6.8

Liu Yi sat in a private room while he waited for Qiao Chen. Once Qiao Chen entered the room, he glanced up and saw Shu Qichen's vibrant, vivacious, and carefree expression. He didn't have the air of defeat like he had before when he worked as a stand-in. Liu Yi immediately felt his heart go sour. He thought that he could finally step all over this waste of a person. He never expected that the man would be able to turn a new leaf so quickly.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Qiao Chen said and sat down opposite to Liu Yi in a leisurely manner. He had deliberately come an hour late. He did apologize for his tardiness, but he didn't look a bit sorry. When Shu Qichen had gone to Liu Yi to ask for help in his darkest and greatest time of need, Liu Yi didn't just make him wait for one hour.

"It doesn't matter. You should be quite busy now, so that fact that you came at all is good enough." Liu Yi smiled and said insincerely. He was an actor who had no backing, but was still able to cultivate his current reputation to its heights. These were all his own efforts, so he knew very well how to be humble when he needed to.

Qiao Chen smile back and asked, "What did you need me for?"

"It's nothing important. I just haven't seen you for such a long time, so I wanted to invite you out to hang and talk. I hope I haven't delayed your schedule?"

"I don't have much to do today. Just tell me what you wanted to talk to me about today." Qiao Chen replied.

Liu Yi began recalling their history together immediately after Qiao Chen finished his sentence. He regaled the way Qichen cared for and helped him. He gushed about how eternally grateful he was to Qichen for doing all that for him. Unfortunately, he failed to mention how he reacted when Qichen himself went to Liu Yi in his time of need. He seemed to have forgotten how he heartlessly ignored Qichen's pleas for help. It was like he never exposed his true intentions when they worked together at Weidian. Liu Yi pretended he wasn't the same person that plotted against Qichen and caused him to fall.

Qiao Chen didn't say anything. He just looked at Liu Yi as he spoke. Liu Yi continued to carry the conversation on his own without feeling an ounce of awkwardness.

Qiao Chen's patience was finally running thin when Liu Yi's blathering was finally interrupted by a phone call. Liu Yi asnwered the phone and spoke for a bit until he looked at Qiao Chen with some embarrassment and asked, "Can you accompany me somewhere?"

"Where?" Qiao Chen asked. He had been patiently listening to Liu Yi run his mouth for this exact moment.

"There's this dinner party I was invited to. People over there heard that I was with you, so they're trying to get you to come with me. You're the hottest topic right now. There's a lot of big names trying to contact you, but can't." Liu Yi said as he carefully observed Qiao Chen's expression. "This dinner is pretty important to me and Weidian. You can just come and sit for a bit if you want."

Qiao Chen didn't reply. He picked up his phone and looked at it.

"You just have to show up. C'mon, do it for our friendship. We've known each other for so many years. I was your classmate when we were younger. Please help me. I don't know how to explain it if you don't." Liu Yi persuaded with an anxious and sincere expression. He knew from past experiences that once he used this attitude and method to ask Shu Qichen for help, Shu Qichen usually agreed to his requests.

"Okay, but I'll stay for ten minutes max. You know I'm not used to those kinds of things." Qiao Chen said in a reluctant-looking manner.

"Ten minutes is more than enough. Thank you so much." Liu Yi said gratefully. However, his heart was full of designs. He thought to himself that Shi Qichen was still the same as before, easily tricked and cheated. Where they were headed tonight, it'd be difficult to even leave by the end of the night- forget staying for ten minutes.

Qiao Chen pretended not to see Liu Yi's eyes glinting with malice and accompanied him to the hotel.

Qiao Chen entered the private room and saw the person sitting inside. He feigned a surprised expression and looked at Liu Yi in 'shock'.

"Just go and sit down. Don't make any trouble either, otherwise…" Liu Yi warned in a low voice. Then he glanced at the bodyguard that stood by the door to indicate that Qiao Chen shouldn't cause any trouble.

"I'm sorry we're late, Mr. Li." Liu Yi pushed Qiao Chen into the chair next to Li Huang and sat down.

"Three drinks for being late." Li Huang took out three small shotglasses and put them in front of Qiao Chen. Then he poured white wine into each of them.

Qiao Chen looked around at the people sat at the table. He knew most of the people there. They all should be Li Huang's friends. Xu Jieming was also there.

Li Huang saw that Qiao Chen didn't speak or do anything, so he calmly asked, "What's the matter? You don't want to give me face?"

"I'm not a good drinker. Why won't you drink it for me, President Li?" Qiao Chen replied with a smile.

Qiao Chen's beautiful smile hit Li Huang straight in his gut. He felt numb and it was like he was floating on air. He immediately replied in a hearty manner, "Sure! I'll drink for you, but it feels too distant of you to call me 'President Li'. Just call me Huang-ge."

Li Huang downed all three shots of the white wine in a row. He leaned closer to Qiao Chen and complained, "I wanted to talk to you all through the night last time. We could have had a good heart-to-heart. Who would have known that you would have run away in the time it took for me to use the restroom. Is your Huang-ge a tiger? Are you scared that I'd eat you? "

Everyone else at the table discreetly laughed once they heard what Li Huang said. Who didn't know that Li Huang wanted to devour Shu Qichen up?

Li Huang finally had Shu Qichen within his grasps last time. However, Shu Qichen had drunkenly spilled wine all over Li Huang, so he went to the bathroom to clean up a little before sealing the deal. He was extremely upset when he exited the bathroom to an empty room and realized that Shu Qichen had escaped. If he had known that Shu Qichen would escape, then he would have had his fun with Shu Qichen before going to the bathroom to clean up the wine.

Li Huang later had a huge argument with Xu Jieming because of this and cancelled all his investments. Even if Xu Jieming later sent Liu Yi to help him quell Li Huang's anger, Li Huang still refused to invest his money.

The more Li Huang couldn't obtain the thing he wanted, the more he desired it. Things that were sent easily to Li Huang's door weren't as satisfying to him. Liu Yi was more popular than Shu Qichen and his appearance fee was much more expensive, but no one knew how many people Liu Yi had slept with to get to the point he was in his life. Li Huang vehemently believed that Shu Qichen was clean and pure, so Liu Yi couldn't even compare with his sullied history.

Soon, Li Huang was obsessively thinking about Shu Qichen. He was haunted and memorized by Shu Qichen's beautiful, long legs after he watched Qiao Chen's movie. He couldn't think about food or water. He only thought about those long legs. When he heard that Shu Qichen moved back to his original house, he wanted to block Shu Qichen several times, but didn't. Li Huang decided to allow Shu Qichen to stay there momentarily, but eventually found out that Shu Qichen was no longer living at his old home.

Li Huang was annoyed. He sent his people to find out where Shu Qichen had gone, but couldn't find out where Shu Qichen was. With no other options to turn to, Li Huang had Xu Jieming figure out a way to lure Shu Qichen out into his graps again. As long as Xu Jieming succeeded in sending Shu Qichen back into his arm, Li Huang would immediately invest in Xu Jieming's projects.

Xu Jieming and Shu Qichen already had a falling out. He had fooled Shu Qichen once, so it would be difficult to trick him again. Therefore, Xu Jieming asked Liu Yi to deceive Shu Qichen for him. He didn't care about what would happen to Shu Qichen. Xu Jieming just wanted the investment money to finally come through, and he would do what it took to get it. Furthermore, people usually shamed others for 'sleeping around', so he believed that Shu Qichen wouldn't dare to come forward and expose them publicly.

Li Huang's eyes hungrily looked Qiao Chen up and down. He had an expression that showed just how he wanted to impatiently gobble up Shu Qichen. Li Huang attempted to catch Qiao Chen's alluring hands and hold them in his own several times already, but failed each time.

"It's boring to drink like this. Let's play a little game while we're at it." Li Huang suddenly suggested. "How about strip-drinking?"

Li Huang's friends naturally knew what he was up to and immediately agreed.

Li Huang didn't plan on waiting for Qiao Chen to voice his opinion. He had people bring in some dice and prepared to start the game. It was at this time when Qiao Chen's phone suddenly rang.

"Do you mind if I take this call, President Li?" Qiao Chen asked with his cell phone in hand.

Li Huang prepared some guards to help him beforehand, so he wasn't scared that Shu Qichen would run away again. He tilted his chin up and said, "Hurry up and finished the call and come back. We'll all wait for your return before we start the game."

Qiao Chen exited the private room with his cell phone. Two of Li Huang's body guards followed closely behind.

Qiao Chen answered the phone, "Hello."

"Where'd you go? Why haven't you come back yet?" Du Jingnan asked on the other end of the phone.

"I'm at Jun Sheng. Changhong's President Li invited me to dinner, and he said that he wanted to play a game of strip-drinking." Qiao Chen said with a smile.

"He's not letting you go?" Du Jingnan asked. Qiao Chen could tell from Du Jingnan's voice alone that he was extremely upset.

Du Jingnan knew that Qiao Chen didn't like dinner parties or drinking. Qiao Chen wasn't the type to take the initiative to go to these kinds of things on his own either, so he quickly deduced that Qiao Chen was being forced in someway.

"There were two bodyguards who followed me when I came out to take your call. There are still a lot more bodyguards who are still standing in the private room right now. Do you think I can leave so easily?" Qiao Chen said in a quiet voice. "I ran away from him last time and that's how I met you. I'm afraid I won't be so lucky again this time."

"He was the one who drugged you last time?"

"That's right."

Li Huang stuck his head out from the room and loudly asked, "Are you good yet? Can't you chat with them later? There are a lot of people waiting on you."

Qiao Chen stopped talking to Du Jingnan. He hung up and went back to the room.

"I'll say this now, but no one is allowed to answer their phones anymore. Turn off your phones for me. No one's allowed to leave before having a good time." Li Huang joked in a jolly manner. Then he took his phone out, turned it off, and threw it on the table. He watched as everyone else followed suit. Once everyone turned off their phones, he started the first round of strip drinking.

Everyone there knew they were just there to act as the background. The real star of this dinner party was Shu Qichen. They all decided to target him and make him lose as soon as possible for Li Huang to fulfill his darkest desires. Qiao Chen would have to either choose between taking off an article of clothing or drink.

Qiao Chen drank cup after cup, but his face didn't change at all. Li Huang wasn't the only person who was surprised at Qiao Chen's capability to drink. Xu Jieming and Liu Yi knew Shu Qichen would get drunk off of two or three cups from their previous interactions with him, so they were also very surprised and wondered when Shu Qichen got so good at drinking.

Qiao Chen had been inwardly keeping track of the time. Once he figured that it was almost time, he stopped using the system to force the alcohol out of his body.

Li Huang saw Shu Qichen finally turn red. His eyes began to look somewhat confused too. Li Huang became even more impatient as he itched with desire. Within moments, Qiao Chen collapsed on the table drunk out of his mind. Li Huang smiled with satisfaction. His friends also showed wretched, obscene smiles. They raised their drinks up and cheered their congratulations to him and other nonsense.

Li Huang reached out to pick Qiao Chen up off the table. There was a loud bang at their private room's door, and Li Huang was suddenly kicked away. Li Huang immediately turned around to yell and swear, but the words died at his lips when he saw who came in. His jaw dropped and he froze in place.

Li Huang's bodyguards were completely suppressed by Du Jingnan's security. Li Huang didn't know how to react and dropped to his seat. The other people who recognized Du Jingnan were also in shock. They didn't know how things had progressed for the Du Jingnan to come in like this.

Du Jingnan briskly walked to the table. He pulled up Qiao Chen, who was sprawled across the table, and gently patted his red face, "Qichen."

"Why are you here, uncle*?" Li Huang stood up and cried out. His brain had stopped working, so he still didn't figure out why Du Jingnan had burst in so suddenly.

Du Jingnan's full and undivided attention was on Qiao Chen. He had completely forgotten everyone else in the room when he saw Qiao Chen collapsed on the table. Du Jingnan was reminded by his nephew's cry of 'uncle' that there were other people in the room. Furthermore, this nephew of his had been targeting Shu Qichen. Du Jingnan kicked Li Huang in the stomach several times in anger.

Li Huang fell to the floor from Du Jingnan's kicks and threw up everything he had just drank. All the people at the table stood up in fear. They wanted to go help Li Huang, but were scared of drawing attention to themselves out. No one took a step forward. They all carefully observed Du Jingnan's face and waited.

Du Jingnan put Qiao Chen back on the chair. Then he returned to Li Huang and grabbed him by the collar and asked, "You have the gall to come after my people? Are you looking for a death sentence?" Then he punched Li Huang in the face a couple more times.

Li Huang fell back onto the table of leftover food. He felt something on his nose and wiped. Blood was dripping from his nose. Li Huang was scared that Du Jingnan would hit him again, so he immediately kneeled at Du Jingnan's feet and pleaded, "Uncle! I didn't know that he was one of your people. I haven't even touched a single strand of his hair. Really- If you don't believe me, you can ask them."

When it came to Li Huang, people would say that he was the devil's incarnate. He'd been like that since childhood until now. He had never feared anyone in this world except for his two uncles on his mother's side of the family. He wasn't even afraid of his own parents. However, the one that he truly feared the most was Du Jingnan. Li Huang's youngest uncle was only a few years older than him, but whenever Du Jingnan was angry, he'd beat Li Huang up until he literally soiled himself.

"I don't have the time to do this now. I'll slowly settle accounts with you when I'm free." Du Jingnan promised. He kicked Li Huang one more time on the chest. Then he picked up the drunk and confused Qiao Chen and walked out.