Translator: Star River from w.a.n.gmamaread
Proofreader: Rhith
In the cafeteria, the top floor, Dihua Hotel.
Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan entered, one behind the other. Tang Muzhou immediately stepped forward to greet them, "It's been a while since the last time I saw you two. How come you got chased by reporters?"
"Maybe because the opening ceremony will be held tonight, we just went out of Adjudication and were followed by reporters." Shan Lan said, with an apologetic smile, "My Shifu changed the driving route so that we managed to dump those paparazzi. So sorry to keep so many people waiting for us."
"Don't be. We haven't started yet. Come on in." Tang Muzhou led them into the hall.
Surprisingly, there were hundreds of people in the hall, which was solid evidence of Tang Muzhou's great pulling power. Seeing that almost everyone had arrived, Tang Muzhou spoke delightfully and loudly, "Thank you for coming. You must be hungry. Let's get the dinner started. Please have a good time!"
"Thank you for the dinner!"
"I won't stand on ceremony then!"
Everyone was starving and held their plates to pick food immediately. All of a sudden, the restaurant became bustling. Compared to the league's official dinner, they preferred this kind of informal party where they could talk freely without worrying about being heard by senior leaders of the league.
Tang Muzhou was just about to pick some food when he saw Xue Linxiang walking into the hall with an odd face. She looked pale, so Tang Muzhou approached her and asked with concern, "Sister Xue, you don't look well. What happened?"
Xue Linxiang took a deep breath as if she was hesitant about telling him what it was. A few moments later, she finally made up her mind and said, "I just met Chen Xiao."
Tang Muzhou's eyes narrowed and he lowered his voice, "Are you sure it was Chen Xiao?"
Xue Linxiang nodded, "Even though he has changed a lot, I can still recognize him. However, he told me that I mistook him……''
Tang Muzhou slightly frowned, "Where is he right now?"
Xue Linxiang answered, "I heard that he was going to have dinner at the sixteenth floor's restaurant. Do you want to find him?"
Tang Muzhou said calmly, "No. From what I know of him, since he has already realized that there is the league players party in the cafeteria today, he won't keep staying in this hotel in order to avoid encountering acquaintances——I think he has already left."
Xue Linxiang thought for a few seconds and showed a sad expression, "He pretended that he didn't know me. Maybe he doesn't want to see you either……"
At that time, Shen An ran to them and said, "Shifu, Legend Nie wants to chat with you."
Tang Muhzou lightly patted Sister Xue's shoulder to console her, and then turned around, leaving with Shen An.
***
As expected, Chen Xiao pressed the first floor b.u.t.ton in the elevator. It was obvious that he didn't want to go to the restaurant on the sixteenth floor, yet he still pretended that he didn't care at all and proposed, with a smile, "I know that there is a grill restaurant with a good environment nearby. Xiao Pang likes meat. Why don't we go there?"
Xie Mingzhe knew that this was a deliberate attempt to evade Xue Linxiang, so he immediately gave him an out, "No problem. We can eat in this restaurant some other day. Today is the grill party." Of course the others agreed.
They were led by Chen Xiao across the road and entered a grill restaurant.
The restaurant's environment was impressive indeed with elegant decorations. Chen Xiao asked the waiter to provide them with a private room which had a big round table with eight seats. Each seat was equipped with a grill tray put in front of it. The restaurant's cooking equipment could even automatically heat up and wouldn't emit smoke. In addition, the meat was tender and juicy. Even Pang Yu, who was kind of a finicky eater, was charmed by the secret magic spice blend. He couldn't resist praising the food, "Oh my G.o.d! Tasty! This is so tasty! Brother Chen, how come you never mentioned this place before?"
Chen Xiao laughed and said, "I was afraid that you would shout at me to take you to this restaurant everyday if I had told you."
Pang Yu coughed out of embarra.s.sment, "You know me well."
This was also the fanciest grill restaurant Xie Mingzhe had been to. Elegant light music, thinly sliced meat spitting and steaming on the smart grill tray, and the rich smell lingering in his nose, all these things made him almost drool. Apart from various meats, there were many kinds of vegetables that could be grilled. The restaurant had several dozens of sauces and the self-service mode of picking up food was really convenient and delightful.
Everyone chatted while eating. Pang Yu was a tactless fatty who thought that Xie Mingzhe could make cards and he could benefit from it a little bit. He looked at Xie Mingzhe and said, with smiling eyes, "Xiao Xie, you're awesome for making ten original cards in one week. Where were all your fantastic ideas from?"
Jin Yue followed him rapidly, "Xiao Xie, the painting style of your cards were unique. Have you ever gone to art school before?"
Xie Mingzhe answered, "I have been learning painting since I was a kid. And I am admitted into Capital University's Fine Art School this year."
Pang Yu admiringly gave a thumbs up, "You have excellent ideas and the ability to paint. No wonder you can make so many original cards! In my opinion, you don't need to go to art school. I mean, merely by painting cards, you can make more money than most other people even if adding their incomes of several decades together."
Chen Xiao interrupted Fatty and looked at Xie Mingzhe, "Don't listen to Xiao Pang. Don't be rushed into making a decision. In fact, I think that the better path for you is to be an original professional player. If you're interested, I'll take my time to make an elaborate plan for you."
Brother Chen's idea was exactly what Xie Mingzhe was thinking, and the latter nodded immediately, "To be honest, Brother Chen, I really thought about being a professional player."
When everyone heard that, they raised their heads at the same time and looked at Xie Mingzhe.
Xie Mingzhe said calmly, "The reason I could make so many IDE cards was that I just luckily took the lead. I can only sell these cards for an extra month at most, and the price will definitely fall. No matter how rich I am, I will use up all my money one day. Therefore we'd better seriously plan for our future."
He paused for a moment, then said, "Adjudication and Ghost h.e.l.l made me attractive offers to be their card designer, but I didn't want to work for them. I still have so many ideas for cards in my mind. Why don't we start our own business?"
He turned and looked at Chen Xiao and seriously asked, "Brother Chen, what do you think about the idea of us establishing a club?"
Chen Xiao was a little surprised, and he said in a low voice a few minutes later, "Establishing a club is much harder than you can imagine."
Xie Mingzhe said, "I know. I just want to set a goal and work for it. If I could make a complete set of the character card group, I would try the game. If I get good results, I would take my goal seriously. If not, the club idea would be off the table, and then we could take a step back and just make money by selling cards."
Chen Xiao smiled with an appreciative look in his eyes, "You're pretty ambitious. However, there are precedents for setting up a new club in the league. One is Tang Muzhou from the fifth season who established Fenghua, the other is Pei Jingshan from the seventh season who established Capital of Darkness. The important thing is that both of them have gotten strong props. Tang's family is a business giant and Pei's family is very powerful in the political circles, which made it easy for them to raise capital. Plus both of then had won the championship before, so their clubs developed well. As for you, I don't think you have such a powerful prop like those two."
Xie Mingzhe said, "You guys are my prop."
He said it breezily, yet his words surprised everyone present.
Xie Mingzhe smiled faintly and then said, "Indeed, it is easy for rich and prestigious people to establish clubs. Nevertheless, I think that most of the players are from ordinary families. A player's strength always rules in the contest rather than his background and family——As long as you are powerful enough, everything will be fine."
The sentence hit the nail on the head. If a player was powerful enough to win the game, he wouldn't need to worry about capital at all and many players would be attracted by his reputation. The problem is that the league is compet.i.tive. Is he really able to win the championship?
Chen Xiao carefully gazed at the teenager in front of him and then asked in a low voice, "Xiao Xie, could you tell me what do your parents do for a living? And where did you get all those odd ideas for cards?"
Xie Mingzhe had been reborn once. If people know the fact that he had the memories of Earth, he would get into trouble in the long run. Today Chen Xiao was the one who asked, and there definitely would be more people who were curious about his history in the future, so he had already thought out the solution last night.
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