"I forgot, all right!" Gu Chenxuan said with a wry smile.
"So..." Brother Kong interrupted the two sisters and asked, "How are we supposed to deal with the guy at the door now?"
When Brother Kong had entered the house, that guy was already furious. Now, after being left out in the cold outside for ages, his temper was probably teetering on the verge of total explosion.
Gu Chenxuan covered her face, pointed to an ornament displayed on her bookshelf, and said, "If all else fails... let's just use that crystal ball as a priceless treasure to fool him. That thing cost me tens of thousands when I bought it."
Brother Kong glanced at the utterly mediocre crystal ball, thinking to himself, *Something that looks like a glass marble is actually worth tens of thousands? Rich people's money really is easy to make.*
Gu Chenxi waved her hand and said, "No way. That crystal ball has been sitting in your room for years. It's not like he hasn't seen it."
"Then what should we do? I just went and talked the big talk for Brother Kong," Gu Chenxuan said, casting an awkward smile toward Brother Kong.
"Clatter..."
Just as the three of them were worrying, the backpack Brother Kong had casually tossed onto the desk in Gu Chenxuan's room suddenly slid to the floor, spilling a square express delivery box out of it.
Brother Kong stared at the delivery box, his eyes suddenly widening—this package had been mailed over from Clock Country by his parents. Brother Kong hadn't had time to open it in the afternoon, so he had just tossed it into his backpack and muddled his way over here with it.
"I think I have a way."
With that, Brother Kong picked up the delivery box from the floor and quickly tore it open in a few swift motions.
Brother Kong remembered the delivery guy saying that this package was insured for over ten thousand, so whatever was inside couldn't be ordinary.
Tearing open the cardboard box, he found layer upon layer of padding wrapped tight around something. Tearing all the padding away revealed a dark gold gift box.
Brother Kong continued opening the outer packaging of the box. Inside was a box wrapped in a brown short-pile suede cloth pouch. The box itself was made of mahogany, and under the glare of the bright lights, its lacquered surface gave off a noble, dark-red glow. The wood grain looked like flowing golden water waves—extremely smooth and aesthetically pleasing—and right in the center of the box was a hot-stamped "Calatrava Cross".
Beneath the wooden box was also a folding cardholder made of top-grain calfskin, stamped with the same pattern. Tucked inside the cardholder were instruction manuals in both English and German, along with a pretty postcard.
"Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon 6104P"
Patek Philippe. Brother Kong recognized the pattern and the string of English because his father's watch cabinet had two Patek Philippe watches. Patek Philippe was one of the world's top three luxury watch brands alongside Vacheron Constantin and Audemars Piguet, and Patek Philippe even bore the title of the King of Watches.
Brother Kong put down the cardholder and manual, and opened the wooden box.
"Whoa!"
The moment she saw what was inside the wooden box, Gu Chenxuan let out a direct gasp.
Gu Chenxi also forgot all about keeping her composure, her eyes wide as she stared in astonishment at the contents of the box.
As expected, it was undoubtedly a watch.
Yet unexpectedly, this watch was far too extraordinary.
The outer bezel of the case was set with 38 baguette-cut diamonds, and the dial was a transparent sapphire crystal disc displaying a celestial chart and the Milky Way, which were rotating at different speeds.
The mesmerizing depth of field and the moon's trajectory precisely displayed a panoramic view of the firmament with stars and the moon moving across the night sky.
Inside was an elliptical track framing the visible night sky over Geneva.
Brother Kong stood frozen for a second as he looked at such a watch.
Gu Chenxuan looked at Brother Kong and asked, "This watch must be really expensive, right?"
"It shouldn't be cheap..."
Brother Kong scratched his head, having no idea how to answer Gu Chenxuan's question.
Gu Chenxi simply picked up the cardholder that Brother Kong had left on the floor. With her sharp eyes, she had spotted the receipt tucked inside the cardholder just moments before.
At the very bottom of the receipt were boldly printed the characters: [354,840 USD]
Three hundred fifty-four thousand dollars—converted into Huaxia currency, that came to over 2.58 million.
Seeing this receipt, Gu Chenxi looked up at Brother Kong, her gaze turning somewhat peculiar. "This watch is worth over 2.5 million?"
"Uh... yeah!"
After a moment of thought, Brother Kong generously said, "It's a Patek Philippe, after all. A real watch for 2.5 million is totally normal. Mine is fake, though."
"This is... a fake watch?"
Gu Chenxi stared at the gorgeous watch, clearly disbelieving that it was fake, and glanced down once more at the receipt in her hand.
For someone like her who frequently shopped overseas online, she had seen plenty of receipts like this; it was definitely issued from Clock Country.
(End of Chapter)
Chapter 14: Real
"Right, my dad is in the high-replica watch business. Even the receipts can be made to look so real they're practically indistinguishable from the genuine article."
With that, Brother Kong snatched the receipt back from Gu Chenxi's hand and continued explaining, "This watch is almost identical to the real thing. Even if you took it to an official store, they might not be able to tell it's parallel import stock. Fooling that guy outside should be no problem at all."
Gu Chenxuan asked, "If even the official store can't tell if it's real or fake, wouldn't that just mean it *is* real?"
"Yeah." Gu Chenxi nodded in strong agreement.
"Uh." Brother Kong couldn't keep up the explanation, so he simply changed the subject and said, "Can we please stop obsessing over whether it's real or fake!"
"Heh heh heh..."
Standing outside, Chen Junjie was growing impatient. Banging on the door, he shouted loudly, "You guys have been in there forever! If you can't produce anything, don't force it. Admitting this punk is a loser isn't that hard."
"Swish—"
Gu Chenxuan's bedroom door was pushed open once again, and the three of them walked out of the room.
Gu Chenxi spoke up, "Let me say this again: show some respect to my boyfriend!"
Seeing Gu Chenxi defend him like this, Brother Kong felt a warm current wash over his heart, leaving him momentarily dazed.
For a split second, he genuinely felt like Gu Chenxi was his girlfriend, and that the two of them had known each other for a very, very long time...
"Hiss!"
His fantasy vanished the instant Gu Chenxi pinched his arm.
Following the rehearsal they had just done in the room, Brother Kong lifted Gu Chenxi's hand, pointed to the dreamy watch on her wrist, and said, "Take a good look—this is the watch I bought for my girlfriend. This watch is worth over 2.5 million, enough to buy three of that necklace of yours!"
When Brother Kong finished speaking, he glanced at Gu Chenxi, who shot him a "satisfied" look in return.
"Hahaha, punk, do you take me for a fool?"
Chen Junjie looked at the watch and burst out laughing. Pointing at Brother Kong, he said, "Don't think I don't know—this is a Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon. You can't even buy ready stock of this domestically. Even if a poor loser like you actually had 2.5 million to spare, you couldn't possibly buy ready stock in China! If this watch is real, I'll drop to my knees and kowtow to you right now!"
Not a trace of panic flickered across Brother Kong's face. He calmly waved his hand and said, "A kowtow isn't necessary. But you have to promise me you won't come harass Xixi ever again."
Hearing the word "Xixi", Gu Chenxi inexplicably turned her head to look at Brother Kong, a flash of strange light crossing her eyes as she wondered what he was thinking inside.
"Fine, punk, I see you won't shed a tear until you see the coffin!"
Chen Junjie pulled out his phone and said, "I happen to know the store manager of the Patek Philippe boutique in Zhonghai. Whether your watch is real or fake, we'll know as soon as we check."
Seeing Chen Junjie stubbornly pressing the issue of authenticity, Gu Chenxi guiltily pinched Brother Kong's arm, while Gu Chenxuan tugged at the hem of Brother Kong's shirt from behind.
Watching the two sisters look nervous out of guilt, Brother Kong merely smiled and said, "You'd better have the contact info for the Clock Country store manager, because my watch was a overseas purchase."
"Ha," Chen Junjie sneered. "What an absolute joke! You actually dared to use a buying agent for a two-million-dollar watch?"
Brother Kong shrugged and said indifferently, "Money talks, what can I say?"
"You..."
The veins on Chen Junjie's forehead throbbed slightly. Gritting his teeth, he said, "Punk, if this watch isn't real, don't blame me for being unpolite to you."
Brother Kong continued to provoke Chen Junjie with his words: "If you can prove it's fake, I'll let you do whatever you want with me."
After Chen Junjie sent a message, it wasn't long before he received a call.
Hearing what the person on the other end said, a rare smile broke across Chen Junjie's gloomy face. He pointed at Brother Kong and said, "Punk, I just asked. There has been zero purchase record for this watch in China over the past six months."
As he spoke, he even turned on the speakerphone.
The phone transmitted the crisp, standard voice of a middle-aged man: "Yes, if anyone dares to use our Patek Philippe name to peddle fake watches and swindle people, we will file a lawsuit in court."
Unfazed, Brother Kong spoke directly into the phone, "Don't just check domestic purchase records. Didn't I tell you? My watch was bought through an overseas purchasing agent. Go check the purchase records in Clock Country right now."
"Hmph, you think we can't check that?"
The person on the other end of the line said in a displeased tone, immediately followed by the sound of frantic keyboard clicking.
Before long, the person on the other end spoke again, though this time his aggressive edge had diminished significantly: "Just a week ago, a Chinese national with the surname Kong did indeed buy a Sky Moon Tourbillon in Clock Country."
"!"
Hearing this, Chen Junjie's pupils dilated sharply, and he almost dropped his phone.
Chen Junjie pressed, "What's that person's full name?"
The person on the other end replied, "Uh... Young Master Chen, forgive me, but my clearance isn't high enough to check the member's specific details."
"No need to go to all that trouble." Brother Kong waved a hand and said, "Ask him if the last four digits of the Sky Moon Tourbillon's order number are 4480."
There was an order number on the receipt, and Brother Kong had glanced at it earlier, remembering the last four digits.
The man on the other end of the phone quickly checked: "That's right, the last four digits are 4480."
Incredulous, Chen Junjie stared at Brother Kong and asked, "You actually bought this watch?!"
By now, the expressions of the two Gu sisters were no different from Chen Junjie's. Chen Junjie's question was precisely what the two of them wanted to ask.
With Chen Junjie's call still connected, the store manager's voice came through the phone once more: "That customer surnamed Kong seemed to have bought more than just one watch... That customer bought a full six watches, and bought them all on the same day at the same time!"
"Six of them!"
Chen Junjie was shocked yet again. How expensive was a Patek Philippe? Chen Junjie knew full well that the cheapest ones started in the hundreds of thousands, and buying one required proof of assets. Even if you were a newly-rich demolition tycoon from Zhonghai clutching billions in cash, the boutique wouldn't let you buy six ready-stock watches all at once. One could only imagine what kind of immense capability and background someone had to possess in order to buy six watches in a single purchase.
It wasn't just Chen Junjie who was shocked; Gu Chenxi and Gu Chenxuan, standing beside Brother Kong, were also frightened by the store manager's words. If Chen Junjie hadn't still been standing right here, they would have already grabbed Brother Kong and started interrogating him.
Looking at the three pairs of burning gazes fixed on him, Brother Kong suddenly developed a bit of a headache.
He thought to himself, *I laid it on a bit too thick with this flex. I have no idea how I'm going to talk my way out of this later.*
Fearing that the store manager might dig deeper and expose his family background right to his face, Brother Kong directly reached out and pressed the hang-up button on Chen Junjie's phone, then said, "Alright, a bet's a bet. Remember your promise!"
"..."
Although Chen Junjie was harboring a bellyful of stifled rage, the thought that the watch Brother Kong gave Gu Chenxi was genuine proved that Brother Kong's identity was far from simple. Since he hadn't yet figured out Brother Kong's bottom line, he didn't dare to offend him lightly.
"Hmph!"
After holding it in for ages, Chen Junjie finally let out a cold snort, turned around, and stalked downstairs—effectively conceding his defeat in disguise.
The moment Chen Junjie left, Brother Kong was dragged into the room by the two Gu sisters.
Gu Chenxi took off the watch on her wrist, dangled it in front of Brother Kong, and said, "Explain!"
Gu Chenxuan also tugged on Brother Kong's arm, asking like a curious little cat, "Brother Kong, are you actually a hidden mega-billionaire?!"
"This... actually... uh... over in Clock Country... a friend of my dad's works there... the two of them worked hand in glove... he made a fake receipt and my dad made a fake watch... and then..."
Brother Kong mumbled through a vague and tangled explanation, almost unable to keep the lie straight himself. Fortunately, his phone rang at that exact moment, and Brother Kong immediately seized the excuse of taking a call to bolt out of the room.
"Hello."
"Mr. Kong, you have an international express delivery arrived. It requires your personal identification to verify and sign for it in person. May I ask when you'll be free tomorrow so we can arrange delivery?"
"Another international express?"
After finishing the call, Brother Kong gave a wry smile.
(End of Chapter)
Chapter 15: No Going Back on Your Word
The banquet inside the main hall was still proceeding in full swing; no one knew what had just happened on the second floor. Not wanting to waste any more time at this boring banquet, Brother Kong decided to take his leave first.
Before leaving, however, he still needed to say goodbye to Gu Chenxi's mother, Liu Yun. After all, she was the one who had invited him, and leaving without a single word would clearly lack manners.
Knowing that it was pointless for Brother Kong to linger at a banquet full of strangers, Liu Yun didn't try hard to make him stay. However, worried that he hadn't eaten his fill, she instructed the kitchen before he left to pack up several portions of fine food for him to take away.
Looking at that large bag of fresh food packed in takeout boxes, Brother Kong finally understood the literal meaning of "taking your leftovers to go."
It was hard for Brother Kong to refuse Mother Gu's kind intentions, and coupled with the three starving "good sons" waiting back in the dorm, Brother Kong had no choice but to begrudgingly accept the bag of food.
Seeing that Brother Kong was about to leave, Gu Chenxi unexpectedly took the initiative to offer to drive him back to school.
Brother Kong was somewhat puzzled—why was this young miss suddenly being so nice to him?
As soon as they stepped out the front door, however, Gu Chenxi spoke up: "Don't misunderstand. I don't want to drive you to school at all; this banquet is just too boring, so I'm using you as an excuse to leave."
"Got it."
Brother Kong wasn't particularly surprised by Gu Chenxi's cold attitude—truly, if she had suddenly been overly warm to him, he would have found it weird instead.
"Here, take it back." Gu Chenxi handed the "fake" watch, now repacked in its gift bag, back to Brother Kong, adding, "This is your stuff. To think you could actually toss it into my sister's room and forget to take it."
In a breezy tone, Brother Kong remarked, "It's fine, you can keep it as a gift. It's fake anyway, worthless."
In truth, he had intentionally left the watch in Gu Chenxuan's room and not taken it with him, all so that the two of them would think he didn't care about it at all—which was the only way to make it look like a genuine fake.
"You knew it was fake, and you still had the nerve to give it to me as a gift?" Gu Chenxi curled her lips and shoved the gift bag into Brother Kong's hands.
Carrying the bag, Brother Kong glanced at it and dropped a meaningful remark: "Actually, there's no difference from a real watch..."
"Even if it was real, I wouldn't want it."
Gu Chenxi pressed the unlock button on her car keys, and the two aggressive headlights of her pink Porsche flashed a couple of times. She continued, "Our friendship hasn't reached the point where we're exchanging gifts."
With that, Gu Chenxi got into the car.
Brother Kong climbed in as well. Once inside, he said, "Whether you accept my gift or not, you still have to give me that one thousand yuan for playing my girlfriend earlier. No backing out!"
"Tch."
Gu Chenxi clicked her tongue as she looked at Brother Kong's money-grubbing demeanor, thinking to herself, *For someone who hounds people this hard over a thousand yuan, I actually fell for it earlier and foolishly believed his high-replica watch was real. Yeah right—if he were genuinely rich, why would he come all the way over to tutor my sister?*
Gu Chenxi opened her phone and said, "I'll give it to you right now. Open your payment QR code."
Brother Kong promptly flashed his payment code.
A few seconds later, the notification sound for a one-thousand-yuan transfer rang out from his phone.
Grinning, Brother Kong said, "Thanks, Boss!"
Too lazy to even look at him, Gu Chenxi reversed the steering wheel and stepped heavily on the gas, driving straight away from the house.
A little over half an hour later, the Porsche pulled up downstairs at the boys' dormitory.
Lugging his large and small bags, Brother Kong laboriously climbed out of Gu Chenxi's Porsche.
"Look over there! Isn't that the Campus Belle Gu's car? Why is a guy getting out of her car?"
"Holy crap, it really is!"
"You guys don't know yet?"
"Know what?"
"Gu Chenxi publicly rejected Qin Zizhuo on the spot and confessed to some loser wearing slippers—it's already pinned to the top of the campus wall!"
"What?! My goddess is taken?!"
"Could that punk be Gu Chenxi's boyfriend?"
"Ahhh, and she was the moonlight in my heart!"
"The aloof campus belle is actually dating? I can't accept this!"
"Are you insane?! The aloof campus belle likes a loser?"
It was only past eight o'clock, and pedestrian traffic around the dormitories for both male and female students was quite heavy. The scene of Brother Kong stepping out of Gu Chenxi's car was witnessed by quite a few people, and the surrounding discussions rose and fell in waves.
Brother Kong paid no mind to this and smiled brightly as he said, "Thanks, beauty!"
Not even wanting to spare Brother Kong another word of conversation, Gu Chenxi pressed her foot on the gas and drove straight toward the parking lot by the girls' dormitory.
Watching Gu Chenxi's dashing departure, Brother Kong felt a sudden urge to get his driver's license. Once he had it, he could drive the bulls, horses, and whatnot parked in his garage out for a spin.
However, Brother Kong pushed that thought right out of his head.
"Sugar daddy! I hope you go out on dates with Gu Chenxi every single day!"
"Father! Can I eat that abalone? I've never had an abalone that big before!"
"Good dad! Can you let me taste that big lobster claw? It's my first time seeing a lobster claw this huge."
The moment Brother Kong stepped into the dorm carrying a giant bag of fine food, he undoubtedly became the supreme father of the room. Amidst a chorus of echoing "Dad!" cries, no one could shake his status in the dorm tonight.
"Ding-dong..."
Just as Brother Kong was basking in the joy of fatherhood, his phone notification sound suddenly rang out.
He opened it to find a message from Gu Chenxi, who was inviting him to play a game using her [Xixi] account.
Having nothing better to do at the moment, Brother Kong agreed to keep her company for a while.