Chapter 30: Is the Bar Fun?

Chapter 30: Is the Bar Fun?

A little past one in the morning, the lights were still on in the manor villa. Gu Hansheng glanced at his watch, got up, and headed outside. A woman stood up at the same time, raising her voice: "Where are you going? Your third uncle hasn't been out of danger yet! You're not just gonna run off, are you?!"

"Going for a smoke." Gu Hansheng stepped outside, lit a cigarette, and looked back at the window of the room on the second floor.

The lights were off; the old man was already asleep.

Because the third uncle had been angered into the hospital, the third aunt had shown up crying and raising hell, so the old man had summoned Gu Hansheng to apologize to her, basically to say a few nice words and get rid of her. But the third aunt wouldn't let it go, insisting he stay until the third uncle woke up. With her family behind her, the old man couldn't say much to her, so he had Gu Hansheng, as the younger generation, wait with her.

Gu Hansheng knew exactly what his third uncle was up to—if you can't win, fake being half-dead, torpedo the shareholders' meeting, and throw more wrenches in later. If he wanted to play games, Gu Hansheng was happy to play along. It was just bad timing, though; if it weren't for this crazy couple kicking up a fuss, he'd be on the yacht right now, sipping Romanée-Conti that Song Wenhao had swiped from his family's cellar.

He wasn't big on birthdays, but that didn't mean he was okay with having his day ruined by this mess.

Lin Su suddenly texted him. He glanced at his phone, stubbed out his cigarette, and turned to leave.

"Gu Hansheng! Where are you going?!" The third aunt chased after him: "Are you gonna ignore your own grandfather now?! You haven't taken power yet, and you already have no respect for your elders?! Get back here!"

She was yelling at the top of her lungs, probably hoping to wake the old man so he'd come out and referee, but she still couldn't stop Gu Hansheng.

The bar had closed early, and after the customers cleared out, the cops showed up. Even after Lin Su spent ages trying to mediate, they still called the cops. There was a camera in the employee hallway—the supervisor had definitely blocked him, and Zhao Yu had definitely shoved him.

Song Wenhao said to the police: "He caused trouble in my place, shoved people, hit people. I can't even do business tonight—you know how much money I'm losing? You should at least throw him in a cell for a few days, right?"

Zhao Yu said: "The cops already said it was just a shove, not assault. You deaf or what? You decided to close early yourself—what's that got to do with me?"

"Hey? Don't think you can twist this around on me, man. I closed early because of what happened today, so yeah, it's got everything to do with you!"

"Then what right did he have to stop me from leaving?" Zhao Yu pointed at the supervisor: "Trying to hold me hostage or something?"

The supervisor said: "There's no unlawful detention! It's because I noticed some stuff missing from the store, and I wanted to confirm whether he took it, so I stopped him. Officer, don't you think it's suspicious that he suddenly wanted to leave after working here fine? I was just looking out for the store's property."

To cover his ass for stopping Zhao Yu, he suddenly changed his story and started slinging mud without blinking.

The police asked: "What's missing? When was it lost?"

The supervisor said: "A few bottles of liquor, probably worth three or four grand total. I only noticed yesterday after closing. He's the only new hire—nothing ever went missing before, but a few days after he shows up, stuff starts disappearing. He's got shifty eyes—he's obviously suspicious!"

Zhao Yu was about to say something when he suddenly spotted Gu Hansheng. His face changed, and he quickly turned away, stupidly trying to hide from Gu Hansheng with that lame move.

The supervisor pressed his advantage: "See? See? Guilty conscience, huh?! He definitely stole it!"

Zhao Yu wished the supervisor would just shut the hell up. He'd rather get hauled in by the cops for questioning than get caught red-handed by Gu Hansheng again in this mess.

"What'd he steal?" Gu Hansheng's voice sounded from behind Zhao Yu.

"Old Gu! What are you doing here?" Song Wenhao pointed at Zhao Yu and said: "This kid's been holding a grudge ever since you dumped him. He came to my place to cause trouble and stole my booze!"

"I didn't steal anything, alright?" Zhao Yu turned around to defend himself: "He can pull up the surveillance footage."

The supervisor glanced at Gu Hansheng, assuming he was Song Wenhao's friend and therefore on his side, and said: "The camera in the back broke the day before yesterday and still hasn't been fixed. But you've been in and out of the back a lot these past two days. You know damn well whether you took anything."

Before Zhao Yu could retort, Gu Hansheng suddenly spoke: "Did you see him take it with your own eyes?"

"I didn't see it, but he—"

"The camera didn't catch it, and you didn't see it. So you must have other proof. Let's see it—don't waste my time."

Hearing Gu Hansheng's tone, the supervisor finally realized this guy wasn't on his side. He'd only made up an excuse to stop Zhao Yu, and now that someone was backing him, he quickly switched gears: "It was just a suspicion. I stopped him to ask if he'd taken anything, and then he just shoved me out of nowhere. Whether he stole anything or not, he shouldn't have resorted to violence."

The police officer was rather exasperated: "If you saw him steal something, report him for theft. If not, don't make baseless accusations. As far as I can see, this is just a verbal dispute and a shove. How about you both back off and apologize to each other?"

Song Wenhao said: "How can we just let it go?"

"Indeed, we can't just let it go," Gu Hansheng agreed.

"Right? Old Gu, you agree too!"

"If something's missing, we need to find the thief. But if nothing's missing—" Gu Hansheng looked at the supervisor.

In an instant, cold sweat broke out on the supervisor's forehead.

Song Wenhao hadn't noticed anything wrong with the supervisor and said naively: "Right, right, we do need to find the thief, but Zhao Yu—"

Lin Su finally couldn't watch anymore and pulled Song Wenhao aside: "The cops already said it doesn't amount to a fight. Come here." Then he said to Old Gu: "I'll talk some sense into him; you two handle your business." With that, he dragged Song Wenhao to a distance.

Seeing the only boss backing him up walk away, the supervisor lost his nerve and said: "Since the cops put it that way, let's drop it. I'll do an internal check on the theft matter myself. Um... Zhao Yu, I shouldn't have suspected you without reason. I apologize. Officer, is that acceptable?"

The police officer nodded and looked at Zhao Yu.

Zhao Yu said: "I shouldn't have pushed you. I apologize."

Both parties reached a settlement, and after a few words of admonishment, the police left.

Once the police were gone, the supervisor smiled obsequiously at Gu Hansheng: "Boss, today was all a misunderstanding. I didn't know he was someone you knew. I apologize to you as well—sorry about that."

Though he didn't know Gu Hansheng, one look at his clothes and the expensive watch on his wrist told him this was someone he couldn't afford to offend. Internally, he cursed Zhao Yu for having a sugar daddy yet still coming to work and playing the innocent, while hoping Song Wenhao would hurry back to help him out of this.

Over there, Lin Su had already laid out the whole situation for Song Wenhao, finally making him realize the supervisor's words weren't entirely trustworthy—he'd been used as a pawn. Finally, he added: "Does Old Gu look like he's fallen out with that 'Little White Flower'? Isn't he still protecting him?"

Song Wenhao's eyes widened: "That can't be right! Last time things got so ugly, I thought Old Gu must hate him to death, at least skin him alive!"

"So did he get skinned alive?"

Zhao Yu hadn't lost so much as a layer of skin—if anything, he looked better than before. Song Wenhao was baffled and no longer sure whether he should keep making things hard for Zhao Yu to get back at Gu Hansheng on his behalf.

"Song Wenhao, get over here!" Gu Hansheng called out.

"Coming!" Song Wenhao snapped to attention, walked over, and explained: "Old Gu... I didn't know what was going on between you two. I really thought he came to my place to pick a fight."

Gu Hansheng didn't bother arguing about it and only said: "I'll send an accountant over tomorrow to go through your books and check the surveillance near the back too. If Zhao Yu really stole something, report it to the police or do whatever you want—I won't interfere."

"With you saying that, no problem." Song Wenhao turned to the supervisor: "You'd better tell the truth—why did you stop him from leaving? You caused me such a big misunderstanding!"

Song Wenhao was an absentee owner, and the supervisor knew he never looked at the books, so he often slacked off, leaving the store's accounts in a mess. As for whether anything was missing from the back, he knew full well nothing was—it was all just a frame-up of Zhao Yu.

When the cops came to investigate, he could brush it off by claiming he'd misremembered, but if Gu Hansheng came to check, his job would be on the line. At this point, the supervisor could only say with a mournful face: "Zhao Yu was doing a great job. I wanted to keep him on, even offered him a raise, but who knew—"

Gu Hansheng had no patience to hear the rest. He didn't want to waste more time, so he left, even abandoning Zhao Yu.

Zhao Yu hurried after him, and as he exited the bar, he accidentally bumped into Gu Hansheng's back.

Gu Hansheng turned around, his backlit expression dark and unreadable, his cold voice echoing in the empty street: "How hard is it to just behave? Can you go one day without causing trouble? Do I need to put a leash around your neck and tie you up?"

Zhao Yu explained: "I wasn't trying to cause trouble. I just came to work—"

"Work?" Gu Hansheng let out a scoff: "Is the bar fun?"

"I really wasn't here for fun. The night shift pays pretty well..."

Gu Hansheng cut him off again: "Were you serving drinks?"

Zhao Yu rushed to say: "No! All I did was carry plates, wipe tables, and take out the trash—I didn't touch a single drop of alcohol!"

Gu Hansheng's expression eased a bit, but then he sneered again: "Do you know how much I pay those people who do your rehabilitation? Staying up all night to bus tables? Ha... if you like busing tables so much, then keep doing it here—do it for the rest of your life."

With that, he abandoned Zhao Yu where he stood, got in his car, and sped off.

Zhao Yu felt as if he had been slapped in the face. He stood by the roadside for a long time, his face going from pale to red, then slowly draining back to pale.

He wanted to argue back with Gu Hansheng, but he couldn't say a word. Whether it was the full-time housekeeper or the family doctor, their salaries were extremely high. In comparison, the three hundred-some yuan he earned from working five hard hours every night really did seem laughable.

As the sky gradually turned pale, Zhao Yu walked back alone, slowly, and sat down at the bus stop.

The morning breeze made him feel cold. He'd always known he was just a possession to Gu Hansheng, but when he earned money with his own hands and still had all his worth denied, that feeling was truly awful.