The man could tell from Meng Yang's expression that Meng Yang recognized him. He looked gently at Meng and asked, "Are you going to eat? Can I invite you to go with me?"
Wu Feng and the others looked at each other and thought that this person was handsome, but they didn't know each other. What was the meaning behind inviting them to dinner out of the blue?
"No, we're going shopping before we eat and I've already reserved a table," Meng Yang calmly refused.
Bradley (1) was very surprised by Meng Yang's refusal. He'd thought Meng Yang had recognized him just then, but if he'd recognized him, how could he have refused his invitation?
"Goodbye." Meng Yang nodded to him and turned away.
Bradley was still surprised by Meng Yang's refusal, and Meng Yang and his friends were already slowly moving away.
When Yu Junchen passed by Bradley, he couldn't help looking at him more. He also felt that this man seemed a bit familiar.
"Wait a minute, I remember!" Wu Feng suddenly cried. "He's not that one guy, what's his name?"
"He's Bradley, the Vice President of the internationally famous perfume company Persevere (2). He's also known as a performer and famous model all over the world." Qin Hong also knew who he was at a glance.
"Yes, yes, that's him! I said that he looked familiar, I've seen his perfume ad before. He's amazing!" Wu Feng said excitedly. "Did he really invite us to dinner just now?! Did we just miss something big?!"
Everyone else realized this and began to talk about it.
"Was that really him? I thought it was just a lookalike, but he's the perfume icon!"
"Should we go back to find him now?!"
"Yeah, we're really lucky to get to meet Bradley, and he wanted to invite us to dinner?! I'm not dreaming, am I?"
"Wait a minute, you're wrong. It seems that he wasn't inviting us to dinner, but just Meng Yang."
"Meng Yang, did you not recognize him just now? Is that why you said no?" Wu Feng asked Meng Yang.
"I recognized him," Meng Yang said. "But we're not familiar with him. There's no reason for him to invite us to dinner."
"A meal has to be cooked to be eaten, right?" Wu Feng said. "He must've seen that you're talented and wanted to get to know you. If you can become friends with him, then you'll have many advantages during future overseas competitions. Buying rare materials would also be easier if you were friends with him."
Hearing Wu Feng's words, Meng Yang just smiled and said, "I booked a private room in Wangcheng Tower; you don't want to go?"
"Of course I want to go, but..." Wu Feng still wanted to persuade Meng Yang, but he was interrupted by Qin Hong.
"Meng Yang's right. We're not familiar with each other, so why should we agree to go to dinner with him?" Qin Hong said.
As soon as Wu Feng heard Qin Hong's tone of voice, he knew that he was jealous. He hit Qin Hong with his elbow and said, "You be less sour, I'm saying this for Meng Yang's sake. If Meng Yang can be friends with Bradley, it'll open many golden roads. If Meng Yang wants to go abroad to compete, it'll be a big help."
Yu Junchen had been deliberately slowing down behind them to listen in on Meng Yang. Hearing their conversation, he was surprised to find that the man just now was Bradley himself, and Bradley had even invited Meng Yang to dinner. Why was Meng Yang so lucky?"
Meng Yang and his friends wandered around the city for a while, buying many common but high-quality materials before they went to Wangcheng Tower for dinner.
After eating, they went back to the inn. Compared to the hotels outside the city, the inns in the city weren't very big. Meng Yang's inn was the best and largest one in the city.
"What a coincidence, are you staying here too?" Bradley asked, looking kindly at Meng Yang.
"Excuse me, are you Mr. Bradley?" Wu Feng asked him.
"Yes." Bradley looked at Wu Feng and nodded, and then looked back at Meng Yang and asked, "Can I chat with you alone?"
"No, just tell me which materials you want." Meng Yang had seen that this man was waiting for them specifically, and the reason why he'd wait specifically for them was because he'd likely bought the ingredient Bradley wanted.
Bradley smiled and thought that No. 28 was really smart. He liked to deal with smart people. "I want the jasper honey branch and the jade jasmine balls."
"No." Meng Yang didn't consider it and immediately refused. "I'm going to use these two materials right away and can't give them to you."
"I'll pay five times the original price," Bradley said.
"Do you think I'm short of money?" Meng Yang asked.
"..." Bradley thought about it and said, "How about I trade with you other spices of equal value? I'll owe you a favor for this time."
"I'm sorry, it's not that I don't want to sell the materials to you, it's just that the two materials you want are indispensable to me. It's impossible for me to give them to you. Although these two kinds of materials are rare, they aren't as rare as some of the others I bought. Maybe some of the other shops still have them. If you really need these two materials, you'd better hurry and ask around," Meng Yang said before going straight inside. These two materials were two essential herbs with medicinal properties for Luo Xiu's headache treatment. As such, it was impossible to sell them to Bradley.
"Meng Yang..." Wu Feng glanced at Bradley before quickly following Meng Yang.
Bradley turned to look at Meng Yang's back and sighed in his heart. Although he liked to deal with smart people, he didn't like to deal with stubborn people.
"Boss (3), does that young man want to deliberately raise the price? Or maybe he wants you to agree to bigger demands," Bradley's assistant said. "I heard that there's an old saying in this country, in order to capture something, one must first let it loose." (4)
"He really didn't want to give it to me." Bradley watched Meng Yang's back and smiled. "He's quite interesting though."
Wu Feng wanted to convince Meng Yang, after all, it would be a good thing for Bradley to owe him a favor. Judging from Meng Yang's expression though, it was impossible to sway him, so he didn't continue talking.
Everyone went back to their own rooms. The others shared rooms with two or three people, but Meng Yang occupied the largest room alone. He slept lightly and still wasn't used to sleeping in the same room as others.
Yu Junchen had a room with Luo Sheng. When Luo Sheng entered the bathroom to wash up, Yu Junchen stayed sitting on the sofa for a while before he got up and left the room.
Yu Junchen originally wanted to go to Meng Yang's room and talk to him, but as soon as he came around the corner, he was shocked and immediately backed away. He saw a tall man's back and watched as he entered Meng Yang's room.
Thinking that the figure looked very familiar, Yu Junchen looked at the height and body shape. It was very similar to that of Bradley that he'd met during the day. He quietly poked his head out and found that Meng Yang's door had been closed.
After a little hesitation, Yu Junchen hurried back to his and Luo Sheng's room.
Luo Sheng, who was taking a bath, heard a rapid knock on the door and immediately opened the bathroom door. He looked at Yu Junchen and asked, "What's the matter?"
"I just, I saw..." Yu Junchen looked like he wanted to talk, but paused. With an obviously strange look on his face, he said, "I was going to talk to Meng Yang just now, but I saw that man who wanted to invite him to dinner today. He went into his room, and after the man went in, Meng Yang closed the room door."
Luo Sheng looked at Yu Junchen in confusion, not understanding why this matter was making him so flustered. He also heard a bit of their conversation from today, and it seemed like the man had something to ask Meng Yang.
Yu Junchen saw Luo Sheng's puzzled appearance and said, "It's so late, and everyone must have already washed up and are preparing to go to bed. Meng Yang, no matter the circumstances, is a married man. During this time, he let other men into his room. If people knew about this, ugly rumors would definitely spread..."
Luo Sheng was stupefied for a moment. His mind raced, and he quickly said, "Go and call all the others out. It's our chance to get back at Meng Yang for letting people see us last time."
"You, do you really want to do this? Forget it, tomorrow I'll just remind Meng Yang to pay more attention in the future." Yu Junchen persuaded him.
"When he had so many people come watch us before, he didn't think about our face at all! We can't miss this opportunity!"
"But they didn't necessarily do anything, maybe they're just talking in the room. The man seemed to want to buy materials from Meng Yang."
"It doesn't matter if they don't do anything, as long as others think they did," Luo Sheng said. "Forget it, you can't do such things. Don't dirty your hands because of him. I can do it by myself."
Luo Sheng picked up his mobile phone and made two calls, and then got dressed and waited.
More than ten minutes later, the person that Luo Sheng called arrived. Luo Sheng had called over Yu Junchen's senior brothers and even Meng Yang's senior brothers. Everyone then gathered around Meng Yang's room without knowing why and watched as Luo Sheng knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Meng Yang called out.
Luo Sheng didn't answer and simply continued knocking.
Meng Yang walked to the door with some confusion and slightly opened the door. Seeing so many people standing outside, he was quite shocked.
Luo Sheng wanted to push the door open, but Meng Yang held the door firmly and coldly looked at him and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Don't you know what I'm doing?" Luo Sheng sneered and pushed the door harder. "Open the door!"
"This is my room, should I open it when you say so?" Meng Yang understood what he was here to do. He shot a look at the bodyguards who'd appeared behind the crowd, and signaled them not to do anything for now.
"Hey! I swear, what's wrong with you? Calling us all to stand out here, what do you want to do?!" Wu Feng and the others were all sleepy, and had been woken up suddenly without understanding the situation. Luo Sheng had asked them to stand in the hallway and began to knock on Meng Yang's door, so they'd thought something was wrong with Meng Yang.
"Yeah, what are you trying to do!?"
"If you want to make trouble and bully Meng Yang, a lot of us are here and we aren't afraid of you!"
"Who are those people?" Meng Yang looked at the men with cameras in their hands and asked, "Reporters? What, did you bring people to catch an adulterous person? Just like the last time when I brought people to catch you and Yu Junchen cheating?"
"That's right, I'm here to catch a cheater," Luo Sheng said loudly. "You're married to my father, but you're hiding other men in your room so late at night! Are you really giving my Luo family so little face?!"
"What if there are no other men in my room? How will you apologize to me?" Meng Yang said with a chilly expression.
"There's no way, just open the door and let us look, do you think you can hide it?" Luo Sheng had stayed in the hallway since finishing his calls, so he was very sure that no one had left and the man must still be in the room.
"I'll let you see, but first, what are you going to do if there are no men in my room?" Meng Yang asked again.
"Cut the crap and get out of my way!" Luo Sheng pushed the door open.
Once the door was opened, Luo Sheng was ready to take people and rush inside. At that very moment, the bathroom door opened and a man in a bathrobe came out. Luo Sheng was very excited, but just as he was about to have the reporter take a picture, the man lowered the towel that he was using to wipe his hair. Luo Sheng saw his face clearly and stiffened.
"What is this?" Luo Xiu saw a large group of people standing outside with Luo Sheng standing at the front and instantly frowned.
"Mr. Luo, Luo Sheng said that there were other men in my room, so he brought people to catch me supposedly cheating on you." Meng Yang approached Luo Xiu and held his arm, his face full of grievances as he said, "I think he just wanted to purposefully humiliate me. This isn't the first time either..."
"Father..." Luo Sheng swallowed nervously and explained, "I didn't know that you were here, I thought that he..."
"What did you think?" Luo Xiu looked at the people with cameras behind Luo Sheng and said, "Are those reporters? Since you've called all these reporters here, fine, I'll make things clear and give them something to report on. The Luo family will have nothing to do with you in the future, and not a penny of my property will be inherited by you. Tomorrow I'll have people go through the legal procedures to sever our parent-child relationship, so you can give up on ever inheriting the Luo family business. In the future, the affairs of myself, the Luo family, and Meng Yang won't require you, an outsider, to meddle with them."
The law wasn't a trifling matter and couldn't be treated as such. If Luo Xiu and Luo Sheng went through the legal procedures of severing their father-son relationship, then their legal father-son relationship couldn't be restored for at least a decade. Luo Xiu wanted to completely cut off Luo Sheng's ideas of inheriting the Luo family's industry in advance to save him from continuously making trouble. If it weren't for Luo Sheng's ignorance, he wouldn't have made a move like this.
"Father..." Luo Sheng's face dramatically changed. He saw from Luo Xiu's eyes that he was really determined to sever the parent-child relationship between them this time.
"Don't call me Father, I'm not fortunate enough to be able to afford a son like you! If these people don't publicly report it, then I'll have other media do it. From now on, you'd better not dream of inheriting any of my property!" After thinking about it, Luo Xiu felt that he should mention it again. "If you can't stand on your own two feet, then you won't become stronger. Only what you can get with your own ability will belong to you and nothing else."
"I'm sorry." Luo Sheng clenched his fists. He couldn't hear Luo Xiu's words at all, only thinking that he had to endure for the sake of the Luo family's property. He lowered his head and said, "I'm willing to apologize to Meng Yang. I'll do anything to apologize."
"You should apologize, but it's Meng Yang's right to not forgive you," Luo Xiu said.
Luo Sheng took two steps forward and bowed ninety degrees to Meng Yang, saying, "I'm sorry, everything that happened before is my fault, please forgive me."
"If you think that what you've done can be completely erased with a word of apology, then I can only say that you're too naive." Meng Yang looked at him and smiled, "But since you want to apologize, you should at least show some sincerity."
"...What do you want me to do?" Luo Sheng asked, clenching his teeth.
"According to the traditional etiquette of our country, the day after I married Mr. Luo, you should have served me tea and called me little dad (5). Mr. Luo and I have been married for a while though and you haven't followed this etiquette so far," Meng Yang said, glancing at the bodyguard standing outside.
The bodyguard came in, poured a cup of tea, and brought it to Luo Sheng.
Meng Yang brought Luo Xiu over to sit on the couch and looked at Luo Sheng. Meng Yang didn't force him to kneel down. If Luo Sheng really had a backbone, then he would turn around and leave.
There were many people standing outside the room watching this scene. They were also very curious if Luo Sheng would turn around and walk away, or if he'd really serve Meng Yang tea and call him "little dad".
Luo Sheng tightly clenched his hands together. According to his character and temper, he should have already turned around and left, but his grandfather's words had been circling in his mind. If he wanted to be successful, he had to endure what ordinary people couldn't. In his heart, Luo Sheng told himself that if his father could bear it, then he could also bear it now. When he took control of the Luo family, he would surely make Meng Yang pay a thousand times over for today!
Taking the teacup from the bodyguard's hands, he walked over to Luo Xiu and Meng Yang and knelt down, raised the teacup, and said, "Please have this tea, little dad."