Chapter 3 There's always a reason why someone is pitiful.

"Jian Zhen!" You Yu had been staring at the doorway, so he spotted her immediately.

"Shut up!" The burly man with tattooed arms next to You Yu pointed a finger at his face.

You Yu's imposing aura immediately weakened, and he shrank back and whimpered, "Jian Zhen..."

Jian Zhen didn't hear any of these sounds. She had her earphones plugged in, and music was playing in them. The moment her canvas shoes touched the floor of the building, she froze for a second before pulling her foot back—You Yu and the villains around him held their breath, thinking she was going to run away.

Unexpectedly, Jian Zhen simply leaned back and glanced at the sign on the side. She hadn't gone to the wrong place. She curled her lip in disdain, then firmly placed her foot back inside the threshold and muttered softly, "What a lousy place!"

Jian Zhen walked in with her arms crossed, looking around as she went. The mall was so dilapidated that it was about to be demolished, and the decor of the billiard room was even more outdated. The floorboards creaked underfoot, and the posters on the walls were antiques from more than ten years ago. The energy-saving light bulbs overhead hadn't been replaced in a long time and were covered with a thick layer of dust. Perhaps because of this, the light coming down from above was dim, shrouding all the quiet corners in gloom.

In the huge billiard hall, only three tables were open. Jian Zhen's gaze swept over the three groups of people, and she easily located You Yu's position. She walked over with a stern face.

"You're the one he hired?" The burly man with the tattooed arms who had threatened You Yu earlier looked Jian Zhen up and down, questioning, "Do you even know how to play this game?"

"Stop talking nonsense." Jian Zhen stopped at the table, glared at You Yu, and turned to the tattooed man, asking, "How much money does he owe you now?"

The burly man with tattooed arms also crossed his arms like Jian Zhen, putting on an air of wealth and saying, "It's not a lot of money, the problem is that this kid always cheats. He's been to my turf three or four times, and he never pays back the money he owes. It's time for me to teach him some manners."

"Is this place yours?" Jian Zhen extracted the key information.

"Yeah, otherwise it's his?" The tattooed man raised his chin dismissively at You Yu and asked in return.

Jian Zhen sighed. This was a bit difficult. The shop belonged to someone else, and most of the people working there were probably their friends. Outnumbered, even if they fought one against one, they could wear him down. Besides, Jian Zhen hadn't been into this game lately and really couldn't muster the enthusiasm for fighting. He couldn't help but think of paying some money to settle the matter peacefully.

"How much exactly?" she asked again.

The tattooed man lowered his head, raised his hand, rubbed his fingers together, and blew away the dust from under his nails: "With interest compounding, it'll probably add up to seventy or eighty thousand! So, are you going to pay for it?"

Jian Zhen remained silent for a few seconds. Seventy or eighty thousand—she would have to think twice before even offering seven or eight hundred for You Yu. But then again, knowing the gambling market and You Yu's cowardly temper, he couldn't possibly lose seventy or eighty thousand. Besides, the tattooed man himself had just said that You Yu had only been to this place three or four times. Losing seventy or eighty thousand in three or four times was clearly a setup.

You Yu, that idiot.

She looked up and glared at the guy opposite her again. Since that was the case, there was nothing more to say—someone was deliberately trying to cause trouble, and she wasn't afraid of trouble.

“I don’t have that much money,” Jian Zhen said calmly, then stretched out her hand to the side, palm open.

The tattooed arm glanced at the questioner and asked with a hint of smugness, "Want a rod?"

“No.” Jian Zhen said calmly, “First, get me a clean, damp towel to wipe the table.”

"You're such a germaphobe—"

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the germaphobe Jian Zhen began wiping the table in circles. She slowly wiped one side, unfolded the cloth, folded the dirty side inward, and then slammed the cloth onto the edge of the table, pressing it down to wipe back.

Ignoring the stares of the crowd, she asked her tattooed arm as she wiped it, "What if we can't pay this back?"

"Simple, it's the rule in the underworld, I'll chop off one of his little fingers."

Jian Zhen caught a glimpse of You Yu shivering out of the corner of her eye. What a spineless guy. She didn't change her expression and said with a dry sarcasm, "Fine, if you don't want mine, then it's fine."

The tattooed man had never seen such a charismatic beauty before. To be honest, he admired her greatly, but for the sake of his older brother's dignity, he tried his best to control himself and not reveal his sycophantic nature. He jokingly said, "How can you accept yours? It's such a pity that such a young girl is missing a finger. It won't look good when she wears a ring in the future."

Jian Zhen gave a fake laugh, thinking to herself, "Stop trying to eat swan meat like a toad. You stinky ugly bullfrog."

After wiping the edge of the table, she tossed the used, damp towel into the trash can by the wall with perfect accuracy. It was a less-than-perfect three-pointer; the towel was too heavy and hit the inner wall of the trash can, causing it to shake violently. The shaking became more and more pronounced, and it looked like it was about to tilt and lie flat on the ground when someone stretched out a foot from the shadows, hooked the edge of the trash can with their toe, and straightened it back into place.

Xu Weisheng emerged from the shadows. His accomplices with the tattooed arm glanced at him, then turned away to watch Jian Zhen kick off the game.

Aside from being "not bad-looking," everyone's impression of this young man was that he was "a new employee who had only been here for a few days and had no presence at all."

Coincidentally, Xu Weisheng didn't care about the gazes of those people. In his view, the world itself was like a giant live-action online game, with most people being NPCs without any self-awareness. What the NPCs said and what expressions they made were all pre-written, so there was no need to use your eyes to see them; you could predict them just by using logical reasoning.

Of course, for someone like him who would rather save every bit of effort than exert two, he was too lazy to even reason at this moment. He completely ignored the passersby, and the automatically selected scene only contained one person, one table, and one pole.

Jian Zhen's forehead was almost covered in sweat. In terms of skill, she realized halfway through the game that the guy with the tattooed arm was the strongest in the group. She was evenly matched with him, and the others were nothing special. But the pool table is not only about skill, but also about luck. Today, she was having a particularly bad day. The guy with the tattooed arm seemed to have divine help, making her want to lift the table to see if there was some kind of cheating device hidden underneath.

But that also means that they've broken ties on someone else's turf, and it's hard to say whether she and You Yu will be able to walk out with their heads held high.

Jianzhen's doubts about the fairness of the game deepened throughout the match, culminating in the very last shot—

His taut, tattooed face suddenly relaxed, the features flying off in different directions. He threw his head back and laughed, saying, "You still lost, didn't you?"

Jian Zhen gripped the end of the pool cue with one hand and planted the other end on the floor. She stared at her tattooed arm with displeasure and said, "I didn't bring that much money with me today."

After laughing his fill, the tattooed man looked her straight in the eye and said with a blatantly mocking gaze, "Beautiful lady, you're just like this young man, always trying to renege on your debts. No wonder you two are friends, or even boyfriend and girlfriend, right?"

Even in such a critical moment, Jian Zhen couldn't help but roll her eyes and scoff, "Does he deserve it!"

"Then do you think I'm good enough for him?" the tattooed man suddenly asked, leaning closer. His lackeys around him cheered and egged him on, some even urging, "Say yes! Say yes! Be together! Be together!"

"Where did this garbage script come from? The NPCs' mentality doesn't match their age. The designer should be dragged out and executed!" Xu Weisheng rolled his eyes at the person shouting the slogan and was about to step forward to mediate when he suddenly heard Jian Zhen say quietly, "Sorry, I don't date people who eat leek and egg soup late at night. Why don't you just chop them up—"

The last half of her sentence was directed at You Yu. Perhaps out of consideration for their long-standing friendship, even though she was sharp-tongued, she couldn't bring herself to say it.

Oh no, this situation is really tricky. Jian Zhen imagined time stopping at this moment, everything around her frozen, her soul leaping out from the top of her head, floating in mid-air, and an old-fashioned landline phone appearing out of nowhere in front of her, the dial pad visually magnified, from 0 to 9, each time she turned the keypad, she could preview a new processing result.

Seeing You Yu become disabled... No, no, this is too gory!

She took out all her savings and sold off her secret stash... Was she someone who was good at saving money? Even if she sold everything she owned, she still couldn't raise the money to pay off the debt.

Punching Nanshan Kindergarten and kicking Beihai Nursing Home, with a golf club in hand, I'm ready to fight... Calm down, calm down, there are just too many people on the other side.

Calling the police or directly calling her father... that's a good idea, provided we can get out of the villain's territory first.

...

Jian Zhen went through all the solutions in a few seconds and regretfully found that none of them were reliable. It seemed she was going to fail. She sighed silently, but surprisingly, she felt very calm inside. Her mind was racing, flashing images of dinner, the starry sky, and the white tiled bottom she saw when she was about to suffocate in the pool.

“You can actually pay this money back.” A strange voice pulled Jian Zhen back from her reverie. More than the content of the sentence, Jian Zhen noticed his voice, which was quite genuine—most people speak insincerely, either out of a guilty conscience or out of breath. In short, there’s always something missing in their vital organs—like fingertips pressing down on piano keys, it went straight into the depths of one’s ears.

What a great voice, but it's a pity he talks like a lunatic. Doesn't he know better than anyone whether he can pay back the money?

Jian Zhen turned to look at the person who spoke. She hadn't noticed before that one of the tattooed thugs had such long legs. Her gaze traveled up the trouser leg until she saw the person's entire face. At that moment, Jian Zhen's mind went blank for a moment.

Seriously? Even in a dream, it wouldn't be such a coincidence.

Beijing is so big, how did she end up running into him again? What is he doing here?

A thousand questions about the other person raced through Jian Zhen's mind. If human curiosity could reproduce infinitely like Doraemon's dorayaki, then the earth would already be overwhelmed by her curiosity.

"How do you know I can pay it back?" She turned around, brushed her hair behind her ear, and asked Xu Weisheng.

"Are you from the Academy of Fine Arts?"

"……Then what?"

"Your name is Jian Zhen, which is not a very common name. If I remember correctly, your short film was selected for the first prize at the school level in this year's art academy graduation exhibition."

"oh……"

"The latest offer for your work is 108,000. That's enough to pay off your friend's debt."