After Snagging a Stuffy Giant-Wealthy Daddy - Chapter 2

When danger strikes, you must hide!

Li Chu’s heart tightened, and he avoided a direct answer. “I only recently arrived from London, sir. This wine is truly excellent; you will know once you taste it.”

The man did not press further, merely shifting his gaze to the wine on the tray. There were eight bottles in total, which was Ah Le’s final stock for the night.

“How much?”

“Huh?” Li Chu blinked his false eyelashes, momentarily failing to react.

“All of them.” The man pointed to the tray. “I will take them all.”

Li Chu’s eyes widened, and his mind began to race. Each bottle was priced at six hundred; eight bottles meant four thousand eight hundred. With a twenty percent commission, he would take home nine hundred and sixty Hong Kong dollars. That was enough to cover next month’s rent and treat Wen Sitong to a nice meal. After all, she had saved his life, and he had not yet properly repaid her.

Li Chu quoted the price, his voice trembling slightly with excitement. “However, if you take them all, I can apply for a discount from the manager. Let us say four thousand five hundred for you.”

He took the initiative to lower the price, terrified that this “big fish” might slip away.

The man pulled a wallet from the inner pocket of his suit, drew out a stack of banknotes, and placed them on the table without even counting them. “Is this enough?”

Li Chu glanced at the pile; there were at least seven or eight thousand Hong Kong dollars there. His lips felt dry. “It is enough, sir. Shall I wrap them up for you?”

“No need.” The man stood up.

He was very tall. Even in high heels, Li Chu had to look up at him. Once the man stood, the sense of pressure intensified, looming over him like a mountain.

“Leave the wine here,” the man said, his gaze sweeping over Li Chu’s face again. “What is your name?”

“Bella.” Li Chu tucked his hair behind his ear, not daring to meet the man’s eyes.

He was a well-behaved student from the twenty-first century, raised in a society ruled by law. Doing something so dishonest for the first time left him feeling guilty.

The man remained silent for two seconds, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

“Bella,” he repeated in a flat tone, devoid of emotion. “Very good.”

With that, he turned and left the booth, cutting through the crowded dance floor toward the bar’s exit. His aura was so powerful that the crowd instinctively parted to make a path for him.

Li Chu stood frozen until the man’s figure vanished outside. He grabbed the stack of cash from the table, his fingers shaking as he counted it. It was exactly eight thousand Hong Kong dollars, which was nearly double his quoted price.

Ah Le had mentioned that any extra money could be kept as a tip. Combined with his commission, he had earned more tonight than he would have in several months of washing dishes at a restaurant.

Is this what it feels like to strike it rich?

Li Chu returned to the bar with the empty tray. Jia Ming looked on in disbelief. “You actually sold them? All of them?”

Li Chu slapped the cash onto the bar and handed it to Jia Ming. “This is the money for the wine. Please give it to Brother Le.”

After a moment of hesitation, he pulled out a five-hundred-dollar bill and pushed it toward Jia Ming. “This is for a drink on me.”

Jia Ming looked at the five hundred dollars and then at Li Chu with a complicated expression. “That guy did not give you a hard time?”

“No.” Li Chu shook his head. However, remembering those bottomless black eyes, he felt an inexplicable sense of dread. “He was just a bit strange.”

Maybe he was just overthinking it. Doing something bad always came with a psychological burden.

Jia Ming took the money and patted Li Chu on the shoulder. “Among these rich guys, who is not strange? Besides, I think I have seen that man in the newspapers; he is no ordinary person. Be careful. If you see him again, remember to stay far away.”

Li Chu nodded, thinking to himself that Hong Kong is so big it would not be easy to run into him again.

The clamor of the bar continued. Li Chu went to the dressing room to remove his wig and wipe off the heavy makeup. The mirror gradually revealed his original appearance. It was a young, almost boyish face. His features looked as though they had been delicately sketched in ink, especially those slightly upturned eyes and the small brown mole on the bridge of his nose. Since childhood, everyone had praised his looks.

Li Chu hid the earned money in a concealed pocket, feeling as light as air. Like a fizzy soda on a summer day, even the air seemed exceptionally sweet. Perhaps he really could survive in this era and maybe even live a little better.

The streets were empty late at night. As a breeze blew past at three in the morning, Li Chu pulled his collar tight and jogged away. Meanwhile, under a streetlight across the road, a black Rolls-Royce sat quietly. The window was half-down. The man from the bar sat in the back seat with a lit cigar between his fingers. His gaze pierced through the night, resting on Li Chu’s hurrying figure.

When Li Chu returned to his temporary lodgings, Wen Sitong was still awake because she had been worried about him. When she saw him pull out a stack of cash, she nearly jumped in shock.

“Such a huge sum of money! Xiao Chu, you did not have any trouble tonight, right?”

Li Chu’s eyes curved into a smile, and his fair face flushed slightly. “Nothing happened! I met a wealthy client who bought all my wine in one go and gave me a huge tip.”

If only he had opportunities like this every day. He would stop as soon as he earned enough for an ID card. Although the fake wine was not life-threatening, it was still unethical.

“Take this money, Sister Sitong.” Li Chu counted the bills and pressed a stack into her hand. “During this time, I have eaten your food and stayed in your home, I should pay you back.”

“Silly boy!” Wen Sitong pushed the money back as if it were scalding hot. “Keep it for yourself! I did not bring you back for your money!”

She had grown up in the Social Welfare Department and had not received much education, starting to work for a living in her teens. She had a younger brother once, but he was adopted at age six and never heard from again. When she saw Li Chu, she immediately thought of her brother. If her brother were still alive, he would be around Li Chu’s age and perhaps just as handsome.

“But Sister Sitong”

“No buts,” Wen Sitong said with a serious expression. “Listen to me, Xiao Chu. Save this money and do not spend it recklessly. Once you get your ID, go to school. Night school is fine, or you can learn a trade. In short, stay on the right path! That kind of place is not a long-term solution. You are still so young with a wide future ahead of you. You cannot hide in a bar pretending to be a woman forever.”

Wen Sitong had rescued Li Chu from the seashore but never asked much about his background. What was there to ask? The stories of illegal immigrants were all similar: they were poor, they could not survive elsewhere, and they wanted to try their luck in Hong Kong. She had heard too many such stories.

Li Chu’s eyes stung, and his throat felt too tight to speak. Since traveling through time, he had spent every day in fear, wanting to go home but having no home to return to.

“What are you crying for? A man sheds blood, not tears.” Wen Sitong pinched his cheek and laughed. “Tell you what, earning money tonight is a good thing. We should celebrate! However,” she blinked and a hint of shyness appeared on her cheeks, “I have a dinner date with Ah Ken tomorrow. He said he would take me to that new tea restaurant. He does not know you exist yet; I will formally introduce you two another day.”

Ah Ken was Wen Sitong’s new boyfriend who worked as a laborer at the docks.

Hearing this, Li Chu wiped his eyes and smiled again. “Then I will treat you both to a big meal tomorrow! What do you want to eat, Sister Tong? Roast goose? Seafood? Or how about that new Western restaurant in Wan Chai?”

“No, no!” Wen Sitong waved her hands frantically. “It was not easy for you to earn that. Save it. Ah Ken and I are just having a simple meal; do not be so extravagant.”

“That will not do; I must treat you!” Li Chu insisted. “If you had not taken me in, I might have starved to death on the streets by now. I must pay for this meal as a thank you for taking care of me.”

He spoke so sincerely that Wen Sitong finally compromised. “Alright, but just something simple. You are not allowed to go anywhere too expensive.”

Although Wen Sitong insisted on not taking his money, Li Chu proactively paid next month’s rent as a form of repayment. Then, while continuing to work, he began looking for a new place to live. As he started his search, Li Chu’s perception of Hong Kong’s expensive real estate became even more concrete.

“Sixty square feet… that is less than six square meters.” Li Chu looked at the advertisement on the wall and converted the area in his head. It was too small; the space where he slept on the floor at Wen Sitong’s was probably bigger than this.

“This is the cheapest one.” A man with a cigarette in his mouth pointed to another ad. “Forty square feet, two hundred and eighty Hong Kong dollars a month. But to be honest, this is a cage home, which is one floor divided into over a dozen rooms. There are no windows, you need the lights on even during the day, and it is as hot as a steamer in the summer.”

Li Chu pursed his lips. “Is there anything around four hundred that is a bit better?”

The man flipped a page. “This one. A front room on the third floor of a tenement building. Seventy square feet, four hundred and twenty a month. It has a small transom window facing the back alley, so the lighting is okay. However,” he noted that the residents were a mixed bag and many special professions operated on the floors above.

“Can I see it?”

“We can go now.” The man stood up and grabbed a jingling ring of keys from the wall. “I have to tell you first: there is a twenty-dollar viewing fee, and the commission is thirty percent of the rent upon closing.”

“Fine.” Li Chu gritted his teeth and pulled out twenty dollars, which was half a day’s wages from washing dishes.

The man’s expression softened after receiving the money. “Just call me Brother Chang. Are you new to Hong Kong, kid? What do you do for work?”

“I help out at a tea restaurant,” Li Chu answered cautiously. This was what Wen Sitong had taught him: there was no need to reveal too much about himself to strangers.

“Tea restaurants are good. They are stable, and the food is decent.” Brother Chang asked casually without prying. “But if you want to rent a place for four hundred and twenty a month, a tea restaurant wage is not enough, right? Do you have a side gig at night?”

Li Chu gave a vague hum of affirmation.

Brother Chang laughed. “Kid, everyone has a hard time making a living. As long as you do not cause trouble, no one cares what you do.”

While talking, the two arrived at the location. “This is the one.”

Li Chu walked in and looked around. The room was even smaller than he imagined; it was essentially a rectangle where he could see everything at a single glance. The room contained only a rusted iron bed frame and a wooden table with a missing leg propped up by bricks. The toilet was outside the door, shared with several other small cubicles.

“What do you think?” Brother Chang leaned against the doorframe smoking. “Four hundred and fifty. You will not find a cheaper private room in all of Hong Kong.”

Li Chu paced around, felt the money in his pocket, and finally decided to rent it. After all, his finances did not allow him to be picky.

Having closed the deal, Brother Chang was in a good mood and treated Li Chu to an iced lemon tea at the shop downstairs. In the corner of the dim shop, an old television was playing the evening news.

“The Shao Group announced today that it will invest in building a new port in the Northern District,” the female anchor’s voice flickered in and out. “In recent years, Mr. Shao Tingyue has taken over from his father, Shao Licheng, actively expanding the shipping empire to become the new generation’s Shipping Magnate.”

Li Chu sipped his cold lemon tea. Since arriving, he had been so busy working that he knew little about this era. The Shao Group and a “Shipping Magnate” sounded like a top-tier old-money family. Li Chu was curious, but just then, the TV screen turned to static. The anchor’s voice continued, but the footage was gone.

Brother Chang scoffed from the side. “The Shao family is truly top-tier nobility. They live in mansions on the Peak and drive Rolls-Royces. Just the scraps from their table would be enough to feed people like us for a lifetime.”

Li Chu’s eyes rounded. “That powerful?”

“More than just powerful. Second Young Master Shao has more than doubled the family’s assets in the last two years. I hear both the underworld and the authorities respect him; he is a major figure who truly calls the shots in Hong Kong.” Brother Chang finished his tea with a resentful tone. “People like us can haul cargo at the docks until we die and still will not earn enough for one of their meals.”

Li Chu got the keys to the room. He bought a bag of fruit for the security guard downstairs to thank him for the job referral, then went back to Wen Sitong’s to pack his bags. He had arrived with nothing, and even now, his move consisted only of a small backpack with a few pieces of clothing and some toiletries.

Wen Sitong was reluctant to see him go but did not stop him. After all, her boyfriend Ah Ken was already expressing his dissatisfaction with the living arrangement. Once settled in his rental, Li Chu finally felt a sense of belonging. Life was hard, but it was not entirely hopeless.

He had considered jumping into the sea again to see if he could return home. But every time he got near the shore, some well-meaning passerby would convince him not to do anything rash. Ultimately, fearing that a commotion would attract the police, he had given up on the idea.

Li Chu gradually adapted to his tiny room, but he found the shared bathroom unbearable. The bathroom was at the end of the hallway, shared by all genders with only thin wooden boards separating the shower stalls. His skin was naturally fair and his frame slender, making him stand out among the laborers. Therefore, Li Chu always chose to shower late at night and moved as fast as possible.

But that did not stop people from looking for trouble.

“Hey, you inside! Why are you showering so long? Everyone is waiting.” A gravelly male voice sounded outside the door. “You look so fair and tender; do you want me to help you scrub your back?”

Another malicious snicker followed. Li Chu’s hair stood on end. He pressed his hands firmly against the door, his voice tight. “Almost done! Please wait a moment!”

“Wait for what? Open up and let us see. We are all men, what are you shy for?” The person outside pushed harder against the door, making the wood creak.

Li Chu scrambled to pick up his wet clothes, his fingers trembling. A woman living in the next room suddenly banged on her door and shouted, “It is the middle of the night! What is with all the noise? Do you not need to sleep?”

The people outside the bathroom finally quieted down, and Li Chu returned to his small room in low spirits. At this moment, his homesickness reached its peak, even though he no longer had a home in his former world.

Over the following week, Li Chu never saw that wealthy man again. The wine stored at the bar had not been touched either; the VIP was likely too busy and had forgotten. Li Chu did not mind. Once he had saved enough money, he submitted his resignation to the manager, Ah Le.

Ah Le stared at him and smiled. “You are satisfied with just this much? If you think business has been slow lately, I have other ways to make money, depending on if you want to do it.”

Li Chu shook his head. He had watched enough films to know that nothing good ever followed that kind of offer. Ah Le did not say much more. He told Li Chu to finish his last few days properly and gave him an extra red envelope as a parting gift.

However, that day, just as Li Chu pushed open the back door of the bar, the bartender Jia Ming rushed out from inside.

“Li Chu, why are you still here?” Jia Ming looked nervous, his voice kept very low. “Go! Do not come to work starting tonight!”

“What happened?” Li Chu’s heart sank, his eyelashes trembling.