The bar was still noisy, but the atmosphere between Ye Zhi and me was almost frozen. It wasn't a confrontation, but it made me nervous. I had already said things that involved love, and my nervousness stemmed from not knowing how Ye Zhi would respond. I just looked at her, my feelings so complicated that I felt like I was suffocating.
I'm sure that for a moment just now, I did lose my rationality. I shouldn't have said that to Ye Zhi. This was a gamble, and I couldn't even imagine what I would be like if I became Ye Zhi's lover. Perhaps, from the moment I opened my mouth, I had already lost.
My heart sank, and I stopped looking at Ye Zhi.
...
Just then, a quarrel broke out near the bar, shattering the strange, inexplicable atmosphere between Ye Zhi and me. We both looked over there...
Nicole was arguing with a man. Nicole looked very angry and agitated. She pointed at the man and said in a sharp voice, "You've gone too far! You said you'd settle my performance fee three months ago, and it's almost Chinese New Year, and you're still dragging it out... Is this how you run a bar?"
The man replied in a mournful voice, "Business on this street is bad, you know that... To be honest, I've been losing money ever since this bar opened. If you can wait, wait a few more days, and I'll try to borrow some money from my friends. If you can't wait, even if we make a huge fuss today, I still can't come up with any money!"
“I’ve already understood you enough. I usually try to endure it as long as I can, but the New Year is just around the corner, and we need to spend money everywhere. How can you still drag it out?”
"Let's wait a little longer."
After saying that, the bar owner made it clear he refused to communicate further and turned to talk to a customer next to him. Nicole stood there for a while, looking helpless. She grabbed the bar owner again and said, "Mr. Zhao, you're supposed to be a man of the world. How can you treat a woman from out of town like this? Can you really live with yourself?"
"My bar is almost closing down, and you want me to talk to you about conscience?"
"Don't force me to call the police, or you'll regret it and say I caused you trouble."
The bar owner scoffed and replied, "Call the police? Do we have a labor contract? Let me tell you, you singers are the biggest parasites in society. What have you contributed to society? In the past, people like you would have been called actors, just there to amuse everyone. Don't take yourselves too seriously!"
I was getting restless, and at that moment, Ye Zhi, who had been silent all along, finally spoke up. She asked me, "Don't the singers in Dali sign contracts with the bar owners?"
"Well, they're mostly temporary. The industry is very fluid, and Dali is a hotspot for artsy young people, so there's no shortage of singers. This leads to an imbalance between supply and demand, so bars are relatively more dominant. Bar owners are also inconsistent in their work schedules, and they might close down at any time. So they're definitely unwilling to sign labor contracts with singers. They usually just negotiate verbally. Anyway, if you don't sing here, there are plenty of other people vying for this job."
Ye Zhi nodded, and I was also in a daze, as if I hadn't said those ambiguous things to her at all. But I didn't know whether I should be grateful for this opportunity to restore peace between Ye Zhi and me.
After a moment of confusion, I turned my gaze back to Nicole. Nicole was now trembling with rage. She glared at the bar owner, then grabbed a half-finished cocktail from a customer and splashed it in his face. She then turned and slammed the bar door shut, shouting, "You want to play dirty with me?... Fine, I'm worthless, my life is worthless. If you don't pay me my performance fee today, you can forget about doing business!"
The conflict had escalated from words to actions, and the customers who were spending their time there were trying to avoid it. They then opened the door in twos and threes and left the bar. The bar owner tried to persuade them to stay, but Nicole stopped him.
The bar owner roared, "Are you fucking crazy? I'm counting on this Chinese New Year period to do some business, and you're still messing around with me like this!"
"You know you need to do business? Then why can't you consider my situation... Don't I need to eat and drink too?"
The bar owner shoved Nicole aside, but Nicole, with her strong personality, turned and ran to the bar's entrance, closing the door that a customer had just opened, as if determined to defend her rights to the death.
The bar owner lost his temper and rushed towards Nicole, seemingly about to attack. At the same time, I rushed over, shielding Nicole while blocking the bar owner, saying, "You're a grown man, isn't it a bit ungentlemanly to fight with a woman?"
The bar owner retorted angrily, "Are you blind? Can't you see she's blocking the door and preventing me from doing business?"
I ignored him and instead asked Nicole, "How much performance fee does he owe you?"
"Three months, a total of nine thousand six hundred yuan."
Then I said to the bar owner, "I'm not blind, and I'm not deaf... People don't cause trouble for no reason. You owe them almost 10,000 yuan in performance fees... Be generous and pay them the money, and this matter will be over."
"She just says she owes me money?... Did I give her an IOU or sign a contract?" He paused for a moment, then sneered at me, "Judging from your accent, you're from out of town, right? Let me tell you, you'd better not meddle in other people's business, or you'll regret it!"
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