I Don’t Want To Be Popular - Chapter 23

Chapter 23: A Night In Chongqing City

Bowu’s housemates gazed at Bowu, who had a sweaty forehead and nosebleed. Then, their eyes swept over Chen Chuan in astonishment.

“Hey, man. I… I didn’t mean to get away with it. You… You just look at my phone history. I’ve asked my family for money, and they haven’t transferred it to me…” Bowu then took out an old cell phone. He logged in to his WeChat account and showed Chen Chuan the chat history.

Bowu: [Dad, I’ve spoiled someone’s cell phone. I’ve got to pay 3,000 yuan in compensation. Boohoo…]

Dad: [I told you to take things slow. Don’t rush!]

Bowu: [Boohoo, I even injured her nose…]

Bowu’s dad sent a series of hitting emojis. [I’ll transfer the money to you next week.]

…

The argument ended with Bowu adding Chen Chuan on WeChat. He had promised to transfer the money to Chen Chuan once he had received it from his family.

When Chen Chuan went downstairs, Yaoyao came to him concernedly. She looked at him and after making sure that he was fine, she asked, “So how was it? Have you solved it?”

Chen Chuan nodded. It was already evening at that time.

Yaoyao asked, “Are you going back to the hotel?”

“Yup.”

“Oh, so… Where are you going to eat? Our canteen has hotpot…” Yaoyao suddenly asked.

This had reminded Chen Chuan of something.

Chen Chuan replied, “You girls treated me to lunch today, so dinner should be on me. I’ll search for a hotpot restaurant and send you girls the location. After having hotpot, we’ll go for karaoke.”

“Really?” Yaoyao’s eyes sparkled. “Hooray! I’m going to tell them when I get back to my dorm!”

Chen Chuan hailed a taxi at the campus gate and asked the taxi driver to recommend a restaurant that served the most authentic Sichuan hotpot. The driver had named a few restaurants.

Chen Chuan then booked one of the recommended restaurants online.

A meal at Big Dragon Hotpot costs 110 yuan per person. The restaurant chose the best Hanyuan peppercorn and the most expensive beef in the market. Its soup base, which contained greens, was eco-friendly.

‘I came to research the food as well. If the hotpot tastes good, my family can learn from it for their hotpot business,’ Chen Chuan thought.

Night had set in.

Four girls from Ziyue’s dormitory had arrived, whereas the other two housemates had returned home.

The five of them ate to their heart’s content at the big table in Big Dragon Hotpot.

The beef tripe served by the restaurant was tender and smooth.

The handmade minced prawn mixed with crawfish was chewy.

It was a very tasty meal.

They then headed to the nearest karaoke bar after dinner.

To Chen Chuan’s surprise, apart from Ziyue, her three other housemates had high alcohol tolerance, especially Yaoyao.

Yaoyao could down a 330-milliliter bottle of Corona beer, which had a slice of lime at the opening. She could even belch and comment on the beer, “It has a gentle and delicate aroma. Give me another bottle.”

“Brother, let’s drink.”

“Cheers, brother.”

Seemingly, Chen Chuan had been bewitched by the girls who called him ‘brother’. After drinking a few rounds with the girls, he was finally aware that the girls must have teamed up to make him drunk.

Nevertheless, little did they know that Chen Chuan had consumed [Real Sober Pill].

He had full control of the rate of alcohol metabolism in his body. When he wanted to feel tipsy, he could slow down the metabolism. When he felt that he was getting drunk, he could boost the metabolism whereby alcohol would be broken down into carbon dioxide and water in no time.

As for the karaoke session, Ziyue became the microphone hogger as she could not really drink.

Being tipsy, Yaoyao and two other girls grabbed the microphone at times. They sang some boring and modern love songs with a mixed accent.

Ziyue and the girls had a whale of a time.

At that moment, Chen Chuan’s phone vibrated. It was a voice call from Jinglan.

“Hey, what are you doing? Well, nothing important, just want to remind you… Don’t forget to come the day after tomorrow. I’m helping my sister with her wedding preparation at her place. Where did you go today? Have you shopped around Chongqing City? Was it your cousin who took you around? Was it fun? This place is great, isn’t it? Are you in a karaoke room now? Where is it? If it’s near, I’d also like to join. Heh, just kidding. I’m not joining. Go to bed now. It’s already late… Don’t drink too much. As a monitor, I’m ordering you not to drink too much. What? I don’t have the authority to do so here? Fine, rest early… By the way, I have a surprise for you the day after tomorrow… I’m going to hang up now. Have fun. Bye for now. Goodnight.”

Chen Chuan became deep in thought while holding his phone. At that moment, a microphone was poked at his mouth.

Yaoyao had a microphone as well. “Come, let’s sing together.”

With the microphone pressed to him, Chen Chuan could barely breathe. He looked at the song which was entitled “Bare Face”.

…

Chen Chuan stayed in the karaoke room with his cousin and the girls until late at night. Yaoyao’s wild behavior was an eye-opener for him.

He sent them back to their dormitory at 10:00 pm.

Ziyue was the only good girl among them. She did not drink nor do crazy things, and she alone took care of three other housemates who were in high spirits. She bid Chen Chuan goodbye at the campus gate.

The Apple store near the campus gate was still open for business.

Chen Chuan held Ziyue back and they entered the phone store. They saw a tag that read “New arrival: Apple iPhone 8 Plus 256GB Special Edition at 7,988 yuan”.

“I’d like a red one.”

Chen Chuan bought a red Apple iPhone 8 Plus Special Edition and paid 7,988 yuan.

[You have spent 7,988 yuan. You have earned double cashback totaling 15,976 yuan.]

He took out the phone from the tightly sealed box and handed it to Ziyue.

Her eyes widened with joy and surprise. She could not seem to believe it.

“Your broken phone can’t be used anymore. Take this. This is your reward for behaving well tonight,” Chen Chuan said, laughing.

As the youngest sister in the Chen family, Ziyue had been an obedient girl since young. This was evident when she did not even touch alcohol after entering university.

“From today onward, you’re my biological brother!” Ziyue jumped for joy and let go of Yaoyao whom she was holding, allowing Yaoyao to collapse. She then ran toward Chen Chuan and gave him a big hug.

Chen Chuan raised his head and saw a big round moon that night.

After returning to the hotel by taxi, he came up with an idea. Chongqing City was a pleasant place, and he felt like spending his vacation here in the future. However, he found it inconvenient not to have a car as he had to go around by taxi.

The next morning, Chen Chuan headed to a nearby auto city by taxi after washing up.

When he passed by the Lexus 4S store, it reminded him of the markup on cars of this brand. He then walked in.

As soon as Chen Chuan arrived at the entrance, he bumped into several fashionably dressed female customers who walked out while talking about cars.

“Only a dumb, rich person would buy that car!”

“Exactly. What’s more, it’s marked up by 20,000 yuan. I may as well buy an Audi A6L with that amount of money!”

“I really admire a Lexus car owner… The car doesn’t have a long wheelbase, and the space in the back seat is too small.”

Listening to their conversation, Chen Chuan walked into the store.

A Lexus ES300h came with a list price of 468,000 yuan, plus 53,000 yuan for on-road costs and 10,000 yuan for modification. The car would take two months to arrive.

This was the information Chen Chuan had heard while standing idle in the store.

The salespeople were all busy assisting customers who crowded the store. No one had the time to assist a youngster like Chen Chuan.

Among the Lexus cars, there was one without markup. Additionally, the car was available at a discount of over 10,000 yuan, and it was the Lexus LS.

There was an existing Lexus LS in the store, which looked elegant and brilliant.

Just as Chen Cuan was ready to open the door to experience the LS, he heard the conversation between two customers who walked past him.

“1,170,000 yuan for an LS? Damn!”

“I know. I may as well spend 1,000,000 on a BMW 7 Series.”

Chen Chuan shifted his gaze directly to the Lexus LC500h sports car beside the LS.

A couple walked past the sports car. Staring at the LC500h, the man said, “How is it even considered a sports car when it has such a small exhaust pipe? It’s not as fast as the Porsche 911 nor the Nissan GT-R, and it simply serves to attract yuppies.”