“We are waiting for you to surprise us tonight, Noah.” The men were all from the same department under the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Noah was the center of the topic. They flattered him with a hint of reverence as if he was naturally superior over them. “Haha, I’m not just going to surprise all of you. I’ll make that woman drink with us and you guys can enjoy her.” Noah sat back on the chair with his legs crossed, taking puffs from his cigarette. Winnie and Kaze overheard Noah from outside the room and it made their expressions grim. Winnie took a deep breath before knocking on the door and went inside. “Hi, Mr. Lou, everyone. Sorry to keep you waiting.” “Ms. Souffle, you’re late. You have to drink three shots first before we begin.” Noah put his leg down and smiled. He was neither nervous nor embarrassed even though Winnie and Kaze overheard him. He then got up and introduced the others to Winnie. “Let me introduce them. Troy, deputy chief of the Ministry of
“If they are happy, and I’m satisfied, whether to modify the factory or not will be up to me.”Kaze frowned. If modifying the factory was solely at Noah’s discretion, then it meant that the man intentionally targeted Shangrila Group and gave the company a hard time. Though it was already clear, Noah blatantly revealed his intention, which proved how arrogant he was. Winnie suppressed the anger in her and bit the bullet, saying, “Alright. Let’s have a toast then.” She drank with everyone in the room and chatted with them. It was already inappropriate to let a woman drink so much but Noah did not plan to stop just yet. He spat a cloud of smoke at Winnie and said with a grin, “Ms. Souffle, go on.” “Troy and Baskin are famous for drinkers. One drink isn’t enough.” Winnie’s hand shook, and her face turned slightly pale. First three shots, then one shot with each of the chiefs. Her stomach was already feeling strange yet Noah insisted that she continued. He was obviously
“Fine, punk. You got yourself a deal. If you beat us in drinking, I’ll resume your factory’s operation!” Noah grinned and then continued, “But we have a rule. You can’t just surrender verbally. You either knock us out, or you go out on a stretcher. Now you wouldn’t be a pussy, would you?” His tone was colder than ice. Kaze challenged him repeatedly, which to him was courting death. If so, he did not mind knocking out Kaze on the spot with alcohol. Even if Kaze did not die of alcohol poisoning, his stomach would implode on alcohol. Winnie’s expression shifted. She was scared. They were no longer trying to compete in drinking, they were trying to get Kaze killed! Noah was shameless to make such a rule because he had the advantage of numbers on his side. All of them were veteran drinkers and they were trying to drink Kaze to death. “Don’t…” Winnie tried to stop Kaze from falling into Noah’s trap but Kaze tapped on her shoulder to calm her down. He then grinned at N
At the start of the third round, Kaze drank even fiercer. “This is getting boring.” He lost his patience in drinking one by one, so he asked the waiter for five bowls and filled them all up with whiskey. Then, he drank all of them in succession. Noah, Troy, and the others felt challenged by Kaze’s contemptuous gaze. Some punk from nowhere challenged them and looked down on them. They were furious but they felt deterred when Kaze finished all five bowls of whiskey. Including the previous rounds, Kaze had probably drunk more than three bottles of whiskey. Yet he looked fine and his face did not even blush. Was he immune to alcohol? “Guys, this punk must be on his last stretch. He’s trying to scare us off by drinking that much in one go.” “Yeah. We can’t back off now!” Noah believed Kaze was playing mind games with them, so he bit the bullet and drank another bowl of whiskey. Troy, Baskin, and the others did the same as well. “Let’s continue.” Kaze grinned. H
“Know your place. It is your honor to be at this table. Usually, you won’t even have the chance to drink with us! Don’t push it, son!” Noah leaned on the table and glared at Kaze, condescendingly warning him. He then grabbed his bowl and flipped it over on the table, refusing to drink no matter what Kaze said. Kaze scoffed. “You can’t drink but you won’t accept defeat. Is this how people like you do things nowadays? If you don’t want to drink, I’ll make you!” He then went over to Noah with a bowl of whiskey. Bang! Troy from the Ministry of Health and Welfare slammed the table and got up, stopping Kaze. “Punk, what are you doing? We are all important people in government offices. If you mess with us, you and your family will be erased from Lilyrose!” Kaze looked at the man and then grabbed him by the neck. “What the f… W-What are you… Gulp!” Troy struggled but could not break free from Kaze’s grip. Kaze squeezed his mouth open and started to pour the whiskey into his
“Mr. Moor, that’s insincere of you. You can just tell your man to send us the approval now, why later? You can’t even drink as promised, I can’t trust you,” Kaze said with a faint grin on his face. Noah did not know Kaze was teasing him. Annoyed, he said, “Punk, go ask anyone. I’m a man of my word! There are official procedures that we must go through, I can’t make the decisions alone. I have to get other people’s approval as well…” He was trying to stall and delay the decision. Since he was the one making the final decision, he could stall as long as he liked. “Enough.” Kaze stopped his nonsense and said coldly, “I am not demanding you to give us an approval now. Our game is still not yet finished. Let’s continue drinking!” He then went over to Noah with a bowl of whiskey. “Stop it! You are going to get someone killed…” Winnie darted over and pulled Kaze back with a worried look. “Punk, if something happens to me, you and your family will suffer!” Noah’s expression t
Winnie was afraid of Noah, someone who was in the government office and had a certain level of authority. Two years ago, Shangrila Group went bankrupt overnight. Although the top three families were behind it, the ex-mayor was more or less involved. It was not that difficult to find out about it either. Without someone powerful making it happen, it was impossible to destroy a company as big as Shangrila Group overnight. “Someone powerful? Is he as powerful as the mayor?” Kaze did not take it seriously. He simply smiled it off and went out. Then, he saw a group of people coming over in a hurry. Kaze stopped, surprised to see that the leader of the group was his wife, Darcy. “Darcy? What are you doing here?” Darcy, Agnes, Hector, and even Agatha were there. Darcy and Agnes were holding gifts in their hands. “Winnie, Kaze? What are you guys doing here? Kaze, are you drinking?” Darcy was surprised to see Kaze with Winnie as well. Since Winnie was slightly tipsy an
Darcy’s expression shifted upon hearing Noah. She was right. Kaze slapped the man. This time, he slapped someone from the Ministry of Food and Welfare. Noah must be a reputable man to hold a high position there. In other words, Kaze got into trouble again. “Oh my god! Kaze you stupid idiot! Why did you slap him?!” Agnes’ smile froze and her face turned pale. She turned around to glare at Kaze. “Do you know who this is? How dare you hit him? Apologize immediately!” “Apologize? Hehe…” Noah chuckled and said coldly, “You slapped me and you think you can get away with just an apology? Do you know what this place is? This is the city council’s lounge! The leaders in the city council’s office, including the mayor, welcome important guests here! If you hit me here, that means you show no respect for the city council!” Kaze was amused by Noah’s claims, but Darcy and the others were terrified. Darcy knew that an acting mayor had just sworn into office that day. On his fi