Chapter 363: Chapter 275: A Very Nonsensical Reason for a Fight
The drunk, fat man cursed, "You bastard! I’ve been sick of you for a long time."
The drunk, thin man cursed back, "The feeling’s mutual! I’m going to beat the crap out of you, and no one’s talking me out of it today."
The passersby surrounding the two middle-aged men, who both reeked of alcohol, were a mix of reactions. Some muttered amongst themselves, others pointed, and a few took out their phones to film the scene and upload it to their short-video accounts.
Lin Li made his way into the crowd, watching the two scuffling, alcohol-reeking men with confusion. Not knowing what started the fight, he couldn’t tell who was in the right and who was in the wrong.
Just then, he overheard some bystanders talking about the two men.
A young woman asked a man who looked to be in his forties, "Sir, do you know why those two are fighting?"
"Sigh, the reason they’re fighting is actually pretty ridiculous. They seem to be friends who were having lunch at a restaurant earlier.
"After they’d eaten and drunk their fill, they started fighting over who would pay the bill. Neither of them would back down, so they started arguing, and eventually, it came to blows, leading to... well, this," the man explained.
"What...? They ended up in a full-blown brawl just from fighting over the bill? That’s completely absurd!"
The young woman was dumbfounded after hearing the man’s explanation. She couldn’t comprehend how anyone could get into a fight for such a reason. It completely shattered her worldview.
Standing in the crowd, Lin Li heard the conversation between the young woman and the man and immediately knew that neither of the two brawling, alcohol-reeking, middle-aged men was any good.
His initial curiosity immediately evaporated. Just as he was about to head back to his private room at the grilled fish restaurant, he saw the two scuffling men stumble and crash toward an elderly, white-haired woman who had been trying to break up the fight.
The fat man was much bulkier than the thin one. Logically, he should have been able to easily overpower his opponent in a test of strength.
But in reality, all that bulk was just flab. He was actually a bit weaker than the thin man. If he hadn’t been using his superior weight to his advantage, the thin man would have already pinned him to the ground and given him a thrashing.
The two were evenly matched, and after a good deal of back-and-forth, neither could gain the upper hand.
Suddenly, the fat man stepped on a fruit peel that someone had carelessly tossed onto the street.
He lost his footing and, still grappling with the thin man, stumbled directly toward the elderly, white-haired woman who had been trying to mediate from a short distance away.
An elderly person’s bones are fragile. A collision with two grown men could cause serious injury.
"Watch out!" The surrounding onlookers gasped, shouting for the elderly woman to get out of the way.
But the woman was too old to react in time. She could only watch helplessly as the two reeking, drunken men barreled toward her.
Just as the white-haired woman was about to be hit, a figure suddenly appeared at her side. The newcomer lifted his right leg and kicked the fat man’s bloated body.
The two men, tangled together, weighed well over three hundred pounds combined. An ordinary person’s kick wouldn’t have budged them.
But while the young man who had suddenly appeared by the old woman’s side didn’t look particularly strong, the force of his kick was incredible.
It sent the two entangled men flying backward. They crashed to the ground and rolled several meters away.
"AARGH!" The fat man and the thin man cried out in unison as they hit the pavement.
Although the thin man wasn’t the one who had been kicked, he was now pinned beneath the fat man’s bloated body, the immense weight crushing his slender frame.
As for the fat man, he had taken the full force of that powerful kick. The spot where it landed was probably already turning black and blue.
"Young man, thank you so much!" the white-haired woman said gratefully to the young man beside her, now that she was safe.
"You’re welcome, Ma’am. In the future, you should stay away from people like this. Guys who get drunk and start fighting over something as pointless as saving face aren’t worth your time," Lin Li said with a smile.
"Sigh... To cause such a scene over something so trivial. Alcohol is truly a menace," the white-haired woman said, nodding. She glanced at the two reeking, middle-aged men groaning in pain on the ground and sighed again.
The surrounding crowd of onlookers let out a collective sigh of relief when they saw Lin Li save the old woman.
A few of the older men and women in the crowd gave Lin Li a thumbs-up for intervening, then turned to berate the two men still on the ground.
That powerful kick from Lin Li, and the subsequent fall, seemed to have knocked all the anger from fighting over the bill right out of them.
Facing the pointing fingers and harsh rebukes of the crowd, the two men felt the pressure mounting. They helped each other up and scrambled away.
"Hey, you paid twice!" shouted the cashier from the grilled fish restaurant, who was standing in the crowd holding the extra cash. He yelled after the two fleeing men.
Ordinarily, having come to their senses, the two men would have certainly come back for the extra money. But the situation was far too embarrassing; they couldn’t bear to stay a second longer.
Seeing the two men quickly disappear around a distant street corner, the onlookers knew the ridiculous farce was finally over. The crowd dispersed, and everyone went about their business.
All the eyewitnesses thought the absurd spectacle had ended there. But what happened next was something none of them could have imagined.
One of the onlookers who had filmed the entire incident uploaded it to a short-video platform. That casually shot clip ended up becoming one of the top trending comedy videos for the next two days.
Because of this, the fat man and the thin man became a laughingstock. They achieved a certain level of fame, just not the good kind. For a long time afterward, neither of them dared to show their faces in public.
...
「Inside the small private room of the grilled fish restaurant.」
Su Yue, who was on her phone, looked up as Lin Li returned and asked with a hint of confusion, "Lin Li, what took you so long in the restroom?"
"When I came out of the restroom, I saw a crowd gathered by the entrance, so I went to see what the commotion was about," Lin Li said.
"Did something happen?" Su Yue asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Nothing major. Just a couple of drunk guys scuffling. They left shortly after I got there," Lin Li said with a smile, not mentioning his own involvement.
"Oh." Su Yue nodded, not pressing the issue. Just then, the door to their private room was pushed open.
A waiter entered carrying a platter with an incredibly fragrant, mouth-watering grilled fish.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." The waiter placed the fish on the table, lit the solid fuel in the burner beneath the tray, and smiled at Lin Li and Su Yue.
"We still haven’t gotten our drinks. Could you please bring them for us?" Lin Li asked.
"Oh... I am so sorry! It’s been so busy, I completely forgot about your drinks. I’ll go get them right now," the waiter said apologetically.
She hurried out and returned a moment later with a bottle of coconut milk and a can of Coke.
Su Yue had originally wanted a cold beer, but Lin Li wouldn’t let her. He said they still had other sights to see that afternoon, and it wouldn’t be good to be tipsy, so he told her to get juice instead.
"This grilled fish is really good. It’s right up there with that place we ate at in Rongcheng," Lin Li said, nodding in satisfaction after picking up a piece of fish and tasting it.
"Of course it is. After all, look who picked this place," Su Yue said smugly, spitting out a small fish bone before flashing a grin at Lin Li.
...
