He immediately added, "All right, your family isn't short of money. Why are you joining in the fun with us? If there's another chance like the last one, I'll call you."
With that, Jiang Cheng popped the whole abalone into his mouth.
In an instant, the flavor of abalone sauce filled his entire mouth.
The rich taste left Jiang Cheng thoroughly satisfied.
Yet as he swallowed it completely, he didn't hear any system notification.
Damn, looks like you don't get a reward every time you eat.
Jiang Cheng couldn't help wondering: could all the cards that pop up during meals be one-time rewards?
Unwilling to give up, he picked up another abalone and put it in his mouth.
Regrettably, the system reward still didn't trigger.
Seeing Jiang Cheng sigh, Qi Yuan misunderstood.
"Come on, Brother Cheng, why the sigh? You're not actually jealous of me, are you? Haha—if anyone else said that I might believe it, but you… forget it!"
Wang Congcong took a swig of wine, then pointed at Qi Yuan.
"You love showing off. Jiang Cheng's right—you cry poor every day, yet your family has everything."
Qi Yuan waved his hands hurriedly. "Don't spout nonsense. Money? I've never seen any. Every day it's 'can't do this, can't do that'—drives me nuts."
Wang Zheng patted Qi Yuan's shoulder lightly.
He said earnestly, "You're still too young. Once you reach our age and get baptized by society, you'll realize you've got it pretty good right now."
Chen Hao chimed in, "Exactly. You're the one who doesn't have to strive; we still have to invest. As the saying goes, investment carries risk."
Qi Yuan laughed loudly. "Makes sense. There's an old saying: a Second-generation rich who parties is fine; one who's ambitious and hardworking is scary. So I suggest you guys lie flat—don't stress yourselves out."
Seeing Jiang Cheng's disappointed look, Su Wan immediately picked up a black partridge egg and offered it to him.
She said, "Is the abalone not tasty? Try this egg—it's delicious. It looks black and wrinkled, but it's flavorful and has a great texture."
Jiang Cheng's expression turned complicated.
With Su Wan's chopsticks already at his lips, he reluctantly opened his mouth.
To his surprise, the system rang out crisply: "Ding! Congratulations, Host, for tasting a once-off-putting delicacy."
"System rewards Host with a special card."
Hearing the reward, Jiang Cheng's heart stirred.
He hadn't expected that a reluctant bite would bring such a surprise.
But based on past experience of getting what he ate, he was now a bit afraid to open it.
"Ding! Card opening… Congratulations, Host, on obtaining the [Nasty Egg] card."
Reading the prompt, Jiang Cheng couldn't help blurting, "What the hell?"
At first glance, he wanted to discard the card out of revulsion.
Yet when he saw the usage notes below, his resistance vanished.
"[Nasty Egg] usage: Host must let a Young Lady with beauty over 85 experience an off-putting egg-eating moment…"
Special note: "Use only in a suitable scenario. Upon success, cashback will be based on the target's psychology."
Luckily the target had to be a beauty over 85; otherwise no amount of money would make him use it.
Still, the method and note made Jiang Cheng frown.
Just reading the instructions made him feel it would be hard to pull off.
It even made him suspect the system was grooming him into a villain.
After all, the Young Ladies around him right now had zero resistance toward him.
To make one feel repulsed,
he would have to find someone unfamiliar.
Thinking of this gave him a headache.
With his current status, finding such a target wasn't easy.
He couldn't just grab any girl off the street,
not to mention legality—even finding one pretty enough would be tough.
The only remaining option was to pick a girl at a club,
but even that might not work.
For seasoned professionals—
no, for such dedicated workers—seeing Jiang Cheng meant seeing chinese yuan.
Where would resistance come from? They'd probably give their all to satisfy him.
While Jiang Cheng fretted over whom to use the card on,
Wang Congcong continued, "By the way, Jiang Cheng, how's Pinduoduo's financing going? I asked Ma Huatong a few days ago; he said it's still in progress."
Qin Fen, curious, asked, "Brother Wang, are you really investing? How much?"
Wang Congcong looked resigned.
"Only about a hundred million dollars."
Qi Yuan's eyes bulged. "A hundred million? That's nearly seven hundred million yuan!"
Wang Congcong shrugged. "No choice—I don't have more on hand; the rest is tied up in mining."
Qi Yuan rolled his eyes. "Seven hundred million and you call it 'only'? Old Wang, you're getting better at showing off."
Wang Congcong rolled his eyes back. "You don't get it. This round is targeting 1.3 billion dollars. Penguin has already committed seven hundred million. Jiang Cheng's company is scrambling for the rest. My hundred million might not even be wanted."
Thanks to the big shots [Like-Culicoid-Su Yuan][User36906132] for the thumbs-up. Thanks to [Bored-Emperor] for the love letter.
Thanks to all the big shots for your love-powered support!