Chapter 15: Chapter 15 Take a Look at the Underlayer
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The sky was completely dark, and Zhou Wang stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the suite’s living room, listening to soft music, holding a glass of champagne, and gazing down at the myriad lights of Ming City with deep eyes.
He took a light sip and immediately grimaced, “Is champagne always this sour?”
Having little experience with sparkling wine, Zhou Wang quickly broke his facade, dropped the high-society act, turned off the music, set the champagne aside, grabbed a bottle of Roosevelt No. 10 craft beer from the fridge, and took a hearty swig before comfortably reclining on the sofa.
“Beer still hits the spot!”
The champagne was one of the welcome gifts from Bella at the hotel, where drinks in the fridge were free but alcohol was chargeable.
However, with Zhou Wang’s current income, paying for an 80-yuan hotel-priced craft beer was nothing, barely noticeable.
He drank and listened to music just to quell the slight restlessness in his heart, stemming from another part of the hotel privileges he learned from Bella.
In addition to free use of the conference room and gym area, he automatically became a VIP at the high-end spa center partnered with the hotel, enjoying the highest discounts, and the hotel also included a free experience voucher.
Looking at the card on the table and the beautiful lady on the cover playing the role of an advertisement, Zhou Wang, who had never tried it, was very intrigued.
It wasn’t that he thought this massage spa was unregulated; it was just that after experiencing so many things in such a short time, every cell in his body emitted a desire to release stress.
In his early twenties, with hormones abundant, having some vague restlessness was quite normal.
“There’s still proper work to do, there’s still proper work to do…”
But Zhou Wang ultimately managed to resist the temptation to try it out immediately, summoning the system interface instead, opening up the reading list, and making a plan for the upcoming study.
Over the course of 14 days, Zhou Wang wasn’t quite sure how many books he could read, so he chose the most stable method, starting with the easy ones and moving to the difficult ones, adjusting if his reading speed picked up later.
Eventually, Zhou Wang carefully picked out 20 books, knowing it was unlikely he could finish them all, but as long as he could complete a quarter and earn at least 200 points, that would be the baseline.
After Zhou Wang finished creating and revising his custom reading list, it was already past 10 PM.
He called Bella to bring a late-night snack, and while sitting at the dining table, Zhou Wang picked up the previously silenced phone.
There were no missed calls, but there were several messages, aside from hotel welcome messages, the rest were promotional texts.
These promotional messages were different from the ones he used to receive, with some from securities companies and others from second-hand luxury goods recycling…
Upon seeing this, Zhou Wang couldn’t help but shake his head.
In this era of big data, personal privacy was really minimal. Within just one day, his mom didn’t know he struck it rich, yet all sorts of riffraff had popped up first, while Zhou Wang wasn’t even sure where the leak came from.
He opened WeChat to find multiple messages in the class group, where some classmates in Ming City were inviting each other to Ding Yi’s birthday party two days later.
His local roommate Li Cheng privately messaged him, asking if he had returned to Jing City and if he wanted to go together.
Thinking of that forever bright smiling girl, Zhou Wang zoned out for a moment before replying to Li Cheng.
“No, I’m a bit busy lately, no time.”
To say he had no feelings for Ding Yi at all would be too hypocritical, since there had been genuine attraction and regret in the past.
Zhou Wang didn’t like the cliché terms like “white moonlight” but, facing his heart, it was more about being tempted by appearances and… continuously tempted.
Zhou Wang just felt the timing wasn’t right, their relationship couldn’t go back to what it once was, and he was very certain of one thing: Ding Yi had definitely sent specific invitations to certain classmates.
Since he wasn’t on that list, he needed to have the corresponding awareness.
Even if he showed up with the group invite, Ding Yi wouldn’t react strangely, but… what’s the point?
A couple million in assets still wasn’t much compared to Ding Yi’s family; if they were to meet again one day, Zhou Wang hoped to be more at ease.
After replying to Li Cheng, Zhou Wang swiped down and opened the chat box with the red number jumping to “11.”
“Brother, what are you doing?”
“Look at my new manicure, isn’t it pretty? I got it done at the school entrance, the whole set was only 198!”
“Manicure photo + short skirt thigh.jpg”
Was this really about showing off the manicure?
Zhou Wang was momentarily dazzled by Su Yajing’s pale thighs, and after a few seconds, continued scrolling down.
“I know, Mr. Zhou must be busy, right?”
“I just wanted to chat with you, brother, don’t feel the need to reply, hope I didn’t bother you~”
“Brother, I’m almost ready to sleep after taking a shower, let me show you our cozy dorm room!”
“Selfie.jpg”
The photo’s background showed a four-person dorm room, decorated in pink and green tones that indeed looked cozy, but the most eye-catching part was still Su Yajing standing in the front.
She had clearly just showered, with slightly damp long hair draping on both sides, her makeup removed, showing a bare face with a sweet smile, exuding a pure aura.
She was wearing an oversized gray T-shirt, the most prominent part just covered by the ends of her hair, making it unclear if she was wearing a bra, though it looked quite shapely.
She leaned back slightly, the T-shirt covering down to her thighs, leaving a bare section that seemed like she wasn’t wearing anything underneath…
“Let’s see the inside…”
Zhou Wang instinctively typed a few words but deleted them immediately upon realization.
If he sent that, wouldn’t it just show he’s taken the bait?
Zhou Wang didn’t understand the push and pull game, but he wouldn’t easily let himself lose the initiative.
Scrolling down, Zhou Wang found that the supposedly already asleep Su Yajing had sent a few more messages and had forwarded a contact card.
The general idea was that her boss Mao Yi wanted to add Zhou Wang on WeChat, but Su Yajing didn’t dare decide for Zhou Wang, so she sent over Mao Yi’s contact for Zhou Wang to decide for himself.
Zhou Wang opened the contact card and found the other person’s WeChat name quite interesting, a long string saying:
“AAA Business Reception, Nightlife Consultation, Same City Companion, Manager Xiao Mao.”
He already knew about the same-city companionship, but “business” and “nightlife” gave off a feeling of déjà vu and ambiguity.
Zhou Wang was a bit curious, wondering what type of business the manager was actually handling with such a mix.
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