Huaying Real Estate got back to Wang Cheng very quickly.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Yiheng told him that his boss wanted to speak with Wang Cheng personally, so the two sides agreed on a time to meet.
As a man with no job to speak of, Wang Cheng decided he could accommodate the boss of Huaying Real Estate when it came to the time and place. In truth, the people from Huaying Real Estate had left a fairly good impression on him, which was why he was being so agreeable. Other than when he had been in school, Wang Cheng rarely went into the city.
On the appointed day, Zhang Yiheng came to pick him up personally.
A black sedan stopped in front of the Wang family’s house. Its glossy black body immediately drew the attention of everyone nearby. There was no one in Wang Family Village who did not know the Wang family’s circumstances, so the sight of them suddenly associating with someone who drove a sedan sent gossip sweeping through the village. Before long, a crowd had gathered around the car to watch.
Zhang Yiheng got out, still looking every inch the elite professional Wang Cheng had met two days earlier. A closer look at his stiff expression, however, made it obvious that he was deeply uncomfortable with the rural atmosphere.
Someone soon recognized Zhang Yiheng as being from Huaying Real Estate, which only made everyone more astonished. Since when had the Wang family had anything to do with Huaying Real Estate?
After receiving the call, Wang Cheng came out of the house, exchanged a brief greeting with Zhang Yiheng, and climbed straight into the car.
Zhang Yiheng understood what he was thinking and did not waste words. He simply drove away from Wang Family Village. He did not enjoy being stared at either. It made him feel like a monkey in a cage being displayed for other people’s amusement.
The mountain road was rough, forcing him to slow down. If it had not been more convenient this way, Zhang Yiheng would never have wanted to drive into the mountains.
It had rained there only the night before. The road was full of potholes and mud, and after the car passed through, its once-clean exterior was no longer recognizable.
Zhang Yiheng finally breathed a sigh of relief once they were through that stretch, only to choke on it when he glanced in the rearview mirror. Wang Cheng had stretched out across the back seat with his eyes closed. Zhang Yiheng could not tell whether he had fallen asleep, but his breathing was even and the miserable road did not seem to have affected him in the slightest. So while Zhang Yiheng suffered up front, this guy had been enjoying himself in the back.
Wang Cheng woke only when Zhang Yiheng called him. The latter’s face was dark. He had not expected Wang Cheng to actually fall asleep. If he had not been worried about keeping the boss waiting, he might have simply dragged the man out of the car. This young fellow was far too calm. They were about to negotiate over an enormous amount of money, the sort of opportunity countless people could wait their entire lives for and never receive.
The meeting was not at Huaying Real Estate’s offices, but at an upscale leisure club called Totem. Even the name sounded like the sort of place rich people went. Cars of makes Wang Cheng could not identify were parked outside. The club’s exterior was understated, but inside it was bright and elegant, decorated in pale colors that were soothing to the eye.
The attendant seemed to know Zhang Yiheng and immediately led them to a reception room.
Totem was not an ordinary entertainment venue. Its interior had been designed almost like a home, so being inside did not make people feel constrained. The lounge they had just passed through, for example, had several guests sitting on sofas and talking together. The atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable, and even their voices were kept low enough not to disturb anyone else.
The attendant knocked. Only after a man’s voice answered from inside did he open the door and invite them in. Wang Cheng entered first, his gaze immediately falling on the man seated on a sofa near the floor-to-ceiling windows, brewing tea.
Bright daylight filtered through the open blinds, seeming to sheath the man in a layer of radiance. A faint shadow traced the side of his face, and caught between light and shade, his profile was startlingly striking in a way Wang Cheng could not quite describe. His attention then traveled downward and settled on the man’s hands, not the one holding the teapot, but the left hand resting flat on his thigh.
He remembered the old monk once telling him that dividing the length of the index finger by the length of the ring finger produced a finger-length ratio. When the ring finger was longer than the index finger, the ratio was below one, and people like that were supposedly the “playboy type,” especially among men.
Elio’s Notes: The finger-length measure described here is commonly called the 2D:4D digit ratio. It has been studied as a possible marker of prenatal androgen exposure and in relation to behavior, but its hormonal validity remains disputed. The novel’s neat “playboy type” label is a joke, not a reliable way to diagnose anyone’s personality or sexual behavior.
For a while after hearing this, Wang Cheng had developed the habit of unconsciously studying other people’s fingers. Eventually he noticed that most people’s ring-to-index proportions looked close to one. Even when the ring finger was longer, the difference was usually so slight that without looking carefully the two fingers seemed the same length. Today, however, he was seeing something that overturned all of his previous observations.
The man’s fingers were longer and more elegant than most people’s. Although his ring and index fingers were separated by the middle finger, it was still obvious that the ring finger was longer. Add in a face handsome enough to cause trouble, and Wang Cheng suddenly felt that perhaps the old monk had been right after all. As for how the old monk had known this sort of thing in the first place, Wang Cheng selectively chose not to think about it.
While Wang Cheng was staring blankly at his hand, the man had already turned to look at him, his deep gaze sweeping over the black stubble beginning to sprout across Wang Cheng’s bald head.
As expected, wherever Wang Cheng went, his bald head was always the first thing people noticed.