The man simply bent down, looked into her big round eyes, and said casually,
“I offer plenty of services. Eating with you, drinking with you, chatting with you. They all cost different amounts. It depends on what you can afford.”
His friends, who had been waiting for him to explode, spat out the wine they had yet to swallow. They stared at him in disbelief, unable to understand what this young master was doing.
Was he role-playing?
Who was this girl? She had compared him to a male escort, and not only was he not angry, he was actually playing along. Had the sun risen in the west today?
“I have plenty of money.”
Shi Yusheng proudly patted his trouser leg. “Just give me your most expensive package!”
“Oh.”
He nodded, lifted her from the floor, and settled her on the sofa beside him. His voice was leisurely. “Then you want all three. That’s a little pricey.”
“Why are you being so coy? Can’t you just tell me how much?”
The man raised one finger and waved it before her eyes, his expression serious. “Ten thousand.”
“How much is ten thousand?”
The girl blinked in confusion, then took out her phone. After fumbling with it for ages, her face almost pressed against the screen, she finally managed to find Alipay1. She handed it to him. “Type it in yourself.”
But after he took the phone, she apparently decided this was unsafe and glared at him sternly. “Don’t enter some random amount! I’m watching you!”
Her eyes opened wide. Instead of watching the screen, she stared solemnly at his face.
…
“You don’t need to pay now.”
Huo Xingchao curved his lips, closed Alipay, and opened another app. “I charge by time. Ten thousand a minute.”
He held the phone in front of her.
“Take a good look. The clock starts now. When you don’t need my services anymore, press stop yourself.”
A clock on the screen turned in circles, with constantly changing numbers beneath it.
Yes, a stopwatch.
Once the phone was back in her bag, Shi Yusheng patted it and zipped the bag shut. Satisfied that it was safe, she nodded solemnly. “All right!”
…All right? All right, my ass!
Watching from a distance, Lin Suyu was on the verge of a breakdown.
Ten thousand a minute meant six hundred thousand an hour. Shi Yusheng, if you slept until you woke naturally, you would owe millions by tomorrow morning. Did you understand that?
She watched the girl hang dizzily from his arm. Halfway along, Shi Yusheng even snatched the sunglasses from his hand and put them on top of her head. Then she shook her head, and the glasses clattered to the floor.
She froze, crouched down, looked at the fallen sunglasses, and suddenly began to cry.
“The poor thing…”
…
Actually, the debt of several million was not what worried Lin Suyu most.
First, deep down, she instinctively felt that Huo Xingchao must be joking. After all, as the son of an immensely wealthy family, tricking a girl out of money this way would be terribly tasteless.
Second, even if he was serious, they could pay to make the trouble go away. It was not as though Shi Yusheng could not afford it. She could just consider it charity.
What worried her was that a drunken Shi Yusheng might cause trouble.
…No, she definitely would cause trouble.
The last time she got drunk had been over the New Year.
She had sat in Lin Suyu’s home, tearfully denouncing her director and listing his offenses for three hours. He was apparently so inhumane that no amount of paper could record all his crimes.
Only later did Lin Suyu learn that he had merely made her skip two meals.
And refused to let her go home for the New Year.
This time, Jiang Sicheng and Xuan Wen really had done something inhumane. Surely this girl would be beside herself with hurt and pour out her woes to him for at least eight hours.
But with Xuan Wen and Young Master Huo’s relationship so unclear, what if, halfway through, he grew more and more displeased and simply destroyed Shi Yusheng’s career?
She was still young. If not for that video, she should have had a brilliant future. She could not let it all be ruined because of Xuan Wen!
So anxious she was almost in tears, Lin Suyu summoned her courage as Huo Xingchao passed her with the girl on his arm. She timidly raised a hand.
“Um, Young Master Huo, you don’t need to worry about her. Just leave her with me…”
The man continued toward the exit on his long legs without so much as glancing at her, as though he had not heard.
The girl was still leaning against his arm, crying.
“The poor, poor thing…”
Through the noise came his low voice, tinged with laughter. “They aren’t broken. What’s so pitiful about them?”
“Boohoo, it’s so pitiful. Its boyfriend cheated and slandered it, slandered it, and it can’t even talk back. Waa, it’s only a pair of sunglasses. Why are they treating it this way…?”
…
The two figures gradually disappeared through the doorway.
The entire party fell quiet for perhaps two or three seconds, then erupted into even louder conversation.
“What happened? What just happened? Who was that girl? What’s her relationship with Huo Xingchao?”
“Wasn’t Huo Xingchao supposed to be secretly in love with Xuan Wen? They haven’t interacted all evening. Why did he take another girl away?”
“Hey, wasn’t that Shi Yusheng? Was it Shi Yusheng? Was it?”
…
It was.
Who but that foolish Shi Yusheng would dare pluck a hair from the Great Sage’s head?
Lin Suyu sighed, took out her phone, and called Shi Yusheng’s manager.
“Hello, Sis? I need to tell you something. Don’t get upset just yet. Actually, it isn’t anything serious…”
When things could not possibly get any worse,
the best solution was really to comfort yourself.
…
But Lin Suyu had not guessed wrong at all.
The party was being held in a hotel.
Huo Xingchao took Shi Yusheng straight to the top floor, where he had his own room. The moment he put her on the bed, she automatically crossed her legs and sat there obediently.
Then she clutched the quilt and began sobbing.
“Tell me, why am I so pitiful…?”
The man opened a bottle of red wine and leaned against the wall opposite the bed. Drinking, he asked her unhurriedly, “What happened to you?”
“I was cheated on, boohoo. And they slandered me, saying I had a one-sided crush on him. I’m so wonderful. How could I possibly have a one-sided crush on him…?”
“Who slandered you?”
“Two utterly shameless people. Jiang Sicheng and Xuan Wen. How could they do this? They’re the ones having an affair, yet they said I was picking a fight. What did I ever do to them? Why would they hurt me like this…?”
“Oh, they’re that awful?”
“Yes.”
The girl nodded, tears welling in her big eyes, both hurt and angry.
“And that Huo Xingchao. He’s awful too. Just because he has a crush on her, why does he let her twist the truth and frame innocent people? Boohoo, I’m only a pair of sunglasses. Why are they doing this to me…?”
…
Once Shi Yusheng was drunk, logic no longer applied.
Only two things remained perfectly clear in her mind:
First, she was miserable, pitiful, innocent, and deeply upset.
Second, Jiang Sicheng, Xuan Wen, and Huo Xingchao
were all shameless villains.
…
When Shi Yusheng woke the next morning, the sunlight was a little too bright, her head was heavy, and everything around her was unfamiliar.
This was not her home.
Nor was it Lin Suyu’s.
She lifted the quilt, only to feel resistance beside her. Instinctively, she pushed against it. Beneath her hand was something warm, not quite hard, yet a little firm.
…A man’s chest.
Shi Yusheng shot upright. Her first instinct was to look down. She was completely naked, without a stitch on her.
Turning her head, she found an unfamiliar man lying beside her.
Handsome, with thick, straight brows and a lazy smile in his eyes, he waved at her.
“Good morning.”
…Could someone please tell her she was actually filming a television drama?
Sorry.
Anyone else might be filming a drama with her.
Anyone except Young Master Huo.
“For you, it was drunken sex. For me, it was an overnight service with clearly listed prices. See for yourself.”
He pointed at the phone in her hand. The stopwatch had finally stopped at ten hours, twelve minutes, and thirty-eight point four seconds.
Shi Yusheng rolled herself into the quilt like a cocoon, even tucking her head inside. Her voice was muffled.
“I don’t remember anything!”
Huo Xingchao ignored her. Leaning lazily against the bed, he curved his lips.
“I’ll round it down and call it ten hours. Sixteen million eight hundred thousand. Will you pay in full or in installments?”
…
“You’re just making an outrageous demand to extort money!”
The girl’s head shot out, furious. “Ten thousand a minute is six hundred thousand an hour. Ten hours is only six million. Where did you get sixteen million from?”
“Oh.”
He nodded. “So you do remember.”
…Yes, she remembered.
Every time she sobered up, she could remember every stupid thing she had done with perfect clarity. It was the thing she hated most about herself.
Once exposed, Shi Yusheng simply abandoned all pretense.
“So what if I remember? Either way, it doesn’t add up to that much!”
“I told you, my services have different rates.”
The man raised his eyebrows, got out of bed, and drew back the curtains through which a sliver of sunlight had been slipping.
With a swish, the bedroom flooded with golden sunlight.
Backlit, he leaned lazily against the floor-to-ceiling window, the muscles of his bare upper body smooth and alluring.
“Eating, drinking, and chatting cost ten thousand a minute. Eight hours is four million eight hundred thousand. Sex costs a hundred thousand a minute. Two hours is twelve million. Together, that makes sixteen million eight hundred thousand. Not a cent extra, and I’ve even rounded it down for you.”
“So,”
he said with a smile, “bank transfer or cash?”
…
“Stop lying.”
Before Shi Yusheng could even recover from her distress over losing her virginity, that string of figures immediately claimed her attention. Gritting her teeth, she glared at him angrily.
“Do you think you’re writing a novel? Two hours? Are you made of steel?”
“I never said it was all at once.”
The sunshine was brilliant, but his smile was brighter still. His gray hair fell untidily across his forehead, making him look wild and rebellious.
“If I charged per round, it would be ten million each.”
“Even more expensive.”
…
- Alipay is a Chinese payment app that also supports messaging. ↩︎
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