Chapter 33 – Drunk
After they left, the room suddenly became quiet. According to reason, it should have been comfortable to sleep, but Cheng Che, who had adapted to someone whispering beside him, couldn’t fall asleep anymore.
He lay flat on the bed, just staring at the ceiling, emptying his mind and daydreaming. However, he couldn’t resist thinking about capital investment, which had been nagging at him.
The team’s basic funds were not enough, and his own 20 million yuan was fixed capital. If it could be unfrozen, it could be counted as available… but to unfreeze it, he had to go to his father.
If he went to his father, would there still be worries about no one investing?
It was a cycle.
Well, he had to first see if Brother Feng and the others could find a boss to invest. It would be best if they didn’t have to use money from his father’s side.
After thinking for a while, Cheng Che put on his clothes, got up, and went to the bathroom to tidy up his appearance. He opened the box of facial cream and saw that the cream he had smoothed out with the small lid last night had been scooped out.
Undoubtedly, it was Lin Xingling. He had told him countless times to smooth out the cream after using it, but he just couldn’t remember.
Obsessive-compulsive Cheng Che felt annoyed.
As he left, Wu You from Room 503 also just opened his door. The two of them looked at each other and smiled.
“Morning.”
“Brother Cheng is up.” Wu You propped his foot against the door of Room 504, peeked inside, and knocked on the door. “Hey, Xiao Pei, get up. Let’s get up early today.”
Inside the room, Phantom suppressed the impulse to immediately come out and strangle him, rolled out of bed, and went to the bathroom to shower.
Hearing the faint sound of water, Wu You snapped his fingers, smiled at Cheng Che, and said, “Let’s go ahead, Xiao Pei is taking a shower.”
Cheng Che walked with Wu You to the living room, where Liu Ying was arranging a tarot card layout and calculating.
When he saw the two of them, he paused for a moment, nodded, and gestured without speaking.
The young fortune-teller had a devout expression.
His gestures and frowning expressions while drawing cards were all professional.
After a long deduction, Liu Ying pursed his lips and said, “What a joke. It says that there will be help from a benefactor during the economic crisis, but something must be lost… But what will be lost cannot be determined.”
Love? Dreams? Friendship? Innocence? Money?…
“Don’t scare me.” Wu You scratched his head. “You’re always mysterious, and it’s always accurate… I hope this thing doesn’t shorten your lifespan.”
“Divination only shortens lifespans!” Liu Ying lightly tapped the table a few times, confidently put away the tarot cards, and said, “Divination… tsk, it should be fine, it should be fine.”
Suddenly, he became a bit unsure.
He did always have various illnesses…
After thinking for a moment, Cheng Che said, “It’s better to believe that something exists than to believe that it doesn’t… It’s not superstition, you should touch less of this stuff in the future, if it’s not necessary… stop calculating.”
You’ll find out soon enough, so what’s the point of calculating?
…
Due to Liu Ying’s prediction, when Brother Feng and Lin Xingling came out of the office to announce something important, everyone remained calm.
So this is the economic crisis… we have a benefactor, it’s not our concern.
Brother Feng: “Do you have anything to say?”
Liu Ying raised his hand eagerly. “Do we need to raise money?”
Wu You said, “I’ll ask my mom if she has saved up my dowry.”
“Don’t be like this, guys.”
Lin Xingling frowned and smiled. “You make us sound like a secret organization… don’t worry, the team has money.”
“…”
…The team had no money.
They had really used all sorts of methods to scrape together more than 1.5 million yuan, but among the potential investors they could find, none of them were interested in investing.
Although the investment required less than 5 million yuan, it still required personal information for contract guarantees. The big bosses were not willing to bother for a small sum of money, and the small bosses were afraid of making a loss.
The only one who was easy to talk to was Huaxu, a high-level executive of HuaZhi TV, but he wanted to personally invest 30 million yuan for controlling shares, and DCT couldn’t agree to that.
Brother Feng and Lin Xingling had been running around all day, but in the end, they made no progress.
…After calling the children in the base and telling them to have dinner on their own, the two of them sat dejectedly on the curb of the road, eating skewers.
Brother Feng held a beer can and smiled bitterly. “At least I used to be the coach of one of the original three major families’ teams. How did I end up with no connections?”
Lin Xingling just sighed and ate a piece of grilled gluten.
“Don’t just eat, have a few bottles with me.”
…
[DCT-Clear: Why haven’t you come back yet?]
[DCT-Clear: ???]
They said they would come back later, but they hadn’t returned even until 1 a.m.
…Not replying to messages, phone turned off, and in the end, Phantom used the computer to hack into Stars’ account and locate the exact location of the two coaches:
A skewer barbecue stall.
“I thought something happened… If Dad and the others are at the skewer barbecue stall, they usually come back at around three or four in the morning.” Wu You patted Cheng Che’s shoulder and smiled, “Don’t worry, Brother Cheng, they’re fine.”
Liu Ying nodded and added, “They’re just having a drink and some skewers, nothing will happen.”
Cheng Che: This is a mess.
Although… I’m still worried.
After receiving the location address from Phantom, Cheng Che declined Liu Ying’s suggestion to accompany him to find them. He took the keys to his electric scooter and hurried there.
He disregarded Liu Ying’s comment about the scooter only being able to carry one person.
Upon reaching the destination, he saw the two remaining figures at the barbecue stall from a distance.
The guy in the red T-shirt, propping his head with one hand while dozing off, was Lin Xingling. The one howling on the table was Brother Feng.
“Captain… Coach?” Cheng Che approached them, looking very concerned.
The ground was littered with beer cans and liquor bottles, as if it had gone through a calamity.
“Drunk… are they drunk?”
“…”
Lin Xingling had a good tolerance for alcohol. Even when he was drunk, he remained quiet, smiling and not saying a word.
Gently and softly.
Unlike Brother Feng, who cried about his own incompetence, pounded the table, and stomped his feet. He even held onto the hand of the restaurant owner who came to deliver food and wouldn’t let go.
The owner pulled his hand back from Brother Feng’s grasp and smiled at Cheng Che. “Hey, aren’t you… that player? Came to pick up your coach?”
Cheng Che nodded.
“Stars and Brother Feng don’t usually behave like this, only occasionally.”
After being a regular customer for half a year, the owner knew very well that these two were professional gamers and recognized the blue-eyed youth behind Cheng Che as the newly bought marksman player of the DCT team.
Not only did he know, but he also knew where the DCT team was located… after all, sometimes he had to send these two intoxicated individuals back.
“Okay.” Cheng Che responded.
The owner glanced at the electric scooter parked on the side of the road behind Cheng Che. “How can two people fit on an electric scooter? Well, why don’t I go with you and take them back?”
Seeing Cheng Che’s puzzled expression, he explained, “I’m the one who always sends them back when they get drunk, don’t worry.”
Only then did Cheng Che respond with an “Okay.”
…
Back at the base, Liu Ying and the others were still awake. They came to the entrance and helped carry Brother Feng into his room.
Cheng Che supported Lin Xingling.
Lin Xingling was still conscious, able to understand their words, and even mumbled to them, “Put a glass of water on the table for him.”
“I got it~”
Cheng Che: Come back.
Leading Lin Xingling back to his room, he helped him sit on the bed. Cheng Che stood in front of him, asking seriously, “Did… you find any investors?”
Lin Xingling shook his head.
“Tomorrow, let me go and find them, okay?”
“Hug… good boy, hug.”
“Evading the question…”
“Don’t worry about the investors, let me… let me handle it, trust me.”
I’ll handle it, you can trust me.
“Kid, are you… drunk? Here, hug, don’t worry, if things don’t work out, I’ll ask my dad… hehe, I’ll beg my dad.” Lin Xingling’s words carried a hint of alcohol.
Cheng Che pushed him down onto the bed and said, “Just sleep.”
So, the two adults in the team slept until noon the next day. By the time they woke up, Cheng Che had already left with the preview contract.
Cheng Group’s main businesses were real estate development and live-streaming e-commerce. Its subsidiary companies included Shengping Real Estate, Qingzhu Entertainment, and Dajiang TV, with a nationwide presence.
The assets reached billions of yuan.
The headquarters of the group was located in the Huangpu District, with a forty-story building and the CEO’s office on the thirty-sixth floor.
Cheng Che had arranged to meet his father at his office at 1 p.m. He dressed formally and arrived at the entrance of the CEO’s office on the thirty-sixth floor precisely at 12:45 p.m., knocking on the door.
“Please come in.”
Cheng Che was dressed in a suit, still looking energetic and confident.
“Dad, I… came here today to discuss… the investment in our team,” Cheng Che said with a stutter.
Cheng Ming took the preview contract handed to him, stood awkwardly on the side, and didn’t dare to sit in the chair.
Even after living another life, he still wasn’t very willing to get close to his father.
Cheng Ming took the stack of A4 papers and casually placed them on his desk. He said, “I’ve already read the electronic files you sent this morning. Please have a seat.”
Only then did Cheng Che obediently sit down.
“I’m your father, you don’t need to be restrained here. This place will be yours in the future,” Cheng Ming said, pulling out a box of chocolates from a drawer and handing it to him. “Here, you used to love eating sweets when you were little. I always keep some here, waiting for you to come.”
Keeping them every day? Then why did you search for them for so long?…
“Tha-thank you, Dad…” Cheng Che took the chocolates and asked, “So, what do you think… about this contract?”
Cheng Ming smiled and remained silent.
“If you find it tr-troublesome… I can sign it myself.”
Cheng Che looked at him while holding the box of chocolates, just like when he was a child.
Cheng Ming still didn’t speak, just looked at his own son.
“It’s just… we only need less… less than five million. I can’t use… use my mom’s money, it’s frozen…” Cheng Che spoke incoherently, feeling anxious.
Although it felt like using his mother’s money to plead his case, he had no other choice.
“Have a candy first.”
Cheng Ming’s mobile phone vibrated twice on the table, and then he hung up the call himself. He glanced at the contact name, took the phone, and went out to make a call.
Must be an important client?
Cheng Che frowned. Important clients wouldn’t let the phone ring twice and hang up by themselves.
…Apart from important clients, there was only one person who could make his father abandon him.
His stepmother, whom his father married in his second marriage.
Such an obedient woman, she was even careful not to disturb her husband’s work when making a phone call.
So many details, no wonder she could captivate his father, even causing him to leave home and marry her despite the blackmail.
No wonder she could make his father ignore his well-being for almost a year.
If it weren’t for his efforts in the Eastern Conference finals of the Spring Tournament, his father might not have thought about contacting him in this lifetime…
After all, he had the experience of being abandoned in the previous life.
Annoyed, Cheng Che threw the box of chocolates on the desk and strained his ears, only hearing a vague sentence.
“I’m busy right now, take our daughter to the hospital first.”
Author’s note:
【Mini Theater】
Drunk Butterfly
Hamster Xingling: So, it turns out I’m a drunk butterfly!
Cat Cheche: Butterfly?! Where are the butterflies?
Hamster: (points at himself)
Cat: (slaps it away)