The Black Card Chapter 168 – Encounter With Wei Qing Again

Chapter 168 – Encounter with Wei Qing Again

Translator: Lav

Editor: Seliniaki Ilikia

Shi Lei was slightly surprised when he received a call on his phone from a number that he didn’t expect. 

Yu Banzhi arranged a day to dine with Shi Lei, which he agreed to, but they never did because something came up for the other party. This time, Shi Lei would treat him. 

Shi Lei wanted to treat Yu Banzhi without the thought of asking for anything. Even he could see that the stock prices of the things in the agarwood shop were at least eight digits and the owner didn’t even think of it as a business. Yu Banzhi’s level of wealth was most probably on par with Wei Qing’s. But Shi Lei wanted to treat him purely for the sake of thanking him for teaching him about antiques and collectables every time he visited the agarwood shop. Shi Lei basically thought of him as a teacher and he wanted to express his appreciation. 

He wouldn’t force it if Yu Banzhi was busy since they weren’t from the same world in the first place. 

But it was definitely surprising when Yu Banzhi suddenly called. Shi Lei couldn’t even remember whether he gave Yu Banzhi his number, but he did get Yu Banzhi’s number from his business card. 

Shi Lei answered the call and brought up the topic of the meal. “I didn’t want to bother you recently, so I didn’t call.  If we’re going, I’ll treat you. I’ve wanted to dine with you to thank you for telling me so much about antiques and collectables every time, and I feel really bad about not giving you anything in return.” 

Yu Banzhi was an alacritous person, and seeing Shi Lei’s thoughts on the matter, didn’t force it and agreed. “Okay, come to my shop around 3 or 4 PM today. I should be done with my business by then. We’ll have a drink and chat for a bit, then leave together.” 

Shi Lei agreed. He made some conclusions from practicing and learning about investing and now that December was almost over, he hadn’t gotten to use his golden thumb investment card. The chances would be wasted if he didn’t use them. After spending some to a.n.a.lyze the data, he chose three stocks. He also checked these stocks with the investment card app and set the profit to one week later. As a result, he surprisingly found that two of the stocks weren’t bad at all. One of them even reached 30% profit. Shi Lei couldn’t stop laughing and put all of his funds into that stock without hesitation. 

He turned off his laptop and calculated the profits for next week plus the living expenses given by his parents and the earnings from tutoring Zhang Liangliang, Shi Lei now had about 80,000 yuan of his own funds. If it wasn’t for losing 10,000 yuan on the betting website, it would be close to 100,000 yuan. With an increase of 30%, which was more than 20,000 yuan, after doing next week’s calculations, Shi Lei found that his private funds would break the 100,000 yuan line. 

At 3 PM, Shi Lei called for a car and headed straight to the antique street. 

Yu’s Agarwood Shop was still closed. Shi Lei presumed that Yu Banzhi would be back half an hour in at most and he began to wander around the street. 

After walking around in a circle, he saw that Yu Banzhi was just unlocking the door and greeted the man with a smile. 

“What a coincidence. Just arrived?” Yu Banzhi pushed the roller shutter up, letting Shi Lei into the shop. 

“Not really. I wandered around for a bit because you weren’t here yet.” 

Yu Banzhi laughed and said, “You didn't buy anything, did you?” 

“You taught me too much, so there really isn’t many things of good quality here.” 

“You can’t exactly say that. There’s a way for these cheap things to work too. Articles for amus.e.m.e.nt or something. It depends on how you play around with it, so don’t be blinded by its price. There’s a saying in this industry: ‘It’s difficult to buy something you like with money, but if you find something you like, the price doesn’t matter.’” 

Shi Lei nodded in acknowledgement. They sat down and chatted while waiting for the water to boil. 

“Oh right, there’s a kid coming later. He’s slightly younger than me, but probably a few years older than you. Do you mind?” Yu Banzhi suddenly said, sipping his tea. 

Shi Lei didn’t mind Yu Banzhi bringing another friend at all. But he didn’t know how the expense was going to be counted out of three people. One of them probably could be counted as friend, but he obviously didn’t really know the other. Luckily, Shi Lei could go and ask about it once before the consumption period ended. If this meal didn’t count, then Shi Lei could afford it himself. But Shi Lei knew that if the Scepter didn’t count this into the total sum, then he could reason with it. So if the meal was worth 10,000 yuan, then at least two thirds of it should be counted. 

“Oh, it’s fine. Your friend would undoubtedly be a capable person like you.” 

Yu Banzhi laughed and pointed at Shi Lei. “What capable person? I’m just a man with no ambitions at all. Don’t learn what those people do in the society. The reason why I’m willing to talk to you is because I think we were destined to meet that day, and all the interactions we had after that are the main reason I keep talking to you.” 

Shi Lei’s heart turned slightly cold. Yu Banzhi was warning him in a joking way. Their friendship was of that between two gentlemen and he shouldn’t make it any more complicated or bring their backgrounds into it. Otherwise, why would Yu Banzhi, with his background, be friends with a loser like Shi Lei? 

“Either way, I see you as half a teacher in my heart. The age gap is also there. You should be at least ten years older than me, right? You’re as free as a crane here, so I don’t dare to treat you like other friends.” 

Yu Banzhi laughed again. He seemed to be in an extremely good mood today. “Teacher? And half a teacher? Haha, that’s fine. Fits well with my name(1)…” 

As he was talking, a person walked in and immediately greeted him as he did so. “Brother Banzhi…” 

Yu Banzhi waved toward the person and Shi Lei thought that the voice was quite familiar. He turned around abruptly and saw a very familiar face. But he shouldn’t be able to recognize Shi Lei this time. 

The person saw Shi Lei and was somewhat surprised. He frowned slightly and asked, “This is…?” With this, Shi Lei was relieved, seeing that he didn’t seem to recognize him. 

“Sit,” Yu Banzhi said. “Let me introduce you two. This is a new little brother I met, called Shi Lei. And this is a kid with connections over many generations, Wei Qing, from Shanghai. He came to Wu Dong for business and we will eat together.” 

Shi Lei quickly stood up. He appreciated Wei Qing very much for relying on him for majority of the things which happened that day. Except Wei Qing forgot Shi Lei’s existence after that day. 

“h.e.l.lo, Wei…Qing. I’m Shi Lei.” 

Wei Qing also stretched out his hands and shook them with Shi Lei. He questioned: “Strange, why do I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before?” 

Shi Lei laughed awkwardly and thought that it must be the post effects of having a period of memories wiped off. Although those memories were taken away, but it was inevitable left behind in a certain cell in his brain and left a tiny impression.

“Little Qing (or lil’Qing?), Shi Lei isn’t a girl, a bit outdated that you are trying to start a conversation like this.” Yu Banzhi laughed as he filled a cup of tea for Wei Qing. 

“Don't be like this, brother Banzhi. I really do think that I’ve seen Shi Lei somewhere before, and not just a casual acquaintance, but it feels like we’ve had a close friendship. And, can you not call me little Qing? Makes me sound like Xu Xian’s mistress (2).”  

“Then I asked you to stop calling me Brother Banzhi, it makes me sound like a disabled person, but you never listened?” 

The three of them laughed as both of their names were somehow strange. 

“I’ll organise dinner tonight.” Wei Qing sipped on his tea and casually said. 

Yu Banzhi said: “You are not local here, how can you organise. I was saying that I should, but Shi Lei said I was a half teacher to him so let him do it. Where are we going tonight? Time’s close, we can leave after another two cups or so.” 

Shi Lei quickly replied: “I’ve already arranged it. Wewei Lounge. Both of you are probably familiar with it. But I didn’t know Wei Qing was coming, I’ll call manager Li again and ask her to add a few more dishes. 

Wei Qing didn’t have any reactions but Yu Banzhi was slightly surprised. 

Yu Banzhi: the ‘ban’ in his name means half 

Xu Xian: reference to a famous Chinese Peking opera, “Madame White Snake”