Originally, Chen Zhezhe was unwilling to ride in a woman's car, but then he figured that just to see Wang Dong's expression from earlier, he might as well get in and let the ride wear the seats right down to the frame.
Speaking of which, this Porsche was really quite nice. The interior, the space, the pleasant fragrance, and the beautiful woman driving it—Chen Zhezhe looked all around without a shred of restraint.
Perhaps when he left, he should snap off one of the door handles; it might be worth eight or ten thousand, which would help subsidize household expenses.
Chen Zhezhe indulged in all sorts of petty, small-minded fantasies.
The woman smiled slightly, thinking Chen Zhezhe was quite an amusing character. Most people wouldn't be nearly this instantly familiar!
"Hey, hey, done daydreaming yet?" The beauty smiled with pursed lips. "Where on earth are you going?"
During the day when she was wearing a uniform and black-rimmed frames, he hadn't noticed, but now this woman looked utterly alluring to her very core. Every smile and gesture was simply enough to tempt men into crime, absolute poison to the male species—no wonder that fellow Wang Dong had been so desperately trying to cozy up to her.
Chen Zhezhe asked with curiosity, "Aren't you a nurse at the campus clinic? How do you drive such an expensive car?"
"Can't nurses drive? When I was little I wanted to be a police officer, when I was in school I studied business administration, and after graduation I became a doctor. What are you going to do about it?" As she spoke, she puffed out her chest slightly, and Chen Zhezhe's eyes damn near popped out.
Wait a minute... what kind of logic was that anyway?
This woman didn't seem entirely right in the head; she was a bit like... a bit like his own older sister.
"I'm going to Fucheng Restaurant, but I'm afraid it's too late. It'll be six o'clock in less than ten minutes!" Chen Zhezhe dropped that remark.
"Fine, put your seatbelt on first!"
Chen Zhezhe turned to look at the beauty. Why wasn't she putting hers on? He wasn't any kind of coward; he didn't need a seatbelt.
"I don't think I need it!"
The girl wore a somewhat teasing expression. "I'm doing this for your own good. There's not enough time, so I have to take a shortcut. Don't say I didn't warn you later."
"I'm fine!"
In front of a beauty, one still had to put up a brave front.
"Then get ready!"
The beauty slammed her foot down on the accelerator and jerked the steering wheel hard.
Vroom—
The top-of-the-line 4.8-liter turbocharged engine was pushed to its absolute limit, emitting an excited roar...
Chen Zhezhe's head smashed hard against the car window, and then he bounced back into his seat, letting out a startled cry.
The fierce acceleration pinned him against the seat, delivering a powerful surge of g-force. Pale-faced, Chen Zhezhe watched as the Porsche took a sharp turn, skimming right past the still-dazed Wang Dong.
While flooring the accelerator, the beauty smiled as if nothing were out of the ordinary: "Not enough time, this is the only way."
What makes a good car?
It can skyrocket its speed to the maximum in an extraordinarily short time. In less than ten seconds, it seemed, Chen Zhezhe watched the needle on the speedometer point to 100 km/h—and of course, the needle was still climbing.
Too thrilling!
Trembling with fright, Chen Zhezhe said, "For the sake of you and your family, please drive safely!"
"Didn't you say time was tight? I'm only going this fast because of you!" As she spoke, the beauty hammered the gas pedal. Right ahead was a straight stretch of road, and the trees on both sides flew backward in a blur.
The car's soundproofing was excellent, and it was very quiet inside; the so-called speed seemed to belong to another world.
His heart rate must have been hitting around two hundred beats per minute. Chen Zhezhe's teeth chattered as he watched the beauty beside him smiling so sweetly.
This woman is a demon incarnate, master...
If you've never been in a speeding car, you'll never know just how terrifying and exhilarating drag racing could be!
With trembling hands, Chen Zhezhe pulled across the seatbelt, but no matter what he did, he couldn't click it in. He silently cursed Jiang Xiaoqiao for having a useless airbag.
And the beauty didn't seem willing to let Chen Zhezhe off the hook just yet. While playing *Need for Speed* in real life, she casually kept chatting with him: "What's your major?"
"Law School, jurisprudence!"
"Ooh! A future lawyer!"
"Lawyer my foot! I might get expelled any second now! Right now, Article 236 of the Criminal Law suddenly comes to mind! Ah! Watch out for that truck!"
A truck roared past. The beauty's driving skills were first-rate, and her nerves were steel-solid; she didn't even blink an eyelash as she zipped past the truck in the opposite lane.
"What? Who's going to expel you?" The beauty turned to look at him.
That glance nearly made Chen Zhezhe's heart leap right out of his mouth: "Keep your eyes on the road! Who else could it be? I got into your car, and God knows who's sitting over there green with envy and jealousy. He's still got dirt on me!"
The beauty finally turned her head back and murmured softly, "He wouldn't dare! Don't you worry, they won't expel you!"
"We're here!"
Holy crap, that really was fast! It had only been a few minutes!
Was he still alive?
Beaming from ear to ear, Jiang Xiaoqiao stared at Chen Zhezhe. "It's only 5:58, you've still got two minutes... why aren't you getting out?"
Chen Zhezhe gave a bitter laugh. "Can I have a bit of a leg cramp?"
With a charming smile, the beauty handed over a bottle of mineral water from the side. "Can you walk?"
"Shouldn't be a problem, appreciate you asking!" He took the mineral water, unscrewed it, chugged half the bottle at once, pushed open the car door, and stepped out with weak, jelly-like limbs.
The beauty asked with concern, "Are you alright?"
"No problem... holy crap..." As soon as he finished speaking, he hurried off to the side and began dry heaving. It was a good thing he hadn't eaten anything.
The beauty waved. "My name is Jiang Xiaoqiao. If you need anything in the future, you can look me up—especially for car rides and the like. I guarantee fast and safe..."
"Thanks a lot!"
He waved, turned to leave, and muttered under his breath, "If I ever ride in your car again, I'll be your husband..."
"What did you say?" Jiang Xiaoqiao had remarkably good hearing. She poked her head out of the car window and glared at Chen Zhezhe.
"Nothing, nothing!"
He took a deep breath, calming the terror that Jiang Xiaoqiao and her driving had just inflicted upon him.
Fucheng Restaurant was a fairly famous eatery in Jiangcheng City. It wasn't very large, nor was it particularly high-end, but the food was simply delicious, and plenty of rich people came to dine here. Prices rose along with its skyrocketing popularity, and dinnertime was especially hard to book a table for, even if you had money.
He pushed open the door, stated the name under which the table was reserved, and the waiter led him to a table. The location was good—right by the window.Except for him, Jiang Chen, Shen Rongrong, Liu Yi, and Xu Shanshan had all arrived and were waiting for him.
"Sorry I'm late, you're all waiting for me!"
With that, he sat down at the window seat, right next to Jiang Chen.
"It's fine!" Jiang Chen smiled, then waved a hand. "Waiter, order!"
The dishes at Fucheng were popular everyday meals, and each of them ordered a few items they liked.
"Right, we should order some drinks. What kind of alcohol are you all having?" Jiang Chen's eyes curved into crescents when she smiled, looking exceptionally bewitching.
Yet that very smile seemed to harbor a trace of malice.
Liu Yi glanced at Xu Shanshan. "We have things to do tonight, so let's just have a little bit of beer!"
"Count me out, I don't drink!" Chen Zhezhe waved his hand.
Jiang Chen smiled. "Now how will that do? Liu Yi and his girlfriend have plans tonight, but I need to have a few good drinks with you—both to thank you for helping Tingting today, and for my own impulsiveness earlier."
Before Chen Zhezhe could reply, she pulled two boxes out from under the table. "Let's start with the hard liquor..."
Two bottles of *xiaoshaohao* grain alcohol—at the sight of them, Chen Zhezhe's face turned green. No one in his family could hold their liquor, and he was no exception, falling squarely into the "one-drink knockout" category.
Watching Jiang Chen deftly open the packaging, pop the caps, and unceremoniously snatch the cup from in front of Chen Zhezhe, she said, "Ordinary people don't get to drink this kind of alcohol; I stole it from my old man..."
Judging by how skillfully she handled it, she probably not only knew how to drink, but could hold quite a lot of it.
*Thump, thump, thump*
The moment that sound hit his ears, Chen Zhezhe felt his scalp go numb.
A full cup of liquor was poured into Chen Zhezhe's glass.
Pouring a full cup for herself as well, Jiang Chen flashed a sweet smile. "I'll drain my cup first as a sign of respect. Even though I'm a woman, I believe we're equal, right? You just drink however much I drink..."
"Jiang Chen, Chen Zhezhe doesn't seem to handle his liquor very well. Better skip it!" Shen Rongrong chimed in with advice. She had figured it out by now: this best friend of hers probably harbored bad intentions and wanted to get Chen Zhezhe dead drunk. She knew Jiang Chen's alcohol tolerance well; ordinary heavy drinkers were no match for her, as it was a family trait.
Originally, he hadn't wanted to drink at all, but looking at Jiang Chen's somewhat smug expression, Chen Zhezhe gritted his teeth. "Damn it, I refuse to be outdrunk by someone who squats to pee. Let's do this!"
He tossed back a full glass in one go.
The spicy burn hit the back of his throat, and Chen Zhezhe felt his whole body grow hot and shudder violently. That was nearly sixty-proof grain alcohol, after all!
With Chen Zhezhe's alcohol tolerance, one cup was probably enough to put him out of commission.
On top of already feeling a bit carsick and having an empty stomach without any food beforehand, chugging a cup of hard liquor made Chen Zhezhe feel as though his stomach were burning like a furnace. He hurriedly ate some dishes to suppress the alcohol fumes. His face flushed red; the fact that he hadn't passed out on the spot could be considered an extraordinary performance on his part.
As for Jiang Chen, after downing a cup of liquor, her skin merely became a bit fairer and her eyes brighter. She chatted away animatedly with Liu Yi and the others, acting as if nothing at all had happened.
Watching Chen Zhezhe's beet-red face, she felt a surge of inner glee: *Let you go sneaking peeks at me... Today I'm going to make a complete fool out of you.*
"Second cup, I still have to toast you. We didn't know each other before, but I found out you have a strong sense of chivalry—you even managed to scare the piss out of Zhang Zhi, which counts as venting some frustration for me. There it is, old rules, I'll drink first!"
Jiang Chen showed a spirit that yielded nothing to men; her alcohol tolerance was practically innate, and by the age of seven or eight she had already dared to eat bar snacks washed down with grain alcohol.
Never mind one or two cups—one or two catties were nothing to her.
As she spoke, she tilted her neck back and downed another glass.
Chen Zhezhe noticed that when she tilted her neck back like that, not only was her neck long, white, and very pretty...
Pretty or not, he still had to drink it...
With a grimace, he forced the alcohol down. The moment the liquor entered his mouth, he felt the world spin and tilted heavily to the side, collapsing right onto Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen had a wine bottle in one hand and a cup in the other, leaving her with no extra hand to block him. Unprepared when Chen Zhezhe collapsed over, she found him sprawled sideways right against her body. Taken aback, she thought to herself that this man really couldn't hold his liquor—he was already useless after just two cups.
Setting the bottle down on the table, Jiang Chen was just about to push Chen Zhezhe away when she felt his right hand move, landing squarely and firmly upon her chest.
Ah!
Jiang Chen felt as though she had been struck by an electric current. Her whole body quivered, her grip on the cup slipped, and it crashed to the floor, shattering into tiny pieces.
She, who had remained completely composed after drinking two cups of liquor, suddenly flushed scarlet red, struck by a sensation she had never experienced in her entire life.
She looked toward Shen Rongrong for help: "Help me pull him off... I... I have no strength left!"
"Humph"
Chen Zhezhe's alcoholic breath puffed directly against her ear, and Jiang Chen felt her ear start to heat up as her breathing grew shallow and rapid.
Shen Rongrong asked with bewilderment, "Jiang Chen, you've only had two cups, how are you like this?"
"Hurry up..."