Celestial Night Emperor

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Who’s Paying the Bill?

Two hundred and seventy thousand for one bottle?

’Is that for real?’

’And we opened eleven of them!’

Yuan Jingjing couldn’t even do the math in her head.

The others hadn’t heard and looked at Yuan Jingjing in surprise. "What’s wrong? Did it go down the wrong pipe?"

Li Qian went into full-on mockery mode. "This is fine wine. It takes a person of taste to enjoy it. It seems Jingjing just isn’t cut out for it."

Yuan Jingjing couldn’t be bothered to respond to her. She looked down at the Armand de Brignac Rosé, not daring to take another sip.

The others also put down their glasses.

The atmosphere grew tense.

Just then, footsteps sounded as the sky restaurant’s manager and a waiter appeared together.

Both were smiling. "Manager Zhang, all the wine has been served. We just wanted to ask in advance, will you be paying by bank transfer or electronically? As the amount is quite large, our hotel has finance staff on hand to assist you!"

What?

’A large amount?’

Zhang Haodong coughed, annoyed. "Afraid I’ll skip out on the bill? Don’t you know who I am? Fine, bring me the bill. I’ll settle it now!"

The hotel manager glanced at him sidelong and gave a slight raise of his hand.

The waiter set down a tray. The bill wasn’t long, but it was covered in several official-looking stamps.

The hotel manager picked it up and slowly read aloud, "Eleven bottles of Armand de Brignac Rosé at 270,000 yuan each, plus the food... for a grand total of 2,971,497 yuan!"

PFFT!

Everyone at the table spat out their wine.

Zhang Haodong’s eyes glazed over. He stammered, "Wh-what did you say? How much?"

The hotel manager’s expression didn’t change. He first had the waiter fetch a mop to clean up the mess, then smiled elegantly. "Manager Zhang is an internal employee, so we’ll give you the discounted price. We’ll waive the odd numbers. That’s 2.97 million yuan total! Will you be paying by card or electronic transfer?"

Zhang Haodong began to tremble.

Beside him, Li Qian snapped out of her shock and gave the man a hard shove. "Hurry up and pay! D-don’t you dare embarrass me, you hear?"

SMACK!

Zhang Haodong raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face. "You pay for it if you have the money! I have less than a million in all my bank accounts combined! H-how am I supposed to pay?"

Li Qian was dumbfounded.

Her face turned purple as she shrieked, "Darling, your annual salary is five million! Can’t you just bite the bullet and pay the bill? Th-they’re all old classmates! They’re all watching!"

She was on the verge of tears.

Zhang Haodong hung his head, his face ashen, and said nothing.

Across from them, the hotel manager suddenly chuckled. "I believe this young lady is mistaken. Manager Zhang is actually just a junior manager in the sales department. Based on my understanding of the financial group, his annual salary should be around five hundred thousand, correct?"

BUZZ!

Li Qian’s head felt like it was about to explode.

’Th-this is impossible.’

She tugged at Zhang Haodong, sobbing. "Y-you lied to me?"

Zhang Haodong mumbled back sullenly, "I said my income was five million... that’s base salary plus commission. But I haven’t closed any new business yet. With just the base salary, it’s... it’s five hundred thousand!"

The classmates at the table were now so embarrassed they couldn’t even look up.

Because the wealthy patrons at the surrounding tables were all watching the spectacle.

’This is so humiliating!’

’Absolutely mortifying!’

Zhang Haodong’s forehead was beaded with sweat. He cast aside all pretense of dignity, looked up pitifully, and said, "Classmates, I’m begging you, help a brother out. Let’s split the bill?"

Easy for him to say.

Nearly three million yuan... divided among a dozen or so people, that was two to three hundred thousand each!

The classmates all had families and careers; their annual income was around that amount. Who would be willing to throw away an entire year’s hard-earned money here?

Everyone started to play dumb.

Only Yuan Jingjing silently took out a card and placed it gently on the table.

She looked at Li Qian, who was now a crying mess, and sighed softly. "Why did you have to be so vain? To be deceived by Zhang Haodong like this!"

Li Qian trembled with regret and shame.

But more than that, she was furious. She looked up and roared at Yuan Jingjing, "I don’t need your pity! You have no right to laugh at me!"

She gritted her teeth, put her handbag on the table, and tore off her necklace. "Is this enough?"

The hotel manager made a phone call with a blank expression. Soon after, the director in charge of the Dongshen Financial Group’s restaurant came over.

"What’s going on here?" the director asked, his hands behind his back.

The manager lowered his voice. "It’s Manager Zhang from Sales Department 17. He brought his classmates for dinner and ordered eleven bottles of Armand de Brignac Rosé. Now, he can’t pay the bill. They want to use a designer bag and a necklace as collateral!"

The director scoffed. "Armand de Brignac Rosé? Even I can’t afford that stuff, and he ordered eleven bottles? Does he own a gold mine or something?"

He then gave a direct order, "Get someone to appraise them."

Li Qian held her head high, clinging to her last shred of dignity. "That bag is worth over twenty million! It could pay for ten meals like this! It could buy a hundred bottles of your champagne!"

But when the appraiser arrived, he took one look at the handbag and laughed. "It’s a knockoff. A fake. A thousand yuan, at most!"

He then picked up the diamond necklace. "This is fake too. This knockoff is pretty convincing, though. It’s worth more than the fake bag... let’s say two thousand yuan."

Zhang Haodong looked like he wanted to crawl under the table.

Li Qian screamed, immediately took off her high heel, and started bashing it against his head. "You son of a bitch! You tricked me into sleeping with you with a fake bag and fake jewelry! You bastard! I’ll kill you!"

The other classmates grew even more awkward, but they also felt a little sorry for Li Qian.

The restaurant director’s face darkened. "What’s all this commotion? The bill is 2.97 million. Not one cent less. You all can figure out how to pool the money!"

The atmosphere turned ice-cold.

Aside from Yuan Jingjing, no one was willing to chip in.

The director sneered. "Then there’s nothing more to say. Call the police!"

Zhang Haodong slumped into his chair, utterly defeated. Li Qian spun around, her makeup a mess. "Everyone has to pay! You all drank the wine, especially you!"

She pointed her finger at Qin Tianxuan, who was still seated. "You drank the most!"

With a soft click, Qin Tianxuan gently placed a black card on the table. "Everyone, sit down. It’s rare for us to get together. This one’s on me."

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