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Chapter 404 Meeting an Old Acquaintance in a Foreign Land

Massim left, and Ernst got up and straightened his suit. Just as he was about to talk to the other retail giants, he suddenly heard a crisp, forceful slap on his buttocks. It didn't hurt, but it was enough to make him freeze on the spot.

His thought at that moment was: Seriously? There are curves in this place?

Ernst's brows furrowed instantly. He slowly turned around, his gaze sweeping over the person behind him like a searchlight, finally settling on a young man of similar age.

The guy was wearing a bright, almost reflective royal blue suit, and his hair was slicked back and looked like it had just been pulled out of a hairspray can. His outfit was incredibly flashy.

At this moment, he is holding his chin up, with an arrogant expression that says he thinks he is the best in the world.

If Ernst hadn't been a head taller than his opponent, he probably would have only seen the faint nose hairs peeking out from the other's nostrils, instead of that arrogant face.

"What, you're unhappy just because you got hit? You have a problem with being hit?" The young man's tone was so arrogant it was almost tangible. As he spoke, he deliberately shook the watch on his wrist that was sparkling with diamonds, as if to show off his uniqueness.

Ernst narrowed his eyes slightly, a hint of mockery in his voice. "Tell me, what would happen if I stuffed you under this table like a roll of hay?"

Upon hearing this, the young man jerked back, his crocodile-skin shoes leaving a shallow scratch on the marble floor.

But then he seemed to suddenly remember something, and he straightened his back, put his hands on his hips, and shouted in a forced calm tone, "Then I will definitely expose all the wonderful things you and Lian Anna did in the locker room of the basketball court, and let everyone in the United States know about your glorious history, Ernst."

"Whatever," Ernst said, not at all angry. He shrugged, completely unconcerned. "I'm a playboy, everyone in America knows that. But you, who came later, didn't get Leanne's permission first; you practically forced your way into the lane, didn't you?"

Seeing the fleeting look of fear in the other person's eyes, he slowly added, like a cat playing with a mouse, "I wonder if your father will hold up the newspaper and proudly tell everyone around him when you're on the front page of the New York Times and become the talk of the town, saying: 'Look, this is my son, he really makes me proud!'"

Upon hearing this, the young man instantly deflated like a punctured balloon, his previous arrogance vanished, his shoulders slumped, and even his hair drooped as if it had lost the support of hair gel.

He pursed his lips and muttered under his breath, "I knew it, nothing good ever comes of running into you."

But the next second, he suddenly seemed like a different person, opening his arms and bursting into laughter.

Ernst's teasing turned into a genuine smile, and he stretched out his arms to hug the other person tightly.

"I really didn't expect you to come here. If I had known you were coming, I wouldn't have stayed in my hotel room watching the game this afternoon." The other person patted Ernst on the back with such force that it felt like he was going to break his bones.

Ernst put his arm around his shoulder, his smile never fading. "I was wondering why I hadn't seen you this afternoon. So you didn't go either. How's it going, having a good time in Michigan lately?"

Quinn Major, Ernst's best friend when he was studying at USC, was the rich kid who performed magic tricks in the school auditorium, causing them to catch pigeons in the auditorium.

Unlike retail giants like Walmart and Target, whose stores are spread across the entire United States, Meijer supermarkets take a regional approach. In Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, customer loyalty is extremely high, to the point that even Walmart has to bow down to them.

The fact that Meijer has been able to gain a foothold in the highly competitive retail industry and attract so many repeat customers is enough to demonstrate how strong customer loyalty is and how well its service is appreciated.

Meijer is a large-scale one-stop shopping mall that combines supermarkets, pharmacies, clothing stores, and home appliances.

Although Meijer currently has fewer than 100 stores, far fewer than Walmart's thousands of stores, its annual revenue exceeds 10 billion US dollars, firmly placing it among the top 20 retailers in the United States.

Therefore, Quinn is definitely a rich second-generation heir born with a silver spoon in his mouth, with family assets of over a billion dollars. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he's rolling in money.

The two were seated, and the waiter quickly brought two glasses of champagne. Quinn took a sip and complained, "What else can I do? It's the same old story. Who can be as carefree as you? You're always surrounded by beautiful women. Today it's a Hollywood star, tomorrow it's a supermodel."

"Unlike me, I spend all my time in that godforsaken, impoverished backwater of Michigan, looking at supermarket sales reports and attending all sorts of business meetings arranged by my dad. I'm so bored I'm practically rotting away."

As he spoke, his expression suddenly became somewhat nostalgic, his gaze drifting into the distance as if he were seeing a scene from years ago on the USC campus. "I remember back in school, the two of us lay on our dorm beds, drinking beer and vowing that once we got tired of those ignorant girls at USC whose minds were filled with nothing but designer bags and parties, we would go to Hollywood, rescue those poor young women, and let them experience real happiness."

At this point, Quinn sighed heavily. "Alas, I was the one who pointed out this broad road for you back then, but you made great strides all the way, while I failed to keep up. What a failure."

Holy crap, so all this playboy image of mine is thanks to you, kid.

Quinn noticed the complex expression on Ernst's face and assumed he was recalling painful memories from the past.

He quickly dropped his joking expression, his face showing apology, and his tone softened. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to remind you of sad memories. I heard about Galin's departure from Osonic. I called you many times afterward, but your phone was always switched off."

Osonic Costas also lived in Los Angeles and was a classmate of USC, but Ernst didn't interact with him much. At most, they would nod and say hello when they bumped into each other on campus, and occasionally meet at some parties.

"Actually, I even went to Los Angeles to look for you, but I didn't even see a maid at your house."

This surprised him somewhat. Quinn had actually gone to Los Angeles to look for him. Seeing that this guy from the past had made some real friends, he found this gesture to be quite touching.

It's normal that we couldn't find him. At that time, he was immersed in the pain of losing his father, so he spent every day in bars, numbing himself with alcohol and women, and his phone was often switched off.

"It's alright, it's all in the past. But I'll remember your brotherly kindness."

But Quinn, far from being pleased, rolled his eyes dramatically, as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the world. "If you really want to pay me back, we'll have to go back in time. You bastard, how many women did you sleep with back in school? How are we going to settle this score?"

Ernst was displeased upon hearing this. "As if I didn't share this with you. What about what happened to Leanne back then?"

Lian Anna is the cheerleader for the USC basketball team. She has a hot figure and a sweet face, and is the dream girl of countless boys in the school.

Quinn was the starting forward for the USC basketball team at the time, and with his outstanding basketball skills and status as a rich kid, he was a popular figure on campus.

Through Quinn's connections, Ernst became very close to all the members of the USC basketball team, and the team's cheerleaders almost became his group of casual sex partners.

Leanne was one of them. The most outrageous time was when Ernst and Leanne were exchanging blows in the locker room while the game was on the field.

The incident Ernst mentioned happened when Quinn accidentally twisted his ankle during the game and went to the locker room to rest early. As a result, he bumped into Quinn when he opened the locker room door.

Then, with Ernst's help, a second car entered through the single lane.

The two of them did no shortage of such outrageous things when they were at USC; they were practically the two most depraved men at USC.

The more outrageous the two acted, the more the pretty girls fawned over them, like moths to a flame.

Students who can study at USC all come from families with some assets. Money is no longer the most important thing for these girls; what they seek is excitement and unique experiences.

Ernst and Quinn, being rich and daring bad boys, perfectly satisfied their need for excitement, so even knowing that the two were outrageous, many girls were still willing to go after them.

Ernst and Quinn, having been separated for a long time, chatted animatedly in a corner, their laughter frequently drawing the attention of many people present.

Those who didn't recognize Quinn whispered among themselves, wondering who this young man in the royal blue suit was and how he could chat so congenially with Ernst; their relationship seemed quite special.

Those who knew Quinn, such as his father Grom Major's business partners, watched the two chatting animatedly in the corner and said to Grom with envy, "I never knew your Quinn knew Ernst, and that they were such good friends. Why didn't you mention it before?"

Grom Major was heartbroken; I never expected this.

The reason I brought him to this retail industry conference was to broaden his horizons and build some connections, since Meijer will eventually need him to take over.

But this brat was something else. He disappeared as soon as he arrived at the venue in the afternoon. When he was seen again, he was sitting with the person with the most connections at the party, and the two seemed to know each other very well.

Then he thought of USC. He knew that Ernst was also a USC graduate, but he didn't expect that the two of them would be so close.

"Young people have their own circles, and I rarely interfere."

Grom was telling the truth, because he genuinely didn't know his son knew Ernst, but to those around him, he was just showing off his son.

Many people are even wondering if they should let their children go to nightclubs and similar places more often.

Quinn was a notorious playboy in Michigan, and Ernst was a notorious womanizer throughout the United States. Is this how the two met?

Does this mean that in this day and age, if you want to get ahead and build connections, you have to play around with women and be a playboy?