“Ahem, ahem, uh, Mr. Ding…”
But the task assigned by the chief must be finished no matter how difficult it was because this was the mission of a soldier. After hesitating for a long time and getting a proper mood, Luo Zhicheng coughed twice and braced himself to open his mouth.
“Brother Luo, you don’t have to say it. You just tell the chief that I will supply 25kg for free annually in the future, but if more is demanded, I really can’t supply.”
How sharp Ding Ning’s ears were! Although the phone Luo Zhicheng used was a special one that could prevent eavesdropping, he could still hear their words clearly, and he had a good impression of Luo Zhicheng.
Seeing that he blushed and had difficulty in saying it, Ding Ning did not want to make him embarrassed. Before he finished speaking, Ding Ning interrupted him immediately and made a promise.
This could also be regarded as his gift to the bosses, thanking them for agreeing to his “absurd” request.
Luo Zhicheng scratched his head and smiled fatuously. “I didn’t expect Ding Ning to be so wise that I saved the trouble of persuading him with good efforts.” He could not help heaving a long sigh of relief.
For a man like him who was not good at talking, he would rather fight the enemy on the battlefield than negotiate with others because that was not his strong point.
But his expression became weird soon. His phone was a special phone for anti-eavesdropping, but how did Ding Ning hear his talk with Chief No. 2? Immediately, he asked with suspicion, “Mr. Ding, how do you know the chief’s order?”
Ding Ning was startled. “Oh, my God, I only thought about freeing Luo Zhicheng from embarrassment, but I forgot this problem.” Instantly, he thought hard and got a reasonable explanation soon. With a confident smile, he said, “I am confident in my tea. When I delivered the tea to the chiefs for tasting, I expected this scene, so when the chief called you just now, I knew what was going on, though you did not have to say anything.”
Luo Zhicheng suddenly saw the light and showed an expression of admiration. “Mr. Ding, you know what is going on without doing surveys and can also make accurate predictions. You are really great!”
“Ha-ha, Brother Luo, you flattered me.”
When he found that his excuse worked, Ding Ning changed the subject hurriedly. “Brother Luo, now we know each other, so don’t call me Mr. Ding anymore. How estranged it sounds! If you appreciate me, just address me by the name or call me Little Ding.”
“How can I do that? It’s not polite to address you by the name, and it’s not appropriate to call you Little Ding, either. Let’s do it this way—I feel that you are congenial to me; if you don’t mind, let’s call each other brother in private in the future.”
Luo Zhicheng said a little awkwardly.
“That’s the best. Brother Luo, I like your forthright character. From now on, we’ll be brothers.”
Ding Ning said happily. As for making friends with Luo Zhicheng, he did not have any utilitarian interest, and he only thought that this person was very good, somewhat like Xiahou because they were all those who had a cold face but a warm heart.
“Okay, let’s do that, and let’s exchange our phone numbers in a while. In the future, let’s keep in touch often no matter whether we have serious business to talk about or not.”
Luo Zhicheng said with a broad smile. The predestined relationship between people is so wondrous. A while ago, he had a good impression of Ding Ning, and he also felt that the chief valued him a lot, so he did not mind making friends with him.
“Brother, where are you from?”
“I am from Dongshan, and you?”
“I’m from Diannan, but I’m in Ninghai now. If you have the opportunity to go to Ninghai, give me a call in advance, and I will entertain you.”
“Well, I’ll see then. You know, I don’t have much freedom in this profession.”
“By the way, brother, are you a soldier?”
“No, I’m a martial artist.”
“Then how did you become the chief’s guard? I heard that all the guards are soldiers, right?”
“There are soldiers and also martial arts practitioners, and I became a guard of the chief by chance.”
Once they became familiar, Ding Ning did not treat him with formal courtesy and began to seduce him into telling his information. It was not that he had any intention, but that he did not see the temperament of a soldier from him just now, so he was very curious. “How could a Warrior become a guard of the chief?”
Unfortunately, Luo Zhicheng was very tight-mouthed. If things were related to this aspect, he would let them go with perfunctory words.
Ding Ning’s eyes glinted with thoughtfulness. “It seems that there is no small matter around the chief. Luo Zhicheng is a person of strong principle and will certainly not talk casually.”
The essence of friendship is heart-to-heart communication. Ding Ning did not want him to be embarrassed, so he changed the subject and talked with him about unimportant matters. The communication was harmonious, and their relationship became a step closer.
When arriving at Shengzeyuan, Luo Zhicheng and he exchanged their phone numbers before they bade goodbye reluctantly. Of course, Ding Ning was not mean to this new friend—he gave half a kilo of tea leaves to him. Luo Zhicheng did not pretend to refuse it, but accepted it instantly.
However, according to what Ding Ning knew about him, he would hand it in as soon as he went back, but that was none of his business anymore. Anyway, Luo Zhicheng owed him a favor.
Initially, Ding Ning thought that Shengzeyuan Restaurant was only a restaurant, but he didn’t know until now that Shengzeyuan Restaurant was a comprehensive building mainly engaged in catering and supplemented by bars, baths, discos, KTV, video game rooms, internet bars, hotels, and other business.
The whole building housed 18 floors and covered an extremely large area, but the restaurant was not in the building, and the lobby on the first floor was only equipped with a kitchen and an elevator space.
Guided by the beautiful receptionist in a high-slit cheongsam, Ding Ning walked across the lobby on the first floor to the extremely large courtyard behind the building.
The receptionist in the lobby just guided him to the entrance of the courtyard and then asked another receptionist especially in charge of dining to take care of him.
That was a beautiful girl of 1.7 meters tall, who wore a cheongsam and an ancient chignon and had a figure that dipped and bent in all the right places. She bowed very politely and asked, “Sir, do you have a reservation?”
“Box Jiatianxia!”
Ding Ning had specially asked Huzi about the reserved location. It was said that Jiatianxia was one of the few big private boxes that could accommodate more than 20 people to eat together in Shengzeyuan.
“Yes, sir, please follow me.”
The receptionist made a graceful gesture of letting them move and walked a step quicker to lead the way.
The courtyard, where there were pavilions, terraces, waterside pavilions, small bridges, creeks, and numerous grotesque rocks, was like a Gusu Garden; the scenery along the path was beautiful, so Ding Ning did not stare at the constantly shaking hips of the receptionist and kept appreciating the beautiful scenery in the surroundings.
To his surprise, Jiatianxia was not a private room on one of the two sides of the courtyard as Ding Ning thought, but a relatively large pavilion with a huge dining table.
After crossing the winding wooden bridge and entering the pavilion, he saw countless koi fish wandering in the pond beneath his feet and the dancing ripples. It was a feast for the eye!
As a breeze came, the stream gurgled. Ding Ning felt like being in nature, having a relaxed, happy mood and a comfortable feeling.
“City dwellers really know what entertainment is!” Looking at this garden-like characteristic restaurant, Ding Ning could not help criticizing it inwardly. “It’s okay to enjoy the cool in summer, but what kind of cold-resistant people will come to the pavilion to have dinner in winter?”
From his astonished expression, the female receptionist seemed to see that he had come here for the first time and gave him a gentle introduction, and then he knew that there were 74 pavilions of different sizes in Shengzeyuan.
When the pavilions were being built, the hobbies and needs of the diners had been fully considered. In breezy and sunny days, they were open, but during rainy days or when the diners did not want to eat in the open air, they could use the gear in the pavilion to turn the box into a closed one at any time.
In addition to the pavilions, there were 126 fixed boxes on both sides of the courtyard. Of course, these boxes were also specially made and could become outdoor dining places according to the needs of the diners at any time, but they were not as pleasant as the pavilions.
Ding Ning was dumbfounded as he heard this. “I didn’t expect to experience this kind of operation. No wonder Huzi wanted to order dishes and dine here. Surely, it is extremely characteristic.”
“The courtyard designer is a genius!”
Ding Ning gave a sincere compliment.
The female receptionist chuckled, and a strong sense of pride made her subconsciously puff out her chest. “Sir, would you like to order now?”
“Wait a minute. It’s still early. My friends haven’t arrived yet.”
Looking at his watch, Ding Ning found it was only half past five, still an hour and a half from their appointed seven.
“Well, when you need to order, just press this button, and the waiter will come to serve you immediately.”
The female receptionist pointed to a button on the pillar at a corner of the pavilion. When Ding Ning signaled to her that he understood, the girl said a little shyly and hopefully, “Sir, if you need someone to drink with you, you can call me. I am Tingting, No. 39.”
“Uh!”
Ding Ning was stunned and then learned that the service of drinking with hostesses was available here. He did want to refuse her, but when he saw her expectant eyes, he knew it was really embarrassing to say no.
With an awkward smile, he said unclearly, “Let’s talk about it when my friends come. If we have the need, I will call you to keep us company for sure.”
“Oh, then I’m leaving now, and I won’t bother you.”
The girl named Tingting was very professional and was not annoyed by this indirect refusal. After bowing slightly, Tingting gracefully turned around and left.
Looking at her graceful and slender back, Ding Ning sighed in his mind. Although he had encountered many beautiful women, he still gave more than 85 points to Tingting, who had a beautiful face and also the first-class figure.
“She is so beautiful and is not disabled, but she does not want to do anything else and insists on working in a place where she sells her youth.”
But he only felt sorry for her for a moment and did not want to persuade her. “After all, everyone’s path is their own choice. Since she took this path on her own initiative, she should pay for the choice.”
He had compassion for beautiful ladies, but he would not practice his compassion in a lavish way. Indeed, he saved Ye Huan and her sister in the past, but he met them by chance and recalled Bai Qinglian’s miserable past, and then his heart became soft and he saved them. This was completely different from the situation of Tingting who recommend herself to keep him company.
Confirming that there was no one around, Yagyuu Asamayu suddenly appeared and giggling, bent to tease the koi fish in the pond.
Her carefree laughter seemed to infect Ding Ning, driving away all his regret and melancholy. With a doting smile, he watched her play with the water.
His feelings for Yagyuu Asamayu were very complicated, for he still took her identity the black-robed man to heart, but every time he felt her strong dependence on him, he would subconsciously forget her original identity and treat her as his sister.
Maybe it was good for her to forget the past and start a new life. Anyway, no adolescent girl would always like to wear a black robe and a mask and live in the dark like a rat in the gutter.
What he did not know was that Tingting, who had made him feel a little sorry just now, had now come with her shaking hips to a room on the second floor of the building of Shengzeyuan and knocked lightly on the door.
The door was opened from the inside, and a handsome but a little eerie face appeared. When he saw Tingting, he fully opened the door and said with somewhat irony, “What? Couldn’t Miss Yue Tingting who always thinks her charm is unparalleled make that little guy take the bait when she lured him herself?”
“Humph, Zhao Zifeng, shut your fucking mouth!”
Tingting walked into the room with her shaking hips, sank sullen-faced into the sofa instantly without caring about the questioning eyes of the men and women of more than a dozen, shook off her high-heeled shoes without a lady’s demeanor, and pushed the hemline of her cheongsam to the roots of her thighs, exposing a pair of snowy white long legs with her sexy underwear vaguely seen…
