Chapter 18: Red-light District
After countless turns, the streets, once deserted, gradually became lively. The houses lining the road transformed into shops.
The dazzling neon lights outlined the names of various businesses, casting vibrant colors onto the hurried pedestrians.
Street vendors, with bare-chested men gathered around, drank and chatted boisterously. Couples held hands and unabashedly exchanged suggestive jokes outside hotels. Occasionally, exhibitionists would unzip their clothing to reveal themselves to passersby.
All sorts of people converged here, indulging in a decadent nightlife.
Leng Qing Qiu parked the car by the roadside on the outskirts of this street and got out to retrieve Lu Zhiyin’s wheelchair.
She then carried Lu Zhiyin out of the car and settled her into the wheelchair. After locking the car, Leng Qing Qiu pushed Lu Zhiyin into this chaotic district.
The liveliest, and most dangerous place.
“…”
Silently, Lu Zhiyin observed her surroundings. Whether in her past life or now, this was her first time in a place like this.
Under the dim lights, the faces of passersby were indistinguishable.
Being pushed by Leng Qing Qiu, they briefly stopped at a barbecue stall.
Perhaps sensing her childhood friend was a bit too tense, Leng Qing Qiu decided to do something to help her relax.
So, she leaned down slightly, bringing her face close to Lu Zhiyin’s ear.
“Do you want to eat barbecue, Zhiyin?”
Leng Qing Qiu asked softly, acting as if Lu Zhiyin was a naive child who could be appeased with a piece of candy.
However, it wasn’t entirely her fault, as Lu Zhiyin’s demeanor was indeed overly innocent.
Well, “innocent” was a polite way of putting it; “foolish” would be more accurate.
“Mhm.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Lu Zhiyin nodded.
Leng Qing Qiu then nimbly pushed Lu Zhiyin to the barbecue stall.
The stall owner was a middle-aged woman with curly hair, wearing a red and white apron, currently basting skewers for other customers.
Lu Zhiyin lowered her head, looking at the cart where the skewers were displayed. Through the glass, she could see the prices.
One yuan for a sausage, fifty fen for chives, three yuan for potatoes, and various meats ranging from five to over ten yuan.
“…I’ll have a skewer of chives and a skewer of potato.”
Patting the thirty-three yuan and fifty fen in her pocket, Lu Zhiyin remembered her goal of winning over the female leads.
She couldn’t think of any clever strategies, only knowing that being kind to the female leads might slightly increase their affection.
Logically, one shouldn’t use such inexpensive items to win someone over, but Lu Zhiyin’s current financial situation was limited, and she couldn’t bring herself to spend more.
With this thought, Lu Zhiyin turned her head, subtly glancing at Leng Qing Qiu’s profile. Fortunately, Leng Qing Qiu didn’t seem upset.
The barbecue stall owner heard Lu Zhiyin and, without changing her expression, efficiently retrieved the chives and potato skewers Lu Zhiyin had ordered and placed them on the grill.
Waiting patiently at the stall, Lu Zhiyin’s chives were, as expected, cooked first.
Wrapped in tissue paper around the bamboo skewer, the vendor handed the chives to Lu Zhiyin.
Taking the chives with one hand, Lu Zhiyin fumbled in her pocket for three one-yuan bills and a fifty-fen coin.
Standing beside her, Leng Qing Qiu watched Lu Zhiyin hand the money to the vendor, looking somewhat surprised.
She had intended to pay for the meal herself. She truly hadn’t expected Lu Zhiyin to insist on paying.
Watching Lu Zhiyin, who had paid and was now carefully eating the chives, afraid of dripping oil onto her school uniform, Leng Qing Qiu shook her head and smiled silently.
Once the vendor handed over the potato skewer to Lu Zhiyin, Leng Qing Qiu turned her wheelchair and prepared to continue towards their destination for the night.
In the wheelchair, Lu Zhiyin finished the chives and casually tossed the skewer onto the ground. She quietly looked at the potato skewer in her hand.
The three-yuan skewer had only three potato pieces, each about the size of a thumb.
“So little…”
If it were before, Lu Zhiyin wouldn’t have felt anything, but now, being poor, she felt the potato skewer was a complete rip-off.
She grumbled softly. Behind her, Leng Qing Qiu, hearing Lu Zhiyin’s complaints, could already imagine the aggrieved expression on her face.
“…?”
She opened her mouth, about to offer a word of comfort, when she saw Lu Zhiyin in front of her raise the hand holding the potato skewer.
“Here… Thank you for treating me to lunch today.”
Hesitant to turn around, Lu Zhiyin felt that giving her food without any particular reason might seem abrupt, so she thanked her again.
Although she hadn’t eaten her fill at lunch, offering a cheap potato skewer as a thank-you gift felt rather meager.
Considering this, Lu Zhiyin’s hand trembled. She suddenly regretted her action.
“It’s nothing, no need to thank me.”
Coming back to her senses, Leng Qing Qiu smiled silently once more. She took the skewer from Lu Zhiyin’s hand and took a gentle bite.
Although this potato skewer was a bit expensive, she had to admit, it tasted quite good.
Pushing Lu Zhiyin’s wheelchair with one hand, Leng Qing Qiu finished the skewer in a few bites. She glanced at the sharply pointed bamboo skewer, then at the young girl’s greyish-white long hair in front of her, and casually tossed the skewer onto the ground.
Her perception of Lu Zhiyin began to become somewhat complicated.
On the wheelchair, the young girl finally breathed a sigh of relief after Leng Qing Qiu accepted her gift.
Thank goodness, she wasn’t disliked.
With that thought, she raised her head and patted the thirty yuan remaining in her pocket.
Lu Zhiyin didn’t know where Leng Qing Qiu was pushing her, only that after a while, the shops lining the streets disappeared.
The neon lights were still eye-catching, but the crowd lingering on the streets seemed to have changed subtly.
Most of the pedestrians on the street swayed unsteadily, and tall figures in black clothes and hats stood by the streetlights.
At some point, the streets on both sides were lined entirely with bars.
Through the curtains of the bars, Lu Zhiyin could see people swaying inside.
Occasionally, scantily clad dancers were helped out of the bars, and after vomiting, they would return inside.
The air was filled with a pungent mixture of alcohol and vomit.
A woman in a loose black robe walked past. Lu Zhiyin could hear a buzzing sound coming from within the woman’s clothes.
Lu Zhiyin turned her head to look at the woman, but was fiercely glared at by a lecherous man beside her.
The man then led the woman into a two-story bar, and Lu Zhiyin could only wonder what would happen next.
“Are we there yet?”
Clenching her fists unconsciously, Lu Zhiyin turned her head, but saw nothing.
Leng Qing Qiu had disappeared.
