The noisy private room of a hotel, with rosy-faced businessmen serving food, toasting, chatting and laughing, this is the social routine that Li Zhang is already familiar with.

Not every dinner party involves business discussions. More often than not, the wine table is just a place where people can get to know each other and build relationships. Favors are built over time with good wine and good food, and they may come in handy at some point.

My deskmate, Lao Zhou, brought two female employees over and said he wanted to show them the world.

This kind of thing is very common. Most of them are drunkards who are not interested in drinking. Even if they don't want anything to happen, they still have to take at least two bites of tofu.

One of the two girls was really good at drinking, and drank half of the people at the table, and then found an excuse to sneak away with the other one. Mr. Zhou was humiliated, with dissatisfaction on his face, and used driving as an excuse not to drink.

Li Zhang made a timely joke and punched his fist to persuade him to drink, but it was always inconvenient to refuse, so the matter was revealed.

Not long after, the stall was over, and Li Zhang, half the host, arranged for a vehicle to pick them up and bring them back to their golden years.

This is a fairly well-known KTV in the local area, with European-style decoration. There is an elevator directly on the first floor. The golden lights are well-lit and reflected on the spotless walls and floors.

Opposite the counter is a row of couches, where seven or eight women with heavy makeup, sequined dresses, stiletto heels, and exquisitely styled hair are sitting there. Some are looking down at their phones, and some are applying lipstick in front of the small mirror.

Li Zhang and others filed in, confirmed the reservation information with the front desk, and entered the KTV's large private room.

Two male waiters came in, one turned on the machine and confirmed the microphone, and the other took the fruit plate and drink order.

"How about a dozen? First one?" Li Zhang greeted.

"Okay!" Everyone was familiar with the business, "Is there any tea? Let's get a pot first."

"What about that? Let's call some of the princess singers." Mr. Zhou told the waiter.

"Okay, please wait."

The waiter nodded in agreement, and after a while, the women who were sitting in the hall just now walked in and stood in a row. Li Zhang met the eyes of the one standing on the far right, and heard the picking sounds of the men around him.

Here, they gave each other a rare and polite smile.

The selection process was very short. The remaining princesses each sat down next to a male guest. At this time, everyone's hands were well behaved, there was no rush, and they were very polite.

Singing, drinking, chatting, with the soft voices of women, the atmosphere in the KTV private room became much warmer.

"Oh, please order another bottle, I like this."

After three rounds of drinking, there was already a woman sitting in Mr. Zhou’s arms. She smiled and said coquettishly.

One of the achievements of the singing princess is to persuade the customers to order. The more customers order, the higher their commission will be. The business men who come here are all very knowledgeable, but when they are drunk, they really don’t care about the small amount of money, so they just order.

.

We all usually pretend to be grandsons in front of our bosses and clients. Spending a little money to get a good-looking woman to hold and coax us for a few hours will give us a psychological refreshment, and I think it’s worth it.

"Xiao Mei, burp! Give me some directions!"

After a few more songs, Mr. Zhou put down his wine glass, drunkenly hugged a singing princess, and confessed to the others that he had to go to the toilet.

The large private room of the KTV has two restrooms. The men sitting here drinking and singing knew exactly what was going on, so they laughed and let him go.

Li Zhang looked at the person and sighed secretly, then turned to look at Chen Shufang.

Chen Shufang nodded to him, smiled coquettishly and took one of his arms, and the two of them walked out amidst laughter.

A few minutes later, in the inconspicuous mini private room in the corner, Li Zhang sat on the sofa and sighed deeply.

"Why are you so tired?"

Chen Shufang lost her coquettish look just now. Although her face was still heavily made up, her eyebrows showed a quiet and gentle look.

"Alas..."

Li Zhang sighed again, covering half of his face and smiling bitterly.

"Water or wine?" Chen Shufang asked softly.

"Bar! It's okay to have a drink. You won't remember it when you're drunk."

When Li Zhang spoke, his eyes were still looking forward blankly, although his sight was unfocused.

"Okay, wait."

Chen Shufang gently agreed and walked out of the private room. After a while, she held a tray with wine and sobering tea.

She poured a glass for Li Zhang and a glass for herself. The two clinked their glasses like friends and drank each.

"It's so difficult."

Li Zhang lit a cigarette, his face was full of fatigue, and the radiance he had just pretended to be disappeared completely.

He rambled about what happened during this period to Chen Shufang, who listened quietly, nodded from time to time, and handed him an ashtray and sobering tea.

"There aren't many like me, right?"

After Li Zhang finished pouring the bitter water, he smiled to himself.

"It's not much, but it's pretty good." Chen Shufang pursed her lips, smiled, and said, "Much better."

"Alas..."

Li Zhang sighed again.

"I'm so sorry, I come to chat with you every time." He took the last puff of the cigarette and threw the cigarette butt into a glass jar with a thin layer of water and a lot of ash accumulated, "My wife

Well, it’s tiring enough to worry about the family. She is a typical little woman who worries and cries easily. I really don’t want to tell her this. If I do, she won’t be able to help me. I’ll still feel uncomfortable after that.”
p>

Chen Shufang's eyes flashed and she smiled silently: "It's okay."

Then he thoughtfully said: "It's hard to endure these things, right?"

"Yes!" Li Zhang lowered his head and drank. "Every day when I go home, I will be stunned for a while before entering the house. I have to hold it in."

He added: "Hey, what a man."

The good friends I have known for many years now have their own families, so they usually don’t have that much time to go out and drink together and scold the boss.

Other people of the same age, peers, and same sex that you can come into contact with are basically in the workplace, but the shopping mall is like a battlefield, and every word from the heart carries a potential risk.

Even if not, as a man, you cannot show your vulnerability easily, it is not allowed.

Boss, husband, father, social attributes and role positioning are entangled in a cocoon, wrapping Li Zhang in it.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!

He had no psychological problems, so he would not seek help from a psychiatrist. In the end, he had no choice but to complain to Chen Shufang.

She is a woman, a gentle person, but also a stranger, with a strict mouth.

So Li Zhang came here to spend some money, chat, relieve his depression, and then go back and continue to work hard to live.

Before leaving, he gave Chen Shufang a generous tip.

She is thoughtful, understanding, and sophisticated. Li Zhang regards her as a confidante based on money transactions.

"If I said to you, 'Welcome boss to visit us next time,' it would sound like a curse."

Chen Shufang sent Li Zhang downstairs, handed him his suit jacket at the door, and said with a slight smile, "Then I hope you can stay longer next time."

Li Zhang also smiled.

"Thank you."

He said, waving goodbye to her.

Many of the men who came to the banquet were like Mr. Zhou, who spent the night out on business trips, so as the KTV was singing, people gradually disappeared, and they agreed to go back to their respective places without disturbing each other.

Li Zhang was sitting alone on the street. Across the road, there were young lovers, office workers riding bicycles, and students wearing school uniforms wandering around.

He watched quietly, lost in thought, dissipated the last bit of alcohol, breathed again to confirm that he was not in the category of drunk driving, then walked to the parking lot and drove away.

More than an hour later, Li Zhang drove into his community and reversed the car into the garage.

There was silence all around, with the only sound of the garage lights sizzling around him. He sat in the car, lit a cigarette, and smoked it out very, very slowly. His mind was empty, thinking about nothing, and nothing.

I don’t even want to “think”.

Middle-aged men who start a family and start a career have no time for themselves.

Sometimes the love for the car is not the car, but the time of solitude and respite.

When the cigarette between his fingers was almost burning, Li Zhang pressed it into the ashtray and let out a long breath.

He got out of the car, walked into the elevator, and returned home.

The lamp in the living room is still on, the dining table is set up in the kitchen, and the dishes are covered with dust covers.

My wife, who was wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, heard the sound of the door lock, rubbed her eyes, stood up, and said vaguely:

"I'm back, I'll heat up some food for you..."

"It's okay, no need."

Li Zhang walked over, hugged her sideways, and then carried her back to the bedroom with all his strength.

"What are you doing..."

His wife was still feeling sleepy, so she smiled softly and pushed him.

"What are you doing? Go to sleep."

Li Zhang patted her back gently.

"The lights in the living room haven't been turned off yet..."

"I'll go and close it."

"You didn't drink today? Be careful with your liver..."

"I didn't drink much, don't worry."

After turning off the lights and getting into bed, the couple leaned together, and Li Zhang's chin rubbed his wife's forehead.
Chapter completed!