Zheng Roufeng was surrounded by well-known big bosses the moment he stepped into the banquet venue.
Since he was obviously way younger than them, he prefer to not express much of his opinion and calmly listened humbly and only said a few words when asked.
Even though he was acting low-key, the others didn't dare to underestimate him. Someone who start from nothing and managed to rise to such a level in a short amount of time, is enough to demonstrate how capable he is.
He never failed in any investment he made and it wasn't an exaggeration to say that he is one of the most famous and richest man in Country M currently.
Zheng Roufeng on the other hand wasn't that interested in coming to this banquet despite being invited if not because of his old friends' urging.
"The old man is blessed to have many capable grandsons," He Lang commented when Zheng Roufeng came to his side.
"He is indeed bless. He might be able to live a decade more," Zheng Roufeng said casually.
They were talking about Gu Feng, the current patriarch of the Gu family who was almost 90 years old.
Today's banquet was hosted by Gu Feng's eldest son, Gu Xinhai. The Gu family was famous and well-established in the steel and real estate industry.
Compared to Zheng Roufeng's company who was still a newcomer in the circle, the Gu family could be regarded as a long standing powerhouse in the circle.
"Roufeng, He Lang, there you're. I thought you guys won't be coming," Qi Cheng said when he saw them drinking at a corner of the banquet hall.
The three good looking young men immediately became the focus of not only the young ladies but also the men.
"Well, it's your cousin's banquet so of course we will at least show our face," He Lang replied.
He came with his sister and their parents but his sister immediately went towards her girlfriends group and their parents went to chat with their group of friends.
He Lang had no choice but to be alone until Zheng Roufeng and Qi Cheng came.
"By the way, no wonder you come alone. I just saw Jason's comeback performance this morning and he must be really busy this time around," He Lang suddenly said.
(A/N: Use headphone/earphone for better listening experience)
"Hn, it's been a week since I last saw a glimpse of him," Zheng Roufeng couldn't but felt aggrieve when thinking about it.
He miss that man but both of them were really busy that he could only wish there was more time in one day. 24 hours simply wasn't enough.
"Haha, well that can't be help. But you can spend time staring at him during the cruise. You will be coming to the cruise right?"
"Yes we will. So you better make sure the service is top notch."
While they were talking, suddenly there was two people heading towards them, "It's nice seeing successful young people gather together."
"Mr Gu," Zheng Roufeng calmly addressed the man greeting them.
"Oh it's second uncle," Qi Cheng said perfunctorily.
Gu Xihuai is the second son of Gu Feng and Qi Cheng didn't have any relation to him since Qi Cheng's first aunt is married to Gu Xinhai.
Qi Cheng didn't have good impression with his cousin's uncle but he also didn't intend to be rude.
"A-Cheng, do you still remember uncle's son, Gu Xing? He has just graduated from college. He saw CEO Zheng and wanted to get to know him. He keep urging me to introduce him to you so I took him here. You know young people will feel more comfortable hanging out with other young people compare to oldies like me."
Despite seemingly less competent compared to his brother, Gu Xihuai was a man with glib tongue, coupled with a decent manner and temperaments, everyone would feel comfortable with him.
Gu Xing who was standing beside him stretched out his hand for a handshake, "Hello, CEO Zheng. It's nice to meet you."
Zheng Roufeng made a brief handshake with him, "The young master seems capable. Mr Gu must feel very lucky to have such a son."
The casual polite words made Gu Xihuai obviously pleased, "Xin still have a lot to learn and a bit naïve. If he is half as talented and capable as CEO Zheng, I already feel satisifed."
Zheng Roufeng just smiled lightly, "People always grow up after a setback."
"True true. My son is still too inexperienced," Gu Xihuai nodded his head and looked at Zheng Roufeng, "I've been thinking that CEO Zheng's face look very familiar."
Zheng Roufeng didn't intend to reply and it was He Lang who decided to interject into the conversation.
"Our CEO Zheng was interviewed a few times and even went on TV so Mr Gu obviously have seen him before, that's why."
Gu Xihuai didn't seem convince but he still smiled as if that was the case, "I see. But CEO Zheng really looked familiar to me that's why I feel it must be fate."
At this time, someone came over and said, "Second uncle, grandpa just asked about you."
After saying what he needed to say, the man immediately walked away. Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Gu Xin excused himself while Gu Xihuai went to meet the old master Gu.
"Well, the Gu family sure doesn't seem as harmonious. Seeing even the second grandson Gu Junling's attitude towards the second uncle, I pity that kid Gu Xin," He Lang commented.
Qi Cheng sighed, "My aunt said Gu Xihuai is a mess. So don't need to bother with him. Gu Xin live just fine with the Zhang family that some even predict that he might change his surname to Zhang after the old master Gu died."
"I wished him good luck then," He Lang said not caring too much before glancing towards Zheng Roufeng who was oddly silent.
"Hey Mr Married Man. Don't tell me you miss your husband. Your face looked like you want to go home as soon as possible. I bet your husband won't even home yet."
"No it's nothing. I just felt a bit suffocated with all the attention. Why did they kept looking at me?" Zheng Roufeng made up a random excuse to avoid his friends from noticing anything amiss.
"Did you forget not many people knew you're married?" He Lang couldn't help but reminded.
"Can't they see I'm wearing ring?"
"Nice design," Qi Cheng blurted out.
Zheng Roufeng's felt better when he heard it, "I design this myself and Jason kept on fiddling with it when I first show it to him. Fortunately, he seems to like it so much."
"Uhh, can you please have some respect to us single dogs? Why did you always try to shove dog food down our throat?" He Lang grumbled.
But his words only made Zheng Roufeng became more excited to boast about his married life.
The banquet soon come to an end when the eldest son, Gu Xinhai announced his son, Gu JinYang's engagement to the Su family's only daughter.
Everyone wish the young couple with blessings and ignored the obviously out of place Gu Xihuai at the corner, who was standing alone.
It was unknown where his son went to and why his wife didn't come along but nobody wanted to probe about it and just acted like they notice nothing.
*************
"Adam, I thought you will be at the banquet along with Roufeng?" Jason felt weird why this man was here.
"Nah, it's a banquet of people I don't know so why should I be there. Are you done with the shooting yet?"
Jason and his group just finished shooting a variety show and he would have some room to breath a bit.
"I still busy you know. Tell me what you want," Jason wasn't lying. He was indeed still busy since the promotional period still didn't end yet.
"No worries this isn't that urgent but my acquaintance come across your ads with Callian and he went to hear all the songs you composed. Their company invested in a large scale film that might be nominated for the Drammy Award. He wanted you to compose the theme song of the film and you can even choose to sing the song yourself or chose other singers."
Jason was dumbfounded. The request sounded too good. Based on Adam's explanation, the film would be directed by James Han, a famous blockbuster film director from country A.
To be able to even meet him was an honor let alone working with him.
"Do I need to prepare a few demos? What is the requirements?"
"Well, it is not confirm yet but their representative wanted to meet you and discuss the more of the details later. I already send the script to your e-mail."
Jason's instinct seemed to be telling him to take the offer but for some reason he couldn't put down his guard.
"Ok. I will tell you when I'm free."
"Great. Thank you Jason," for some Adam looked more excited than him.
'What is he thanking me for?'
But Jason have to put the issue to the back of his head when he suddenly got a phone call from He Lang.
"Hey bro. Can you pick up your beloved husband. He's drunk."
Sure enough, Zheng Roufeng who felt better after boasting and making He Lang felt jealous, didn't realize how much he drink.
Knowing Zheng Roufeng, he would looked normal when he was drunk except he would become really quiet.
Unfortunately, Jason was quite a distance away from where the banquet venue was thus it would take time to go there.
"The chauffeur will come in five minutes so you just put him in the car."
"Ok. Don't blame me if your husband act up or throw up."
"Thanks for telling me. Have a good night."
Jason ended the call and glanced towards his assistant Mark.
"How many people did you put to guard my husband?"
"Two. Both have guns ready with them all the time and they tried to avoid being detected by the other bodyguards. Do want to add more?" Mark asked.
Jason knew Zheng Roufeng have his own team of bodyguards but in the plot, Zheng Roufeng's would be cripple by a group of unknown people.
They might be his business competitors but why should you cripple your competitor's leg. It's not like Zheng Roufeng needed his legs to work.
Thus he decided to put people to secretly guard and observe Zheng Roufeng.
***********
"Sigh, should I just retired?" Jason couldn't help it.
He was exhausted both mentally and physically. He didn't care much about being well-known in the entertainment industry and the original Jason also never have any grand dream about his future career path. He just went with the flow most of the time.
"Then how can you justify your source of income. Being a celebrity is easy to help cover where all of your suspicious money coming from," Kim Raebin reminded.
Jason knew what he meant and he himself wasn't that serious about retiring. Plus if he retired from the entertainment industry, how could he fuck over the protagonist.
"I really want to just cuddle my husband all day long. But here I'm dragging my body through the airport."
After the promotional period ended, Jason got some free time to go to Country R in order to meet the representative that Adam kept on telling him about.
"I bet Adam actually had a crush or something. He seemed oddly excited for some reason and kept saying thank you like I'm doing him a huge favor."
"Well, his character setting had always been like that. In their group of friends, Adam could be said to be a bit pure in regards of feelings and emotions. Unlike He Lang, Qi Cheng and Zheng Roufeng that could even treat their marriage like a business contract as long as both parties got what they want," Kim Raebin replied.
They immediately went to put their staff at the hotel and immediately went to the restaurant in the hotel to meet with the representative.
Looking around, the restaurant only have a few people eating maybe because currently it was still quiet early for lunch(?). Jason who was still tired from the jet leg didn't think too much about the oddity.
He was accompany by Kim Raebin since the project they would cooperate would be considered as one of the biggest project RaeStar ever got.
Jason saw a silver blonde haired with grey eyes young woman in her late twenties already waiting for them.
The moment she saw them, she immediately waved her hand, beckoning them towards her, "Mr Jung, Mr Kim, right here."
"Hi I'm Kim Raebin, the CEO of RaeStar Entertainment and this is Jason Jung."
"I'm Jason Jung," they both shook hands with her.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Jessica and I'm really honored to meet you here. Let's eat first before we started talking about work. It's better to talk when your stomach is content," Jessica smiled professionally.
However the moment the food were all served, both Kim Raebin and Jason couldn't help but stealthily glanced at each other.
Kim Raebin: 'The wine, the food are all drugged. It's a paralysis drug that will knock you out cold for at least a few hours.'
Jason: 'No wonder there is almost no one here and the people that acted like they were fellow customers might also be Jessica's people in disguise.'
Kim Raebin: 'What do you want to do?'
"Ehem, Miss Jessica. I suddenly need to go to the toilet. Can you please excuse me?" Jason asked.
"Sure," Jessica didn't seem to notice anything amiss.
Kim Raebin: 'Fine. Just leave me alone.'
Jason: 'I will call Adam and confirmed it with him. I need to inform Zheng Roufeng too, just in case. I will come pick you up later.'
Jason walked towards the direction of the bathroom but the moment he touched the doorknob he could sense a few people already inside, waiting for him.
"Tsk."
However when he turned around and wanted to go somewhere else, three huge and tall men already blocking his path.
"Seriously, who send you guys? I never had any enemies that would do this kind of shit."
The men didn't move and one of them said, "We don't intend to harm you but our master wanted to meet you. Please follow us if you don't want your boss to be harmed."
"You're threatening me?"
"No. We are just trying to fulfill our master's order. He wanted to meet you."
"Who is your master? Why can't he just come along with Jessica?" Jason was confused.
He couldn't think of anyone that he knew that have this kind of capability. Who in the world, emptied an entire hotel restaurant and even put such an elaborate scheme to lure him.
'I bet even Adam never thought this would happened.'
Jason knew Zheng Roufeng's friends are trustworthy especially Adam thus he didn't suspect Adam to be involved or know anything about his current situation. If he knew, there was no reason for Adam to hide it.
"Fine, lead the way. I will meet your master but let Kim Raebin go and don't follow him."
"Ok we will fulfill your request. Thank you for not making this harder for us. Let's go."
The men wanted to hold Jason's hands and inspect his body but Jason immediately evade them, "Don't touch me. Yes I admit I have a gun but this is my only reassurance. I will be obedient and not open fire. There's a dozen of you and my guns don't have enough bullets. So cut me some slack ok."
"Sure."
Jason didn't expect the men to not demand him to hand over the gun or forcefully checked his body. They just obediently agreed to his request one after another.
"I want to eat RagDon chicken nugget with durian smoothie."
"Ok."
"That kebab stall looks delicious. Stop for a bit and I want one kebab."
"Ok."
"Hey why is the car so silent. Put on my songs"
"Ok."
After a while, Jason was already bored. Thus he decided to take a nap.
The men: ..........You sure are easy going.
But they didn't do anything much and just continue the journey further and further into the cold Siberian region until they arrived in front of a tall mansion in the middle of nowhere.
