After Thinking I Was the Top, I Was Taken by a Cold Beauty - Chapter 11

Inside the manager’s office of a club in the east of the city, He Dong was kneeling before the supervisor, clutching the man’s pant legs as tears streamed down his face. The soundproofing here was not particularly good; the pulsating music and the clinking of glasses outside formed a sharp contrast with the heavy silence inside.

“Supervisor, I beg you, please just let me work here,” He Dong pleaded repeatedly.

The supervisor was a short, middle-aged man with a prominent beer belly. He was already in a foul mood today and looked at He Dong with utter impatience. This man had originally been a host at the club until he landed a “big fish” last year and was taken away by a wealthy young master. Now, having clearly made some mistake and been abandoned, he was back, begging for a way to survive.

The supervisor kicked He Dong away with a look of disgust, his tone mocking. “Where did this dog come from? Get lost.”

“Brother Zhang, Brother Zhang, I beg you!” He Dong cried. The moment he was kicked away, he lunged forward again to embrace the supervisor’s shoes.

Getting annoyed, the supervisor was about to call security to throw him out when his phone rang. He frowned at He Dong, signaling him to shut up, before answering with a flattering smile. After several nods and repeated promises, Supervisor Zhang hung up, muttering under his breath about a “big fish” arriving.

He Dong, still kneeling on the floor, continued to sob to remind the supervisor that there was still someone in the room. Having received advance notice from his superiors, Supervisor Zhang began organizing a selection of people to serve the high-profile client coming tonight. Just as he was about to head out to personally pick the staff, He Dong grabbed his left leg again.

The supervisor was beyond frustrated. He snapped that He Dong could follow along, which was the only way to get himself free. Having secured another chance, He Dong immediately stopped his tears and followed Supervisor Zhang upstairs.

The club’s architecture resembled a castle from the outside, but the interior held an even more elaborate world, with its underground bar being particularly famous in certain circles. In recent years, many moguls from wealthy circles had found their “ideal companions” here, and the owner abroad was making money hand over fist. He Dong’s plain clothing radiated a sense of poverty that even Supervisor Zhang could not stand, so he immediately ordered someone to take him for a bath and a change of clothes.

Inside private box 11A6-1, dark purple and rose-red lights flashed, and the entire space was thick with the scent of alcohol and perfume. Xia Shisheng had booked the place today, and a table was covered in bottles of champagne worth thousands each. A group of people sat around playing Werewolf.

Yun Deng held a wine bottle, his face covered in dozens of white paper strips, which were a penalty for losing several previous rounds of card games quite miserably. A host dressed in a white silk maid outfit, sensing the moment, took the empty bottle from his hand and fed a peeled grape into Yun Deng’s mouth.

Yun Deng was nearly choked by the sudden feeding, but the host assumed he was just coughing from the alcohol. The scent of perfume on this “0” in women’s clothing was exceptionally strong; Yun Deng found it cloying after a while and used his arm to create some distance between them.

To cheer him up today, Xia Shisheng had ordered three expensive companions to stay by his side, but Yun Deng’s mind was not on them at all. After another round, the group’s excitement reached a peak, and they clamored to switch to a different game, discussing more stimulating penalties.

Yun Deng followed along in a daze. When he lost the next round, the crowd began to jeer. Someone came up with a terrible idea for roleplay, and the next second, several people pinned Yun Deng to the sofa and started stripping his clothes. He was drunkenly sluggish and lacked the strength to push them away.

Xia Shisheng, his “bad friend,” had also drunk a lot. He sat astride Yun Deng and ordered the others to turn around and not look. Yun Deng had worn a button-down shirt today, which Xia Shisheng was now unbuttoning. Perhaps because he had drunk too much, his brain was moving slowly; he started putting new clothes on Yun Deng before the old ones were even fully off. He picked a set of clothes from the various options provided in the room and forced Yun Deng into them.

Yun Deng was so out of it that he could not even tell what he was wearing. He was immediately dragged into the next round. After a few more losses, he had even lost his pants and was forcibly pushed into the restroom by a beautiful woman to put on silk stockings.

The fabric was extremely delicate. Yun Deng leaned against the bathroom wall, slowly taking off his pants and attempting to put on the two stockings he had been given. Unfortunately, his technique was rough, and the fine stockings were soon covered in snags and runs.

Under the bright lights, he regained a bit of clarity and realized that the outfit Xia Shisheng had forced him into was actually a dress. Because he had been sitting cross-legged on the floor earlier, the hem of the dress had been bunched up around his waist. After straightening his clothes, he stepped out for the next round.

The simple game of Werewolf had the eight people in the room enjoying themselves immensely. By now, Xia Shisheng was shirtless, having lost all his upper garments. Yun Deng swayed back to his original spot and asked someone nearby what time it was. Upon hearing it was ten o’clock, he pushed through the crowd, grabbed Xia Shisheng’s ear, and shouted, “Xia Shisheng, I am going home! I have to work tomorrow!”

Whether Xia Shisheng actually heard him was unclear, but Yun Deng had said his piece. He stood up and swayed toward the door. He had truly played too hard today and drunk way too much; he could no longer tell north from south as he walked.

In room 10A1-4, Gu Xiao walked out of the private box holding a stack of design drafts. Even though he had come here to seek inspiration, he had not been able to resist the temptation to have a few extra drinks. The supervisor had been extremely respectful to him and had arranged a room on the tenth floor with the best view for his drawing.

Originally, he had intended to drive back himself, but he ended up calling a friend to pick him up. At this hour, his friend should have just finished work. That ghost of a school had summer session evening self-study that lasted until 9:45 PM, with teachers taking turns supervising.

With the peak hour traffic over, Lin Yanxu arrived quickly after receiving the call, reaching the vicinity in about fifteen minutes. Lin Yanxu went upstairs and found Gu Xiao in the lounge area. The man was slumped in a chair, still holding his tattoo sketches.

“You are here. Sorry for making you make the trip,” Gu Xiao said, opening his eyes with effort and speaking weakly.

“Let’s go, I will take you back.”

Lin Yanxu tried to pull him up, but Gu Xiao suddenly felt nauseous. He pushed Lin Yanxu away and ran toward the nearest restroom. Although the environment here was scented with light incense, it could not hide the smell of alcohol drifting from the rooms. Lin Yanxu did not linger and left the area.

Gu Xiao rushed into the restroom and dry-heaved a few times, which actually made him feel better. After turning on the tap to wash his hands and face, he felt much more sober. Just then, another person in a bizarre outfit rushed in and began vomiting uncontrollably into one of the stalls.

Yun Deng had wandered for a long time without finding the elevator. Instead, he had found the stairwell. As soon as he reached the floor below, his stomach felt like it was doing somersaults. Having finally found a restroom, he felt like he was vomiting his very soul out. His chest hurt so much that tears began to fall, and after he finished, he found himself inexplicably weeping.

“Friend, are you alright?”

Seeing that the person seemed in even worse shape than himself and was wearing such strange clothing, Gu Xiao instinctively assumed he was an employee who had been forced to drink by customers. Yun Deng waved a hand behind him to indicate he was fine, then stumbled over to the sink to wash his face vigorously. Once he had cleaned himself up, he swayed out of the room, wanting only to go home.

Gu Xiao thought the man was quite strange but did not want to get involved. He finished washing up and left as well. Because the traffic at the club entrance was too heavy and prone to congestion, Lin Yanxu had parked the car in a shopping mall’s underground garage about a hundred meters away. The two friends walked together along the sidewalk. Gu Xiao was still marveling that he had not drunk too much today, otherwise the alcohol sellers would have certainly overcharged him.

Shortly after leaving the club entrance, Lin Yanxu noticed a figure lying on the ground in the distance. A few thugs with multicolored hair were standing about two meters away, seemingly scanning the surroundings. Gu Xiao suddenly felt Lin Yanxu pick up his pace and hurriedly followed.

Seeing the two men approaching, the leader of the thugs immediately threatened them, telling them not to mind other people’s business. Lin Yanxu held nothing but contempt for such people. He was about to speak and advise them to leave when the thug suddenly threw a punch at his shoulder.

The next second, the thug let out a sharp cry of pain, shouting repeatedly, “I am sorry, I am sorry! We are leaving right now!” Lin Yanxu released his grip on the man.

Gu Xiao was also startled by Lin Yanxu. He had not expected his friend to have such a fierce side; he had not even seen the thug move before Lin Yanxu had kicked him to his knees and pinned his arm behind his back.

Once the group had fled, Lin Yanxu went to check on the person lying on the ground.

“It is a guy. I thought it was a woman collapsed by the road,” Gu Xiao remarked from the side.

After seeing the man’s face clearly, Lin Yanxu remembered him. It was the young man who had been sleeping in the café that afternoon, and the one who had fallen and scratched his face at the school gate, crying so heart-wrenchingly.

“I know him.”

“What? You know him? What is his name? Where does he live? Should we take him back?” Gu Xiao began to rattle off questions.

Lin Yanxu told Gu Xiao to be quiet, then knelt on one knee to help the man up. The man smelled strongly of alcohol and appeared to have fallen fast asleep from his drunken state. Lin Yanxu looked down at the clothes the man was wearing. After a moment’s thought, he slipped one arm under the man’s shoulders and the other under his knees, lifting him up.

The man felt light in his arms, with almost no weight at all. Only after lifting him did Lin Yanxu realize the man was not wearing pants and the hem of the dress was short. He had to adjust his posture to cover the exposed areas. Finally, he asked Gu Xiao to take off his jacket to cover the man.

Gu Xiao felt the person looked familiar as well, and it soon clicked that this was the same person he had encountered in the restroom. Finding it a strange coincidence, he took a few more looks. His gaze was caught by the two smooth, pale legs. He blurted out, “Is he really a guy? Why are his legs so thin and white?”

Lin Yanxu replied calmly, “Look away.”

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