Lu Yuan stared at the bar, feeling a bit dazed. This was not entirely his fault, as in truth, he was not even sure if what he was looking at was actually a bar.
Take the signboard, for instance. It wasn't really a signboard at all; someone had simply used neon colored wires on the wall to form the shape of a goblet. If it weren't for the lack of lights in the surrounding area, Lu Yuan probably wouldn't have even seen it.
Furthermore, next to this goblet, a downward-slanting arrow "↘" had been drawn with a fluorescent marker.
Lu Yuan looked in the direction of the arrow and, after some effort, finally found a row of stairs extending downward. At the end of the stairs was a glass door, through which one could vaguely see a dim, yellowish light.
To put it bluntly, even an old resident who had lived on this street for decades might not know there was a storefront here. Moreover, at this time of night, in this location, combined with that dim lighting—let alone attracting customers, if you told someone it was haunted, they would probably believe you.
However, Lu Yuan could not worry about that anymore. He was currently hanging on by a single bottle of cola. If he walked any further, he might just faint from hunger. So, without another word, he walked straight down the stairs.
He pushed open the door to the bar.
"Jingle~" The edge of the door brushed against a wind chime hanging to the side, emitting a pleasant sound.
Lu Yuan looked at the layout inside the bar and was stunned once again. He had been surprised before because of the bar's overly careless signboard, but now, he was surprised by the fact that the interior of the bar was actually decorated quite nicely.
Although the area was not large, the comfortable booths along the walls, the various leather chairs, the wallpaper, and the antique-style picture frames all showcased the high cost of the decor. Behind the bar counter was a liquor shelf that occupied an entire wall. Although Lu Yuan did not recognize the dazzling array of drinks, that did not stop him from marveling at their quantity. In this environment, even the dim, yellowish light was set off to look quite stylish.
While Lu Yuan marveled at the contrast between the bar's exterior and interior, he did not forget that he was a person who had been starving for two days and two nights. He hurried to the bar counter.
Since there was no one in the bar, there was no staff behind the counter. Lu Yuan reached out and pressed the table bell on top.
"Ding-a-ling~"
The sound was very clear; the little bell must have been worth quite a bit.
"Ding-a-ling~~ Ding-a-ling~~"
Seeing that no one came out, Lu Yuan pressed it a few more times.
Soon.
"Coming~ Stop pressing it!"
From behind a side door next to the bar counter, a voice came through. It sounded very lazy and also very impatient. Most importantly, it seemed to be the voice of a woman.
Soon, the door was pushed open, and a woman walked out. As for Lu Yuan, he was stunned once again.
Well, this tiny bar had already made Lu Yuan dazed several times, but there was no helping it, because whoever saw this woman walk out would be stunned for a moment.
This was a woman who appeared to be between 20 and 40 years old. That was Lu Yuan's most intuitive first impression. If you looked at her facial features, she should be considered very young, but regardless of her clothing, demeanor, or behavior, she clearly carried the air of someone in her 40s. And not just a woman in her 40s, but that specific feeling of a middle-aged Uncle who was just drifting through life.
Take her clothing, for example. It was clearly a men's t-shirt that was several sizes too big for her. Judging by the color, it had obviously not been washed in a long time. On her lower body, she wore loose sweatpants of the kind often worn by elderly people during morning exercises, and she had slippers on her feet.
If you wore this outfit while lounging at home, it might be acceptable, but as a staff member of this bar, wasn't it a bit too much to come out wearing this?
That wasn't all. On top of that, the woman was slightly hunched over, her messy long hair tied carelessly behind her head. Beneath a few unruly bangs were a pair of large eyes, which also had very large dark circles. They were half-open and half-closed, staring at Lu Yuan without any focus. If he weren't the only customer in the room, he would have thought she was staring at someone else.
Oh, right, the woman also had a cigarette dangling from her mouth and was holding a half-finished can of beer in her hand. In any case, compared to this aura of decadence radiating from the inside out, Lu Yuan looked like a vibrant, model youth.
Just like that, these two people—one man and one woman, both reeking of a shut-in vibe—stared at each other in this exquisite bar.
"Gurgle~~" A sound of his stomach urging him on rang out, and Lu Yuan immediately snapped back to reality. He didn't know why, but in that moment of staring at each other, he felt as if he were about to be sucked into her unfocused pupils.
"Uh, hello, do you have any food here?"
"Huh?" The woman, with the cigarette dangling from her mouth, let out a question that was lazy to the extreme: "Food? No, this is a bar."
"I know," Lu Yuan immediately replied. "But I don't need a full meal. Any snacks, or even just bar snacks, would be fine." He added, having finally found a place that was open on this street, how could Lu Yuan let himself be dismissed so easily?
At this moment, "Gurgle~~" his stomach roared even more brazenly.
The woman raised an eyebrow, looked at Lu Yuan's growling stomach, and then glanced at his face: "You haven't eaten in a long time?"
"Yes, yes," Lu Yuan hurriedly responded.
The woman hesitated for another two seconds: "Wait," she said. She probably figured that given Lu Yuan's state, if she didn't get him something to eat, he might just starve to death at her shop's entrance, so she had no choice but to turn around and walk into the side door behind her, looking very helpless.
Ten seconds later, she walked out holding a bag of snacks.
"There~ that's all there is." She scattered the snacks onto the bar counter and said.
To be honest, the quantity of this pile of snacks was truly not small. Potato chips, dried meat, candy, and all kinds of dried fruits—it was clear that the woman had bought them for herself to go with her drinks.
Lu Yuan couldn't care less. Without another word, he grabbed a bag of potato chips, tore open the packaging, and stuffed them into his mouth.
It is hard to imagine how astonishing the appetite of a person who has been starving for two days and two nights—or even longer—can be the moment they get food. In a few seconds, Lu Yuan finished a large bag of potato chips and reached for the other food in the pile of snacks.
During this time, he did not say a word, and the woman, quite magically, did not ask anything either. She just smoked her cigarette quietly, watching Lu Yuan, with no emotion visible in her unfocused eyes.
Finally, after consuming almost all the food on the bar counter, Lu Yuan let out a long sigh.
"Thank you," he said, as if he had just survived a disaster.
The woman still had the cigarette dangling from her mouth, and the spent ash fell quite casually onto the clean surface of the bar counter.
"How did you end up starving like this?" she asked, seemingly nonchalant.
"This..." Lu Yuan hesitated for a moment. He couldn't exactly say that he had never eaten before, so he had no experience with hunger, right?
"So..." The woman suddenly raised her head and stared straight into Lu Yuan's eyes: "Were you just playing 'Ark'?"
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