According to Dai Sheng, his bar group didn't just have preschool teachers and nurses; it also had students and dancers.
Chen Pingjiang could only call him an "expert" in the field.
In this era, social media wasn't very developed yet.
Many young people looked for partners and made friends through these kinds of channels.
Consequently, guys would howl with excitement as they joined the group, never tiring of the organized outings.
Chen Pingjiang's appearance undoubtedly made the girls' eyes light up.
The bar group in this small county town always featured the same few active, old faces; the girls were tired of looking at them.
Seeing the tall, handsome, and well-dressed Chen Pingjiang for the first time, their level of initiative was truly eye-opening.
Stimulated by alcohol and music, hormones surged, and the girls inadvertently centered themselves around Chen Pingjiang.
This made the other men, who had also paid their 200 yuan fee for the outing, turn green with envy and anxiety.
"Dai Sheng, is this guy in our group? I haven't seen him before."
"With those looks, he's clearly a playboy. He's not like us, here to seriously find a partner."
"Damn it, if it stays like this, I'm not coming next time. All the girls are orbiting him."
"..."
Dai Sheng glanced at the several useless men and said with a stern face,
"This is my fcking classmate; he's in big business. If the girls don't like you, look for the reason within yourselves. Ask yourselves if your salary has gone up, if you've been working hard at your job?"
"Damn, so what if he's in business? My uncle says he's in business too, acting all high and mighty outside, but he's actually up to his neck in debt."
"If you chirp one more time, I'll refund your money. You can quit the group while you're at it and don't come back,"
Dai Sheng sneered.
At this, the men shut their mouths resentfully.
Before long, Chen Pingjiang was basically on familiar terms with the girls.
The girl with the handle "Quanquan" was a preschool teacher, "Xiaoyu" was a dancer, and "Diandian" was a little nurse.
Of the remaining two, one was unemployed and the other was a high school student.
This professional lineup made Chen Pingjiang shake his head inwardly.
She hit the "Three Not-to-Marry" professions for men perfectly.
If he really wanted to add one more, he could include "finance girls."
It wasn't that their circles were necessarily messy.
It was just... well, Chen Pingjiang couldn't even make up a reason.
In short, those who know, know.
Quanquan, the preschool teacher, still had a childish look on her face—likely only eighteen or nineteen.
Her eyes sparkled when she looked at Chen Pingjiang, and she kept raising her glass to drink with him.
The nurse girl over there wasn't to be outdone, clamoring to play dice.
So, the four of them played while the other two watched.
"Five threes."
"Six threes."
"Six fours."
When it was Chen Pingjiang's turn, he smiled and said,
"Six ones."
"Holy crap, you actually called that many ones? You're not afraid of dying."
"I don't believe he has that many ones."
Chen Pingjiang, with a cigarette in his mouth, tilted his head and gave the girls a provocative look.
"Stop talking. If you want to challenge it, open it."
Diandian, the nurse, was unconvinced.
She reached out to lift her dice cup and shouted,
"I don't have a single one. I don't believe he has that many. Open!"
After opening, she was immediately dumbfounded.
The other two girls had three ones between them, and Chen Pingjiang had three all by himself.
"You lost, drink up."
Chen Pingjiang showed no sign of "showing mercy to the fairer sex," directly pouring a full glass of foreign liquor mixed with a soft drink.
The nurse cursed in annoyance and drained the glass in one gulp.
Just then, Chen Pingjiang suddenly felt a force push him from behind.
Losing his balance, he stumbled forward.
"Zhang You, what the fck is wrong with you?"
Diandian, the nurse, exploded, her face exceptionally ugly.
Chen Pingjiang thought to himself: Damn, who did I offend this time?
Turning around, he saw a tall, thin guy from another table staring at him with a gloomy expression.
"Are you okay?"
Chen Pingjiang shook his head.
"I'm fine."
Before Chen Pingjiang could even move, Dai Sheng delivered a slap directly to Zhang You's face.
"You fcking want to die, don't you?"
After the slap, he still didn't feel satisfied.
He grabbed a beer bottle from the table and—crack—split the tall guy's head open with it.
Zhang You immediately clutched his head, falling to the ground and struggling.
"Brother Chen, you okay?"
"What's going on?"
"This prick has a thing for Diandian. I guess seeing you guys playing together made him bitter."
The sudden fight caused the bar, which wasn't very lively to begin with, to come to a standstill.
Gazes turned toward them, and a few moments later, several security guards with walkie-talkies rushed over.
"What's the situation, Dai Sheng?"
The leading security captain was a burly man.
He frowned at the spilled alcohol and Zhang You lying on the floor.
Dai Sheng waved his hand and said with a smile,
"It's nothing. we were just messing around and accidentally went too far."
Nodding, the security captain gave a final warning before leaving:
"Don't cause trouble. President Ge is here today."
Dai Sheng shrunk his neck slightly, the image of the iron-fisted beautiful CEO, Ge Mengshi, flashing through his mind.
"Dai Sheng, if you don't kick Zhang You out of the group, we're not coming anymore. He's a total psycho,"
Diandian said, glancing with disgust at Zhang You, who was sitting on the ground clutching his head.
Her good mood had been ruined.
After such a scene, Chen Pingjiang lost interest as well.
He didn't find it necessary to give Zhang You a few extra kicks; he himself wasn't hurt, and since the security captain had already come by, beating the kid further would make things awkward for Dai Sheng.
The group dispersed quickly.
At the bar entrance, Dai Sheng, feeling he had ruined Chen Pingjiang's night, cursed under his breath:
"This guy's brain is in his pants. He likes the girl, but she's never liked him. It's always a one-sided crush. Brother Chen, do you want me to find a chance to beat him up?"
"Forget it, there's no need,"
Chen Pingjiang said with a smile.
He wasn't a child anymore, nor was he that impulsive.
"Luckily 'Erzi' didn't come today, otherwise, I probably wouldn't have been able to stop him."
Dai Sheng laughed at that.
"That's for sure. Zhou Guanghan listens to you most. If he saw someone messing with you, he'd probably want to mince that guy."
"Are you just drifting along like this?"
Chen Pingjiang changed the subject.
At the mention of this, Dai Sheng gave a bitter smile.
"What else can I do? My dad wanted me to drive a taxi for someone on the night shift, but I couldn't handle it. I look down on low-paying jobs and can't stomach the hardship, and I can't find a good job. I can only mess around like this."
After thinking for a moment, Chen Pingjiang took a business card from his pocket and handed it to Dai Sheng.
"Dye that yellow hair of yours back. If you can't make it here, come find me in Dongjiang."
Dai Sheng took the card in surprise.
"Okay. I'll come find you after the New Year."
He had often hung out with Chen Pingjiang during high school, but after graduation, their lives had diverged.
Seeing Chen Pingjiang driving a nice car earlier had actually piqued his interest; he hadn't expected Chen Pingjiang to bring it up first.
The reason Chen Pingjiang was willing to give Dai Sheng a hand, besides their past friendship, was that Renren Web was currently filled with students or "tech guys."
It lacked a bit of "wildness."
In times of need, having someone like Dai Sheng—who was quick-witted and knew how to navigate the social underbelly—could solve many problems.
---
When Chen Pingjiang returned home, it was already 10:30 PM.
Xu Fangjuan was already in bed in her pajamas.
Hearing the door, she hurried out.
"You really don't stay home, do you? You've only been back for half a day and who knows where you ran off to."
Chen Pingjiang chuckled, no longer feeling as annoyed by his mother's nagging as he used to.
"Ran into a friend and had a few drinks."
"Just like your father. Drinking at noon, drinking at night—one day it'll be the death of you. A boy only in his teens, and you've learned both smoking and drinking. Like father, like son."
It hadn't even been a full day, and Xu Fangjuan was already starting to find her "silly son" annoying.
Chen Guangming, who was leaning against the headboard watching TV in the bedroom, tactfully pretended not to hear his wife scolding him along with the boy.
"Go shower first. Hmm? Why do you smell like a ton of perfume?"
Xu Fangjuan had a sharp nose.
As soon as she got close to Chen Pingjiang, she caught the scent.
Chen Pingjiang broke into a cold sweat, not knowing which woman's scent had rubbed off on him.
"Chen Pingjiang, I can't control what you do outside, but at home, you better behave and stop messing with those shady characters."
Chen Pingjiang talked back:
"So someone's shady just because they wear perfume?"
Xu Fangjuan almost pointed at his nose as she scolded him:
"Then explain it to me. If you weren't huddled together, how could the perfume smell be this strong?"
"Uh!"
Chen Pingjiang was silenced and quickly grabbed his change of clothes, rushing into the bathroom.
In the Chen family, the combined combat power of Big Chen and Little Chen was roughly equal to one-fourth of "Empress Dowager" Xu.
Back in the bedroom, Xu Fangjuan still wasn't mollified.
She glared at Chen Guangming, who was focused on the TV.
"It's all your fault for being so hands-off with him since he was a kid. Look at what he's become now. A cigarette never leaves his hand, and alcohol never leaves his mouth."
Chen Guangming smiled and comforted her:
"He's had a lively, extroverted personality since he was little. If you try to constrain him too tightly, you're going against human nature. Besides, he's gradually entering society now; this kind of personality is exactly what will keep him from being taken advantage of."
After washing up and returning to his room, Chen Pingjiang opened his laptop to handle work as usual.
With the start of winter break, Renren Delivery had completely halted operations after the final exams at various schools, and all payments to partners had been settled.
The traffic on Renren Web had also dropped significantly due to the break.
Students were either on the road or had just arrived home and were enjoying themselves; indeed, not many people were going online.
Chen Pingjiang had anticipated this and didn't mind.
The entire Renren Web staff was on holiday, except for the technical department, which was still working in Office 202 of the Entrepreneurship Park.
After all, the technical department carried a heavy responsibility; besides daily website maintenance, the development of web games was in full swing.
Furthermore, most of the technical department were off-campus hires, so they simply followed the national statutory holidays.
Ding-dong! The sound of a text message rang out.
Chen Pingjiang picked up his phone and saw it was a message from Yan Yan.
"Are you home?"
Chen Pingjiang: Got home at noon. What are you doing?
Yan Yan: Reading.
Chen Pingjiang: Just reading? Aren't you missing me?
After the message was sent, Yan Yan didn't reply for a long time.
Chen Pingjiang scrolled through his phone and found an unread message.
Zhang Xinyue: Sorry about today. My mom is just like that.
Chen Pingjiang smiled and replied: Your mom and I are basically 'acquaintances made through a fight.' I know exactly what she's like.
Just as he finished replying, Yan Yan's message popped up.
"Yes!"
(End of Chapter)
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