Chapter 591: The Chamber of Commerce President’s Blind Date

“Brother Chu, here…”

The next morning, Lu Ming offered him a cigarette with a grin. He didn’t do it on purpose; being rather oblivious, he hadn’t noticed that Lin Chu had already gone over twenty-four hours without one.

“Not for me. I quit.”

“The rest of my cigarettes are in the storage room. If you want to smoke, go get them yourself. They’re all yours. But if you do smoke, stay a hundred meters away from me. My home is a no-smoking zone from now on.”

Lin Chu said with a grin.

‘Quitting smoking was unexpectedly giving him a strange sense of superiority.’

Every man knows that smoking is bad for you. The worst part is how it degrades your quality of life after middle age. And every man has had the thought of quitting at least once, but most can’t manage it.

To borrow a classic line: how ruthless must a man be to be able to quit smoking?

After all, nicotine permanently alters the brain’s neural pathways. Only by completely overwriting them and establishing new pleasure circuits could one barely be considered successful.

And even then, one would face countless temptations to pick up another cigarette.

Especially when facing difficulties in life.

It’s practically a lifelong battle.

Anyone who dares to start this fight is a warrior in their own right.

Hearing Lin Chu’s words, Lu Ming looked at him in disbelief, even feeling like he was hearing some kind of joke. But seeing Lin Chu’s serious expression, he took a deep breath and silently retracted the cigarette he’d offered.

“Heh heh, how long are you quitting for?”

“Seven days? Or a month?”

Lin Chu waved a hand and cursed jokingly, “Get lost! When I say I’m quitting, I’m quitting. If I ever smoke another cigarette, I’ll call you ‘Dad’ a hundred times!”

Lu Ming was speechless.

The smile froze on his face.

‘Damn… that’s intense!’

A moment later, he sent a message to their core group chat.

“Shocking: Brother Chu says he’s quitting smoking! He even said if he ever has another one, he’ll call me ‘Dad’ a hundred times!”

Wang Zhefei: “Reminds me of that two hundred yuan he lost to me back in the day. Heh heh, those premium cigarettes tasted so good!”

Liu Junfeng: “@Lin Chu, what’s up, did your banana ripen? Haha…”

Hu Ping’an: “You can substitute with cigars. You don’t inhale those.”

Zhang Peng: “Forget it, those are even more harmful… For now, I’ll support the quitting effort. Take it one day at a time.”

All sorts of messages quickly popped up in the group…

Lin Chu glanced at the chat, a smile creeping onto his face. He took a selfie of his six-pack abs and sent it. “Go ahead and drool. You’re welcome. I’m going to be a god of self-discipline.”

Then, as expected, he was met with a barrage of mockery from the group.

But Lin Chu didn’t care. He was back in the gym, sweating buckets.

Of course, it was painful.

When the nicotine cravings hit, it felt like a hundred claws scratching at his heart, and his temper flared. His only outlet was to ramp up the intensity and pump iron!

But this was how willpower was forged.

A final goodbye to a part of his past.

…

「In the afternoon.」

In Long City, an apartment building originally named “Wealth Building” had been renamed “Flying Building.” The prestigious symbol of the “Low-altitude Flying Vehicle Technology Association” was now hung up.

Amidst the crackle of firecrackers, Lin Chu untied the red silk ribbon.

This was, in a sense, a chamber of commerce.

However, Dubai already had various Chinese chambers of commerce. There was one established by a Prince to attract investment, as well as many from different Chinese provinces: Guangdong Province, Fujian Province, Zhejiang Province… and so on. There were quite a few.

Having no intention of getting into cutthroat competition with them, Lin Chu decided to forge a new path by naming the association after a professional field.

He, of course, was the president.

Cutting the ribbon with him at this moment were a local Dubai prince and personnel from related departments, as well as big shots from various Chinese business factions and representatives from the diplomatic mission. The event was quite high-profile.

Throughout the event, Lin Chu maintained a faint, polite smile, appearing proper and composed. His speech was conventional, prioritizing harmony, and he showed no sharp edges whatsoever.

This was a stark contrast to the impression he had previously given when he had forcefully swept through and cleared out Dubai’s entire fraud company industry with lightning speed.

But clearly, this style was closer to the “correct approach” under mainstream values.

He thought back to the opening of his MBA class at Peking University, and the defiant, underdog mentality he’d had back then. ‘Next time I give a speech, I’ll be the one sitting on the main stage,’ he’d thought. And then he remembered the countless times since that he had, in fact, sat on the main stage to speak. At this moment, Lin Chu felt a sense that his youth was over.

That youthful arrogance was gone for good.

The fighting spirit to be an “underdog” was also gone.

‘I’m already a damn big shot.’

‘An underdog story? Against whom?’

‘Fighting spirit? To fight whom?’

It was like a car on the highway. Going from zero to one-twenty was a rapid acceleration, but once you hit one-twenty, you had to focus on stability, or the car would flip.

“When things wrap up here, are you free tonight?”

During a lull when there were fewer people around, Rashid furtively grabbed Lin Chu’s arm, leaned in close to his ear, and whispered.

“For you, of course I am. What’s up?”

Lin Chu agreed with a casual smile.

“Come to my place tonight. When this is over, you’ll come back with me. I want to introduce you to someone.”

Rashid’s voice was even quieter, and he wore a knowing smile.

That smile made Lin Chu instinctively feel that something was off. He subconsciously thought that Rashid was probably going to bring up an old topic, like introducing one of his sisters to him.

This kind of union for mutual benefit was, in fact, unavoidable.

The sovereign wealth fund had invested in him. The percentage wasn’t large, but the absolute value wasn’t small either—one billion USD.

At the same time, the low-altitude economy was one of the next major priorities, carrying the hopes of both China and Dubai. As the one leading the charge, it was highly probable, and even logical, that he would be targeted with a “honey trap.”

Looking into his eyes, Lin Chu instinctively wanted to refuse, but Rashid had already spoken. “You just agreed, so it’s a happy decision. You get back to your business, and I’ll come find you when it’s over.”

He patted Lin Chu’s shoulder, gave him a wink, and left with a smile.

Lin Chu shook his head and smiled, his mood surprisingly calm.

He went through the rest of the procedures step-by-step, exchanging pleasantries and contact information with all sorts of people. When it finally came to a close, Rashid sidled up to him again.

With a sense of resignation, Lin Chu got into the car with him, his mind already calculating the situation.

‘From a purely utilitarian standpoint, this is naturally a good thing.’

‘But this feeling of being set up on a blind date is still quite annoying.’

Besides, with his love life already a messy swamp, its entropy having increased to the maximum, getting involved with a woman of even higher status and power would be an absolute nightmare!

Even if the laws here didn’t mandate monogamy.

“You know me. My… past life was very colorful. Uh, you could even say chaotic.”

Lin Chu said with a degree of honesty from the back seat of the stretched Lincoln.

But Rashid just waved his hand and laughed. “Men are like that. It’s normal to play around a bit before marriage. Once you’re married, and especially once you become a father, you naturally mature and become responsible…”

“My sister is a quarter Chinese and absolutely beautiful—prettier than a supermodel. And she’s a genius, a math prodigy who graduated from the mathematics department at Stanford University…”

“If we weren’t related by blood, even I’d be smitten!”

“And this time, she’s the one who wants to meet you. But you know, there are certain rules… so she asked me to invite you for a private meeting, just to make friends.

“Also, she’s done a lot of research on low-altitude flying vehicles. I think her master’s thesis was on that topic, but I don’t really get it. You can ask her about it yourself later.”

Rashid said, full of enthusiasm.

Lin Chu looked at him, half-believing and half-doubting.

‘How could it be such a coincidence?’

But on second thought, with so many children in the royal family, custom-selecting a daughter whose interests aligned with his current business ventures probably wasn’t that difficult.

‘Who knows, she might not even be a “daughter,” but a female agent.’

Of course, given his close relationship with Rashid, he probably wouldn’t lie to him—unless the source of Rashid’s information was also wrong.

‘Fine, I’ll just treat it as a normal “blind date.”‘