Chapter 19: That Was Clearly the Patriarch!
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After the hot pot dinner, everyone had a great time chatting.
The sudden addition of a resourceful strategist at the table had especially livened up the conversation among the young men and women.
Zhou Bella was the most enthusiastic of them all.
She kept pressing Lu Yao about how men and women should respond in different situations, and how one could tell from the details whether a man was a scumbag.
At one point, Lu Yao jokingly held his index finger beneath Xu Ziqiao’s nose to check whether he was breathing and said, “See if this man is still breathing. Anyone who is breathing is a scumbag.”
Xu Ziqiao immediately protested, “That’s slander!”
“He’s slandering me!”
The table was filled with laughter and good cheer.
After dinner, Lu Yao and the others called designated drivers outside the hot pot restaurant.
Lu Yao was responsible for taking Song Jing and Xu Ziqiao home.
Xiao Nali would take Zuozuo and Bella home.
Sister Nali had arranged it that way on purpose.
She herself was not opposed to workplace romance.
Many girls who spent their days in nightlife venues were eventually swept away by singers, promoters, or bartenders from the same circles.
But the two men and two women she had selected this time were being groomed to become the venue’s main attractions.
After investing so much in cultivating them, what if they ended up unable to work together because of relationship problems? Wouldn’t that be ridiculous?
Even so, on the way back, Zhou Bella still could not contain her excitement.
“Senior Lu Yao is not only handsome, he’s really interesting too.”
Zuozuo could not help rolling her eyes.
Back in high school, Zhou Bella had liked her teachers. During military training, she had liked the instructors. After starting work, she had fallen for her colleagues...
It was an illness.
It needed treatment.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Xiao Nali secretly shook her head.
She had been around the block and was also an outsider to the situation, so she had seen everything clearly from beginning to end.
Although Lu Yao had never deliberately steered the conversation, he always managed to insert himself at just the right moment, then imperceptibly guide everyone along with his own thoughts and opinions.
He had the air of an opinion leader and an emotional puppeteer.
That indicated that Lu Yao’s level of understanding, density of information, and depth of knowledge were all far superior to those of the two girls.
When someone like that was willing to lower himself and chat with you about this and that, the opinions he revealed during the conversation could easily seem novel and astonishing to people on a lower level.
Attracting others and becoming the focus of the conversation then came naturally.
If Lu Yao had been a successful middle-aged man in his mid-thirties, such behavior would not have been surprising.
But he had only just graduated!
Why was he already so seasoned?
Could it be that he had been this way since childhood?
Sister Nali was a ruthless career woman who had seen plenty of the world.
Yet at that moment, she too found herself curious about Lu Yao.
Listening to Bella in the back seat continue calling Lu Yao some kind of “romance strategist,” she nearly burst out laughing...
What kind of “romance strategist” was Lu Yao?
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He was clearly the founding grandmaster of romance!
...
Meanwhile, after Lu Yao dropped Song Jing off at his place, Xu Ziqiao said excitedly from the car, “Brother Mule, I have a feeling you’ve already got one of those two girls completely in the bag.”
Lu Yao, sitting in the passenger seat, shook his head.
Young people these days...
Have a couple of conversations with someone and they assumed there was interest. Get a little familiar and they assumed you wanted a relationship.
Couldn’t he simply be flirting for fun?
Resting his head on one hand, Lu Yao laughed. “I’m a university graduate starting my own business. Is your brain really filled with nothing but dirty thoughts?”
“Yeah, right.” Xu Ziqiao grinned. “The way Zhou Bella looks at you, her eyes are practically dripping with desire!”
But after saying that, he suddenly grew puzzled.
“Wait a second. You’re already with Sister Wang. Are you planning to play both sides? I despise you!”
Lu Yao fell silent.
He wanted to correct him on two points.
First, he was not “with” Sister Wang. He and Sister Wang were merely close business partners.
Second, he had no intention of doing anything with either Zhou Bella or Zuozuo.
The main reason he was flirting with the two girls was to pave the way for entering the female social circles connected to NFA Bar.
Girls who had spent years in nightlife circles were all extremely shrewd.
If you approached them and tried to become friendly right away, they might simply take you for a rich fool and reel you in.
But if you became acquainted with nightlife girls through girls like Zuozuo and Zhou Bella, you could avoid several unnecessary detours.
That would lay the groundwork for Lu Yao’s later e-commerce plans.
But would any of this make sense to Xu Ziqiao, a man whose mind contained nothing but thoughts of getting laid?
Of course not.
So Lu Yao retorted, “There are some matters of society you shouldn’t ask about.”
Xu Ziqiao fell silent.
Damn it!
Why did he suddenly feel that Brother Mule was on a completely different level from him?
Everything Lu Yao did seemed to jump from one subject to another, leaving him utterly unable to follow.
He was clearly already involved with a wealthy woman, yet he had gone to all that trouble to find a job.
Fine, so he wanted to work...
But then he went out for a meal and left a girl hopelessly fluttering with desire.
What the hell?
Was this what people meant by being profound and unfathomable?
Xu Ziqiao scratched his head. “Brother Mule, I kept an eye on that matter you mentioned before. That stock really has been rising these past few days.”
Lu Yao replied indifferently, “Tell me what you think.”
“I want to make money with you!”
“How much capital do you have?”
Xu Ziqiao answered awkwardly, “You know me, Brother Mule. I usually spend money like water, so I haven’t managed to save much. Would it be all right if I invested thirty thousand first?”
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Lu Yao laughed. “Only thirty thousand?”
Xu Ziqiao gritted his teeth. “If I borrow some from friends, I can get it up to fifty thousand!”
“Whatever works,” Lu Yao said casually. “But I’ll make this clear beforehand: if you invest with me now, you get sixty percent of the profits and I get forty. If you come to me again next time, we’ll split it fifty-fifty.”
“What?”
Xu Ziqiao stared at him. “Then what if I had agreed last time? Would it have been a seventy-thirty split?”
“Exactly.”
Damn!
How was that any different from throwing money away?
Losing money outright was even more painful than losing money through bad investments.
Xu Ziqiao clenched his teeth. “One hundred thousand! I’ll find a way to get you one hundred thousand! I’ll give it to you in three days.”
Lu Yao gave him an OK sign.
His entire air remained so calm and indifferent that Xu Ziqiao could not help but envy him.
What an overwhelming aura of coolness!
He was so jealous!
After Lu Yao moved out of the dormitory, the other roommates gradually began moving out as well, each setting off toward his own future.
Because the butterfly known as Lu Yao had been reborn and altered Xu Ziqiao’s original course in life, Xu Ziqiao had ended up interacting with him far more than before.
But the same point still held true—
Although they were roommates, they were not particularly close.
The reason Lu Yao wanted to bring Xu Ziqiao along was simply that Xu Ziqiao’s family still had some money, which could help Lu Yao accumulate his initial capital more quickly.
And if, in the process, he could slightly alter the future of Xu Ziqiao’s family...
That would not be a bad thing either.
After taking Xu Ziqiao to his current apartment, Xu Ziqiao asked before getting out, “Brother Mule, should we call the other guys from the dorm and let them make some money with us?”
Lu Yao shook his head decisively. “Better not.”
The domestic stock market had no bottom line and was riddled with loopholes.
Apart from Xu Ziqiao, whose family had somewhat substantial means, the others in their dormitory all came from ordinary households.
Once they tasted success in the stock market, it would be difficult for them to pull out.
Lu Yao remembered that two years later, the A-share index would surge all the way upward, eventually breaking past five thousand points.
By then, even if Lu Yao wanted them to withdraw, they would refuse after tasting the profits. Instead, they would think he was too timid and conservative.
Yet not long after climbing above five thousand points, the A-share market would witness the spectacular collapse of thousands of stocks hitting their lower limit at once!
Countless veteran investors who had leveraged everything they owned and become trapped in the market would be driven to despair and jump from rooftops!
Oh, no.
By then, even the rooftops would have queues.