Chapter 27 - 24: The Big Shot’s Invitation

It was six in the evening, and the sky had just darkened.

In the parking lot of the Jingtang Club, Chen Jue and Jiang Zhe met up.

"Old Si, not bad!"

"You finally bought a car?"

Jiang Zhe circled Chen Jue’s car as if he’d discovered a new world, his curiosity piqued.

He then got in, touching the steering wheel, the interior, and testing out the features, clicking his tongue in admiration.

In Jiang Zhe’s mind, Chen Jue was a homebody with few worldly desires, a zen-like guy who couldn’t care less about houses or cars.

He never thought Chen Jue would go and buy a new car without saying a thing.

It seemed his old college roommate had really turned over a new leaf lately.

"It’s not like it’s a fancy car. What’s so amazing about it?" Chen Jue rolled his eyes and waited by the entrance with Jiang Zhe.

After about ten minutes, the man they were waiting for arrived.

It was a black BMW X5 with a Hang City license plate. Chen Jue recognized it as an old model from before 2013, making it at least ten years old.

There were two types of people who drove a car like this.

Either they were truly wealthy and had bought it long ago, or they were faking it with an old, second-hand luxury car to keep up appearances.

’If someone were truly rich, wouldn’t they just get the latest model every year? Who would want to buy someone else’s leftovers?’

A middle-aged man in his forties got out of the car. He had slicked-back hair, a casual suit, a tasteful watch, and glasses. As soon as he stepped out, he waved them over.

"President Wang!"

"This is the old classmate I mentioned to you." Jiang Zhe went up to exchange pleasantries, and Chen Jue followed suit, addressing the man by his title.

While they were waiting, Jiang Zhe had already filled Chen Jue in on the man’s background.

His name was Wang Xing, a vice president at Hengtong Finance in Hang City. He was a big deal. The parent company had foreign backing, and its business covered new cars, used cars, auto pawnbroking, and more. In terms of both scale and operational capital, it was at least fifty times larger than Taisheng Finance.

It was one of the top three auto finance companies in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and had incorporated into a group years ago.

The only reason Jiang Zhe could arrange this meeting was because he had recently taken on the interior design for Wang Xing’s new apartment.

The property was in the Binjiang district, a sprawling flat over 200 square meters with a river view. It was worth at least 25 million, with a renovation budget of 3 million alone. The man was clearly well-off.

"Xiaojiang, for your old classmate’s sake, you’d better put some extra effort into my apartment!" Wang Xing sized up Chen Jue, a hint of disdain in his eyes.

If Jiang Zhe hadn’t been his exclusive designer, this vice president of Hengtong Finance probably wouldn’t have even bothered to show up.

After all, a high-level executive like Wang Xing was busy every day. The people he socialized with were, at the very least, other presidents on his level.

He would almost never lower himself to go out for a massage or a meal with a junior employee. It was purely a waste of time.

Chen Jue also sensed President Wang’s condescending attitude and felt a little uncomfortable.

But seeing his roommate Jiang Zhe constantly sucking up to the man and putting in good words for him, Chen Jue decided to bear it for now.

...

After entering the Jingtang Club, the three of them went to the buffet for dinner.

At the table, Wang Xing spent most of the time talking about his new apartment. He only mentioned Chen Jue’s job situation a few times, as if it were a completely trivial matter.

"Xiaochen, I’ve seen your resume."

"Your diploma is a major weakness!"

"When our group hires, especially for risk control positions, the minimum requirement is a bachelor’s degree from a key university. A degree from a correspondence course won’t cut it." At the table, Wang Xing continued to put on airs, critiquing Chen Jue’s resume.

"Don’t worry about that, President Wang. My classmate’s work ethic is even stronger than my design skills!"

"Besides, we have your recommendation, don’t we, President Wang?"

"You’re so influential, President Wang. The hundreds of salespeople at Hengtong are all under you. This will definitely work out."

"I toast to you with this glass! I’ll down it; you can drink as you please!" Jiang Zhe chimed in from the side, offering toasts and flattery. Seeing this, Chen Jue also raised his glass.

"Alright! Since you’ve come to me for help, Xiaojiang, I’ll definitely give you a hand."

"But let’s get the unpleasantries out of the way. My responsibility is to manage pre-loan business. The risk control side is handled by another executive, President Luo. I’ll pass Xiaochen’s resume along as an internal recommendation, but as for whether President Luo accepts him, I can’t make any guarantees!" Wang Xing took a small sip and laid his cards on the table.

In a large corporation like Hengtong Group, internal politics were complicated. Getting someone a job wasn’t as simple as one might think.

However, since the man was willing to help, Chen Jue’s search for a new employer now had at least a glimmer of hope.

...

After dinner, the three of them went for a spa treatment together to build some rapport.

During their conversation, Chen Jue mentioned what happened at his former company and was surprised to find that Wang Xing had heard about it too.

"Xiaochen, you’re from Taisheng?"

"I heard that old fogey Zhang Chi’an lost a few hundred million gambling abroad and put up all his assets to a loan shark for a short-term loan. He fled overnight to Southeast Asia. Who knows if he’s dead or alive now." Wang Xing chuckled as if he were sharing some juicy industry gossip.

For people in the finance industry, the most entertaining thing was to gossip about this kind of financial implosion and escape.

"Chairman Zhang fled to Southeast Asia?"

This was the first time Chen Jue was hearing this, and a flicker of shock crossed his face.

’An industry big shot like Wang Xing must have better sources. He probably knows far more of the inside story than clueless employees like me.’

’But Southeast Asia is a mess. Flee there with stolen money, and there’s an eighty-percent chance you’ll get your kidneys carved out and sold, let alone ever see the loot recovered.’

’Thinking of this, Chen Jue couldn’t help but feel sorry for company shareholders like Zhou Yong.’

’A 120 million investment, all down the drain.’

’With that much money, you could eat, drink, and travel the world and probably still have plenty left over.’

...

After the spa, the three of them wandered over to the entertainment hall.

Jiang Zhe took Wang Xing to play some arcade games, and Chen Jue had wanted to join them.

But when he saw they were playing a King of Fighters versus match, which only supported two players, Chen Jue had no choice but to wander off by himself to the Darts area on the side.

THWACK~

THWACK~

He threw two darts with his left hand.

His feel for it was still good; both darts hit the bullseye.

Looking at the +5 +5 prompts on the display, Chen Jue felt this kind of casual sport was much more interesting.

’I have a socially anxious personality to begin with and I’m not good at interacting with people.’

’The only reason I came out with Jiang Zhe tonight to ask for a favor was for the money.’

’If I had eight hundred thousand or a million in savings, I wouldn’t spare a glance for anyone, not even the emperor himself.’

’Living my own quiet, free life—wouldn’t that be better?’

Just as Chen Jue’s focus sharpened and he was getting into the rhythm of throwing, two portly, well-to-do middle-aged men walked out of a private dining room in the distance, their arms slung around each other’s shoulders.

"Huh?"

"Isn’t that the young man from last time?"

Zhu Hongbin spotted Chen Jue playing Darts from afar. He seemed familiar, so he walked closer to get a better look.

But the moment he saw Chen Jue’s score on the dartboard, his expression turned to one of astonishment. "His Darts technique... He’s improved so much! Hasn’t it been less than a week?"

"He’s almost at an amateur level!"

Curious, Zhu Hongbin dragged President Tang, who was beside him, over to say hello.

"Oh, it’s Chairman Zhu!"

"What a coincidence, we meet again."

Chen Jue relaxed his stance and turned to exchange pleasantries.

He noticed that Zhu Hongbin smelled of alcohol; he had clearly just finished a big meal with drinks.

It was probably the alcohol that made him even more enthusiastic than during their last chance encounter.

"Xiaochen, I see you have a real talent for Darts!"

"You’ve been practicing for less than a week, and your left hand is already at this level. I think competing professionally in the future wouldn’t be difficult for you at all." Zhu Hongbin’s eyes lit up as if he’d discovered a diamond in the rough. He grabbed Chen Jue and enthusiastically started pitching his Darts club.

"Professional competitions?"

"Is the prize money high?"

Chen Jue was currently worried about his empty pockets and having to humble himself to beg for a job, so he was already thinking about other ways to make money.

Now that he’d run into this big shot from the international Darts scene, he couldn’t help but ask.

"The prize money for domestic competitions usually isn’t that high, around a hundred thousand yuan at most."

"But international competitions are a different story!"

"They have major sponsors. The champion’s annual income is at least a million pounds sterling!" Zhu Hongbin had probably figured out that Chen Jue was just dabbling, so he gave a brief description of the scale of international Darts competitions to entice him.

"A million pounds?" Chen Jue’s hand trembled, and he almost dropped the dart he was holding. He never imagined the prize money for a niche sport like Darts could be so high.

’That’s over ten million yuan when converted!’

’That’s higher than the prize money for some Olympic events!’

Just then, Jiang Zhe and Wang Xing, who had just finished two rounds of King of Fighters, noticed the commotion and hurried over, thinking something had happened.

But the moment Wang Xing saw the two middle-aged men with Chen Jue, his expression became utterly priceless. He shamelessly went up to greet them, "President Tang! Are you President Tang of the Tang Group?"

"I’m Wang Xing, the head of the business department at Hengtong Group. We met once at the last investor conference!"

Wang Xing apparently knew the middle-aged man next to Zhu Hongbin, and his tone was deferential. Just like how Chen Jue and Jiang Zhe had acted towards him, his posture was now incredibly humble.

"Someone from Hengtong? I think I have some impression of you." The middle-aged man surnamed Tang glanced at Wang Xing, then feigned a look of trying hard to remember, clearly not having taken the man seriously at all.

However, this President Tang had high emotional intelligence. He didn’t show any sign of impatience. Instead, he patted Wang Xing on the shoulder and said a few polite words, thanking him for patronizing the Jingtang Club.

’Chen Jue listened in on this high-level conversation, and his mind went numb!’

’So the portly middle-aged man with Zhu Hongbin was actually the big boss behind the Jingtang Club!’

’No wonder Wang Xing, a vice president of Hengtong Group, would act so obsequiously in front of someone else.’

’The man was a multi-billionaire magnate, a major tycoon who ranked among the top in all of Hang City. He wasn’t even in the same league as ordinary people.’

’And then, thinking about Zhu Hongbin, who was chummy enough with this President Tang to have his arm around his shoulder, made Chen Jue even more numb!’

’A former professional who played international Darts was friends with a multi-billionaire. His own standing couldn’t be that bad either.’

...

The group chatted in the Darts area for a while and threw a few darts.

Since they were not of the same social standing, they only stayed together for a moment before parting ways.

Before they left, however, Zhu Hongbin specifically had Chen Jue add him on WeChat and repeatedly invited him to come check out his club.

Since he had put it that way, Chen Jue naturally agreed.

’It wouldn’t cost me anything to go take a look, and it could very well be a life-changing opportunity.’

’After all, my [Darts] Skill is not far from Lv4; I’m only a few hundred Skill Level points away from upgrading again.’

’If I already have amateur-level skills at Lv3, wouldn’t I be comparable to a professional player at Lv4?’

’The thought of a million-pound prize for winning an international Darts competition made Chen Jue’s heart burn with excitement.’

’My socially anxious personality meant I could never be an internet celebrity or a content creator, but being an athlete seemed like a pretty good alternative.’

’Once I start getting results in competitions and the prize money rolls in, it’ll be way better than continuing to be a corporate drone!’

But what surprised Chen Jue even more was that after they saw off Zhu Hongbin and the big shot President Tang, Wang Xing, who had been so arrogant before, did a complete 180.

Not only did he start acting all chummy and brotherly with Chen Jue and Jiang Zhe, but before they left the Jingtang Club, he even thumped his chest and told Chen Jue to come to Hengtong Group for an HR interview tomorrow if he was free.

With him personally taking charge, the internal recommendation was ninety percent certain to succeed.

This complete reversal in his attitude left both Chen Jue and Jiang Zhe stunned.