The location of Platinum Crest Court was rather remote. Following the address on the text message and relying on navigation, Chu Kai took a wrong turn, circled around a large block, and finally found it.
Well past midnight, this exterior-wise palatial and magnificent building was brightly lit at the moment, operating day and night without distinction.
There was no sign reading Platinum Crest Court on the map, nor did it show the location of the parking lot.
Looking outward through the car window, the surroundings were entirely composed of meticulously pruned landscaping shrubs, and not even a single vehicle was in sight.
Chu Kai had no choice but to park his car next to the nearest bush ball first, then stepped out, preparing to ask the two people standing guard on the left and right sides of the entrance for directions.
Before he could even approach, the hurried sound of high heels colliding with steps came clattering over. On the steps, a woman wearing an exquisite bun held up by a wooden hairpin and dressed in an ancient-style dark green qipao dotted with golden patterns hurried down.
“Hello,” she said with a standard smile, walking straight toward Chu Kai at the foot of the steps. “Are you Mr. Chu?”
Chu Kai nodded slightly; it seemed he had found the right place.
“Hello, I am Xiao Han, the private butler of Platinum Crest Court.” After her introduction, Xiao Han gracefully withdrew her right hand, which had been naturally resting over her left hand across her abdomen, and gestured slightly to the side. “Sir, let us park your car for you.”
In a daze, Chu Kai loosened his grip on the car keys clutched in his palm and handed them over.
Xiao Han took the keys, handed them to the valet who had just jogged up behind her, and then politely extended a hand in invitation. “Mr. Chu, please let me lead the way.”
Walking up the steps and entering the interior, a faint and elegant fragrance of sandalwood rushed over him.
Although the interior featured an elegant and tranquil Chinese-style decor, it faintly exuded an air of extravagant luxury.
Bypassing the water feature landscape, stepping up a flight of stairs, and entering a tea room on the second floor, Xiao Han turned the gold-faced Buddhist shrine on the cabinet without changing her expression. The inner wall slowly pushed inward, extending into an almost transparent suspended corridor.
A trace of tension flickered across Chu Kai’s eyes, and his heartbeat accelerated abruptly. Yet, suppressing the sudden onset of fear, he braced himself and followed right behind Xiao Han.
At the end of the corridor was another building with an identical exterior.
The internal structure, however, was vastly different, with intelligent robots and modern design fully displaying high-end sophistication.
The second floor here felt like the true grand hall, spacious, bright, and brilliantly illuminated.
Two massive sculptures on the left and right caught Chu Kai’s attention.
On the left was a raven, completely jet-black yet gleaming with dazzling brilliance under the light at the top; on the right was a white dove, entirely pristine white yet revealing thousands of writhing foreign objects in the dim light.
Just as Chu Kai was looking up at the sculptures in a brief daze, Xiao Han gently reminded him, “Mr. Chu, the VIP is waiting for you.”
Embarrassed, Chu Kai nodded, stopped getting distracted, and followed Xiao Han into the elevator.
Xiao Han pressed the elevator button, and the two went straight down to the underground club.
As soon as they stepped out of the elevator, the noisy sounds, dazzling lights, and strong, pungent smell of smoke and alcohol made Chu Kai shrink back.
“Mr. Chu, we’re almost there.” Xiao Han’s urging voice remained gentle, unaffected by the shifting environment.
The lighting was far too chaotic, forcing Chu Kai to lower his head every two or three steps to watch the path beneath his feet, while his ears vigilantly listened to the sound of Xiao Han’s high heels.
When the sound of high heels ahead stopped, he stopped as well.
In an instant, the colorful spotlights striking his body were replaced by the natural light of the ceiling fixture overhead.
“President Dong,” Xiao Han’s high heels sounded once more, and her voice grew cheerful, “the person has been brought here.”
Chu Kai froze in place, his gaze fixing on the two men leaning against the wall smoking by the doorway of the private room ahead.
A man with a cold and frowning expression was slowly taking a drag from the trailing end of his cigarette.
Another man with a blooming smile had a newly lit cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, blew out a smoke ring, and walked toward Chu Kai with an inscrutable expression.
“Chu Kai?” He lowered his head slightly, quickly scanning Chu Kai up and down with his gaze.
Chu Kai hurriedly took a step back, raised his eyes, and asked, “Are you Mr. Lian?”
Dong Ruifan did not answer. Taking another puff of his cigarette, a playful smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Platinum Crest Court was a highly concealed, upscale private club, serving as a fixed venue for people in their circle to negotiate and gather.
The front building was personally designed by Dong Ruifan’s father, intended exclusively for the older generation; the back building, on the other hand, was co-built by Dong Ruifan according to the preferences of their own generation.
Someone like Chu Kai couldn’t even find a way in to work here. Letting him enter through the back door of the back building was already Dong Ruifan’s bottom line.
Yet this Beta happened to take the wrong door and headed straight toward the front building’s main entrance.
Dong Ruifan’s bottom line was lowered once again for his prominent friend, Yan Chi.
In the middle of the night, he received an order from Young Master Yan, who held the surveillance footage, and while calling to urge the butler of the front building to pick someone up, he dragged himself out of bed to hurry over and catch a glimpse of the real face of this Beta who, years ago, had nearly made Young Master Yan meet the King of Hell in person.
The Beta before him did indeed possess some looks, with delicate features and fair skin, looking even more naive than the Omegas who had just started working here, yet it wasn’t a soul-capturing kind of beauty, at least not comparable to that Omega Best Actor who had once been embroiled in a scandal with Yan Chi.
Dong Ruifan flicked the ash from his cigarette, a trace of incomprehension flashing in his eyes.
When Yan Chi had just started recovering and the scandal broke out, Dong Ruifan had repeatedly advised him to just bring people over here to hang out.
It was much more comfortable here than outside; if the paparazzi dared to follow them in, they wouldn’t make it back out, let alone spark scandals.
Yet Yan Chi refused, insisting on taking people to those poorly concealed hotels, clubs, and restaurants, practically feeding the scandals right into the paparazzi’s mouths.
Occasionally, Yan Chi would come here alone, but he always stayed in the front building. This was his first time coming to the underground club in the back building.
And upon arriving, he put on a grand drama for Dong Ruifan to watch.
Having finished his cigarette, the other man typed something on his phone, then walked up to Chu Kai, his voice slightly hoarse: “Hello, Mr. Chu. I am Yan Chi’s manager, Lian Wuchang. Mr. Yan asks you to go inside. Please.”
Chu Kai felt his hands and feet go numb, to the extent that every breath carried a sharp needle prick, stinging his nerves into numbness.
Lifting his rigid body with difficulty, he followed the two men into the private room.
The light inside the private room overlapped, casting down upon the circular tea table deep within.
The purplish-dark light extended outward, illuminating a pair of red-bottomed leather shoes propped up in the darkness.
This private room was much larger than a regular KTV room. Standing at the doorway, Chu Kai could only vaguely see some light radiating from inside.
Lian Wuchang turned on the external lights, and a faint, natural warm glow illuminated his face. Chu Kai instinctively raised a hand to block it.
Lowering his arm slowly, his gaze followed the internal light outside to that patch of darkness.
Although the inner lights were unlit, the outer light was sufficient for Chu Kai to see that three people were sitting there.
To the left and right, a man and a woman were softly and languidly nestled into Yan Chi’s broad chest, while Yan Chi, embedded deep within the soft sofa, was slowly opening his eyes.
The second before he fully opened his eyes, Chu Kai pulled back his gaze, avoiding any possibility of their eyes meeting.
A wisp of smoke drifted past the bottom of Chu Kai’s eyes. Dong Ruifan, purely there to watch the show without fearing a big spectacle, nudged him forward with the hand holding his cigarette.
“Yan Chi, the person has arrived. Why aren’t you saying anything?” Dong Ruifan said with a smiling expression.
In the dark, Yan Chi’s pupils flickered slightly, and as he straightened his back slightly, the people who had been resting loosely in his arms on either side consciously shifted their bodies a bit higher.