In that moment, Ethan suddenly understood what it meant to have a sugar daddy.
An ordinary person could work hard for years and not make what a big spender casually tossed out on a whim!
One person, leaving a tip of a hundred and fifty thousand!
Serena looked at Ethan with an amused smile. "You're sharp about most things, but this time, you guessed wrong."
Serena waved her hand, and the dealer left.
Of the 270,000 in chips, Serena took half. The other half would be distributed among the other staff.
The pile of 150,000 chips, however, Serena didn't touch. She pushed the entire stack toward Ethan. "All yours."
Ethan looked at the 150,000 in chips before him, thought for a moment, then scooped them all up. "I'll buy you a meal sometime."
Serena blinked. "When is 'sometime'? How about today? I haven't had my late-night snack yet. You just came into money; I have to treat myself at your expense."
"Fine," Ethan nodded.
He had entered this world for two reasons: first, to climb high enough to settle the score for his mother; second, to make money.
As for the extra he was taking now, Ethan knew it gave Serena leverage over him. But he wanted to give Serena that leverage. A cooperative relationship based solely on mutual profit was far less durable than one bound by mutual constraints.
Though he hadn't been in this world long, Ethan understood perfectly that acting too righteous or rigid meant having no friends here. When it was time to take money, you took it!
The two got ready and headed out for a late-night bite.
Just as they left the casino, still inside the hotel lobby, Ethan overheard a voice nearby.
"Director Cao, the Imperial Suite on the top floor is ready for you. Right this way."
Ethan turned to see a group entering an elevator. Two of them had the unmistakable look of bodyguards, scanning their surroundings before stepping in last.
Serena broke into a smile. "Big client. The Imperial Suite in our place is complimentary, but it's only offered to those with over forty million on the table. Our commissions this month are looking good."
Ethan smiled too.
How much the client would lose, or what happened to them, wasn't something Ethan, as a poor kid, felt he needed to worry about.
Wade Qi drove them to the night market.
The Huaixi Night Market was exceptionally lively. Even though it was a Sunday night, the place was packed, the walkways difficult to navigate, the roadside lined with parked cars.
Ethan and Serena wandered through the market.
"Can you have a drink tonight? No homework waiting at home?" Serena ordered a bunch of skewers and two cans of beer, finding a spot to sit down.
Ethan took one. "You have a drinking problem or something?"
"Yeah," Serena nodded. "Need a bit every night, or I can't sleep. Been like this for years."
They clinked cans and both took a large gulp, feeling immensely satisfied.
"By the way," Ethan asked, "Did Autumn pay back the money?"
"Nope," Serena shook her head. "I can't exactly press her for it. She's The Boss's person, after all."
Ethan frowned. After what happened yesterday, and The Boss himself issuing a warning, Autumn should have repaid the debt by now.
What was she playing at, holding out?
Ethan was just about to say something when he saw Serena's eyes widen, her mouth falling slightly open as she shoved him hard.
Before Ethan could process it, a sharp pain exploded in his back. He turned to see a bloodied knife in the hand of a short man.
A knife was also buried in the small of Serena's back.
"Shit!" Ethan swore, his first instinct to grab Serena.
The short knifeman, seeing his initial strike on Ethan hadn't been decisive, lunged to stab Serena again.
Ethan's vision tinted with rage. Pulling Serena back, he charged forward himself, using his shoulder to knock the man away, but simultaneously felt a searing pain in his abdomen as another blade found its mark.
"Fuck, run!"
Shoving people aside, they ran. This was different from the confrontation at the school gate.
Back then, Ethan had a wooden stick—long and solid. Now, all he had was an aluminum can. No chance of fighting back.
If he had Wade Qi's skills, he might have tried, but the scrappy fighting style he'd picked up on the streets wasn't enough against blades.
Serena, with a knife in her back, was deathly pale. Even through the adrenaline, she felt the agonizing pain, making it impossible to run fast. Any significant movement made the blood flow freely.
Ethan knew this, but he couldn't afford to worry about it now.
"Where the hell did this psycho come from! Using a knife in a crowded place!"
Ethan cursed, yelling and pushing through the crowd.
Fortunately, these days, especially in places like night markets, there were patrol officers and police cruisers.
Ethan used one hand to clear a path, the other gripping Serena's hand tightly. Amidst a chorus of curses, they bulled their way through the crowd and reached a police car.
"Officer! Someone's using a knife!"
The officer saw the knife handle protruding from Serena's back, and his face changed dramatically. He immediately cordoned off the area and dispersed the crowd.
The short knifeman had already vanished.
Soon, an ambulance arrived and took them to the hospital. Serena had been stabbed in the back, luckily not deeply and not in a critical location.
The stab wound in Ethan's abdomen was dangerous but not fatal. After being numbed and stitched up, the police came to question them.
"You again?"
The attractive policewoman glared at Ethan.
"Did he want to steal your transcript this time?"
Ethan shrugged. "I didn't have my backpack today. Maybe he wanted my lamb skewers!"
"Be serious!" the officer snapped. "This isn't the place for jokes!"
Ethan rolled his eyes. "You started it."
Serena, lying nearby, couldn't hold back a snort of laughter.
The officer glared at her. "You think this is funny?"
Serena put on an injured expression. "Officer, we're the victims here. We were just minding our own business, on a date, and suddenly someone starts stabbing us. Why does it feel like we're the ones being interrogated?"
Just then, another officer entered and handed some documents to the first.
The policewoman looked at Ethan first, then her gaze settled on Serena. "Unemployed?"
Serena smiled sweetly. "My dad gives me fifty thousand a month. What job do you think I should get?"
Seeing communication was futile, the officer took brief statements and left.
"Ah, I feel a little bad," Serena sighed. "She's just trying to do her job, and we're being total wiseacres."
Ethan couldn't help it either. He genuinely couldn't think of who would do something like this—a stabbing in broad daylight! And at the Huaixi Night Market!
As the largest night market in the entire Northwest region, Huaixi attracted tourists from all over. If this incident blew up, the fallout would be immense, and no one would want to bear that responsibility!
Ethan glanced at Serena, his eyes asking the silent question.
Serena shook her head. "It couldn't be Tyler. He doesn't have the guts."
"Gwendolyn is also unlikely," Ethan said. "If the knife-man gets caught, the person behind it would be signing their own death warrant."
The door to the treatment room opened, and Wade Qi walked in. He directly unwrapped the bandage on Ethan's torso, examined the stitched wound, then looked at Serena.
Serena proactively removed her own bandage and lifted her shirt, revealing the stab wound on her back.
Though both wounds were already sutured, Wade Qi could still read the story they told.
"They weren't trying to kill you," Wade Qi stated calmly. "The angle on Ms. He's wound was adjusted. And Mr. Chen, the entry point for the stab in your abdomen was in a highly dangerous area, but the downward path of the wound shows the attacker intentionally adjusted the direction. Judging just from the precision of the wound on Ms. He's back, the attacker had excellent control of the blade. He wouldn't have lost control and angled it down by accident."