Chapter 23 A pitiful child
*
It was almost 3 a.m.
In the dark alley outside Jinhe Entertainment City, sewage pipes dripped, and the lingering noise from the bar next door could be faintly heard.
Four or five dark figures stood at the end of the quiet alley.
Among them was a slightly tipsy Cheng Jia.
He raised his hands and was taken hostage by four thugs who were clearly underage.
The two ringleaders were holding fruit knives.
The blade, gleaming with a cold light, was pressed against Cheng Jia's lower abdomen.
He dared not move or shout.
Anyone who's been out and about often knows that these teenagers are the most energetic and reckless. You should definitely avoid them when you see them; they're at that age where they're practically the most important person in the world.
If you say the wrong thing, they'll cut you down.
A hothead can really risk his life.
Cheng Jia carefully negotiated with them: "...What's wrong with you guys? Are you short on pocket money lately? Tell your brother first. Have you ever come to Jinhe to play? Maybe we know your other brothers, we're all on the same side."
Zhou Minghe didn't just coast along in Jingang.
Logically speaking, no one should dare to mess with the people at Jinhe Entertainment City.
The arrival of these children is quite suspicious.
"Stop talking nonsense! I heard you've been doing pretty well lately, so bring out something to show your respect to us grandpas, or we'll bleed you dry today!" shouted the sixteen or seventeen-year-old blond-haired boy.
He pushed the knife tip two inches further into Cheng Jia's lower abdomen.
Cheng Jia gasped, "Everything's easy to discuss! How much do you want?"
He has nearly 40,000 yuan in his bank account.
I only have a little over a thousand yuan in cash.
The tip the customer just gave.
“I want…” The blond-haired guy glanced at his accomplice, who held up an eight. He turned and glared at Cheng Jia, “Eight hundred!”
Two hundred yuan each for the four thugs.
Good profit sharing.
"......"
A bunch of naughty kids!
Cheng Jia was speechless: "My wallet is in the left pocket of my coat. It's all cash, you can have it all. Don't use the knife."
"How much do you have in your wallet?" Huang Mao asked him.
The green-haired thug next to Cheng Jia, wearing skinny jeans, took out a wallet from Cheng Jia's coat pocket, opened it, and was overjoyed to see that there was more than a thousand yuan inside.
"So much? Take it all." The four of them huddled together to count the money.
Cheng Jia lowered her hands slightly: "Could you leave me your ID?"
“Here you go, we don’t need these,” said Huang Mao’er.
Just as Cheng Jia had taken the wallet back.
A tall figure walked out from the end of the dark alley.
It was a young man who, seemingly curious about why there were several people standing there, went inside: "Who's there? Is that Brother Jia? I think I heard your voice."
"!" The thug was even more frightened than Cheng Jia.
This is a dead end; the only way out is through the alley entrance.
Cheng Jia recognized the voice and hurriedly shouted, "Lin Baiyue, get out of here! Don't worry about it!"
"Brother Jia?" Lin Baiyue's face emerged from the shadows, startled upon seeing the situation. "They're holding knives!"
The thugs were all about to leave.
In a panic, he pointed the knife at Cheng Jia again, and then at Lin Baiyue who walked in.
Something terrible is about to happen!
Cheng Jia quickly said to the thugs, "Aren't you going to run? Don't worry, I won't call the police. Just don't hurt anyone. Hurry up and go. There will be even more people at the bar after closing time."
First, lure them away, then find an opportunity to call the police.
"Did they steal your things, Brother Jia..." Lin Baiyue's voice sounded a little scared.
But in order to help Cheng Jia get his belongings back, he bravely tried to stop the thugs.
Cheng Jia panicked: "Get out of my way!"
“I, them…” Lin Baiyue hesitated, turning slightly to the side.
The four thugs suddenly ran out of the alley.
One of the green-haired guys probably thought Lin Baiyue was blocking his way, so as he passed Lin Baiyue, he suddenly jumped up and kicked Lin Baiyue in the stomach!
Lin Baiyue: "Uh."
He then slammed into the wall.
"Hey, are you alright?" Cheng Jia quickly ran to Lin Baiyue's side and helped her up.
He turned his head to see if the thugs with knives had left.
Lin Baiyue, pale-faced and clutching her stomach, asked, "I'm alright, brother, are you okay?"
"Can you stand up? Let's go back to Jinhe first, it's not safe here." Cheng Jia helped the singer up and quickly returned to Jinhe.
"......"
Twenty minutes later.
A police car pulled up in front of Jinhe Gate.
The waiter applied some medicinal wine to Lin Baiyue's stomach.
In the magnificent lobby, Cheng Jia explained the situation to the police and watched the police car leave.
Only then did he return to the sofa in the lobby to find Lin Baiyue.
Lin Baiyue's pure white sweatshirt had a dirty footprint printed on the front.
He sat on the sofa, looking at Cheng Jia with a frightened expression.
"Brother, can you catch those thugs who committed robbery? What were you robbed of?"
“We didn’t rob anything, just some cash,” Cheng Jia said, still a little shaken. She sat down next to Lin Baiyue and looked him over. “Are you alright? Do you need to go to the hospital?”
Lin Baiyue shook her head: "No need, it's just a minor injury, I'll recover in a few days. I thought you'd been robbed, and I wanted to help you stop them..."
"Are you crazy?" Cheng Jia couldn't help but scold him. "Those thugs had knives, and you saw them but didn't dodge to protect me. Don't be so stupid next time. How old are you?"
Lin Baiyue smiled shyly: "I'm an adult now, brother, I'm 22 years old."
She is only two years younger than Cheng Jia.
"Okay," Cheng Jia took out her phone to check the time; it was almost four in the morning. "The designated driver I called didn't wait for me... Where do you live?"
He wasn't familiar with Lin Baiyue, since they weren't in the same department.
We were just nodding acquaintances when we met before.
Tonight we crossed paths, and although Lin Baiyue ended up making things worse, it was still a kind of help.
Cheng Jia couldn't just leave him here unattended.
Lin Baiyue replied, "It's in the alley behind, in my rented house. Otherwise, how could I have run into you?"
"I'll take you home first, then I'll call another driver," Cheng Jia put away her phone, stood up, and helped the young singer. "Can you walk?"
Lin Baiyue tried to stand up: "I can walk... I think I bumped my knee just now."
"Hold me a little tighter." Cheng Jia carried Lin Baiyue's black backpack and handed it to him for support with her other hand.
The two of them slowly walked out.
"......"
The alley was still dark and unlit.
However, the police came in and searched several times to make sure there was no danger.
Cheng Jia always says something when he takes someone home.
He helped Lin Baiyue up and said, "Thank you for today, but next time you encounter something like this, just ignore it, walk around it, and pretend you didn't see it."
"How can that be?" Lin Baiyue's voice was clear and clean, and she spoke frankly, "I could pretend I didn't see it if it were a stranger, but we know each other, and you even helped me before."
Cheng Jia asked in confusion, "Did I help you?"
“Right, that time when Sister Jasmine got me drunk, you were the one who helped me escape this misery, don’t you remember?” Lin Baiyue reminded Cheng Jia, “The time when we tied the red string.”
Sister Jasmine has a peculiar fetish; every time she comes, she calls several male models.
That day, I also requested Lin Baiyue's guitar performance.
Cheng Jia went in to deliver the wine and just happened to see Sister Jasmine pinning Lin Baiyue down and forcing a bottle of Carlsberg into Lin Baiyue's mouth, almost causing the little singer to choke and drown. She threatened to slap him if he didn't drink it.
Fearing something might happen, Cheng Jia quickly went up to interrupt and stop them.
They also pulled Lin Baiyue out of the private room to calm her down.
It was such a small thing that Cheng Jia had already forgotten about it if he hadn't mentioned it.
Cheng Jia glanced at Lin Baiyue and said, "You're quite the grateful kid."
They dared to rush forward even when faced with knife-wielding thugs.
Such loyalty is rare.
"Kid? You're only two years older than me, Jia-ge." Lin Baiyue smiled.
"......"
They soon arrived at the apartment building Lin Baiyue was renting.
It's a very dilapidated six-story building with no elevator.
Cheng Jia looked at Lin Baiyue's legs: "Should I carry you on my back?"
"No need, my injuries aren't that serious," Lin Baiyue insisted on walking on her own.
Cheng Jia helped him up, saying, "Then take it easy."
The motion-activated lights in the hallway turned on one floor at a time.
"Shh, bro, let's walk even more quietly..."
Upon reaching the fifth floor, Lin Baiyue reminded Cheng Jia to walk quietly.
The door on the fifth floor suddenly opened!
A woman with curly hair came out, her face full of fat, glaring at them with a sleepy expression: "What are you doing, making noise here in the middle of the night again! Can't you let people get some sleep?"
"?" Cheng Jia was stunned by the shout. "Auntie, we didn't argue. We were just going upstairs normally."
I knew it might disturb the neighbors even though it was past 4 a.m.
They both walked quietly upstairs.
Lin Baiyue was very nervous: "...Yes, I didn't make a sound, and my footsteps were very light."
"The whole building was filled with your footsteps! And you're still saying you weren't arguing?"
Auntie with the curly hair glared at Lin Baiyue, clearly dissatisfied for a long time.
"I told you to move out a long time ago, but you just wouldn't leave! You play that lousy piano all day and won't let me take a nap, and then you keep bothering me upstairs and downstairs at night. Who can stand that?"
Lin Baiyue shook her head awkwardly: "I played the piano very softly, it's because the house isn't well soundproofed..."
"If you don't like my place, then don't live here! Get out of here now!" the auntie yelled without holding back. "You look so poor, you're behind on rent, and you're making such a racket that the whole building won't have a peaceful time. People like you migrant workers will never amount to anything—"
"Isn't that going too far?" Cheng Jia couldn't bear to listen anymore after a long time.
Cheng Jia said, "Have you finished cursing? Of course he has to practice his piano if he's singing. If he's disturbing you, can't you talk to him properly? How did it escalate into a personal attack?"
"What are you doing? His friend?" The aunt, hands on her hips, shifted the focus, glaring fiercely at Cheng Jia. "If you're a good friend, then hurry up and get him out of here, I'll thank you!"
Lin Baiyue stepped in front of Cheng Jia and said, "It has nothing to do with my friend. I...I'll move out soon, so please stop cursing."
"You're smart to know what's good for you!" the landlady ordered. "You have three days to move out. I'm not letting you live here even if the house is empty. It's so noisy, where did these lowlifes come from..."
"Bang!" The door slammed shut.
The hallway was finally quiet.
"......"
Lin Baiyue's cheeks and ears were flushed red.
He stood with his head bowed deeply in front of Cheng Jia, unsure of what to say.
Cheng Jia witnessed the most awkward and embarrassing scene.
Cheng Jia put his arm around Lin Baiyue's shoulder and continued up to the sixth floor: "It's okay, I've been scolded by my landlord before too."
Actually, no, Cheng Jia was never scolded by the landlord.
After all, they are locals.
The house he rented was also quite close to his old neighbors.
The neighbors all treated Cheng Jia very well.
"...I'm sorry for making you get scolded," Lin Baiyue said softly, sniffing. "I'll go find a place to live tomorrow, I won't stay here anymore."
Cheng Jia asked, "Where are you from?"
“I’m from a county town under Xining. My family is all gone, and I’m all alone. Jinhe Performance Department is recruiting resident singers online. The pay is pretty good, so I came to Jingang City,” Lin Baiyue replied softly, then gave a self-deprecating laugh. “I just want to make some money to survive. I have nowhere else to go.”
"Brother Jia, please don't laugh at me, and don't tell anyone else."
"......"
In that case, it's similar to Cheng Jia's situation.
The child is quite pitiful.
I just want to live.
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