"Don't worry, I'll make sure she won't find out. When the time comes, I'll just give the excuse of going to my friend's house, and you'll just need to wait for me outside. That's a promise!"
Saying that, before Ling Chen could open his mouth to reject her, she happily skipped back to her home.
Ling Chen patted the thousand plus dollar salary in his chest pocket and felt like his heart was about to bleed.
However, as long as he could keep Tang Shiyun happy, he didn't mind forking out that bit of money.
Being accepted into university was a very prestigious affair and could only happen once in one's life, therefore one needs to throw a lavish celebration for the happy occasion.
It was seven-thirty, and darkness had shrouded the sky, signalling night-time.
Tang Shiyun punctually showed up at the lobby of the apartment block at the promised time.
Watching as Tang Shiyun energetically ran towards him, Ling Chen's eyes lit up.
The lass rarely had the opportunity to go out to play. She had gone through the effort to dress up for the occasion especially. She was wearing a plaid skirt that alternated between white and blue, with her hair tied behind her back. A radiant smile decorated her delicate face, and an exquisite alphabet chain adorned her wrist. She was exuding an aura brimming with youthful vigour.
"Big Brother Ling."
"Tell me, where does your Highness want to go?"
"How would I know? Big Brother Ling, don't you normally have an active nightlife, why don't you take me to some interesting places."
Ling Chen scratched his head. His nightlife consisted of beer and skewered dishes, which did not seem appropriate to bring her to.
"How about KTV?"
"No! That's so lame and boring."
"Then..."
"Big Brother Ling, how about we go drinking?" Tang Shiyun mischievously suggested. "I often heard from my classmates that drinking is fun, but I've never gone before."
"That kind of environment is too chaotic; I don't think it's safe for you to go."
"With you around, what's there to be afraid of? Come onnnnn, Big Brother Ling, don't be such a worrywart! Just bring me there, it'll be totally fine." Tang Shiyun held onto his wrist and swung it, coquettishly pleading with him.
Ling Chen felt his heart twisting into a knot. Fuck, I hate this kind of cute tactic the most!
"Alright alright, we'll go. We'll go, okay?"
Tang Shiyun flashed a peace sign at him and cheered. "I just knew that Big Brother Ling dotes on me the most!"
Initially, Ling Chen wanted to take Tang Shiyun to go drinking on Five Mile Street. Still, thinking back to how Jiang Hao had harassed Tang Shiyun in the past, this idea was quickly abandoned.
Although Tang Shiyun was aware that he had dealings with Jiang Hao, this did not change her unfavourable impression towards Jiang Hao or more accurately speaking, her distaste towards all the hoodlums in the old city district. Five Mile Street simply had too many hoodlums that he was acquainted with and he'd be forced to greet them if he met them. However, he did not want Tang Shiyun to familiarise herself with that kind of person.
Hence, it was best to find an unfamiliar place to take her drinking.
After musing for a while, he then brought Tang Shiyun to the curb of the walkway and stretched out a hand to hail a taxi, instructing them, "To a bar. Any bar outside of Five Mile Street will suffice."
"Alright."
Around ten minutes later, Ling Chen and Tang Shiyun found themselves at a bar called Ee-zy.
The interior of Bar Ee-zy was vast and had a total of two floors, each floor with an area nearing almost two hundred square metres. The interior decoration was rather exquisite, and it seemed to be quite a respectable bar in the old city district.
At this moment, under the ambient glow of the streetlamp, it was revealed that there was a long line of customers queuing outside this classy bar.
"Big Brother Ling, hurry!" Tang Shiyun excitedly tugged Ling Chen's hand and dragged him into joining the queue.
On the outer wall of the bar, the two noticed a poster of a woman dressed extremely revealingly. She had an uncommonly beautiful appearance, with a guitar nestled in her lap and the words 'Lu Yao Special Appearance!' were emblazoned at the side of the poster.
"Holy cow, it's actually Lu Yao!" Tang Shiyun's tiny face lit up with excitement, and she loudly exclaimed.
"Lu Yao? Who's Lu Yao? Is she a famous superstar?"
"Why would a superstar make an appearance in a bar? She's an indie singer and used to perform exclusively at bars. She released an album which became quite a hit in the city and gained a bit of fame. One of my favourite pastimes is to listen to her singing. Big Brother Ling, we are in luck today!"
"I think it's your luck that is good. I don't have too much interest in her."
The two queued outside the bar for ten plus minutes before finally arriving at the start of the queue. What left Ling Chen's heart aching was the fact that the admission fee was actually one hundred and eighty dollars per person. After paying for two tickets, it wiped out almost a third of his salary.
Entering the bar, they saw that it was almost filled to the brim with customers.
Although Lu Yao was an indie singer, she had quite a large fan base coming down to support her. Moreover, to accommodate a greater audience to come in and see her performance, the owner had especially moved all the tables and chairs to the storeroom. Thus, there was only the option to stand at the bar.
Unable to resist Tang Shiyun's burning hot passion, Ling Chen squeezed past the horde of people. He brought her to stand right in front of the stage, allowing her to have the opportunity to witness Lu Yao's performance up close.
Before long, the interior lights suddenly dimmed, enveloping the audience in a blanket of darkness. Ten seconds later, an ambient glow descended from the ceiling, illuminating the figure of a woman who was standing in the middle of the stage. She looked to be in her twenties.
The woman had a lustrous mane of dark golden and curly hair. She had a bewitching appearance, with vermillion lips resembling passionate flames. A purple low-cut dress that revealed ample cleavage tightly clung to her hourglass figure. The bottom of the skirt stopped at her thigh area, showing snowy and shapely legs.
Seeing the main attraction Lu Yao coming onstage, the audience immediately went wild and screamed in a frenzy.
"Goddess!"
"Goddess!"
Ling Chen bit his lip. He always had little or close to no interest in this sort of artist.
Moreover, judging by how revealing her clothes were, he reckoned that she likely could not sing too well and relied more on her sex appeal to sell her records. Instead of wasting money to listen to her singing, he would much rather find a food stall somewhere to satiate his hunger.
Bored out of his mind, his eyes wandered about the bar to find something to distract himself. Suddenly, his attention lingered on the glass window on the second floor.
There were only private rooms on the second floor, and the glass windows all had tinted layers on them. Those sitting in the private rooms could have a clear view of their outside surroundings, but the same could not be said for those standing outside looking in.
Ling Chen intently stared at the tinted window and his brows gradually furrowed together. For some reason, a weird feeling of uneasiness washed over him. Having had to thread the paper-thin line between life and death for so many years, he had developed an acute sense towards crisis, it almost bordered on animal instinct.
In the private room on the second floor, a man in his thirties was standing behind the tinted window. He apathetically looked down on the performance below. His eyes narrowed into a frown, and his face was incredibly cold. He seemed like a savage beast that was dormant in the dark, exuding a dense chill.
His looks were commonplace, and he was lightly clutching a glass of red wine, gently swirling it in his hand.
As he downed the red wine with a single gulp, a striking tattoo surfaced on his neck.
The tattoo was one of a verdant and venomous snake with a long flickering tongue, it instantly caused the temperature around the man to plunge by several degrees.
"Snake Lord, are you certain you want to work with that man?"
A voice suddenly spoke, and the source was revealed to a young man lounging on the sofa, looking to be in his late twenties. Although he seemed quite youthful, he had an abundant frame, with a height of a metre and eighty centimetres, and a hefty weight of almost two hundred kilograms. As he spoke, his mouth was extremely busy wolfing down the snacks that came with the wine.
The self-coined Snake Lord turned to look at the fat youth and expressionlessly said,
"I'm watching him as he's useful as a pawn. As for cooperation… he's not qualified yet."
The fat youth spat out the date seed and exclaimed, "What you intend to do is your own business. But let me give you a word of warning; when dealing with someone so unprofessional, you best watch out, lest they ruin everything."
"Mind your own business. You just need to focus on things on your end."
"I already finished my task a long time ago." The fat youth retrieved a thick stack of documents and flung it on the table. "This is the information that you requested. The most recent schedule of the target is all on the documents. I spent no small sum of money to obtain this information, you best exercise some caution and not let my efforts go down the drain."