In the end, the total value of the spirit stones I put up for sale was approximately 951,212 yuan. That was an incredible profit, and I felt like I was a lot richer than before. Considering that I never had such an amount of money in my banking account before, that was an understandable feeling.
"You're rich!" Tong Xue almost yelled, but Hao Ren smacked him before he could announce it to the whole world. "Amazing!"
"I'll treat the two of you to dinner," I said, also intending to do the same thing for my family later. My parents had worked hard to raise me and my brother had supported me, so it was only natural that I treat them to a meal later. But dad would be home late tonight, so that will have to take place another time. For now, I would celebrate with my friends.
"Thanks," Hao Ren said. "Where should we eat?"
"Um, good question. There's plenty of shops here. Maybe ramen?" I was about to look for a ramen shop when I caught sight of a familiar figure heading toward the sleazy-looking bar at the far end of the commercial district. I stopped and stared again, not believing my eyes. "Hey, isn't that the class rep?"
Yeah, I wasn't seeing things. Qin Ying was heading toward the bar, looking around nervously. Tong Xue did a double take when he spotted her.
"Yeah! What is the class rep doing here? Wait, she's going into the bar?"
"What should we do?" Hao Ren asked, scratching his head. "Normally, I would say it's none of our business and this is…almost like stalking, but we can't just let her go into a bar alone. There's no telling what will happen to a girl her age if she goes in there."
"Then what do you propose we do? Drag her out?" Tong Xue asked incredulously. When the both of us turned to him, he raised both hands. "I mean, I'm curious as to what the class rep is up to and I agree that we should go inside the bar and check out what's going on, but I'm not sure what we can do, exactly. In the first place, are we even allowed inside the bar?"
He had a point. By now, the sun had set. The evaluation and transaction had taken quite some time, and by the time Hen You Qian transferred the funds to my account, it was late evening. Patrons were heading toward the bar now, waiting for it to open shortly. They ranged from tired looking salarymen who were looking for a drink after work to suspicious looking dudes in fancy shirts and sunglasses, their hair styled weirdly to show off their strange fashion sense. Gang members, perhaps?
Oh, and rich dudes with expensive watches and gold jewelry dangling from their necks, visible against their branded business suits. These guys were young, brash and obnoxious, arriving in luxury cars like Ferraris or Lamborghinis. The typical rich second generation, if I wasn't mistaken. Somehow, I was reminded of Shao Ye.
For now, I ignored them. My classmates and I hung back, waiting for the usual customers to stream into the bar once it was open. It took a while, but once the entrance was less crowded, we wandered inside.
There were no bouncers to keep us out, and it appeared that the bar was open to anyone, regardless of age. However, the waitress who met us at the entrance made sure to warn us.
"Sorry, we don't serve alcoholic drinks to high school students. We do have a selection of other beverages, though. And if you want food, you can look at the menu."
"Thank you," I said with a polite bow.
"Wow, they look really pretty," Tong Xue remarked, trying not to salivate over the waitresses and their western style dresses. Damn, the black miniskirts were really short, and the white aprons didn't look they functioned as such. The poor guy reminded me of the typical shounen pervert protagonists who wanted to be harem kings, but when it actually came to doing it with the heroines, they chickened out.
Never mind. I should focus. I scanned the interior and finally found the person we came in for.
"Class rep!"
Like the other waitresses, she was dressed in the sexy black waitress uniform with a miniskirt and white apron that wasn't an apron. With a tray on one hand, she was serving a few customers glasses of wine. Once she was done, she turned in our direction and did a double take.
"What are you three doing here?!"
"We should be asking you that question," I said. "We saw you here and came in to check on you."
"Why are you working here?" Hao Ren asked, concerned. Qin Ying bit her lip and averted her gaze, clutching the now empty tray to her ample bosom.
"I need the money. And this place pays well."
"Hey, Qin Ying! Get back to work!" One of the older waitresses shouted from another table. "It's peak hour right now! We don't have time to chat!"
"Y…yes, senior!" She turned her back to us and hurried away. The three of us watched her before exchanging worried glances.
"Why does she need money? To the extent where she would work in such a joint…"
"No offense to this bar, it looks nice and all, but if class rep really needs a parttime job for cash, there are better places…"
Hao Ren and Tong Xue pondered while I remained silent. Whatever her reasons might be, clearly none of us had the right to stop her. What were we supposed to do, demand that she quit her parttime job? What right did we have to do that? It was her life, so she should decide for herself.
While I was in quiet contemplation, my thoughts were broken when one of the customers reached out to seize Qin Ying just when she was passing by.
"Hey, baby! Spend the night with me!"
"I'm sorry, but please let go of me." Qin Ying struggled to slip out of his grip, but the dude held on firmly. A handsome guy with his hair dyed blond, an earring on one ear, and a branded suit, he had been drinking heavily while treating his friends.
Not only that, there were already a few girls in quite skimpy outfits gathered with the rich young guys (I say that, but their wealth was probably because they were second generation rich kids), pouring drinks for them. The dude appeared to want to add a new girl to his collection.
"Hey!" I was about to rise from the table and rush over to help, backed by an enraged Tong Xue and Hao Ren, but someone else beat me to it.
"Dear customer, please let go of my waitress."
The bartender emerged from behind the counter, wiping his hands on a cloth and venturing over, his dark eyes narrowed into a glare. He had an imposing figure, with tanned dark skin and a muscular figure, looking about thirty years old. He had shaved his head bald, which gave him a more intimidating appearance. Unlike the waitresses, he was dressed in a black tuxedo, and his white apron was actually an apron.
"Ah, boss! Come on, don't be so stingy," the dude said, his speech slurred. "Just give me one of your girls. Name your price."
"She's not for sale, young master Han," the bald bartender said, and in a single, swift motion, snatched an astounded Qin Ying from Han's hands and shielded her.
Han snorted and raised a glass of wine with a shaky hand. "Don't you know who I am? I'm Han Yi Qian! My father can buy out your entire bar!"
"Even if your father owns this bar, he still has no right to lay a hand on my employees."
"Don't be so rigid," Han Yi Qian snorted. He stuck his hand into his pocket and yanked out a wad of cash. "How much do you want? A million yuan? Two million? The girl will get her own million yuan if she spends the night with me. That's all you want, right?"
"No!" Qin Ying shouted. The bartender placed a hand on her shoulder, reassuring her before returning his gaze to Han Yi Qian.
"Young master Han, if you insist on behaving this way, I will have to ask you to leave. I will not charge you for the drinks, they will be on the house. But please leave without making any fuss." The bar owner's gaze was firm and steely.
"What?! Is this how you treat a customer? I'm spending several hundreds of thousands on this bar, you know! You should be honored that I'm patronizing your bar! And you want me to leave?! You don't want business from me, is it?"
The bar owner smiled grimly. "No. I honestly don't care how much money you waste on wine and women, which might sound weird from me, considering that I sell drinks for a living. But my employees are more important to me than money."
"You're offending the Han family because of your employees?" Han Yi Qian sneered. He gestured toward the corner of the bar, and a group of men in suits and sunglasses approached. Muscular, strong, and imposing, they were most likely bodyguards, and they were led by a grizzled veteran at the front who emanated a powerful aura.
"Offending the Han family?" The bartender repeated, raising an eyebrow. Han Yi Qian chuckled.
"You don't get it, don't you? The Han family gets whatever they want. That's the law of the jungle. The strong and wealthy survives, and the rest exist only to grovel to us! We can do whatever we want because we're rich and powerful, and there's nothing you can do about it!" The rich second-generation kid gestured to the leader of his bodyguards. "Qiang here is a peak Mystic ranked cultivator!"
The bar owner simply stared at Han Yi Qian. "So what?"
"You guys, thrash this bar and grab the girl for me." Han Yi Qian turned to the bar owner and leered. "Who asked you to refuse a toast, now you'll be forced to drink a punishment wine. I offered you money earlier, and you didn't want to take it. Now you'll suffer the consequences!"
I rushed forward, drawing my bow and getting ready to condense my qi into arrows. I didn't know how I would fare against the Mystic ranked bodyguard, but I couldn't just let this Han Yi Qian dude do whatever he wanted. Just because he was rich and powerful? Did that mean he could ignore the rules? What bullshit was this?! This was a modern, urban Hua Xia, such nonsensical barbarism had been outlawed long ago!
I never had a chance to do anything. Neither did Tong Xue nor Hao Ren, the both of them moving to support me despite only being regular cultivators.
Just when the Mystic ranked bodyguard gathered his qi and prepared to level the place, the bar owner's fist crashed into his face, smashing his sunglasses and breaking his nose. Blood spurted as the veteran toppled over. He roared as he struck both palms against the ground to stop his fall, his qi flashing outward and cracking the concrete from the impact, but before he could rise, the bartender stomped his chest, crushing him into a crater.
Silence filled the bar as everyone turned to watch the fight, dread filling them. The bartender raised his foot and backhanded the next bodyguard, sending him flying to the wall. Whirling around, he kicked a third guy and knocked him to the ground, creating another small crater.
Within a few seconds, he had subdued every single bodyguard. Cracking his knuckles, he turned toward a visibly trembling Han Yi Qian.
"So if I'm more powerful than you and your flunkies, I can do whatever I want. Is that how it works?"
"You...you...!" Han Yi Qian bit his quivering lip. "You can't…you can't hurt me! Don't you know who my father is?!"
"Han Wan Li?" The bartender replied, wiping his bloodied hands on his apron. None of the blood was his. "Even he wouldn't risk offending an Earth ranked cultivator for his son." He took out his smartphone from his pocket. "If you don't believe me, I can call your old man right here and now."
"N…no…! I…!"
"Get out of here." The bar owner lifted Han Yi Qian by the scruff of his neck and pitched him out of the bar. A waitress was on hand to open the door and let the rich second generation kid fly through the exit without breaking the glass entrance. There was a yell before a loud thump outside. The bald, muscular man turned to the other rich kids who had been dining with Han Yi Qian. "You guys should leave too. And take these dudes with you."
"Y…yes, sir!"
"Sorry, sir!"
The other rich kids scrambled away, grabbing the suits of the downed bodyguards and dragging them out of the bar. The waitress continued to hold the door for them as they exited frantically.
The bartender turned to the other customers and bowed. "Sorry for the disturbance, everyone."
"No…not at all."
"That arrogant young master deserved it."
"You did us all a favor."
"I always wanted to hit him, but you did it for us!"
"Thank you, boss," Qin Ying breathed. The bartender smiled and ruffled her hair before returning to the counter.
"No worries, Qin Ying. I always look out for my customers. Take a rest in the break room before you get back to work."
"No need for that. I can return to work immediately."
Tong Xue, Hao Ren and I watched the exchange, bemused, before we returned to our seats, still stupefied at the recent turn of events to speak. It was fine that we didn't get a chance to act out the scenario of hero save the beauty, but we had never imagined that the bar owner would toss the arrogant young master and his bodyguards out of his store himself.
"So the bar owner is an Earth ranked cultivator?" Tong Xue finally broke the silence as he sat down. I nodded slowly.
"Yeah. Seems like it." Sighing, I shook my head. "I guess there are a lot of hidden dragons and crouching tigers in Hua Xia. I wouldn't be surprised if he's ex-military like my dad. But I guess we should just let sleeping dogs lie and not inquire about someone else's past."