When Jiang Muzhou arrived, the private room was already packed with people.
There were easily more than twice as many people here compared to Zhang Ning’s birthday party last time.
He didn’t recognize a single soul. As he was looking around for Shang Shiru, someone gave him a sharp pat on the shoulder.
He turned his head to find Zhang Ning smiling at him.
Back then, largely because of Gu Yubai, Jiang Muzhou could always sense a lingering hostility from Zhang Ning.
Yet now, he couldn’t detect any of it. Zhang Ning was wearing round-rimmed glasses, looking clean, mild-mannered, and altogether refined.
“Jiang Muzhou,” Zhang Ning greeted with a smile.
One does not strike a smiling person, especially when that person was a friend of Shang Shiru.
“Director Zhang.”
Zhang Ning led Jiang Muzhou to a seat near the edge and remarked with a hint of surprise, “I didn’t expect the new friend Gege mentioned making would be you. When we drank together last time, I got drunk before we could even finish enjoying it.”
Zhang Ning glossed over how he had deliberately coaxed Jiang Muzhou into drinking last time. Jiang Muzhou didn’t respond; he simply glanced around the room and asked, “Where is President Shang? Why don’t I see him?”
Zhang Ning let out an amused sound and said, “He went to pick someone up.”
Then he started making small talk with Jiang Muzhou, who replied in a half-hearted, perfunctory manner.
Just as Jiang Muzhou was debating whether to step outside for some fresh air, Shang Shiru walked into the private room. Following closely behind him was a strikingly pretty young woman wearing a white dress. Her long black hair was tucked behind her ears, her skin was fair, and her delicate facial features were framed by a pair of wide, watery eyes that looked curiously at the crowd inside.
Someone in the room immediately took the lead in teasing, “Gege, looks like something’s going on here.”
The rest of the crowd joined in, watching the spectacle with amused anticipation. Someone had already started calling her sister-in-law, causing a bright blush to instantly spread across the young woman’s cheeks as she showed the picture of ultimate embarrassment.
Jiang Muzhou, however, felt a mild sense of surprise. This guy’s progress is rapid, he thought. With such high efficiency, he was just talking about considering his lifelong affairs a few days ago, and now he already has a partner.
“Go, go, go, stop teasing—you’re going to scare her.” Shang Shiru stepped in to rescue the young woman, shielding her protectively. He didn’t deny the title, which effectively served as an admission of their relationship.
Seeing so many people packed inside the private room, Jiang Muzhou momentarily didn’t know where he belonged or which category of Shang Shiru’s friends he fell into.
Zhang Ning, however, pulled him by the arm. “Come on, sit with me.”
Jiang Muzhou instinctively glanced toward Shang Shiru’s direction. Shang Shiru was chatting with the people around him while accompanied by his new girlfriend; standing together, they looked like a handsome man and a beautiful woman.
They were an utterly perfect match.
A total of five tables had been booked, and everyone kept their focus on the guests of honor of the day. Meanwhile, Jiang Muzhou and Zhang Ning sat down at a table in the corner.
After Zhang Ning carried his glass of wine around to offer birthday wishes to the birthday host, he returned to his seat and quietly dug into the dishes prepared by the high-end hotel’s master chefs.
“Hey, stop eating.” Zhang Ning came back after a round of drinking with his friends. “I’ve got a question for you.”
Jiang Muzhou finished eating a shrimp, spat out the shell, and raised his eyes to look at Zhang Ning. “I don’t know.”
“Hey, you! I haven’t even asked yet, and you already don’t know?”
Zhang Ning was momentarily speechless. He watched as Jiang Muzhou picked up another braised prawn, which looked exceptionally appetizing.
Zhang Ning also reached out with his chopsticks to grab one and popped it into his mouth. It tasted sweet.
Chewing on the shrimp, he asked Jiang Muzhou, “Xiaobai said you and he used to be roommates?”
Seeing Jiang Muzhou stay silent, he took it as confirmation.
“Then do you know if he ever dated anyone back in college?”
Jiang Muzhou finished his shrimp, used a soup spoon to ladle a serving of soup into his small bowl, and slowly sipped it while holding the bowl.
He was indeed the person who understood Gu Yubai’s college days best. The two of them had attended classes together, played video games together, and spent every day either studying or camping out in internet cafes. When they weren’t doing that, they were renting two motorcycles to go on riding trips in the surrounding areas. If they had spent time dating, they genuinely wouldn’t have had the spare hours.
Noticing that Jiang Muzhou was sipping soup while scrolling through his phone, Zhang Ning didn’t really expect an answer, so he bit into a prawn with a trace of disappointment.
A moment later, he heard Jiang Muzhou say, “He did.”
Zhang Ning instantly deflated even further.
Jiang Muzhou closed the chat window with Gu Yubai and slid his phone into his pocket.
The dishes today covered a wide range of flavors—sweet, spicy, sour, and savory—and they were genuinely good. He casually offered a couple of compliments.
Using his chopsticks to mash a piece of lotus root in his bowl into pieces upon hearing this, Zhang Ning replied in a somewhat dejected tone, “Of course they are. I specifically sought out this restaurant, which serves both northern and southern flavors and all kinds of regional cuisines.”
Jiang Muzhou zeroed in on the key detail: Zhang Ning had arranged Shang Shiru’s birthday banquet, and at Zhang Ning’s own birthday party last time, Shang Shiru had been there too. It looked like their relationship ran pretty deep.
He raised his head to look at the table not far away. As usual, Shang Shiru wasn’t drinking; whenever someone came over to offer a toast, he substituted alcohol with tea.
Glancing at the person beside him who had temporarily lost interest in eating, Jiang Muzhou asked, “Why doesn’t President Shang drink?”
Zhang Ning paused his attempt to turn the lotus root chunk into paste, looked over at Jiang Muzhou with his train of thought diverted, and stole a glance at Shang Shiru. Then, leaning close to Jiang Muzhou’s ear, he whispered, “Him? His tolerance is just this big.”
As he spoke, he used his thumb and index finger to measure a tiny gap in front of Jiang Muzhou.
“Really?” Jiang Muzhou was genuinely surprised. Previously, he had assumed that was just an excuse Shang Shiru used when he didn’t want to drink.
Zhang Ning said, “You wouldn’t think it, seeing how successful he is in business and how he’s got that striking look going for him, but his alcohol tolerance is terrible. He passes out after just a few drops.”
With that, he clicked his tongue twice, as if lamenting what a waste it was for someone standing over six feet tall like Shang Shiru.
Seemingly reminded of something else, he added, “I’m the kind of person who loves a good drink. I can tell your tolerance is pretty decent—we should go drinking together sometime.”
“We’ll see how it goes.”
“Don’t say we’ll see.”
Jiang Muzhou looked at him. After interacting with him up to this point, he finally realized that Zhang Ning was a chatterbox. He had been talking non-stop from the moment they met until now, giving off a strong vibe of instant familiarity.
Seeing that Jiang Muzhou remained quiet, Zhang Ning leaned a bit closer and asked, “Did Gu Yubai ever mention me to you?”
Jiang Muzhou still didn’t say anything.
“I figured he wouldn’t mention me. You know what my orientation is; it’s impossible for me to have many genuine friends. Do you think I’m weird too?”
Jiang Muzhou shook his head. “What era is this? Who you like is your own business; it doesn’t affect me.”
Zhang Ning gave a small, quiet laugh. “Jiang Muzhou, I’ve realized lately that you’re actually a pretty good guy, way better than those other people.”
Then he let out another sigh. “Still, finding someone you actually like is damn hard.”
Jiang Muzhou picked up another shrimp and began peeling it. Hearing Zhang Ning call him a good guy and vent like this, he thought the man was not only a chatterbox but also completely lacking in guard or worldly cunning—to be spilling all this to a near stranger.
Looking at Zhang Ning’s crestfallen expression, he could only offer some comfort: “You’ll eventually meet the right person.”
“Yeah, true.”
After the dinner, the group moved to another venue. Following this meal, Jiang Muzhou and Zhang Ning found themselves talking more and more; Zhang Ning had decided that Jiang Muzhou was a genuine, upright person, though Jiang Muzhou had no idea what criteria Zhang Ning used to define a good person.
In the end, the two of them added each other on WeChat.
As for the matter concerning Gu Yubai, after asking that single question, Zhang Ning never brought it up again.
As for Jiang Muzhou, he found that Zhang Ning simply possessed this kind of personality: he spoke his mind, chased after whatever he liked without hidden motives, didn’t care about other people’s opinions, and lived life at ease.
A banquet was, after all, a place to forge new connections, especially a birthday celebration for someone like Shang Shiru.
By the time they arrived at the KTV, quite a few people had become curious about Jiang Muzhou, this unfamiliar face.
Amidst the howling, screeching vocals of the crowd, Jiang Muzhou genuinely ended up adding quite a few WeChat contacts.
Naturally, he also drank a fair amount of alcohol. Alcohol was, after all, a social lubricant among men; even strangers could become acquaintances after sharing a few drinks.
No matter how high your alcohol tolerance was, it couldn’t withstand a constant stream of people coming over to drink with you. Jiang Muzhou was the type who didn’t feel much while drinking, only for the alcohol to hit him hard a little while after he finished.
The drinks he consumed today had already reached his limit, and when the next person walked over, he politely declined to drink anymore—if he had taken another drop, he really would have been knocked out.
Zhang Ning was sitting on the nearby sofa, sipping fruit wine and watching Jiang Muzhou as he added names to his newly added contacts. Zhang Ning leaned over and said something, but the noise inside the private room was simply too overwhelming.
Not catching it clearly, Jiang Muzhou asked in a raised voice, “What did you say?”
Realizing he couldn’t be heard either, Zhang Ning leaned in a bit closer. “I said, sorry about last time. I’m a bit emotional sometimes. I can actually chip in some funds for your project, but since I deal in antiques, most of my capital is tied up in inventory, so I really don’t have much cash on hand right now.”
Jiang Muzhou waved a hand dismissively. “It’s fine, I’ve already secured funding. We’re not strapped for cash at the moment.”
Zhang Ning nodded. “That’s good, then.”
He felt that the more he looked at Jiang Muzhou, the more pleasing to the eye the guy became. Hearing that someone had already invested in him, he couldn’t help asking, “Who invested? Do I know them?”
Jiang Muzhou gestured toward Shang Shiru, who was just pushing open the door to the private room.
Shang Shiru also looked over, coincidentally catching the sight of the two of them with their heads pressed close together, chatting intimately.