CH 9

With different identities and attitudes, what you see is different.

What Xiao Chen saw when looking at Luo Wencheng was his cool and calm temperament.

In Lu Chong’s eyes, the kid looked dull, dumb and particularly easy to bully.

Of course, he looked a lot better than he had that night, and he didn’t seem to be suffering.

Lu Chong looked at him one more time; his eyes softened imperceptibly, and he turned to leave.

Disappointed, Luo Wencheng smiled bitterly. What he remembered so firmly didn’t leave any impression on the other party at all; the kindness the man had shown him helping him through the difficult times was nothing more than a casual gesture when he was in a mood for it.

Luo Wencheng was somewhat depressed and his mind was a little foggy from drinking. His entire body felt limp and wilted as he steeled himself to return to the bar.

“Xiao Luo, you’re back, there’re customers over there who want you specifically.” The head waiter waved when he saw Luo Wencheng, looking at him with a somewhat complicated gaze.

After Luo Wencheng’s arrival, the business of their bar had improved a lot, and there were people coming to see him every day. The head waiter’s salary was linked to the daily turnover, so he liked Luo Wencheng for that; but he also had to be always on guard against the customers making trouble because of Luo Wencheng, which was quite inconvenient. Luckily, Luo Wencheng knew how to behave. He drank when he needed to and kept his head down when he had to, so even if the guests wanted to make trouble, they would not be able to do so with Luo Wencheng’s attitude.

Everyone likes people who work hard and are sensible; besides, Luo Wencheng was born to be pleasing to the eye. Thinking about it, the head waiter looked at Luo Wencheng in a much gentler way: “Xiao Luo, there are many guests tonight, so hang on there a little longer and we’ll give you tomorrow off.”

Luo Wencheng smiled faintly, “Thank you, Head Waiter.” He took the drinks that the customers ordered from the bar and was about to leave. The head waiter thought about his tenacity to say less and do more and never complain; he felt pity in the end and couldn’t help but stop him again: “Xiao Luo.”

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“Is there anything else the Head Waiter wants?”

The head waiter took him aside, “Let me tell you something, the people who asked you to come are your former friends. And the young master of the Luo family is also there.”

Luo Wencheng’s pupils suddenly shrank.

It was finally here.

Luo Wenjun had only been to “Golden Glory” once, and that was the time he had run into that man.

This was what Luo Wenjun bragged about to him later when he was paralysed in bed, unable to speak.

In other words, tonight, that man was here?

Luo Wencheng’s heart was beating fast.

The head waiter patted him on the shoulder: “You’ve been doing a good job, so don’t let anything go wrong tonight.”

The head waiter’s face was more serious than usual and he emphasised “tonight”, and Luo Wencheng was even more sure that tonight the biggest boss would be in the bar. When he came, the bar would naturally be particularly careful to avoid trouble.

This was the head waiter’s way of giving him a heads-up, right?

Luo Wencheng felt a little grateful in his heart. He settled his mind and quietly said, “I understand, thank you.”

Carrying the tray, he manoeuvred among the guests writhing in duos and trios on the dance floor, all the way keeping his eyes and ears open. He secretly thought that if he was a big shot, he would be in a private room on the second floor. The walls of each private room there were transparent from inside and one could watch the hall below from there.

Unfortunately, with his qualifications, he was not yet able to serve the guests in the private rooms.

Luo Wenjun’s table was Table 9, in the bar lobby directly opposite the stage. At this moment, there was a female singer on the stage humming a beautiful and sad English song softly. Table 9 had the best view.

The circular sofa in front of the table was filled with people and Luo Wencheng saw a few familiar faces. Zhao Jianping, Zhang Dong and Wei Xingheng, the trio that had fooled him in his previous life.

And of course, there was Luo Wenjun.

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After the first day of rebirth, it was the first time Luo Wencheng saw the young Luo Wenjun. Fresh, well-behaved, tender, harmless to human and animals Luo Wenjun; yet what appeared in Luo Wencheng’s mind was the hideous faces of the man standing in front of his hospital bed.

Then he remembered something that happened a long, long time ago, but should have happened today.

At that time he was still working in Zhao Jianping’s trio’s small bar and found that the three of them were actually playing with him. He intended to escape but was stopped at the back door. Then he was dragged into a private room where a grim-faced man sat on the sofa. That was Luo Wenjun.

Luo Wenjun was not in a good mood that day. He stayed in “Golden Glory” all night but he couldn’t even see a shadow of the target he wanted to see. He was disappointed and annoyed. When he thought of Luo Wencheng’s presence in Zhao Jianping’s bar, he came to take a look.

Of course his “look” was more than just a look. He came in through the back door without even letting Zhao Jianping and the others know, and his “iron brothers” had booked a private room for him. So when Luo Wencheng was brought in, he saw a group of people that looked different at first glance.

Among them were the men who had broken into the apartment that night and beaten him up. Anyway, all of them were friends of Luo Wenjun from his time on the streets.

Luo Wencheng was terrified.

Luo Wenjun smiled and told him that he had long known about Zhao Jianping’s revenge on Luo Wencheng and that he was behind Luo Wencheng’s fall to this point.

He said that Luo Wenhao also knew about Luo Wencheng’s situation in the bar and that Luo Wenhao said that Luo Wencheng was extremely stupid. He could have rescued him with one word, but he didn’t because he “wanted to make his younger brother suffer to learn from his mistakes”.

Luo Wenjun also said that Luo Wencheng had already become a laughing stock in Haining and that when anyone mentioned him, he was a “degenerate” and a “drunkard” who had brought “flirtatious habits” out of prison. Luo Kaifang was so angry that he dropped two tea sets and called him shameless, eager to hire a killer to deal with him.

Now, under the colourful lights, people were mingling with shadows, and Luo Wencheng was holding his tray, looking silently at Luo Wenjun, who sat in the middle with a smile on his face. A pair of dimples on his face when he smiled were so cute but the vicious words that used to come out of his mouth still echoed in Luo Wencheng’s ears, cutting like a knife.

It was as if Luo Wencheng again saw himself kneeling, pale, shaking, heartbroken and ashamed of himself; and then he was grabbed, held down by countless hands, layers of tissue paper covered his face and the liquor was poured down on him…

Luo Wencheng clenched the tray in his hands a little tighter. The scene from the past seemed to blend with the one in front of him. He gritted his teeth and returned to his senses. He thought he had moved on, but only when he really looked back at his past did he know that the shame and the resentment had never disappeared.