Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

By now he was quite certain that Yang Yanzhou's words were mere bluster, and that in the end he would still have to pay. The price was simply too steep.

Yang Ce and Huang Yan naturally paid Zhu Youhua no mind. He could do as he pleased; it had nothing to do with them.

Zhang Bin and Wang Mei were equally baffled. They looked at Zhu Youhua, then at Yang Ce, unable to figure out what game these two were playing.

In truth, what would Yang Shuoxuan do to this Zhu Youhua? So long as the man did not go too far, there was no need for Yang Shuoxuan to interfere. Otherwise, with all the men chasing his woman, if he had to expend effort settling every one of them, he would have no time for anything else.

Everything Yang Ce ordered came in double portions, so Huang Yan did not even need to order when she arrived—she could simply eat what was set before her. When the two had eaten their fill, Yang Ce called the waiter over. "Waiter, the bill."

"Both tables, settled together?" The waiter glanced toward Zhang Bin's side.

"Together." Yang Yu nodded.

Zhu Youhua thought, Go on, keep pretending, keep it up, let's see how long you can keep it up. Heh—I won't fall for it. Zhu Youhua believed Yang Puqi must think he would step forward at the last moment to pay, and that was why he was so unhurried.

"Very good, sir. Your total comes to two hundred twenty-one thousand six hundred thirty-eight yuan, and with the discount, two hundred twenty thousand even," the waiter said with a smile.

"Oh, two hundred twenty thousand, is it? Fine. Card." Yang Ce tossed out a bank card offhandedly and spoke to the waiter.

The waiter took the card and walked respectfully toward the bar, despising Zhu Youhua in his heart. That's what you call a difference—that's what you call a gap. Look at this man—not a word, just pays.

Seeing Yang Ce produce a bank card, Zhu Youhua froze for a moment, but then he consoled himself: he must be putting on an act. Pulling out a bank card doesn't mean there's money on it.

So Zhu Youhua settled in to enjoy the show, staring at Yang Ce, waiting for him to make a fool of himself, waiting for him to open his mouth and beg. Zhu Youhua told himself he must not compromise—Yang Puqi was definitely putting on an act.

Before long, the waiter came back with Yang Juehuan's card. Zhu Youhua was gleeful—hah, there must be no money on the card, and the waiter had come back to find him.

But what happened next left Zhu Youhua somewhat dumbfounded. The waiter returned the bank card to Yang Ce, then produced a receipt and said to Yang Yanzhou, "Sir, please sign."

"Oh." Yang Ce took the receipt from the card transaction, signed it, and handed it back to the waiter.

"Thank you for your patronage." With that, the waiter turned and walked away.

Zhu Youhua stood frozen, and only after a long while did he point at Yang Yanchuan in disbelief: "You—you paid the bill?"

"That's right." Yang Ce nodded offhandedly.

"You could afford it?" Zhu Youhua asked, hardly able to believe it.

"Are you sick or something?" Yang Mo frowned with a trace of impatience. "Do me a favor and stay away from Huang Yan from now on. I don't have time to dawdle with you. Shoo—we're leaving."

"No, that's impossible." Zhu Youhua could not for the life of him work it out—how had Yang Ce managed to pay? The dishes ordered at Yang Ce's table had hardly looked like the fare of wealthy men.

"Believe whatever you like." Yang Ce took Huang Yan's hand and walked toward the restaurant entrance.

"I've got it—you must have drained your entire savings to pay for this meal!" Zhu Youhua suddenly shouted, blocking the way in front of Yang Ce and Huang Yan. "Lele, don't let this guy fool you. This punk is just slapping his own face to look fat."

Then he turned to Yang Yanzhou: "Kid, you must be aching inside right now. You meant for me to pay the bill, didn't you? For the sake of face you had to slap yourself fat in the end, but your heart is bleeding—am I right?"

Yang Wenru frowned, thinking, Is this guy insane? So he said irritably, "What I'm thinking is none of your business."

That sentence only deepened Zhu Youhua's misunderstanding; he took it that Yang Ce was suffering to keep up appearances. So he said, "How about this—I'll give you the money, and you stop pestering Lele from now on. I'll give you two hundred and fifty thousand, and you still clear thirty thousand. How's that?"

"Oh, is that so?" Yang Ce regarded Zhu Youhua with a half-smile. "I'll give you two point five million. How about you get lost right now?"

Two point five million—Zhu Youhua's heart did flutter; getting lost would almost be worth it. But he did not believe for a moment that Yang Mo had that kind of money, and took it that Yang Ce was calling him a two-hundred-fifty, an idiot. So he sneered, "Fine. We'll see about that."

Yang Ce paid him no further mind. He left the western restaurant with Huang Yan, Zhang Bin, and Wang Mei, leaving Zhu Youhua behind.

"Heh heh, kid, you want to compete with me in wealth? Let's see how long you can keep it up." Zhu Youhua had already made up his mind: Yang Puqi was slapping himself fat the whole way.

"Boss, why didn't you pound that guy?" Once out of the restaurant, Zhang Bin said to Yang Yanzhou, somewhat put out.

"Pound him?" Yang Ce shook his head. "Not everything has to be solved with violence. It's enough to make him back off on his own. Besides, hitting someone in a public place isn't good—we'd be the ones in the wrong."

"That's true, but making him pay the bill and sticking him with it would have been nice too!" Zhang Bin said with some regret.

"That was my plan at first, but later I figured that if this could make him give up completely, the cost of the meal didn't matter. Besides, it wasn't much," Yang Yanzhou said.

Not much? Two hundred and twenty thousand isn't much? Wang Mei clicked her tongue. Even with Liu Jihao, she had never eaten anything so expensive. Zhang Bin was even more curious about Yang Ce. The boss no longer seemed to be the boss he had known—especially the financial power he had shown this time in Macau. How was this the Yang Ce who had only had a few dozen yuan in his pocket back in high school?

Huang Yan, for her part, had no real concept of money. Whether Yang Ce was poor or rich did not matter to her; all that mattered was that she was happy.

"By the way, boss, there's nothing to do now, and that fellow Liu Jihao is taken care of. Let's go to the casino and have a couple of good rounds!" Zhang Bin's hands were itching. "Last time we didn't even get to play properly before things went wrong in a hurry."

Yang Ce hesitated. He had not intended to go, but then he thought of how miserable Zhang Bin had truly been these past two days, dragged into trouble because of his affairs and treated as a murder suspect. So Yang Shuoxuan nodded: "All right, then let's play a good, hard game."

"Boss, you're too good to me!" Zhang Bin said happily when he heard this.

They hailed a taxi, and Zhang Bin and Wang Mei got in, while Yang Ce got into Huang Yan's Porsche Boxster. In the passenger seat, Yang Ce felt a little awkward. Other men drove sports cars and carried beautiful women; here he was, a beautiful woman carrying him.

Still, it was not the first time. Back when he had first met Sun Jie, the situation had been much the same.

"Won't it be trouble for you, going to your family's casino?" Yang Minlan said to Huang Yan once they were in the car.

"Not at all." Huang Yan shook her head. "He's bound to lose money anyway. If anything, the casino comes out ahead."

Huang Yan clearly saw things clearly. Nine out of ten gamblers lose—that was how casinos worked. The people who came to a casino were basically there to lose money; otherwise, what would the casino be making?

"But his chips are the ones you gave him," Yang Mo said, somewhat amused. Huang Yan's way of thinking really was peculiar.