Luo Yang listened and knew Lin Guofa wanted to pursue Tang Guihua; he chuckled and said, "I'm not quite sure myself."
Remembering that Tang Guihua didn't have a good impression of Lin Guofa, he had no interest in getting involved.
"Niu Zai, let me be frank. The first time I saw Doctor Tang, I fell for her. I want her to be my girlfriend. I'd like you to help me out."
"I don't think I can be of much help. Actually, my relationship with her is just so-so."
"No, I can see you have a good relationship with her. Look, if things work out, I'll give you two thousand yuan for your trouble."
"If I could help you, I certainly would. Unfortunately, I can't."
"I'll give you five thousand yuan for your help."
"Even ten thousand yuan would be no use. You should find someone else to help."
Having reached this point in the conversation, Lin Guofa was quite annoyed. He knew full well Luo Yang was deliberately withholding help and thought, "Dare to disrespect me, just you wait, I have ways to deal with you!"
While thinking, he sighed and said, "Well, never mind then. Who's her best friend?"
Luo Yang flatly refused, "I don't know."
Knowing that further questions would yield no better outcome, Lin Guofa drove back to the street-side dining area.
The shrimp porridge Luo Yang and Qin Piao had ordered was still not ready, and seeing Luo Yang return, Qin Piao curiously asked what they had been discussing. He smiled and said it was nothing.
Shortly after, Lin Guofa received a phone call. After hanging up, he came over to Luo Yang again and said, "Niu Zai, my girlfriend would like to see you for a consultation. Are you available tomorrow?"
Luo Yang said, "I'm free at noon."
Lin Guofa then arranged to meet Luo Yang at his house the next noon, after which he got into a Mercedes with a young man and drove off.
In the car, Lin Guofa coldly said, "When your guys get there, don't go too hard on him. Just humiliate him in front of his girlfriend. Then, you pretend to help him and ask if he wants me to step in and smooth things over. Remember, you have to act convincingly. Don't blow it, or I'll deal with you."
The young man with the buzz cut nodded, "Young Master Fa, when I'm on the job, you'll be satisfied."
"Get out here. I'll drive around and wait for your good news. Just don't land him in the hospital."
"Got it."
Immediately, the buzz-cut young man got out of the car at the roadside, watching Lin Guofa drive away into the distance.
After the time it took to smoke a cigarette, a van arrived, carrying several young men. The buzz-cut young man briefed them, then sent them towards the street-side dining area.
The buzz-cut young man then walked over.
At that time, Luo Yang and Qin Piao were eating shrimp porridge, and Qin Piao had also ordered two bottles of beer, toasting with Luo Yang.
The young men from the van settled at a table near Luo Yang, ordered food, and chatted and laughed; everything seemed perfectly normal. But they kept glancing back at Luo Yang's table from time to time.
Attractive men and women, especially when the women are beautiful, naturally attract the attention of other men. Luo Yang had already noticed those young men leering over but didn't think they were doing anything too extreme, so he chose not to glare back at them.
"We should eat quickly," Qin Piao whispered.
She felt that the young men harbored ill intentions and that a disturbance could happen at any moment.
"No worries, let's just finish eating and leave," Luo Yang reassured.
Having already seen what Luo Yang was capable of, she felt that with him around, she had a safe harbor. She smiled and nodded in agreement.
All of a sudden, a long-haired young man turned around and flicked his cigarette butt towards Luo Yang's side, which landed right in the clay pot of shrimp porridge.
"Damn, sorry about that. It wasn't on purpose."
"Haha..."
"What if it was on purpose? What could he possibly do to us?"
…
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...
The group of young men who had come with Lin Guofa were sitting at another table, not with the long-haired young men, seemingly strangers to them.
Just when the long-haired young man was about to turn around and spit towards Luo Yang's direction again, he couldn't react in time. A thud resounded as his head received a punch, and he slumped to the ground, half-dead.
The other young men rushed over to attack Luo Yang. Unfortunately, having more people didn't necessarily mean having an advantage.
Luo Yang's punches were so powerful that each one felled an opponent. He didn't hold back, aiming for their vital spots with every punch.
In the blink of an eye, he had knocked down the entire group of long-haired young men.
The group that had come with Lin Guofa were all wide-eyed and agape at Luo Yang's martial prowess, unable to close their mouths.
After the fight was over and Qin Piao had paid the bill, Luo Yang rode off on his motorcycle, with her sitting behind, helping to hold the bike steady as they left the food stall and returned to the Hongyun Brigade.
Only after Luo Yang was far away did the buzz-cut young man dial Lin Guofa's mobile number.
When Lin Guofa received the call, thinking the deed had been done, he eagerly commanded without waiting for the buzz-cut young man to speak, "Don't beat him too harshly; I still need to use him for work. I'm coming over immediately."
Unexpectedly, the buzz-cut young man said, "Young Master Fa, sorry, but he's too good at fighting; we couldn't beat him. We could only watch him leave."
Upon learning that they had botched the situation, Lin Guofa cursed the buzz-cut young man furiously but still couldn't believe that Luo Yang was so skilled. He stopped eating his late-night snack and drove home.
Qin Piao sat close against Luo Yang's back. Her red lips nibbling at his ear, she whispered sweet nothings, her soft voice penetrating and melting his resolve.
All the way, Luo Yang felt a faint but real warmth and softness against his back, accompanied by the gentle pressure of two mounds that made him shiver with small jolts of excitement.
The midnight moonlight was bright, the distant mountains like ink, mysterious and quiet.
Upon reaching the entrance to the village, Qin Piao got off the motorcycle.
Luo Yang switched to riding a bicycle and waved goodbye to her.
"Then I'm off, Sister Piao."
"Mhm."
With a hum, Qin Piao suddenly called out to Luo Yang.
"Hey, Cowboy, is this something you dropped?" She picked up a small item from the ground and handed it to Luo Yang.
"No, what's this?" Luo Yang took it in his hand— it was a square plastic bag, flat and seemingly containing a single hair tie.
"Giggle, take a look when you get back. It must have fallen from you. You won't admit it, huh?" Qin Piao said with a coy laugh.
"Is this for tying hair?" Luo Yang asked.
Before he could finish, Qin Piao burst into hearty laughter, urging him to go home.
Luo Yang tried to return the item to Qin Piao, but she insisted that he keep it.
Without clearly seeing what it actually was, he took it and bid her farewell, cycling back home.
Once home, he tiptoed into his room, turned on the light, and took a closer look at the small object in his hand.
Under the light, he could see that it wasn't a hair tie; only that the ring looked like a smaller version of a hair tie, but it was odd because the ring was connected to a thin film.
Out of curiosity, he tore open the packaging and took out the ring inside. Poking it with his finger, it slid snugly onto his fingertip, resembling an uninflated balloon.
Unlike a balloon, this item's film was transparent and very elastic, not easily torn.
"Yay? A fresh-keeping bag? Why would she give me a fresh-keeping bag?" Luo Yang mumbled to himself.
All of a sudden, he had an epiphany—he had seen this type of plastic bag in an advertisement. He immediately looked it up on his phone, comparing it to images online, and to his disbelief, he was right!
"So it's not a fresh-keeping bag! I always thought it was a fresh-keeping bag," Luo Yang muttered in amusement.
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