The Return of the Hidden Prince

Chapter 13 Dine-And-Dash

The classes in the afternoon passed quickly, Tiger Zhang kept waiting for director Li to come to the classroom and announce expelling Josh from the school in front of everyone, but nothing happened that afternoon.

Josh walked to Tiger as all the classes ended and said:”Do you mind me asking whether something went wrong? I’m still here in the school, Tiger.”

Other students began gossiping again, and Tiger’s face turned stern immediately. People would reckon that he was just boasting about kicking Josh out of school, by when he would lose face, probably the worst time ever. He just rose to his feet and left the classroom as fast as possible.

“What is uncle Li doing? He made a promise!” Tiger thought to himself as he left.

Josh walked to Jane and smiled:”See? I told you I won’t get expelled.”

Jane nodded and let go of her worries, she had been nervous worrying about Josh the whole afternoon.

“Buy thank you anyone, you’re the only one that stood up for me.”

Fatty got near them and joked:”Jane, did you try to protect him because...you have a thing to him?”

Jane’s face blushed immediately:”N...no! I’m the monitor of this class, it was what I had to do!”

Then she ran out of the classroom.

“Well...” Josh was kind of embarrassed, Jane left him no chance of asking her out for dinner.

Meanwhile in the students affairs office, Tiger was trying to find out what happened.

“You promised that you would kick him out today, uncle Li, what happened?” Asked Tiger angrily.

“Sorry, kid, I can’t do it.” The director shook his head.

“What? Why?”

“The headmaster won’t let me, he didn’t tell me why either.”

“What? What is his connection to the headmaster?”

“Not that I know of, you can ask headmaster by yourself.” Said the director as he shrugged.

“Damn!”

Surely Tiger wouldn’t go for the headmaster for he’s got no connection to him, he couldn’t help but wonder how to maintain his influence in the class since he had threatened Josh that he would be expelled, which didn’t happen.

On the other side of the school, Josh asked Fatty out for a dinner in Shengtan Restaurant, a fancy restaurant near the school with exquisite decorations and soothing vibe. It’s quite famous in their school, but Josh had never tried it before.

“Thank you for not leaving me behind after you got rich, bro!” Said Fatty, though Fatty’s parents did

have some business to run, he had never eaten in this restaurant before either.

“I’m returning the favor, you helped me out quite many times before.” Said Josh, for it was Fatty that offered him a helping hand when he didn’t even have enough money for food.

“Dude, Jane probably likes you, I mean, that want-to-be-your-girlfriend like.” Said Fatty,”I shit you not, Josh, she’s perfect! Gorgeous, single, considerate, not a gold-digger, you gotta give it a try, bro!”

“She’s a nice a girl, yeah, but I’m not in that mood. We’ll see to it.” Said Josh.

Soon the meals came, all of which were costly specialties that Fatty and Josh would never imagine of having the chance to order back in the old days. Half an hour later, Josh asked for the bill.

“Four thousand and three hundred in total sit, would you like to pay with cash or credit card?” Said the waitress.

The cost of this meal equaled to the living cost of a year of Josh before, but things were different now.

“Card.” Said Josh as he reached for his wallet.

“Wait, where’s my wallet?” Josh was shocked as he found that his wallet his gone. He stood up and searched every pocket but still found nothing.

He suddenly recalled a man who bumped into him when he was in the restroom, it could be him that took the wallet from Josh. He quickly checked around the restaurant but the man was already gone.

“Damn, someone stole it!” Uttered Josh.

“Stole it?” Fatty was surprised.

“Could be, someone bumped into me in the restroom, that could be when I lost the wallet.”

“Well, I’ll take the bill, then!” Said Fatty, who searched through all his pockets as well but only found twenty hundred and sixty-eight on him.

Well, it could be one of the most embarrassing moment.

A man in suit walked near them and asked the waitress:”What’s going on here?”

“Sir, they said that they lost their wallet.”

“I see. Off you go, I’ll take care of this.” The man waved away the waitress and then said to Josh and Fatty:”Greetings, gentlemen, I’m the manager of this restaurant.”

“Uh, greetings, someone stole my wallet when I was in the restroom, can I leave an IOU here and pay for this meal tomorrow?” Said Josh with embarrassment.

“But I can’t be sure whether it’s true, it could also be that you’re just some dine-and-dashers.” Sneered the manager, for Josh and Fatty caught his attention since they walked in the restaurant and they way the dress themselves seemed like that they may not be able to afford a meal here.

“Dine-and-dasher? This man right here is the grandson of Moses Liu, watch you mouth!” Exclaimed Fatty.

“Grandson? Well, I’m Moses Liu’s granddad, then!” Said the manager, he wouldn’t buy it since Josh and Fatty looked like no more than some poor students to him. Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

It irritated Josh a bit:”Isn’t it part of your responsibility that my wallet got stolen in your restaurant?”

“Don’t you try to bluff me, sir. You’re just making things harder for you to handle.”

There wasn’t much Josh could do either, since there were no security cameras in the restroom.

“Now you two hear me clear: either you pay, or I call the police.” Said the manager sternly.

Many of other diners there were also talking about it:”What was the last time you see a dine-and- dasher? They should try it in any other restaurants but here.”

“Why did they even choose here if they don’t have that much money?

Fatty seemed nervous as the situation got worse:”Josh...any ideas?”

Josh was pissed, but it was also reasonable for the manager to react in that way, he was careless to had lost the wallet. He thought about it for a while and said to other diners:”Could anyone lend me the money to pay the bill please? I’ll leave am IOU and return the favor ten times more tomorrow!”

“Ten times? That’s forty thousand then!”

Quite many diners wavered hearing what Josh said, but most of them still had doubts:”Look at how he dressed himself? Do you think he really have that much money?”

“Come on, he couldn’t even pay the meal now, why shall we believe it?”

It was a alluring offer indeed, but none believed Josh.

“Fine, I’ll call the police right now.” Said the manager as he reached for his phone.