Chapter 10: The Thoughts of the Crowd
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Seeing that Li Yan had brought yet another female companion, the front-of-house manager of Cloudview Pavilion happily led them in person through a curved corridor toward their reserved private room.
A new female companion, brought to Cloudview Pavilion—those two things alone meant that Li Yan’s spending for the evening would certainly be substantial.
That was an insight the front-of-house manager had figured out long ago.
A faint sandalwood fragrance drifted through the air. On either side of the corridor, artistic paintings and potted landscapes appeared and disappeared behind the soft light.
The lake outside the windows seemed close enough to touch. A waterbird skimmed across the surface, casting a fleeting shadow.
Wang Zhen unconsciously slowed his pace, afraid that too abrupt a movement might shatter the exquisite tranquility.
Shen Qingyue, meanwhile, kept taking photographs with her phone. Li Yan had long since grown accustomed to such scenes.
When the three of them entered Private Room 008 at Cloudview Pavilion, the room’s elegant atmosphere seemed to merge with the shimmering light and shadows of the lake.
Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows lay the gently rippling water. The last rays of dusk spilled into the room, creating an atmosphere that was soft and serene.
The furnishings centered on natural wood and understated elegance, with blue-and-white porcelain tableware providing delicate accents. An understated sense of both classical charm and modern refinement lingered in the air.
To be honest, the first time Li Yan had come here, he had been bored one weekend and visited alone.
Even then, the scenery had stunned him. Despite the price of more than three thousand yuan per person, he had felt that the experience was worth it.
What mattered even more was that, after bringing seven or eight girls here for meals, he had achieved a one-hundred-percent success rate to date. That had made Li Yan a regular customer.
After personally leading them inside and inviting them to sit down, the manager asked with a smile, “Brother Yan, what would you like to order tonight?”
Li Yan settled comfortably against the back of his chair, as was his habit, and first asked Wang Zhen and Shen Qingyue what they preferred.
Wang Zhen was a native of the city. Accustomed to ordinary home cooking, he was not particularly particular about seafood or expensive ingredients, though he occasionally tagged along with Li Yan for a few good meals.
Shen Qingyue merely smiled and said that she had no dietary restrictions. In truth, she was mainly afraid of revealing her lack of familiarity with such a place.
“Let’s have a steamed spotted grouper, a basket of black-truffle king prawn dumplings, and a double-boiled soup with old hen and matsutake mushrooms. Then add stir-fried razor clam slices with XO sauce, crispy South African baby abalone, a chilled caviar sushi platter, and finally the signature lychee-wood-roasted duck rolls.”
With a single sentence, he ordered five or six dishes. The manager recorded everything with a smile and nodded without the slightest surprise. Li Yan came here often and knew the menu inside out.
After finishing, Li Yan added, “For the wine, bring a bottle of French white wine. The Chablis we had last time was quite good.”
As the manager recorded the order, Wang Zhen and Shen Qingyue instinctively lowered their heads and glanced at the price list.
The steamed spotted grouper was priced at more than three thousand yuan.
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The black-truffle king prawn dumplings came eight to a basket, yet cost more than a thousand yuan.
The razor clam slices stir-fried with XO sauce cost nearly two thousand.
A single serving of old hen and matsutake soup was over a thousand, while the chilled caviar sushi platter soared past three thousand.
The lychee-wood-roasted duck rolls, though the final dish of the meal, were no less extravagant, starting at two or three thousand yuan at the very least.
“These dishes… are certainly very distinctive,” Shen Qingyue said, gently setting down the menu and keeping her tone as even as possible.
Wang Zhen followed her lead. “Yes, they look like they should be delicious.” His voice was calm, but a faint shock stirred within him.
He had accompanied Li Yan to several other high-end restaurants before, but none had been as expensive as this one.
Then again, Li Yan’s main purpose in coming to such places was to pursue women. Why would he bring Wang Zhen, the eternal third wheel, along for no reason?
This time, however, it was partly because they were practicing driving together. Besides, Wang Zhen had been wanting to find a girlfriend for quite some time, so Li Yan had simply brought him along.
Li Yan saw everything clearly, but he neither offered an explanation nor showed off. He merely nodded at the manager, signaling that the order could be placed.
The manager collected the menu and left with a smile.
Only the silhouettes of the three of them and the faint reflections of the rippling lake remained inside the private room.
There was no need for Li Yan to engage in the polite ritual of making others choose the dishes.
He was spending more than ten thousand yuan to treat them to dinner. As long as he knew what they could not eat, that was enough. Did they really expect him to let them order as well? How shameless would that be?
Li Yan had never been the sort to shortchange himself. He would never do something so foolish.
Take another classmate of Li Yan’s, for example. He was also a second-generation heir from a wealthy family—and one from a particularly powerful family in the city.
After hearing about Li Yan’s impressive success rate when dining at this restaurant, he had specifically asked Li Yan to reserve a private room for him so that he could pursue a younger schoolmate in her first year of high school.
Naturally, Li Yan had helped.
What followed was the familiar scene: the girl ordered an entire table of dishes, the wealthy heir paid the bill, and then came the final line:
“I don’t want to rush into anything. Just give me a little more time.”
Spending more than twenty thousand yuan was painful even for a wealthy heir.
After all, he was not Li Yan, whose money was truly his own.
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Even among wealthy heirs, how much pocket money could a high school student possibly have?
When Li Yan learned what had happened, he merely smiled without offering an opinion. Everyone had to bear the consequences of their own fate.
Inside, an elegant melody drifted softly through the room. The fading light from the lake slanted in through the windows, illuminating the tiny motes of dust until they seemed to glitter with gold.
Shen Qingyue received a message on WeChat informing her that her best friend, Liu Yuting, had arrived at the entrance. She rose gently and said to Li Yan and Wang Zhen, “I’ll go bring her in.”
Li Yan nodded.
The moment Shen Qingyue stepped outside, Wang Zhen immediately moved closer to Li Yan.
“Brother Yan, I’m counting on you tonight! And pay first—I’ll transfer the money to you when we get back.”
Seeing how nervous Wang Zhen looked, Li Yan nodded indifferently and replied casually, “It’s fine. I’ll treat you tonight. You don’t need to pay.”
His earlier mention of splitting the bill had only been a joke.
Li Yan knew perfectly well that Wang Zhen did not have the money to split a meal that might cost more than ten thousand yuan.
But Li Yan would never take advantage of Wang Zhen. From time to time, Wang Zhen treated him to meals as well. They were usually nothing more than inexpensive barbecues, but the food itself was never the point. What mattered was the thought behind it.
Besides, for Wang Zhen, even a barbecue meal was not exactly cheap.
Shen Qingyue stepped out of the private room. The corridor carried the slow, flowing notes of a guqin melody, while footsteps faded softly into the plush carpet.
Her mind was still lingering over the scene of Li Yan ordering the dishes, the refined atmosphere of the restaurant, and the picturesque lake outside the window.
She herself had never imagined that one day she would wait for her best friend in such a place, with such composure and ease.
For some reason, an inexplicable sense of superiority had risen within her. It was faint, but undeniably real.
She passed through the semi-open curved corridor, and the servers bowed respectfully as they let her pass.
As she approached the restaurant entrance, Shen Qingyue saw through the glass doors that Liu Yuting was standing there, looking around.
Liu Yuting was clearly somewhat ill at ease. Standing before this luxurious Cantonese restaurant, she examined its furnishings, so utterly different from those of an ordinary establishment.
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