"You're fucking asking for it, kid!" Chu Chen picked up a bottle of beer and made a motion to pour it over him.
The other underlings immediately started jeering.
"Make Blondie chug it!"
"Don't chicken out, Blondie!"
"Chug it, Blondie, and Brother Chen will buy you a hostess to keep you company!"
Blondie readily seized the opening: "Fine! I'll chug this bottle, and Brother Chen has to buy a hostess!"
With that, Blondie tilted his head back and chugged the entire bottle of beer.
Chu Chen's mouth twitched. But seeing his underlings all staring at him and figuring that if he didn't play along, they wouldn't be able to let loose, he had no choice but to ask the madam to introduce someone to him.
The madam, always adept at reading people's expressions, immediately stood up: "Then I'll definitely introduce you to the very best one, Brother Chen!"
She went out for a short while and quickly returned, leading a young woman by the hand.
The girl had a pure and sweet appearance, with her hair tied up in a simple high ponytail. However, her expression was reserved and her features held a raw, inexperienced look; her nervousness was visible to the naked eye.
"Brother Chen, this girl arrived just two days ago. Her name is Xiao Han, and she only turned eighteen not long ago." The madam looked back at the girl. "Brother Chen is a very good person. You're all young, he won't go grabbing or touching you."
Chu Chen glanced over and saw that a few of his underlings were already getting hands-on with the other hostesses. His mouth twitched again, and he turned to nod at the madam: "Of course I trust your taste. Have her sit over here!"
The madam was very pleased with this compliment and gave Xiao Han a shove: "Hurry up and sit down beside him!"
Xiao Han timidly took a seat next to Chu Chen, keeping her head down. Her hands gripped her beer bottle nervously as she poured a full glass for Chu Chen.
"Brother Chen, I'd like to toast you." Xiao Han's voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz, and she didn't even dare raise her head.
Chu Chen took the glass, drained it in one gulp, and smiled at Xiao Han: "Just sit by yourself, don't worry about me."
Xiao Han grew even more restrained, sitting stiffly beside Chu Chen at a total loss for what to do. She picked up the beer bottle again and poured him another glass.
"Really, don't bother. Pour some for yourself instead." Chu Chen waved his hand to signal that she didn't need to pour any more wine.
Xiao Han bit her lip and asked cautiously, "Brother Chen, is there something I didn't do right?"
"No, you're doing fine." Chu Chen gave a perfunctory reply and stopped paying attention to her, turning his gaze back to his underlings who were singing.
Amidst the deafening music, the underlings sang at the top of their lungs and swayed wildly. Colorful lights played across their excited faces, and the entire private room was filled with a joyful atmosphere.
Chu Chen, however, felt not the least bit relaxed. He leaned back against the sofa, his brow slightly furrowed as the future direction of Chen Gang continuously swirled in his mind.
"I need to establish a formal company as fast as possible," Chu Chen thought to himself. "Still, the registered capital is a huge problem."
Over the years, although Chu Chen had saved up over a million yuan, it was still far from enough to register a proper company.
"Looks like I've got to find a way to accumulate some seed capital quickly." Chu Chen rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
"Right, 2008 is the financial crisis!" Chu Chen's eyes suddenly lit up as a bold idea formed in his mind.
He remembered very clearly that in 2008, the stock market plummeted and the prices of many stocks hit rock bottom—including Kweichow Moutai.
"If I buy Moutai stock now while it's cheap, and wait a few years for the price to recover, wouldn't that..." The more Chu Chen thought about it, the more excited he became, as if he could already see countless bank notes waving at him.
"But if I do that, my capital will be locked up for several years..." Chu Chen hesitated again.
After all, he urgently needed money right now. If he poured all his funds into the stock market, he wouldn't be able to touch them for quite some time.
"And then there's Bitcoin..." Chu Chen thought of another investment opportunity.
He knew that Bitcoin would experience explosive growth over the next few years. If he bought in now, it would definitely be a hugely profitable deal.
"Still, Bitcoin would also be tied up for over a decade..." Chu Chen weighed the pros and cons, finding it hard to make a choice in the moment.
Just then, the KTV television screen started playing a song by the South Korean idol group TVXQ.
"The Korean Wave..." A flash of inspiration struck Chu Chen, and a new idea began to take shape.
"In 2008, the Korean Wave is at its peak in the country, and lots of young people are crazy about Korean stars..." Chu Chen reminisced about his own student days.
"If I start a business selling celebrity merchandise, there should be good money in it!" The more Chu Chen thought about it, the more viable it seemed.
"When the time comes, I can start by setting up a stall offline. Once I make some money, I can open an online store and develop both online and offline channels simultaneously..." Chu Chen was already sketching out his future business blueprint in his mind.
While Chu Chen was lost in thought, his underlings started up some commotion again. Scuffling and shoving each other around, Blondie lost his footing and nearly collapsed right onto Xiao Han.
With quick reflexes, Chu Chen pulled Xiao Han toward him, just in time to keep her from being crushed underneath.
"Th-thank you, Brother Chen..." Still shaken, Xiao Han hurriedly thanked Chu Chen, her face flushed red and her eyes full of panic.
Blondie laughed it off with an apology and went back to roughhousing with the other brothers. The private room was filled with a cheerful atmosphere, as if nothing had happened at all.
Chu Chen pulled his thoughts back, turned his head to glance at Xiao Han, and said, "Did they scare you? That's just how they are, totally reckless."
Xiao Han gave Chu Chen a timid look, quickly lowered her head again, and whispered, "I'm okay..."
"If you choose this line of work, there will be far worse things than this waiting for you in the future!" Chu Chen said flatly, his tone devoid of any emotion.
Xiao Han stuttered, not knowing what to say, her little hands anxiously twisting the hem of her shirt. After a long moment, she asked in a small voice, "You, you guys don't look that old either. Are you college students?"
"Yeah, what about it?" Chu Chen answered casually. He knew that many girls who came to places like this liked to look for college students or guys just entering society, thinking they were naive and easy to fool.
A look of envy appeared on Xiao Han's face as she said, "Must be nice, being able to go to college..."
Guessing that she must have graduated from high school last year and for some reason hadn't gone to college, Chu Chen casually asked, "How did you end up working in a place like this?"
Xiao Han bit her lip, looking as though it were difficult to speak of, but she still whispered, "I was a waitress at a hotel before. I worked there for over half a year, but then I accidentally offended a customer and got fired..."
"And then?" Chu Chen asked nonchalantly, knowing that girls in places like this always had plenty of stories.
"Later on, a former classmate told me you could make a lot of money working here, so she introduced me..." Xiao Han's voice grew lower and lower, as if she were confessing an unspeakable secret.
She didn't say much else. Chu Chen had half-expected her to pour her heart out to him and try to squeeze a bigger tip out of him. He figured it was probably just because she was new to the industry and still too proud to beg.
In his past life, Chu Chen had seen plenty of people like this. They were completely clueless when they first started out, but would quickly be assimilated by these entertainment venues—after all, didn't people come to places like this just to make money?
He raised his glass in a silent toast to Xiao Han. She hurriedly picked up her glass to click it against his, then downed it in one gulp, only to choke on it and quickly turn her head away to cough.
"Cough, cough, cough..." Xiao Han's face turned bright red, and she nearly coughed up tears.