24 Chapter Twenty-Three

◎“…Yu Miaomiao!”◎

Gao Dian's venting parlor is located in a newly opened shopping mall office building in Fengtan. Next door is a wooden toy city that went bankrupt due to poor management. It is not only dilapidated, but the signboard has fallen off and only a few radicals remain. Combined with the gray urban construction around it, the visual impact is very strong. It is as if this almost deserted shopping mall is a mirage in the mid-2020s.

Li Yingqiao drives Meng Yidong's car, which is short in length, with a black and white color scheme and round headlights. When it rolls slowly, it looks like a lazy little panda crawling, which is in stark contrast to Meng's own appearance.

She parked her car in the underground garage, took the sightseeing elevator up, and finally found room 07 of the venting parlor at the end of the corridor on the thirteenth floor.

Just then, someone from next door came out and stood by the window at the end of the corridor smoking. When he heard footsteps as he lit his cigarette, he looked over and, probably thinking a customer was coming, asked her, "Do you have an appointment?"

Li Yingqiao felt this person looked familiar; he must be a classmate from her old school, but she couldn't immediately recall his name. Just as she was about to ask if Gao Dian was there, a familiar voice came from inside the room—

"Aren't you going to reconsider? Although it's currently an undeveloped tourist area, a tourism investment company will soon come in, and once the government takes over, it will definitely be transformed into a popular tourist attraction in Fengtan. The number of visitors will be unpredictable. If you join then, the rent will definitely double, and it won't be the same price now."

"Why are you using 'UA' in your farts?! Uncle, you've fooled us countless times these past two years—"

Huh? It's Gao Dian.

The man at the door didn't bother talking to her anymore. Instead, he impatiently crushed his cigarette and threw it in the trash can. He turned around, rushed in, grabbed the other person by the back of the collar, and shoved them out, saying, "You're just trying to fool us. Tell me, all those trendy tourist attractions that have sprung up in the last two years, tell me, which one of them is profitable? How do they make money? Just by charging that five yuan entrance fee? Or by those shady, under-the-table incomes? To put it bluntly, this tiny place, no matter how much you upgrade your equipment, you can't make anything of it. Trendy tourist attractions? Keep dreaming!"

The middle-aged man, having been kicked out, lost all his dignity. Standing in the corridor, his face flushed and neck red, he tried to retaliate, but found himself completely overwhelmed by the two young men in front of him, both horizontally and vertically. In a fit of rage, he pointed at Gao Dian and said, "Little pastry! You think you're all grown up now!"

As he spoke, he glanced angrily at the tattoo on the arm of the tall man next to him, "Associating with these thugs, you've become a hooligan too!"

What's even more infuriating is that these two tall guys are like a human wall, completely blocking him out, not even a fly could get through. Even if he swung his arm wide and tried to fight them to the death, his fist probably wouldn't hit their face. With that height difference, he could at most give them a symbolic punch to the chest.

The younger generation surpasses the older generation, and he, the older generation, is going to be crushed and rubbed on the beach by these younger ones. The thought of this possibility makes him even angrier, and his face turns red, yellow, and green in turns, just like a traffic light.

“In the entire Fengtan gang, who hasn’t heard of your name, Uncle Li? Now you’ve turned over a new leaf with Secretary Li, laundered all your money, and are now crying wolf, right? To be honest, if I weren’t, I would only give in because you’re Li Yingqiao’s uncle—” Before he could finish speaking, Gao Dian seemed to have noticed a gaze on him from the end of the corridor. He glanced up casually, and his words suddenly stopped.

The entire corridor fell silent. The tall guy next to Gao Dian followed his gaze and finally remembered why the woman looked familiar. He slapped his forehead and blurted out, "Damn, isn't that her? The one from your school who's really good at the college entrance exam!"

Gao Dian couldn't care less about him at the moment. He stood frozen in the doorway, his gaze fixed on the person opposite him as if rooted to the spot. After a long while, he finally remembered to ask her, "When did you get back?"

The middle-aged man turned around at the sound of their voices and saw his niece standing at the corner of the corridor. However, she completely ignored him, giving Gao Dian a familiar and bright smile. She walked over, glanced into the room, and said with an air of selfless composure, "It's been almost half a month. My mom said you opened a massage parlor, so I came to see what you two are arguing about."

Only then did she turn her gaze to Li Wusheng.

Li Wusheng instantly felt like he had been liberated from his servitude and was now backed up. His back, which had been hunched over, straightened up again, and he looked at Gao Dian arrogantly, like a fighting rooster, waiting for Li Yingqiao to make decisions for him.

Gao Dian was too lazy to feign politeness with him. His face was icy cold, a stark contrast to his previous attitude: "I'm warning you, I'm not beating you up this time because of Li Yingqiao. But if you ever try to take advantage of Miaozai and his dad again, I don't care if you're Li Yingqiao's uncle or Aunt Li's brother, I guarantee I'll beat you to a pulp. I'll use you as a window decoration for the next grand opening sale!"

Li Yingqiao leaned lazily against the wall of the corridor, her gaze slowly scrutinizing Li Wusheng from head to toe. "What have you done now?"

Gao Dian sneered, "He's done a lot of things. I won't go into the distant past, but just the recent ones. Brother Siyi was hospitalized because he hit him. And he even had the nerve to come to his house and try to use his run-down shop as compensation. His family isn't short of money. Let me tell you, dream on! You'll be going to jail!"

Li Yingqiao's expression also changed, and she suddenly looked at Li Wusheng.

Seeing Gao Dian so abruptly shift the blame, Li Wusheng jumped up in a panic: "Nonsense! I didn't hit him. It was a former employee of mine. I only came to plead for him because I felt sorry for him. Besides, this really isn't anyone else's fault. Who told Yu Renjie to walk his dog in that godforsaken place!"

"So you were the one who reported Uncle Yu's factory at the train station back then, right?" Gao Dian said.

He had no explanation for this. Over the years, Li Wusheng had been picking fights with Yu Renjie while also trying to emulate him by changing his appearance and becoming a respectable person. But deep down, he was still a thug, and his whole body was covered in filth. Just flipping through any page would be enough for someone to spit on for three days and three nights.

"Meow Boy was kidnapped during his middle school entrance exams—"

However, the case was already closed. Dong Tao was arrested not long after, and the police had closed the case long ago. It really had nothing to do with Li Wusheng. Gao Dian was just trying to scare him, throwing around a few accusations to see if he would dare to come and harass them again. Li Wusheng was about to jump up in anger when he was interrupted by hurried footsteps behind him. A SF Express deliveryman, looking bewildered, turned into the elevator lobby, carrying a bag of potted succulents, and asked, "Mr. Yu's delivery, which one of you is Mr. Yu?"

"Give it to me, he went out to get a haircut and won't be back for a while," Gao Dianyang took the food from the delivery guy, took out his phone, checked the WeChat chat history to confirm the delivery code, and then, clearly exhausted, said to Li Wusheng in a voice as hard as steel, "Get lost, there's no room for negotiation, otherwise when Miaozai comes back, he'll definitely beat you up. He's not the little chick he used to be, we can't stop him."

***

Since Li Yingqiao's class finished their college entrance exams, Fengtan has started building high-speed rail, paving roads, and carrying out infrastructure construction. I heard that they also spent a lot of money to build a star tower on Fengtan Mountain. During the day, it looks like an ordinary building, but at night, it looks like an ordinary building that lights up.

It's like your parents racking their brains to learn how to use a smartphone to keep up with the times, only to receive huge scam calls in the process. In general, the appearance of Fengtan County has changed dramatically in recent years, but the skills of Fengtan's beauty and hairdressing professionals remain as solid as ever.

Yu Jinyang suddenly felt like getting a haircut today. He's a very conservative person and doesn't have much of an adventurous spirit. Getting a haircut in Fengtan is quite a risky thing to do. Before going downstairs, Gao Dian repeatedly told him to look for Linda if she was there, and if only a man was there, to say he was going to see a friend and pretend to walk around and leave. But unexpectedly, he successfully found Linda, and Linda recommended a man to him. He couldn't very well say, "Sister, I only want you to cut my hair," because people who didn't know better might think he had ulterior motives.

After the guy finished cutting his hair, he realized he had some ulterior motives and couldn't believe he could look so ugly.

Yu Jinyang was about to fight for his brain, which looked like it had been chewed by a dog. He had just snapped his fingers at Tony the hairdresser when the latter darted in front of him, as if afraid that he was going to pay the bill. However, at that moment, Yu Jinyang suddenly noticed a person in the mirror whose eyes looked familiar, but whose clothes and even his entire appearance were quite unfamiliar.

He didn't take it seriously, not believing this person would appear in Fengtan for no reason, even though the other person's gaze was provocative, direct, and even staring at him intently. Yu Jinyang ignored it; he was somewhat immune to such blatant stares from girls, and didn't engage in any further eye contact. He silently turned his face away and continued negotiating with Tony about being attacked by the octopus.

Yu Jinyang scratched a few stray hairs on his head in frustration: "It really feels like I've been attacked by an octopus, bro."

“How could that be? This was designed by our design director, Keven, after he returned from studying in Switzerland,” Tony said with a broad smile.

"Director Keven—"

Yu Jinyang was still sitting on the swivel stool in front of the barbershop mirror when he turned his gaze to the door, about to say that it was the person squatting by the door eating instant noodles. But his gaze suddenly met that of the person in the mirror. The other person's gaze was like a vine that had taken root and stuck to him, not moving away for a second. Memories of a certain person suddenly flowed back, suddenly lifting up his forehead, and his eyes and smile rushed in vividly.

His expression froze in the mirror, like an octopus caught in the ebb and flow of the tide, desperately trying to hold onto his gaze in the mirror, not wanting to be swept away by the sudden waves.

It was truly surprising; I never expected to see her here.

"Handsome guy, you have to believe me, if even you can't pull off this hairstyle, then you won't find another guy in Fengtan who's as handsome as you—"

Yu Jinyang was too lazy to even lift his eyelids at this moment, ignoring the flattery. However, he caught a glimpse of Li Yingqiao's gloating expression out of the corner of his eye, her smile almost reaching the back of her head.

So he returned her gaze from the mirror with the same undisguised stare, his tone as unhurried as ever, and blackmailed Tony, saying, "And my idol saw it too—"

He thought for a moment, then added with some difficulty, "You guys should pay me some money."

Li Yingqiao: "..."

***

Tony must have handled far too many of these octopus-like incidents. He gave them both a perfectly smooth smile before turning to negotiate with the store manager. Back in front of the mirror, the two had already looked away. Yu Jinyang was still a little unwilling to give up; paying money wouldn't help. His hair was ruined, and he'd be ugly for a while. He thought he'd still have to buy a hat later.

He glanced back at Li Yingqiao, about to ask in a low voice when she got back.

Then Tony the hairstylist returned, saying that the shop manager had refused his unreasonable request, but they were willing to give your idol a free hair wash as compensation.

Yu Jinyang: "..."

He suspected that he hadn't even seen the store manager; he had just gone to get a drink of water and then returned.

Tony: "Trust me, this hairstyle will be popular soon. It was designed by our design director, Keven, after he returned from studying in Switzerland. He just finished cutting your hair and went out to buy coffee."

That's nonsense. Zhang Xiaoqiang was clearly squatting at the door eating instant noodles.

"When he comes back, he can explain the design concept of this hairstyle to you in person. Seriously, handsome, this hairstyle is very popular in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou recently. Fengtan is a small county after all, so the fashion sense is a little behind."

Yu Jinyang didn't really want to talk anymore, but Li Yingqiao said she was going to wash her hair, so he could only sit there idly scrolling through his phone while listening to her rambling.

“Men shouldn’t be too conventional. The more unruly and rebellious their hair, the more handsome they look,” he continued.

Seeing that Yu Jinyang's face was getting darker and darker, Tony started calling in people, with all sorts of worthless managers taking turns to use sweet talk and flattery to persuade him. All this maneuvering was just to get him to accept his new hairstyle.

After a barrage of empty flattery, just when Yu Jinyang was so confused that even the barking of a passing dog sounded like "Handsome Yu," Tony suddenly turned his attention to Li Yingqiao, who was washing her hair and grinning broadly.

"If you don't believe me, then just let her tell you whether this hairstyle is cool or not."

Li Yingqiao witnessed the whole thing and was so nervous that her shoulders were shaking. After all, she was indebted to him, so to make it more believable, she lay there washing her hair and confidently gave him a thumbs up, saying, "Yu Jinyang, you're handsome, you're super handsome."

"Are you saying you're not handsome because you're afraid they won't put conditioner on your hair?" Yu Jinyang didn't believe her nonsense. "If you're not going to wash your hair, I've already paid the bill. Why don't you go ahead and wash it? I'm leaving now."

Li Yingqiao immediately squinted at him and called out, "...Yu Miaomiao!"

Yu Jinyang then forced a smile, casually slipped his phone into his pocket, sat down on the empty shampoo bed next to her, his brow furrowed with the shadows of fine hairs, and looked down at her before finally asking seriously, "When did you get back?"

Li Yingqiao replied almost without hesitation, "I just got back. I came to find you as soon as I got back."

"Really? I've never seen you so proactive before. You need something from me?" Yu Jinyang had just finished speaking when he noticed that Tony was still staring at him, but his gaze had changed from "How am I supposed to convince my brother about this?" to a look of interest as he scanned back and forth between Yu Jinyang and Li Yingqiao.

He changed the subject, asking, "Where is your CFO?"

“The CFO doesn’t understand design,” Tony immediately forced a flawless smile. “Why do you need to see him?”

"I'll pay, bro," Yu Jinyang said, barely managing to muster the last bit of patience. "To be precise, where's your cashier?"

[Author's Note]

See you the day after tomorrow!!!

Two hundred red envelopes.

My tooth has been hurting all day, so I'll stop here for now.

I'll try to update twice more in the next chapter the day after tomorrow.