The Eye of the Storm: P – Chapter 3.7

P – Chapter 3.6

P – Chapter 3.7

After a moment of contemplation, Liang Sizhe decided to first call the waiter over for the bill before thinking about how to proceed. He raised a hand and pressed the service bell on the corner of the table; the waiter came over very quickly.

“Hi. I’d like the bill please,” Liang Sizhe said.

“Of course, sir. I’ll go get it for you right now.” The waiter turned around and left for the counter.

When he saw the waiter head back his way with a long, long bill, Liang Sizhe’s heart jolted — he had a very bad feeling about this.

“Here’s your bill, sir. It comes to 3,787 RMB.” The waiter gave him a polite bow, presenting the bill with two hands.

“Cough.” A cough came out of Liang Sizhe instinctively. He reached out to take the bill, and looking down at it, he said with feigned calm, “I’ll take a look at it, just leave it with me. I’ll pay at the counter later.”

“Understood, sir.” The waiter responded with a faint, mild smile.

It was even worse than he imagined. Liang Sizhe ran his eyes rapidly over the orders on the bill, his eyebrows tightly knit together, and silently thought: this has to be one of those fucking criminal shops that specialise in robbing customers, right?

The pathetic 300 RMB he had in his pockets wasn’t enough to even round off the total figure. Before leaving, who would’ve thought Cao Ye would suggest eating a nice meal on a complete whim and would find such an overly expensive Japanese restaurant? And that he would even drink himself unconscious despite saying it would be his treat?

Liang Sizhe reviewed the bill from top to bottom. Once he was convinced there wasn’t a single minor error, he got up from his seat and went over to sit next to Cao Ye. He placed an arm over his back, stared at him for two seconds and sighed before bending over to Cao Ye’s ear. Somewhat helplessly, he quietly said, “Hey, young master. What happened to it being your treat?”

Cao Ye felt like his ear was itchy — most likely from the air coming from Liang Sizhe’s mouth — and raised a hand to rub it. He finally opened his eyes and looked at Liang Sizhe in a daze; it was obvious the alcohol had left him with no idea what was happening.

Folding up the bill, Liang Sizhe held onto a corner and showed him the final number of money owed.

Cao Ye squinted at it for quite a while before finally understanding what Liang Sizhe’s action meant. Luckily, he didn’t try to go back on his word, remembering even while drunk that he’d said he was going to pay for this meal. He pulled out a card from his pocket and slapped it onto the table, slurring, “O-of course I’ll pay…”

Liang Sizhe let out a sigh in relief. Good — things weren’t as bad as he thought they’d be.

“The PIN is my birthday…” Cao Ye mumbled, half of his face on his arms and his eyes sliding shut again.

Liang Sizhe picked up the card. “When’s your birthday?”

“September 27,” Cao Ye said. He turned the rest of his face and buried it in his arms.

If he was younger than him by two years… Using that, Liang Sizhe calculated the year Cao Ye was born and then got up to pay at the counter.

Two minutes later, the staff member in charge of the counter gave Liang Sizhe a tactful hint. “Sir, do you have another card?”

Liang Sizhe froze, understanding the hidden meaning. “No, just that one. Is there a problem?”

The staff member lady put on a courteous small smile. “The balance is insufficient.” 

“What about trying… 3,400?” Liang Sizhe suggested. He had just enough to cover the remainder if the card was missing only around 300 RMB… 

The lady lowered her head back down and tried again, only to give him another faint smile. “It didn’t go through.” 

“What about 3,000?”

“No, still not enough.”

“1,000?” Liang Sizhe offered this figure resolutely. By now, he was sure he was going to have to leave Cao Ye here while he went back to Lan Yan to get some money. He was just a bit curious how much money was in Cao Ye’s card — Cao Ye had exclaimed in such high spirits that afternoon that they needed to eat a grand meal, and he’d even brought him to this restaurant, acting completely like the son of a rich man. There was no way he wouldn’t have 1,000 RMB, right? 

This time, even the staff member felt a bit awkward, the smile on her face stiffening quite obviously. “Still no…” 

Resting both his elbows on the counter’s marble top, Liang Sizhe used a hand to hold up his head. “Would you mind trying one more time? Does the card have 100 RMB?”

It felt like the lady found it hard to speak, this time; she shook her head and gave him a polite smile, her face saying, sir, are you joking? 

Only now was Liang Sizhe certain that the normal-looking pair of jeans he was currently wearing, filled with holes, had pretty much used up Cao Ye’s entire card — and that this generous Young Master Cao had yet to realise he was essentially moneyless due to this pair of jeans.

Liang Sizhe almost wanted to immediately pull the pants off and use them to pay off the meal, but he imagined doing that would probably make people passing by think he was doing something disgusting like acting indecently after being caught trying to dine and dash. He gave up on that impulse almost instantly.

With a bit of a headache, he sighed and then gathered his energy to negotiate with the staff lady. “I don’t have enough money on me right now. Is it okay if I leave to get more? My friend over there,” Liang Sizhe turned around to point at Cao Ye on the table, “is drunk, so I’ll leave him here while I’m gone. Is that okay?” 

The lady leaned over to look in the direction he was pointing. She asked, “Roughly how long will you need?”

“About an hour?” Liang Sizhe estimated, using the amount of time he spent in Zheng Yin’s car while coming over. 

“That’s fine,” she kindly assented. 

Before leaving, Liang Sizhe took a quick look at Cao Ye, who was still in the same facedown-on-the-table position; he hadn’t stirred in quite a while. He wouldn’t numb his arms again this time, would he? That thought flashed through his brain, and then he turned his head back around and walked out of the Japanese restaurant.

The trip back took almost double the amount of time he’d thought it would take — just hailing a taxi had needed almost twenty minutes. It just so happened to be peak hour right now, everyone finishing work, so almost every taxi was carrying passengers. Liang Sizhe lost his patience from waiting and ended up taking an unlicensed taxi charging an exorbitant price. 

The part of Haidan District within the 4th Ring Road was packed full of cars, bumper to bumper; lights needed to cycle between red and green three to four times before cars could successfully pass. His driver stepped on the brakes again and again, the car jerking back and forth to no end, and the brake lights on the car in front of them kept turning on and off. Liang Sizhe could feel his eyes blurring — it felt like he was in a perpetual, repetitive dream.

Pivoting his head to the side, he looked out at the road. It bore the weight of countless cars, so packed full that the cars were close to spilling over. He wondered: if he hadn’t broken his fingers, would he already be familiar with this perennially congested city?

Yinsi Street’s night market, sprawled on the edges of the city, was as lively and bustling as ever, the stalls stretching all the way to the side of the road. The car couldn’t get in, so Liang Sizhe paid and got off. This one trip cost him 150 RMB; it was the price agreed on at the start of the journey. 

He hurried past stalls fizzling with pops of oil, moving quickly up the steps in front of Lan Yan. Just like every night before this, earth-shattering roars of widely known songs and rapidly flashing neon lights came directly at him as soon as he entered.

Climbing two steps at a time, Liang Sizhe pushed open the door to his room and lowered his suitcase, initially upright next to the wall, to the floor. He opened it and knelt down. Pulling out three, four cards from the bag left in the innermost section of the suitcase, he checked over them one at a time before choosing one and sliding it into his pockets. The rest of the cards were returned to their original spot.

If he remembered correctly, that card should have roughly 5,000 RMB, enough to pay the bill. Liang Sizhe zipped up his suitcase and pushed it back against the wall.

Logically speaking, they should be particularly careful when it came to theft since Lan Yan was an old-fashioned building with exceptionally terrible security. The two of them were only somewhat slightly agile youths, yet they climbed up to the roof so easily — if a true thief wanted to sneak into a room, it wouldn’t be difficult at all. 

But the people living in the hostel on the third floor were honestly short on money, to the point even thieves weren’t interested in giving them a visit. Theft occurred so rarely here that it was actually a bit unusual.

When leaving Yinsi Street, Liang Sizhe suddenly felt like he’d miss this place, and he found this unexpected reluctance to leave hard to believe. After all, the irritating noises, the cloying scents of gas and soot, the dreadful housing conditions and the potbellied, middle-aged men who set foot in Lan Yan — none of them were worth reminiscing. 

The moment he turned his head back, he saw the owner of Lao Du Noodle Restaurant walking out with a bowl of steaming beef noodles. The wafting steam left a thick layer of white fog over his glasses. Liang Sizhe thought, perhaps what he was reluctant to leave behind were the signs of lives being lived on this street.

——Just look at the people who lived here. They lived in a ruined, dilapidated blind alley that might be torn down at any moment, waiting for business from the moment they opened their eyes in the morning to the small hours of the night when the city finally quieted down. Though they appeared to repeat their boring, dull lives every day, weren’t they filling their days with joy and activity, passing them cheerfully and easily?

As a whole, everyone had their own ways of living. Compared to these people’s happiness, was a violinist’s happiness better quality or more impressive? It didn’t seem likely. But be as that may, the process of accepting that the rest of his life was going to be so drab and routine, with nothing to look forward to, was truly very hard. Thinking about it left Liang Sizhe a bit at a loss.

His thoughts having reached this point, he swiftly realised where that reluctance to leave came from. It wasn’t from the alley’s so-called signs of life — but rather, it was from the promises and expectations the alley had given him, false as they might have been. They led him into believing that as long as he did his best to accustom himself to this place, he wouldn’t have to be like those trapped in this kind of lifestyle; he would be able to walk out, to escape from here. 

It looked like he had carried some hopes for the silver screen… Otherwise, the loss of those hopes wouldn’t leave him so empty. 

There were less cars on the trip back to the restaurant, but it wasn’t much better than earlier. The taxi continued to lurch. Liang Sizhe pulled out his phone to look at the time. It’d already been an hour and a half since he left the Japanese restaurant. The staff members wouldn’t consider him as someone who’d leave both his friend and the bill behind, would they? 

The taxi travelled for another half an hour before arriving at its destination, coming to a stop next to the restaurant’s entrance. Liang Sizhe got off, closed the door and strode inside with large steps. When entering, he turned his face in Cao Ye’s direction.

Compared to the facedown-on-the-table position when he left, Cao Ye was now upright and facing the aisle, his body tilting sideways into that original leather chair. Both of his arms were heavy on his thighs, and his head was lowered, dangling towards the floor. Across from him were two waiters; they were bent over, cleaning the floor.

Did he vomit? Liang Sizhe could feel another headache coming on. He rushed over, only to discover what the waiters were cleaning on the floor — they were picking up broken pieces of glass. Immediately, he deduced what happened: Cao Ye had knocked over a glass cup on the table, and from the amount of glass in the dustpan, it was likely he’d knocked over more than one. 

His head still bowed, Cao Ye remained in his position; he didn’t lift his head even after hearing footsteps coming his way.

Liang Sizhe half-crouched down once he was next to him, and in a low voice, he asked, “Hey, bro. What happened?”

Cao Ye sluggishly turned his face over to look at him, surprise shining through his drunk, hazy eyes. “You didn’t leave?” 

“Where would I go?” Liang Sizhe was a bit amused. “And leave without paying the bill?”

“Yan… City… didn’t you say you were going back…” Cao Ye’s head drooped back down again, and then his hands moved up to slowly rub his face a few times. His speech came very slowly as he said, “You weren’t here when I woke up, so I thought you left just like that.”

Liang Sizhe was speechless — the alcohol must’ve truly befuddled Cao Ye to make him think he’d left for Yan City. It was the middle of the night; was he meant to fly back…? Lifting a hand, he patted Cao Ye’s shoulder and didn’t say anything, getting back up to pay at the counter. At this point in time, his heart felt as calm as still water. Everything that had happened today had been unexpected, catching him off guard, but it had immensely raised his ability to handle sudden, unanticipated events. 

So when the lady at the counter told him that the glasses Cao Ye had shattered were worth almost 2,000 RMB, Liang Sizhe only stood there and dragged in a deep, deep breath. He didn’t bat an eyelid. Then, he pulled out his bankcard from his pocket with an impassive look on his face and gave it to her. “Please check if there’s enough on this card.” 

The lady maintained her tactful smile. “It’s still insufficient.”

Luckily, this card was missing less than 100 RMB. Lowering his head, Liang Sizhe took out the remaining 150 RMB he had leftover from his taxi ride here and tugged out a 100 RMB bill to cover the rest. Squeezing the final 50 RMB bill in his hand, he honestly thought this moment was worth celebrating with a fucking drink — the heavens had actually left him 50 RMB to take a ride back. They weren’t treating him that badly after all.

He headed over to Cao Ye’s table and picked up the remaining half cup of plum wine, tilting his head back and finishing it all with a gulp, before giving the back of Cao Ye’s head a pat. “Can you stand up?”

Cao Ye flicked his hand away like a cat rejecting the touch of a human; he then used the table to get up, wobbling the entire time. “I can…” Before he could finish speaking, his body pitched forward, Liang Sizhe’s hands shooting forward to catch him. He threw Cao Ye’s arm around his shoulders and then started walking.

The doorman at the entrance helped out gallantly, hailing a taxi for them at the side of the road and directing it to take the ramp by the side in order to pick them up by the restaurant entrance. He also assisted Liang Sizhe in getting Cao Ye into the car.

Liang Sizhe gave his thanks and then got in the car from the other side. The moment he sat down and closed the door, he let out a long sigh of relief, closing his eyes and dropping his head back against the seat. This chaotic, terrible day was finally over — he needed to climb up to the rooftop once they got back to Lan Yan. He needed the peace and quiet.

P – Chapter 3.8