On the return trip, they had to descend the mountain road. Chen Wan was driving perfectly well when a Rolls-Royce suddenly appeared in the left passing lane and flung a tail of mud at him.
The afternoon auction had been held in a mountainside exhibition hall near the suburbs, and it had rained again. Residual rainwater on the asphalt mountain road had mixed together with the dust and mud from the hills. In an instant, the body and windows of Chen Wan’s BYD were a tragic sight.
At first, Chen Wan ignored it. He had always been a law-abiding citizen on the road, a mild and courteous good man. He merely turned on the windshield wipers.
But after being maliciously blocked twice in a row, even the best temper caught fire.
He had just washed the car before coming here. When the other party overtook him and drove parallel, they not only failed to pull away, but moved even closer. Amid the splashing water, the side mirrors of the two cars even struck and scraped against each other for an instant.
He could almost see sparks. But only for a second.
The other driver’s skill was excellent and did not cause any substantive damage—aside from creating an enormous sense of oppression and psychological pressure for the person driving.
This was no different from a naked demonstration and provocation.
After fully overtaking him, the Rolls-Royce relied on its high chassis and arrogantly drifted through a puddle. A roaring sheet of water slammed head-on across the BYD’s windshield. Chen Wan’s physical sensation was as if he himself had been drenched over the head with a basin of water.
The corners of Chen Wan’s mouth sank. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, floored the accelerator, and chased after it.
Summer days darkened late. The sunset glow had not yet completely sunk, and in the twilight he could roughly make out the last digits of the Rolls-Royce’s license plate. They were utterly ordinary—so ordinary that no one would think the person inside had shed his shell and slipped away. When he arrived, he had come in the Maybach he usually used for travel.
Yet even that string of perfectly ordinary numbers displayed a kind of untouchable arrogance. The other car’s speed alternated between fast and slow, like a sly cat teasing a mouse.
The Rolls-Royce was very new. Chen Wan went through it in his mind and confirmed that he had never seen this car at any important occasion within Hai City. Nor could he think of anyone his low-key, uncontentious way of doing things might have offended.
Several times, he pressed the accelerator all the way down and almost caught up to a third of the other car’s body, but the tightly private one-way glass kept him from glimpsing even half a shadow inside.
An empty avenue, the orange setting sun suspended over the mountain, the evening glow spread across the sky. The two cars, one ahead and one behind, chased each other closely, biting tight. They drifted through turns, sometimes drawing close, sometimes pulling apart, while large swathes of palm leaves by the roadside were whipped into disarray by the extreme speed.
At the edge of an all-out race, adrenaline surged. Chen Wan pressed his lips together. The BYD that was usually used only for commuting to work was, for the first time, driven at a life-and-death speed fit for a supercar.
But in the face of absolute, crushing speed and hardware conditions, driving skill was a cup of water against a burning cart. For a BYD to catch up to a Rolls-Royce was pure fantasy.
And because Chen Wan had deliberately kept a low profile, this BYD was still an old model from several years ago, one that had not been updated or replaced. He usually drove this old car to and from work.
Chen Wan could only watch helplessly as the Rolls-Royce swaggered away, vanishing at the end of the dusk.
The sky darkened completely. On the long, empty, silent road, only his car remained.
Chen Wan simply rolled down the window. Wind poured in. The air of the maritime climate always carried an inescapable dampness. On both sides of the road, palms and silvergrass were lit by his headlights, and cicadas and frogs called in a chorus.
At that moment, Zhuo Zhixuan’s call came in. He said that in a few days, his hotel on Miwang Road would have its auspicious opening day, and Chen Wan absolutely had to come congratulate him.
Chen Wan had not yet fully caught his breath from the life-and-death speed run just now. He held the steering wheel with one hand, exhaled, adjusted his Bluetooth earpiece, and said, “Good location.”
“I begged the old man for months before he finally agreed to come forward. I nearly wore my mouth out talking.” Zhuo Zhixuan had nothing much to put on in front of Chen Wan. Back in school, he had tossed his homework directly to Chen Wan to do. “Your red envelope had better show enough sincerity.”
Chen Wan’s heartbeat returned to a steady rhythm. He switched radio stations. “Of course.” He had always been generous with friends, and joked, “I’ll hire a lion-dance troupe for you too, have them parade from Finley East Road all the way to Prince Section West.”
Zhuo Zhixuan did not mind being teased and laughed loudly. After laughing for a while, he stopped, went quiet for a second, and said, “Zhao Shengge will come too.”
Chen Wan did not tell him that he had been in the same auction hall as the other man today. His tone was ordinary. “Mm.”
“...That’s it?”
Chen Wan did not understand. “What?”
“...Forget it.” Zhuo Zhixuan did not know what he had wanted to say either, so he changed the subject. “Right, are you free that day? Come early and help me.”
Chen Wan gave a soft “ha.” “Making me work for you?”
“This time I made a big promise in front of my old man. If I don’t make it beautiful, I can just wait for Zhuo Yujian and Zhuo Shengyan to stab me in the back.”
“I don’t trust anyone else,” Zhuo Zhixuan said seriously.
In Hai City, he knew no small number of people, but he truly had never met anyone more reliable than Chen Wan.
Chen Wan also understood the Zhuo family’s fraternal infighting and open and hidden struggles. He had an important contract to finalize that day, but if he squeezed the time, he could still make it over.
Just as Chen Wan was about to agree, Zhuo Zhixuan added mysteriously, “And I asked a master to read the divination. On the opening day, I need someone with an Earth Horse, water-element fate pattern to hold the place down. A harmonious and prosperous fate, with the favorable day-star strong in the monthly command—that’s you, isn’t it?”
“...” Hai City businesspeople all paid some attention to feng shui. Chen Wan expressed understanding. “What time?”
“Ah Wan, what loyalty,” Zhuo Zhixuan said with a grin. “Just come over at three.”
The day of the opening had good weather. When Chen Wan arrived, there was still a long time before the first batch of guests would enter.
He roughly toured the place. The hotel backed onto Kadoorie Hill, faced Shallow Bay on the southern shore, and had gone for the most luxurious configuration. It had even built a private pier. Guests staying there could take yachts directly to nearby Ding Island to see schools of fish or visit tropical orchards.
No wonder even Zhuo Zhixuan, who had always been frivolous and idle, cared so much. He had truly invested heavily in this.
The second-generation heir Zhuo Zhixuan was used to being a hands-off boss. He followed behind Chen Wan and watched him methodically go over the ribbon-cutting process with the manager, the guest reception matters, the seating chart, and then replace some of the dishes and wine selections for that evening’s banquet. Zhuo Zhixuan’s heart settled along with it.
Chen Wan suddenly turned back and asked, “What are you looking at?”
Zhuo Zhixuan shrugged. “Nothing.” He just thought Zhao Shengge was quite blind. He could not see anything at all.
Chen Wan’s mouth was dry. Exhausted, he collapsed onto a bench, casually took a glass of sweet liqueur, and poured it down. He waved lazily. “No need to be too moved. Just reserve me a share of the stock.”
Zhuo Zhixuan took the empty glass from his hand and poured him another, saying he definitely would once he turned things around and became the one in charge. For now, his authority only allowed him to reserve Chen Wan a permanent exclusive room in a top-luxury sea-view suite.
At dusk, the sunset over Shallow Bay was beautiful, and the guests arrived one after another.
Chen Wan had helped Zhuo Zhixuan pass all the checkpoints during the day. At this point, he withdrew into the crowd, not stealing the host’s thunder, leaving the glory to his friend. Only when he saw something inappropriate would he occasionally remind the manager to pay attention.
Tan Youming sent Zhuo Zhixuan flower baskets—two carloads. Three people could not even finish moving them. There were also couplets, said to have been personally inscribed by a master and blessed.
Zhuo Zhixuan was very happy. Tan Youming was also very satisfied.
Chen Wan could understand that Hai City businesspeople liked talking about feng shui, but looking at the red couplets pasted onto Roman columns, creating a scene that was neither Chinese nor Western, he still found it somewhat difficult to describe. For the first time, he wondered what kind of circle he had schemed and advanced step by step to reach.
It seemed that, among the people around that man, only Shen Zongnian was somewhat normal.
Zhao Shengge and Shen Zongnian arrived exactly on time. He did not easily appear to support someone’s event, but this time he had also sent a fairly valuable congratulatory gift.
These people—how should one put it? There was interest-driven behavior in the vanity fair of fame and profit, but the affection from growing up together since childhood was also real. Which mattered more and which mattered less depended on how the scale in each person’s heart weighed it.
The private rooms and seats were divided according to status.
Chen Wan was arranged at Tan Youming’s table, in a separate private room. There were not many people, all of them the few who usually interacted within their circle. To put it bluntly, it was called a faction.
Chen Wan had been assigned to this table entirely because his relationship with today’s boss himself was solid enough, and because he did not belong to any relationship circle. To tell the truth, among the guests present today, there was actually no table where his status truly qualified him to sit.
Chen Wan did not feel embarrassed. He sat calmly beside Tan Youming. This time, he and Zhao Shengge were no longer separated by another table, but they were not exactly close either. The round table was very large. From the angle, he might have been sitting in the other man’s blind spot.
In addition, he did not speak much. Zhao Shengge might not even have noticed that someone like him was at the table.
Zhao Shengge did not use his chopsticks many times tonight, and he only tasted a little of the wine. Chen Wan was somewhat unable to make sense of it.
He had drawn up this menu, and it was slightly different from the other tables.
That afternoon, Zhuo Zhixuan had said this table counted as their own people, so there was no need to choose those uniform dishes that looked good but were useless like the other tables. He told Chen Wan to order whatever he wanted and try the skills of the seven-star chefs their hotel had spent heavily to bring back from Italy and Chengdu.
So Chen Wan had not been especially polite. But Zhao Shengge seemed not to buy it much this time. Chen Wan did not know where the problem was.
Zhao Shengge was very difficult to please, so the vast majority of people could not find his pulse accurately.
Neither could Chen Wan.