He ran the entire way back, but found the door long shut.

Ye Fei felt guilty. He completely forgot about Lin Qingwan!

He smiled bitterly to himself. He knew Lin Qingwan was stingy. She would probably take advantage of this opportunity to cut his wages.

He quickly found a pay phone and tried to call her, but after three attempts she did not answer.

Ye Fei felt something was wrong. Lin Qingwan seemed to be really angry.

He was about to go back when the pay phone started ringing.

He picked up the phone and heard Lin Qingwan's voice. Not only was she not angry, but she sounded very happy. There was a lot of noise and music in the background, as if she was at a party.

"Ye Fei? Where are you? Come to Royalty KTV, we're partying here!" Lin Qingwan shouted excitedly. She sounded slightly drunk.

"Uh, a KTV, really? I didn't know you go to places like that."　

Ye Fei hung up the phone, turned on his GPS, and drove Lin Qingwan's car to the Royal Entertainment Center north of the Shanghai Cultural Street.　　

The Royal Entertainment Center was decorated in luxurious and extravagant Italian style. Upon arrival, Ye Fei saw a replica of the Roman Colosseum used as a parking lot.

In addition to the KTV, there was also a bar and a hotel there.

Ye Fei rushed into Royalty KTV and was welcomed by two ladies in black cheongsam.

"Room 888, please," he immediately said and one of the ladies led him to the room.

Ye Fei casually picked up a Royalty KTV brochure from the front desk and looked at it in the elevator. He was amazed by the size and resources of this entertainment center.

This KTV had seven floors. The first three were for disco dancing, the rest had KTV rooms.

On the back of the brochure were photos of beautiful young women. They were all dressed up quite suggestively and seemed to be "night models" in this entertainment center. There was a crowd of several hundred of them in one of the photos.

Ye Fei had been to many places in the world and visited quite a few bars, nightclubs and so on, but this was his first time seeing an entertainment center like that.

Stepping out of the elevator and seeing the mirror-like, smooth marble floor and resplendent décor, Ye Fei was amazed, but this actually made him deeply saddened.

In his mind, he thought of Zhao Hao secretly picking up leftovers in the cafeteria and Zhong Mei's shabby old clothes.

That was the way of the world. The rich got richer, the poor stayed poor.

Ye Fei sighed and walked into room 888 in a sour mood.

As soon as he pushed open the door, he heard loud singing.　

All the women of the Purple Apartment were there.

Liu Manman was holding a microphone, dancing and singing in front of the screen on the wall.

Murong was sitting on a couch right in front of her and supplying supporting vocals.

The nurse, Mu Cheng, and Lin Qingwan were sitting on a sofa in the back, playing dice and drinking beer.

Even Chu Mo was there, fiddling with her mobile phone in the corner. She looked happy to see him.

Ye Fei had never been to a place like that. He felt like he accidentally walked into an unknown misty world. With nude paintings on the walls, a fake Venus statue in the corner, a small pole-dancing floor, a big Rear-Projection TV screen, comfortable leather couches and dim lighting, everything in this room made Ye Fei feel helpless and embarra.s.sed.

Lin Qingwan glanced at Ye Fei and ignored him, still chatting with Mu Cheng.

When Murong saw Ye Fei enter, she excitedly handed her microphone to him and told him to sing a song with Liu Manman.

In Murong's view, he was nigh-omnipotent. Of course he could sing!

However, Ye Fei smiled coyly and put the microphone down. "I can't sing!"

Ye Fei was good at pretty much anything, but not singing. He could sing a few military marching songs he remembered from basic training, but he didn't even know the lyrics to any pop songs.

He wasn't in the mood anyway. He grabbed a bottle of beer from the bar and sat beside Chu Mo. After taking a sip, he asked, "What's the occasion? Why did you all come here?"

"Because of Manman," Chu Mo sighed. This was her first time coming to a KTV too.

She put down her cell phone and whispered, "Because of Fire Dragon's threats, Manman hasn't dared to leave the house in weeks and she was getting bored to death. Today is her birthday, so we decided to take her here to party."

"I see," Ye Fei nodded, glancing at Liu Manman. Though she appeared to be cheerfully singing and dancing, he had the strange feeling that she was not very happy.

"You see it, too?" Chu Mo whispered, "Manman's boyfriend said he would come over and bring her a birthday gift, but it's been an hour and he still hasn't come, and he's not answering his phone either. Manman is a little p.i.s.sed."

"What boyfriend, that guy she met on the internet? The one in Shanghai University?" Ye Fei said in amazement.

Chu Mo opened herself a bottle of beer and took a sip, then she frowned and put the beer aside. "Yeah… she said he was a student of Shanghai University. I might have seen him before."

Liu Manman was a typical mike queen. After five consecutive songs, she still refused to hand over the mike. By the time Lin Qingwan, Murong and Mu Cheng all got their chances to sing, another hour had pa.s.sed.

Liu Manman's boyfriend still hadn't arrived.