Chapter 1669 - 676: Birthday (Part 2)

Chapter 1669: Chapter 676: Birthday (Part 2)

"So you’re the one who talks too much, huh?"

Lin Ran gave her a pat on her well-shaped rear and rolled his eyes as he continued leading Linlin forward.

"This is a 1:8 scale model gifted by Ferrari, perfectly replicating Mr. Zhou’s Ferrari 812C at a 1-to-1 ratio. The base has the boss’s name and a birthday message inscribed... Additionally, they also sent the boss the highest-level pass for the Italian Grand Prix paddock club. If the boss is willing, he can have lunch with a driver named... um, Yun Rou, was it?"

"It’s Carlos Sainz."

On the other side, Yun Rou, who was squatting on the ground to classify items, quickly flipped through her notebook and responded.

"This one was sent by the head of the property company at Tangchen Yipin, Davis—a whole box of premium tobacco and alcohol. He really knows the boss’s preferences..."

While saying this, Lin Ran discreetly glanced at Housekeeper Han, who was not far away.

Housekeeper Han maintained a neutral expression, focusing inwardly, making it impossible to tell whether he had personally advised the property company head on the gift.

In any case... this gift was quite practical.

"This gift from Ming City Commercial Bank includes a set of purple clay teapots and a Pu’er tea cake. I’m not quite sure of the exact value, but they said it’s from ’Iceland Old Village Ancient Tree Single Plant,’ which shouldn’t be cheap..."

"This is a custom Honma golf club set from CMB, taking up the most space due to the full set of 14 clubs included... But it might also be one of the most expensive among all brand gifts, potentially reaching millions."

Here, Lin Ran paused slightly, her expression somewhat complicated.

Despite having seen this degree of reality countless times around Zhou Wang, the extent to which the world could be ridiculous continued to surpass Lin Ran’s imagination.

This is CMB we’re talking about...

The leading domestic joint-stock commercial bank, ranked 11th in global banking.

She herself used a CMB credit card before and didn’t know how many times she had to swipe it just to barely earn enough points to redeem a Hello Kitty co-branded travel suitcase, resulting in significant fees.

... While the market value of that co-branded suitcase was merely a few hundred bucks, Lin Ran didn’t even know what the fuss was about.

She thought she was taking advantage of the bank, yet their behind-the-scenes actuaries had already taken advantage of her.

Just for sending Zhou Wang a birthday gift, CMB was even willing to spend seven digits to maintain this personal connection...

The disparity in this world is truly exhausting.

Though, from another angle, it simply shows that Zhou Wang is impressive enough that maintaining a relationship with him can bring the bank profits far exceeding this amount. Otherwise, what would be their motive?

Just introducing the range of gifts stacked from the entryway to outside took Lin Ran a full half hour.

There were too many gifts.

Zhou Wang today was far beyond just the "new money upstart" emerging from Ming City; the connections and resources he established worldwide have long surpassed regular people’s imagination.

Besides various brands who had interactions with Zhou Wang, many semi-private relationships also brought gifts.

For example, property companies of all his purchased real estates, prestigious businesses and families from Magic City, Beidou, Hong Kong Island, Peng City...

There were even several tightly wrapped gifts from abroad whose sources remained unknown, so Zhou Wang’s prior instructions didn’t mention them, which meant they didn’t dare open them and placed them in a designated area first.

According to classification principles consulted with Zhou Wang beforehand, brand gifts are organized for storage first, whereas those with unidentified sources or private nature are piled on the opposite side, awaiting Zhou Wang’s handling.

After taking Linlin on a tour, Lin Ran turned her gaze to the designated area at the entryway, where twenty to thirty perfectly intact gift boxes were piled, belonging to such cases.

However, Lin Ran roughly scanned through them, and at least half were from his second-generation friends.

Lin Ran knew these weren’t all the personal gifts.

Men don’t mind much; they don’t overthink. If they should send gifts, they do.

Yet, among all gifts received from last night until this morning, there was one gender of gifts Lin Ran was almost certain she hadn’t seen...

Those were gifts from "women."

Thinking of this, Lin Ran’s expression was uncontrollably gloating, mixed with a hard-to-describe sourness.

The sourness stemmed from the fact that although she herself didn’t mind, her relationship with Zhou Wang remained entirely proper.

Even though Lin Ran always considered herself mature enough not to rashly leap into Zhou Wang’s bed like a moth drawn to a flame, objectively speaking, she thought if Zhou Wang did make a bold advance, she’d barely last a round...

She was accustomed to Zhou Wang occasionally teasing her or giving her a pat, and found this state quite well, yet regretted that nothing had ever happened, and worried she might do something to betray Hua Suisui, resulting in... conflicting emotions.

On such special days, she suddenly felt somewhat "marginalized," unable to make it onto the special list, complicating her emotions further.

She fully understood why those "women’s" gifts hadn’t been seen yet; these enticing ladies likely had the same thought—

That they must hand over the gift to Zhou Wang personally.

Based merely on Lin Ran’s knowledge, this list had grown so long it couldn’t fit on a single sheet of paper.

And although Zhou appeared aloof, he wasn’t really a hardened straight shooter; he’d never do something foolish like gather all the woman for a "happy birthday party," raising the question...

How exactly would Mr. Zhou even spend this birthday?

Thinking of this, Lin Ran couldn’t help but feel anticipation, looking forward to seeing Mr. Zhou, usually intelligent and strategic, embarrassed in his own most special day.

Suddenly, Lin Ran recalled something, took out her phone, and found a contact with whom she had conversed just yesterday:

"Suisui, have you... already arrived in Magic City?"

...

Zhou Wang dawdled until past 10 a.m. before changing into relatively formal attire and exiting his room.

He first went to the balcony to smoke a cigarette, breathed in the fresh air, and, while greeting the five-person bodyguard team led by Xiao Wang exercising there, remained on the balcony.

But as Zhou Wang left, Xiao Liu, signaled by Xiao Wang, suddenly pulled out a bulging red envelope and tried to force it into Zhou Wang’s hands.

Zhou Wang immediately raised his eyebrows and snapped, "What junk can you offer that even fills the gaps between my teeth? Do I need you guys to give me a red envelope?"

The younger men who blushed with embarrassment couldn’t lift their heads from Zhou Wang’s scolding. In the end, Zhou Wang waved dismissively and grumbled:

"Alright, if you really want to show some sincerity, just buy me a few packs of cigarettes... but make sure they’re not Chunghwa."

After scolding Xiao Wang further, Zhou Wang proceeded to the living room and greeted Lin Ran and others still sorting gifts, while casually inspecting the birthday gifts already received.

What appeared novel to Linlin was nothing special in Zhou Wang’s eyes.

Though surprised that Feitian General Aviation had this kind of arrangement that could launch him into space for fun...

But just as Lin Ran predicted, Zhou Wang actually had little interest in this.

He was mainly afraid of dying.

Even with a system backing him, this is a wealth system, not a cultivation system. If something went wrong with the spacecraft, probably no one could save him.

After chatting a few more words with Linlin and her mother, Zhou Wang glanced at his Patek Philippe watch and, feeling the time was right, instructed Lin Ran and Zhao Yu to prepare some refreshments. He himself headed to the reception room to await the occasion.