The bar had been converted from a former village small house, nestled among intertwining green trees. If the layout remained unchanged, the women’s restroom should have been converted from the previous bathroom, with low and narrow windows that could barely allow a person to pass through. Outside connected to a lush, dense grove, and below was a fetid river emitting a rotting stench.

Ye Meng asked: “What’s your solution? Cheng Kairan’s underlings have blocked the front and back doors of the bar and the parking lot. A bar this small can’t even hide an ant. Can you get me out?”

“Guess.”

Li Jinyu was very tall, with half his waist exposed outside the window. Standing this close for the first time, Ye Meng could more clearly see the “kiss mark” on his Adam’s apple, which was almost certainly a scar. It was slightly thinner than the skin around it, slightly concave, with a light reddish color. It wasn’t very noticeable, but because his skin was so fair, it stood out.

Ye Meng looked at him coldly, her expression disdainful: “You think I don’t have my way out? Do I have to beg Big Brother for help?”

Li Jinyu had been quite indifferent when he heard the first half of her statement and was about to turn and leave.

But at the second half, he slowly stopped, lowered his head with a smile, then returned to the window and said to her: “Move aside.”

The arguing outside grew increasingly intense, like a pressure valve frantically releasing steam before a pressure cooker explodes. The tense atmosphere seemed to rise to the highest temperature along with the rapidly spinning valve.

“Mr. Cheng, you really can’t go in. This is the ladies’ room, and there’s a female customer inside. Can’t you just wait at the door for her to come out?” The waiter was truly dedicated, still persuading calmly.

Cheng Kairan was still furious: “What if she escapes through the back window?!”

The waiter seemed battle-hardened with such scenes, extremely patient and confident as he said: “There’s a smelly river behind the restroom; even ants hold their noses when crossing it. Besides, to prevent customers from leaving without paying, we’ve specifically added an electric fence to the windows, so you don’t need to worry about her escaping. She’s still inside.”

Cheng Kairan pondered silently for a moment, then delivered his ultimatum: “Fine, I’ll give you five more minutes.”

Ye Meng wasn’t one to easily submit. The reason she “knelt” so readily to Li Jinyu was entirely because she had just seen how professionally he put on his gloves. With such complete equipment, he was very familiar with this place.

Li Jinyu grabbed the window ledge with both hands, pushed hard, and effortlessly flipped himself onto the window. Then, with nimble hands and feet, he slipped sideways through the window into the bathroom. The entire sequence of movements was fluid, clearly demonstrating years of rich criminal experience. Indeed, he hadn’t been electrocuted.

Ye Meng suddenly felt reassured: “Are your gloves insulated?”

Li Jinyu jumped down from the window, his feet just steadily landing, not yet fully standing up, with a suspicious expression: “What insulation?”

Ye Meng leaned against the wall, pointing at his black gloves, “The waiter said there’s an electric fence here.”

“Private electric fences are illegal.” Li Jinyu had removed his gloves at some point, casually tossing them aside, and suddenly began inexplicably unbuttoning his shirt.

Ye Meng’s expression froze, and she involuntarily stepped back.

Li Jinyu looked down at her. He must have been born with passionate eyes, for even now when his gaze was as cold as dead water, it still seemed affectionate. As he unbuttoned, he said to her: “The waiters here are very good at improvising. To avoid offending any customer, they’ll tell whatever lies are needed to make you comply. If all their lies could generate electricity, the Earth probably wouldn’t have power outages for fifty years.”

“Then why are you wearing gloves?” Ye Meng’s gaze slowly followed the movement of his hands.

Li Jinyu calmly unbuttoned his shirt to the fourth button: “I just find the window dirty. Not everyone climbs through windows every day.”

Ye Meng: “…”

Outside the door, Cheng Kairan began frantically knocking again, bang-bang-bang.

“Don’t say I didn’t give you face. Three minutes left. When time’s up, I’m breaking down the door!” Cheng Kairan’s patience was exhausted.

Li Jinyu pushed Ye Meng into the stall. “Go in, take off your clothes throw them out, and lock the door.”

Three minutes later, “Bang!” A tremendous noise as the small wooden door of the bathroom collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud. Dust rose everywhere, gray mist swirling and diffusing, everyone unexpectedly entering the field of vision.

Ye Meng hugged a package of clothes that Li Jinyu had thrown in at the last minute, pressing tightly against the stall door, her expression still calm as she listened to every movement outside.

However, everyone outside was somewhat stunned.

Li Jinyu was leaning against the sink, with the mirror behind him reflecting his clean-cut back of the head. His black shirt was messily unbuttoned to his chest, revealing a tantalizing expanse of skin that was even slightly heaving. He was truly very fair, the skin underneath even whiter than his neck. His shirt was half-tucked, half-untucked, loosely hanging at his waist. Combined with that handsome face that seemed to care about nothing, the ladies outside truly feasted their eyes. Their faces reddened, but their eyes remained greedy.

In this state, the old Li Jinyu might have thought, ah, I’m dirty. But now, he was composed enough to lean against the sink, lighting a cigarette he hadn’t smoked in a long time, listlessly and casually blowing smoke rings.

Cheng Kairan impatiently pushed aside the waiter blocking him—who was so dedicated one might want to pay him a monthly salary of 100,000—with a very surprised expression: “Why are you here?! I saw a woman come in here just now.”

“She’s inside getting dressed,” Li Jinyu said, tilting his head to tap off some ash.

The bar guys’ small eyes bulged rounder than grapes, now resembling a pile of thousand-year-old fossils, competing for antiquity, motionless. Mainly because Brother Yu had just broken up with his girlfriend, and now he was having a quickie in the bathroom? And the key point was that Li Jinyu didn’t seem like the type to have quickies with people in his daily life.

Did he not seem like it? Some questioned themselves.

Li Jinyu always seemed quite carefree in his daily life. Although he appeared cold and indifferent, he never rejected most girls who approached him. You couldn’t call him a jerk, but he seemed to use his good looks as a weapon, being nice to everyone yet indifferent to all. Simply put, he was a person without rules, doing things entirely based on his mood, very casual. Putting it that way, if it were a moment of passion, difficult to part, it wouldn’t be impossible.

Cheng Kairan didn’t think that much; instead, he felt this version of Li Jinyu was a normal man. His eyes pointed toward the stall door: “Girlfriend?”

Li Jinyu’s expression was very relaxed as he took a drag on his cigarette and said: “Not really.”

The bathroom had only one stall; the rest was visible at a glance, except for some mops carelessly thrown on the floor—no place to hide anyone. Cheng Kairan still couldn’t believe it, searching around like a headless fly, even carefully examining outside the window, but not finding a single ghost.

“There’s no one else here besides you two?” Cheng Kairan found it hard to believe.

Li Jinyu smiled: “Do you think I have a habit of letting people watch?”

“I’ve been knocking at the door outside for so long, and you didn’t hear?”

Li Jinyu was speechless: “I was going to ask you what happened. Why did you burst in with a group of people? I…” With one hand holding his cigarette and the other on his waist, he exhaled a long, helpless sigh—truly Oscar-worthy.

Cheng Kairan showed understanding but persisted: “Then let this woman come out so I can take a look. I want to confirm if she’s someone I used to know.”

Li Jinyu extinguished his cigarette, put both hands in his pockets, got up from the sink, and walked to the stall door, standing face-to-face with Cheng Kairan. His black shirt hung loosely, and this lazy appearance just after finishing the deed truly made the ladies at the door envious. He said with a straight face: “Brother Kai, with so many people watching, the town is so small. I’m thick-skinned enough to let you see, but for a young lady, how bad would it sound if word got out?”

The way Li Jinyu called him “Brother Kai” left Cheng Kairan speechless, especially since he was a year younger than Li Jinyu. So Cheng Kairan casually waved his hand, signaling his underlings to silently close the door. Now only the two of them remained inside, nose to nose. Li Jinyu was slightly taller, and with his playboy demeanor, he looked more like a hooligan than Cheng Kairan.

“Just me, one look,” Cheng Kairan was quite polite to him. “If she’s embarrassed, let her cover her face. I just need to see her clothes.”

Li Jinyu looked somewhat impatient but still said blandly: “Then wait until she’s dressed.”

Seeing him relent, Cheng Kairan’s expression also softened: “What’s her name?”

“Cuihua? Guifen? Don’t know, never asked.”

“Tsk, tsk, you’re not picky.”

Li Jinyu smiled perfunctorily, looking at Cheng Kairan with a direct male-to-male gaze. Leaning on the stall door, he knocked twice on the partition with his knuckles and said lazily: “Come out when you’re dressed, don’t dawdle. Brother doesn’t have time to waste here with you.”

Half a minute later, the stall door slowly opened. Ye Meng had changed into a set of women’s hip-hop rock style clothes that Li Jinyu had thrown in from somewhere. Chains wrapped around her, making her feel like cured meat hanging on a drying rack, accompanied by a clanking array of gaudy accessories—completely the image of a little rock rebel.

As soon as the door cracked open, Li Jinyu deliberately looked out the window. Cheng Kairan instinctively followed his gaze and caught a glimpse of a familiar figure in the parking lot outside. Without even looking into the stall, he rushed out with arrow-like steps, hastily dropping a line: “Sorry for disturbing your good time, brother. I owe you one.”

After Cheng Kairan’s car drove out of the parking lot empty-handed,

Ye Meng changed back into her clothes with a girl of similar build and height in the bathroom. The girl was called Qiao Maimai. She didn’t have an exaggerated head of green or blue hair; her features were delicate, with bright eyes that somehow resembled Li Jinyu’s, though their temperaments were vastly different. Qiao Maimai was a small-town girl, her Mandarin not very standard, with a local accent—

“I was scared to death just now. When Brother Kai caught me, his eyes looked like they could eat people. What did you do to offend him? If I hadn’t known about the small path leading to the back of the women’s restroom, you would have been done for tonight. He had already made several phone calls and called another group of underlings up, saying he would turn the bar upside down to find you. All the doors were blocked; even a fly trying to escape would be slapped down. The boss was furious. Good thing my brother was here today.”

Ye Meng listened with her heart pounding. Cheng Kairan was even more obsessive than she had imagined: “Hasn’t the boss called the police?”

“Call the police?” Qiao Maimai laughed as if she had heard the biggest joke. “Brother Kai has a good relationship with the police. Besides, he’s very vindictive. If the boss called the police, he would send people to wreck the place every day. Who would dare offend him?”

Ye Meng leaned against the sink where Li Jinyu had been leaning and slowly buttoned up: “So what happened just now?”

Qiao Maimai looked quite pretty, but her voice was low and deep, with a slightly smoky quality. Her expression was that of an innocent, lively young girl, somewhat contrasting with her voice: “Just now, my brother threw your clothes out the window. After I changed into them, I waited in the parking lot. When the stall door opened, I rushed out to divert Brother Kai’s attention. Brother Kai is such a fool; seeing me wearing the clothes he had seen earlier, he would rush out to chase me.”

Ye Meng frowned slightly. Qiao Maimai seemed to know what she was going to say: “Brother Kai may be foolish, but he’s very suspicious. If you hadn’t opened the door and he chased out to find I wasn’t you, he would come back for you. Because you were in there for so long without opening the door, he would surely suspect something. My brother could only pretend to be… with you, completely dispelling his suspicions about why you took so long to open the door. Finally, when you boldly opened the door, Brother Kai dismissed his suspicions about you. When I went out, he came after me. After confirming I wasn’t you, he would feel reassured enough to leave with his men. My brother says he’s just like that, particularly fond of catching others’ psychology.”

“Is your brother on good terms with Cheng Kairan?”

“Not particularly good. My brother is like that with everyone. There’s no particular good or bad,” Qiao Maimai finished putting on her last bits and pieces and looked at her suspiciously: “Hmm, why aren’t you asking me how I knew when the stall door would open while I was in the parking lot? Logically, the stall door opens inward, and you can’t see it from the parking lot side.”

Ye Meng crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the sink waiting for her to finish changing: “Using the reflection between a mirror and a car’s rearview mirror, you could see it.”

“Wow, you’re as smart as my brother. I had to think about it for a long time.” Qiao Maimai said.

Ye Meng: “Junior high school physics knowledge.”

Qiao Maimai: “Really? I don’t remember that.”

“So, why did you go to such lengths to help me?”

Qiao Maimai started braiding her rock-style small braids in front of the mirror: “My brother said you’re very rich and would give us money.”

Ye Meng now felt like she had boarded a pirate ship: “Where did you see that I’m very rich?”

“Don’t think we can’t recognize value. That bag of yours costs at least 20,000 yuan.” Qiao Maimai glanced at the bag at her waist, which could barely fit a phone.

It was just over 10,000 yuan. Ye Meng had found an Italian purchasing agent, and she had bought it several years ago. During those years in Beijing, she hadn’t learned much else, but she had bought quite a few luxury items to maintain appearances sometimes.

“So how much do you want?” Ye Meng asked.

“One thousand per time.”

Very good, this was a sibling fraud team. Ye Meng felt resentful; she hadn’t even slept with him!

Qiao Maimai quickly finished the small braids on top of her head, then slowly applied another layer of powder to her face, telling her: “My brother suffered a big loss this time. Everyone now thinks he’s a jerk who loves hookups. Just now, there were even girls slipping him notes asking if he wanted to hook up. One thousand is already a discount, considering Method Yan’s face.”

Ye Meng thought she had misheard, surprised: “You know Method Yan too?”

Qiao Maimai wasn’t very skilled at makeup. Her makeup was exaggerated, with blush applied thicker than a monkey’s buttocks, and she was adorned with a body full of jingling accessories, looking from a distance like a discounted deluxe Christmas pizza.

She satisfactorily pursed her lips at the mirror: “How could I not know her? You’re Method Yan’s bestie. My grand-aunt is in the next bed to Method Yan, that chubby boy is my real brother, and Li Jinyu is my cousin. If Method Yan hadn’t been worried you’d have trouble tonight and called my brother, he wouldn’t have bothered with these matters.”

Ye Meng hummed: “Then why does your brother listen to Method Yan?”

“Because Method Yan said if you were caught by Cheng Kairan, she would take my grand-aunt to smoke opium.”

“…”

The bar began normal operations, gradually filling with people. A group of people sat scattered around the bar and the center of the dance floor. Colorful lights scattered dreamy beams from above, and the ear shells echoed with sensual music, making one’s consciousness hazy. Ye Meng didn’t particularly like such places; they were too decadent. Although she lacked drive now, she had once been a spirited Beijing drifter.

Amidst the crowd, she spotted Li Jinyu at a glance. Now his black shirt was buttoned meticulously, even his Adam’s apple tightly covered. From a distance, Ye Meng saw him sitting hunched at the bar, his back slightly trembling. As she approached, she heard he was coughing.

Ye Meng snatched away his glass and plopped down beside him.

Sensing the movement, Li Jinyu looked up, gave her a glance without emotion, then lowered his head again to continue playing his game. It seemed to be a room escape mobile game. His long, well-defined fingers slid across the screen, randomly swiping all over, playing rather casually.

Why didn’t he pick up that key just now? It could open the treasure chest on the wine cabinet, and the chest had a password hint for unlocking the bookshelf.

Ye Meng had completed the first season of this game before the New Year.

Li Jinyu gave the impression of not taking anything seriously. If she were a poor student, he would probably be even less than poor—a bottom-feeder.

Seeing he had no intention of speaking first, Ye Meng knocked on the table in front of him.

Li Jinyu had found a map from somewhere and was leisurely studying it on screen, not looking up: “If you have something to say, say it.”

Ye Meng deliberated before speaking, “I came to apologize today. Jiang Luzhi—”

Li Jinyu directly interrupted, not wanting to hear it at all: “Oh, I see. Anything else?”

“Add me on WeChat. I’ll send you the money, tonight’s service fee.”

Li Jinyu gave her a puzzled look: “What service fee?”

“Qiao Maimai said, for tonight’s help, one thousand.”

Li Jinyu finally picked up the key in the game and went to open the treasure chest, saying lazily: “Don’t mind her, just buy her some flowers.”

“What about you? I don’t like owing people favors, and I heard you sacrificed a lot tonight—”

Just as she spoke, someone else slipped a small note under Li Jinyu’s glass. Li Jinyu didn’t even look at it, casually took a sip of his drink, with a pile of similar notes beside him. He hadn’t opened any of them, engrossed in his escape room. He had somewhat puppy-like eyes, a pair of clean eyes that made people particularly sympathetic. But when his brows and eyes lowered, only coldness remained throughout his body.

Ye Meng secretly pulled out two notes and opened them for a look.

—1587823xxxx, available anytime, call me. —Brother Yu, hook up?

Ye Meng might have gone crazy at that moment, or perhaps it was guilt. She suddenly said:

“Li Jinyu, do you want to try dating me? I’m more reliable than Jiang Luzhi.”