He watched Lin Ze’s slightly startled pupils.
Only then did Yi Yan realize that his phrasing might have been a bit inappropriate.
Just as he was about to correct himself and make up for his overly blunt wording, he was interrupted by Lin Ze.
“My family has some money, but I don’t want to still rely on them now that I’m this old,” Lin Ze said.
Yi Yan raised an eyebrow slightly, seeming to find this statement immensely interesting.
Based on his investigation, their family couldn’t exactly be considered poor. So when Lin Ze said that, was the reason for being poor that he had a falling out with his parents?
“Actually, there’s nothing really taboo about this. I’m already an adult and no longer want to spend my parents’ money. Since I have the ability to support myself, I don’t want to rely on them anymore.”
He smiled indifferently and continued eating the rice from his box.
“Oh, is that so?” Yi Yan replied lazily, though a sharp glint flashed deep in his eyes.
Self-reliance, huh?
“Thanks for the meal, ha. I need to rush off to work now.” Lin Ze wiped his mouth with a tissue and stood up.
“Okay.” Yi Yan didn’t understand why he let him go so readily this time.
From then on, every single day, Yi Yan would order things for him. Unaccustomed to it at first, Lin Ze felt some resistance, but later he slowly fell into the trap Yi Yan had set for him.
“I know you have money, but if you treat me to dinner every single time, it’s going to make me develop a freeloader mentality,” he argued with a rational tone.
“Aiya, alright, alright. Little Zeze is always right about everything.” Yi Yan grinned, looking to be in a very good mood.
Though he agreed verbally, his actions were completely different; he continued to order meals for Lin Ze without listening to reason.
After so many months of getting along, Lin Ze had long since grown used to Yi Yan’s unserious attitude.
When Yi Yan first playfully nicknamed him “Little Zeze,” he had been annoyed for a whole day!
Such a girlish nickname was something only Yi Yan could bring himself to call out!
Lin Ze didn’t like it, not at all!
Putting on an angry front, he shouted at Yi Yan, “Hey! Stop calling me that! I’m a red-blooded, upstanding young man, and I refuse to be called by something so tacky by you!”
Yet Yi Yan knew that he was only putting on a tough front and wouldn’t actually hold it against him too much, so he stubbornly kept calling him that anyway.
Habit really is a terrifying thing.
After a long time, Lin Ze actually got used to hearing it and decided the nickname wasn’t so bad after all. Yi Yan had a playful nature, so he might as well let him call him that to his heart’s content.
“I want to go play basketball later. Are you going?” he asked.
“Going to play basketball again?” Yi Yan lowered his tone by several notches.
“What else is there to do?” he asked.
As expected, a model student’s life is just a cyclical routine of studying, working, and exercising.
“Want to go play?” Yi Yan hooked an arm around his neck and asked softly.
“Play what?” Lin Ze looked up at him, the indigo light reflecting off his handsome and charming face, a vague confusion flashing in his eyes.
“Have you ever been to the top-floor sVLP rooms around here? I heard it’s super fun and thrilling!”
Lin Ze frowned and shook his head; he had heard of this room.
Ordinary people didn’t even have a chance to get close, so how could an ordinary employee like himself ever visit a place like that?
“Since you’ve never been, how about I take you?” he asked.
Lin Ze was startled by his words. “No.”
“Why not?” Yi Yan hooked the corners of his mouth with keen interest.
“Are you close with the people in the sVLP rooms?” Lin Ze asked.
“Not really, I suppose,” Yi Yan touched his nose, saying somewhat unnaturally.
“If you’re not close!” Lin Ze shouted excitedly, but realizing his volume was too high, he anxiously looked around. “If you’re not close, you’re still going?”
“Well, I’m a VIP member anyway. Couldn’t I just pay them a bit extra?” Yi Yan pouted and spoke quietly.
Lin Ze pulled him back, lowering his lecturing voice to an absolute whisper. “You are way too daring! Do you have any idea that you can’t just casually go in there?
Let alone the fact that you’re just a tiny VIP customer right now, even if your spending reached sVLP status, you still couldn’t compare to the top-tier sVLP ranks!”
Lin Ze was really breaking out in a cold sweat over Yi Yan’s impulsive idea!
“The sVLP rooms belong to the Executor of ‘Night Charm’. I haven’t heard anyone mention this person even to this day.
But anyone who has climbed to that rank must be someone with extremely ruthless methods. You haven’t even figured out what kind of person he is, and yet you want to barge into his territory? Have you lost your mind?”
Lin Ze grew worried over Yi Yan’s reckless streak.
He knew that although Yi Yan wasn’t a bad person, he always had a frivolous, care-free attitude.
Was his family shielding him too much?
He had no idea how dangerous the outside world was!
Even though the Yi family also had clout, compared to those ruthless figures in “Night Charm,” they still fell a bit short.
Yi Yan hadn’t expected his suggestion to provoke such an intense reaction from Lin Ze. He really had no clue what kind of principles the lower levels had drilled into Lin Ze’s head.
His previously drooping eyelashes fluttered suddenly. “Since we can’t go to the top floor, let’s just rent a regular private room to hang out in instead.”
“Yi Yan.”
Lin Ze originally wanted to refuse, but unable to withstand Yi Yan’s relentless pestering, he agreed to go after all.
Watching the men and women locked in embraces drinking freely while Yi Yan simply sat leisurely in the middle sipping his drink.
“Yi Yan, are they all your friends?” Lin Ze asked.
“Not all of them. Some are plants hired to liven up the atmosphere,” Yi Yan said.
Lin Ze silently swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Compared to the agony of staying here, he felt he was much better suited for work.
Uncomfortable; to put it generally, awkward.
To be honest, in all his years, he had never enjoyed himself in a bar atmosphere like this by himself.
“I’m going to the restroom for a bit,” Yi Yan told Lin Ze.
Though Yi Yan said he was going to the restroom, he actually just wanted to smoke a cigarette outside.
He had previously noticed that whenever Lin Ze worked, he would avoid areas heavy with cigarette smoke, and even when he went near them, he would finish his tasks with a frown.
He knew Lin Ze disliked the smell of smoke. To avoid fumigating him, Yi Yan thoughtfully found an excuse to step out and satisfy his nicotine craving.
“Yeah, go ahead.” Lin Ze was using a toothpick to skewer a piece of watermelon to eat.
Inside the private room, the area where Lin Ze and Yi Yan sat was left entirely alone by everyone else; even Yi Yan’s friends were sitting a couple of meters away playing games together.
Now that Yi Yan had stepped out, he was left sitting here all alone, having no idea what to do.
“Little brother,” a bright and cheerful girl called out to Lin Ze.
At first, Lin Ze thought the girl was calling someone else, but when he raised his head and locked gazes with her, he realized she was addressing him.
“Uh, hello.” Lin Ze didn’t know why the girl had suddenly called out to him, but he still greeted her politely.
“Haha, little brother is so polite. It’s rare to run into such a well-mannered guy around here,” the girl praised Lin Ze with poise and grace.
It made Lin Ze feel a little embarrassed.
“Little brother, my name is Hang Hang. What’s yours?” The girl tilted her head slightly, blinking her bright, fluttery eyes. A spotless white dress made her look lively and cute.
“Lin Ze.”
“Lin Ze, huh? Such a nice name. This ambitious name really suits you, little brother.”
Hang Hang was pretty and sweet-talking, very skilled at winning people over.