Chapter 161: The Method of Repaying Debts

Hong Chen did not let Luosong pay the bill, instead footing it himself.

The five hundred million personal reward for treating Old Master Luo had been transferred to Hong Chen's account the next day. The one hundred million betting prize won from the horse race was wired to him as fifty million by Jiang Tao that very night, plus the five million given by Mo Fei...

Hong Chen regarded all of these as mere pocket money. It could be said that his personal wealth surpassed that of any young master from any family in Qing City or Nan City.

Ten million was nothing more than a drop in the bucket to him!

After the auction ended, the group headed to the fighting arena. Hong Chen placed a few bets alongside Luosong and the others. The wins and losses were insignificant, purely for the sake of joining in the excitement. By one-thirty, Xue'er told him that her younger brother had sent her a message, saying he was ready to be picked up.

Hong Chen exchanged a few words with Luosong and the others, mentioning he wouldn't be coming back after fetching the person. Luosong and his friends all wore ambiguous smiles and indicated their understanding, asking Hong Chen to treat them next time. Hong Chen agreed and left hastily with Xue'er.

First, they went to an office to complete the paperwork, and soon the two went outside to the ground floor. Before long, a staff member escorted the person out through the back door of the stadium.

Xue'er rushed forward impatiently and hugged her younger brother. Both siblings shed tears. Hong Chen did not disturb them, lighting a cigarette and smoking quietly to the side.

After about ten minutes, the siblings recovered from the emotional reunion. Xue'er gave her brother a brief explanation, upon which her brother walked up to Hong Chen and dropped to his knees with bent legs.

"Get up," Hong Chen signaled with a hand. Her brother then stood up, lowering his head in silence. Hong Chen glanced at him a few times. He was around one meter eighty tall, even thinner than the photo on the auction sheet—calling him skin and bones was no exaggeration. Though not conventionally handsome, his features were sharp, angular, and quite spirited.

"To be honest, I thought I'd only need to spend a few hundred thousand or a million. I didn't expect it to end up costing ten million," Hong Chen stated bluntly. They were mere strangers who had crossed paths by chance; he had no need to play the do-gooder. Hearing this, both siblings shuddered slightly.

Hong Chen continued, "What are your names? Are you in school or working? Where is your home, and what is your family situation like? Give me a brief introduction."

Xue'er replied, "My name is Du Xue'er, and my younger brother is Du Haitao. Our family conditions didn't allow for it, so we both dropped out of school. We live in the old district. Our father passed away when we were very young, our mother died three months ago, and we have a stepfather, but he has nothing to do with us..."

After speaking, Xue'er reached into her pocket and pulled out a stack of bank cards along with a few thousand in cash. She handed one of the cards and the cash to Hong Chen: "There is four thousand three hundred in cash. The password for this card is XXXXXX, and it has three hundred and fifty-two thousand four hundred inside. The rest are credit cards. I'll find a way to withdraw the funds tomorrow, which should be around two hundred and twenty thousand."

Hong Chen did not refuse. He beckoned Xue'er to hand over the remaining cards as well, stuffing them all into his pocket before waving a hand: "Let's round it up to six hundred thousand. That still leaves nine million four hundred thousand. Let's go, we're staying at your place tonight."

With that, he took the lead and stepped forward. The siblings exchanged a silent glance and followed behind him.

He hailed a taxi by the roadside, and half an hour later, they got off at an intersection. Guided by the siblings, they entered a shanty town, navigated six or seven turns, and finally arrived at the destination. Du Xue'er took out a key and opened the door.

A living room—no, to be precise, a hybrid of a living room and a kitchen—measuring less than six square meters, where a gas stove and a dining table were crammed together. A narrow hallway connected two rooms, each less than eight square meters in size, along with a two-and-a-half square meter bathroom.

The entire apartment added up to thirty square meters at most, and everything in it was antiquated to the extreme.

Hong Chen wandered around inside and out like a prospective homebuyer. The siblings followed him in silence until Du Xue'er finally spoke up, "This apartment is under the names of my stepfather and my mother. If it gets demolished for redevelopment, my brother and I will get a share of the compensation."

Hong Chen looked at her, smiled noncommittally, and asked, "Which one is your room?"

Du Xue'er pointed to one of them. Hong Chen nodded, picked up the corner of his clothes, and sniffed it: "I'm going to take a shower first. Help me make the bed, and you'd better find a new set of bedding." With that, he walked into the bathroom.

There were only showering facilities. While Hong Chen was bathing, the faint sound of the siblings arguing drifted in from outside. He couldn't be bothered to listen closely to what they were debating.

A quarter of an hour later, Hong Chen emerged from the bathroom and walked straight into Du Xue'er's room. The quilt on the bed had already been laid out, and it was indeed a brand-new cotton duvet. He crawled right underneath it.

"I—I'm going to take a shower." With her back turned to Hong Chen, Du Xue'er dug out her change of clothes from a drawer. Without looking back, she uttered a soft whisper and hurried out of the room, her retreating figure carrying a hint of awkwardness and panic.

Taking it all in, a flash of mischievous, teasing humor crossed the corners of Hong Chen's lips, though he soon shook his head. He pulled out his phone, intending to play a round of a single-player game, only to notice two unread Yunxin messages.

Tapping to open them, one was from Xu Le, asking if he was logging on. The surprisingly other one was from Lin Yufei, containing a lengthy paragraph apologizing for what she had said to him in the park last time, and asking if he really didn't want her to enter the entertainment industry.

Hong Chen was slightly lost for words. His initial impulse was to reply with a blunt sentence telling her to make her own decisions about her life, but after a moment of thought, he typed out three words: I don't want you to.

Among those twenty-odd photos were both Lin Yuxin and Lin Yufei. Qi Junyuan clearly regarded the two sisters as his prey. If Lin Yufei plunged headfirst into that world, she was bound to be doomed, and it might even implicate Lin Yuxin.

Perhaps it was too late, as Lin Yufei did not reply. Hong Chen played a few rounds of the classic game: Angry Birds.

"Creeak." The room door opened, and a trembling figure slipped inside. Du Xue'er was wrapped in a single bath towel, wearing only a pair of thin slippers on her feet. A section of her lotus-root-like calves was exposed, along with a vast expanse of snowy white skin stretching from her neck to her shoulders. Her hair was piled up, and crystal-clear water droplets rolled down her jade-like cheeks.

She was the picture of a freshly bathed beauty.

With her head lowered, she slowly shuffled to the edge of the bed and made as if to climb up.

"What are you getting up here for? You're sleeping on the floor tonight," Hong Chen's leisurely voice drifted over. Du Xue'er raised her head, a look of bewilderment on her face. Hong Chen looked at her, his expression playful as he said, "Didn't I say? As for the remaining balance, we'll discuss the terms later. That's nine million four hundred thousand, after all."

Du Xue'er's delicate body trembled violently. She lowered her head again and gently sniffled. Then she heard Hong Chen say, "Do you think I'm humiliating you? Heh, you've misunderstood. I'm not running a charity. There's no reason for me to hand out a massive red envelope of nine million four hundred thousand just because we met by chance. Your brother's ransom money is a debt you siblings owe me, and it has to be repaid. But it's not the kind of repayment you're thinking of right now."

When Du Xue'er raised her head to look at him once more, Hong Chen said with a solemn expression, "Since you two siblings have dropped out of school, your parents have passed away, and your stepfather has nothing to do with you, can I take it that you two have no remaining attachments in Nan City other than each other?"

Though perplexed by his meaning, Du Xue'er nodded anyway. Hong Chen nodded in return: "Good. Come back to Qing City with me tomorrow. I'll arrange jobs for you. The day you pay off your debt to me, you can stay or leave as you please."