Chapter Seventy-Six: The Drunken Woman

AMG GTR, with its silver-gray shell and streamlined body, looked like a flawless work of art.

Everyone froze for a moment. The manager forced a laugh and said, “Sir, this GTR is fully imported, and its price is fifty percent higher than the GTR’s retail price on the official website.”

Hong Chen coolly interrupted, “How much is it?”

“The base price is three million eight hundred and sixty thousand.”

“I’ll take it,” Hong Chen said immediately. Then he pointed to an SUV in another area, priced at one million eight hundred thousand. “And that one, too.”

Everyone was stunned. It wouldn’t be surprising for someone to spend millions on a car at a Ferrari dealership, but this was a Mercedes showroom, and he was buying two cars at once. Even the manager, who had been in the business for nearly a decade, could count such big spenders on one hand.

“Hong Chen, are you crazy? Over five million for two cars! Even if you sold your wife’s family home and added her shares, it wouldn’t be enough,” Lin Tianhao cried out. No one cared about his loss of composure; all eyes were fixed on Hong Chen, filled with skepticism.

Hong Chen just shook his head at Lin Tianhao, not deigning to reply. He then instructed Taozi, “Give me your store’s finance account details. I’ll have the funds transferred.”

Taozi nodded mechanically, went to the finance office, and returned soon after. Hong Chen made a quick call to Gao Tianxiong, then sent the amount and account information via CloudMessage.

Barely three minutes later, an elderly man with thinning hair emerged from the finance office. The manager looked at him expectantly; the old man nodded. “The full amount, five million four hundred sixty thousand, has been received.”

That confirmation nearly made Lin Tianhao and his companions’ eyes pop out.

“How can this be, how can this be...” Lin Tianhao muttered, his face blank as if struck by lightning. Wu Yu and the others’ expressions shifted wildly, but none dared utter another word.

The facts were plain: the four of them had scraped together two million to buy a car, draining their debit cards and maxing out their credit cards, while Hong Chen made one call and transferred over five million without so much as batting an eye. The gulf between them was so vast that they no longer had the courage to question him.

“Is this a dream?” Hong Chen turned to Xiao Mei and asked again. She buried her head in her chest, overwhelmed by shame and anxiety. Hong Chen continued, “You mentioned ‘stray cats and dogs’ earlier—who were you referring to?”

Xiao Mei trembled, unable to raise her head, and stammered, “Sir, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—it was my ignorance…”

Hong Chen didn’t press her further. The girl was just trying to make a living; there was no need to ruin someone’s livelihood over a few careless words. He turned to the manager and instructed, “I’ll drive the GTR. Send two drivers—one to drive the SUV behind me, and another to drive the car I brought…”

He paused, suddenly recalling something. “Oh, and don’t forget about the car with the kicked-in door.”

Wu Yu heard this clearly, and his face darkened as he shot a vicious glare at Hong Chen, who ignored him. Hong Chen smiled and nodded at Taozi, saying, “Goodbye.”

This ordinary farewell inexplicably made Taozi’s cheeks flush. She lowered her head, and when she looked up again, all she saw was Hong Chen’s departing figure, leaving her a bit dazed—she even forgot her usual routine of seeing customers out.

“Sir, I’m sorry, but you kicked in a car door earlier. The repair assessment is in, and you need to pay twenty-five thousand,” the manager said as soon as Hong Chen left, approaching Wu Yu apologetically with the repair bill.

Twenty-five thousand wasn’t much to Wu Yu under normal circumstances, but now he couldn’t even come up with twenty-five hundred. But that wasn’t the worst of it—he was angry and frustrated, needing an outlet. He snatched the bill and shoved it into Lin Tianhao’s hands, snapping, “This is the useless son-in-law your Lin family thinks is beneath even a dog. You jumped into this pit yourself, don’t drag me down with you. Damn it, you’ve cost me fifty grand, and I don’t even know how I’ll explain it later.”

Lin Tianhao, equally furious, lashed out in turn. He flung the bill back at Wu Yu, cursing, “You brought this on yourself, and you want me to pay for it? Get lost!”

“Damn it, you have the nerve to blame me? Watch me teach you a lesson!” Wu Yu’s face turned fierce as he rolled up his sleeves to fight. Lin Tianhao’s expression hardened and his fists clenched; the two looked ready to brawl. Sun Li and Wei Feng, lacking any authority, quietly stepped back, leaving it to two security guards to rush in and prevent a scene.

……

Leaving the dealership, Hong Chen drove the GTR northward, followed by the SUV and the Passat. In less than fifteen minutes, they arrived at an upscale villa community.

Maple View Gardens, true to its name, was a scenic enclave with more than twenty detached villas, each spaced over two hundred meters apart. Blossoms were everywhere, and even though winter had not yet passed, spring’s vitality was already evident.

The villa provided by Gao Tianxiong was number six. The three-story house alone was nearly four hundred square meters, with a private front garden of more than five hundred square meters and a green lawn in the back adjoining the community’s artificial lake.

A property of this scale, with a total area exceeding a thousand square meters, was worth no less than thirty million.

He parked the cars in the open-air garage by the garden, tipped each driver five hundred, and gave them the Passat as a runabout.

Inside, the villa was fully furnished. The ample space did not feel empty, which pleased Hong Chen. However, he was at a loss to see that all three floors, with eight rooms apart from the study, were decorated as bedrooms—each with its own color theme.

“Damn it, I’m living here alone, not running a harem,” Hong Chen muttered. In the largest bedroom on the third floor, he found a palatial bed that could easily sleep four or five, a bathroom separated by glass, and a huge jacuzzi. His eye twitched as he let out a curse.

After touring the villa, Hong Chen grabbed two drinks from the fridge, went to the study, turned on his computer, and immersed himself in his gaming empire. He played for over eight hours straight. Not until nearly eleven at night, when Xu Le logged off, did he realize how hungry he was.

He pushed aside the keyboard, stretched, and walked outside for some fresh night air, then went to the garage, fired up the GTR, and drove out of the community.

Having just become single again, he felt a little lost. He only knew that it was a waste to spend the long night simply sleeping. After grabbing a bite at a 24-hour noodle shop, he hit the road and sped around for nearly an hour. The adrenaline rush left him thirsty, so he stopped by Paradise Bar nearby.

Alone at the nightclub, he didn’t bother with a private room but sat in the main hall and ordered a beer. A girl approached him, and he graciously bought her a drink. They chatted about anything and everything, drank their fill, and then hit the dance floor together.

Time slipped by unnoticed, and before long it was past two in the morning. Feeling tired, Hong Chen politely declined the girl’s hints and left on his own.

Outside the bar, he tossed a valet a hundred as a tip, took his keys, and walked a dozen steps to his GTR parked by the curb. As he slid into the driver’s seat and was about to start the car, the passenger door suddenly opened. A strong scent of alcohol mixed with a faint perfume filled the car.

A woman climbed into the passenger seat. Even with her hair falling loosely to obscure her face, her breathtaking beauty could still be seen. She settled in, ungracefully reclined against the seat, her figure on full display. She wore a white dress with a very short hem, her long, straight legs wrapped in nude stockings.

Hong Chen glanced at her a few times, feeling she looked familiar, but he was certain he didn’t know her. The woman was clearly very drunk; her lips moved slightly, and suddenly, she slapped the car door and slurred, “Drive. Take me home.”

As she spoke, she carelessly tossed a set of keys onto the dashboard.

Hong Chen’s gaze sharpened. That set of keys was no ordinary set. There were three in total: one with the Aston Martin emblem, one silver key made of platinum rather than ordinary metal, and another, bronze-colored, with a faint glow—clearly a smart electronic key.

“Miss, miss…” Hong Chen waited half a minute before gently pushing her shoulder. She had been humming a moment ago, but now she had completely passed out.

He took a deep breath, shook his head, and gave a wry smile. Even as a seasoned drinker himself, he found the car’s alcoholic haze overwhelming. How much had she drunk?