Chapter 828: Trip to the Bar
"Whoa, why are you just walking like this? Take off your sunglasses, and I need to see your ID."
A man with security written on his shirt stepped in, blocking the mysterious man with a scar on his face from entering the building.
"My ID? Here."
As the mysterious man handed his ID, he took off his sunglasses. It was no other than Xiaoyun with a scar on his face.
"This is a bar, right?"
"Yeah. You can go now... And don’t make trouble."
Xiaoyun quickly put the sunglasses back on, walking past the bouncer as the scar instantly vanished from his face.
"I really haven’t even gone to a bar all this time in my life, huh?"
As he shook the thought from his mind, his eyes underneath the sunglasses were constantly glancing around his environment.
The place was very dark, with neon lights scattered from the main entrance down to a long hallway, with no reception area of any sort.
A female bartender was standing right in the middle of the room, with a separate door that had loud music coming out from the other side.
A bunch of middle-aged men were all sitting next to the bar itself, with a whole TV displaying Yueyue, of all people, talking about the news.
Not a single woman was in sight, nor was there any music performance or any sort of entertainment in the room he was in.
"Hey, you new here?" The bartender immediately questioned as she noticed Xiaoyun scanning around the room.
Within seconds, all of the men in the bar turned towards him, looking at him up and down as if they were examining his body.
"Yeah, I’m new... I’m just looking for somebody here."
"Take a seat first."
As Xiaoyun walked towards the bar in the middle, all of the attention disappeared as they all shifted back towards the TV.
"You want to be on the other side of the bar, don’t you?" The bartender asked as she noticed him staring at the other door.
"I think my friend is on the other side."
"Well, if you want to go to the other side, you have to buy a drink here first. What kind of drink do you want?"
Looking at the menu only confused Xiaoyun more than anything. He couldn’t understand any of the drinks’ names.
"Um, just give me the most basic thing you have."
"A sex on the Beach coming right up... Make sure you read the sign over on the wall there."
As the bartender began making the drink, Xiaoyun turned his eyes towards the words that were written on a blackboard behind her.
It was a disclaimer waiver, warning that all the drinks in the bar may be expired and that it is not the bar’s responsibility if anything goes wrong.
"Is this a joke?" Xiaoyun questioned out of curiosity.
"You can ask them and see how they turned out."
Looking over to the side, a bunch of men were all drinking perfectly fine as they watched the breaking news update regarding the Middle East.
"How much do I have to pay?" Xiaoyun questioned as he watched the bartender shake his drink inside a metal container.
"If you take off your sunglasses right now, it’s free." The bartender answered after seeing him take out his wallet.
"No thanks. I’d like to keep it on... So how much is it?"
As the bartender poured the drink into the glass cup, she gave an answer that surprised Xiaoyun a little.
"First drink is always on the house, you don’t have to pay... You can go to the other side of the bar when you finish this drink."
Examining the drink in his hand, Xiaoyun could see the remaining orange pulp fruit mixed with the vodka bottle she had taken out earlier.
"Fuck, that burns..."
Seeing him fanning his mouth after drinking the whole thing at once, the bartender chuckled a little before taking the empty glass off the table.
"You’re supposed to drink it slowly to taste the flavor." The bartender murmured as she watched his face turn red.
"Will do next time. Thanks."
Xiaoyun didn’t waste any more time as he quickly turned around, finally heading towards his intended destination.
"Hey! I wasn’t offered a free drink when I first came here. This has to be some sort of bias going on here..."
---
"Lily, you’re too crazy! You just hung up on the governor!" A girl who looked extremely tall murmured as she watched Lily drink a whole shot at once.
"I’m crazy? I’m an adult now! Why can’t I hang up the phone when I feel like it? No one tell me what to do!"
"Xuewei! You’re too scared. Stop being a coward! Lily, you’re a brave woman!"
As the average-looking girl yelled out loud, the whole room was full of people dancing to the DJ playing a disco set on the side.
The three of them were sitting in the service area, with a male bartender servicing three different groups at once.
"Okay, girls, I think you guys are having a little too much to drink." The male bartender murmured as he refused to fill up Lily’s empty glass.
"We’re perfectly fine! I can tell you the whole periodic table right now. The first element is... is... oxygen!"
"Yeah!"
"Mhm!"
As both girls yelled out together alongside Lily in a celebratory tone, the bartender let out a small sigh before turning over to the bottles of alcohol behind him.
"What kind of drinks do you guys want?"
"Mmm... Shihan, what drink should we get?" Lily questioned as she stared over to the average-looking girl.
"I-I don’t know. Xuewei, what drink should we get?" Shihan questioned back as she looked over to the tall girl.
"A vodka cocktail!"
"Cocktail! Cocktail! Cocktail!"
With Lily and Shihan both chanting it over and over again, the bartender took the weakest alcohol from the shelf before prepping the drink.
"Xuexue, where’s Yajing and Jiejie?" Lily suddenly asked as she looked over to the tall girl with a hint of soberness in her eyes.
"They’re in the bathroom..." Xuewei answered as she let out a small burp before supporting herself up from the bar table.
"How long have they been in the bathroom?"
"How do I know?"
"Your friends had been gone for five minutes... They’re on the dance floor currently if you look closely."
As the bartender pointed it out, all three of them squinched their eyes at the same time towards the dance floor.
Just as the bartender had described it, both of their friends were dancing in the square alongside two middle-aged men.
"Should we go join them?" Shihan questioned as she suddenly leaned her head onto Lily’s shoulder.
"Lily, you want to?" Xuewei questioned, noticing the slight hesitation on Lily’s face.
"Why not? Let’s go already—"
"Woah, you guys haven’t paid your tab yet. Ain’t nobody leaving the bar stool until one of you guys pay up."
"I’ll pay."
"No, let me pay, Lily. Let me repay you for helping me over the food stand—"
"Let me pay in cash. You guys don’t want a bar charge on your cards—"
As Xuewei interrupted Shihan and reached for her wallet, Lily had already handed her ID over to the bartender.
"Why would I be scared to have a charge on my card? I’m an adult. No one can tell me how to spend my money."
"Do you want to pay separately or pay all at once?" The bartender questioned as he took out the card scanner.
"All at once. You guys don’t have to ever worry about paying with me. I have more than enough money to cover all the drinks in the world."
With the beep sound coming from the scanner, the bartender handed the ID card back as the two girls looked a little surprised by Lily’s statement.
"Lily, where did you get all this money?" Shihan curiously asked as the three of them walked off with the shot of cocktail in hand.
"Yeah, when did you get so rich? That tab was like 100 NRC. Even I barely have enough to cover that with my credit card."
"What do you think?"
As the two of them stood in a nearby corner and stared towards Lily, they soon came to the same conclusion in their head.
"There’s no shot you’re getting paid by your boyfriend," Xuewei murmured as her eyes suddenly sobered up.
"Paid? Who said I was getting paid? I earned this with my... my... my hard-earned money!"
The redness on Lily’s face became increasingly more noticeable as she didn’t want to admit Leyan was the one who put money into her ID card.
"Mhm, more like hard-earned body."
"Pfff—"
Shihan’s joke almost made Xuewei spit out her cocktail by accident as she couldn’t help but find it extremely funny for no reason whatsoever.
"Oh shut up, that’s not funny. My boyfriend never gave me any money. I didn’t take a single cent out of his wallet!"
