CSGM - Chapter 81
Chapter 81: Like Hell I'd Believe Her
Xiao Ju, looking rushed, delivered the prepared agreement documents to the door of the private room. As she came out, she suddenly bumped into a vaguely familiar figure.
The person walked up to her and took off their sunglasses. From under the brim of a hat, a pair of bright, clear eyes met hers with a light smile. Xiao Ju recognized her at once.
"You...?" Xiao Ju asked in a surprised whisper, wondering why Chu Xi was here.
"Your boss told me to wait for her here," Chu Xi said.
Xiao Ju paused, stunned. "Sister Zhi... she didn't tell me?"
Chu Xi gestured toward the private room with the hand holding her sunglasses. "She's had too much to drink, hasn't she?"
"Mm..."
Just then, a serving cart was pushed past. Chu Xi, perfectly composed, put her sunglasses back on and said, "Exactly. She drank too much and forgot to tell you. She called me to come pick her up."
Chu Xi waved her hand. "Alright, you can go back now."
Xiao Ju stared blankly at Chu Xi, then at the door of the private room. "Oh," she said, before returning to the car outside to wait.
At the dinner table, Ren Zhi had signed contracts with half of the partners. The other half, however, were like tightly bound crabs, stubbornly refusing to yield.
Ren Zhi had a feeling that this was as far as they would get tonight.
Feeling dizzy and unwell, she sat back in her chair and discreetly pinched herself.
Just then, Sister Zhen glanced at the messy table. "I think everyone's had about enough for today," she said. "Let's call it a night. We should drink in moderation. I know you're all in high spirits, so we can chat a little longer, but no more alcohol."
"Yes, yes, of course... We'll listen to Sister Zhen." The replies were slurred, the voices floating upwards as if they couldn't find the right pitch.
Someone let out a drunken burp, pausing multiple times in a single sentence.
"Y-yes... this meal was... worthwhile... Good wine... I don't drink... unless it's good wine..." The boss of Peng Yi had drunk his fill, and his words slurred together, drawn out and sticky in a way that was grating to the ear.
Sister Zhen smiled gracefully, subtly waiting for the men to finish their drivel and leave.
Men were smelly enough as it was; they were even worse after drinking.
Fortunately, Ren Zhi could hold her liquor and had good drinking etiquette. Once business was concluded, she knew to thank the host.
"Thank you, Sister Zhen. I will never forget the opportunity you've given me."
Sister Zhen took her hand, patting the back of it gently. "I should apologize to you as well," she said with a smile. "Your former agent came to me, and as a result, the resources you had were divided among my little fledglings. They've had their fill, but I hear you've had a difficult time since. Heh, she was just a fine bird choosing a good tree to perch on. You shouldn't blame her."
"If you hadn't mentioned it, Sister Zhen, I would have forgotten all about it. My schedule is packed, and I was too busy to handle everything anyway. It's only right to support the younger generation," Ren Zhi said with an unfaltering smile.
Only after she turned away did her expression darken slightly under the lights.
The path was littered with the failures of predecessors who had tried to start independent studios. Her agent simply didn't want to share the risk with her, so she had secretly sought to protect her own interests and defected to a more powerful backer.
Ren Zhi had been so completely absorbed in her work that she had never noticed the disloyalty of the person closest to her.
Forgotten? Her agent absconding with all her resources was tantamount to being bled dry. How could she possibly forget?
But it wasn't as if she could march up and slap the woman.
The more Ren Zhi hated the feeling of being stabbed in the back, the more she wanted to prove that the one who betrayed her had made a mistake.
They took her resources, so she would find new ones herself.
Before, her agent and the company had been her network; now, she had to become her own network.
They feared she wouldn't be profitable, so she dared to sign a high-stakes performance agreement.
Everyone who believed she would inevitably wither after being uprooted would one day see her in full bloom.
Ren Zhi silently returned to her seat and put the signed agreements securely into a folder.
Xu Chaolong had gotten drunk during the first half of the dinner and had been lying quietly on the table for a while. Now, he had surprisingly sobered up a little.
He quietly lifted his head. Seeing the blush on Ren Zhi's cold, beautiful face, his heart stirred.
Ren Zhi seemed even more beautiful than usual, with that extra splash of color.
The moment Ren Zhi left for the restroom, Xu Chaolong got to his feet, staring at the door with a fixed grin.
"Sister Zhen, I'm going to relieve myself as well."
Sister Zhen nodded in silent acknowledgment.
She paid no mind to such drunken lechers. Her interest, however, was now piqued by Ren Zhi.
The last few times they had met, it had been with Ren Zhi's agent... no, her former agent, she corrected herself.
The former agent had brought Ren Zhi to her dinner parties, where Ren Zhi had behaved shyly and gently, sitting right beside her agent and seeming no different from any other young starlet.
So when her former agent had claimed that Ren Zhi was just a pretty vase, lacking the vision to be a successful businesswoman, Sister Zhen hadn't given it a second thought.
But now... it seemed the one who truly lacked vision was the starlet's former agent.
As Ren Zhi came out of the restroom, she suddenly came face-to-face with Xu Chaolong.
Xu Chaolong had splashed some water on his face and was a bit more sober now. He smiled at her. "Ren Zhi, you're producing a variety show, why didn't you come to me? We at Shang Jing are quite powerful. I could fully fund your show."
Why not ask him? So she could be a lamb walking into a tiger's den?
A smile fixed on her face, Ren Zhi replied, "There's no need, Brother Long. It's best we keep our distance to avoid any gossip."
She tried to walk around him, but Xu Chaolong reached out to grab her. She reacted quickly, dodging with a frown as his unsteady body lunged toward her like a heap of loose mud.
But he was suddenly knocked aside by someone.
Ren Zhi squeezed her eyes shut and blinked hard. For a moment, she thought she was hallucinating from the alcohol, because she could have sworn she saw Chu Xi standing there.
Chu Xi stood with her back to Ren Zhi, positioned between her and Xu Chaolong.
"Hey, Brother Long. Long time no see."
Ren Zhi was confused. Did Chu Xi and Xu Chaolong know each other?
Xu Chaolong shot Chu Xi an impatient glance. "Who the hell are you?" he snapped.
Get out of my way!
"Brother Long, you don't remember me? We were classmates in elementary school. I remember you, though. I can't believe I ran into you here. I recognized you immediately."
Chu Xi said with an earnest expression.
Like hell Xu Chaolong believed her.
"Are you crazy? Get lost!"
Everyone tries to cozy up to me or pull a scam just because I have money, right? Xu Chaolong had seen plenty of these petty tricks.
When he first started getting media coverage, he'd run into eight "classmates" a day! Did they all take him for a fool?
"No, really, Brother Long. Since I ran into you, there's something I wanted to..."
"If you don't leave right now, I'm calling security!" Xu Chaolong was getting angry. He found Chu Xi even more annoying than the other grifters. She's getting in the way of my time with Ren Zhi!
But in the next second, Xu Chaolong stopped in his tracks.
"I remember you were the best at math in elementary school. You even won an Olympiad award. I've run into a problem I can't figure out. Mind if I test you?"
Test... you.
What man could resist a challenge like that?
Xu Chaolong immediately looked at her. After a moment's thought, he said, "Go on."
His tone was one of indulgent curiosity.
He really had won a Math Olympiad award in elementary school. Could she actually be a former classmate?
Come to think of it, he had been very popular with the girls in elementary school. Maybe she really was...
Hmm... and she's grown up to be quite pretty...
A pity she's not my type.
There were three small teacups on a decorative cabinet in the hallway. Chu Xi lined them up and pointed to them.
"Imagine you have a chance to win a prize. There's a diamond under one of these three cups. You pick the first cup. Then, I turn over the second cup and show you that there's no diamond under it. Now, I'm giving you the option to switch your choice to the third cup. Do you switch?"
Alcohol already clouds the mind and shortens one's attention span. After hearing the question, Xu Chaolong scoffed.
"What kind of problem is that? Is it a riddle?"
If there's no diamond under the second cup, then it can only be under the first or the third.
It's a one-in-two chance. What difference does it make if I switch?
"Actually, I think the probability of winning is higher if you switch," Chu Xi said with a sincere look, before adding a subtle taunt. "Brother Long, have you gotten a little rusty?"
"Wait a minute! What do you mean?" Xu Chaolong took the bait completely. He had to know. "Why would the probability increase?"
"Because when you picked the first cup, your chance of being right was one in three. That means the chance of the diamond being under one of the other two cups was two in three. I showed you one of those other two cups was empty, but that doesn't change the fact that the initial two-in-three probability is now concentrated on that single remaining cup. So the third cup still has a two-in-three chance of having the diamond, which is better than your first pick's one-in-three chance."
Chu Xi had just explained the simple "Monty Hall problem" to him.
But it was a problem that often made people overthink.
Xu Chaolong's brain was now caught in a battle between the probabilities of two-thirds and one-half.
That's weird, how did it become two-thirds?
Aren't the two remaining cups both a fifty-fifty chance?
But two-thirds seems right somehow...
"I don't get it either, Brother Long. Do you understand it?" Chu Xi asked.
"Hold on! Let me think for a second, and I'll explain it to you!"
Xu Chaolong's burning desire to conquer made him certain he could figure it out. His brain started whirring, trying to sort out the "two-thirds" versus "one-half" logic.
Stumped by such a simple problem? Impossible!
Chu Xi led Ren Zhi away. Xu Chaolong was still standing before the three teacups, lost in thought. Once they rounded the corner, a very curious Ren Zhi asked, "How did you know he won a Math Olympiad award in elementary school?"
She didn't believe for a second that Chu Xi and Xu Chaolong were classmates. Chu Xi was just a master of deception, and she had managed to pull it off because Xu Chaolong was drunk.
Chu Xi pointed to her phone screen, amused. "Sister, you can find it with a quick search on Baidu. There was even a tabloid article about how he wanted to major in math in college, but his family strongly objected and made him switch to economics. Math lovers are all like that."
"Besides, it's practically in a man's DNA to want to be the all-knowing expert who can hold forth in front of others. The minute you say 'let me ask you' or 'let me test you,' they feel compelled to save face by answering."
With that two-pronged attack, Chu Xi had no doubt she could handle one drunkard.
Ren Zhi looked at her. "You studied psychology, didn't you?"
Chu Xi scratched the back of her ear. "Nope. I still can't guess what you're thinking most of the time."
In the time it took for that little interlude to play out, the party inside the private room had broken up.
Sister Zhen came out and approached Ren Zhi with a benevolent smile. "Xiao Zhi, I have other business to attend to, so I'll be leaving now. You've had plenty to drink tonight, so go home and get some rest. Your bag is still inside; don't forget it. Hmm? And who is this?"
Sister Zhen's gaze shifted to Chu Xi, sizing her up.
Chu Xi smiled. "I'm Sister Zhi's assistant."
"An assistant?" Sister Zhen's smile was wide, her tone deceptively polite but sharp as a tack. "With your bearing, you don't seem like an assistant."
Her meaning was clear: she could tell Chu Xi was lying at a single glance.
Ren Zhi quickly pulled Chu Xi behind her and offered an apologetic smile. "She's my friend, Sister Zhen."
Sister Zhen just smiled and said nothing more. She elegantly tied the scarf her assistant handed her before putting on a pair of sunglasses and a large bucket hat.
"Sister Zhen, it's all clear. The car is right at the entrance. We've checked the area," her assistant said respectfully.
Hearing this, Chu Xi's lips curved into a slight smile. "Sister Zhen," she said suddenly, "there are paparazzi waiting outside."
The moment she spoke, Sister Zhen looked at her, and the assistant stared in astonishment.
Impossible! We checked the entire area around the hotel. There are no paparazzi!
She's talking nonsense!
The assistant shot a displeased look at this person who was clearly trying to get Sister Zhen's attention and reiterated, "Sister Zhen, our people checked everywhere. We didn't see any cameras or reporters."
Sister Zhen clearly did not want this outing to be documented, so she was being cautious. Her gaze fell on Chu Xi, waiting to see what she had to say.
Meeting her gaze, Chu Xi pulled a small, folding mirror from her coat pocket. She flicked open the round case with her thumb and angled it toward a high window in the corridor, moving it around until it caught and reflected the light from the streetlamps and glowing signs outside.
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