Su Yan thought she must have misheard.
Lu Chenhuai had actually told her to smash a wine bottle over her own head!
"Unwilling or too afraid?" Lu Chenhuai spoke again. "If you're unwilling, we'll handle this by the book. If you're too afraid, I'll have someone help you."
The singer on stage had long since stopped performing, and the rowdy bar had instantly fallen extraordinarily quiet, everyone watching their side.
Su Yan felt like a clown standing in the middle of a stage with everyone staring at her.
The scene was so familiar, so similar to three years ago.
Only three years ago, the one being watched was Jiang Jinyue; back then, her older brother was still protecting her, while she herself was now utterly isolated and helpless.
"Fang Zhi,"
Just as Lu Chenhuai called out Fang Zhi's name, Su Yan had already picked up a bottle and smashed it fiercely against her own head.
Red wine streamed down her face, smudging her eyeshadow and eyeliner into a complete mess—far more disheveled than Lu Han, who had been splashed with wine by Ding Ning earlier.
Wei Chao told the band to keep playing, waved away the onlookers, and arranged for Su Yan and her two friends to be sent out.
Although that bottle wasn't smashed with enough force to cause serious harm, going out with her face covered in wine—just in case it frightened the customers coming and going at the entrance—would still be a headache for him.
No matter what, Lu Chenhuai had blocked the blow for her just now. Jiang Jinyue glanced at his arm, which had just been struck, and asked, "Your arm is injured. Let Assistant Fang take you to the hospital to get it checked out."
Though the color of the alcohol was also dark, it was different from blood.
Especially against the backdrop of his white shirt, it was all the more striking.
"It's not a big deal. I'll just have Wei Chao bring a first-aid kit over in a moment to bandage it."
Wei Chao had just walked in from outside and immediately chimed in, "I'll have someone clean this up. Would you all mind moving upstairs to sit for a while?"
After the scene Su Yan had made, none of them really had the mood to drink anymore.
Yet Lu Chenhuai had just helped them out, so turning around and leaving just like that wouldn't look right.
Yan Bocong was a man of few words to begin with, and in front of strangers, he was even less likely to speak up on his own.
Ding Ning had thought Meng Zanchen would say yes, but he remained silent.
Glancing at Meng Zanchen, she smiled and said, "Then thank you, Boss Wei."
The group headed up to the second-floor private room.
The interior decoration was worlds apart from the booth seating downstairs.
Wei Chao had someone bring up a few bottles of fine wine, grabbed the first-aid kit himself, and handed it directly to Jiang Jinyue.
"I'll have to trouble Miss Jiang!"
"Better let Assistant Fang do it. I'm squeamish around blood!"
Jiang Jinyue smiled as she talked nonsense.
Wei Chao glanced at Lu Chenhuai and chuckled. "Is that so? Well, Miss Jiang's squeamishness about blood sure knows how to pick its timing."
"President Lu, my hands might be a bit clumsy. If it hurts, just yell out." Thrust into the spotlight, Fang Zhi sat next to Lu Chenhuai looking extremely nervous. "Um, President Lu, should you maybe take off your shirt first?"
Lu Chenhuai gave Fang Zhi a cold look. "I'll do it myself."
With that, in two or three moves, he rolled up his shirt sleeves, revealing a three- or four-centimeter-long cut on his lower arm that was still oozing blood.
He picked up the white bandage directly and wrapped it haphazardly around his arm, considering it done.
Wei Chao let out a low sigh. "If word of this gets out, people will laugh themselves to death. The mighty President Lu plays the hero saving the beauty, only to be guarded against like a stalker."
With that, Wei Chao poured drinks for Jiang Jinyue and the others. "Let's drink and ignore him. He brought this on himself—serves him right."
Jiang Jinyue looked completely unperturbed, but Ding Ning couldn't stand Wei Chao's passive-aggressive insinuations any longer.
She gave Jiang Jinyue's arm a stealthy poke.
Using her eyes to convey her message: *Boss Yue, why don't you help President Lu so we can get this over with quickly.*
Jiang Jinyue: *Then you go.*
Ding Ning: *If I could, I would have gone up there ages ago.*
No, wait—she would have helped out from the very beginning.
Seeing the eye contact between Ding Ning and Jiang Jinyue, Wei Chao continued, "Let's all have a drink first."
Since he had already picked up his glass, Ding Ning and the others felt bad not moving, so they picked up the wine glasses in front of them as well.
Jiang Jinyue refused with a simple "My stomach isn't feeling well today," and Wei Chao didn't push her.
The moment the wine slid down his throat, Wei Chao started up with the insinuations again: "Come to think of it, this wine was part of President Lu's personal collection. Who told him to go sticking his nose into other people's business? Since he can't drink it, we will."
Ding Ning couldn't take it anymore.
She could also tell that if Boss Yue didn't bandage President Lu's wound today, they were going to be subjected to his snide remarks all night and wouldn't be able to leave.
"President Lu, if you don't mind my level of skill—which comes from bandaging stray cats and dogs—shall I re-bandage it for you?"
Jiang Jinyue finally spoke up.
"Okay."
Lu Chenhuai extended his injured arm toward her.
Jiang Jinyue unwrapped the gauze he had just clumsily put on one layer at a time, picked up the bottle of wine from the table, and poured it straight onto his wounded arm.
"Miss Jiang, isn't there iodophor over there?" Fang Zhi spoke up.
Jiang Jinyue acted as if she had just noticed it, her expression full of apology. "Sorry, I get dizzy the moment I see blood; I didn't see it."
Lu Chenhuai could certainly endure; apart from the muscles on his arm visibly tightening the exact second the alcohol was poured over it, he showed no other reaction.
Seeing him like this, Jiang Jinyue didn't feel it was right to keep playing games either.
She took clean gauze, bandaged his arm properly, and tied a neat, pretty butterfly knot.
As soon as his arm was bandaged, Jiang Jinyue made an excuse that she and Ding Ning had things to attend to and left.
"The cost of you playing the hero to save the beauty is probably even higher than what you'd have to pay to acquire their Qingci Technology."
Wei Chao smiled, the Chrome Hearts ring on his finger flashing with a dim glow every time he shook his wine glass.
"People just flicked their sleeves and left all carefree, yet you're still hung up on it. Slapped right in the face, aren't you?"
"Don't want to drink your wine anymore?"
"Of course I'll drink. No matter what, I've got to keep you company through this night of heartbreak."
As he spoke, Wei Chao drained the wine in his glass in one gulp.
Lu Chenhuai looked at the wine glass in front of him, his thoughts drifting back to the first night he and Jiang Jinyue had gotten together.
That day, while they were being intimate in the study, she had accidentally broken an ice-crack patterned brush washer on his desk.
Later, when she restored it herself, she had said something.
She said, "The most perfect cracks in this world are all long-planned reunions."
They had reunited, but she was avoiding him like the plague.
Outside the bar, Meng Zanchen called a designated driver, intending to send them home one by one. Yan Bocong said, "I'm heading in the same direction as Ding Ning. The two of us will take a cab back; after I drop her off at her home, I'll head back myself. You can just have the driver take you and Jinyue home."
Both Meng Zanchen and Jiang Jinyue sat in the back row.
"Did you also meet Lu Chenhuai in New York?"
Jiang Jinyue closed her eyes, leaned back against the seat, and nodded slightly.
After a moment, Meng Zanchen spoke again: "I've contacted some uncles and elders who had a pretty good relationship with my dad. They've agreed to consider investing in us, so don't worry about the funding. With me here, I won't let our company just die like this."
Jiang Jinyue opened her eyes and sat up straight.
"Weren't you the one who swore to your dad back then that you'd rather beg on the streets than ever go begging at his door? What is this supposed to be?"
Meng Zanchen averted his eyes.
"I didn't ask him directly."
Jiang Jinyue gave a slight smile. "I'll take care of the investment. You just focus on securing the logistics for Bocong. The very first comeback battle after our financing depends entirely on the game he's making right now."
Meng Zanchen desperately wanted to ask Jiang Jinyue who she had found to secure the investment, but seeing her lean back against the seat again and close her eyes, he ultimately didn't ask.