Chapter 11

After seeing Ruan Ning off, Jiang Yihao returned to the training facility.

He'd just learned that the cleaning crew was in the front lobby, so he slipped in through the back entrance. Just then, Bu Chen called.

"I heard Miao took all your money?"

Jiang Yihao smiled as he scanned his face at the access control. "Yeah, so what?"

"No way, and you're not even mad? You sound pretty cheerful—what's the good news?"

Jiang Yihao shoved a hand in his pocket and waved at a staff member coming his way. "Why would I get mad at an A.I.? What did you call for? Spit it out, I've got training."

Bu Chen chuckled knowingly. "Aaron and some of the guys from Country C came over to hang out. You free this weekend? Saturday night at Seductive Summer, my treat."

"Bro, don't you get tired of hitting the clubs and switching girls every day? Why not find someone and settle down properly? I'm not coming—I need to train."

Jiang Yihao knew Aaron—he was the legitimate heir to Country C's largest oil conglomerate, and like Bu Chen, a rich second-generation who spent his days in clubs and parties.

Bu Chen always complained that Jiang Yihao was too boring stuck at home gaming and walking his dog, and constantly urged him to go out and have fun or find a girlfriend, which annoyed Jiang Yihao to no end.

"You've got some nerve lecturing me." Bu Chen clicked his tongue, then changed his tone. "Or... do you actually want to date someone?"

"No way. You know me—I train all day, no time for a relationship." Jiang Yihao denied it flatly, striding quickly through the cafeteria and into the athletes-only training area.

Bu Chen laughed. "You don't train 24/7."

For a playboy, time management wasn't really a problem, but Jiang Yihao just wanted to make it big in football. "Listen—"

Before he could finish, someone bumped into him hard, splattering dirty water all over his pants.

"Watch where you're going!" Jiang Yihao cursed, shaking his pant leg.

Normally, he would have chewed the person out, but today he just glanced at them and kept walking without making a fuss.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!" Zeng Shuya apologized hastily.

The one who bumped into him was none other than Zeng Shuya.

It was her first time cleaning at RQ, and while getting some water, she got lost and accidentally collided with Jiang Yihao.

Startled by his fierce expression, Zeng Shuya panicked. She quickly set down her bucket, crouched, and tried to wipe his pants clean. "I just got lost. Please don't report me, okay? You're our company's premium client—if you report me, I'll definitely get fired. I really didn't mean to..."

Jiang Yihao gestured for her to shut up, stepped past her, and pulled open the glass door to the training hall, wondering why there were cleaning staff in the back area too.

He switched the phone to his other hand. "Like I said, I'm not dating. I'm at the locker room now, I'll hang up."

Zeng Shuya stood frozen, watching him disappear behind the door, confusion in her eyes.

At that very moment, on the other side of the world, Ruan Ning waited anxiously in her dorm room.

The system's mechanical voice rang out on time.

[The female lead has met male lead #1. The story proceeds to the next chapter.]

[Beep... Loading storyline...]

[Triggered Task: The drugging-exposed-and-slapped-in-the-face event.

Task requirements: Spend one night with male lead #3, Bu Chen.

Failure penalty: Consciousness erasure.]

Ruan Ning patted her chest with lingering fear. Great, the male and female leads had met smoothly, and the first task was completely done and dusted.

But she couldn't let her guard down for the second task—after all, she was about to go after Bu Chen, A Country's infamous profligate playboy.

Compared to the other two elusive duke's sons, Bu Chen was relatively easy to approach. So easy that if you were a woman, you could meet him in person just by going to a nightclub.

The original villainess had noticed this and planned to secretly slip him a drug in his drink to climb the social ladder.

But who was Bu Chen? The villainess was simply overestimating herself.

Bu Chen was cunning, wanton, and scheming. He had founded his own PR company before he even came of age, specializing in serving the wealthy, and he'd made a real go of it.

Earlier this year, he'd just made the top ten of A Country's Under-30 Young Entrepreneur List, with most of his peers on it being over a decade older than him—he was one of the few rich second-gens who'd made it big on his own merits.

Ruan Ning normally had no impression of people in high society, but Bu Chen was just too outrageous—his misdeeds were notorious both inside and outside the circle.

Thinking back to the debutante ball scandal a few years ago, Ruan Ning still felt nothing but contempt.

Every late autumn, the Talun Grand Palace hosted the annual debutante coming-of-age ball.

The organizing committee carefully invited 18 beautiful, prestigious young women from around the world to the dinner—it was one of the world's most watched social events.

The ball's purpose was to uphold aristocratic traditions, requiring guests not only to come from clean families but also to be outstanding women who set an example in their fields. As a result, many noble daughters with tarnished reputations were turned away.

A few years ago, Bu Chen had a close friend who also wanted to join in the fun. This guy had a bad reputation and, unsurprisingly, was rejected from the ball. Furious, he pointed at the Grand Palace and cursed loudly.

Bu Chen patted his buddy on the shoulder. "No big deal. If they won't let us play, we'll play our own way."

And indeed, Bu Chen rounded up the other girls who'd been rejected that year and some thrill-seeking internet influencers, and threw a spectacular "Dark Debutante Ball" at Seductive Summer, the biggest nightclub in Talun.

The so-called dark ball was the complete opposite of the original.

For example, the original required guests to be dignified, elegant, and uphold etiquette, while here, if you locked eyes with someone, you might start making out—endless scenes needing censorship kept popping up.

The original looked down on flaunting wealth and advocated virtue; here, they scattered money in every conceivable way, the more extravagant the better, leaving audiences wide-eyed and astonished.

For a while, the dark ball blew up the internet, while the genuine version was completely overshadowed.

The original organizing committee had no idea how they'd offended Young Master Bu, but they didn't dare say anything openly due to his status, so they privately called the dark ball "a contempt for tradition and a disgrace to decency."

Somehow, the conversation got leaked, and netizens worldwide joined in to watch the drama, giving the dark version another surge in traffic.

Ruan Ning thought Bu Chen would stop there, but the scoundrel turned the dark ball into a regular variety show, held annually. The advertising and sponsorship fees alone must have earned him billions.

Ruan Ning couldn't understand what was wrong with this world.

The dark ball was vulgar, tacky, and a cheap knockoff, yet its ratings kept soaring—every phone and newspaper was filled with the dark ball. All the guests who attended became internet sensations and landed multiple regular variety show gigs. Most of them were already highborn, and after the show, they all got front-row seats at fashion weeks.

The original ball couldn't swallow the insult and threatened to sue to protect its reputation, but Bu Chen seemed to have anticipated everything, precisely treading the line of legality at every step. No matter how furious the committee was, they couldn't touch him.

And Bu Chen orchestrated the first dark ball before he was even 18.

Faced with someone so cunning, treacherous, and utterly devoid of moral scruples, how could the shallow schemes of a supporting character possibly compete?

In the VIP room, Bu Chen had turned the tables and drugged the villainess, laughing as he waited for her to wake up.

That was when the delivery service the villainess had called arrived—and the one who showed up happened to be Zeng Shuya. She had come to deliver clothes for a colleague and accidentally stumbled upon the villainess and Bu Chen's scandal.

When Bu Chen saw the pure, innocent Zeng Shuya, he became interested in her. The villainess got nothing for her efforts, and inadvertently became the catalyst for the male and female leads' fated encounter.

Ruan Ning rubbed her forehead. She really wanted to tell the villainess to stop wasting her time—besides, this task was simply impossible.

She hadn't even held a boy's hand in her entire life, and now she had to seduce a playboy? It was like a lamb walking into a tiger's den.

Ruan Ning could only comfort herself with the thought that Bu Chen was the relatively easier of the three male leads to approach.

Maybe because playboys have a soft spot for damsels in distress, Bu Chen was the only one of the three who let the villainess off the hook. It was only later, when she kept pushing her luck and tried to harm the female lead, that she lost her life.

Anticipating how tough this task would be, Ruan Ning enrolled in a "seduction master class." Following her teacher's instructions, she secretly went to Seductive Summer before the official task began to scope out the place.

She pulled out her most alluring dress—a champagne gold slip—did a meticulous makeup job, and with a deep breath, stepped through the nightclub's front doors.

Seductive Summer lived up to its reputation as Talun's top nightlife spot—spacious and upscale. But it couldn't escape the usual debauchery of such places: colored lasers swept across faces everywhere, and the music was so loud it made Ruan Ning's ears ring.

Looking around, the dance floor was packed with men and women gyrating wildly. The stench of alcohol and perfume mingled into a pungent odor that made Ruan Ning want to bolt the moment she walked in.

Aside from a few who came just to hang out with friends, most people here were lonely men and women looking for a hookup. Fresh-faced and radiant, Ruan Ning stepped in like a little lamb into a wolf den—men surrounded her from all directions as if drawn by a magnet.

Suppressing her nerves and fear, Ruan Ning coldly refused every advance and, following her teacher's advice, took a seat at the bar. A man beside her, seeing her approach, sidled over with a lecherous grin and offered to buy her a drink.

There's no such thing as a free drink in a bar, so Ruan Ning refused coldly and ordered one for herself.

The prices here were no joke—a glass of soda water cost over 60, enough to buy a dozen outside. But since she had a purpose, she had to grit her teeth and bear it.

Ruan Ning had no idea when Bu Chen would show up. She sat alone at the bar, bored and waiting, while men kept buzzing around her like flies. She fought back the nausea and shooed them away batch after batch.

She noticed that in the nearest booth to her left, a few gorgeous women were snuggled up to a sleazy middle-aged bald man, letting him kiss and grope them openly.

The women wore sexy, low-cut, tight dresses, tall and slender—goddess-level, no exaggeration.

They were intimately entangled as if no one else existed, making Ruan Ning blush and turn away, unable to watch.

She was shocked that such beautiful sisters would do this kind of thing.

But she hated the bald men beside them even more. They used their money to toy with women, luring and deceiving young girls—they were the real culprits.

Ruan Ning sighed. She knew there was nothing she could do even if she couldn't stand it.

Scenes like this were everywhere in Seductive Summer. It was the country's famous den of pleasure, with loads of beautiful women from all races and countries around the world, exclusively for the rich to enjoy. Just thinking about how Bu Chen called this place home made it clear how evil and decadent he was.

Ruan Ning sat alone until 11 o'clock, her eyelids heavy with drowsiness. Suddenly, the whole place erupted—waiters swarmed to the entrance in groups, and people cheered enthusiastically.

"Young Master Bu is here!"