"Whoa! Is this the big celebrity?"
"Old Wei, you really are a man of deep affection..."
"She looks even better in person than she does online. Your name's Wen Xue, right? Think you can handle being around Mr. Wei?"
Inside the private room, six or seven men were sizing up Wen Xue the moment she stepped through the door, exchanging playful, knowing glances and muttering remarks that seemed to hold hidden meanings only they could understand. Their eyes fixed on Wen Xue were brimming with veiled lust, and it was only because Wei Xuan hadn't made his stance clear yet that their hidden hunger hadn't burst into open, unbridled behavior.
Wen Xue's face paled slightly. She huddled her shoulders, lifted her head just a little, and let her glistening, watery eyes scan the crowd, finally locking onto Wei Xuan. But after waiting several long seconds, he didn't say a single word, just let the others keep staring at her with unbridled impudence.
Wen Xue played the part of the delicate, helpless, lost little dear perfectly, but in her head she was already unleashing a whole string of curses. She knew coming to a place like this would be nothing but trouble. A bunch of sleazy men who'd had a few drinks had already lost all sense, thinking with the wrong head. And that lousy Wei Xuan was such a spineless loser! What was he putting on that deep, quiet act for?
The private room erupted in more laughter and teasing, the men saying Wei Xuan was far too ungentlemanly, that he hadn't noticed the beauty was on the verge of tears, that he should be looking out for her.
That was when Wei Xuan finally spoke. He took a big sip of his wine and scoffed, "Hmph, she's no precious jade to me."
Screw you!
Wen Xue felt like setting that bastard on fire right then and there, but the thought of the money made her hold back. On the surface, she looked utterly heartbroken, on the brink of sobbing. Just you wait, she thought.
Seeing Wen Xue's expression, the men winked and nudged Wei Xuan even more, some shaking their heads and sighing—but those sighs weren't out of pity for Wen Xue at all.
They were the ones treating her like she wasn't even human, yet they still put on airs of being civilized, saying, "What are you doing standing over there? Come sit down, we're just messing with you, we didn't scare you, did we?"
Screw your stupid "just messing with you"!
Wen Xue let out a breath like she'd just been relieved, glancing at Wei Xuan carefully, while in reality she memorized every single face in that private room. Every last one of them—don't let her get the chance to get even.
Meanwhile, under Mu Yue's firm insistence, the extremely reluctant manager had no choice but to lead Xiao Mei and Mu Yue over.
What a terrible night this had turned out to be. He'd thought this was just a trivial matter, kicking out an intern who hadn't even worked a full month, but he never expected this intern to have such a lucky break.
This was really bad now. The manager wiped the cold sweat pouring down his face as he walked ahead, swallowing nervously. What was going on? Why did it feel like this young lady was staring daggers at him the whole time?
Mu Yue was indeed staring at the manager. He was the one in charge of the KTV area. When Mu Yue had someone call Xiao Mei over, he'd tagged along too. Now, as she thought back to his earlier behavior and the plot from the novel she'd read, she knew exactly what he'd been planning.
Xiao Mei, just like the original host of the body she was in, had no status or background, plus she was soft-spoken and far too easy to push around. She didn't have much life experience or courage, and if she'd stayed in this kind of place, even without the whole mess with Wei Xuan, she would've ended up getting taken advantage of, every last bit of her worth squeezed dry.
She had to get Xiao Mei out of here as soon as possible. This environment was no place for someone so honest and naive.
As for the manager, of course she was going to bring up what had happened today. She didn't care how it all got sorted out in the end, but right now she couldn't stand the sight of him, and she was going to make sure he had a miserable time.
The tea lounge and the KTV area were a good distance apart. They walked for several minutes before Mu Yue finally reached the private room where the male and female leads were.
The second the door opened, the stench of mixed alcohol and cigarette smoke drifted out. Mu Yue frowned and covered her nose. No matter how fancy the private room was, no matter how good its air filtration system, that stench still lingered just as bad.
Just like the bunch of idiotic men inside. They were just a little richer than the average person, but deep down they were as crass and empty-headed as any low-class loser.
"Who's that?" The moment the men inside saw Mu Yue, they all reined in their unruly expressions and movements, one by one putting on a proper act, their eyes suddenly seeming almost polite.
"Whose family is she from?"
"You weren't here a few days back, you haven't seen her. That's the mysterious Miss Mu."
"Which Miss Mu? I've never heard of her."
"Come on, the one who owns three whole floors at Boguang, and has seven vintage luxury cars."
"Holy crap!"
"But what's she doing here? Who's she looking for?"
The group whispered to each other, and soon they heard the manager call out "Mr. Wei". In an instant, every gaze in the room turned to Wei Xuan.
Unlike the way they'd teased and mocked Wen Xue earlier, this time the group of "good buddies" all had complicated looks in their eyes, full of envy and jealousy. Some of their minds were already racing a mile a minute, cooking up all kinds of underhanded schemes to deal with their so-called friend.
Mu Yue was the top-tier heiress from a legendary, wealthy family that had suddenly popped up in A City—mysterious beyond belief, and richer than anyone could imagine. Getting on her good side wasn't some small, trivial thing.
Wei Xuan raised an eyebrow when he heard his name, looking over at Mu Yue. He'd met her once before, he had a vague memory of her, but back then he hadn't known who she was.
He never expected she'd come looking for him on purpose tonight. Too bad, he wasn't interested. His heart was already taken.
Wei Xuan got up reluctantly. He had to be careful, considering the power of Mu Yue's mysterious family, and he was already trying to figure out how to politely turn her down without hurting her pride.
But he'd only taken two steps toward her when Mu Yue stepped back half a pace, her voice full of open disgust. "I have no idea what all of you are doing in there. It reeks so bad. You must be Wei Xuan, right? My friend just got your clothes dirty. I came here to pay you back for the dry cleaning."
...
Silence. The entire private room went dead quiet.
Wei Xuan's buddies were biting down hard on their lips to keep from bursting out laughing. They'd all been thinking some rich heiress had a crush on Wei Xuan, and what was this? Dry cleaning money? Hahaha! But halfway through holding it in, they realized the young lady had just called all of them stinky too.
Stinky? She actually said they stank?
Are you kidding me? How could they ever be associated with a word like stinky?
Wen Xue had to clench her hands tight at her sides to keep from cackling out loud. What a bunch of dumbasses!
And the funniest part of all was Wei Xuan, who'd just been stressing over how to gently reject Mu Yue. What a total case of being full of himself.
Feeling like he'd just been publicly humiliated, Wei Xuan's face darkened. "What dry cleaning money?" he snapped at Mu Yue.
Mu Yue turned to Xiao Mei, who stammered out a quick explanation. The second Xiao Mei finished speaking, the manager immediately cut in, "We're terribly sorry, Mr. Wei. This was supposed to be a tiny little issue, but Miss Mu insisted on coming to see you in person. There was nothing I could do..."
Mu Yue glanced at the manager again and called him out directly. "What a shameless bootlicker. You tried to dock her a whole month's pay, and make her pay 120,000 yuan in damages. You call that a tiny little issue?"
"What about you? Did your so-called noble and lofty mouth just make someone pay you 120,000 yuan directly?"
Wei Xuan's brows furrowed even deeper as he looked at Mu Yue, confused. "Miss Mu, I'm a few years older than you, and I really can't figure out why you're being so aggressive with your words—"
Mu Yue, who was getting impatient, covered her nose and cut him off directly. "Cut the crap. I'm asking you, did you make someone pay you the money directly or not?"
Wei Xuan took a deep breath, his patience with Mu Yue completely worn thin. "So what if I did? Even after a wine-stained garment is washed, Miss Mu, would you still wear it?"
The manager's face lit up with joy. That's it, that's it! Mr. Wei said it himself!
"You're right, I wouldn't," Mu Yue said.
Xiao Mei's face paled at once, and she looked at Mu Yue nervously. Mu Yue gave her a reassuring look, telling her not to panic.
Wei Xuan huffed a dry, meaningful laugh. "So what other problems could Miss Mu possibly have?"
Mu Yue huffed right back at him. "A whole lot of problems. Did you wear that coat for the very first time today? How many times have you worn it before? When did you buy it? Even if compensation was needed, it should be calculated based on second-hand value. That 120,000 yuan you asked for is the price of a brand-new coat, isn't it?"
"..." Wei Xuan was struck speechless all of a sudden. That coat really wasn't worn for the first time that day.
The group of so-called buddies standing nearby exchanged bewildered glances. For one thing, they couldn't make sense of why Mu Yue was speaking to Wei Xuan with such sharp, pointed barbs, and for another, following Mu Yue's train of thought, they all started recalling that Wei Xuan's coat was definitely not brand new—he had worn it several times before.
So this whole thing...
"Ha," Mu Yue crossed her arms over her chest, mocking him mercilessly. "This is hilarious. The Chief Operating Officer of the entire Wei Group actually has the nerve to cheat someone out of tens of thousands of yuan."
"An old, worn coat, and you still had the gall to make someone pay you the price of a brand-new one for it."
Wen Xue covered her mouth with both hands, seemingly gasping in shock, but in reality she was hiding a snicker. Her girl is absolutely amazing. With just a few words, she's smacked that jerk Wei Xuan right across the face. That guy cares more about his dignity than anything else, he must be completely losing it right now.
"Pfft!" One of the fake buddies in the group couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.
Then a few more low snickers followed one after another. There was no way any of them could hold it back.
The great CEO Wei, getting mocked for swindling tens of thousands of yuan out of someone for once in his life, and the worst part was, what Mu Yue said actually made total sense! Even if Wei Xuan never meant it that way, the fact was, if that waiter really paid him the full original price as compensation, he would have made a profit off it.
Making money through normal business deals? That's real skill. But making money off a petty thing like this? That's not skill at all. That's just taking advantage of people. And the person he was taking advantage of was a regular, ordinary person from the lower class that they all usually didn't even spare a second glance at.
If word of this got out, it would be so embarrassing. No class at all.
Then Mu Yue dropped an even more brutal line: "All those people were singing your praises like you're some big shot, but I think you're no different from those old fakers who stage car accidents to extort money out of people."
Wei Xuan hadn't even recovered from the previous jab when he was hit a second time, his dignity completely shattered. He had never been ridiculed like this in his entire life. His face turned as dark as storm clouds, and he gritted his teeth. "It's just a coat! Fine, I don't want the compensation anymore, is that good enough?"
The buddies didn't dare laugh anymore and quickly jumped in to smooth things over.
"Come on, it's not that big of a deal..."
"It's just a tiny thing, calm down, calm down."
"Old Wei really didn't think it through on purpose, Miss Mu, your words are a bit too harsh."
"Yeah yeah, this could even count as a funny little way to get acquainted, right? Miss Mu, why don't you come in and have a drink with us? We're all friends here..."
Mu Yue glanced into the private room. "No thanks. Aren't you guys already forcing a girl to drink and keep you company in there? I don't dare step in. Who knows what kind of 'good time' you have planned for me."
Everyone present: "..."
Wait a minute, what kind of people did she think they were? It felt like they just got scolded all over again.
"It's a misunderstanding, a total misunderstanding! That lady is a friend of Mr. Wei's, she came here to hang out with us on her own, there's no forcing going on at all!"
"Really? I don't believe you." Mu Yue's eyes locked on Wen Xue, who immediately played along perfectly, pulling off a performance in two seconds: cheeks flushed bright red, eyes glassy and unfocused like she was wasted, and she subconsciously tugged the lapels of her clothes tighter. Mu Yue gave her a quiet thumbs-up in her mind, then stared blankly at the group of men with a completely unamused look on her face.
After saying that, Mu Yue swept her gaze over all the men with undisguised disdain, then called to Wen Xue who was "drunk" inside the private room. "Are you okay in there? Do you need me to call the police for you?"
Now it wasn't just Wei Xuan whose face was dark, every single guy in that buddy group had a face black as thunder.
Dammit, what even is this mess? Who the hell brought this walking disaster here?
They all looked around at each other, then their eyes landed on the manager in unison. This useless idiot, right?
The manager shuddered. Oh no, this time it's really all over.
