30: Chapter 30 The Secret of the Fried Chicken Shop
Zhang Fan returned home with twenty thousand yuan in cash and stuffed it into the bedside drawer.
He glanced at the surveillance monitor again; the door to 2001 opposite was tightly closed, and the entrance was clean. It seemed Zhou Yurou was still in the hospital, and Yang Lei was likely accompanying Yuan Mubai, so no one had returned to this empty home.
He pulled out his phone and scrolled to Gu Jingshen's number. A stroke of luck like winning the prize had to be shared with someone, and Old Gu was definitely the first choice.
The call went through and was answered after just one ring. Zhang Fan smiled into the receiver, "I guessed you'd be scrolling on your phone."
"No kidding, otherwise what, waiting for a busy signal?" Gu Jingshen's voice was slightly lazy, "What's up?"
"Come out for lunch, my treat, I've got something good." Zhang Fan deliberately kept him in suspense.
"No time, I'm at home."
"Duh, you think I don't know you're at home?" Zhang Fan scoffed, "You homebody, other than the internet cafe and my place, when have you ever voluntarily gone out?"
"I'm back at the old family home." Gu Jingshen's voice paused, carrying a hint of imperceptible pride.
Zhang Fan was stunned for two seconds, then chuckled, "Back at the old home? Not bad, Old Gu, does this mean you've completely reconciled with Aunt Tang?"
"Cut the crap." Gu Jingshen's tone was slightly unnatural, "My mom said she stewed some soup for me, so I came back specifically for that."
"Oh? Already calling her 'my mom'?" Zhang Fan laughed even harder. "So, are you still coming out or not?"
Gu Jingshen deliberately dragged out his tone, "If you want me to come out, fine, come pick me up."
"Screw you!" Zhang Fan rolled his eyes, "Your garage has enough cars to host an auto show, do you really need me to pick you up?"
"You're asking me to eat, and you want me to drink and drive?" Gu Jingshen chuckled on the other end, "Are you coming or not? If not, I'm going to drink soup with my mom. She stewed black-bone chicken soup today, with angelica and goji berries..."
"I'm coming! Be there in a flash!" Zhang Fan gave in instantly, hung up the phone, and grabbed his jacket. Gu Jingshen was like a donkey that needed to be stroked in the right direction; if he didn't agree now, who knew what other demands he might come up with later.
The Gu family lived in Mingde Manor, a well-known high-end villa area in Jiangcheng. The taxi was stopped by security just as it arrived at the gate.
Zhang Fan called Gu Jingshen, then turned to smile at the taxi driver, pulling a cigarette from his pack and handing it over, "Sir, want a smoke while you wait?"
The taxi driver took it, skillfully tucked it behind his ear, and pulled out his own lighter, "Thanks, young man."
He clicked the lighter, lit Zhang Fan's cigarette first, then his own. The smoke dispersed in the cold wind, carrying a slightly choking, acrid smell.
"This neighborhood is really impressive." The driver blew a smoke ring, his eyes darting inside, "Heard that everyone living here is either rich or noble, with villas costing tens of millions?"
Zhang Fan took a drag and coughed twice—he wasn't a frequent smoker; he had learned it from Gu Jingshen back in college, "Not really sure, it's my friend's place."
"Your friend must be someone special." The driver laughed, "He sounded pretty tough on the phone just now, making you come pick him up. Is he a rich second-generation kid?"
"I suppose so." Zhang Fan didn't explain further, but felt a pang of emotion inside. Back in college, Gu Jingshen used to squeeze into a rented room with him eating instant noodles, and now he lived in a place like this. Life is truly unpredictable.
After smoking more than half the cigarette, a black maybach slowly drove out.
At the gate, the car window rolled down, revealing Tang Wanqing's profile. She was talking to the person in the passenger seat, a faint smile on her lips.
After the car came to a stop, the passenger door opened, and Gu Jingshen jumped out. He was wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, and there was a bit of stubble on his exposed chin, which looked completely out of place with the aura of the luxury car.
"Fan Zi." He waved at Zhang Fan, then turned back to say to Tang Wanqing in the car, "Mom, we're leaving."
"Don't drink too much." Tang Wanqing's voice came from the car, gentle but carrying an undeniable firmness.
"Got it." Gu Jingshen closed the car door, the maybach slowly drove away, its taillights turning a corner in the distance and disappearing at the end of the road.
He walked up to Zhang Fan and patted his shoulder, "Been waiting long? My mom insisted I drink an extra bowl of soup."
"Not long." Zhang Fan stubbed out the cigarette and threw it into the trash can nearby, "Your mom really cares about you."
"Definitely." Gu Jingshen climbed into the taxi, "Where are we eating?"
The taxi driver turned around to recommend, "There's a good stir-fried chicken place on Huaijiang Road, a big basin for 100 yuan, comes with four side dishes, the taste is amazing! My buddies and I go there often."
"That's the place!" Zhang Fan and Gu Jingshen said in unison.
The stir-fried chicken shop wasn't big, just five tables, with a menu featuring yellow characters on a red background stuck on the wall, and the air was filled with a rich savory aroma. The owner was a middle-aged man with a thick beard and a booming voice, "Two of you? Stir-fried chicken? Or stewed chicken? Want it spicy?"
"Stir-fried chicken, hurry! Add extra chili!" Gu Jingshen shouted as he sat down, his eyes suddenly darting to the plastic bag in Zhang Fan's hand, "What are you carrying?"
Zhang Fan mysteriously pulled out that bottle of Blue and White Porcelain, "We're drinking this."
"Holy crap!" Gu Jingshen's eyes went wide, he picked up the liquor bottle and examined it over and over, "This liquor isn't cheap, right?"
"Of course." Zhang Fan opened a bottle of beer and poured it for Gu Jingshen, "This is liquor that costs 1699 a bottle at market price."
"Are you crazy?" Gu Jingshen lowered his voice, "The one million Tang Wanqing invested in you isn't meant to be squandered like this!"
"Get lost, am I that kind of person?" Zhang Fan laughed, "I didn't buy this liquor for 1699."
"Fake?" Gu Jingshen frowned.
"Get lost, it's definitely real, a prize I just redeemed at the Blue and White Porcelain flagship store." Zhang Fan pulled out his phone and opened the winning screenshot, "Bought it for 1400, won twenty thousand, it's like drinking for free and making a profit."
Gu Jingshen stared at the screenshot for a long time, then suddenly punched him, "Your damn luck! Back in college, you couldn't even win a 'buy one get one free' on a bottle of iced tea, and now you win twenty thousand?"
"When luck strikes, you can't stop it." Zhang Fan shook his phone triumphantly and poured the liquor for Gu Jingshen, "Try it? Pure grain liquor, they say it doesn't cause a hangover."
The two clinked glasses and chatted about embarrassing moments from college—who got rejected by a girl, who got caught cheating on an exam, who almost blew the fuse while cooking hotpot in the dorm—laughing until they were doubled over.
The noise from the next table gradually grew louder. Three men were drinking until their faces and necks were red. One of them, wearing glasses and a wrinkled white shirt, was slamming the table and cursing, "Damn it, women these days are so heartless!"
"What's wrong, Huzi?" The person next to him poured him a drink, "Encountered another difficult patient?"
"Not a patient, it's a mistress!" The doctor called Huzi gulped down some liquor, saliva flying everywhere, "She came to me for a pregnancy checkup last week. It was clearly a dead fetus, the embryo had stopped developing for two weeks, but she insisted I issue a normal report for her, saying she'd give me ten thousand yuan!"
Zhang Fan and Gu Jingshen's laughter stopped. They looked at each other and saw the shock in each other's eyes.
"Did you agree?"
"That's ten thousand yuan! How much is a month's salary for an intern doctor like me?" Doctor Huzi's voice carried a hint of pride mixed with lingering fear, "I changed the date for her and issued a fake report. Who knew this woman would take the report and cause a scene, claiming the original wife pushed her and caused a miscarriage!"
Zhang Fan's heart sank—a dead fetus, a mistress, the original wife pushing her... wasn't this talking about the situation between Zhou Yurou and Yuan Mubai?