When Wei Zhao's Land Rover pulled into the resort parking lot, a number of luxury cars were already parked there. Wei Zhao had genuinely never realized just how many classmates in his grade came from wealthy families — but then he thought about it and let it go. No. 1 High School was a private school, an elite school, and aside from students like Tang Yun who had earned their place on nothing but outstanding grades, everyone else who enrolled there came from well-off backgrounds.

The moment Wei Zhao had parked, a Mercedes SUV swung in right beside his car and nearly startled him. But when he saw who was behind the wheel, he broke into a small smile.

"Kang Xiaobo, you went and bought yourself a car too?" Wei Zhao laughed, glancing at the temporary plates on the vehicle. It hadn't been formally registered yet, which meant he'd only just picked it up.

"Ugh, Boss — you really don't care about me anymore..." Kang Xiaobo made a bitter face and hopped out of the car. "I called your house a few times recently, but Wu Chengtian told me you were busy cultivating, so I didn't dare bother you... I thought you'd picked up some new underlings and didn't need your old one anymore!"

"Ha..." Wei Zhao laughed out loud. "I have been a bit busy, so I haven't been in touch. But you're my number-one underling — Wu Chengtian is barely third or fourth. When he talks to you, he'd better be polite."

"He's been decent about it," Kang Xiaobo nodded. "I'm not a cultivator, but he treats me with real respect. I just picked this car up. Fatty Lai had been nagging me to buy one ages ago — said it looked shabby for the company's vice president not to even own a car when meeting clients. But I didn't want to be too flashy, so I only bought it after the college entrance exam was over."

Although Fatty Lai was the general manager of the pharmaceutical company and Kang Xiaobo was the vice president, Kang Xiaobo had always called him Fatty Lai without the man ever objecting. After all, in terms of standing, Fatty Lai had become one of Wei Zhao's underlings before Kang Xiaobo had — by seniority, he was technically Kang Xiaobo's junior.

"How's the company doing?" Wei Zhao hadn't looked into the company's affairs in a long time. Too many things had come up lately for him to follow up.

"The painkiller is already on the market, and the response has been excellent — sales aren't a problem. It's just that the production line needs expanding again..." Kang Xiaobo said ruefully. "Boss, when you transferred a hundred million out earlier, the company's finances took quite a hit."

Wei Zhao suddenly remembered that the hundred-million-yuan deposit he'd paid to enter the Ice Palace trial had come from Fatty Lai. It seemed he really needed to find some money-making opportunities for Fatty Lai and Kang Xiaobo — clearly they were still feeling the pinch.

"Right. When I free up some time, I'll figure something out and come up with a way to make some money." Wei Zhao was already thinking — should the Yu family pay, or the Zhao family? Or should he shake down a little from each? Neither family was sitting easy anyway; they'd better not provoke him.

He'd miscalculated. Back when the Ice Palace had detained Feng Xiaoxiao, wouldn't it have been so much better if he'd asked for his deposit back? The Ice Palace probably wouldn't have refused — they might even have thrown in an extra bonus!

"No need to rush too much, though. Right now we're just breaking even — things will pick up gradually," Kang Xiaobo said.

Once Kang Xiaobo and Wei Zhao had parked their cars, resort security guards came over to place reflective traffic cones around the vehicles to prevent any scrapes from other cars.

"Welcome to Tiandi Resort!" the guard said politely.

Tiandi Resort? Wei Zhao paused in mild surprise. During the class reunion planning, they'd only mentioned the town where the resort was located — and since the town happened to have only one resort, the name had been overlooked. Now it seemed the place was run by Zou Tiandi?

"Your boss is Zou Tiandi?" Wei Zhao glanced at the guard and asked casually.

"Yes, sir. Might I ask if you know our boss, sir?" The guard didn't dare slack off — he'd noticed that both Wei Zhao and Kang Xiaobo had arrived in luxury cars, so they very well might know the boss.

"Oh, yes, I do," Wei Zhao nodded.

"Sir, would you like me to contact the boss for you?" the guard asked politely.

"That won't be necessary." Wei Zhao waved his hand dismissively. He was only here for a class reunion — he had no business with Zou Tiandi.

"Very well, sir." The guard didn't press further.

After locking their cars, Wei Zhao, Kang Xiaobo, and the rest headed toward the resort's lobby. Several classmates had already arrived ahead of them. When they saw Kang Xiaobo walk in, a good number of them — men and women alike — eagerly swarmed over to greet him.

Only a handful of people close to Wei Zhao knew that he was the true owner behind Dr. Guan's Pharmaceutical; everyone else was in the dark. But the fact that Kang Xiaobo was the company's vice president had spread like wildfire until the entire class knew.

After all, Kang Xiaobo had been showing up at new product launches constantly and had given numerous media interviews, so his public profile had shot up several times over.

For certain calculating young women who had always overlooked him, seeing this nobody from the shadows suddenly ascend to a general-manager-caliber newcomer was enough to make them beat their breasts in regret: How had they misjudged him? Why hadn't they seen Kang Xiaobo's potential?

And when they dug a little deeper, they discovered Kang Xiaobo already had a girlfriend — which only deepened their regret at having failed to seize the chance while it was there.

But now, the classmates who hadn't gotten into college started scheming: if they could build a good relationship with Kang Xiaobo, then at the very least — out of respect for their old school days — he could land them a position at the pharmaceutical company. That shouldn't be a problem.

They weren't after anything grand like a supervisor or department head; even an ordinary staff position would do. Keep in mind, Dr. Guan's Pharmaceutical was a company with enormous prospects — just working there would be a fine thing.

Wei Zhao patted Kang Xiaobo on the shoulder, then led Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu toward a sofa in the corner. He'd never been particularly close with most of the class anyway, and on an occasion like this — where everyone was fawning over Kang Xiaobo — he was all the more content to keep to himself.

A short while later, Zhong Yongliang and Gao Xiaofu arrived as well. They naturally became objects of flattery too, for Zhong Yongliang's family had considerable holdings, and these classmates who were unemployed the moment they graduated were looking to him for a livelihood.

"Actually, this event today was organized jointly by Brother Liang and our class monitor. Originally, the monitor proposed splitting costs equally among everyone, with any shortfall covered from the remaining class fund. But Brother Liang said he would cover the entire cost of this outing — eat well, drink well, have fun!" Gao Xiaofu, seeing that most of the attendees had arrived, announced to the crowd.

And as for the class monitor — the actual organizer of this event — he didn't step forward to take credit either. He understood perfectly well that now that they'd graduated, his title as monitor carried no real authority. With Zhong Yongliang treating everyone this time around, he might as well let Zhong Yongliang have the spotlight.

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