Li Yundong's words were truly mortifying for Liu Chuan, his face flushing a deep crimson, sputtering and unable to utter a sound for a moment.

By this time, Liu Chuan's friends understood that the backgrounds of Li Yundong and Su Chan must be significant. Like attracts like; these friends, most of them descendants of wealthy families themselves, knew that only energy they couldn't afford to offend could compel a restaurant to cancel an existing order so readily.

But while they understood, Liu Chuan, consumed by rage, did not; his fury had clouded his judgment to near zero intelligence.

Li Yundong was never one to be charitable, having held back precisely to savor this moment of kicking a man when he was down.

Li Yundong and Su Chan each took a bite of caviar, chewing slowly while loudly savoring and praising it with exaggerated "tsk-tsk" sounds.

Liu Chuan simply couldn't stand it any longer. He slammed his hand on the table and roared at the manager, "How dare you do this? On what grounds can you cancel my order? Why should they get served before me! I demand satisfaction! I'm filing a complaint!"

Sweat beaded on the lobby manager's forehead, and he stood there utterly flustered, when a cold voice cut in from nearby: "I canceled your order. What of it? Got a problem?"

Still boiling with anger, Liu Chuan spun around and bellowed, "Damn right, I've got a problem!"

But once the roar left his lips, he found himself facing a young woman of transcendent aura and breathtaking beauty. She held a small LV bag in one hand and a shopping bag filled with clothes in the other, staring down at him coldly.

"Z-Zhou Qin?" Liu Chuan instantly went slack, his earlier bluster dissolving. He stammered, "How... how are you here?"

Zhou Qin glanced at him coldly. "I invited friends here for dinner. Do you have an issue with that?"

Liu Chuan was one of the few at school who knew of Zhou Qin's connections. Thus, while he was captivated by her extraordinary beauty and poise, he also stood in fearful awe of the power structure behind her. He had pursued her several times but never dared to overstep.

Liu Chuan forced a sheepish grin. "How could I have an issue? If you wanted the caviar, you just needed to tell me. I would have given it to you!"

Zhou Qin tilted her chin up slightly, her manner utterly arrogant and commanding. "What I want, I take myself. It's never been up to someone else to offer!"

Li Yundong couldn't help but silently applaud. Even though Zhou Qin is a woman, her bearing and words are fiercely assertive, not yielding to any man. Impressive! Anyone who marries her would need extraordinary ability, or they’d never keep her in line!

Zhou Qin’s retort left Liu Chuan speechless, his face burning red.

After sweeping him with a cold gaze, Zhou Qin turned to Li Yundong with an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting!"

That smile transformed the atmosphere instantly; for Liu Chuan and his cronies, it felt as though a biting winter wind had suddenly softened into a gentle drizzle. Regardless of gender, they were all stunned by her beauty.

One of the young men muttered quietly, "She looked so fierce just now, I thought she didn't know how to smile!"

The girl next to him whispered back, "It’s not that she can't smile, it’s just that she won't smile at people she dislikes."

Upon hearing this, all the men at Liu Chuan's table fell silent, staring daggers of jealousy and hatred at Li Yundong: Does this guy really get to hog two top-tier beauties all to himself? Is there any justice left in the world? Any humanity? Doesn't he fear divine retribution?

Zhou Qin sat down next to Li Yundong. Before she’d eaten two bites, she began to feel distinctly uncomfortable under the combined stares of Liu Chuan’s group. She leaned toward Li Yundong and murmured apologetically, "Should we perhaps move somewhere else to eat?"

Li Yundong had been thinking the same thing. He smiled. "Sounds good. Why don't we go back to my place? I can show off a bit for you!"

Zhou Qin had only intended to switch tables, but hearing him say that, she paused, then burst into a radiant smile. "Really? Then I'm in for a treat!" Saying this, she picked up her small bag and the clothing bag containing her dress and prepared to signal the waiter to settle the bill.

Li Yundong struggled to suppress a laugh and stopped her. "Someone has already paid."

Zhou Qin looked surprised. "You paid the bill?"

Li Yundong pointed at Liu Chuan. "He did."

Zhou Qin turned her gaze to Liu Chuan, astonishment clear on her face. Seeing her look, Liu Chuan desperately forced a smile onto his mournful face—a smile uglier than weeping.

Zhou Qin’s expression turned coolly distant. "Oh. Thank you, then."

Liu Chuan truly didn't know whether to laugh or cry; the expression on his face was a masterpiece of conflicting emotion.

Without waiting for his reply, Zhou Qin said to Li Yundong, "Shall we go?"

Li Yundong looked surprised. "All this food—aren't we packing it to go?"

Zhou Qin smiled faintly. "French cuisine gets truly awful the next day. We won't pack it. Anyway, Liu Chuan paid the bill, so he can give the leftovers to his friends!"

That statement was utterly venomous. Liu Chuan felt his insides churning furiously, cursing inwardly: Not only did we treat you to a magnificent meal, but I had to pay for it, and now you’re just tossing the leftovers to us like we're doing you a huge favor! How can such a thing happen in this world?

But Liu Chuan dared not voice these thoughts.

Li Yundong gathered his things, then turned to see Su Chan aggressively attacking her food, her mouth stuffed so full that her cheeks bulged high like a hamster hoarding provisions.

Li Yundong was so exasperated he nearly laughed. He slapped the top of the little girl's head. "Aren't you afraid your cheeks will burst? Come on, let's go, you're embarrassing me to death!"

Su Chan mumbled indistinctly around a mouthful, "It's a waste if we don't finish it!"

Li Yundong rubbed his forehead, adopting a look of unbearable suffering, and pulled Su Chan toward the exit. Su Chan kept looking back at the food on the table, pointing at the caviar and shouting, "We haven't finished the caviar yet!"

But with her mouth full, her cries were unintelligible to anyone.

Liu Chuan and his companions watched Li Yundong, Su Chan, and Zhou Qin leave, then stared in stunned silence at the scattered remnants of food on their table.

The lobby manager, visibly uncomfortable, wiped his brow and ventured cautiously, "Sir, that bowl of caviar has only been touched once, it's hardly soiled. Perhaps, sir..."

Liu Chuan's eyes bulged instantly. "Are you suggesting I eat what they left behind?"

The manager started sweating profusely, stammering, "No, no, no, I meant..."

Before he could finish, a companion quietly interjected, "Brother Liu, that stuff costs over a hundred thousand! Are we just going to dump it? It looks clean, they only had one spoonful! This isn't something money can easily buy; might we have to wait months to try it again? At least let the brothers taste what hundred-thousand-dollar food tastes like!"

A flicker of thought crossed Liu Chuan's mind: He's right. I spent over a hundred thousand yuan; I can't leave without tasting anything! That’s a fortune, not pocket change!

But he couldn't let go of his dignity, so he scowled and grumbled, "If you want it, eat it. I’m not touching it."

Everyone could see his insincerity, his words contradicting his desire, and they insisted, "Brother Liu, you eat."

Liu Chuan feigned being overwhelmingly persuaded, waving a dismissive hand at the manager. "Fine, fine, bring the caviar over then. Hey, don't let this happen again!"

The manager breathed a huge sigh of relief. His original plan was to take the caviar back for some sort of reprocessing, but who knew these people had such noble standards, accepting it outright!

He quickly signaled a waiter nearby.

The waiter promptly moved to lift the caviar dish toward Liu Chuan’s table, but just as he did, the main door burst open with a crash. Su Chan shot across the floor like a gust of wind, bypassed any greeting, snatched the caviar dish from the waiter’s hand, and without another word, plunged her fingers into the delicacy, devouring it in a whirlwind of motion.

In just a few greedy scoops, the small dish of caviar was completely clean. Finishing, Su Chan licked her fingers, wiped her mouth, and offered a cheerful, apologetic smile to the petrified Liu Chuan and his crew. "Sorry, I forgot to eat that earlier."

With that, she spun around, tossed the empty dish aside, and bolted out the door like the wind, shouting as she went, "Hey! Wait for me!"

For a moment, the entire French restaurant was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Liu Chuan and his companions sat frozen, like wax statues, their eyes fixed blankly on the scraped-clean porcelain caviar dish spinning wildly on the table they were now left with.

...

Li Yundong hailed a cab with Zhou Qin and Su Chan. Li Yundong sat in the back with Su Chan, while Zhou Qin took the front seat. As soon as they were settled, Li Yundong scolded Su Chan, "Are you a starving ghost reincarnated? That was so humiliating! You ran back inside to eat after leaving! How could you even think of that?"

Su Chan sat in the back, head bowed low, patting her full belly as she looked up pleadingly at Li Yundong. "Oh, I won't do it again, okay?"

Li Yundong laughed and chided, "Hey, you ate so much by yourself, did you enjoy it? That was black gold, you know!"

Su Chan smacked her lips, a note of regret in her voice. "I ate it too fast; I didn't really taste it."

Li Yundong laughed in exasperation. "You really are like Pigsy eating ginseng fruit!"

Su Chan pouted. "You're the Pigsy! You're Sun Wukong, and you're Sha Wujing!"

In the front seat, Zhou Qin watched the two of them joking around in the rearview mirror, her face splitting into a wide smile. Especially now that she knew the full story of how Liu Chuan had tried to cause trouble only to humiliate himself, she couldn't help but laugh until she shook with delight.

After a twenty-minute drive, the group arrived at their residence. Li Yundong led the two beautiful women—one older, one small—through a nearby supermarket, loading up on bags of groceries before heading home.

Just as they entered the residential complex, a young woman was walking across the road opposite them. She looked to be about sixteen or seventeen, wearing a high school uniform, and possessed a beauty that could only be described as peerless.

This girl was Hong Ling, a living cultivator who lived in the same Hongsheng New District as Li Yundong.

Hong Ling caught sight of Li Yundong and froze instantly. "He's back?"

But when her gaze fell upon the backs of the two stunningly beautiful women beside him, she frowned subtly: Lust is a cultivator's greatest enemy. How can this fellow be so fond of beauty, yet his cultivation progresses so rapidly?

A wave of confusion and curiosity washed over Hong Ling. After a moment's thought, she made a quiet decision: It seems I should pay him a visit later.