462: Chapter 455: Classmates Group 462: Chapter 455: Classmates Group She casually closed the room door and Lin Lan walked inside.
The standard single room naturally didn’t have a parlor, and near the window, there were a tea table with a sofa chair on either side.
Gracefully, she picked up two cups from the guest room’s bar, opened a bottle of foreign liquor that Chen Hai had placed on the tea table, and poured more than half a cup into the glass cup she had taken.
“Here, Chen Hai, it’s been so many years since we last met, and we’ve finally run into each other, this drink is to you!”
She raised her glass in front of her, toasted Chen Hai, then tilted her head back and drank the entire half-cup of liquor in one gulp.
Seeing this, Chen Hai was also helpless.
The lady had already downed it in one go, and as a grown man, it would be embarrassing for him not to drink.
The sixty-eight-degree liquor felt like fire burning down his throat.
Chen Hai began to suspect that the foreign liquor Lin Lan brought was a specialty from Russia.
Otherwise, how could liquor from other countries have such a high alcohol content and produce such a burning sensation?
Luckily, his body had grown stronger and his alcohol tolerance had increased.
Otherwise, had this been earlier, he would have become dizzy and disoriented after just one drink.
“By the way, Chen Hai, do you have WeChat?
Come on, let’s add each other!”
“I haven’t seen you in our Class of 103 group chat, I’ll add you!”
After a cup of liquor, seeing that Chen Hai still maintained his composure, Lin Lan smiled, took out her phone, and spoke.
These days, it was normal for old classmates to add each other on WeChat when they meet.
He had already registered a WeChat account after getting his phone.
However, he didn’t have many friends on his WeChat.
Whenever there was something important, he preferred to make phone calls.
He still wasn’t used to handling common social tools like WeChat.
Back then, Ma Xiaoteng, the seemingly nerdy and introverted guy, struck Chen Hai as a business prodigy the moment he met him.
Over the years, the Penguin Group that Xiaoteng founded had become a colossus, extending its reach into all aspects of life.
WeChat was a phenomenal product under Ma Xiaoteng’s Penguin Group.
He still owed Chen Hai a promise, something Chen Hai clearly remembered.
Unfortunately, for now, he neither lacked money nor had any need for Xiaoteng’s help!
The two quickly added each other on WeChat, and soon, Lin Lan added Chen Hai to a classmate group chat.
Li Ying, Hu Zhiyong, Zhang Yong, Yang Hua, Zhang Zhi…
In the group, Chen Hai saw many familiar names.
After so many years apart, suddenly reconnecting with his high school classmates felt incredibly novel.
Lin Lan: Welcome Chen Hai to the group!
In the group, Lin Lan still used the name Lin Lan.
In her current status, she was once ranked as the richest woman in Yanhuang Country!
After returning from studying abroad and taking over the leadership of Guihua Garden Group from her father, her demeanor and aura had changed drastically from the old Lin Lan.
It was better to keep the classmate group pure.
Using the name Lin Lan instead of her current identity, Lin Lan didn’t want to involve other matters.
Usually busy with work, she didn’t have the leisure to chat idly in the group.
Having brought Chen Hai into the class group, she took the rare initiative to speak.
After a greeting to welcome Chen Hai to the group, Lin Lan sent a whopping two-thousand-dollar red packet.
Zhang Zhi: Holy cow, Lin Lan, you usually don’t talk much, but when you do, it’s scary.
How big is this red packet?
I clicked, and I got over eighty!
Yang Hua: Sister Lan is mighty.
I grabbed over a hundred.
Did Chen Hai join?
Why isn’t he speaking?
Zhang Yong: Brother Hai?
After being out of touch for so long, you finally decided to show up.
…
That huge red packet stirred quite a few people in the group chat.
Considering their age, these classmates were all in their forties or fifties, yet they were still quick to snatch red packets.
Chen Hai also grabbed a red packet, but he was unlucky; while others snatched amounts in the tens and hundreds, he only managed to get a few dollars.
Chen Hai: Hello everyone!
This was his first time chatting in the WeChat group, and he typed out these few words and sent the message.
He actually wanted to follow Lin Lan’s example by sending a large red packet.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have any balance in his WeChat wallet, and his HSBC bank card wasn’t linked yet.
After hesitating for a moment, he took the seven dollars and eighty cents he had grabbed from Lin Lan’s red packet and without keeping a cent, sent it all in a red packet to the group chat.
Though the money wasn’t much, the excitement in grabbing red packets didn’t diminish for his classmates.
No one minded the small amount, and emojis thanking the “boss” and “tycoon” were sent in a long trail.
For ordinary people, the limit for a red envelope is two hundred, but with someone like Yang Huilan, who sends out two thousand at a time, that’s just an exception.
Seeing this, Chen Hai breathed a sigh of relief.
He put down his phone and didn’t continue to chat idly in the class group.
After all, Yang Huilan had already refilled the empty whiskey glasses.
She picked up the glass in front of her, clinked it with Chen Hai’s, and started toasting him again!
“How have you been all these years?
Your wife and kids?
Are they all in Liuyuan County?”
This time, Yang Huilan didn’t insist on drinking the whole glass at once.
After sipping a little, she smiled and asked Chen Hai.
“Still single, no wife or kids,” Chen Hai sighed and forced a smile when the conversation turned in that direction.
The situation with Ye Qingqing didn’t even need mentioning, pondering upon it alone made him feel speechless.
Although his visit to Tianning Temple in the Capital City had somewhat eased their relationship,
such things weren’t easy to mention in front of an old classmate like Yang Huilan.
He certainly couldn’t just bluntly tell her that he had a girlfriend who was a nun in the temple and also technically someone else’s wife…
After a pause, Chen Hai casually asked back, “What about you?
After all these years, you must have started a family, right?”
Hearing Chen Hai’s words, Yang Huilan’s expression seemed to brighten considerably.
Giving him a meaningful look, she responded, “Just like you, I’m also alone!”
“In this regard, Chen Hai, we are truly commiserates.”
“I’d like to start a family too, but unfortunately, I need to find the right person!”
She sighed lightly as she spoke, then picked up her glass and sipped again.
“No way, you’re still single…” Hearing this, Chen Hai was also taken aback.
Compared to him, Yang Huilan was a few years younger; after all, she hadn’t been held back several times in the first grade like Chen Hai and repeated the years.
Even so, she was well into her forties.
At this age, still being single undoubtedly made her a typical ‘leftover woman’.
“I studied abroad and before taking over the family business, I returned to Wuyang Town and even went to Chen Family area specifically looking for you!”
“Unfortunately, your family had moved away.”
“I also asked several classmates with whom we were quite close about your whereabouts, and they too had no clue.”
“A few years ago, my adoptive father passed away.
I helped manage his funeral and stayed in Liuyuan County for a few extra days!”
“I worked hard to find the small convenience store your mother runs but all I learned from her was that you had been out of contact for several years!”
…
Filled with melancholy and bitterness, Yang Huilan sighed deeply, her face sorrowful as she glared at Chen Hai.
“That old matter has passed so long ago, why not let it go with the wind?
Isn’t that much better?” After a silence, Chen Hai replied with a forced smile.
Yang Huilan mentioned things he truly didn’t know!
In his mind, time could dilute everything.
After so many years had passed, there should only be a pure classmate relationship left between him and Yang Huilan!
But now, from what she had said, it seemed she still harbored some different feelings towards him!
Without directly responding to Chen Hai’s words, Yang Huilan picked up her glass with more than half still filled, and drank it down in one gulp.
“Drink a little less, Huilan.
This liquor is strong; drinking too much will only hurt you,”
Seeing this, Chen Hai sighed and tried to console her.
“I’ve finished mine.
How about you?
A big man should be brisk.
Let’s drink up and have another round!”
Chen Hai’s consolation was utterly useless.
Rolling her eyes at him, Lin Lan picked up the bottle opener and opened another bottle of whiskey.
“Just one question, Chen Hai, are you or aren’t you going to drink with me?” Seeing Chen Hai still motionless, she glared at him again.
“You’re deliberately trying to get me drunk, huh?
Alright, let’s drink up.
I’ll drink until I’m content!”
Resigned, Chen Hai rolled his eyes, picked up the glass in front of him, and drank it all in one go.
“That’s more like a man.
If you men don’t get drunk, when do we women get a chance?” Yang Huilan snickered.
She seemed already tipsy, her gaze towards Chen Hai bizarre.
She refilled the glass she had just emptied,
Made a toast gesture to Chen Hai, and then downed the newly filled glass in one gulp.
With a bit of alcohol-induced boldness, she continued, “Chen Hai, after the college entrance exams, when we came back from the Shuang State dinner, I was willing to follow you to a hotel room.
I had even steeled myself for certain matters.”
“Unfortunately, when I came out after taking a shower, you were sleeping like a log.”
“Back then, I was a bit shy and reserved!”
“If it were now, no matter how soundly you slept, I’d make sure to wake you up!”
“Tonight, don’t leave.
What you owed me back then, you’ll pay back double tonight, okay?”