How A Ride-Hailing Driver Comes To Dominate The World? [EN]: Chapter 188

Chen Xing, 26 years old, married a 55-year-old sugar mommy? That’s like skipping thirty years of struggle!

Bro, you see right through it! Driver Zhang He: “I often regret my pessimism. I once had an opportunity to skip 30 years of struggle, but I didn’t seize it.” Driver Wang Jun: “Bro, what’s the meaning of this ‘struggle together’ if you’re choosing a shortcut? What’s the point of life if you wake up to servants bringing bird’s nest soup [a traditional Chinese delicacy believed to have health benefits] and having everything handed to you?” Driver Ge Dongqiang: “Bro, you have good taste. After your honeymoon, your wife can retire after her 55th birthday, and you can enjoy life.” Driver Liu Hu: “Bro, are there any single older ladies in your wife’s circle? Introduce me to one. I also want to skip thirty years of struggle.” Yang Chen almost burst out laughing at everyone’s comments.

However, Chen Xing finally found a rich wife and is sharing his joy with everyone. We should congratulate him.

Driver Yang Chen @Driver Chen Xing: “Bro, congratulations! Where are you planning to have the wedding? I’ll definitely come to support you.” Driver Chen Xing: “Haha… Thanks, Brother Chen. We’re planning to have the wedding at the Atlantis Hotel. I was just about to mention that. I hope all the brothers who can make it will come. My hometown is too far away, so only my parents and a few close relatives are coming. I need to at least have a couple of tables to match the bride’s side, or it’ll be too shabby. I’m counting on you guys.” Yang Chen guessed that the bride’s side was too strong and the groom’s side too weak, which would definitely make Chen Xing feel inferior.

However, they weren’t the type to take advantage of others. Who goes to a wedding without giving a gift?

But the bride was rich, and the wedding was at the unattainable Atlantis Hotel, so the taxi drivers were feeling apprehensive.

Giving too much would be painful, and their relationship wasn’t close enough to warrant giving thousands of yuan or more.

Giving too little would be embarrassing, considering it was a seven-star hotel, and the bride’s friends and relatives would definitely be rich. They would inevitably be ridiculed.

After careful consideration, the drivers who often chatted with Chen Xing in the group gave a vague answer.

“If I have time, I’ll definitely go.”

“Yes! It’s a joyous occasion. We’ll definitely go if we can.”

“I’ve never eaten at the Atlantis Hotel before. This is a good opportunity to broaden my horizons.”… Chen Xing thought everyone would go and replied, “Thank you, brothers. October 10th, welcome to all the brothers. I won’t send out invitations individually. Just say you’re a friend of the groom on the day.” Actually, it wasn’t that Chen Xing didn’t want to send invitations, but he was worried that some people wouldn’t want to go, and delivering the invitations would embarrass them.

It was better to let everyone decide voluntarily whether to go or not, without morally obligating anyone. Early in the morning, Yu Shishi made breakfast for Yang Chen and then set off for the Haishang Financial Building to wait for Ju Yiyi’s company boss to arrive.

The two sides had a heated discussion about the collaboration on “Zhu Xian Zhen” [a fictional work]. In the end, they reached a consensus.

The total investment for the project was 50 million, produced according to theater standards.

Yang Chen’s Starlight Entertainment Company invested 40 million, accounting for 80% of the shares.

Ju Yiyi’s Darfa Cultural Media Co., Ltd. invested 10 million, accounting for 20% of the shares.

Ju Yiyi, as the absolute female lead of this film, would have at least 80% of the total film time.

Chen Yanni would be the second female lead, and her scenes would be guaranteed to be no less than 80% of Ju Yiyi’s total scenes. Assuming the final film length is 120 minutes, Ju Yiyi’s total scenes would have to be at least 96 minutes, and Chen Yanni’s total scenes could not be less than minutes.

Compared to the original script, Ju Yiyi’s scenes were extended by about 10 minutes, but the second female lead Chen Yanni’s scenes were extended by a full 30 minutes.

The original purpose of Yang Chen’s investment in this film was to use Ju Yiyi’s fame to promote Chen Yanni, so of course, he had to greatly increase Chen Yanni’s supporting role scenes.

Producing according to theater standards meant that the film would have the opportunity to be shown in theaters in the future. If the box office reached 100-200 million, it would be a huge profit. Then, it could be put on online platforms for members to watch, earning another wave of revenue. In the future, major platforms would continue to pay copyright fees. Investing 50 million in this film would never be a loss; it was just a matter of when the money would be earned.

Yu Shishi reported the situation to Yang Chen. After a long silence, Yang Chen said, “Shishi, hire a professional CEO from the entertainment industry. Have her set up our own production team as soon as possible so we can produce our own works in the future without collaborating with others.” Yu Shishi: “Okay, I’ll start preparing right away.” The current Starlight Entertainment Company is like an empty shell, temporarily only able to invest in other companies’ projects under this company’s name.

But this was not the situation Yang Chen wanted. He wanted to be able to produce film and television dramas himself. He had spent a lot of money buying dozens of popular copyrights before, and of course, he wanted to turn them all into film and television.

After a while, Huang Lexi, the current CEO of the Atlantis Hotel, called Yang Chen. Huang Lexi: “Mr. Yang, welcome to the Atlantis Hotel. When are you free? Can I invite you to dinner?” He was smart, knowing to curry favor with the new major shareholder.

Yang Chen replied with a smile, “I’m quite busy these days and don’t have time to go over. How about the 10th? We can meet and chat then.” Huang Lexi: “Okay, okay.” Yang Chen: “By the way, is the hotel currently bidding for landscaping renovations?” Huang Lexi: “Yes! We want to upgrade the landscape around the hotel.” Yang Chen told Huang Lexi about Chen Yanxi’s situation and asked if he could have the person in charge give her another half hour for her presentation.

Huang Lexi was shocked and said, “Mr. Yang, are you the enthusiastic taxi driver from the internet?” Yang Chen: “Ah, yes. I just happened to run into it, so I couldn’t pretend I didn’t see it, right?” Huang Lexi was immediately dumbfounded. How could a taxi driver acquire 38% of the hotel’s shares?

There are only five officially recognized seven-star hotels in Dragon Country [a common fictional name for China], and Atlantis is the second to be certified as seven-star.

There are only two locations in the entire Dragon Country, one in Haicheng and one in Sanya. Countless capitalists and wealthy people want to invest in Atlantis Hotel,

but the shareholders are unwilling to sell their shares.

Yang Chen’s ability to acquire 38% of the shares not only shows that he has money but also that he has strong social connections and must have used certain means to force the shareholders to sell their shares to him.

How could such a person be a taxi driver? Huang Lexi: “Mr. Yang is truly unfathomable. I understand what you mean. I’ll call the project负责人 [person in charge] immediately and give Chen Yanxi another chance.” Yang Chen: “Okay! I’m going to drive and pick up passengers. Bye.” Huang Lexi: “Okay, okay…” It’s hard to understand the world of the rich when they’re so rich and still drive taxis.

…On October 10th, Yang Chen went to the Atlantis Hotel after finishing the morning rush hour. Yang Chen had only passed by this place before and had never been to this hotel.

Now he could take a good look at what the second-ranked seven-star hotel in the country looked like. The main body of the hotel is a 100-meter-high, 116-meter-wide ring-shaped building, and it is also the first ring-shaped water building in China. Its shape alone is impressive.

In addition, it is also the first diversified water platinum seven-star hotel in Dragon Country that integrates ecology, leisure, entertainment, food, and shopping.

In short, when you come here, everyone can’t help but exclaim, it’s good to be rich! I don’t know what Chen Xing’s sugar mommy does specifically, but according to him, she should be a rich person.

Therefore, choosing to hold the wedding here should be her idea, which also shows that she has a lot of wealth; otherwise, she would not dare to hold the wedding here.

Yang Chen parked the car and walked towards the hotel gate. As expected of a seven-star hotel, all the cars were luxury cars.

“Beep beep…” Yang Chen was walking when he heard a horn sound from behind. He turned around and saw a pink Porsche 911.

The owner of the car is a very fashionable woman.

“What are you looking at? Get out of the way! Can’t you see I’m trying to park?” the female car owner shouted. What the hell, this is a sidewalk. You’re parking on the sidewalk?

“It’s a sidewalk! Can’t you read?” Yang Chen replied unceremoniously. If she had been polite, Yang Chen would have moved out of the way without saying a word.

But with her attitude as if he owed her money, Yang Chen didn’t want to indulge her. Female car owner: “I know it’s a sidewalk, I just want to use the sidewalk to make a U-turn and park in the parking space!” Damn it!

As expected of a female driver, it takes dozens of square meters of space to park a car. Yang Chen was too lazy to talk nonsense with this kind of idiot and turned around and hurried towards the hotel.

“Why is someone who drives a broken Volkswagen coming to such a high-end hotel? Aren’t you ashamed! When did the Atlantis Hotel degenerate to the point of entertaining such poor people?” the female car owner muttered.

If it weren’t for coming to a wedding today and not wanting to ruin the mood, Yang Chen really wanted to figure out whether the man who slept with her mother was more impressive or the man who slept with her was more impressive; how else could she have the courage to be so arrogant outside?

Yang Chen followed the signs and the guidance of the staff and came to Chen Xing’s wedding venue. At first glance, Yang Chen felt a little uncomfortable.

The bride’s side was crowded with people, and all 100 tables were full. And it was divided into many areas, such as [Elementary School Classmate Area], [Junior High School Classmate Area], [University Classmate Area], [Excellent Employee Area], [Distinguished Customer Area], [Social Friend Area], etc.

However, the groom’s side reserved 10 tables, with only two areas, namely [Friends and Relatives Area] and [Didi [a Chinese ride-hailing app] Driver Colleague Area], and only two tables were seated and not full, and the remaining 8 tables were empty.

It was already past ten o’clock, and basically everyone who should have come had arrived, which meant that except for Yang Chen, Zhang Hu, Liu Hu, and Zhang He in the driver group, no one else came.

It’s normal to think about it. They are just drivers from the same platform. They occasionally eat and wash their feet together, but they spend the rest of their time driving, and there is almost no interaction. How can they be willing to attend such a high-end wedding banquet?

If you take out a few hundred yuan, you will definitely be ridiculed. If you take thousands of yuan, it will exceed everyone’s affordability.

Therefore, not coming is the wisest choice. It’s just a pity for Chen Xing. He especially wanted everyone to come and support him.

But reality is always so cruel. Liu Hu and others saw Yang Chen coming and quickly got up to greet him.

At this time, the bride’s relatives had already begun to laugh at the groom’s side.

“What’s the situation with the groom’s side? Not even two tables are full? That’s hilarious, right?”

“It looks like a small family, passed down from generation to generation, the kind that will be cut off if you’re not careful.”

“Isn’t it obvious? The groom is a gigolo, eating soft rice [living off a woman’s money]. Otherwise, how could someone in their twenties find a 55-year-old wife?”

“See? Women shouldn’t worry about whether men love you or not. You just need to focus on making money, and your husband is still in his mother-in-law’s belly and hasn’t formed yet.”

“Haha…”… Yang Chen greeted Chen Xing’s parents, and then whispered, “Are these the only people coming today?” Chen Xing’s father sighed awkwardly and said, “Our home is in the Northwest, which is too far away. If we pay for the air tickets for friends and relatives to come, it will cost too much. But if we let them pay for their own expenses, they obviously won’t do it. So, we didn’t notify friends and relatives, just the two of us, his uncle, and his aunt, a total of a dozen people came.” This is indeed a very realistic problem. If dozens of people come, the round-trip air tickets and accommodation fees will be a considerable expense.

If Chen Xing’s wife hadn’t offered to bear the expenses, he wouldn’t have dared to invite so many people over. At this moment, Chen Xing ran over.

The bride has already been picked up and is touching up her makeup in the backstage. He came over to see how many friends and relatives had come. Seeing that the two tables were not full, the joy on Chen Xing’s face disappeared instantly.

If only these few guests come to Chen Xing’s side today, he will definitely have no status at home in the future.

Originally, the woman was strong and the man was weak, and if Chen Xing didn’t have any “hard” [reliable] friends and relatives,
his future life would definitely not be easy. Seeing that Chen Xing was calling him Brother Chen one after another, he decided to help him.

“Chen Xing, do you need me to call some friends over to support you?” Yang Chen asked tentatively. Chen Xing was extremely excited and quickly grabbed Yang Chen’s hand and said, “Brother Chen, really? Then call them, as long as you can fill these seats, call as many as you can. Brother Chen, thank you. I will always remember when you stood up for me last time. I still have to rely on you this time. I really don’t know how to repay you. But in the future, as long as
there is anything you need me to do, just ask, and I will never refuse.” Yang Chen smiled and patted Chen Xing on the shoulder and said, “Be promising, today is your big day, don’t let the woman’s side laugh at you. Leave the guests to me, you go and prepare to go on stage for the ceremony. Be happy!” Chen Xing nodded with a smile, hugged Yang Chen, and turned around to go to the backstage to find the bride.

“What are you doing here?” a voice asked from behind Yang Chen. Yang Chen turned around and saw, damn it, it was the woman who needed dozens of square meters of space to park.

Yang Chen: “Whatever you’re doing here, that’s what I’m doing here.” Woman: “Oh, you’re a guest of the groom’s side, right? No wonder you dare to come to such a high-end place in a broken Volkswagen.” Yang Chen: “Shut your stinky mouth, how can there be such an annoying woman like you! Damn it!” Yang Chen walked out angrily.

The woman kept chattering behind her back and said some nasty things. Then, she ran to the front [Distinguished Customer Area] and complained to a young man with a middle part.

“Honey, someone bullied me just now. He is a relative of the groom’s side and just walked out.… Yang Chen came to the corridor and called Qiu Yuhong and others respectively, asking them to rush to the Atlantis Hotel to help support the scene. Qiu Yuhong and others definitely wanted to give Yang Chen face, so they quickly changed into formal wear and rushed over. At this time, Ju Yiyi called Yang Chen. Ju Yiyi: “Brother Chen, are you free? I said I would treat you to dinner last time, but I haven’t had time. I have time at noon today, are you free? I also brought a lot of beauties, don’t miss it. Hee hee…” If a large group of celebrities came to congratulate Chen Xing, he would definitely have a lot of face, right?

Yang Chen: “How many of you are there, are they all celebrities?” Ju Yiyi: “There are 20 people, they are my sisters from the previous SHN group [likely a reference to a real-world girl group], each of them is a youthful and invincible beautiful girl. Do you want to come?” Yang Chen: “A friend of mine is getting married here, but his hometown is in the Northwest, and no friends or relatives have come. Can you come and help support the scene? You can leave after eating. Is that okay?” Ju Yiyi: “Okay! It’s also a good thing to get some joy. Where is it?” Yang Chen: “Atlantis Hotel, the bride is very 牛皮 [niupi – slang for awesome or impressive], my friend is a taxi driver, so he urgently needs people with your status to help support the scene.” Yang Chen invested 40 million in the filming of “Zhu Xian Zhen”, and many members of SHN will participate in this movie.

According to the rules of the entertainment industry, they must agree to the gold master’s request to accompany them to eat, drink, and play. Now it is of course no problem to ask them to help support the scene.

Ju Yiyi: “No problem! I’ll be there soon! I still miss such a high-end place. Wait for us, we’ll be there within half an hour!” Yang Chen breathed a sigh of relief, Chen Xing’s face can be saved now.

Yang Chen walked back to the auditorium with a smile. At this time, a girl in a professional skirt suit looked at Yang Chen’s back with a puzzled look.

“He seems to be our new major shareholder, Mr. Yang Chen,” the girl said softly. She quickly took out her mobile phone, found the photo of the new major shareholder sent to her by CEO Huang Lexi, compared it, and confirmed that the person who had just entered was the new major shareholder, Yang Chen.

The girl quickly ran to find CEO Huang Lexi and reported, “Mr. Huang, I just saw the major shareholder, Mr. Yang Chen, at the entrance of Hall 1.” Huang Lexi: “Ah? Are you sure it’s the major shareholder, Mr. Yang?” The girl nodded and said, “I’m sure! I compared the photo with him, it’s really the same! Hall 1 is now the place where Zheng Lihua, the president of Haicheng Lihua Furniture Company, and her newly married husband, Chen Xing, are holding their wedding. It seems that he should be a friend of Zheng Lihua. Should we go and say hello?” Huang Lexi: “Okay, go to the scene and find out, and then come back and report to me, and I will decide what to do.” The girl nodded and quickly ran to Hall 1.

After a while, she ran back panting.

“Mr. Huang, I found out. Hall 1 is indeed where Zheng Lihua and Chen Xing are holding their wedding, but Mr. Yang is not a friend of Zheng Lihua, but a friend of the groom, Chen Xing. That groom is actually a taxi driver, and only two of the 10 tables are seated and not full, and the remaining 8 tables are empty,” the female secretary reported.

The groom is a taxi driver? That’s right! Didn’t Yang Chen say on the phone before that he was a taxi driver?

There is a sentence that often appears in costume dramas, called
“A new emperor has new courtiers.” Now that the major shareholder of Atlantis has become Yang Chen, Huang Lexi is worried that his position as CEO is unstable. He wanted to invite Yang Chen to dinner to build a relationship before, but Yang Chen said that he had to drive a taxi and didn’t have time, so there has been no opportunity to build a good relationship.

Now the opportunity has come. None of the groom’s friends and relatives have come, and he is just a taxi driver, and the gap between his social status and Zheng Lihua is huge, so he is definitely in a weak position.

If the Atlantis Hotel gives Chen Xing enough face at this time, so that he has face in front of both guests, will this also please Yang Chen?

As soon as he said it, Huang Lexi immediately ordered: “Send all of today’s gifts to Hall 1, and name it to celebrate Chen Xing’s wedding.” Secretary: “Understood! I’ll do it right away.” Huang Lexi: “The groom’s side is not full, so I’ll join in the fun. You go and prepare things first, and we’ll go over together to give a gift later. It costs a little money to send some gifts. If we can please Mr. Yang, it will be worth it.” Secretary: “What if Mr. Yang knows that the gifts you sent are all gifts, will he be unhappy?” Huang Lexi thought about it carefully, and it seemed to make sense.

It is even worse to use the hotel’s things to do favors than not to do favors.

“In this way, you pick some suitable gifts, and then I will personally pay for a set of sandalwood dressing box plus two bottles of Romanée-Conti [an expensive wine], and you call them to send them immediately!” Huang Lexi said.

Secretary: “Mr. Huang, you are really spending a lot of money.” Huang Lexi: “As long as I can make the major shareholder happy and I can sit firmly as CEO, these are small money.” Secretary: “That’s right. Then I’ll do it right away. When everything is ready, I’ll report to you.” Huang Lexi nodded, and the secretary hurried out to do things.

Hall 1. In the [Distinguished Customer Area] of the woman’s side, Cheng Xinyu, the woman who scolded Yang Chen, was listening intently to her boyfriend Li Dengfeng bragging.

“Now the housing prices in our Dragon Country are really amazing. The average price in Haicheng is more than 70,000 yuan per square meter.
I bought a villa in Roshanji before, and it only cost more than 10 million US dollars. After returning to Haicheng, buying an ordinary house also costs more than 10 million Dragon coins.”

“I recently invested in a coal mine. Everyone says that coal is a backward energy source and will be eliminated soon, but I don’t think so. There is an energy shortage in Europe, and it is a blessing to be able to use coal. I will export it to Europe in the future, and I will definitely make a lot of money.”

“I don’t buy a car, not because I can’t afford it, nor because I don’t know how to drive, but because I think it’s too low. You see, all those who drive sports cars to pick up girls are second-generation ancestors [spoiled rich kids], and they are definitely not welcome in the family. The real successor who is welcome must be on a yacht in the Sea Bay. I am planning to buy a yacht recently and spend two or three hundred million to experience life.”

“My company has been very difficult recently, not because of lack of money, nor because of lack of people, but because of lack of good projects. I have more than a dozen billion lying in my company’s account and I don’t know what to invest in. I have to worry every day about how to invest these more than a dozen billion.”… Li Dengfeng bragged to the people next to him, and Cheng Xinyu said with a look of admiration: “Honey, you are so amazing. I have always wanted to hear you talk to me about your work, but you refused to tell me. I didn’t expect you to be so amazing.” Li Dengfeng smiled and said: “This is not something worth showing off, it’s just my daily life.” As expected of a big shot who has returned from abroad, his pretense is more high-end than others.

Cheng Xinyu: “Hee hee… That’s right. Then I’ll take a walk and look around. You guys talk.” After speaking, Cheng Xinyu took a selfie with her new Apple phone and posted it on Moments [a feature on WeChat, a popular messaging app].

After taking nine photos, she turned on the hand camera function and took pictures everywhere.

“Today I came to attend the wedding of Ms. Zheng Lihua, Chairman of Lihua Furniture Group. Let’s see how many friends and relatives the woman has? The pomp is very big, right? Let’s take a look at the groom’s side… Hehe… It’s really funny, the groom is actually a taxi driver. Alas… another man has taken a shortcut. However, to be fair, if this kind of person at the bottom of society hadn’t climbed up to Director Zheng, he would never have been able to come to such a high-end place in his life. Let’s show you the groom’s friends and relatives, hee hee… There are only a dozen people, and not even two tables are full. It’s so ridiculous.
At this time, Cheng Xinyu’s lens captured Yang Chen glaring at her.

“It’s really unlucky, how can I see this annoying ghost even when I’m shooting a video? No wonder he doesn’t have any gentlemanly demeanor, it turns out he’s a taxi driver. People at the bottom are just like this, they have no quality. They block other people’s parking and still think they are right,” Cheng Xinyu complained.

Anyway, in her opinion, Yang Chen is just a poor driver who drives a Volkswagen. Compared with her boyfriend who has more than a dozen billion lying in his account and doesn’t know what projects to invest in, he is simply not worth mentioning.

I used to see some college students scolding takeaway deliverymen as people at the bottom of society on the Internet, but I didn’t expect to meet someone who scolds taxi drivers as people at the bottom of society today.

Yang Chen suddenly became angry and deliberately said loudly: “Huh? How can there be a bitch barking in such a high-end hotel? Whose little bitch is not tied up and let out to bark and poop? It stinks! I don’t know if the shit she poops stinks, or the mouth she eats shit with stinks! It’s so smelly.”