Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Though nights in Songjiang were not as bustling as in the provincial capital Donghai, the bar trade still had a solid market. Young white-collar workers, company bosses, and plenty of university students all treated the place as a venue for leisure and entertainment. Of course, there were also the one-night-stand enthusiasts who made it their hunting ground—Zhang Bin had often prowled the bars with a pack of hounds in the old days. Mention a bar, and the first words that came to many people's minds were filthy, hostess, and so on. Still, some of the larger establishments were fairly respectable.

And the one Yang Ce was now entering was just such a bar. From the outside it looked exceedingly stylish, in a Russian style—pointed roof, protruding wall carvings—that involuntarily gave one the sense of being in a foreign land.

The bar's waiter watched in astonishment as the young man and woman climbed down from the giant truck and went inside, and for a long while he could only click his tongue. "Good God, truck drivers are this popular these days? Tsk tsk—look at his girlfriend, pretty as a bubble. One of these days, once I've learned to drive, I'll go be a truck driver too." Yang Duo, of course, paid no attention to the waiter's look and went into the bar with the sexy Xia Xue.

The Russian country-style decor lent the bar even more class, and in many details one could see that the owner was a very meticulous man. Though the overall effect was fine, Yang Juehuan felt that the design was over-attentive—many of the details so finely wrought they had turned a bit pretentious.

That meant the bar's owner was probably a rather vain man who cared a great deal about face. Of course, this was only Yang Juehuan's guess, a judgment made from the perspective of a killer's psychology, and not necessarily one hundred percent accurate.

"Welcome, you two. Would you prefer somewhere lively, or somewhere quiet?" The waiter came over with a smile and stood before Yang Ce and Xia Xue.

"Somewhere quiet, I think." Yang Yongjin did not much care for that kind of blaring atmosphere, and he doubted Xia Xue would like it either.

"Very good." The waiter nodded. If the guests preferred quiet, he would naturally seat them far from the stage and the bar.

To be continued

901. You Dare to Tease Her Too? (Part One)

901. You Dare to Tease Her Too? (Part One) "Never mind quiet—a bar should be lively!" Today Xia Xue was quite unlike herself, and she walked toward a spot closer to the stage.

The waiter looked up at Yang Ce helplessly, not knowing what to do.

"Then we'll sit here." Yang Ce smiled and waved the waiter off. It seemed Xia Xue really had been under enormous pressure lately—otherwise she would not be trying to vent it this way.

On the dance floor, deafening heavy metal pounded and spotlights flashed on and off. Amid the neon and revelry, a crowd of young men and women leaped and thrashed madly, shouting incomprehensible sounds—nearly savage, and yet the best possible way to vent the pressure bottled up in the body.

Most of these people were white-collar workers under heavy pressure by day; only at night did they release it this way.

The air was thick with clamor and decadence, with gold-dust intoxication, with garish lights and brilliant fireworks of color.

Amid the endless din, Yang Ce slowly sat down across from Xia Xue. It had been many years since he had felt this way. Yang Ce thought back to middle school, to those days of drunken, dreamlike dissipation.

"Yang Ce, can you imagine it? Most of the people on that dance floor are prim and proper by day, gentle and polite—and at night they're wild as beasts." Xia Xue watched the crowd on the floor and spoke to Yang Yanzhou.

"Heh, don't tell me you're thinking of becoming one of them?" Yang Xutang said with a laugh.

"I'm a little tempted, but I've never tried it. I'm a bit timid." Xia Xue did not hide it. Venting work pressure this way was something one of her close girlfriends had told her about. She was on the anti-drug squad in the neighboring city of Jidun, and her work pressure was no less than Xia Xue's; she often went to discos and places like that to blow off steam.

In her words, you could even get some work done while having fun—nab a few small fry selling Ecstasy, and who knew, you might dig up a valuable lead from one of them.

At the time Xia Xue had rather dismissed the idea. But these past few days, as the case had stalled completely, her mood had grown more and more oppressive. Xia Xue knew that if this went on she would make herself ill, and yet she could not help piling the pressure on herself—after all, this was the first case she had taken on since being promoted to deputy captain of the criminal investigation unit.

The others on the team had said nothing, but Xia Xue was terribly afraid they would think her incompetent, unequal to this heavy responsibility.

Ordinarily, even if Xia Xue had wanted to go to a bar, she would never have worked up the nerve. To her mind, a girl going to a bar by herself was simply too awkward a thing to do. Today, though, she had Yang Ce firmly in her grasp, and so she dragged him along to the bar.

Still, having come was one thing; for Xia Xue to actually thrash about wildly on the dance floor like everyone else, screaming out some primal cry by the end—that was a loss of face she simply could not bring herself to accept.

Seeing Xia Xue's expression, Yang Ce knew at once that this was absolutely her first time in a bar like this—the Blue Fish Bar, with its refined, understated atmosphere, naturally did not count.

Yang Shuyu knew that Xia Xue wanted to go down and vent herself like those people, but the sudden novelty of her first visit left her a little unsettled. So he waved the waiter over. As the saying goes, liquor lends courage; after a few drinks, he was sure Xia Xue would find the nerve to go down.

That girl Xia Xue—when she was drunk, she had even pulled off something as outrageous as the reverse push. What was a little hip-shaking on the dance floor compared to that?

"Let's have a couple of drinks first," Yang Minlan said to Xia Xue.

"That works." Xia Xue nodded; Yang Juehuan's suggestion suited her perfectly.

"Sir, is there anything I can help you with?" The waiter came over, smiling.

"What do you have to drink?" Yang Yanchuan asked.

"Would you like soft drinks or alcohol, sir?" the waiter asked.

"For a bar, beer would be best." Yang Ce glanced at Xia Xue, thinking he had better stick to beer with her. If they drank something strong and this girl pulled another reverse-push stunt right here in the bar, that would be a little awkward. If there was going to be any pushing, it should at least happen at her place—much safer that way.

If they got caught by the vice squad in the middle of an xx in a bar, Xia Xue would be truly famous by tomorrow. "Corona, Heineken, Carlsberg, and San Miguel—which would you like, sir?" the waiter introduced.

"Do you have Songjiang beer?" Yang Jiyan asked.

"Yes, we have it in cans—draft pure beer," the waiter said.

"Don't you have the kind with the big glass bottle?" Yang Ce thought beer was best drunk from the local kind sold in glass bottles.

"Ah—sorry, sir, we don't carry that kind." The waiter broke into a sweat. This was a bar, not a food stall; why would they stock that sort of beer?

"Never mind, then. Bring Corona." Yang Minlan passed the order to the waiter. Genuine Corona beer, in fact, was quite good—famous worldwide, after all. The trouble was that some bars back home were rather unscrupulous and fobbed fake Corona off on customers. These knock-off Coronas were bottled by small breweries, and the taste was truly mediocre—on par with horse piss. That was why Yang Ce was reluctant to order foreign liquor in bars; there was simply too much counterfeit. But the local beer in big glass bottles—no one would bother counterfeiting that. Two yuan a bottle; who would go to the trouble?