Chapter 102 - Physical Checkup
It just so happened to be peak hour, when everyone was getting off work, so A City traffic was still congested. Despite city roadwork efforts, an increasing number of people were also buying cars, so the traffic situation never changed.
The two of them weren’t in a hurry. Yu Tang had already booked a table, and it was fine to slowly make their way over. Transport in the modern era was already very fast, even during a traffic jam, for the two of them who were used to carriages.
“I received some news today.” Yu Tang stopped the car behind a long line of cars. “Someone has put up Xinghai Entertainment shares for sale; it’s about one percent.”
Song Xiao turned to look at him and smiled. “It’s Song Zheng ba.”
“En.” Yu Tang raised his hand, and Dugu An, who was crouched in the back, pa.s.sed him a doc.u.ment, which Yu Tang gave to Song Xiao. “This is her asking price. No one wants it.”
Song Xiao lowered his head to look at the information inside. Based on the current market price, this quoted price was somewhat high. The outside world currently wasn’t optimistic about Xinghai Entertainment’s future prospects, so there certainly wasn’t anyone who was willing to spend money on such a pointless expense.
“Zhen quoted this number.” Yu Tang pointed at a value.
“That’s also too low.” Song Xiao laughed in spite of himself. That was merely a third of Song Zheng’s quoted price; she would be crazy to sell it for that much.
“Do you want to make a bet?” The car in front moved, and Yu Tang stepped on the gas pedal. “If zhen can buy it at this price…”
“I’m not betting with you.” Song Xiao hastily cut him off. After being with Yu Tang for so many years, how could he not know what the latter was like? He absolutely wouldn’t put down a bet if he wasn’t sure of victory, and more often than not, the stakes weren’t a good thing.
Yu Tang was taken aback, but then laughed softly.
The weather had gotten cold, and hotpot stores had booming business.
The two of them headed straight for a private room. When they went upstairs, they encountered a group of young people who were all dressed exquisitely – anyone could tell that they were children from wealthy families.
“Xiao Tang!” A girl in the group, who was wearing a form-fitting mini dress with a white fox fur shawl draped over her shoulders, suddenly called out Yu Tang’s name.
Song Xiao looked over and narrowed his eyes slightly. Wasn’t that the person who had claimed to be Yu Tang’s fiancee back then, Cheng Xinran?
Yu Tang also recognised Cheng Xinran and gave a slight, polite nod as he continued walking ahead without saying anything. Some of the young masters were a little scared when they saw Yu Tang, and retreated a few steps of their own accord and made way for him. Without sparing anyone a single glance, Yu Tang pulled Song Xiao past them and entered the room he had booked.
“Isn’t that Yu Tang?” A few of the wealthy young ladies also recognised Yu Tang, and couldn’t help sneaking more looks in the direction he had left. In their generation, Yu Tang was obviously the one with the best prospects. He had taken over the Yu family’s entire enterprise in China at such a young age, and had cowed all the higher-ups who had planned to oppose him. Not only didn’t the Yu family stocks dip in price following Yu Fu’s disappearance, it instead rose after Yu Tang consolidated all their power in China.
Rich young ladies also wanted to marry a prince charming, and Yu Tang was so outstanding; compared with him, these hedonistic children around them weren’t worth mentioning.
“Xinran, since you’ve also returned from abroad, why notk2026;” Cheng Xinran’s good friend jerked her chin in Yu Tang’s direction.
Cheng Xinran had been studying abroad in the last few years, and hadn’t heard any news of Yu Tang at all. She had just returned recently, and had heard rumours of how outstanding Yu Tang was. She was also a little affected herself, but remained indifferent on the surface. “This, we’ll have to see if we’re fated ba.”
Yu Tang didn’t know of whatever fate he had with Cheng Xinran. At that moment, he was only concerned over the fact that there was actually no more of the marinated duck tongue that his empress wanted to eat!
“Eating marinated duck tongue in a hotpot restaurant isn’t fitting in the first place. Forget it, let’s order some hotpot ingredients ba.” Song Xiao tugged at Yu Tang’s sleeve.
This hotpot restaurant had some very delicious cold dishes, such as the marinated duck tongue. Duck tongue had been very, very expensive in the past. Song Xiao liked to eat it, but it was just that his annual salary wasn’t much, and he could only eat it now and then. After becoming the empress, he dared to eat it even less.
The emperor’s every word and action would affect the country. If someone found out that the empress was fond of duck tongue, a case of wasted manpower and resources would emerge. What was more, Yu Jintang this fellow was basically an incapable ruler when it came to certain things. He truly would do something like ‘The empress smiled joyously; no one knew it was for a duck’s tongue’.
But modern society was different. Production capability now flourished, and there were factories which specialized in rearing ducks. Duck tongue was also no longer expensive, and one could eat as many as they wanted.
“Why aren’t there any?” Yu Tang was extremely unhappy.
“The room next door ordered a lot today. I truly am sorry.” The waiter smiled apologetically. They did have a limited number of marinated duck tongue every day. Next door had asked for over ten plates in one go, treating it as a snack, so there were no more for this room.
“I’ll pay twice the amount. Give me a plate and let that group know that there aren’t that many left.” Yu Tang waved his hand and made this decision.
“This…” The waiter felt it was very awkward. The room next door was a group of second generations who had ordered the food that morning. Telling them now that there wasn’t enough would be too fake. Looking at Yu Tang, however, the waiter didn’t dare say more, and could only leave to ask the manager.
When the manager heard this, he casually removed one plate of marinated duck tongue that was meant for next door and shoved it into the waiter’s hands.
The waiter’s eyes went wide in astonishment.
“Look, what’s written on our signboard?” The manager patted the waiter’s shoulder and pointed at the signboard outside.
“Dayu Hotpot ah,” the waiter said cluelessly.
“Then that settles it.” The manager jerked his thumb at the room behind them. “That person is the one at the helm of Dayu corporation.”
Song Xiao ate his duck tongue, and was perfectly satisfied. Dugu An was on the side, energetically putting the ingredients into the hotpot.
On this cold winter day, they boiled a pot of spicy soup and threw in thin slices of mutton, fatty beef, tripe, and meatb.a.l.l.s. They fished them out after the food was boiled, dipped them in their preferred sauces, and took a bite. The hot and numbing, spicy and fragrant flavour scalded their tongues, and the aftertaste lingered.
The three of them were eating happily when they suddenly heard a ruckus next door.
“I clearly said that I wanted twelve plates when I ordered in the morning! Now that there’s one less plate, what do you want me to eat?” The man speaking sounded very angry.
“I personally saw them carry a plate into the room next door!” a girl said in a shrill voice.
“Enough, stop causing trouble. I’ll go take a look next door.” Cheng Xinran was already in front of their door when her voice rang out.
When Yu Tang heard this voice, he curled his lip and sneered. When they went upstairs just now, these people had certainly seen him enter this room, yet were now acting so hypocritically and faking a chance encounter. Raising a hand, he fished out a boiled beef ball for Song Xiao.
Song Xiao liked eating this, and dipped it in the sauce before taking a bite. The boiling hot liquid inside promptly scalded his tongue. “Wu…”
“Why didn’t you p.r.i.c.k it to cool it down?” Yu Tang hurriedly had Song Xiao spit the beef ball out and stick out his red tongue so that he could blow on it.
“Sorry to bother…” Cheng Xinran pretended to be clueless and opened the door to the room, planning to say a few words to Yu Tang. The moment she raised her head, she saw this scene.
Yu Tang held Song Xiao’s chin, while Song Xiao’s eyes seemed to be clouded with tears. Because Yu Tang was leaning in very close from this side, it seemed as if he was about to kiss Song Xiao
“You… you guys…” Cheng Xinran naturally recognised Song Xiao. She had always a.s.sumed that this fellow was just Yu Tang’s little attendant, who had waited on Yu Tang all these years – she never imagined that they would actually have this sort of relationship.
Yu Tang glanced at the door and remained unmoved. He continued to ‘huhu’ for his empress, blowing until it was just about okay before he let go. He unhurriedly asked, “Something the matter?”
“Ah… So it turns out to be you guys ah…” Since she was already here, Cheng Xinran still put on a bold face and walked over. She forced a smile and said, “We ordered twelve dishes of duck tongue. When they heard that the room next door had s.n.a.t.c.hed a plate, the children there got angry, so I came to take a look.”
She had abruptly forgotten the excuses she had initially prepared because of the earlier shock, and only this dull and flimsy reason remained.
“Since Cheng jie is already here, come eat with us for a bit ba.” Song Xiao drank a mouthful of tea, and extended the invitation with a smile.
Cheng Xinran looked at the expressionless Yu Tang, then looked at Dugu An who was glaring coldly at her, and shook her head in refusal as she got up to take her leave. She only reacted after she left – Song Xiao called her “jie”, when she was clearly just a year older than him!
Yu Tang didn’t care about Cheng Xinran showing up in the slightest, and continued to take out beef b.a.l.l.s for Song Xiao. This time, however, he p.r.i.c.ked them for Song Xiao in pa.s.sing.
Song Xiao looked at the beef b.a.l.l.s letting off steam in his bowl, then looked at His Majesty the emperor who was cooking the hotpot with an earnest expression. The unhappiness caused by Cheng Xinran was immediately tossed beyond the topmost clouds. An emperor who was willing to take dishes for him – no one else could s.n.a.t.c.h that away.
“How long do you plan to leave that mistress living outside your family alone?” After the hotpot, the two of them had tea to help with their digestion.
“Once all the money is returned, then we’ll talk.” Song Xiao leaned back in the chair, exhaling in satisfaction.
Yu Tang reached out and rubbed Song Xiao’s round and bulging tummy. “Arrange for Xinghai’s people to get their physical checkups done at Dayu one of these days ba.”
“Ah?” Song Xiao grabbed the hand that was rubbing his belly and starting to wander. He pursed his lips and laughed lightly. “Dayu is a maternity hospital. If Your Majesty wishes to generate revenue for your family, you shouldn’t use a method like this.”
“Then it’s decided.” Yu Tang ignored Song Xiao’s protests and pulled him downstairs.
Oppressed by His Majesty the emperor, Song Xiao could only arrange for everyone in the company to get physical checkups done at Dayu Maternity Hospital, with the reasoning that this private hospital was the best at confidentiality, and celebrities and artists weren’t in any danger if they went there. It made a lot of sense, plus their checkup fees were very expensive. It was rare for the company to be so generous, so everyone went.
As a result, the people at Dayu Maternity Hospital often saw a group of older men these days holding lab test reports and asking nervously, “Doctor, I’m fine, right?”
Little Theater
David: Doctor, how am I?
Doctor: Your condition is still pretty good; the child’s development is fine
David: ( ⊙ o ⊙ ) Chotto matte, doctor, what child?
Doctor: Oh, my bad, I saw the wrong form
David: Huu, you scared me
Doctor: Wu, your fibroid tumour of the uterus seems a little serious
David: …Doctor… I…
Doctor: It’s fine, there’s a way to cure it
David: Ok ok ok, you proceed ba (‘Nothing left to live for’ face)