Wang Cheng received a call from Mother Zheng. She said she wanted to come see him and asked for an address. There was no way Wang Cheng dared tell her he was currently staying at Binhai Garden, so he gave her a nearby address and arranged to meet her there.
Chu Yifeng was not at the villa. He and David had gone out early that morning to take care of business. Apparently there was a cooperation project with a major company, and David had come over this time specifically because of it. Today was their first round of negotiations.
Wang Cheng did not have a car in the capital. The one he was driving now had been given to him by Mother Zheng, a dark-blue McLaren worth three to four million yuan. She had originally wanted to give him a flashy red Ferrari, but Wang Cheng had very little interest in red sports cars, so she switched it for this McLaren. Her reasoning had been completely unassailable, and whether he agreed or not, she simply left the car behind and departed.
When he drove to their meeting place, Wang Cheng had not even gone inside before he saw Mother Zheng waving excitedly at him through the glass window. A drop of cold sweat practically formed on his forehead. There were plenty of times when he could barely withstand her enthusiasm.
“Chengcheng, how did you know about this tea restaurant? The atmosphere is wonderful. Mom really likes it.” Mother Zheng held a steaming cup of tea. The older people got, the more they cared about keeping healthy, and quiet, leisurely places like this appealed to many adults and elderly people.
“I saw it when I passed by and thought you’d probably like it.” Wang Cheng sat down as he spoke. In truth, he had David to thank. After finishing an errand yesterday, David had brought food back from this place on the way home.
Mother Zheng was delighted. Whatever the reason Wang Cheng had guessed correctly, it made her feel as though her son kept her in his heart.
A server came over to ask what they wanted. Although the words “tea restaurant” sounded as though the place should revolve around tea, in this diversified world, any businessman who knew how to operate understood how to attract customers.
Mother Zheng was not picky, so Wang Cheng ordered two drinks and several light snacks according to his own judgment. The food arrived soon afterward.
Wang Cheng picked up a small red-bean-paste pastry with his chopsticks and placed it on Mother Zheng’s plate. It was tiny, only about half the size of a baby’s fist, small enough to eat in one bite. It was sweet without being cloying, with only a light fragrance and sweetness. Wang Cheng had heard Father Zheng say that Mother Zheng had loved sweets in the past, but as she grew older, her tastes had gradually become lighter and she could no longer handle things that were too sweet.
“You eat too.” Mother Zheng put a piece of fried cake on his plate. It was filled with cream, and when he bit into it, the cream flowed out, rich and sweet.
Seeing how happy she was, Wang Cheng played along. After a while, Mother Zheng took a stack of exquisitely printed, gold-edged cards from her bag and handed them to him.
“Chengcheng, these are the invitations for your birthday banquet. Mom already had them made. Think about which close friends you want to invite. You can invite all of them, and if these aren’t enough, just ask Mom for more.”
Wang Cheng took the stack and saw how thick it was. There were at least twenty. He certainly had close friends, but there was no way he needed this many. He pulled out five and returned the rest to Mother Zheng. “Mom, I don’t need that many. These are enough.”
“Only five?” Mother Zheng looked surprised. She had assumed a young man like Wang Cheng would have a whole group of close friends.
Not wanting her to misunderstand, Wang Cheng explained, “Mom, not everyone can become a real friend. A few close ones are enough.”
Mother Zheng accepted his explanation, but still forced another five on him, saying that if he suddenly remembered someone else he wanted to invite, he would have them on hand. If he did not use them, he could simply keep them. It was not as though they were short of a few invitation cards.
Wang Cheng did not know whether to laugh or cry, so he could only accept them.
Mother Zheng had finally gotten a chance to see her son and was unwilling to leave so quickly. After they finished eating, she pulled Wang Cheng into chatting about one thing after another. At the end, she took a check from her bag and placed it in front of him.
“Mom, what are you doing?” Wang Cheng choked on the water he had just drunk and quickly pulled out a tissue to wipe his mouth. Why was she suddenly giving him a check out of nowhere?
Mother Zheng blinked. “It’s your spending money.”
Wang Cheng glanced at the string of zeros on the check. It was the first time he had ever seen such an enormous amount called “spending money.” Helplessly, he said, “Mom, I don’t need spending money. I have my own money.”
“Mom knows you’re not short of money right now. This is simply spending money your mother wants to give you. Your brother and sister both got it too. Mom used to give it to them every month.”
“Doesn’t Brother already work?” Wang Cheng asked suspiciously.
Mother Zheng gave a light cough. “Before he started working.”
Wang Cheng could not help laughing. “I’m working now too, so I don’t need it.”
“That’s different. You’ve grown this old and I’ve never once been able to give you spending money. I just want to make up for the regret of not being by your side when you were little. I want your life to be a little better. Can’t I even have such a small wish?” Mother Zheng’s expression dimmed.
Wang Cheng knew perfectly well that she was putting on a pitiful act, but he still could not bear to refuse. Fine. He would take it. At worst, he could spend it on her later as filial piety.
Mother Zheng immediately smiled.
The two left the tea restaurant together. Wang Cheng watched the Zhou family driver take Mother Zheng away, then headed toward where he had parked. Beside his McLaren stood a red Ferrari, the same model Mother Zheng had originally wanted to give him. It had not been there when he arrived. Wang Cheng thought nothing of it and was just about to leave when footsteps sounded behind him and the Ferrari beeped at the same time.
Wang Cheng glanced over and saw two stylish young women in thin high heels. They were probably the owners of the Ferrari. He paid them no mind, but one of the women suddenly muttered, “Pretty-boy kept man.” She did not point him out by name, but for some reason Wang Cheng had the feeling she was insulting him.
He had never seen the woman before and could not imagine how he might have offended her, so where had “kept man” come from? Before Wang Cheng could figure it out, the Ferrari pulled away. Just before leaving, however, it suddenly reversed back beside him. The woman in the driver’s seat turned her head, gave him a nasty smile, raised her thumb, then pointed it downward before the car shot off again.
Wang Cheng turned and looked back at the tea restaurant. Those two had probably come out from there too. Had they perhaps seen Mother Zheng give him the check and mistaken him for a young man living off a wealthy older woman?
That was not impossible. Mother Zheng was already in her fifties, but she was so well maintained that she looked like a woman in her thirties or forties. Her skin was not lined with wrinkles like others her age, and the air of wealth around her certainly made her look like a rich woman in other people’s eyes. If someone had not heard their conversation, the scene really could have looked like a kept young man clinging to a wealthy woman.
Wang Cheng drove away and quickly put the incident out of his mind. He had ten invitations in hand now and needed to think about whom he wanted to invite.
Chu Yifeng and David returned half an hour later than he did. Negotiating with a crowd of crafty businessmen was mentally exhausting. The moment David came through the door, he headed straight for the kitchen. The aroma of food immediately made his mouth water. At least he had returned in time for a rich, delicious lunch.
Before Wang Cheng could tell him to do anything, David eagerly ran in to help carry dishes. That had normally been Chu Yifeng’s job, but David had stolen it after arriving.
“How did the negotiations go?” Wang Cheng placed a piece of braised pork rib in Chu Yifeng’s bowl. It was one of Chu Yifeng’s favorite dishes.
“We still have more to negotiate,” Chu Yifeng replied.
Whenever interests were involved, both sides took hard positions. It was almost impossible to settle things without several rounds of negotiation.
David loved the braised ribs too. He had eaten them during earlier visits to China, but none had tasted as good as the boss’s wife’s cooking. Chu Yifeng had only eaten two pieces when David’s chopsticks were already reaching for a fifth. Halfway there, another pair of chopsticks intercepted his target. David looked up and met his boss’s stern face and icy gaze. His hand trembled. Silently, he withdrew his chopsticks and switched to ladling himself some soup.
“You went out today?” Chu Yifeng turned his attention back to Wang Cheng. He had noticed long ago that Wang Cheng’s clothes were different from the ones he had worn that morning.
Wang Cheng picked up some food and nodded. “I met Mom at a tea restaurant. We talked about the birthday banquet.”
The dinner dishes were once again left to diligent David. After living at the villa for two days, the brat was increasingly treating the place like his own home. He might even have been more comfortable there than in his actual home.
Wang Cheng and Chu Yifeng went to the living room to rest. Wang Cheng took out the ten invitations Mother Zheng had given him. He had thought about it after coming home, but he really did not have many friends. The only people who came to mind were Huang Tong’an and Tong Yangyang, and Tong Yangyang might not even be able to come, so he needed to call and ask first.
Watching him bite the end of his pen while thinking hard, Chu Yifeng prompted, “Your big brother too.”
Wang Cheng froze for a moment before realizing which big brother he meant. He immediately knocked himself on the forehead. “You’re right. I need to give Big Brother an invitation too.”
By Big Brother, of course, he meant Wang Ning’an. The Zhou family might also send an invitation to Shenghui Group, but Wang Ning’an was only one of the company’s vice presidents, so a banquet like this probably would not include him. Given Wang Ning’an’s current position, attending Wang Cheng’s birthday banquet would let him meet far more people from elite circles. There was nothing to lose and plenty to gain.
With a flourish of his hand, Wang Cheng wrote the three characters of Wang Ning’an’s name on the invitation. He had no idea just how great a surprise this simple act would bring his older brother.
Every guest invited to the Zhou family banquet was a prominent figure in the capital. Being able to attend was itself a symbol of status, the kind of place some second-tier families could not enter no matter how hard they tried. Someone like Wang Ning’an, with no background or powerful backing, would normally have even less chance of obtaining an invitation.