Chapter 341: He’s Too Eager to Advance

Chapter 341 -265: He’s Too Eager to Advance

Late at night. The Platinum Association.

Brilliant lights illuminated the place, turning it into a city that never sleeps. The entrance was packed with luxury cars.

At that moment, a Maybach GLS 600 pulled up smoothly to the main entrance of the Platinum Association. The double doors of the Platinum Club were immediately opened, and a crowd of men and women in suits poured out from within.

“How are you feeling?”

“You okay to go on?”

“If not, we can call it a night. We can always come back tomorrow.”

Gu Heng seemed oblivious to the many respectful, intense gazes fixed on him, helping Wan Jiakai out of the back of the Maybach GLS 600 with one hand.

“Of course I am!”

“How can a man ever say he’s not?!”

Wan Jiakai waved his hand dismissively. “I told you, I’m really fine. Throwing up on the roadside just now was just clearing out my inventory. I was emptying my stomach in advance for the next round.”

“Alright, then.”

Seeing that Wan Jiakai’s eyes had indeed cleared up quite a bit after throwing up, Gu Heng didn’t say anything more. Surrounded by a crowd of senior executives from the Platinum Association, they headed inside.

“Fuck!”

Suddenly, Wan Jiakai stopped in his tracks, an involuntary curse escaping his lips.

“The fuck?!”

At the same time, another curse rang out from a few meters away from Wan Jiakai and Gu Heng.

Their eyes met. They were all familiar faces.

The group a few meters away from Wan Jiakai and Gu Heng was none other than Wan Jiaze, Sun Ye, and the others who had just parted ways with them at the Champion Scholar Pavilion.

Wan Jiakai’s gaze swept over them. Brother Niu and Brother Zhao, who had looked dead drunk at the dinner table just a moment ago, were now standing there, alive and kicking. They didn’t look the least bit intoxicated.

‘Great, just great!’

‘So they were all putting on an act for the two of us, huh?!’

Wan Jiakai wasn’t an idiot. He understood everything in an instant.

‘So much for being drunk. So much for the party being over.’

‘It was obvious they had this planned all along. They were just too embarrassed to say it out loud because I was there.’

Not far away, Wan Jiaze, Sun Ye, Gao Wei, and the others looked back at the wide-eyed Wan Jiakai and Gu Heng, their own expressions a mixture of awkward and strange.

“Ahem!”

“Ah, Jiakai.”

Wan Jiaze cleared his throat twice and walked over. “We were really going to call it a night, but after you two left, Old Niu and Old Zhao suddenly woke up. They insisted on coming here to sing, so we had a last-minute change of plans.”

“That’s right!”

“It was Old Niu and Old Zhao who insisted on coming!”

“It’s all their fault!”

At the end, Wan Jiaze even emphasized the point again.

“I believe you, I believe you.”

“It was all Brother Niu and Brother Zhao’s idea.”

Wan Jiakai said, but his expression clearly screamed, ‘I believe you, my ass.’

“Hey?”

“Wait a minute.”

“Why am I even explaining myself to you?!”

“We’re all working adults. What’s wrong with coming here to unwind after a few drinks?”

Wan Jiaze had a delayed realization—he was the adult here!

‘Why am I being all secretive and making excuses for Wan Jiakai?!’

Having figured this out, Wan Jiaze immediately put on his “big brother” air of authority. With a stern face, he said, “On the contrary, you little brat, how old are you to be coming to a place like this? Is this the kind of place you should be?”

“Oh…”

“I’m sorry, I was wrong.”

“As the saying goes, ‘an elder brother is like a father, an elder sister-in-law is like a mother.’ I’ll call my sister-in-law right now to personally admit my mistake and have her come pick me up.”

Wan Jiakai finished speaking with a deadpan expression, then unhurriedly took out his phone.

“Hahahahaha…”

“Little brother!”

“My dearest little brother!”

“Your big brother was just joking with you!”

“How can you not take a joke!”

Wan Jiaze, who had just put on a stern face, changed his tune in an instant. His expression became as pleasant as a spring breeze as he threw an arm around Wan Jiakai’s shoulder and deftly snatched his phone away.

“You’re an adult now. It’s good for you to get a taste of the glamorous world ahead of time.”

“So you don’t get your feelings played with by those trashy girls and ‘sea queens’ in college. They’ll treat you like a dog, and you’ll be patting yourself on the back for it.”

The moment Wan Jiaze said this, Wan Jiakai’s expression instantly darkened.

Seeing this, Gu Heng found it harder to keep a straight face than to control an AK’s recoil.

“Um…”

“Brother Ze, when did you guys get here?”

“Why are you hanging out in the lobby instead of going in?”

Gu Heng spoke up at the right moment to change the subject, saving Wan Jiakai from another unintentional critical hit from Wan Jiaze.

“It’s almost the New Year, so all the large and medium private rooms are booked. Only the small ones are left, but there are too many of us to fit in a small room. We were about to look for another place.”

After what had happened at the Champion Scholar Pavilion, and with Wan Jiakai still present, Wan Jiaze managed to maintain his “elder brother” posture in front of Gu Heng. Inwardly, however, he didn’t dare show the slightest disrespect toward him, having elevated Gu Heng’s importance to the highest level.

“Then…”

“Shall we go together?”

Gu Heng glanced at Wan Jiakai, seeking his opinion with his eyes.

“Is that… appropriate?”

Wan Jiakai blinked. The thought of sitting on a sofa with the big brother who’d watched him grow up, choosing… entertainment… felt inexplicably weird.

“It’s fine.”

“You two can have fun here. We’ll just find another spot.”

Wan Jiaze looked at Wan Jiakai’s slightly shy and clueless expression and knew that his little brother must be a first-timer at a place like this.

“Forget it, forget it. Since we’ve already run into each other, let’s just stick together.”

Wan Jiakai scratched his head, changing his mind again.

“Brother Ze, call Brother Ye, Brother Wei, and the others. Let’s all go together.”

Since Wan Jiakai had no objections, Gu Heng naturally didn’t mind either.

“Ah Heng, did you make a reservation in advance?”

Wan Jiaze was a little hesitant. “There are so many of us. Unless it’s a large private room, it’ll be hard to fit everyone.”

“Brother Ze, don’t you worry.”

“Even if you had twice as many people, there would still be plenty of room.”

Gu Heng clapped Wan Jiaze on the shoulder and said with a smile, “I have a tiny bit of clout here.”

Hearing Gu Heng say this, Wan Jiaze’s gaze drifted to the men and women crowding around him. He looked at the job titles on the name tags pinned to their chests.

General Manager, Deputy General Manager, Department Head…

Any single one of them was an absolutely core senior executive of the Platinum Association.

And yet, these core executives of the Platinum Association were all standing by Gu Heng’s side with the utmost deference, a reverence akin to that of subjects paying homage to their king. Most of them didn’t even dare to look him directly in the eye.

One had to understand that the Platinum Association was one of the most high-end music and business entertainment centers in all of Beichun, and even the entire Ji Province. The distinguished guests they usually received were all dignitaries and influential figures from Beichun and Ji Province. As for these core executives, by leveraging the high-end platform of the Platinum Association, they themselves were prominent figures in society.

Never mind that Wan Jiaze was a criminal investigation captain; in terms of networks of resources, contacts, and connections, he was probably weaker than even a department head at the Platinum Association, to say nothing of the General Manager and Deputy General Manager standing on either side of Gu Heng.

Even if his own branch bureau chief came, the Platinum Association sending out a deputy general manager to greet them would already be considered good treatment. To have the General Manager of the Platinum Association personally welcome someone, only the top leaders from the municipal bureau would likely receive such an honor.

“Alright, then.”

“Then we’ll have to trouble you, Ah Heng.”

Wan Jiaze didn’t act coy and readily accepted.

If this drinking session had started out as a pure and simple celebration for the upcoming New Year’s Eve,

then from this moment on, its nature was no longer so pure.

Wan Jiaze, having become a criminal investigation captain at such a young age, was naturally not content to stop there for the rest of his life.

Simply put, he was desperate to advance his career!

Now, in Gu Heng, he saw the hope of that advancement, so it was only natural that he would have some designs concerning him.

If not deliberate flattery, it was at least a full-throated effort to build a good relationship.

Sometimes, if you latch onto the right powerhouse, your career can truly skyrocket.

“Lead the way.”

Gu Heng glanced at Zhang Mingwei, the General Manager of the Platinum Association, and gave the quiet command.

“Chairman Gu, this way, please…”

The General Manager of the Platinum Association, a prominent figure in his own right, instantly bowed low at Gu Heng’s single sentence, his posture one of extreme reverence.

Watching this scene, Wan Jiaze, Sun Ye, and the others were all secretly dumbfounded, silently following Gu Heng into the depths of the Platinum Association…