allonlinenovel Chapter 546 Taunt!
Chapter 546 Taunt!
Zhang Haiyang seized the opportunity, raised his glass, and gestured to Liu Jianguo at the same table:
"Come on, Jianguo, it's been so long since we last met, let's have a toast!"
"Alright, Haiyang!" Liu Jianguo readily raised his glass, the two clinked glasses, and both drank it down in one gulp.
Setting down his wine glass, Zhang Haiyang casually chatted, his gaze falling on the thick, almost blinding gold chain around Liu Jianguo's neck and the enormous gold ring on his hand, a perfectly measured expression of envy on his face:
"Jianguo, you're something else! Look at this outfit... gold chains, gold rings, all set up! What big business did you make that made you rich? I'm really envious."
"It's just a small matter, a minor skirmish."
Liu Jianguo waved his hand modestly.
"There are quite a few big bosses here today. I can't compare to them. I'm not even qualified to carry shoes for people like Yuan Chao."
He changed the subject abruptly and asked:
"By the way, Haiyang, where are you working now? Where are you making your fortune?"
"How could I possibly get rich!"
Zhang Haiyang sighed with a distressed expression.
"Just coasting along in the criminal investigation team, earning a meager fixed salary, it can't compare to you, the big boss."
He openly introduced himself without any concealment. There was no way to hide such a thing, so he simply spoke his mind to avoid arousing suspicion.
Upon hearing the words "criminal police officer," Liu Jianguo's fingers, holding a cigarette, trembled almost imperceptibly. Their relationship wasn't particularly close, so he knew very little about the officer.
He really didn't know that Zhang Haiyang was now a police officer.
He chuckled dryly, trying to maintain his composure: "Haiyang, you're doing well... getting a government job is pretty good, isn't it?"
"What's so good about it!"
Zhang Haiyang waved his hands repeatedly and began to pour out his grievances.
"It's not as good as when I was in the army. At least I could sit in an office, drink tea, and read the newspaper. It was leisurely and carefree. Now that I've been transferred to the criminal investigation team, I'm busy like a baby all day long, running around. It's dangerous, and the income is just a fixed salary of a few dozen yuan. It's tough..."
He sighed and patted Liu Jianguo on the shoulder, half-jokingly:
"Jianguo, if you ever find a way to make money in the future, you'd better remember your brother, haha!"
Liu Jianguo smiled and nodded, but his eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly as he subtly observed Zhang Haiyang's expression, carefully considering the meaning behind his words and trying to discern their truthfulness.
At this moment, Li Yuanchao, who was in the main seat, had already stood up and started to go to the other tables to toast each other. Every time he went to a table, the people at that table would stand up and raise their glasses to welcome him, and the scene was very lively.
As he wandered around, Li Yuanchao eventually arrived at Zhong Yuemin's table.
His face was beaming with a bright smile, and his tone was warm:
“Yuemin! We did have some grudges in the past, but those were all due to our youthful arrogance and ignorance. Now we are both approaching forty, and those old grievances should have long since faded away.”
He raised his glass, adopting a magnanimous and conciliatory posture:
"Come on, let's have a drink together and let bygones be bygones, shall we?"
Zhong Yuemin also stood up, a faint smile on his face, but his tone was somewhat indifferent:
"Do we... have any past grievances? I don't seem to remember. If it weren't for Mr. Li organizing this gathering today, we wouldn't all be able to get together. Come on, let's all have a drink together."
Seeing this, Zheng Tong, Luo Jianguo, and others at the same table also stood up and raised their glasses: "Yes, yes, together, together!"
"Come on, let's have a clink!"
"Let's do it!"
The glasses clinked and jingled, creating a warm and harmonious atmosphere.
Li Yuanchao put down his wine glass, his gaze sweeping over Zhong Yuemin as if he had just noticed his attire, his tone carrying a subtle hint of superiority:
"Yuemin, your outfit... is really novel and unique. Where have you been working all these years? I haven't heard from you at all."
"A high position? I wouldn't dare accept that." Zhong Yuemin chuckled self-deprecatingly.
"Strictly speaking, I'm currently unemployed and supported by my wife. She stays at home taking care of the kids and doing housework, haha!"
Li Yuanchao couldn't help but curl a subtle, victorious smile at the corner of his mouth. His gaze shifted to Zhou Xiaobai, who was sitting next to Zhong Yuemin, and his expression became somewhat complex and unreadable.
Li Yuanchao is now thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old. He has no shortage of experience, wealth, and power. He has played with so many women that he can't count them on two hands. If he wants to, there is almost no woman he can't get. But Zhou Xiaobai is an exception.
This wasn't entirely because he loved the woman so much; it was more about an unfulfilled possessiveness and desire to conquer, especially since she eventually became Zhong Yuemin's woman. This became a hidden pain point deep in his heart, a symbol of his sense of defeat.
Xiaobai,
He adjusted his expression and spoke in a gentle tone, "I heard... you're still a doctor at the hospital?"
Zhou Xiaobai merely raised her eyelids, glanced at him, and remained silent, only nodding very slightly as a response.
Seeing that the atmosphere had been built up enough, Li Yuanchao's followers began to intentionally or unintentionally stir up trouble and make sarcastic remarks.
“Yuanchao, speaking of which…didn’t you used to date this Dr. Zhou?”
"Yes, back then it seemed like... Dr. Zhou wasn't too keen on it, was it?"
"Tsk tsk, if you two had gotten together back then, Dr. Zhou wouldn't have needed to work so hard at the hospital; she would have been a wealthy housewife enjoying a life of leisure long ago!"
"So, you see, there's no going back in this world. One wrong step and you're doomed forever, haha..."
The group chatted back and forth, seemingly joking, but every word was barbed and laced with barbs.
The implication was clear: Zhou Xiaobai, you "misjudged" back then and didn't choose Li Yuanchao, this "high branch," so now you can only live a hard life with Zhong Yuemin, this "unemployed bum," and work hard as an ordinary doctor in the hospital.
Among the onlookers, many wore expressions of schadenfreude, pity, or amusement, their eyes darting back and forth between Zhong Yuemin, Zhou Xiaobai, and Li Yuanchao.
He was probably thinking to himself: Zhong Yuemin, the former number one figure in the Beijing gangster circle, seems to have really fallen on hard times. Look at his shabby clothes, coming to this kind of gathering, isn't he just asking to be humiliated? Is this meal all he needs? I really don't know what he's thinking.
Zhong Yuemin naturally noticed the strange, inquisitive, and even disdainful gazes directed at him, but his face remained unchanged. He simply picked up a piece of food with his chopsticks, put it in his mouth, and chewed it slowly, as if the buzzing discussions and gazes around him were just insignificant background noise that he automatically blocked out. He had long since passed the age of being competitive.