Yuan Chen looked very awkward.Suddenly, a lot of eyes hostile were pointed at him.
"I"ve never seen someone come here who couldn"t even afford his bill."
"No wonder he ordered all that expensive stuff. I thought he was loaded, but he"s just a scammer."
"My... My father is Party Committee Secretary Yuan! I really lost my wallet; let me owe you. I"ll go home and get the money immediately!"
Unfortunately, name-dropping his father not only failed to impress the supervisor, but attracted a burst of laughter.
"Haha, he said his father was Party Committee Secretary Yuan!"
"Party Committee Secretary Yuan"s son is a rich man, how could he not be able to pay the bill?"
"d.a.m.n scammers, pretending to be rich second generation kids!"
These sarcastic remarks stabbed into Yuan Chen"s miserable heart like knives.
Yuan Chen"s bank card, ID and driver"s license were lost, so his only option was to drive home to get the money and hope to not get pulled over on the way, but with the traffic in Shanghai, it would take at least an hour to reach his home. Moreover, there was no way the restaurant would let him leave just like that.
Of course, there were other ways to solve this problem, but this was his first time having to deal with a situation like this, so he felt completely lost.
Out of nowhere, Ye Fei stood up and shouted, "Shut up!"
The restaurant immediately fell quiet and all eyes fell on Ye Fei.
"Can"t a man eat at this restaurant just because he has no money?" he said with a toothpick dangling from his mouth.
"Nonsense. Of course not!" the waitress snorted. "Our restaurant is not a place where poor people like you should come."
"What a bunch of sn.o.bs. Check this out!" Ye Fei slammed his black garbage bag on the table.
A sense of confusion spread among the onlookers. The waitress looked at the dirty black plastic bag and didn"t know what to make of it.
"We only accept money," she muttered, and apprehensively opened the bag.
Money!
Yes, the bag was full of money.
Who would carry so much cash around these days?
Hushed murmurs spread through the restaurant as people tried to guess Ye Fei"s ident.i.ty.
Yuan Chen was shocked. He never would have imagined that the bag he made fun of was filled to the brim with money!
Ye Fei leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. "So, are we qualified to have a meal at your restaurant?"
"Yes, yes!"
Although the waitress was cute, she wasn"t particularly cultured and she was a sn.o.b. She grinned greedily as she scooped out a few stacks of bills from the bag.
"Well, thanks to your boss, Robert, I will not make a fuss about this mistreatment," Ye Fei said coldly.
Robert and the restaurant manager were both absent, having left to deal with the catastrophe in the restroom.
Ye Fei knocked on the table and said, "Count the money and take what we owe. I"ll say right now, I have no intention of leaving a tip."
The waitress asked someone to come over to help her count the money.
After solving this problem, Ye Fei looked at Yuan Chen.
Yuan Chen was grateful. He did not expect Ye Fei to help him.
Ye Fei smiled and said, "Mr. Yuan... May I remind you, you said you would pay for today"s meal."
"Of course. I was going to pay, but I lost my wallet."
"I don"t care if you lost your money, you should still pay the bill."
Yuan Chen looked at Ye Fei in confusion. "Well, of course."
"I mean, I can"t help you pay this bill. So, this can be regarded as a loan to you."
"A loan? Well, it"s the truth," Yuan Chen nodded. This sounded reasonable.
"But borrowing money always costs an interest, isn"t that right?" Ye Fei continued.
"Of course. If there was no interest, who would lend anything?" Yuan Chen nodded cautiously.
Yuan Chen walked right into Ye Fei"s trap. "Oh, good, you"re a real businessman. You understand how things work. Well, how about you pay me 10% interest, then?"
"10% interest?"
Generally speaking, this meant 10% per month. This interest rate, in fact, was not unheard of. Therefore, Yuan Chen agreed readily.
"Certainly! Once I get home, I"ll repay you immediately."
"Then please write an IOU." Ye Fei asked a waiter to bring paper and a pen so that Yuan Chen could write the IOU on the spot.
Yuan Chen immediately picked up the pen and wrote a formal IOU, finally signing his name at the bottom, and handed it to Ye Fei.
Ye Fei looked at the IOU and put it down on the table. "Mr. Yuan, there seems to be a misunderstanding," he said casually. "The 10% interest I mentioned, I meant per hour."
"10% interest per hour!?" Yuan Chen jumped from his seat. "What! With that interest... If I pay you back this time tomorrow, how much money will I owe you?"
Ye Fei made a quick mental calculation. "Just about 600,000 Yuan. Not that much, really."