TSIBAMS Chapter 83

Qi Guang took out his phone, probably having accidentally switched it to silent mode while fumbling in his pocket. Only then did he discover a pile of text messages from Bai Shu, and even a few missed calls.

This level of commotion, he hadn’t even seen when dating.

He scrolled through the messages, not yet processing what he was seeing, when he heard two girls walk past him, complaining, “What’s wrong with the bathroom? Why does it need maintenance for so long?”

Another girl chimed in, “Yeah! What’s the point of coming to a bar if you have to use the public restroom? So annoying!”

He didn’t hear much more, and when Qi Guang looked up, they were almost at the door.

The bathroom is under maintenance? There’s plenty of time during the day to do maintenance, what problem could possibly need to be addressed during business hours? Even if it was an emergency, it’s impossible for all the stalls to be broken simultaneously. Unless the water was out, but that’s also impossible, since the water tap at the bar is working fine.

And it just happened to be today, it’s definitely not a coincidence!

Qi Guang glanced at the backstage area. The door was tightly closed. He put his phone back in his pocket and decided to investigate the bathroom first.

As he pushed his way through the crowd, Qi Guang bumped into someone carrying a bass. He looked up and saw a familiar face.

“Qi Guang?” The person next to the bassist spoke up.

Qi Guang looked around. Oh, these people looked familiar.

The resident rock band from 1984 Bar, how could they not be familiar? But now, they were running between two places, who knows if they’d have nothing to do with 1984 one day. The person who greeted him was the lead singer, but that’s all Qi Guang remembered, he never got their names straight.

How to respond politely when you don’t remember someone’s name?

“Oh,” Qi Guang said with a “what a coincidence” expression, “It’s you guys?”

He stopped himself just in time before habitually saying, “What are you doing here?”

Why say awkward things? Isn’t it obvious they were hired to perform here?

Everyone knew it and understood it in silence, they were all adults, there was no need to put everything on the table for everyone to see.

Just as Qi Guang was about to pretend to be swept away by the crowd, the lead singer suddenly grabbed him and asked, “What are you doing here?”

In the current situation, it was really a hot… no, a thorny question.

“I haven’t even asked you that yet,” Qi Guang smiled.

“The owner of Liao Le Bar called me to fill in, the original performance was canceled.” The lead singer answered generously, without hesitation.

“Okay.” Qi Guang responded, ready to leave again.

The lead singer then leaned in and whispered in his ear, “You’re here to find Brother Xu, right?”

Qi Guang was stunned. Before he could respond, the lead singer nodded, “I’ll take you over.”

Then he turned and went into the crowd, walking in front of Qi Guang.

Qi Guang followed without hesitation.

When they reached the backstage door, the lead singer twisted the doorknob, but it didn’t move. Then he knocked on the door, “Is anyone in there?”

No one answered.

He pounded on the door harder.

“Who the hell is it!” Li Zhendong’s voice came from inside.

“Brother Dong, we’re the band here to perform today!” The lead singer shouted.

The door opened a crack, and Chen Hui’s face appeared. Qi Guang immediately stepped away and pressed himself against the wall.

“What is it?” Chen Hui asked coldly.

“Sorry,” the lead singer said politely, “I forgot my guitar in a rush, can we borrow one of yours?”

Chen Hui didn’t answer immediately, he looked back.

“Give it to him!” Li Zhendong’s voice, clearer than before through the door, conveyed impatience and anger.

Looks like his talk with Xu Ge didn’t go well.

“Just this one,” Chen Hui handed out a guitar, “tune it yourself.”

Then the door slammed shut with a bang. The lead singer instinctively shrank his neck, then rolled his eyes.

Seeing Qi Guang still plastered against the wall, he asked, “I thought you were going to break down the door.”

“No need to drag you guys in,” Qi Guang straightened up and twisted his neck, “You guys go on and do your thing.”

Compared to the other mismatched bars on Bar Street, Liao Le was relatively lively, so lively that the bartenders had to squeeze every moment they could just to flirt, and other staff were too busy to flirt at all.

However, there weren’t many staff to begin with, and two more people were “working on the clock” backstage, which only added to the workload for the diligent employees.

No one would sneak around backstage. Qi Guang became bold and pressed his ear against the door to eavesdrop.

Thankfully, the band was still tuning on stage, and he could vaguely hear the sounds inside.

“We’re all in the entertainment industry, it’s not easy for anyone, why bother meddling? You’re not only causing trouble for others, but also for yourself, right?”

It was clearly Li Zhendong’s voice.

“Sometimes you’re not looking for trouble, but it will still come find you,” Xu Ge’s voice was calm, “I think Xiaoyu has the most say about this principle.”

Oh, so the jazz girl was called Xiaoyu, Qi Guang realized.

“I call you ‘brother’ when we are out in public, it doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want in my bar,” Li Zhendong said, “Mr. Xu Hanwen, if you keep your eye on my people, then I won’t be polite.”

“Now that the topic is at this point, let’s not beat around the bush, I’ll be direct, I must take her away, and when I say I must, there is no other option, I think you know my temper.”

Xu Ge’s tone was still unhurried and calm. This scholarly tone made Qi Guang roll his eyes outside the door.

Tsk, businessman.

“You want to say you’re not easy to deal with?” Li Zhendong sneered, “But don’t forget, this is my place, my territory! Don’t you try to be a tough guy with me!”

Xu Ge didn’t speak, probably amused by the other man’s temper tantrum and unable to get serious.

Then Li Zhendong’s voice continued, “Or maybe today, you will understand that I’m also not easy to deal with.”

“Alright, we’ve had our drinks and our chats, it’s time to cut to the chase.” Xu Ge said straightforwardly.

Qi Guang understood, cutting to the chase meant it was time to start fighting.

That was Xu Ge’s slang from his street days, since he was known for his fighting, fighting was always the main point for him, the phrase “cut to the chase” was probably an influence from his own sort of artistic flair.

He estimated that Li Zhendong and Chen Hui wouldn’t dare do anything, otherwise they wouldn’t have stalled for so long, since the two of them combined wouldn’t be a match for Xu Ge. Just as Qi Guang thought that, he suddenly heard a dull thud, sounding like someone had slammed a table.

Then, the even louder sound of a table being overturned on the ground.

They actually took the bait? Were they planning to make a fool of themselves in front of everyone?

Qi Guang gloated in his heart for less than a second before his expression immediately changed. Those two bastards were not people who would be reasonable, and it wouldn’t make sense for them to put themselves at such a disadvantage.

Just then, the bar lights suddenly dimmed, and the stage spotlights lit up. The tuning was over. According to this band’s habits, they wouldn’t introduce themselves or do any warm-up, they would start playing immediately.

Qi Guang had no time to hesitate, he raised his hand and almost smashed on the door.

“What the hell are you here to borrow now?!”

Chen Hui had just twisted the door open, but he hadn’t had a chance to fully open it when Qi Guang kicked it hard.

He was knocked to the ground in an instant. One of his hands quickly reached out to support himself, while the other hand reached into his pocket.

Qi Guang had no time to think about his strange posture. He slammed the door shut, then looked up.

He immediately saw Xu Ge with his hands in his pockets, standing next to the overturned table, one foot resting on it. The poor wooden carved table, it didn’t look expensive, but it looked like it had some history to it. Originally an artisan piece that any rich person would have, now it was writhing in the last moments of its existence under Xu Ge’s foot.

Li Zhendong was on the other side of the table, and when Qi Guang turned to look at him, he was met with his fierce glare.

By this time, Chen Hui on the ground moved his leg to stand up, but even though he did, his hand was still in his pocket. Although it was the same pocket-hand pose as Xu Ge, Xu Ge wasn’t doing it because he didn’t need to use his hands, he was just being illogical.

Qi Guang seemed to realize something. He lunged forward and pinned Chen Hui to the ground, his other hand restraining the hand in his pocket.

Feeling around through the fabric, there was definitely a knife.

Then he saw Li Zhendong lift his foot, directing force towards him.

Xu Ge didn’t give him the chance to kick. He didn’t even take his hands out of his pockets, but simply moved his leg and kicked the table hard. Li Zhendong lost his balance and jumped a few times before falling.

He fell hard into the table. Fortunately, the table was wide enough, otherwise, he would have hit the table leg and things would have been awkward.

But falling into the table was an awkward event on its own.

With his limited fighting ability, he still dared to declare war, Qi Guang suppressed a smile as he turned Chen Hui’s hand and pulled the knife out of his pocket.

Chen Hui was thin, not in a fit way, but just a scrawny thinness, with no ability to resist Qi Guang’s suppression.

Since he couldn’t move his hands, then he’d learn from the boss’ spirit of using his feet!

He lifted his leg and tried to curl it up and attack Qi Guang’s back, but just when he had lifted it up forty-five degrees, it got stuck.

Those damned tight pants!

“I advise you to be honest.” Qi Guang patted his face.

On the other side, Xu Ge was fighting… effortlessly.

Before Li Zhendong could climb out from under the table, Xu Ge reached out and pulled off a table leg. Li Zhendong rolled half a circle, knocking the table over the other way, pressing the table leg against his chest. As he struggled to jump up, Xu Ge slammed the table again, righting its position and trapping Li Zhendong under the table.

Although the table wasn’t small, it wasn’t spacious either. Li Zhendong was steadily trapped under the table, restrained by the four table legs, like he was carrying an ill-fitting turtle shell, which was extremely comical.

It was estimated that he had never suffered such humiliation, and especially in front of his subordinates, which was undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire.

“Xu Hanwen!” Li Zhendong pointed at Xu Ge, enraged, “You’re wreaking havoc on my turf, don’t you even think about leaving today!”

Xu Ge stepped on the table, “If you don’t release Xiaoyu today, then don’t think about getting out of here either!”

“Xiaoyu, Xiaoyu! Who is she to you? Isn’t she just a damn singer!”

“Are you letting her go or not!” Xu Ge pressed his foot down hard, making the table creak with a dull thud.

At the same time as the dull thud, the sound of the door being kicked open again rang out.

Tsk, this place’s furniture sure was pitiful.

While feeling sorry for the furniture, Xu Ge looked up, seeing several police officers in uniform, and he was stunned.