Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
An ardent and smoldering passion emanated but was interrupted by a series of knocking on the door halfway. It was fortunate that Zhang Lisheng was fast. He put on his bathrobe and opened the door to accept the set of changing clothes sent by the attendant. Without wasting too much time, he continued to make love to Tina and did not end up disappointing her.
Due to the reason that they still needed to attend a charity party, their passion did not become as crazy as it always was. After an appropriate amount of romance, they rinsed off the traces of overflowing love on their bodies. Zhang Lisheng changed into clean clothes, that he had not worn for a long time, and casually swayed his body in front of the dressing mirror. Bursting out into a chuckle, he shrugged and said, “If the hotel charges more than 50 dollars for this set of formal attire, it would be no different from robbery. But it’s fortunate that I’ve never cared about what I’m wearing.”
“Oh baby, this is Ginger in New Washington A in Noah World, not the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan, New York. This is already very good and besides, you always look amazing in whatever you wear.” Tina sat in front of the dressing mirror, putting on simple make-up using the cosmetic bag she carried in her handbag before standing up and saying, “Alright. Let’s go!”
After saying so, the girl took her boyfriend’s arm, walked out of the room and took the elevator to the ballroom in the second floor.
At this time, the banquet hall, that had an area of about 300 to 400 square meters, had already been filled with guests who were surrounding the round tables. The atmosphere was very lively.
Any US citizen, who was not too unsociable or eccentric, and had worked in large companies or lived in the urban middle class community, would usually be invited once or twice annually to such a small charity cocktail party. However, the immigrants in Noah’s oasis came from all over the country and there was no such reception in remote country life.
Zhang Lisheng looked around and saw that many of the formal attire worn by the attendants were not only old-fashioned, but also unfit, as though they were stolen. His dress-up could actually be said as quite decent, causing him to be unable to suppress a strange expression as he whispered in his girlfriend’s ear, “You were right, Tina. I do indeed look extraordinary compared to those fellows who wear those formal attires that one would only wear in a high school graduation here to a charity party.”
“Hey, don’t be so insidious, baby! The fact that they can come to this venue means that they have a kind heart. Should they be ridiculed out of their goodwill?” Tina replied softly.
“I was just making a casual remark.” Zhang Lisheng shrugged.” Let’s find a seat and sit down. I think the reception will begin right away.”
“There’s 15 minutes more to go before it starts.” The girl looked at her watch and shook her head. “Let’s go and say hello to Trish first.”
After saying so, she tiptoed and looked around, before taking the young man’s hand and walking up to a staff member standing in the corner.
Just as Tina took two strides, the phone in her handbag suddenly vibrated. She took out the phone and saw a photo of a sexy red-haired girl on the screen. Immediately, she picked the call up and said loudly, “Hey, Sheila dear! Good evening! Did you finally finish your work?”
“It should be you who finally finished your work!” A slightly hoarse yet seductive voice resonated from the other side of the phone. “I’ve long reached Ginger Hotel and I wanted to call you but I heard Trish’s assistant saying that Lisheng is here. Because of this, I forced down my sadness and gave you 40 minutes of intimate time. Looks like the time given is just right! This also proves that you’re a good girl who hasn’t forgotten your sisters at the moment of lust! To think that you can actually push away your ‘big meal’ after tasting the ‘appetizer’…”
“Oh, shut up Sheila! I’m in the ballroom on the second floor of Ginger right now. Where are you? Are you with Trish?”
“No, Drax said that Trish is having some business talk with two guests. Looks like she has also gotten busy now that she has become a community administrator,” Sheila smiled as she replied. “I just came out of the bathroom and am about to enter the banquet hall now. Oh, I can see you guys…”
The phone was hung up right away. Immediately, Tina, who just shifted her eyes to the entrance of the ballroom, saw a tall girl wearing a pink evening gown with her hair draped over her shoulders, waving a hand at her. The girl excitedly ran up to her but went to hug the boyfriend beside Tina instead. Kissing his face, she said, “Oh dear Lisheng! I haven’t seen you for a whole 8 months and 10 days now! I’ve missed you so so much!”
“Oh good evening, Sheila!” Zhang Lisheng had already been accustomed to Sheila’s passion so he just smiled wryly.
“Ok, Sheila. Because it’s Trish’s big day today, I won’t fuss about how you actually remember the actual number of days being separated with my boyfriend, nor will I fuss about how you actually forgot to hug me first when you saw him! Don’t you think you’ve hugged long enough now and should let go already?” Tina, who was by the side, poked her friend’s shoulder with her finger and said half-jokingly.
“You’re such a miser! I’ve built a super-luxury villa for you at the base price and you should give me five more minutes before saying ‘Don’t you think you should let go already?’!” Sheila pouted and let go of the young man.
“Oh, is that so? Why don’t you mention about the 200 million dollar business that I gave you instead…” Tina snorted but before she could finish her words, she was already interrupted by Sheila. “Oh dear Tina, that business is bid by me…”
Just like that, the two girls began to bicker. All of a sudden, as though sensing something, Tina looked at her wrist watch and frowned. “It’s time for the reception to start now. Why hasn’t Trish made her appearance yet?”
Sheila, who was originally bickering happily, was stunned. She pulled out her phone from her handbag and her cheeky expression suddenly turned solemn. “You’re right. It’s already three minutes late. This is unlike her style of work. ”
It was no big deal for an ordinary person to be late three to five minutes for an appointment but for a new politician, being punctual was a very important quality.
Let alone the fact that Trish usually had a good habit of being punctual due to her religious beliefs and good tutoring, even a careless guy would pay more attention to his first charity event after his successful election and would never leave a tardy stain in his image.
For this reason, as time began to pass, Tina and Shelia’s expression became more and more uneasy.
When the general guests attending the party in the banquet hall noticed that the organizer of the reception was actually late, they started to make noises of dissatisfaction. The two girls could no longer suppress their worries and shared a look, before walking to the entrance of the banquet hall. At this time, they just so happened to see Trish, who was wearing an elegant gray evening gown, walking into the banquet hall in a slight daze.
Under the illumination of the beige light, the girl walked slowly to the podium with a gradually calmed expression. When she picked up the microphone and faced her own voters, she had already looked calm and relaxed. “Thank you for coming to today’s charity reception. I’m sorry, I was late over some personal issues…”
Most of the US citizens liked people who dared to admit their faults honestly. Admitting to your mistake would be far more easily forgiven than finding an excuse to please them, particularly the fact that it was a young pretty girl who made the mistake. By just using a few words, Trish managed to transform the voice of dissatisfaction under the stage into bursts of applause.
“I’m surprised that the way Trish talks is different from the usual when she speaks publicly. She’s so infectious and I can say that she’s a born politician…” After the reception started, Zhang Lisheng randomly found an empty spot to sit at the round table in the corner of the banquet hall. When he saw how Trish’s speech about the courage and hardships of Noah World’s immigrants in creating a new life managed to gain a strong resonance, he remarked in surprise.
“Baby, Trish has a very good organization and execution ability. The reason you’re surprised is because you’ve never seen how she was in the school’s organization before.” Tina, who grew up together with Trish, said, feeling uneasy instinctively. “But it looks as though something is wrong with her right now.”
The girl was worried about her friend’s strange behavior but at this time, she could only helplessly watch from the side, watching how Trish standing on the podium, decorated with a small bouquet of flowers, driving the atmosphere of the audience, leading the topic to benevolence and mutual assistance before changing it to the donation part, which was also the climax of the reception.
Usually, the donors of such an occasion would be anonymous but if some philanthropist liked to be applauded for his own generosity, it would be okay for him to write his name down as well.
In the lively dance music, a donation box, that was brought into the hotel banquet hall by a waiter who had a wide smile on his face, appeared in front of Zhang Lisheng. According to statistics, such a primitive fundraising method would make people become more generous.
“Oh, Trish should use a better box for her fundraising so that it would look more sincere.” Glancing at the simple flat wooden box, the young man shrugged and took out his traveler’s cheque, before asking his girlfriend by the side, “I can really only give 1000 dollars at most?”
“Yes baby. 1000 dollars from each of us is already enough,” Tina and Sheila answered in unison, as they placed the cheques that they had already prepared beforehand into the donation box.
Twenty minutes later, after a nervous count of donations, the fundraising amount finally was summarized. The newly elected community administrative officer of the Oasis Deep Spring Community in Noah World’s New Washington A managed to raise a total donation of 34,327 dollar for the new immigrants who could not afford heating fuel in her jurisdiction area.
After subtracting the venue and labor costs of Ginger Hotel, there was still about 30,000 dollars available.
The instant this amount was announced on the spot, a long cheer erupted in the banquet hall. Looking at the people who were standing up applauding excitedly, Zhang Lisheng grinned and whispered, “Tina, Sheila, look at the philanthropists around us. A total of 34,000 dollars of donation from 500 to 600 people, nearly one-tenth of which came from the three of us, but they all act as though they were as generous as King Solomon…”
“Charity is not to be compared, baby. As long as you have the kind intention, taking out 100 dollars and taking out a million dollars are equally worthy of respect.” Tina stretched her neck to kiss her boyfriend’s cheeks and interrupted his words before standing up. “Stop mocking them. Trish has already come down from the podium. Let’s ask what happened just now.”
