"Green-hair, what the hell are you spewing out of that mouth of yours?"
Chen Tingting saw the startled look on Lin Xiaoshuang's face, and her temper flared instantly.
She slammed her cue down on the table, strode forward, and jabbed a finger right at the green-haired young man's nose.
The green-haired youth went by Wang Fei — a well-known troublemaker who ran things in this part of town.
He had a few so-called street connections to his name, and he'd never been shy about throwing his weight around.
When he saw Chen Tingting step up, far from being intimidated, his grin only widened:
"Well, look who it is — Sister Tingting herself. What's the matter? Is this pretty boy your latest catch? Looks loaded. Wonder if he's any good, though?"
The wild guys behind him burst into a round of mocking laughter.
"Go to hell!" Chen Tingting's face flushed red with fury. She swung her cue and lunged forward.
"Tingting!" Bai Li called out in a firm, low voice, stopping her in her tracks.
He walked over, pulled Chen Tingting behind him, and calmly sized up Wang Fei.
Wang Fei's eyes swept over Bai Li's coat — clearly expensive at a glance — and the envy and contempt in his gaze deepened.
Men like Wang Fei, who scraped along at the bottom, couldn't stand the sight of someone like Bai Li: handsome, well-dressed, and surrounded by beautiful women.
As far as he was concerned, Bai Li was just some soft rich kid putting on airs. One punch and he'd go down.
"What? You want to stand up for them?" Wang Fei spat his cigarette butt on the floor, ground it under his toe, and tilted his chin up arrogantly:
"Kid, you know who I am? Around here, you'd do well to mind your own business."
Bai Li looked at his bluster and bluff and felt a quiet amusement stir inside him.
He'd braced himself for some kind of violent confrontation — even mentally prepared to call an ambulance — but the opening line turned out to be this tired old script.
He said nothing. He simply reached into his pocket, unhurriedly pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lit one, took a slow drag, and finally spoke:
"So. How do you want to settle this?"
Bai Li's easy, unbothered manner pushed Wang Fei right over the edge.
"Settle it? Fine by me!" Wang Fei glared at Bai Li. "You got the guts to play a round with us?"
He jerked a thumb at the billiards table beside them:
"We'll bet on this. One game — loser pays the table fees for both tables tonight. How about it?"
Before Bai Li could even respond, Wang Fei, apparently afraid he might back out, added another line with the smug air of someone who thought himself very clever:
"Look, man, I'll be straight with you — this is a law-abiding society. Fighting gets you arrested and costs you money."
One of his lackeys chimed in from behind: "Exactly. We're civilized people. We settle things at the billiards table!"
Bai Li nearly laughed out loud at that.
Now he had them figured out — this pack of wild guys, all bark and no bite, paper tigers through and through.
Everything they did was built on one foundation: no money.
Fighting meant paying damages, so they wouldn't fight. But they couldn't lose face either, so they picked a method they figured they were good at — one that let them show off their manhood.
"Fine." Bai Li gave a small nod and stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.
"Hey!" Both Chen Tingting and Li Jiaxin looked at him with worried expressions.
They trusted Bai Li, but Wang Fei had been playing in this billiards hall since he was a kid — he was no amateur.
"It's fine." Bai Li gave them a reassuring look.
He slipped off his coat and handed it casually to Lin Xiaoshuang beside him, left in nothing but a simple white T-shirt.
With the coat off, his broad shoulders and trim waist were on full display, drawing more than a few sidelong glances from the wild girls nearby.
And so the bet began.
The rules were simple: eight-ball, first to clear the table wins.
Wang Fei grabbed a house cue, chalked it up with a satisfied smirk, and said to Bai Li:
"Old man, I'll let you break first — can't have you saying we bullied you."
Bai Li didn't stand on ceremony. He picked up the cue and gave his wrist a light flick.
Crack!
A sharp thud rang out. The cue ball shot forward like a cannonball and struck the apex of the rack dead-on.
In a fleeting moment, more than a dozen balls scattered in every direction — two solids and one stripe rolling cleanly into separate pockets.
A stunning, picture-perfect break.
The entire billiards hall went silent.
Every eye in the room locked onto that table, taking in the scattered balls sitting in near-perfect positions, faces etched with disbelief.
The smile froze on Wang Fei's face. His hand, still holding the cue, hung suspended in midair. His mouth fell open wide enough to fit an egg.
The lackeys behind him stood equally dumbstruck, cigarettes dropping from their lips without them even noticing.
What the hell kind of break was that? Had to be a fluke — right?!
But what happened next shattered every last shred of that hope.
Bai Li gave them no time to recover. He didn't even walk around the table — he barely moved from where he stood, his posture almost unchanged.
Thud.
A solid dropped into a pocket.
Thud.
Another one.
His movements flowed like water. Every stroke was clean and decisive, without a single wasted motion.
The cue ball moved under his control as if it had a mind of its own, coming to rest in the perfect position for the next shot after every collision.
It wasn't billiards anymore. It was a performance.
Elegant. Precise. Carrying with it an absolute sense of mastery.
The whole thing took less than three minutes.
When the final eight ball dropped smoothly into the corner pocket, Wang Fei and his crew had turned completely to stone.
A single-run clearance.
To amateur players like them, it was nothing short of wizardry.
"Your turn." Bai Li set the cue gently on the table and looked at Wang Fei's ashen face, his tone perfectly calm.
Wang Fei's lips trembled. He couldn't get a single word out.
What was there even left to play? This wasn't the same league at all.
The onlookers snapped out of their shock and erupted into cheers and chatter.
"Holy crap, who is this guy? That was insane!"
"Is he a pro or something?"
"A full run-out! I've been playing here three years and I've never seen that!"
Chen Tingting and Li Jiaxin were practically starry-eyed, gazing at Bai Li with undisguised admiration.
And Lin Xiaoshuang — clutching Bai Li's coat to her chest — had her little face flushed bright red with excitement, as if she herself had just sunk that final shot.
Just then, the blond-haired young man from the counter walked over with the bill, smiling obsequiously as he handed it to Wang Fei:
"Fei-bro, the total comes to two hundred and sixty yuan."
Two hundred and sixty.
That number drained the color from his face instantly.
He dug through every pocket on his body. The crumpled bills he scraped together didn't even add up to fifty yuan.
His expression shifted from pale green to dead white, cold sweat trickling down from his temple.
He knew it — today, he'd been well and truly beaten.
Standing under everyone's gaze, Wang Fei felt his pride ground to dust.
He clenched his teeth, his mind racing frantically for a way out.
Run? No way out.
Refuse to pay? He'd never be able to show his face around here again.
Just as despair was closing in, his eyes landed on his girlfriend standing behind him, her face drained of color with fright.
A wild, outrageous idea flashed through his mind.
He grabbed his girlfriend by the arm, yanked her out from behind him, and shoved her in front of Bai Li.
"Hey, man!" Wang Fei's voice carried a brazen nonchalance:
"We really don't have the cash today… How about… I let my girl keep you company for the night?"
The words hit the room like a thunderclap.
The girl who'd been shoved forward stumbled and nearly fell.
She steadied herself and stared at Wang Fei in disbelief — first shock, then a flood of rage and humiliation.
She raised her hand and slapped him across the face with every ounce of strength she had.
"You bastard!" The girl's shriek cut through the noise of the entire billiards hall:
"What do you think I am?! Something you can sell?!"
Tears streaming down her face, she turned to Bai Li, her voice raw with desperate outrage:
"Thank God — thank God I didn't let you have your way last night, you piece of garbage! You're not even human!"
Chen Tingting and Li Jiaxin snapped into action, rushing forward to shield the girl behind them, unleashing a torrent of curses at Wang Fei.
"What the hell is wrong with you?! Are you even a man?!"
"Selling your girlfriend over two hundred yuan — you're an absolute animal!"
The entire billiards hall descended into chaos.