At this point, Jiang Chen naturally had no idea about the change in Su Zhi's attitude toward Qin Yu.
Even if he had known, it wouldn't have brought him any joy.
He had already decided to walk away from the entire company.
Unawares, he found himself driving to the bar where he had previously encountered Lu Hongluan.
Lu Hongluan was up on the stage, singing.
With her guitar in hand, she radiated brilliance under the lights.
Jiang Chen entered the bar and found a seat.
A subtle discomfort stirred within him as he watched the crowd cheer and call for another song.
"Thank you, thank you all for your support," Lu Hongluan said. "Next, I'd like to share a song I've tried to rearrange, 'Glorious Years'."
Her voice rang out with a bright, brisk cadence.
Clearly, Lu Hongluan treated this not merely as a part-time job, but truly as a passion to cultivate.
Yet, not everyone in the audience knew how to show respect.
From down below, a man suddenly shouted, "Hey babe, stop singing. I'll give you twenty thousand to keep me company for the night."
Many people glared at him with indignation.
Yet, meeting his arrogant glare, almost everyone chose the same path: "Don't look for trouble."
The man who spoke was wearing clothes worth several thousand yuan, clearly a person of considerable financial means.
Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed slightly.
He recognized him. The fellow was the son of one of his suppliers. Back when Jiang Chen's business was first taking off, this supplier had practically begged him to purchase raw materials from their family.
In the current market, after all, whoever had the money was king.
Jiang Chen had met the guy once before, and this young master's reputation was far from stellar.
Still, Jiang Chen's usual haunts never overlapped with this guy's social circle, so his bad reputation had nothing to do with him.
But now...
Jiang Chen looked toward Lu Hongluan and saw her expression remain entirely unchanged, as if she hadn't heard a thing.
With a face like hers, harassment was inevitable.
Even so, this was still a society governed by law, so harassment rarely crossed into extreme territory.
Whether this young master was simply drunk on bravado or driven by something else, he suddenly stood up and strode toward the stage.
When a bar staff member stepped forward to block him, the man roughly shoved the worker aside.
In an instant, mild chaos rippled through the bar.
The music stopped.
"Spend the night with me, and I'll give you fifty thousand," the man demanded. "That's already a very generous price."
Lu Hongluan shook her head. "I'm sorry, I have a boyfriend."
"Please, spare me the act."
"Come with me, and I won't treat you poorly."
He didn't believe for a second that Lu Hongluan had a boyfriend.
After all, what man with a girlfriend this gorgeous would ever let her sing in a bar?
Right then, however, his collar was seized from behind.
Before he could turn his head, Jiang Chen delivered a direct punch straight to his eye socket.
"She is my girlfriend. Got a problem with that?"
Jiang Chen's voice was flat, yet the heavy pressure behind it was unmistakable.
"Who the hell are you?" The young master stammered, still dazed.
Then, everyone nearby heard the color drain from his voice: "Director... Director Jiang."
He had met Jiang Chen before.
Knowing his son's rebellious streak, his father had given him a strict list of people who must never be provoked.
That was why he didn't dare frequent high-end establishments, sticking instead to seedier venues like this one to find his amusement.
Never in his wildest dreams had he expected to run into Jiang Chen here.
And why on earth was Jiang Chen's girlfriend working in a place like this?
At Su Zhi's insistence, only a small circle of people knew that Jiang and Su were even dating. Consequently, very few people were aware that Jiang Chen had a girlfriend at all.
Lu Hongluan looked startled. "B-Boss, why are you here?"
She had blurted out her usual title.
Luckily, she managed to catch herself and switch terms just in time—though her face burned a fiery red.
What on earth had she almost said?
Jiang Chen looked at Lu Hongluan and said, "If I weren't here, you'd be getting bullied."
He had never placed restrictions on Lu Hongluan's work.
To him, Lu Hongluan's primary value was serving as a human shield against unwanted suitors and a tool to annoy Su Zhi.
At least for now.
He didn't interfere with her regular job or her studies.
Nor did he feel any sense of shame just because Lu Hongluan worked in a bar.
After all, he didn't come from some so-called aristocratic lineage, so he wasn't burdened by that kind of pretension.
He turned his gaze back to the young man and said coolly, "Get lost. I'll spare you this time."
The young master pulled a bitter face. "Director Jiang, please don't mess with my family's business either, or my old man will skin me alive."
He knew how to read the room.
In this day and age, playing dirty outside the boardroom didn't work anymore.
If he ruined his father's business, a brutal beating would be the lightest punishment he could expect.
Jiang Chen gave a brief nod. Only then did the young man catch his breath and scurry away.
Afterward, Jiang Chen said to Lu Hongluan, "With that settled, no one will come here to bother you again."
A flash of gratitude crossed Lu Hongluan's eyes. "Thank you."
Jiang Chen waved a hand dismissively.
"You have a nice voice," he said. "I'm leaving."
There was a soothing quality to Lu Hongluan's singing, which was perhaps the real reason he hadn't stopped her from performing in the lounge bar.
...
By the next day, the time had quickly arrived.
Acting on the details Liang Hao had sent, Jiang Chen arrived at the restaurant for their business negotiation a full hour ahead of schedule.
Arriving early was a mark of politeness.
Since the other party had not yet arrived, he used the time to review the materials he had prepared.
Right then, his phone rang. It was a call from Liang Hao.
A hint of nervousness gripped him. "What is it? Did something go wrong?"
"Something did go wrong," Liang Hao replied, "but it has nothing to do with you. It's about Su Zhi."
Jiang Chen let out a breath of relief.
Then he heard Liang Hao continue: "Su Zhi tried to arrange a position for Qin Yu at Hongmei Entertainment, but the elders of the Su family put their foot down. After all, Qin Yu is a disgrace to the Qin family—wasn't Su Zhi's move just a direct slap in their faces?"
"On top of that, the Su family is equally unhappy with the man she's chosen. That Qin guy... tsk tsk tsk, not a single person in our circle likes him. Maybe he really needs to take a long look in the mirror and figure out why."
Jiang Chen couldn't help raising an eyebrow.
He knew the Su family well.
Compared to other households in Tianhai City, they had a certain depth of heritage, though he didn't care for a single member of that family.
The patriarch of the Su family—the founder—had passed away long ago.
The household was currently run by the founder's original wife. More snobbish than her late husband, she was utterly obsessed with marrying off the Su family's daughters and granddaughters into high-society dynasties.
Furthermore, Su Zhi's parents both looked down on Jiang Chen. However, since Jiang and Su had not yet reached the stage of marriage, he had virtually no personal dealings with that branch of the family.
Su Zhi's second uncle's family was equally scheming. Back when he and Su Zhi first started dating, that household had tried to undermine Su Zhi on numerous occasions, only to be blocked by Jiang Chen every single time.
Suffice it to say, that entire family shared a morbid obsession with fame and fortune.
At that moment, the sound of approaching footsteps caught his attention.
"The other party is here. I'm hanging up."
As he disconnected the call, he looked up to see an elegant, capable-looking woman pushing open the door and walking in.
"We meet again, Mr. Jiang?" she greeted him.
Jiang Chen stood there in a momentary daze.
It was her?
A memory slowly surfaced from the depths of his mind.