Chapter 93: The Manager's Father

“Listen, Wu Ya. I may have won Qiao Ya’s favor, but do you know what I’m going through every single day? It’s torture!”

At lunch, at House of Lingering Flavor.

While Huang Silu and Wu Ya were away in the restroom, the poor guy wore an agonized look.

“Hm? Winning Qiao Ya’s favor is what you’ve always dreamed of, isn’t it? How has it become torture now?” Wu Ya looked at him, genuinely baffled.

He knew all too well how obsessed Huang Silu was with Qiao Ya.

It would not be an exaggeration to say the boy could no longer eat or sleep in peace.

Unfortunately, Qiao Ya had never been interested in him.

She had not only been cold to him, but outright dismissive.

It had taken the matter of the bonds to make her look at him in a new light.

She had started smiling at him, and her attitude had changed.

So why was it torture again?

“Wu Ya, the bonds thing did win me Qiao Ya’s favor. But... it also became a burden for me.”

A burden?

Looking at Huang Silu’s gloomy face, Wu Ya suddenly understood.

To wear the crown is to bear its weight.

This kid had originally been good for nothing.

But now, out of nowhere, he had become a financial prodigy. Of course he had to bear the weight of that halo.

Not only did he have to keep pretending in front of Qiao Ya without end, he also had to truly build himself up.

Otherwise, the day he slipped, everything would come crashing down.

And knowing his nature, he would never let Qiao Ya leave.

So his suffering, his torment, all came from the emptiness in his own head.

“Then what do you think we should do? Why don’t we just come clean to Qiao Ya? It’s exhausting pretending all the time, and my talent never gets to shine. For your sake, I even have to stay out of the spotlight!”

Once he understood, Wu Ya’s expression changed at once.

His whole face filled with the look of utter reluctance.

By now, the whole of Suiyan District, and even Weiling City—

and not even the provincial capital was an exception—

was abuzz with talk of that mysterious figure who had taken first place and created a miracle.

Yet that mysterious figure?

For the sake of helping a brother keep the truth hidden, so that he could win the girl he loved, had no choice but to bury his own achievements.

He had been forced to shut out the halo that should have been his by right.

And after such a sacrifice, you still dare complain here?

Fine, then let’s just tear away this thin layer of paper and be done with it.

That way, I can finally hold my head high for once too.

The moment Huang Silu heard Wu Ya say that, his attitude changed just as quickly.

“No, no, no! Brother, we’re brothers! For the sake of your brother’s future happiness, isn’t it only right that you make a little sacrifice? Right? Heh heh heh.”

The melancholy that had filled his face vanished without a trace.

What a joke.

Expose the truth?

Then he and Qiao Ya would be finished!

And with Qiao Ya’s uncompromising nature, there would absolutely be no coming back from it.

How could that be acceptable?

Even if he had to endure some emotional suffering, even if he had to bear the pain of studying, that was still far better than losing Qiao Ya and being torn apart from the inside out.

Seeing Huang Silu’s change, Wu Ya sighed inwardly.

“Heh, I don’t believe it. I can’t handle a little sparrow like you? Huang Fatty, one day when you stand at the summit of the securities market, you’ll thank me for pushing you so hard today. Only then will you be able to keep pace with me in the future. Otherwise, in this life, our brotherhood will end up as nothing more than a half-lifetime of drifting apart. And that is not what I want.”

Using this matter to force Huang Fatty onward, to make him rise from a useless good-for-nothing into a true financial heavyweight—

that was Wu Ya’s purpose.

After all, in his previous life, there had been very few people he still remembered.

Huang Silu was one of them.

So in this life, preserving that friendship was one of the reasons he had been reborn.

And if they were to walk side by side for the long haul, Huang Fatty had to improve himself.

Otherwise, he would only be left farther and farther behind.

In the end, he would vanish into the sea of people.

“Come on, let’s go back. If we’re late again, Qiao Ya will start questioning us,” Huang Silu said quickly, once he saw that Wu Ya had settled down.

At the same time, he grabbed Wu Ya and half-dragged, half-pulled him out of the restroom.

The way he acted, you would have thought he was afraid Wu Ya might change his mind.

After all, becoming famous while still young was the dream of every passionate youth.

And now Wu Ya had that chance.

Forcing him to endure it for the sake of someone else, to bear that grievance in silence—

that was not something just anyone could do.

So.

Under no circumstances could he let Wu Ya ruin the warmth he had only just secured through regret.

The two of them left the restroom one after the other.

In all the pulling and tugging, they failed to notice the middle-aged man at the stairwell corner on the second floor.

Only after he saw Wu Ya enter the private room did he slowly come down the stairs.

“So it’s this kid? Hmph. His family is poor, and yet he can afford to come to a place this upscale? As expected, he’s just a useless wastrel.”

A poor family.

This middle-aged man turned out to be Liu Mingli.

Liu Qian’s father.

A few days earlier, because Wu Ya had said his family was poor—only to prove that there was no such thing as any secret official source of information—he had been thrown out of the house.

And now, by coincidence, he had come here to host a distinguished guest while buying some hard-to-get supplies.

And even more coincidentally, that distinguished guest was none other than the manager of the hardware company.

Huang Silu’s father, Huang Biao.

But unfortunately, the guest still had not arrived.

By his experience, it looked as though the other side was giving him the brush-off.

“Hm... Tonight, Nannan said she wouldn’t be coming home for dinner. She said she had a class reunion. Could she have come here too?”

Liu Mingli’s steps toward the restroom suddenly halted.

After thinking it over, he turned around and headed straight for Wu Ya’s private room.

If his daughter really was here, then he had to order her home immediately.

He had to stop any and all opportunities for her to be with that boy.

Otherwise, before long, he would drag her down with him.

But just as he reached the door and was about to lift the curtain—

“Huang Silu, after hearing your explanation, I’m starting to get interested in bonds too! No wonder you made such a splash on the very first day of trading!”

A familiar voice suddenly came from inside.

Sure enough, his daughter Liu Qian was among them!

A wave of displeasure shot straight up in Liu Mingli’s heart.

His hand, paused in midair, was about to lift the curtain again.

“No, wait. A splash on the first day of trading? What’s going on? Huang Silu... why does that name sound so familiar?”

Then he froze abruptly once more.

Huang Silu, making a splash on the first day of trading.

Those two concepts made Liu Mingli hesitate.

And in that instant...

“Yes, Huang Fatty, with your extraordinary talent in finance, even your father, who is a manager, must be proud of you!”

Another familiar voice came from inside.

Just like his daughter, they were all praising that Huang Silu!

And this time, another crucial piece of information slipped out.

Huang Silu had a father who was a manager!

A manager?

Wasn’t that the very same Huang Biao, manager of the hardware company, whose son Huang Silu was the distinguished guest he had scheduled to host today?

No wonder the name had sounded familiar.

Before asking someone to host this major figure on his behalf, he had gone to considerable lengths.

He had thoroughly investigated Manager Huang’s background.

Naturally, the purpose was to flatter him in just the right way.

Because of that, although he had never actually met Huang Silu, the name had already been carved into his memory.

“What heaven-sent luck! The son of Manager Huang is actually classmates with my daughter! Hahaha! Who in all of Suiyan District doesn’t know that Young Master Huang is Manager Huang’s darling treasure? The kind of son you’d give stars to and he’d still ask for the moon! If I can build a good relationship with Young Master Huang, why would I still need to ask someone else to host Manager Huang for me, only to end up with no invitation at all?”

At this moment, Liu Mingli was thrilled to the point of trembling.

The guest he had intended to host had not come.

Instead, he had been stuck with a bunch of freeloaders who claimed they could definitely invite Manager Huang.

This was House of Lingering Flavor, a place where a meal cost at least over a hundred yuan.

Though his heart ached, there was nothing he could do.

And now he had unexpectedly learned that his daughter was actually classmates with Huang Silu?

His excitement could be imagined.

But.

How should he build a relationship with Young Master Huang?

Involuntarily, two figures surfaced in Liu Mingli’s mind.

One was the imagined Huang Silu.

Handsome, elegant, and imposing.

The other was that poor boy Wu Ya.

Shabby clothes, sleazy bearing.

Placed side by side, the contrast immediately filled him with disgust.

“What a pity for my daughter! With such a wealthy background and such a noble birthright right beside her, she refuses to go after him and instead has feelings for a poor nobody? Why did you not inherit even a little of your mother’s eye for quality, the way she chose me?”

After a round of lamenting, a smile quickly returned to Liu Mingli’s face.

“Heh, no matter what, from what my daughter just said, she seems to admire this Young Master Huang quite a bit. As long as she doesn’t dislike him, then anything is possible!”

Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated in the slightest.

He lifted his leg and stepped forward—

Whoosh!

With one motion, he swept aside the curtain and walked straight into Wu Ya’s private room!