Heartthrob, Your Image is Crumbling!

Chapter 322: Taking Tao Tian Home

After midnight, the bustling crowds dispersed. Although there were still quite a few young people on the streets, they were already showing clear signs of exhaustion.Tao Tian drove Zhou Yuwen and Zhu Hong to find a place to eat.

Passing by several subway entrances, Zhou Yuwen noticed quite a few young men and women squatting nearby, laughing and chatting about who knows what.

It was obvious that these people had come to the city center to celebrate the New Year, but their accommodations were too far away. With the subways shut down, they certainly could not get back and were left to wander the streets like this. These young people were not lacking money, but spending two or three hundred yuan on a taxi home was too extravagant for them. Moreover, hotel prices today were astronomical. A hotel room that normally cost a little over one hundred yuan would go for over five hundred today, and even with five hundred yuan, one might not be able to secure a room.

Every New Year's Eve presented this exact same scene.

Tao Tian led Zhou Yuwen and the other to a noodle shop with a very small storefront.

By now, business was deserted, but the neon sign outside was still flashing.

Zhu Hong looked at this open noodle shop with great interest and smiled. "I cannot believe you could find such a unique shop this late. It seems you two have not wasted your time hanging around here."

Zhou Yuwen replied, "I would not know about that. She has never brought me here before."

Tao Tian's small face turned slightly red. Unable to resist, she tugged at Zhou Yuwen's hand, acting coquettishly like a girlfriend, and whispered, "It is not that I did not want to bring you here, but that you never gave me the chance."

"Oh, President Zhou, did you hear that? Your girlfriend has a complaint," Zhu Hong said with a smile.

Zhou Yuwen, however, did not think much of it.

It had just snowed a couple of days ago, and the air was somewhat cold.

Tao Tian was still wearing that green dress, but she had draped a black down jacket over it.

Zhu Hong, on the other hand, still maintained her same dressing up.

Just like that, Tao Tian held onto Zhou Yuwen's arm, and with Zhu Hong following behind, they entered the noodle shop.

In truth, the noodle shop was already preparing to close at this hour.

But seeing customers arrive, the boss figured he had nothing else going on anyway, so he cooked up three bowls of noodles.

Zhu Hong had a stomach full of alcohol today, so eating something piping hot at this time felt very comfortable.

However, Zhou Yuwen was quite curious. With so much delicious food earlier, how come Tao Tian had not eaten her fill either?

Tao Tian explained that she had been standing the whole time earlier and had no time to eat.

"The noodles here are really delicious, you should give them a try."

Zhu Hong noticed that from the tone Tao Tian used when speaking to Zhou Yuwen, as well as the look in her eyes, it was certain that this girl really liked him.

Yet Zhou Yuwen did not seem to have deep feelings for this girl.

Then again, among the highly capable men Zhu Hong had interacted with in the past.

They all shared one common trait: they would not focus too much of their energy on women.

It was just that those men were all in their forties or fifties.

But the Zhou Yuwen sitting right in front of her was only eighteen.

The heater was on inside the noodle shop, so Tao Tian took off her down jacket as soon as she entered. Even so, her draped long hair still got in the way of her eating the noodles.

Seeing this, Zhou Yuwen asked if she had not brought a hairband.

Tao Tian shook her head, saying she had not expected to come eat noodles, so naturally, she did not bring a hairband.

Zhou Yuwen thought for a moment, took out a single chopstick, and reached over to gather Tao Tian's beautiful hair.

Tao Tian was very obedient toward Zhou Yuwen. Although she did not know what he was going to do, she compliantly let him gather her beautiful hair.

From her perspective, she probably could not see what Zhou Yuwen was doing.

But Zhu Hong could see it clearly.

She truly had not expected that Zhou Yuwen, at such a young age, would possess this kind of skill. Under his deft hands, a single chopstick was instantly transformed into a wooden hairpin to hold back her hair. In just a few swift motions, he had completely pinned up Tao Tian's long hair.

The two green leaves on Tao Tian's chest covered her important areas. She was actually very suited for having her hair pinned up, as it better highlighted her strengths and showed off the slender elegance of her neck.

Once it was pinned up, Tao Tian took out her phone and used the front camera to look at herself. She was pleasantly surprised by her new look.

Seeing this, Zhu Hong chuckled softly and asked, "I did not expect President Zhou to have such a skill."

"I suppose I practiced it on her," Zhou Yuwen replied.

Hearing these words, Tao Tian felt a little flutter of sweetness in her heart.

Taking advantage of the moment while Zhou Yuwen and Zhu Hong were talking, the feeling somewhat went to her head, and she took the initiative to tilt her head over.

She planted a quick kiss on Zhou Yuwen's cheek.

"?" This genuinely caught Zhou Yuwen off guard.

He saw Tao Tian wearing a shy expression on her face, lowering her head to continue eating silently over there.

Witnessing this scene, Zhu Hong naturally had to sigh in admiration at how nice it was to be young.

Zhou Yuwen did not care too much about it, and the three of them just kept their heads down, eating their noodles.

There had been too many people at Gao Bide's company annual party earlier, making it inconvenient to discuss certain things.

Now that it was late at night, there were only the three of them in the noodle shop.

While eating her noodles, Zhu Hong asked, seemingly unintentionally, "President Zhou, I heard that your delivery company has already captured ninety percent of the Xianlin market. I wonder if you have any other planning."

"Other plans? What kind of plan are you referring to, Sister Zhu?"

"Regarding the future development of the delivery company."

They were finally getting down to business.

In truth, Tao Tian was very suited to be the kind of canary kept by one's side and brought out for social events. First of all, she was undeniably beautiful, and secondly, she knew how to read the room.

Just moments ago while eating noodles, she had been chatting and laughing merrily with Zhou Yuwen.

But the moment Zhu Hong brought up business matters, Tao Tian stopped making a sound entirely, keeping her head down and honestly eating her noodles.

Zhou Yuwen said, "I have not thought about the delivery company's development. I told you before, Sister Zhu, that when I founded the delivery company, my core intention was simply to help more impoverished students find stable part-time work."

"The original intention is good, but the delivery industry actually has huge room for development."

Zhu Hong said with a smile, pointing out to Zhou Yuwen that their country had a massive population, and with the development of the internet, other industries were waiting to be revitalized. "Yuwen, all of your businesses may seem to be developing in a casual and disorganized manner, but they faintly complement each other. I absolutely do not believe you are just casually playing around."

Zhou Yuwen told her that, as a matter of fact, he was just casually playing around, whether she believed it or not.

"The delivery industry has huge prospects, but it is also a very complex industry. I am just an ordinary university student; the water here is too deep, I cannot handle it."

Zhou Yuwen did not hide anything from her and bluntly stated, "Doing part-time delivery is fine, but doing full-time delivery is definitely impossible."

"Because delivery earns hard-earned money. Whether it is windy or raining outside, delivery drivers have to run everywhere. Setting aside the danger they might encounter, the main issue is that this job offers no security."

"If I really want to take the delivery business seriously, I would definitely have to provide the Five Social Insurances and One Housing Fund for every single delivery driver. However, that is a massive expense. I am nothing more than a somewhat capable university student, how could I possibly accomplish that?"

When Zhou Yuwen finished saying this, Zhu Hong could not help but freeze for a moment.

She took another long look at Zhou Yuwen.

Yet she saw Zhou Yuwen simply sitting there eating silently, completely focused on his noodles.

What Zhou Yuwen mentioned was a point Zhu Hong had actually never thought about.

The social security issue for delivery drivers?

At this time, whether it was Ele.me or Meituan Delivery, they were only just starting to develop their delivery services. How could they possibly think about providing the Five Social Insurances and One Housing Fund for every driver? Right now, all they knew was fighting over territory and seizing market share.

Therefore, Zhou Yuwen's seemingly casual remark suddenly made Zhu Hong see a problem that would emerge several years down the line.

Paying the Five Social Insurances and One Housing Fund for delivery drivers?

Zhou Yuwen would not do it.

Her company certainly would not do it either.

Because the burden was simply too huge. If they genuinely paid the Five Social Insurances and One Housing Fund, let alone making money, they would not even be able to afford the losses.

"So when you ask about my future planning, I can only say that I am taking it one step at a time. If there is a suitable price, I would not mind selling this company."

Zhou Yuwen disliked beating around the bush, so he simply laid it out directly.

Sell?

Zhu Hong felt her heart stirred, a glint flashing in her eyes, but she hid it very well.

She asked impassively, "Then how much are you planning to sell it for?"

The quote her company had given Zhu Hong was two million yuan; meaning, as long as it was under two million, she could negotiate casually, ideally acquiring the delivery company from Zhou Yuwen at the lowest possible price.

But after interacting with Zhou Yuwen, Zhu Hong intended to make friends with him and just offer him the full two million straight away.

Zhou Yuwen first slurped a mouthful of noodles. Without even lifting his head, he simply held up three fingers.

"Three million?"

Zhu Hong furrowed her brows. That was above her expected budget.

Zhou Yuwen looked up. "Not three million. Thirty million."

"Thirty million!?"

Zhu Hong was stunned. She had always thought Zhou Yuwen knew the rules of the game quite well, but she never expected him to start playing the kind of bargaining tricks used by jade sellers in southern Yunnan.

Zhu Hong could not help but laugh. "Yuwen, you must be joking with me."

"I am not joking, Sister Zhu. Thirty million is already me giving you a ten million discount."

"So you mean to say you originally intended to ask for forty million?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Tao Tian kept her head down, eating silently over there, but hearing the figures the two were discussing made her somewhat unable to sit still.

In fact, when Zhou Yuwen brought up thirty million.

Tao Tian could not resist lifting her head to shoot him a glance.

She had been slurping noodles in her mouth at the time, making her look quite comical.

But she could not help it; she really wanted to know if Zhou Yuwen was joking.

That was thirty million yuan, after all!

And he claimed to have given a ten million discount.

No matter how one thought about it, it sounded like a joke.

Zhu Hong could not suppress a laugh and began to analyze the situation for Zhou Yuwen, saying, "As far as I know, your delivery company has only been established for half a year, and it has merely captured the market in Xianlin University Town."

"Even if we generously assume Xianlin University Town has one hundred thousand people."

"That means for a market of one hundred thousand people, you are selling it for thirty million? Yuwen, are you sure you are not joking with me?"

The noodles at this shop were delicious, but the portion was too small.

After just a few slurps, he was unexpectedly finished.

Zhou Yuwen wiped his mouth and said, "Right now, it indeed only occupies the Xianlin market, but is the New Year not fast approaching?"

"Your delivery department has just been established. By the time it truly starts operating, it will probably be March. Within these two months, I will conquer the markets in Jiangning and Pukou, which equates to half of the market in Jinling."

"Even so, it is not worth thirty million."

"It is not worth it, true. But if I sell Xianlin Delivery to Ele.me, it will be."

Zhu Hong raised an eyebrow. She certainly had not expected Zhou Yuwen's sources of information to be so well-informed.

Of course he was well-informed. Truth be told, Ele.me was founded even before Meituan Delivery.

But Ele.me was centered in Shanghai, radiating out toward the south.

Meanwhile, Meituan in Jingcheng discovered the delivery market later on, hastily established a delivery department, and then began blooming in all directions.

Although the two delivery companies were founded one after the other, they had already drawn their battle lines, and Jinling was the very first major battleground where the two would clash.

After determining a victor at this station, in the next year or two, they would start fighting until their heads bled. All sorts of price wars would emerge endlessly. Zhou Yuwen remembered those two years very clearly; at that time, ordering food delivery cost only one yuan, and calling a taxi took just a few cents.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last. After thoroughly figuring out the behavioral habits of the customers, the starting price for taxis skyrocketed crazily, and the cost of ordering food delivery grew day by day.

Zhou Yuwen knew that he could not outplay these commercial magnates.

Zhou Yuwen only wanted to lock in his gains. Taking advantage of the time when they were viciously fighting each other, he could hoard his rare commodity and sell his delivery company for a good price.

He brought up the fact that the two companies were as incompatible as fire and water.

Then it was no longer a question of whether it was worth the price or not.

But rather that they absolutely had to buy it.

If you did not buy it, your opponent would.

Zhu Hong marveled at the commercial information Zhou Yuwen had acquired, but she only revealed a slight look of surprise. She quickly recovered and let out an "Oh."

"If you intend to sell to Ele.me, that is not a bad choice."

"Yes, indeed. I will either sell to Ele.me, or I will sell to your company."

Zhou Yuwen pointed it out directly.

Zhu Hong chuckled and said, "Then I will have to go back and discuss it with the boss first, to see if they are willing to buy it."

Zhou Yuwen said that was fine.

Zhu Hong's objective had been achieved; she had probed for Zhou Yuwen's bottom price.

But this bottom price was far too high. Zhu Hong could not make the call at all, and it was impossible to even continue negotiating.

If it had been three million, there would have been room for negotiation.

Thirty million.

Then she could only say goodbye.

After that, Zhu Hong did not even have the mood to finish eating her noodles.

She turned around, intending to leave.

But as it turned out, it was difficult to catch a taxi at this hour.

"Sister Zhu, let us give you a ride." It was still Zhou Yuwen who was considerate. He remarked that even if the deal fell through, decency and goodwill remained.

"Did you not ask me for a recommendation for talent, Sister Zhu?"

Seeing Zhou Yuwen's continued calm and breezy demeanor, Zhu Hong finally realized the true depth of this young man's shrewdness. He had known her purpose all along, and his demand for thirty million was no joke.

However, he was being a bit too overconfident.

Tao Tian, who was only responsible for driving, failed to understand the situation. The two of them had clearly been chatting quite well earlier, but for some unknown reason, the topic of conversation had suddenly turned cold later on.

Zhou Yuwen was sitting in the passenger seat.

Meanwhile, Zhu Hong sat in the back.

It was not until they were almost at the hotel that Zhu Hong spoke up, "Actually, your demand for thirty million is not entirely impossible."

"But the prerequisite is that you can capture fifty percent of the Jinling market."

"Otherwise, neither we nor Ele.me will agree to your demands."

"The immense scale of these two companies is not something you can handle all as one person. With a bit of bad luck, you might not get a single penny. Have you thought about that?" Zhu Hong asked from the backseat.

Zhou Yuwen replied, "I am young, I am not afraid. At worst, ten years from now, I can always make a comeback."

"Fair enough." Zhu Hong cast another glance at Zhou Yuwen and then chuckled, saying, "Alright, I will wait and see."

They arrived precisely at the hotel entrance.

Zhu Hong stepped out of the car.

Zhu Hong was staying at the Weijing Hotel in the Xuanwu District.

It was considered a well-established, old-school five-star hotel.

After Zhu Hong left, only Zhou Yuwen and Tao Tian remained in the car.

Tao Tian's mood grew nervous, and she felt as though her voice trembled slightly when she spoke. Unable to hold back, she asked, "Then where are we going next?"

Zhou Yuwen checked the time.

It was already one-thirty in the morning.

Zhou Yuwen noted that even if he sent her back to the dormitory now, she probably would not be able to get inside.

Hearing this, Tao Tian let out a laugh like silver bells; she definitely could not go back.

Zhou Yuwen said, "Let us go to Zhonghai Garden."

"Qu Jing went home to keep her parents company. There is no one at Zhonghai Garden, so we can make do there for the night."

Zhou Yuwen had originally wanted to arrange a hotel for Tao Tian, but arranging a hotel would mean booking two rooms.

Right now, it was New Year's Eve and hotels were overflowing with people. Getting even one room was unlikely, let alone two.

It was impossible for Zhou Yuwen to go sleeping with Tao Tian.

Even if Tao Tian had massive bombshells.

But her massive bombshells were landmines that could explode anywhere, anytime.

Leaving aside other things, just the incident where she slapped Zheng Yanyan last time, followed by her leading the girls from the Arts Department to backstab him, all the way to her ultimate threat of suicide.

With all these incidents happening one after another, who would dare get entangled with her?

Anyway, Zhou Yuwen's current mindset was that he could play along and put on a show with Tao Tian, but he never thought about truly getting physically involved with her.

Looking strictly from Zhou Yuwen's perspective, the current Tao Tian was still very obedient.

And so, following the navigation, they arrived at Zhonghai Garden.

It was nearly two o'clock. Zhonghai Garden was dead silent; the residents in the residential area had basically all gone to sleeping.

The car was parked in the underground garage.

Zhou Yuwen had also drunk some alcohol today. Though he was not drunk, Tao Tian played her part flawlessly.

As soon as she got out, she supported Zhou Yuwen and said in a tender voice, "Slow down a bit."

"Mhm."

Zhou Yuwen possessed strong self-control, but even with profound self-control, with those massive bombshells wrapped inside Tao Tian's green leaf dress swaying back and forth right in front of his eyes, Zhou Yuwen still felt a wave of dry mouth and thirst.

Zhou Yuwen thought to himself, 'This woman is too troublesome; I absolutely must hold back.'

'At the very least, I cannot be the one to initiate.'

Compared to Lan Ting, Zhonghai Garden was considered a mid-range residential area, consisting mostly of twenty-seven-story high-rises. As such, the residents were quite mixed, and the property management environment was not as good as Lan Ting's.

But it still qualified as a mid-range residential area.

For these university students who had not yet graduated, living here was still quite financially stressful.

In the elevator, Tao Tian told Zhou Yuwen that this was her second time coming to Zhonghai Garden.

Zhou Yuwen asked, "When was the last time?"

"A month ago. I came with Minmin, intending to rent an apartment, but the prices in this residential area were too expensive, so we did not rent one," Tao Tian honestly told Zhou Yuwen.

Zhou Yuwen asked her how much it cost to rent an apartment here.

"A two-bedroom place costs 1,800 yuan."

"That is not too expensive."

Zhou Yuwen said.

"I heard that Jingjing's apartment belongs to you? A three-bedroom, one-living room layout?" Tao Tian was somewhat cautious when she asked this.

Zhou Yuwen simply nodded. "When my royalty payments were issued back then, I conveniently bought two apartments. Figuring that leaving it empty would be a waste, I just let Qu Jing stay there."

"That is so nice."

Tao Tian's gaze dimmed slightly.

She looked faintly at Zhou Yuwen and said quietly, "If I had not been so willful back then, perhaps I would be the one living here."

Her affectionate eyes, faintly knitted and brimming with emotion, gazed intently at Zhou Yuwen, looking as if they could speak.

Zhou Yuwen averted his gaze and said, "You would not. Because you are someone with dignity. You are like a bird; no one can cage you."

Hearing this, Tao Tian felt somewhat disappointed.

She wanted to say that for Zhou Yuwen, she was willing to fly into that cage.

Just at that moment, the elevator arrived at their floor.

Zhou Yuwen said, "We are here."