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Lu Bai was thrown by this unexpected situation and was really more than a bit confused. After his brain finally caught on to what was actually happening, he blushed furiously, his cheeks and ears turned completely red, burning in the night. He dry swallowed and subconsciously backed up a few steps. Perhaps it was the alcohol from earlier, but he even had some difficulty speaking, and just managed to choke out, “You … you calm- calm down, too- too fast is n-not- not good.”
“Pfft.” Ruan Jiangjiu couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He looked Lu Bai up and down meaningfully, eyes bright like stars in the night. With this little practical knowledge, this kid wants to imitate others and raise canaries1?
He shook his head helplessly, still wearing a grin on his face and in a much better mood now. Then he took Lu Bai’s hand and put the card back in the other’s hot palm. “Little kids should be good and go home at this time of night.” After saying this, he brushed past Lu Bai and left the alley, leaving only a faint but cool fragrance teasing Lu Bai’s nose.
Lu Bai stood there silently. It took him a long time to realize that he had just been rejected. It also seems that he had been insulted. He angrily looked towards the entrance of the alley and wanted to curse, ‘You’re a child! Your whole family are children!!’, but found that the entrance of the alley had long been empty; only the illusory and gaudy neon lights were left in the distance.
Lu Bai took a deep calming breath and tousled his hair, reassuring himself that it was okay. Ruan Jiangjiu accepting him at this time would collapse the plot anyway. Although… this Ruan Jiangjiu’s personality seems a bit of a surprise. He was originally a twisted character in the story, so his being different is not that strange.
He walked towards the entrance of the alley. Regardless, this scene is finally over, and his next appearance won’t be until a few days later. He was exhausted from the day, and he can finally go back to his apartment to rest properly. It must already be late into the night, as Lu Bai raised his head slightly and saw that the crescent moon was setting. Fortunately, he told his family before he left home that he would be going back to his apartment today. Otherwise, they would be very worried if he didn’t go home now, and Guanguan would probably blow up his phone. He smiled at this thought and was about to use his phone to check the time when he remembered that he had accidentally left his phone charging in his car when he got out.
Lu Bai huffed with slight annoyance, then went back into the bar; he left his car keys and wallet in the private booth. He needed to find a chauffeur anyway as he had been drinking tonight. The bar was empty when he made it over to his table and looked around it.
“Sir, the guests at that table left a while ago.” The bartender let him know as he was starting to wipe the bar down.
Lu Bai twitched the corners of his mouth. That group of ungrateful bastards, not only did they take his wallet but they also took off with his car and his phone that was inside it.
“Sir… we are closing for the night as well.” The bartender looked at Lu Bai with a complicated face. Unlike many bars on the street that will be open all night, ‘Gathered Fireflies to Reflect the Snow’ closed at 2:30 am2.
Lu Bai nodded, but was a bit stumped. He now had no phone, no wallet, and no way to get back to his apartment. After giving it a bit more thought, he was struck by an idea. Looking at the bartender, he took out the card he had just tried to bribe Ruan Jiangjiu with and placed it on the bar counter, “Would you believe me if I said there’s a million on here?”
Bartender: “???”
Lu Bai took a deep breath, “I’ll let you hold onto this card as collateral if you lend me three hundred tonight, and then I will pay you back ten times over tomorrow.” His apartment is quite far from here, and a late-night taxi ride to it from here will take at least three hundred. Originally, he had wanted to borrow the phone, but he didn’t want to alarm his family – he can only depend on his family as he had no real friends in this world.
The bartender looked at Lu Bai with a bemused expression, “Young Sir… do you think I look like a fool?”
“Xiao Wang, is something wrong?” That familiar clear and cold baritone rang out from behind him, giving Lu Bai a shock.
The bartender, Xaio Wang, shrugged and pointed to Lu Bai, “Just encountered a liar; these days, liars must be really bad at scamming others.” He turned to Lu Bai, “I see you are still young, so I will not call the police this time. In the future, learn to be a better person.”
Lu Bai: “…”
Ruan Jiangjiu had already come to stop at Lu Bai’s side. He had casually asked around when he came back in and learned that Lu Bai had come with a group of friends. Now, just by looking at the situation, he could probably guess what had happened. In the dim lights by the bar, Ruan Jiangjiu looked at Lu Bai with a smile, and said meaningfully, “Oh? So it’s a little liar.”
Lu Bai only felt that today was really unfortunate. He turned around to leave, ready to go outside to try his luck in finding an ATM, but Ruan Jiangjiu caught his wrist. Lu Bai subconsciously turned his head and met Ruan Jiangjiu’s beautiful eyes that were filled with light. He was looking at Lu Bai and seemed to be sighing helplessly, but it was so light that most people couldn’t catch it, “Stay at my place tonight.”
“Ehh!?” Xiao Wang’s jaw dropped from the unexpected invitation as Lu Bai’s eyes popped wide open as well.
~~~~
—Downtown Jinghai.—
A group of young men emerged from the convenience store with their shoulders together, several of them carrying bags full of stuff.
“Tch, the guy’s wallet had less than a thousand in it; all his money should be on his card.” A young man weighed the wallet in his hand and frowned, “Should ask him for his pin tomorrow.”
“Hahaha,” A different guy laughed obnoxiously. “Don’t worry, he will definitely tell you if you ask him. That fool has no friends, he can only depend on us to play with him.”
“Oh, anyone know where Ah-Liu’s been these last few days? I haven’t seen him for a while.”
“Heh, haven’t seen him since the other day when we met Mr. Qin at Lu’s house party, he disappeared after that. Who knows where he’s been fooling around.”
“- Qin, Mr. Qin?” The leader of the youngman’s eyes widened as he saw the tall man in a black trench coat leaning against Lu Bai’s car, then he subconsciously trembled and took a few steps back, knocking into his buddies.
Seeing them coming out, Qin Gu straightened up and then took a few steps forward, expressionlessly scanning through the crowd. Not finding the person he was looking for, he frowned slightly and let out some hostility. The group of cubs were scared by the sense of pressure from Qin Gu and collectively took a few steps back as the bags in their hands dropped to the ground with thuds.
“Where is Lu Bai?” Qin Gu looked at all of them; his voice was low and contained a frosty cold intensity.
The leader of the group only thought that Lu Bai had to have made Qin Gu angry again, so Qin Gu had come to settle the score. Pasting a smile on his face, “He- we left him behind at the bar!” He thought that Qin Gu hated Lu Bai so much, so the other side would be pleased. “Hehe, he doesn’t have his cell phone, car, OR wallet. He will definitely suffer tonight heh…Mr.- Mr. Qin!?”
Qin Gu had grabbed the youth’s collar, face as dark as the night sea, eyes surging with inky hostility. The youth was terrified speechless. Qin Gu’s voice was so deep that water dripped out, “Which bar is he in?”
“‘Ga-Gathered Fireflies to Reflect the Snow’ on Fuyu road”
“His things.”
“He-here.” The young man trembled as offered them up.
Qin Gu snatched them, and released the trembling youth’s collar abruptly. He narrowed his eyes as he scanned over them all one by one with displeasure, then turned away. The group of shaken young men took that chance to quickly run off.
“Mr. Qin?” The secretary in the car heard the knocking on the window and hurriedly rolled down the window. “Have you found Young Master Lu?” Just a few minutes ago, the boss had seen that young master Lu’s car and asked him to pull over nearby.
“You can head home now. There’s something I need to go do.” Qin Gu replied curtly.
The secretary’s eyes widened. He was about to ask what that something was, but he only saw Qin Gu open Lu Bai’s driver-side door, get in, and drive off.
—’Gathered Fireflies to Reflect the Snow’—
The bartender looked steadily at the man who was questioning him; he looked difficult to mess with, and his mouth twitched, “Sir, we are already closed… This bar has so many customers every day, I really don’t know who you are talking about.”
Qin Gu frowned, growing even more irritated. After pausing to think, he flipped through Lu Bai’s wallet and finally found Lu Bai’s student ID card. He covered the school information with his fingers, only revealing the photo, and showed it to the other, “Him.”
The bartender, Xaio Wang, looked at the photo and his eyebrows raised in surprise. Isn’t that the kid Xiao Ruan had just taken home… he hadn’t thought he was really a student…
This man’s identity does not seem to be simple, and he is quite stubborn as well. It also seems that his relationship with that teenager is also not normal… if he finds out that Xiao Ruan brought him back home…
The boss had specially instructed them to take extra good care of Ruan Jiangjiu. When he remembered this, the waiter relaxed, rolled his eyes, and laughed a bit nervously, “Ah, that kid. I do have an impression of him. I thought he looked kinda small for his age.”
“Where did he go?”
“He, uh… he left with another guy. In places like this, it’s normal to take home whoever you fancy.” Anyway, the boss had only said that they needed to take care of Xiao Ruan, not some stranger who had randomly appeared. It wasn’t like he was lying; the boy had gone home with someone…
Qin Gu’s pupils contracted, and his eyebrows furrowed even more. One of his hands subconsciously clenched into a fist so tight the veins on the back of his hand bulged. This made the already anxious Xiao Wang even more on edge,  “M-Mister?”
Qin Gu just gave him a cold look as he turned and left.
Xiao Wang watched the straight-back walking away and shook his head. Esh3, Who did Xiao Ruan just bring home? What exactly is that kid’s background!?
1
‘Keeping/Raising canaries’ is a metaphor to say kept man/soft rice/sugar baby. It could apply to both genders, as it equates those kept by others to be canaries in a cage.
2
Fun fact, where I live all bars are closed by 2am
3
Kind of a irritated huff, I belive its the shortened version of saying “Sheesh” or “Jeeze”