Chapter 81: Hibernation (Part 2)

Liu Jiaoyue broke through her psychological defenses for the first time, reminding Yang Tianxing that it was very cold today and he shouldn't drink alcohol; although he was very moved, that was impossible, as Yang Tianxing had already made up his mind to drink a jin tonight.

Meilun Grand Hotel was the location for tonight's social engagement; it was right in the center of Chang'an District, and this hotel, bursting with a tacky, non-mainstream atmosphere, was actually the best three-star hotel in Chang'an District.

As for the name, it also had the characteristics of the era; without a touch of foreign flavor, it wouldn't reflect any sense of class.

In 2002, this hotel was already considered a pretty good place in Chang'an: dining on the first floor, KTV on the second, bathing on the third, and lodging from the fourth floor up; a one-stop service for eating, drinking, playing, and sleeping could all be satisfied here.

Yang Tianxing got off the bus, hands tucked into his pockets, and jogged all the way to the hotel entrance; after reporting the room name, a greeter wearing only a qipao led Yang Tianxing toward the room.

"Aren't you cold dressed like that?"

Yang Tianxing pointed at the greeter's exposed thighs.

The greeter had quite a temper; seeing Yang Tianxing's college-student appearance, she curled her lip, too lazy to answer.

Yang Tianxing smiled and said nothing more.

Pushing open the private room door, quite a few people were already sitting inside, including business people in suits and leather shoes, couriers from the Chang'an District branch, and college student agents dressed just like Yang Tianxing.

The private room was at least sixty square meters, with three tables set up inside; if nothing went wrong, they were likely one table for the Shentong Company executives, one table for the couriers from the Chang'an District side, and one table for the college student agents.

It seemed the intended effect of this "military parade" style social gathering had been achieved.

Zhang Liye was accompanying a few middle-aged men on a sofa not far away, drinking tea and chatting, while the couriers were bragging on another circle of sofas; the atmosphere was quite lively.

Only the college student agents sat on the outermost circle of sofas, the table empty; let alone hot tea, there wasn't even a cup of plain water.

No one raised any objections, only one boy looked completely displeased, as if he were cursing under his breath.

Yang Tianxing walked over to greet them: "Hello everyone, I'm Yang Tianxing, the general agent for the Finance Institute."

The college student agents' responses were all rather cold; it wasn't that their personalities were like that, but simply because they had too little experience with social engagements and felt a bit constrained suddenly arriving at this kind of adult social occasion.

Except for the boy who looked completely displeased, he stood up and responded: "So it's Brother Yang, I've long heard of your great name, the ruthless guy who took down five school agencies. My name is Pang Haofei, from Chang'an Institute of Technology."

Yang Tianxing walked over to his side and sat down; Pang Haofei seemed to have an outgoing personality.

"Why don't we have tea over here?"

Yang Tianxing asked.

It would have been fine not to ask, but after asking, Pang Haofei slammed the table hard: "The hotel waiters look down on people; once they knew we were college students, they didn't even serve tea, and they didn't bring over an electric heater either. My feet are frozen numb."

The private room was quite large, so the air conditioning naturally couldn't cover everything, and an electric heater was necessary for warmth.

The other sofas all had electric heaters nearby, but the college student agents' side didn't; this was definitely a deliberate slight, but in 2002, hotels were just like this, and one couldn't expect the waiters to have a high level of service; they generally had a tendency to slack off.

Just then, a male waiter walked over to ask Zhang Liye when to serve the dishes; when he passed by Yang Tianxing on his way out, he was grabbed by the arm.

"How much is the tea at your hotel? Bring a cup for everyone in this circle of sofas; I'm treating my brothers to tea."

Yang Tianxing's voice was loud and forceful, and everyone else in the private room looked over.

The waiter gave a shake but didn't break free, only then saying: "The tea is free."

"If it's free, why are you skimping? And bring an electric heater over here too. Fuck you, can't you see the situation on our side?"

This was originally the hotel waiters slacking off; they saw that the real big spenders were the bosses in the innermost circle, and the couriers didn't look like people to be trifled with either, so they had provided tea and electric heaters for them.

These college students were all quite reserved; the waiters had seen many people and knew that if they neglected the students, they wouldn't dare say much, but who knew they would run into an outlier like Yang Tianxing.

"Yes, yes, yes, we'll go get them now; it was an oversight just now, I'm really sorry."

The male waiter apologized immediately.

Before long, the water and the electric heater were all in place.

Yang Tianxing took out a cigarette: "And an ashtray."

In less than half a minute, the ashtray was also brought up, and it was delivered by the same greeter in the qipao from earlier.

"Fuck, awesome, Brother Yang."

Pang Haofei drank his tea and blew on the electric heater, and his body warmed up immediately.

Yang Tianxing changed from his fierce demeanor just now and handed out cigarettes with a grin; the few part-time college students actually all accepted them, though it was unclear if they smoked to begin with.

At this time, Zhang Liye walked out from the innermost part: "Tianxing, come over and meet our President Xu and President Shi."

Yang Tianxing extinguished his cigarette butt and followed along; arriving at the innermost sofa, Zhang Liye introduced him: "This is the college student agent with the best business, responsible for the courier business at the Finance Institute, Foreign Studies University, University of Political Science and Law, Teachers College, and Posts and Telecommunications University. Business has been good these past two days, and his daily commission is over 500."

Next, he introduced the main guests: "Shentong Express Vice General Manager Xu Zhizhou, General Manager Assistant Wang Shuzhu, Chang'an City Manager Shi Xiaoping..."

Xu Zhizhou was the person with the highest status here; he wore glasses and said with a chuckle: "Sorry about just now, we were only focused on drinking our own tea and forgot about your side."

Yang Tianxing said: "That's the hotel's problem; they saw President Xu and President Shi were full of wealth and prestige, and only had eyes for you."

"Hahaha."

Everyone laughed; Yang Tianxing had even managed to butter them up while answering.

Wang Shuzhu was a beautiful young woman in her early thirties, wearing thickened black silk stockings under her trench coat, yet her calves didn't look thick; she had a somewhat charming feeling when she smiled.

Originally, Zhang Liye had brought Yang Tianxing over just to introduce him, but Yang Tianxing was thick-skinned and immediately didn't want to leave; after all, only by following this circle could he hear the news.

Yang Tianxing glanced around the sofas; the main guests definitely couldn't be moved, and the only ones who could be moved were Zhang Liye and Wu Qiang.

Wu Qiang was the courier captain for the Chang'an District branch and could be considered Zhang Liye's deputy; Yang Tianxing was very familiar with him.

"Brother Qiang, tuck your butt in and make some room for me to sit."

Yang Tianxing said with a cheeky grin.

Wu Qiang stood up directly upon hearing this: "Come, come, I'll give you my seat. You little shit, it's like you can even understand what they're saying."

When Xu Zhizhou and Shi Xiaoping and those people chatted, they talked about things far removed, and Wu Qiang felt his train of thought couldn't quite keep up.

Yang Tianxing sat down without standing on ceremony and even turned his head to say: "Thanks for giving me the chance to learn, Brother Qiang."

Chang'an City General Manager Shi Xiaoping thought this college student Yang Tianxing was quite interesting; he took out a cigarette and handed one over: "Do you smoke?"

"I do."

Yang Tianxing took the cigarette and incidentally glanced at the circle of college student agents.

They had tea, they had an electric heater, but the interaction was still very little.

"It's snowing, it's snowing, this time it's really snowing!"

Suddenly, a burst of joyful cheers came from outside.

The people in the private room looked up and out, and sure enough, willow-catkin-like snowflakes were drifting down onto the window lattice of the private room, then slowly disappearing from sight.