Chapter 361: Diamonds

"Let's sit here." Eric led his wife and a group of children to a relatively quiet spot.

His own personality was usually quite lively, and when attending such banquets, he would often choose bustling locations to make it easier to converse and network with the guests.

However, with the whole family on the ship today, there was no need to focus his energy on outsiders.

Yet, this family was simply too dazzling; no matter where they sat, they were the center of attention.

As soon as they sat down, a group of guests holding champagne and red wine gathered around to greet Eric and toast him—there were new faces as well as old friends.

Eric accepted them all; he didn't turn down a single toast, drinking them all down without his expression even changing.

Luo Quan asked in a low voice, "Dad can drink that much?"

Gao Liang also replied in a low voice, "Father was a famous drinker in New York back in the day. It's not just red wine and champagne; he's the same with vodka and tequila. I've grown up this big and have never seen him get drunk."

"That's impressive." Luo Quan sighed sincerely. No wonder her old man had so many friends; these were all drunk at the table. But could his liver really handle it?

Still, her old man wasn't short on money, so he definitely wouldn't skimp on regular check-ups. She certainly didn't need to say anything about such hidden risks.

While the adults over there were clinking glasses and having a great time, the young people here couldn't stay idle either.

This time, Auben Rothschild held a birthday banquet and invited many big shots from the media and business worlds. These big shots basically all brought their children, mainly wanting them to see the world and cultivate connections.

The older generation had their own social circles, and the young people had theirs too. And the siblings Luo Quan and Gao Liang were, without a doubt, the most dazzling existence among the youth.

The two of them just sat quietly together, and they had already attracted countless gazes of admiration or jealousy at the banquet.

In most cases, girls were relatively reserved. Compared to boys' daring to love and act, girls' ways of expressing love were more subtle.

But that was in most cases. When it came to Gao Liang, being subtle meant only being able to watch helplessly as other girls took the lead.

Less than five minutes after the banquet started, the first batch of girls walked over with wine glasses in hand.

"Gao Liang, do you still remember me?" The first person to speak to Gao Liang was a white girl wearing a gorgeous red evening gown. She had a bewitching figure and a beautiful appearance.

"Ah... uh... I think I've seen you before. Let me think..." Gao Liang recalled with a pained expression. From childhood to adulthood, the beauties who crowded before him were as numerous as the stars; who the hell knew who you were!

Compared to Gao Liang's "forgetfulness," Seifert's memory was quite good: "Isn't this Mr. Derrick's daughter, Miss Minier?"

"I remember now, so it's Miss Minier!" Gao Liang immediately smiled. This look of sudden realization was truly a bit artificial.

Minier was clearly dissatisfied with this result. She looked at Gao Liang with a mix of coquetry and resentment: "You completely forgot about me. It's a pity that when you were touring in New York, I even sent you 9,999 red roses."

"If you put it that way, then I really do remember." Gao Liang finally knew who this was.

When he held a concert tour in New York, a female fan had indeed sent him a massive amount of roses. However, the stage was too dark at the time, and he hadn't seen the fan's appearance clearly, let alone known her name was Minier.

As for the Mr. Derrick that Seifert mentioned, if he wasn't mistaken, that should be an American oil tycoon, a billionaire on the Forbes list.

"It's a pity that our meeting today is too rushed and I didn't prepare. Otherwise, I could send you ten times the flowers!" Seeing her idol remember her, Minier stopped pretending and directly transformed into a passionate, infatuated girl, her words becoming bold.

And her actions were even bolder; she leaned in directly: "My dear Gao Liang, would you like to have a drink with me? If you drink it, I can fulfill any three wishes you have."

As she spoke, Minier pressed against Gao Liang's arm: "Any wish at all is fine~~~"

With a beauty in his arms, Gao Liang didn't feel the slightest bit of ecstasy; he only felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, sweating profusely. The key was that he couldn't easily refuse; who knew if this girl would become even more agitated if he did.

Gao Liang could only cast a look of help toward his two good brothers, but who knew one was looking around at pretty girls, and the other was eating cherries to himself, not even looking at him.

Fortunately, while his brothers wouldn't help, someone else did.

Two more girls walked over and pulled Gao Liang away from Minier's side.

Without a doubt, these were two more fanatical female fans who had encountered their idol. Seeing their idol about to be taken advantage of by someone else, they rushed over to save him.

However, for Gao Liang, this only temporarily relieved the pressure. In fact, more and more young girls had already noticed her. At first, only these three came over, but soon the number would only increase.

Luo Quan drank a sip of juice with a giggle, feeling it was truly interesting to see Gao Liang painfully surrounded by a group of young ladies competing for favor.

And Eric and his friends, who had been moved to a distance, also saw Gao Liang, who was barely hanging a smile on his face, and the three girls beside him.

A middle-aged man with a stout figure let out a string of firecracker-like laughter: "Hahahaha, Gao Liang has quite a bit of his father's style."

"It's just that I didn't expect our romantic playboy to have seemingly changed his nature recently, becoming so infatuated. I can't even believe he hasn't changed his female companion in a year." Another person joked.

Gao Liang hurriedly raised his hand to stop his old friend's unbridled mouth: "Keep your voices down, don't let my wife and daughter hear!"

"Yo, you're not just infatuated; you've become henpecked, hahaha."

Everyone laughed immediately.

In fact, if one had to talk about the speed of changing women, Eric was not worth mentioning compared to most rich people. Although he was very romantic when he was young, he was always one-on-one.

And many of these people were those who stepped on multiple boats, or even slept in the same bed.

It was just because there were too many women who fell in love with him, and most of them remained infatuated, which created his image of being a romantic playboy.

If one really compared the number of girlfriends, he couldn't even compare to one-tenth of these stallions.

Eric took a sip of wine and said in a deep voice: "I have passed the age of indulgence. Now I must prioritize my family."

"Are you serious?" The fatty saw that Eric's tone didn't seem like he was joking, but he still couldn't believe he could really be loyal to one.

With such a handsome face and a good family background, and being a sea king when he was young, now saying he wanted to spend his whole life with one woman—who would believe that?

Eric didn't argue: "You certainly won't believe me just by me saying it. Time will prove everything."

A bearded man nodded: "But having said that, twenty years is indeed enough to play. Now your wife is beautiful and gentle, and you have such a pair of children. If it were me, I wouldn't want to keep drifting either."

The topic returned to Eric's children.

Everyone was in their forties; they had long passed the age of comparing themselves, and comparing further meant comparing their children.

These big shots' children were engaged in various professions, and there was no lack of those who reached the top level among their peers, achieving accomplishments no less than Luo Quan and Gao Liang.

However, people were sensory animals after all, especially visual ones, and subconsciously placed great value on things like appearance.

And Luo Quan and Gao Liang, no matter what achievements they had, stood there as proper dragons and phoenixes among men. If the handsome men and beautiful women at the banquet were compared to candles setting off the atmosphere, then these two were the crystal chandeliers shining in all directions from the ceiling!

Being this good-looking, there was no need to care about what achievements they had actually attained. Even if they were vases, they would definitely be the best-looking pair of vases.

"By the way, your daughter shouldn't have been betrothed by your father yet, right?" Someone opened their mouth to ask.

It was well known that Eric's father, Mr. Charles, loved to play matchmaker. When Gao Liang returned to London to play, he arranged six fiancées for him in one summer.

Although it didn't work out in the end, it let everyone know this old gentleman's hobby.

Now that he had such a beautiful granddaughter, the number of times people came to propose marriage probably wouldn't be small, and it was very likely she had already been betrothed to some wealthy family.

Eric sighed helplessly: "Betrothed to what? These siblings have high standards. One wants to find someone prettier than his sister, and the other wants to find someone more handsome than her brother. Those who don't meet the standards are not considered at all."

After he finished speaking, everyone was a bit dumbfounded.

Wanting to find someone better-looking than these siblings, the difficulty was indeed a bit high. Originally, a few people wanted to play matchmaker for their own sons and daughters, but after hearing this standard, they all gave up.

On the other side, while Gao Liang was being ravaged by the girls, Luo Quan's trouble finally arrived; the boys finally came looking for her.

At first, Fred was sitting next to her, and several boys who were eager to move gave up the idea after a glance from Fred.

And now, those who dared to come up to find Luo Quan were all top-tier young masters who didn't fear Fred.

The first one to come over was a tall man who was a full 1.9 meters tall. Although he wasn't that handsome, he had a unique charm.

"Beautiful Miss Luo Quan, may I have the honor of inviting you to have a drink?" The boy held two glasses of red wine in his hands, his voice gentle and elegant.

"Sorry, I don't drink." Luo Quan stood up and refused him with an apologetic expression.

"It doesn't matter." The boy smiled slightly, waved at a passing waiter, and took a glass of juice from the waiter's tray.

"How about juice? Do you like drinking juice?"

"Thank you." This time Luo Quan didn't refuse, taking the juice in her hand, but she didn't drink it.

Not refusing his juice at least proved that Luo Quan didn't hate him, so the boy started to push his luck: "By the way, there will be a dance later. Would you be willing to dance with me?"

"But I don't know how to dance." Luo Quan had never been good at handling such occasions, but from beginning to end, she didn't look at Fred beside her.

In fact, in this situation, she only needed to give Fred a look, and he could step forward as a protector of flowers, helping her solve all invitations to chat.

Although they were both top-tier young masters, Fred doing this would certainly offend many people, but he would definitely be very willing to perform in front of Luo Quan.

But Luo Quan didn't want to owe Fred a favor in this way. Things she could handle herself, she usually wouldn't trouble others with.

"It doesn't matter, I can lead you. You just follow my dance steps later." The boy was very persistent, as if he didn't understand the refusal in Luo Quan's tone.

"Actually, I don't really like dancing." Luo Quan refused again.

The boy wasn't angry either, still smiling: "Then we won't dance. There are many fun places on this ship. Later..."

"Haven't you understood yet, Kevin? Miss Luo Quan simply doesn't want to be with you." At this time, another boy walked over.

This one's skin color was a bit darker, looking like a mixed-race person, but his appearance looked a bit better than Kevin's. Unfortunately, as soon as he came over, a strong scent of cologne permeated the air, along with a faint, drifting odor.

Kevin frowned and said: "Johnson, I could smell that nauseating scent of yours from far away."

The boy called Johnson was quite frank and didn't get angry from embarrassment because of Kevin's mockery: "Compared to that, your pestering behavior is even more nauseating than my body odor. It's just that Miss Luo Quan is so cultured that she didn't make you lose face in front of so many people."

Luo Quan's expression didn't change. In fact, if one had to say, it would be better if both of them disappeared together. She didn't like pestering, and she didn't like body odor either.

However, out of politeness, she couldn't show her likes and dislikes yet. One doesn't hit a smiling person, and these two had been very gentlemanly toward her so far, with no loss of etiquette.

Johnson retorted at Kevin and then ignored him, instead taking out a box half the size of a palm from his pocket and saying to Luo Quan: "I met your father earlier and heard that you might be coming on the ship. Thinking that this is our first meeting, I couldn't think of any particularly creative meeting gift, so I could only choose this rather vulgar way. I hope Miss Luo Quan, you can like it."

After speaking, Johnson opened the box, and a brilliant pink light flashed past Luo Quan's eyes, stunning her sight.

It turned out that what was in the box was a diamond ring, set with a heart-shaped pink diamond of at least twenty carats!

In her past life, Luo Quan was actually indifferent to such shiny things, thinking it was an IQ tax and not worth that much money at all; it was all hype.

But now, for some reason, she had a special possessiveness toward such shiny things.

She hadn't realized it before, but ever since her father gave her that "Lucky Kiss" necklace, she had been unable to put it down.

And although the diamond ring in Johnson's hand was far inferior in meaning to the "Lucky Kiss" her father gave her, in terms of appearance, it had already won by too much.

Luo Quan stared at the diamond ring, her face turning a bit red without her knowing. ===== CHAPTER 362 =====