Li Yuanzhou clenched his jaw tightly and suddenly stood up. “Fine, I’ll go and try. But you all know what my Third Brother is like. If he really refuses to come, there’s honestly nothing I can do!”
In truth, when he said this, Li Yuanzhou had no intention whatsoever of actually going to find Li Juechen. Knowing his Third Brother’s temper, if he really went to ask him to come, he would be lucky if he didn’t get kicked a few times!
Li Zhenting saw right through his little scheme. He leaned leisurely against the sofa, a faint, almost imperceptible smile playing at the corners of his lips. In a mocking tone, he said, “Sixth Brother, you’re not planning to fool us, are you? How about I accompany you on the trip?”
The moment he heard this, Li Yuanzhou’s face turned extremely ugly. Without another word, he hurried toward the door.
Meng Ling, clearly enjoying the show, called over a maid. “Follow the Sixth Young Master and see what happens!”
Shen Chang’an excitedly rubbed his hands together, looking eagerly at Li Zhenting as he asked, “Fourth Young Master, then shall we move somewhere else? We can’t exactly play cards in a dance hall, can we?”
Li Zhenting generously waved his hand and called out to the manager in the distance, “Prepare a first-class private room for us, and bring out every kind of card game you have!”
There were plenty of guests who came to Paramount to gamble. The owner of Paramount did not participate in the gambling themselves, but they provided the venue in exchange for a cut. It wasn’t much—only ten percent of the gambling money.
Manager Cai smiled and repeated the rules once again.
Meng Xi sneered. “Who would’ve thought that a dignified young master of the Li family would obediently follow the rules of some little dance hall. I really don’t understand. Who exactly is in charge of Beiping? In Xizhou, if some blind owner dared to speak to members of the Meng family in that tone, he probably wouldn’t even know how he died!”
Manager Cai’s expression immediately changed. Narrowing her long, slender eyes, she gave Meng Xi a cold once-over before saying, “Young Master, as you said yourself, that’s in Xizhou. This is Beiping. Marshal Li is fair and impartial. He would never be the kind of person who takes all the meat for himself and refuses to let others have even a sip of the soup. I hope you’ll respect the local customs and not break our rules.
“Besides, it’s the Republic era now. The kind of rules you’re talking about belong to bandits. That sort of thing isn’t tolerated in Beiping. If you gentlemen want to play, I’ll go prepare a room for you. If you’re dissatisfied with this place, there’s a casino run by foreigners across the street. The surroundings are quite good as well!”
“You—”
Meng Ling raised a hand and stopped her brother, Meng Xi, from speaking. With a smile, she said, “The manager is joking. How could we possibly go to our own territory and give our money to foreigners? Go ahead and prepare the room. We’ll follow the rules.”
Manager Cai cast another glance at Meng Xi before leaving to prepare the private room.
Meng Xi was seething with anger. He picked up his wineglass and downed the entire glass in one gulp before slamming it heavily onto the table. Just as he was about to speak, Meng Ling’s personal maid returned.
Breathing heavily, she looked nervously at Meng Ling. “Miss, the Sixth Young Master is simply too fast. I followed him for two whole streets, but he managed to shake me off…”
Meng Ling’s younger sister, Meng Jia, had absolutely no interest in gambling. She leaned close to Meng Ling’s ear and said coquettishly, “Sister, I’m a little tired. You all go ahead and play. Can I go back first?”
Meng Ling waved her hand impatiently. She had never liked this younger sister of hers. Ever since they were children, Meng Jia had done nothing but indulge in unrealistic fantasies or spend her time gossiping with their half-sister, Meng Qiu. Meng Ling truly couldn’t understand what went on in her head.
Seeing that Meng Jia was leaving, Meng Qiu also came over to ask Meng Ling if she could return to the hotel with her and rest.
Meng Ling didn’t even spare her a glance.
Li Yuzhang raised his eyes and looked at Meng Yong’s legitimate second daughter. The intentions of the women who had come this time were already quite obvious.
Meng Ling was clearly interested in Li Juechen. In public, she pretended to be delicate and incapable of taking care of herself, but behind closed doors, she was incredibly assertive and brazen. Even if she hadn’t taken a fancy to his Third Brother, Li Yuzhang would never dare marry a woman like her.
As for the eldest daughter of the Shen family, there was nothing particularly unusual about her on the surface. But that was precisely what made her strange. If a woman was so difficult for him to read, then either she was completely uninterested in everything, or she was unfathomably deep. Marrying a woman like that would be nothing but trouble.
Meng Jia, on the other hand, was rather interesting. She was cute and sweet-looking, with a pair of large eyes that held an almost innocent, naive clarity. Her status was even slightly higher than his. If he could win her over, she could become quite an asset to him.
With that thought, Li Yuzhang stood up.
“You two are heading back? I’ll escort you.”
Since someone was offering to accompany her, Meng Jia did not refuse. After saying goodbye to everyone, she left with him.
Li Yuanzhou wandered around outside for a long while, still feeling utterly miserable. He had really brought this trouble upon himself. Why on earth had he brought up his Third Brother in the first place?
On one side was his gentle and adorable sister-in-law-to-be; on the other were a bunch of young masters constantly scheming against one another. Anyone with common sense would know which side to choose!
He wandered around the streets for an entire hour before finally turning back.
As for his Third Brother, there was absolutely no way he was brave enough to provoke him.
By now, more than half of the people had left. Only Li Zhenting, Shen Chang’an, Shen Xianyue, and the Meng siblings, Meng Xi and Meng Ling, remained.
Li Zhenting suggested, “How about I invite a few more friends over? They’re all young masters from wealthy families. Since Young Master Shen wants to play cards, we should at least make sure you have a good time!”
Shen Chang’an naturally had no objection to having a group of rich fools come and hand over their money to him.
Thus, the two immediately agreed. Li Zhenting quickly sent someone to bring over Sheng Enrong, Liu Xuan, and several others.
Huang Xuejian, Du Shiru, and Du Shangwu came along as well. Du Shangwu normally wouldn’t have been qualified to attend a gathering like this, but his mistress, Little Hongyu, had a performance that evening, so he had come to show his support.
When Li Yuanzhou returned, the doorman at Paramount took him directly into the private room.
The men had already started playing.
When Meng Ling saw him return alone, she immediately realized that the Sixth Young Master had simply been playing her for a fool.
Meanwhile, Li Yuzhang did not take Meng Jia and Meng Qiu directly back to the Longjiang Hotel. Instead, he drove them around the streets.
Sitting in the car, Meng Jia looked out the window with great interest. She had no interest in playing cards or dancing, but she certainly enjoyed strolling around and sightseeing.
As he drove, Li Yuzhang introduced the city to her. “Beiping is very lively at night. There’s a market up ahead, too. Would you like to take a look?”
Meng Jia quickly nodded. “Sure! Then I’ll trouble you, Fifth Young Master. If you’re eager to go back and play cards, you can just drop my sister and me off by the roadside. We can take a rickshaw back later.”
Li Yuzhang said gentlemanly, “How could I do that? You’re such a lovely girl. How could I possibly feel comfortable leaving two young ladies alone outside? And you can just call me by my name. ‘Fifth Young Master’ sounds far too formal. Is that all right, Jiajia?”
Meng Jia’s face instantly turned bright red.
Ever since she was little, apart from her parents, even her own brothers and sisters rarely called her Jiajia.
“Y-Yes… that’s fine!”