Chapter 177 - Performing On Stage
Chapter 177 Performing On Stage
The room was quiet. Monkey was very confident from start to finish. After he finished, Xiao Bing remained silent. He too did not speak. He was not nervous like a most advisors were.
After a two-minute silence, Xiao Bing smiled and said, “I have to admit, just by your psychological quality alone, you’ve proven to be a very good lobbyist.”
Monkey said with a smile, “You flatter me.”
“Lord Long has abilities like yours and Old Mr. Zhuge’s and that makes him formidable enough.”
Monkey was happy in his heart. His expression remained unchanged as he said with a smile, “If Master Long didn’t have enough strength, and he’d never have swept away the two provinces in just a few years. You know that well.”
Xiao Bing smiled and said, “But… I don’t quite agree with what you have just said.”
“Oh?” Monkey was not anxious as he calmly asked, “What do you think is wrong?”
“Actually, I have offended Master Hou and your Master Long almost at the same time, but in different ways. Although Peony Fairy, the North Heaven Queen, died, if I can bring Master Hou enough returns, a man as ruthless and ambitious as Master Hou would be too embarrassed and to take revenge on me afterwards. But the Long Family is different. Although the death of Long Yan’s son had nothing to do with me, he is, after all, still his own flesh and blood. Blood is thicker than water. He must hate me in his heart and this hatred is never going to go away. Even if I helped the Long Family to destroy Master Hou, and Lord Long will not fight me, will Long Yan not fight me privately? They are brothers, and I am just an outsider. Don’t you think?”
Monkey said, “Lord Long has the final say in the Long Family.”
“Of course I know that Lord Long can control Long Yan’s movements, but can he control the hatred in Long Yan’s heart towards me?”
Monkey’s heart gave a start. “This Xiao Bing is amazing. He looked at the big picture.” He suddenly realized that he had underestimated Xiao Bing. Before he came, he’d already had his arguments prepared. Still, he also knew the flaws in his arguments. But most people would not immediately see it. As long as Xiao Bing was temporarily blinded and committed himself, his task was done, but…
“The power of Lord Long can suppress his younger brother Long Yan, but the hatred and anger in Long Yan’s heart will not be extinguished. On the contrary, the more Lord Long suppressed him and forbade revenge, the greater the hatred will be and it will be difficult to control. The moment it gets out of control, the revenge will be even more frightening. When the day comes, will Lord Long kill his brother, or me, an outsider?”
Monkey frowned and said, “All that is just your own imagination.”
“This is a fact.”
Monkey sighed. He thought that he would be successful this time. He didn’t expect to be disputed by Xiao Bing till he was speechless. In the end, he still tried, “Mr. Xiao, is there no room for maneuvering?”
Xiao Bing thought for a moment and shook his head. He said, “There is none. I do have an idea in mind, but it will be useless even if I told you. Lord Long will not agree.”
Monkey asked, “What is it?”
Xiao Bing said seriously, “If Long Yan does not exist in this world, I naturally will have no worries.”
“Impossible.” Even the sophisticated Monkey couldn’t help but become anxious. He stood up suddenly and said, “Mr. Xiao, you don’t have any intention to negotiate at all. How can my master agree to this condition?”
Xiao Bing said calmly, “That’s why I said Lord Long will not agree. Then there is no need to continue negotiating. You can go back and tell Lord Long that Xiao Bing does not want to get involved in such a conflict. But now, everything is no longer under my control. If Lord Long really intends to fight me, I have to be ready in Jiang City.”
Monkey looked gloomy and nodded. He said, “I will go back and tell him.”
With that, he walked out of the room. Xiao Bing watched him disappear and heard the receding footsteps. He suddenly gave a mocking smile. Everything depended on Lord Long’s reaction after this person went back. Xiao Bing suddenly came up with a few ideas.
After Monkey left, Xiao Bing immediately called Master Hou and told him about it. Even if he didn’t tell him, it could not be hidden from Master Hou’s spies, not to mention the people in the Northern Manor who were actually Master Hou’s subordinates. As for this Monkey, both sides of the war zone would not harm the lobbyist, so he would naturally let him go back.
Very quickly, Xiao Bing put this matter aside. In Xiao Bing’s view, even if the sky fell, there’s someone tall to prop it up. In Jiang City, the tall person was obviously Master Hou, who would be at greatest risk if the Long Family wanted to occupy the underground world of Hei Province. Xiao Bing naturally would not be stupid enough to stand in front.
The current situation was very tricky. Master Hou’s influence was unfathomable. Xiao Bing did not know how many trump cards Master Hou has up his sleeves. But one thing was certain, Master Hou could kill Xiao Bing with no difficulty. It was fortunate that Master Hou was now most afraid to offend Xiao Bing.
As for the Long Family, even if they hated Xiao Bing’s guts, there was no way to bypass Master Hou if they wanted to destroy Xiao Bing. They had to deal with Master Hou first. So now, basically, Xiao Bing looks like the weakest party and it may even be impossible to place him on par with the other parties. However, no party could now get rid of Xiao Bing. The Long Family has power but there was nowhere to use it, and Master Hou did not dare get rid of him.
Xiao Bing now began to leisurely deal with his own affairs, which was helping the little nurse resolve her problems.
On the afternoon of the next day, the gala of Jiang City Hospital was held as scheduled at Jiang City Gymnasium. Xiao Bing drove Liu Kexin to the gymnasium and parked the car in the parking space outside. Then they got out of the car and went to the backstage of the gymnasium through the staff entrance.
At this time, the people who participated in the performance program were busy in the dressing room. When Xiao Bing and Liu Kexin went in, several women in their twenties looked at Xiao Bing. Liu Kexin was a little embarrassed and said with a low voice, “They are all nurses at our hospital and are older than I am.”
Xiao Bing smiled and spoke into Liu Kexin’s ear, “None of them are as pretty as you.”
Liu Kexin blushed, and her ears went red too. Seeing Liu Kexin’s adorable look, Xiao Bing was even more amused and couldn’t help but want to tease her.
Just as Xiao Bing was about to tease her, Lu Qiang came in. Witnessing the scene, he became jealous and said coldly, “Aren’t you Mr. Xiao? I thought you were too scared to come.”
Xiao Bing smiled and said, “How can it be possible. Oh, I asked my girlfriend to suggest that we rehearse at home. Thank you for helping us arrange it. You don’t know how exhausting the rehearsals had been. But fortunately it was in our own home, so as we rehearsed, we could chat. We were really relaxed and happy.”
Xiao Bing was obviously provoking him. Sure enough, Lu Qiang’s face changed. He snorted coldly and walked passed Xiao Bing. He went into the room and kept saying, “I’ll see how you are ashamed later!”
The others kept quiet as they watched the scene. Everyone present knew that Lu Qiang was pursuing Liu Kexin. Seeing this, they were all quite clear as to what was going on. Although some people detested Lu Qiang’s behavior, Lu Qiang was still the son of the hospital’s director, so basically, everyone would not directly support Liu Kexin.
Two nurses in particular were clearly filled with jealousy when they looked at Liu Kexin. Everyone wanted to marry the son of the hospital’s director. However, Lu Qiang had already said that he would pursue Liu Kexin. They naturally refused to accept it.
Xiao Bing and Liu Kexin took the timetable and left the dressing room. They sat on the seats in the first row in the gymnasium. Except for the leaders of the hospital, the first two rows were for the doctors and nurses of the hospital who would perform today. After Xiao Bing sat down, there were soon several nurses next to Liu Kexin whispering with her.
The gala soon began. The compere was a tall woman in her thirties wearing a luxurious costume. She was not a real beauty but seemed to be classy and natural endowments.
The other one was an outgoing man of about 27 or 28 wearing a suit.
Liu Kexin stood next to Xiao Bing and said in a low voice, “The female compere is our head nurse. The man is a promising doctor in our hospital. He studied abroad.”
Xiao Bing smiled and said quietly, “You are prettier than the head nurse. I think it will be great if you go up on stage to host the show. Whatever the performance, everyone will feel it was worth coming. As long as you speak, I am sure everyone will applaud.”
Liu Kexin’s heart was pounding, and she said coquettishly, “You’re talking nonsense.”
The show started very quickly. Xiao Bing soon noticed that the two dancers, Gu Xinxin and Li Cuipeng, also entered the gymnasium. Xiao Bing saw them because they waved to Xiao Bing in the distance. They sat down after they saw Xiao Bing’s acknowledgment.
Xiao Bing asked Liu Kexin to get two tickets for the two dancers. But because they were not part of the staff, they didn’t get front seats. Some of these little nurses were really versatile, but the professionals’ performances only succeeded in making them smile, even Xiao Bing felt quite bored.
After over an hour, the show was halfway through. Soon, it would be Xiao Bing and Liu Kexin’s turn. Xiao Bing and Liu Kexin hurriedly stood up and went backstage to prepare.
Lu Qiang, who was sitting in the first row and waiting for his turn as the finale, sneered, turned to the two young doctors, his friends sitting next to him, and said, “When Xiao Bing comes out, you will witness his shame. Does such a rude man want to be elegant? After tonight, I will make him stay away from Kexin!”
The previous program was finally over. The two comperes went up the stage. Several staff carried a piano and placed it on stage. Seeing the piano, the audience began to whisper and was obviously wondering who was going to play it.
Soon, the female compere said in a very elegant and sweet voice, “Next, we will have Miss Liu Kexin, who is the youngest nurse at the inpatient department of our hospital, and her boyfriend, to play the piano music, ‘Mariage d’amour’, and to dance for us!”
When they heard “Liu Kexin’s boyfriend”, some people below shouted. Apparently, most people didn’t know the news and they didn’t expect that the most beautiful nurse in this hospital already had a boyfriend, especially that Lu Qiang had said he would pursue Liu Kexin. This was really embarrassing.
Lu Qiang was livid. He slapped on the armrest and cursed, “F*ck, who wrote the lines for the host? F*cking d*mn it!”
The nurses and doctors sitting near him saw that he’d lost his self-control, so they were silent and cautious.