Bai Li's brow furrowed as he watched the farce unfolding before him.
He looked at Wang Fei, who was being berated without daring to talk back, then glanced at the girl sobbing her eyes out.
This was the tragedy of bottom-rung street punks — willing to trample their own dignity and everyone else's over a few hundred yuan.
"Enough."
Bai Li's voice reached every ear in the room, and the chaos fell still.
He stepped forward and put his coat back on, and that unhurried composure of his returned.
He didn't look at the crying girl, nor did he bother with Wang Fei. He simply turned to the bleach-haired young man behind the bar and said:
"Everyone pays for themselves."
Then he walked over to Wang Fei and looked down at him.
Wang Fei felt a creeping unease under that gaze.
Bai Li didn't hit him. He didn't curse at him. He simply said, calm as ever:
"From now on, in Ping County, whenever you see those three girls, you call them 'sis.' Can you do that?"
Wang Fei froze. He hadn't expected that to be Bai Li's demand.
Bai Li's eyes went cold. He pulled out his phone and held up the screen:
"If you can't, that's fine too. I'll send the video of you losing at billiards and trying to sell off your girlfriend to every wild guys group chat in Ping County. Your choice."
Those words hit harder than any fist ever could.
In their world, face mattered more than life itself.
If that video got out, Wang Fei would never be able to hold his head up in Ping County again.
Without a moment's hesitation, he turned toward Chen Tingting and the other two and bellowed with everything he had:
"Sis! All three of you — sis! I was wrong! From now on, I, Wang Fei, am your dog!"
The lackeys behind him caught on and joined in: "Sis! We were wrong!"
The sudden reversal left Chen Tingting and the others momentarily stunned.
Enemies who had been at each other's throats one second were bowing and scraping the next.
This way of subduing someone without throwing a single punch was far more awe-inspiring than a brawl ever could have been.
Chen Tingting's vanity was thoroughly satisfied. She planted her hands on her hips and said smugly to Wang Fei:
"Alright, get lost! Keep your eyes open next time!"
Wang Fei scrambled to his feet as if granted a pardon and fled with his crew in tow, tails between their legs.
"Big bro, you're incredible!"
With the crisis resolved, Chen Tingting snapped right back to her usual self.
She rushed excitedly to Bai Li's side, eyes shining with admiration.
"You were so cool just now! We're basically the kings of this billiards hall now! Let's come here every day!"
Watching her light up like that, something stirred in Bai Li's chest.
He walked to the bar and said to the bleach-haired young man — who had witnessed everything and now looked at him like he was some kind of deity — "Boss, set me up with a membership card."
"Huh? S-sure thing, big bro!"
"Load five hundred on it." Bai Li pulled three more red bills from his wallet and slapped them on the counter.
That single gesture silenced the entire room again.
Five hundred yuan! Just to get a membership card at a run-down billiards hall like this?
To everyone watching, it seemed like sheer, incomprehensible extravagance.
Meanwhile, inside Bai Li's mind, a pleasant chime rang out right on cue.
[You have invested 500 yuan in Chen Tingting and her two companions, triggering an intense emotional response: Overwhelming Admiration!]
[This investment has triggered a 10× Critical Cashback!]
[Congratulations, Host! Cashback received: 5,000 yuan!]
Almost simultaneously, his phone screen lit up.
[XX Bank: Your savings account ending in 8868 has received a deposit of 5,000.00 yuan. Current balance: 314,950.00 yuan.]
The corner of Bai Li's mouth curved upward, warmth flooding his chest.
The feeling of wealth multiplying in a snap of the fingers — it was simply sublime.
But the surprises weren't over yet.
Just as he was savoring the rush that came with the money, another System notification chimed in his mind.
[Investment target 'Lin Xiaoshuang' has reached an Affection Value of 60 (Adoration)!]
[Congratulations, Host! Key milestone reward unlocked: Kidney Fortification!]
In an instant, a warm current surged from the small of his back, rushing through his limbs like a dam breaking, sweeping through every inch of his body.
He felt every cell in him cheering, a surging vitality unlike anything he had ever known coursing through him.
The stiffness in his neck was gone. The ache in his back had vanished. Even the exhaustion from playing billiards half the night had been swept clean away.
He had a feeling the airplane sleep trick would never work on him again...
Just as Bai Li was lost in that extraordinary sensation, a figure suddenly stepped in front of him.
It was Wang Fei's girlfriend.
She had stopped crying, though her eyes were still red and swollen.
She tucked the hair that had fallen across her cheek behind her ear, revealing a face with genuinely striking features.
But what drew the eye even more was her outrageously hot figure.
Combined with that fifth-gear grandpa's companion vibe, the visual impact was off the charts.
Zhang Qian had just watched with her own eyes how Bai Li had crushed Wang Fei with his billiards skills, defused the conflict with sheer wit, and then casually dropped five hundred yuan on a membership card without batting an eye.
By comparison, that spineless coward who had tried to sell her off over a couple hundred yuan was nothing but a useless pile of mud that couldn't be propped up against a wall.
The look in her eyes had changed.
She slipped past the girls who were still standing there in a daze, walked straight up to Bai Li, and held up her phone — her WeChat QR code on the screen.
"You're really something, big bro…" Her voice was soft and honeyed, deliberately flattering. "That waste Wang Fei — I've finally seen him for what he is."
She leaned in almost imperceptibly closer and said in a voice only the two of them could hear:
"Add me on WeChat? I've read a lot of books — I promise I can give you whatever you want…"
"And that loser Wang Fei hasn't even held my hand yet, you know~"
This sudden turn of events instantly transformed the atmosphere — which had been buzzing with joy just moments before — into something decidedly more charged.