"Sorry, but the four of you can only book two private rooms — one room is simply not allowed!" The lobby manager was losing his patience. Were these people here to cause trouble? Couples' private rooms and couples' booths were both billed by the hour; four people crammed into a single room, and wouldn't the Western restaurant be losing its shirt?

"Who says we aren't a couple?" Shen Yushu took offense. "We are a couple!"

"Huh?! Four of you? All a couple?" The lobby manager didn't believe a word of it. He had already made up his mind: these four were here to stir up trouble. Only, they had picked the wrong place, hadn't they — daring to make a scene in Brother Lei's territory, they must have a death wish.

"Sure we are. I'm Brother Arrow's little wife, Sister Yaoyao is his first wife, and she's his girlfriend! Why can't we all go into one room?" Shen Yushu explained with exquisite impatience. "Hey, Baldy, why are you so slow off the mark? We're here to spend money at your place, and you're still making such a fuss?"

The instant the lobby manager heard this, a flicker of contempt crossed his face. Wasn't this utter nonsense? A first wife, a concubine, and a girlfriend on top of that — did she take him for a fool? And the little hussy actually had the nerve to call him Baldy.

This is a shaved head, thank you very much — it's all the rage down in the underworld!

"Here to spend money? I'd say you're here to make trouble." The lobby manager's tone turned to ice. "Let me give you a piece of advice: if you've got any sense, leave now. I don't care who sent you — pass him a message: this is Brother Lei's turf, and it isn't anyone else's to swagger around in!"

"Are you broken or something? Brother Lei, Brother Rain, Brother Lightning — what are you even talking about? We're here to eat!" Shen Yushu decided the bald man's brain must be faulty; he was spouting sheer nonsense.

The lobby manager let out a cold laugh and said lightly, "Only two people may enter our private rooms. If you're here to eat, you're welcome — book two rooms."

"Xiaoshu!" Gu Mengyao frowned as well. She was a young lady of standing, someone who habitually looked down on the world — when had anyone ever slighted her like this? And today of all days, when she had come to treat Tang Yun. If they slunk away now, what face would she have left?

The real problem was that if this truly was the restaurant's rule, she could have let it pass — but Gu Mengyao had watched with her own eyes as three people went into a single private room. So she called Xiaoshu over, told her to hold her tongue for the moment, and addressed the lobby manager herself: "Just now I clearly saw three people go into one private room. Are my eyes playing tricks on me? That room right there!"

As she spoke, Gu Mengyao pointed at the "101" private room a short way behind the lobby manager.

The lobby manager listened — and then he actually laughed. "So you are here to smash the joint! Brother Lei, over here! These four insist on a single private room!"

The man inside room 101 was none other than the owner of this Superflash Couples Western Restaurant, "Brother Lei" — and he had indeed taken two girls into 101, because he was about to have a threesome. He owned the place; naturally he did as he pleased.

Brother Lei had just stepped into the room and was about to get down to business when he heard the lobby manager's shout. He frowned, shoved the door open, and strode out. "What's going on? Damn it — who picks this moment of all moments? Tired of living, are they?"

Wei Zhao, off to the side, had by now worked out what was happening: this "Brother Lei" of room 101 was the owner of the Western restaurant. Gu Mengyao's example had been wasted on him — the owner could bring as many people as he liked, while the restaurant's rule was that only couples might enter a private room together. It was one of the ways the place made its money: if a whole crowd could pile into one room, the restaurant would never turn a profit like this.

The interior of the Superflash Couples Western Restaurant was tastefully and expensively decorated, and the private-room fees were exactly what it counted on. When a typical couple took a room, ate, and then drank red wine, the romantic atmosphere made it practically inevitable that a full belly would give way to lust, and that they would do what lovers do.

That being so, unless the man was a quick shot, the hours would stretch out indefinitely — and the room fee would roll in all the same.

But if a whole crowd packed into a room, what could possibly happen? They would eat and leave, and how then would the restaurant make its money? The dishes here were priced at basically cost and earned nothing; what paid the bills were the seductive décor and the mood.

All of this Wei Zhao could have read off the price list at the door, so the lobby manager's reluctance was perfectly understandable, and Wei Zhao couldn't be bothered to argue the point. In the end, though the restaurant's way of doing business was somewhat underhanded, they were free to run it however they liked — even the Administration for Industry and Commerce never troubled them, and Wei Zhao certainly wasn't about to stick his nose in.

"Yaoyao, Xiaoshu, let's go. Since this place won't have us, we'll find another." Wei Zhao had no wish to waste his breath here; knowing full well that Gu Mengyao feared losing face, he was the first to propose leaving.

Hearing Wei Zhao speak, Gu Mengyao dropped her objection. After all, Wei Zhao had suggested leaving first, so there was no face left for her to lose either. She nodded. "All right, then we'll find another place."

"Honestly — refusing business, they must be out of their minds!" Shen Yushu had been looking forward to seeing inside a private room; she'd heard they even sold erotic novelties for couples, and she was dying of curiosity. But it looked as though today wasn't going to happen.

Brother Lei had been thoroughly put out at having his playtime with the girls interrupted — but the moment he saw Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, and Tang Yun, his eyes nearly popped out of his head. No way. World-class beauties, and three of them at once!

Brother Lei had had no shortage of women. He ran this Western restaurant himself, raking in a fortune every day, and with a cousin who cut a respectable figure in the underworld behind him, he was swaggering and flush with cash — and by threats and sweet talk alike he had laid his hands on quite a few pretty girls.

But never anything like the three before him. He had seen women nearly as beautiful — only they were all veterans of the bedroom, without a trace of innocence about them, and bedding them was never much fun.

These girls, though, looked utterly innocent; they might even still be virgins. How could Brother Lei let them slip through his fingers?

"Who are they?" Brother Lei asked Ma Bilin in a low voice.

"Four of them, arrived in a Beetle — the man was driving," Ma Bilin murmured back.

Brother Lei nodded, and made up his mind. Four people in one Beetle? Normally a Beetle seated two comfortably; four was a squeeze. And a Beetle wasn't exactly an expensive car. A man driving a Beetle with three girls piled into it — clearly he had no background worth fearing.

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