Chapter 24: Fearing that the brothers are having a hard time

"Mr. Zhou, please allow me to introduce to you once again our hotel's head chef, Mr. Luo Wenle."

Bella said with a smile, "He's not only the executive chef of our Wanda Windsor hotel, but also the deputy executive chef of Chinese cuisine for the entire group. He has been traveling across the country lately, conducting routine training for the dining services of other hotels in our group, and he just came back yesterday."

"And upon learning of your stay, he personally wanted to prepare a special dinner for you, to thank you for your strong support of our hotel."

"Oh?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Wang became genuinely interested.

Zhou Wang's standards for dining were never high since he hadn't had the means before... An occasional binge at a star-rated buffet with dorm mates was a rare treat for Zhou Wang.

Actually, as long as a man has friends and liquor, he could have a blast even at a roadside stall, and if there's a girl sitting next to him, that's pretty much the peak of life.

But from what Bella said, this chef Luo Wenle was clearly no ordinary person.

Although he didn't know much about this industry, to serve as the deputy executive chef for such a large luxury hotel chain meant he definitely had to be skilled.

And Bella usually wouldn't go against his wishes, so her strong recommendation made Zhou Wang even more excited.

"Alright, then let's eat at the restaurant today."

"Sure, Mr. Zhou. Please rest for a while. I'll go ask Chef Luo to get ready, and I'll come back later to take you downstairs."

After Bella said this, she left with a smile, pressing her earpiece to communicate with the dining department.

Before going to take a shower, Zhou Wang noticed a message from Li Cheng, which surprised him. Was Li Cheng at the hotel entrance just now?

But from the text message alone, Zhou Wang couldn't tell if the other person recognized him, but... probably not?

Otherwise, he wouldn't still be in the mood to joke with him.

Right, what's that saying... afraid that my brothers will suffer, yet also afraid they'll be driving a Range Rover.

...

"What's Zhou Wang trying to say?"

In the corridor on the fifth floor, Li Cheng held his phone, completely baffled.

Zhou Wang replied with an emoticon, one from the movie "Crows Zero" where Shun Oguri went to challenge at Fengxian, the one where he is smoking at the entrance. Just by looking at the emoticon, a strong air of coolness hit instantly.

"?"

Li Cheng shot back a question mark, but Zhou Wang went silent.

While Li Cheng was pondering whether to give Zhou Wang a call, Yu Peipei came up and pulled him, "What are you doing? Hurry up, Ding Yi is hurrying us!"

Li Cheng had no choice but to put away his phone. When they reached the door of the private room and the leading waiter pushed open the door, Yu Peipei, who was originally at the forefront, chickened out and signaled for Li Cheng to go in first, while a few classmates also hesitated.

Li Cheng looked at his girlfriend with a mix of laughter and tears, then walked in with his head held high.

But as soon as he entered the private room, Li Cheng's momentum also paused.

Damn, why are there so many people?

At that moment, the two large dining tables that could seat twelve people each were almost full, but that wasn't the main issue. It was the atmosphere in the private room.

The room, already splendidly decorated, was adorned with ribbons and balloons everywhere. On the wall facing the door, a line of large characters made of gold powder read, "Happy 18th Birthday to the Most Beautiful Ding Yi."

Near the entrance, next to a storage cabinet, a thick carpet was laid out with an impressive array of gifts piled on top of it. With just a quick glance, one could see the prominent logos of luxury brands, and the least extravagant were Coach products.

Li Cheng even saw a Kitty cat figure packaged in a transparent box that appeared to be made of gold. When he saw the Universe logo, Li Cheng knew it was indeed real gold.

Other than a few classmates who were already seated at the tables outside, the rest were all dressed to the nines, gathered in small groups and chatting.

This was not quite the upper crust of society, but it had already revealed a different atmosphere from their school days.

Those of them who came from ordinary families had expectations for a classmate's birthday gathering that still revolved around everyone getting together for hot pot followed by karaoke—none of them had ever seen such a setup.

Haidilao plus Windsor was the highest standard they had for celebrating birthdays.

"Peipei, over here!"

As some of them felt out of place, class leader Fang Lu waved to them.

They hurried over and sat down. Eight or nine classmates from the same class gathered together, and everyone felt much more at ease.

"Class leader, how long have you guys been here?"

Yu Peipei stuck out her tongue, "I didn't expect Ding Yi's birthday party to be so intimidating."

"No kidding, we were startled when we first came in. We knew Ding Yi came from a wealthy family when we lived in the dorm, but since she never showed off, we never really felt it."

Fang Lu glanced at Ding Yi, who was taking photos with a few girls in the inner hall, and spoke softly, "Do you guys know how much that dress she's wearing costs?"

Yu Peipei looked over instinctively, first exclaiming, "That dress is so beautiful," before asking curiously, "How much?"

"I overheard by chance two other girls discussing it. They said it's a haute couture Chanel, at least five or six hundred thousand…"

"That's impossible!"

The girls were shocked, but Li Cheng directly questioned, "I know Chanel is a luxury brand, but it can't be that exaggerated, can it? Five or six hundred thousand could buy you a Mercedes AMG…"

"Go away!"

Yu Peipei pushed Li Cheng, "If you don't understand, then don't talk nonsense. This is haute couture. What do you, a country bumpkin, know about haute couture? How could it be compared to the regular styles available at the counter?"

Li Cheng wanted to argue back but then remembered the pile of gifts he had seen at the entrance and suddenly fell silent.

"Hey, it's just a jest calling you 'country bumpkin,' you're not angry, are you?"

Seeing her boyfriend's tight expression, Yu Peipei asked tentatively.

"Why would I be angry? It's a class gap. I had only heard about it before, but seeing it with my own eyes and not understanding it is normal."

Li Cheng shrugged his shoulders and sighed, "It's just that I've suddenly realized something…"

"What is it?"

"When we were freshmen and sophomores, Ding Yi was kind of interested in Zhou Wang, you all knew that, right?"

"That's bull, it was clearly Zhou Wang who liked Ding Yi. How did it become Ding Yi who was interested in Zhou Wang?"

Fang Lu immediately retorted.

"That's not important. Anyway, back then, there was a bit of something between them. You all agree with that, right?"

Hearing Li Cheng put it that way, everyone implicitly agreed—they weren't blind after all.

"But later on, Zhou Wang somehow drifted away from Ding Yi. At the time, our whole dorm felt sorry for him; he had the chance to win over the most beautiful girl on campus. He could've bragged for three years, what a face-saver!"

Li Cheng shook his head and lamented, "Now I understand. Brother Dog was indeed more mature than us. Even back then, he already knew that the two of them were never going to work out…"