better to write another line of the paper.”

After listening, he smiled sternly, “I really admire you. Do you have to be so practical?”

“You’re even more practical than me. It’s just that when you’re sweet-talking, you forget who you are and your surname. Your mouth has no handle, but your words have the effect of a love potion.”

As she said this, Zhong Heng had already returned to the car and retrieved a packaged bag from the back seat. She saw the label of Hermès.

“Take the bag,” he said.

Ji Zhen Tang refused, “Give it to your next girlfriend. I don’t need it.”

Zhong Heng said, “She will have her own gift. This belongs to you.”

If you were to ask her what the most profound cruelty she had ever experienced was, it would be this moment, with Zhong Heng’s casual expression when he said that.

Ji Zhen Tang was stunned for a moment and asked, “Are you humiliating me?”

Zhong Heng replied, “Stop looking for trouble.”

She said, “Since it’s mine, then help me get rid of it.”

Zhong Heng wouldn’t let anyone miss his affection, nor would he let anyone miss his annoyance.

He didn’t respond further, as he was too lazy to argue.

With a turn, **thud**. The Birkin bag was callously thrown into the trash by him.

Zhong Heng returned to the car and drove away from there.

The hot exhaust fumes brushed past the hem of her skirt, seemingly issuing a warning: human patience has its limits.

Ji Zhen Tang stood still.

A breeze swept past her ear, and she glanced at the convex mirror above her head. Beyond her brows and eyes, in the depths of the mirror, on the second-floor terrace of the opposite administrative building, amidst the shadows of flowers, there was a car parked on the street opposite, neither concealed nor ostentatious, quietly waiting there.

Ji Zhen Tang turned back.

The rear window of the car was lowered halfway, and Zhong Yu Bai met her gaze. He was sitting in the car in a suit and leather shoes, facing her astonishment. With a slow, slight curve at the corner of his mouth, he greeted her in a nonchalant manner.

Behind him, the weathered administrative building was covered with green ivy. It was already deep into spring, and those initially inconspicuous tendrils had gradually expanded into exuberant vitality, climbing all over the towering ancient building.

She thought to herself, this is bad.

The argument just now was so loud, it was probably heard by eight or nine out of ten people.

Ding Jialing came over, calling out, “Miss Ji,” and opened the door for her.

Ji Zhen Tang got into the car, feeling embarrassed, and asked, “Did you hear us arguing?”

Zhong Yu Bai, with his warm and gentle eyes, teasingly said in a low voice, “It smells like gunpowder.”

The window closed tightly, and there was a bit of chill inside the car.

Zhong Yu Bai, dressed in a suit, maintained the dignified appearance he had during the afternoon with the principal at the art exhibition, sitting in the interplay of light and shadow.

He gave an address, which Ding Jialing, who was driving, acknowledged.

“Jiangbin Garden.”

Ding Jialing responded.

Jiangbin Garden…

Ji Zhen Tang swiftly searched in her mind for this term.

It was a top-tier hotel in Shanghai, where the daughter of the richest man had held her debutante party, a world-renowned luxury brand had set up a runway on the rooftop terrace, and a charity gala attended by numerous celebrities had been held there, requiring identification for entry.

She slightly sucked in her stomach and sat up straight.

Her cheap ring pressed against her middle finger.

“I broke up with him,” she said quietly, slipping the ring off her finger and into her teddy bear backpack.

Zhong Yu Bai wasn’t surprised by her words. He just fell silent for a second or two before saying, “That’s good.”

A simple two-word phrase, devoid of any emotion.

She was curious about this response, “Do you think it’s a good thing?”

Zhong Yu Bai’s voice was calm, sitting amidst the spread of camphor tree shadows, his black eyes like bottomless pools. He said, “Dating, breaking up, marriage, divorce, they’re all like changes in life, the scenery shifts. They’re all fine.”

Ji Zhen Tang exclaimed, “Your understanding is very advanced.”

He smiled faintly, without continuing the conversation.

Ji Zhen Tang thought to herself, having foresight is also correct, she found it amusing to consider that her thoughts couldn’t possibly accelerate her reasoning by ten years compared to his, and she couldn’t help but chuckle.

Zhong Yu Bai caught her smile, “Looks like your mood hasn’t been affected.”

She sighed, “I’ve just learned to play along. Although many of them are misty romantic encounters, it doesn’t matter, there’s not that many soulmates in a lifetime.”

The man’s fingers tapped lightly on his knee twice, and after a moment of thought, he said, “2046.”

She was pleasantly surprised, her eyes curved with a smile, “Correct! I’m a die-hard fan of the Wong Kar-wai. I’ve watched his movies 99 times, memorized all the lines, and thoroughly understood his philosophy of love.”

Ding Jialing in the front interrupted, “Why 99 times?”

Ji Zhen Tang said, “Because as long as it’s not a hundred, it’s never enough. People need to leave themselves room.”

Zhong Yu Bai smiled but said nothing.

Meanwhile, Ji Zhen Tang had already turned her head, watching the heavy gate slowly rise at the entrance of the hotel, looking at the now imposing and upscale road, thus not noticing his brief gaze.

Soon, the car drove past the garden roundabout and stopped steadily at the entrance of the revolving door.

Several waiters dressed in suits and white shirts came over to arrange themselves, standing in two rows. Well-trained, each had a smile of respect on their faces, bowing slightly.

“Good evening, Mr. Zhong.”

Zhong Yu Bai nodded in response.

Both inside and outside the elevator, there were waiters pressing the doors, and Zhong Yu Bai never took his hands out of his pockets.

Through the transparent glass, Ji Zhen Tang looked at the city full of lights. As the elevator rose, the tiny figures gradually became dim and distant.

The further away from the crowd, the closer to the world of fame and fortune.

She felt nervous.

The man beside her was probably the only one here who wasn’t restrained, meticulously dressed. In the quiet of the night, the cuffs piled up on his forearm also revealed a bit of self-adaptation. And what supported this self-adaptation was his status.

Stepping out of the elevator, Ji Zhen Tang looked around, feeling the atmosphere cool and the lights dim. The empty garden restaurant, looking down, revealed a lonely dance floor.

“Why is it empty? Did you clear it out?”

He said, “A little sincerity.”

“…”

With a hint of skepticism, Ji Zhen Tang nervously swallowed.

As they settled in, Zhong Yu Bai leaned back in his seat, glancing at her and remarked, “The bag is quite unique.”

Ji Zhen Tang glanced at her backpack and smiled happily, saying, “Her name is Ji Xiaoxiong, my little sister.”

A moment of surprise flashed in his eyes, but he smiled and said, “She looks underage.”

Ji Zhen Tang gestured with three fingers, saying, “She’s only three years old.”

The waiter came over and said, “Madam, if you need, I can store the bag for you.”

Ji Zhen Tang glanced at him awkwardly, pressed the bag closer to her chest, as she wasn’t accustomed to storing her belongings and disliked others touching them.

Amidst hesitation, Zhong Yu Bai understood her guardedness and reluctance. He interrupted, “It’s pitiful to squat in the cabinet, let’s add a seat for your sister.”

Even if the other party found it inexplicable, they didn’t dare ask why and complied.

Soon, a high stool was brought over.

Zhong Yu Bai picked out some fruits from the plate, selected two round and crystal-clear cherries, and placed them on an empty plate. The palm-sized plate was then swiftly placed in front of Ji Xiaoxiong.

He leisurely completed this set of actions, then raised his eyes to find someone looking at him with a puzzled expression.

Zhong Yu Bai explained, “Xiaoxiong gets hungry too.”

Ji Zhen Tang grinned, showing eight teeth.

In this world, there was a kind of happiness called someone understanding your absurdity.

When even the worries of those boring girls could be casually dealt with, she realized that not all men in the world were so clueless about romance.

Without an ordering process, perhaps all the chefs today were only serving them.

She glanced to the side and saw a floor-to-ceiling window, the glass wall adorned with backstage photos from a charity dinner, each photo signed by celebrities. Her gaze swept over those photos, murmuring, “All from the entertainment industry, huh? Is this handwriting authentic?”

Without looking at the same thing, Zhong Yu Bai just watched her and said, “You can take whoever you like.”

She just admired, “Wouldn’t that be inappropriate? These are signatures from big stars; I’m afraid of being chased by fans.”

He shrugged, “The entertainment industry is just for entertainment, isn’t it?”

She hesitated for a moment.

Listening to such a person casually saying such things, he seemed unperturbed, as if he didn’t find it inappropriate.

And he wasn’t wrong.

People see different scenery from different positions. In this empty restaurant, he looked at the bustling dance floor, the myriad of actors, the only purpose being amusement.

She looked at the towering skyscrapers in the bustling streets, could only sigh with emotion, amidst the lights and colors, it was still separated by a thick television screen.

Ji Zhen Tang had no intention of taking the photos, just muttered, “It’s not easy to have so many celebrities gathered together.”

Zhong Yu Bai lifted a photo gently, glanced at the face, the hottest young actor in legend, and pressed the photo lightly with his fingertips, placing it in front of Ji Zhen Tang’s cup, “The world is bustling for profit, and all are striving for gain.”

She smiled lightly, looking at the photo in the bottom of the cup, “Do all your big bosses speak like this? I’ve only learned ‘How delightful to have friends coming from afar.’”

Zhong Yu Bai smiled, “That phrase is more suitable for textbooks.”

She asked, “You learn principles, where else if not from textbooks?”

The man looked at her, pondered briefly, his eyes calm and unfathomable, but giving a feeling of imminent change.

Many rumors about him, about those powerful forces at his command, she hadn’t dismissed a single word of them.

In his eyes, there was warmth and humility, but also unfathomable depth. Being able to manipulate all the members of the Zhong family like puppets, he obviously had an inscrutable skill that she couldn’t see through.

“From beneath one’s feet,” he said.

“From beneath your feet?”

She looked towards the window, several words floating in her mind: “In a drunken stupor, amidst luxury and comfort.”

Zhong Yu Bai didn’t respond.

Then, he gentlemanly placed a bowl of Bak Kut Teh in front of her and said, “Have a taste.”

Ji Zhen Tang glanced at his well-defined fingers, fair and with faint blue veins at the joints, devoid of any warmth.

Recalling the conversation with Lin Guixue earlier in the afternoon about such individuals, when she heard the term “backing,” Ji Zhen Tang murmured, “Do you mean that a person needs great courage and resourcefulness to stir up the situation in this bustling place?”

Lin Guixue replied, “Firstly, one must be daring, and secondly, one must be heartless and unfaithful.”

She couldn’t help but be filled with curiosity about him.

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