No unexpected incidents occurred. Lu Zheng drove the M8 Grandmaster and left the gymnasium without stopping.
“Modern life is surprisingly colourful,” Shen Ying said with a laugh.
She laughed as she searched on her phone for information and videos about Sea City Star, then held up the phone and smiled. “I never imagined a place like that existed. Shall we go tonight?”
Liu Qingyan gently shook her head. “Don’t make trouble for Lu Lang. Is that the kind of place decent people visit?”
“Fine, fine!” Shen Ying laughed. “Anyway, we’ve already experienced Lu Lang’s heroic rescue. We don’t need that too.”
“Nightclubs can be chaotic, but quiet bars are fine,” Lu Zheng said. “They have resident singers or bands. Guests generally don’t bother each other. It’s quite peaceful.”
Liu Qingyan nodded. “That sounds good.”
“Alright, we have somewhere to go tonight,” Lu Zheng said with a nod. “I’ll look up a place, and we can head straight there.”
“There are plenty of bars like that on Yanghai Road,” Lin Wan said. “The most famous are Dark Night Star and Drunken Sea Breeze. Xiao Ying and I have been to both. They’re good.”
“Got it!” Lu Zheng snapped his fingers.
At that moment, the minibus turned a corner. Thick black smoke suddenly billowed up on the left side of the elevated road.
“A fire?” Lin Wan immediately turned to look.
The minibus was on the elevated road with a clear view. Less than a kilometre away to the left, flames burst from around the seventeenth or eighteenth floor of a residential building in a neighbourhood. Thick black smoke poured skyward.
“It’s on fire!” Lin Wan said.
“Someone’s calling for help,” Shen Ying said.
“There are still people inside the burning flat,” Si Lingxi said, her eyes narrowing.
“Has the fire service arrived?” Liu Qingyan’s eyes flashed. “There’s no time!”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Si Lingxi, sitting in the front passenger seat, gently moved her fingers.
The next instant, the flames in the burning flat on the estate instantly shrank and died out completely, leaving not even a spark.
Then a fresh breeze appeared from nowhere. It swept through the building, gathering all the remaining black smoke and carrying it outside. The people inside, who had been choking and coughing on the dense smoke, suddenly breathed clean air and stood stunned.
Trapped residents: ???
Downstairs in the neighbourhood, people who had been filming, moving electric bikes, and directing fire engines suddenly noticed the smoke had stopped rising from the upper floors.
“What happened?”
“The fire’s out?”
“No way. The flames were huge just now.”
“What’s going on? Did someone close the windows?”
“Are you joking?”
“Hey, look, there’s really no more smoke. Could it be that there was no fire, just someone burning something and we misunderstood?”
“No idea. Let’s go up and see!”
A crowd of bewildered residents and equally bewildered firefighters went upstairs together. They soon saw walls blackened by smoke, one flat that had clearly been badly burned, and neighbouring flats above, below, and next door that had also been obviously affected.
“How did the fire go out?”
“No idea.”
“Did someone come to put it out?”
“No idea.”
“What just happened?”
“No idea.”
Firefighters: “…”
Trapped residents: “…”
…
On the elevated road, the M8 Grandmaster sped past without even touching the brakes.
Lu Zheng drove with one hand and gave Si Lingxi a thumbs-up with the other. “Impressive!”
Si Lingxi shook her head, then surprisingly gave a playful smile. “You only said not to use techniques in public where ordinary people could notice. This doesn’t count, right?”
Lu Zheng nodded. “Of course not!”
If anyone could trace that back to them, Lu Zheng would livestream himself using thunder arts.
Moreover, his mindset was gradually changing. To put it bluntly: if he was discovered, so be it. What could they do about it?
…
The full-contact fighting competition had lasted all afternoon. It was already nearly six o’clock, and since it got dark early in winter, by the time the minibus reached Dark Night Star on Yanghai Road, night had completely fallen.
The group ordered some snacks and drinks, then sat quietly listening to the singer on stage.
A young woman whose looks could score seventy out of a hundred, or eighty with makeup, sat calmly on a high stool on the bar stage, playing guitar and singing.
Si Lingxi and the other two women looked around and saw small groups of people chatting, listening to music, and eating.
“Isn’t this just the same as drinking wine and listening to music in a restaurant?” Liu Qingyan asked.
Lu Zheng blinked, thought about it, and could only nod. “It really is the same thing.”
“But the atmosphere is well created,” Si Lingxi nodded. “And the lighting and sound effects are something grand restaurants in Da Jing can’t match.”
Shen Ying leaned back. Her two fair little feet slipped out of her shoes and rested lightly on Lu Zheng’s thigh. Her big toes wiggled playfully, as if provoking him, or perhaps teasing.
Liu Qingyan took Lin Wan’s arm and asked, “Do people on Blue Star come here after a day’s work, order a drink, listen to music, and relax?”
Lin Wan thought for a moment and added, “People with a bit of money who pursue spiritual enjoyment.”
At that moment, the singer finished two songs, left the stage for a break, and staff carried a guzheng onto the stage.
The bar owner came up to introduce. “A talented young woman from the music conservatory is performing here for the first time tonight. She will play a few guzheng pieces for everyone.”
Applause broke out.
Then a woman wearing hanfu walked slowly onto the stage, sat at the guzheng, and began to play gracefully to the background sound of mountains and flowing water.
“Twang, twang, twang.”
As the guzheng sounded, the customers swayed and nodded appreciatively. Some even beat the rhythm, looking like professionals.
However, Lu Zheng frowned slightly, and Si Lingxi could not help shaking her head. “Her skill is too poor.”
The previous singer had played guitar competently. Si Lingxi had never seen a guitar before, so she listened without comment. But now it was guzheng, her own speciality.
Hearing someone play badly was torture to her ears.
The performance by this conservatory talent was pure torment.
“Stop playing.”
Si Lingxi interrupted the woman on stage calmly. “Your technique is still quite raw. Go home and practise for a few more years before performing again.”
Using only the word “raw,” Si Lingxi was already being very polite. Though her voice was not loud, it somehow reached the woman on stage clearly.
The girl’s face paled.
She had heard before that some people in bars deliberately troubled newcomers. She had specially chosen a bar with a good reputation, yet she still could not escape it.
Some customers in the audience heard Si Lingxi’s words and instinctively took the performer’s side.
“She’s playing just fine!”
“Keep going, young lady. Don’t listen to trolls spouting nonsense.”
“If you think she’s bad, just leave. Does interrupting make you look talented?”
“If you think something’s wrong, point it out clearly. Go up and play a piece yourself. Don’t just talk without showing anything. People will look down on you.”
Friend recommendation: Zuo Shou Luo Li’s new book “Surviving Cautiously in the Demon Realm by Adding Points to Cultivation”. A true dragon-class powerhouse, this time a half-demon blue snake. Interested readers can check it out.
