Chapter 202: Mad Splurge
"What would I do with so many cars? Some belong to the local branch office, and some are borrowed from friends," Jiang Tao said.
He was a wealthy man, to be sure, but not so wealthy that he’d waste it all on cars. He couldn’t possibly use this many anyway.
"Let’s go, then." Chu Feng got into a car with Su Miaoke and Zhao Quan.
Once the motorcade set off, it drew countless stares all along the route.
The spectacle was enormous. With dozens of luxury cars and news media outlets scrambling for coverage, it quickly drew widespread attention.
Some people even started live-streaming it online.
Their destination was a small town in the Jiangdong Suburb. Jiang Tao’s fiancée was something of a country girl, from a family that wasn’t well-off.
Meanwhile, in a small village within the bride’s hometown, festive lanterns and colorful banners were already being hung.
The air was thick with celebration, and the atmosphere was incredibly lively.
Many of the villagers had risen at dawn, eager to witness the magnificent wedding.
Everyone knew the daughter of the Luo Family was marrying a billionaire from Beihai City, and she was the object of immense envy.
Luo Huan was having her bridal makeup applied by a makeup artist.
She stared at her reflection in the mirror, lost in a daze.
"Sister, it’s because I’m useless. If I weren’t, you wouldn’t have to marry that old man. You wouldn’t have had to break up with him." A young man beside her sighed, his head bowed and his face etched with self-reproach.
"Brother, he might be a bit old, but he’s been very good to our whole family, giving his all to help us. Who else would do that for us?" Luo Huan said slowly. Although she had no romantic feelings for Jiang Tao, his open-handed generosity had solved all of her family’s financial problems in one fell swoop.
He stepped up when our family was at its lowest. It was a true lifeline.
As for her boyfriend... they had been dating for years, but when her father fell gravely ill and they desperately needed money for medical bills, he couldn’t help at all. He couldn’t even come up with two thousand yuan.
’Faced with a choice between her own flesh and blood and romance, any decent person would choose family, wouldn’t they?’
Everyone has their own definition of so-called love, their own perspective. But an ancient saying holds that of all virtues, filial piety comes first.
’Without one’s parents, how could one even exist?’
’If you abandon your own parents to pursue so-called love, is a romance born from such a sacrifice truly worth a lifetime of devotion?’
In the end, so many loves crumble in the face of reality. After all, reality is cruel, and romance is just a beautiful dream—something that exists only in fantasy.
"But he’s just too old! He’s the same age as Mom and Dad—a man of almost sixty!" Luo Huan’s brother said resentfully.
"That’s enough. Even if he were seventy or eighty and on his deathbed, I would still make the same choice. He is our family’s savior. Without him, you wouldn’t even have the means to get married. You need to face reality! He helped you, he helped me, and most importantly, he saved our father!" Luo Huan said firmly.
"But..." Luo Huan’s brother started to say.
"No more ’buts.’ Just stop. I don’t want to hear any of it," Luo Huan said.
In truth, her brother wasn’t wrong. Jiang Tao was indeed about the same age as her parents. It certainly didn’t sound good; it was like a daughter marrying her own father.
In the car, Chu Feng asked Jiang Tao, who was in the passenger seat, "Hey, Brother Jiang, you got a picture of your bride? Let us see."
Hearing this, Su Miaoke, who was sitting beside him, immediately grew displeased. "What’s the matter? Are *you* the one getting married? You seem awfully eager."
"I’m just curious, that’s all. We’re on our way to pick up the bride, after all," Chu Feng said.
"Ah, well, she’s definitely not as beautiful as your girl," Jiang Tao said with a laugh, quickly trying to defuse the tension. "She’s just average, passable. As long as it doesn’t mess up the next generation’s genes, we’re good."
As for whether she was truly beautiful or not, that was a silly question. Would Jiang Tao really marry someone who wasn’t?
Even though the girl was very young, which might make it seem like she was at a disadvantage, it was ultimately a consensual arrangement, so no one could really say anything.
"Let’s grab some breakfast here. We’ll arrive right after," Jiang Tao announced to the group.
After they got out of the cars, Jiang Tao addressed his men. "Alright, brothers, eat and drink your fill! When we go to get the bride, I want everyone to give it their all!"
"YEAH!" Jiang Tao’s men roared, all of them buzzing with excitement.
Every single person participating in the wedding procession today had been given a red envelope with ten thousand yuan.
That was more than a month’s salary for them—who wouldn’t be thrilled?
Furthermore, the dozens of cars were all loaded with stacks of cash, amounting to at least tens of millions in total.
They were at a hotel where Jiang Tao had arranged for breakfast to be prepared in advance. The timing was perfect; they would finish eating and then head right into the village to pick up the bride.
Once everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they set out once more.
When they reached the village entrance, people in each car began handing out red envelopes to the onlookers. Everyone got a share, and each envelope contained two hundred yuan.
"Brother Jiang, you’re really sparing no expense," Chu Feng said with a laugh as he handed out envelopes.
He hadn’t expected Jiang Tao to be this extravagant.
"Heh, it’s a wedding, one of life’s major events. Of course you have to make it grand, make it impressive," Jiang Tao said with a smile.
After all, he was finally getting married at his age; how could he not be excited?
"It certainly is extravagant," Su Miaoke agreed with a nod.
To give an idea of Jiang Tao’s extravagance, the jewelry Luo Huan was wearing alone was worth hundreds of millions.
He was a jewelry magnate, after all; gold, silver, and gems were the things he had in greatest abundance.
After the cars entered the village and pulled up in front of Luo Huan’s home, just as everyone was preparing to head upstairs, they saw several tables blocking the way. The tables were covered with glasses of liquor.
To go upstairs, they had to drink it all.
Chu Feng took a quick glance—there had to be at least several hundred glasses.
"Holy crap, that’s so much!" Su Miaoke was stunned by the sight.
"Are they deliberately trying to keep us out?" Chu Feng asked in surprise.
"It’s nothing, just a small problem." Facing the scene, Jiang Tao broke into a wide grin.
"Hm?" Chu Feng frowned. ’Does Jiang Tao have another trick up his sleeve?’
"Everyone, come on over!" Jiang Tao shouted to the watching villagers. "Help us drink a glass, and you’ll get a two-hundred-yuan red envelope! I’ll pay for every glass you drink!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Tao had his men start handing out the red envelopes.
The moment the nearby villagers saw the red envelopes being handed out, they swarmed forward, grabbing glasses and chugging them down.
In a flash, all several hundred glasses of liquor were drunk dry.
The person who drank the most walked away with over fifty red envelopes, which added up to more than ten thousand yuan.