Chapter 19
Going to London
The trash bag fell on the floor, and Ye Wenxuan quickly supported that person"s elbow to prevent him from also falling down.
A few minutes later, a Chinese employee walked back to the clubhouse from the iron gate, and quietly received a cold meal appetizer platter handed over by one of the chefs. He followed a white boy also holding a platter to walk out of the clubhouse kitchen.
The chef who had given him the plate touched his chin: "Strange, just going out to take out the trash, did the Li boy suddenly get taller?”
"Did he? I didn"t notice." Another chef was carving a piece of broccoli and was not very interested in this topic.
In fact, in their eyes, these Asian people all looked too similar, and if they hadn"t interacted for very long, these tall white people with deep-set features really would be confused about how to differentiate between them.
On the other side, Ye Wenxuan followed several white boys holding platters and turned into a staff-specific stairwell, pretending to be a waiter.
In order to not let the waiters bother the guests, the waiters were not allowed to use the front elevator in this clubhouse, and every time they went to serve food they could only take the staff channel.
Stepping on the soft carpet, Ye Wenxuan observed his left and right, and found that there were only dim wall lamps in the corridors. This should be an attempt to create an ambiguous and sentimental atmosphere, but this was also good, a certain someone mixing in would not be immediately revealed.
He didn"t dare to open his mouth to speak, only lowering his head. Presumably the original person he was pretending to be was also like this, so the few people in front of him chatted while they walked and did not pay attention to him.
This was just what Ye Wenxuan wanted. He followed behind those people, walking while eavesdropping on their conversation.
"Ida, is there any good material behind the door tonight?" A waiter who looked quite handsome asked.
"How would I know, I don"t dare to go down often." The man named Ida slapped him: "You want to gamble again? Do you even have enough money?”
Someone next to them whispered: "Lynn, last time you lost your fortune, haven"t you learned your lesson yet?”
Lynn was unwilling: "That was an accident, that guy looked tall and strong, who knew that after being beaten twice he would be paralyzed!"
A group of people walked up to the third floor, a few entered the two boxes on the left. Ye Wenxuan"s platter needed to go into an inner room, so he walked slowly and heard Ida whispering to Lynn in warning: "You be a little more honest today, don"t go down. I heard that today an important guest reserved the entire floor behind the door, be careful that you won"t come back alive if you go down.”
He could no longer hear how Lynn had responded, those two people turned into one of the rooms on the right side. Ye Wenxuan dared not stay too long in this corridor filled with surveillance, so he could only continue to go forward, while thinking about what kind of thing "behind the door" was, while searching for the right box based on the number on the platter.
Room 318 was the furthest inside.
Seeing that there were four very muscular men in black suits standing outside the innermost door, Ye Wenxuan felt that there might be some trouble. There had not been such fanfare in the boxes that he had pa.s.sed by, it was clear that the ident.i.ty of the people inside was not low.
Hopefully there were no clubhouse executives in there, or else it would be miserable if he was found.
He thickened his face and walked to the door, and before he touched the door, the tall black man standing to the side stepped forward to stop him.
"What are you doing.”
Ye Wenxuan cleared his throat: "The gentleman inside ordered a cold meal appetizer platter.”
Another white bodyguard looked him up and down, talking into his bluetooth headset quietly, and a moment later he nodded to the others and said: "Go in, send in the food and leave.”
Ye Wenxuan nodded, and under four gazes like searchlights, he held the platter with one hand and pushed the door open with the other.
It took him some strength to finally push the door open, and then he lowered his head. When he entered the door, he did not look around, only walking toward the two people sitting in the room.
"You better check a little faster, as time pa.s.ses, I"m afraid another accident will happen.”
"Hehehe, you can rest a.s.sured.”
The people inside were talking, but turned silent when they saw him coming in, only watching this waiter gently place the platter on the coffee table.
The man on the armchair called at him: "Don"t leave." Then he turned and asked the person next to him: "I have a few bottles of good wine hidden here, it"s rare for you to come over, how about it, want to taste it?”
"No." The man on the sofa next to him lazily said: "Any tea.”
When he had just come in he hadn"t listened carefully, but at this time when the man spoke, Ye Wenxuan"s heart immediately shook.
"Oh, you spare me ba!" That white man called out exaggeratedly: "Good sir, you come to my place and actually want to drink tea? Please, if other people heard this, they would laugh until their teeth fall out, and then scold me that I, Wilson, do not properly entertain my guests.”
The other person seemed to scoff and smile: "Then try your wine.”
Ye Wenxuan stood by the wall with his head down, using his peripheral vision to look at those two people speaking. One of them was a tall white blond-haired young man with brown eyes, and the other was a black-haired, blue-eyed Asian young man. The two people seemed to have known each other for a long time, and chatted very casually.
Sure enough, the person sitting on the sofa was Xing Yuan.
Ye Wenxuan didn"t know whether or not he should be considered lucky, finding his mission goal without any effort. He tried to suppress his sense of existence as much as possible, and hearing that this person named Wilson had told himself to go out and get some wine, he knew that he could no longer stay in here, and finally withdrew unwillingly.
Xing Yuan did not recognize him after his gla.s.ses were removed, this was very good.
Ye Wenxuan had no idea where Wilson"s hidden wine was stored, so he could only call a waitress in the hallway who was dressed like himself, and pretended to be familiar with her: "Hi, Mr. Wilson asked me to pick up some of his stashed wine, but I haven"t been here very long, can you help me out?”
That person looked at him, then first looked at his work ID, while warily saying: "I haven"t seen you before, where is the boss, and why would he tell you to get the wine?”
It turns out Wilson was the boss here. Ye Wenxuan took a mental note of that, reported a room number, and then said: "I have always been helping out in the kitchen, they didn"t have enough staff, so they let me go help to send a platter. When I came out I was called to go get some wine." He made a look of grievance: "I had been carving radish flowers in the back kitchen, I don"t even know if someone else has thrown them away…”
There have been quite a few times here when the kitchen helpers would be called to help serve, so the woman"s gaze relaxed slightly: "Good, then since it"s to help the boss get wine, I will go tell Hannah. You first go back to the kitchen, and Hannah will be responsible for the boss"s things.”
Ye Wenxuan actually had still wanted to go back, but now he had no reason to, so he could only honestly agree: "Oh.”
He waited for the waitress to turn and leave before going slowly down the stairs and knocked on the door to the room labeled "Staff Lounge." There was no response.
He swiped the work ID on his chest on the sensor by the door, and after a "ding," the door opened.
Ye Wenxuan looked around and locked the door after he went in. In the room he took out some of the cosmetics that some waitresses had left on the table, and after picking through them, he found a few that he could use, and began to apply them on his face.
This was his first time doing this kind of sneaky thing, so he was still afraid of being recognized with his original face. He intuitively felt like he would be able to work more securely if he changed his face.
He had received special training back in the Special Affairs Department, where a teacher had especially taught him how to do make up and disguises. Because of his curiosity, Ye Wenxuan had put a lot of effort into learning it, and sure enough it had come to use, he involuntarily felt grateful to that teacher.
It"s just that his skills still weren"t good enough to have the technique of completely turning into another person.
He put down his eyeliner and powder, carefully looking at his face in the mirror. The man in the mirror had deep eye sockets, a tall nose, a face pale enough to scare people, a few big moles on his left cheek, and even a large patch of freckles sprinkled across his nose.
At first glance, this was the face of a not very good looking European man.
Ye Wenxuan was quite satisfied. He straightened up, and listened for a bit at the door. Confirming that there were no footsteps, he slowly opened the door and went out. He didn"t go back to the kitchen, but instead walked to the big hall on the first floor.
He wanted to look for another chance to see if he could go back to Xing Yuan"s room.
There was a public area in the big lobby on the first floor of the Red Rose Clubhouse. This area was quite large, with more than ten European cla.s.sical style tables and sofas scattered around in groups of twos and threes. The tables were all quite far apart from each other, and were separated using layers of draperies. People would sit together behind the curtains, gather together at the tables, and did not interfere with each other.
The light here was very dim, the only light source in the middle of the dance floor. When Ye Wenxuan felt his way in, there were a few blond women on the dance floor, swaying to the rhythm of the blues music.
He didn"t look further, threading his way through the draperies in the dark, all the way to the bar at the side of the stage.
"Sir, two cups of Manhattan wine for the gentlemen on the third floor.”
The bartender glanced at him, said nothing, and then turned to start to mix the wine.
Ye Wenxuan knew that he had been looking at his work ID just now.
He rested his hand on the bar and looked at the crowd of people whispering to each other through his peripheral vision.
They spoke quietly, that little murmur of conversation would sometimes be covered by the soft music. Ye Wenxuan could not hear them distinctly, and also could not see their faces through the veils.
But in the same way, standing here his face would also be blurry and indistinct.
Here was designed to be an open bar, but in fact it still paid a lot of attention to the guests" privacy.
"Two cups of Manhattan, take it.”
Ye Wenxuan came back to his senses. He vaguely thanked him, placed the two c.o.c.ktails into his tray, and then quietly turned to leave.
With his props, he could finally go upstairs and find his mission targets.
As he returned on his original path, he quickly pondered in his mind. What was Xing Yuan"s purpose for coming here?
He didn"t bring an a.s.sistant, only a single bodyguard. That meant this wasn"t for work, but for something involving his personal matters.
Ye Wenxuan had not heard of the Red Rose Clubhouse before, but this was normal. Previously during his work he didn"t like to go to this kind of high-cla.s.s clubhouse, and when he had to discuss designs with his clients he would directly go to the other side"s company. During his leisure time he would at most go to Starbucks or other cafes to sit.
Ye Wenxuan could not tell for the time being what kind of clubhouse Red Rose was. He only felt that the inside was not as noisy as ordinary entertainment venues, and the security was light outside but strict inside. If he wanted to find out more, it was really not easy based on his current level.
Then why did Xing Yuan run here in the middle of the night? Was it simply just to see a friend, or was there some other big reason?
This was the question he wanted to know the most right now, but Ye Wenxuan also knew that tonight he might not get much harvest.
Ye Wenxuan carried his tray past several waiters. He recognized that two of them were the Ida and Lynn from just now, and this group seemed to have just finished serving their platters, whispering as they went downstairs.
They came face to face with Ye Wenxuan in the stairwell. He had made his face less visible, so these people did not find that Ye Wenxuan was the young Asian man who had gone upstairs with them earlier.
## Wonderful Night at Red Rose ##
Ye Wenxuan did not find Xing Yuan initially, so he chose to serve a few more plates.
Ye Wenxuan knocked on the door of the 305 on his platter: "Sir, the carrot you wanted.”
Inside there was a bunny woman holding a whip S"ing a tall handsome uncle.
Ye Wenxuan: "…”
The muscular bunny woman: "Put it on the table.”
Ye Wenxuan: I"m afraid that if she pulled up her skirt, it would be even bigger than my own.
5 minutes later.
Ye Wenxuan knocked on the door of 308: "Sir, the sapphire crown that you wanted is here.”
Inside was a man wrapped in a red velvet cloak, sitting on the sofa with a scepter in his hands. Next to him a group of waiters stood in a row, dressed in cloaks with solemn expressions.
The scepter man gravely said: "Beloved subject, quickly give Us the crown symbolizing our imperial power!”
Ye Wenxuan: "…”
Another 5 minutes later.
Ye Wenxuan clenched his teeth and knocked on the door to 310: "Sir, your b.l.o.o.d.y mary.”
The door opened, but inside was pitch dark, without a single person.
Ye Wenxuan: "Hey, anyone here?”
No one spoke.
Ye Wenxuan turned on the light, and then was silenced by the coffin in the middle of the room.
In the coffin suddenly someone opened his mouth: "Quickly turn off the light…I will…be burned to death by the light…”
Ye Wenxuan: "…”
He expressionlessly said: "Your b.l.o.o.d.y mary.”
In the coffin: "Good…please put it next to the coffin…my bats will help me…”
Ye Wenxuan slammed the door shut and said back to him in his mind: F*king r.e.t.a.r.d.
Then he began to consider a question: Xing Yuan came to this clubhouse, he couldn"t have gone insane ba?
[Declare again, the small theater and the main text have no relation, everyone don"t subst.i.tute ah hahaha]
Translator Notes:
[1] Ida – 艾达, pinyin ai da, seems like a female name though
[2] Lynn – 林恩, pinyin li en, also seems like a female name
[3] lost your fortune – 倾家荡产, idiom, means to lose a family fortune, probably just means he lost a lot
[4] Wilson – 威尔森, pinyin wei er sen, seemed pretty clear
Random Notes:
A bit over one hour: 10:30 am – 11:45 am, for 3.2k characters to 2.7k words. I"m just confused about why no one raised any questions if he changed his face to one of a European and his work ID is still that Asian kid. Also, after you"ve read his future stuff, it"s almost funny how much trouble he"s having rn.