Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next day, I got myself together and headed out.

I was meeting Ning Hanzhou to talk about starting a business.

I met him in high school. I was the one who took the initiative to befriend him.

Ever since I first became aware of the world, I knew I was destined to network upward.

My family was poor in every possible way: money, mindset, connections. Thankfully, I was born with a thick skin.

My purpose in getting close to Ning Hanzhou was perfectly clear. I wanted to be friends with him.

As a rich young master, he had to have seen far more of the world than a country girl like me. So I shamelessly tagged along with him to broaden my horizons.

Then, through him, I could get to know more rich people.

In our junior year of college, I talked him into investing in me, sponsoring me with a bit of startup capital.

No shares, no dividends. Pure sponsorship.

Helping an ambitious young person achieve her dream.

But I was not completely freeloading either. I promised Ning Hanzhou a favor from a future big shot who would uphold integrity to the very end.

Even though I had already put it that way, he did not agree on the spot the moment I asked. Instead, he asked me about my specific business plan.

Of course I hoped he would say yes the second he heard me out.

But second-generation rich kids were not all idiots with too much money.

Although he found me a male concubine, he was clearly not the type to lose his head over romance when it came to business.

Men were much more rational and clear-headed in that regard.

So I unilaterally took back the favor. I did not feel that he had helped me in any way. I felt this was sponsorship I had won through my own intelligence, eloquence, and personal charm.

I arranged to meet him in a private room.

The upside of networking upward was that every place the other party chose was high-end and classy, and I never had to pay.

The downside of networking upward was that every so often, after I met a new group of people, they would look down on me once they learned who I was.

If they could look down on me while giving me opportunities, then I could not ask for more.

Their eyes and tongues could not kill me.

And if they could not offer me anything, then I cared even less.

As far as I was concerned, anyone who appeared in the same setting as me was on my level.

Their starting line had been ahead of mine, yet I had still caught up to them. That proved they were fundamentally inferior to me.

And the mocking gazes of the weak landing on me were nothing more than dust that would fall away without me even raising a hand.

After I arrived at the private room, I took out my laptop and discussed the project with Ning Hanzhou for a while before the dishes were served.

Once the food came out, he began making small talk with me.

He wound around the subject in circles before finally bringing up what he wanted to know most.

“Did you and Jiang Zhiyan have a fight?”

That was a conservative way to put it.

Judging from the bullet comments, Jiang Zhiyan had definitely told him more than that yesterday.

There should have been all kinds of tearful complaints about how I had humiliated him and kicked him out of the house.

In the end, he had probably threatened Ning Hanzhou by saying he wanted to break up and quit.

The bullet comments said Ning Hanzhou had comforted him for a long time, then later threatened him darkly that if he broke up with me, he would smash his own head into the floor.

I said, “We broke up.”

Ning Hanzhou lifted his eyes to look at me.

From his proper, serious appearance, it was honestly hard for me to imagine that he was the kind of person who would threaten suicide to force his good brother into being my male concubine.

He said, “Are you no longer interested in him?”

What a question.

As if the moment I said I was not interested, he could run off and arrange the next person for me.

But when I looked up at his expression, it seemed like he really did mean that.

I suddenly grew a little curious. Could he actually find another man perfectly suited to my tastes and deliver him to my doorstep?

He really could.