Chapter 8

Chi Ning had bought it, probably worried that standing too long would be bad for his injury, so he had bought a whole bunch at once.

But Qin Heng knew Chi Ning was a bit of a clean freak. He would never drink from bottles that had been used and recycled by others. So where had the bayberry juice gone after Chi Ning bought it?

Qin Heng's thoughts suddenly stalled.

Why did he know something so private?

It was as if it had been etched into his soul from birth.

Forget it. It did not matter. A young master like Chi Ning had probably only taken a passing interest out of curiosity and kindness. It would fade soon enough.

It would be better if it faded.

Qin Heng looked at Chi Ning and found his gaze focused intently on Zhang Qiuwen's side. Before his mind could catch up, his tongue moved on its own. "Want someone to play with you?"

Chapter 8

Chi Ning snorted inwardly without hesitation.

Little liar. After scamming him, he wanted to scam another ten yuan from him?

No chance!

"I don't want to." Chi Ning urged Zhang Qiuwen, "Hurry up and start it."

"Yeah, yeah." Zhang Qiuwen responded while secretly glancing at the rejected Qin Heng.

Qin Heng let out a breath, and the muscles he had unconsciously tensed relaxed.

He had spoken without thinking. The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted them. Thankfully, he had been rejected.

A minute later.

Zhang Qiuwen clumsily finished the table-opening process, handed the receipt and membership card back to Chi Ning, and pointed at the snooker table nearest the entrance. "This one."

Xu Jiahao slapped Zhang Qiuwen's pointing hand away and reprimanded him softly, "Where are your manners? What are you pointing for? When guiding a customer, hold out your palm face-up, then lead them over!"

Zhang Qiuwen rubbed the back of his hand. He did not even dare hiss in pain, bending at the waist as he started to raise his hand. Xu Jiahao slapped him again. "Straighten your back. Even if you're faking it, make it look convincing."

"I'll do it." Qin Heng stepped in front of Zhang Qiuwen and held out a hand to Chi Ning. "This way, please."

The two had only just learned the etiquette, and the politeness was all an act, but Qin Heng's performance was far more natural than Zhang Qiuwen's. He looked completely genuine.

Chi Ning closed his eyes. Thinking of the expensive lab equipment he was about to purchase—centrifuges, chromatographs, blowdown evaporators, extraction instruments, and the like—he immediately felt calm, all lingering anger vanishing as if he could attain Buddhahood on the spot just by pressing his palms together.

He followed Qin Heng to the table.

Snooker originated in Britain. It had been invented in 1875 by a colonel stationed in India and had once been a wildly popular pastime among British soldiers.

The brochure spent the most space introducing British snooker, but the most conspicuous phrases were still "difficult for beginners" and "not suitable for novice players."

Following the tutorial included at the back of the brochure, Chi Ning arranged the balls and tested the cue provided beside the table. It really was a little harder than the American pool he had played in Gangnan.

Snooker balls were smaller than American pool balls, making it harder to find the point of contact, and the rules were more complicated as well.

American pool only required accuracy and speed, but snooker also demanded score calculation, making it far more mentally demanding.

When Chi Ning took his first shot, he was even too weak to break apart the triangular formation of red balls.

Boss Xu's place had a great atmosphere, without someone like Jiang Shijie ruining the mood.

Chi Ning played while letting his mind wander. Before he knew it, he had steadily potted more than half the red balls, barely missing any shots. A ball went into a pocket almost every time.

Under snooker rules, pocketing a red ball earned one point, and after scoring, the player gained one chance to pot a colored ball. The six differently colored balls each represented different scores.

Players alternated between pocketing red balls and colored balls until every red ball was off the table. Then they pocketed the colored balls in ascending order of point value until all of them were removed as well.[1]

The tables at Boss Xu's place had electronic sensors. The electronic scoreboard beside Chi Ning's table kept climbing so rapidly that, without a closer look, one might have thought it was malfunctioning.

The young man's stance was very standard, and he was playing alone. Many customers in the lounge area noticed him.

A customer seated fairly close gestured toward Chi Ning with his chin and leaned toward his companion. "That boy's pretty good."

The man in gold-rimmed glasses replied, "Not bad. They're all basic shots, and he's not very strong. From his style, he clearly doesn't understand the essence of snooker at all. But his calculation skills are pretty good..."

"You're just being stubborn. You've looked over there several times already."

The customer laughed. "He seems to be staring blankly at that black ball in the middle. His arms are probably too short to reach it. Has no one taught him how to use a rest cue and extension? We're free anyway. Why don't you go teach him?"

The billiards hall was quiet, and the deliberately lowered voices carried clearly into Chi Ning's ears. Feeling indignant, he glanced their way and met a pair of calm eyes.

The man wore a suit and dress shirt, with a leather armband around his upper arm. His sleeves were rolled up, exposing firm, muscular forearms. His temperament was extremely similar to Qin Heng after he had grown up in Chi Ning's previous life.

Chi Ning had PTSD from refined scum who looked like they were good at deceiving people. He quickly withdrew his gaze.

Before he could figure out how to deal with the awkwardly positioned black ball, the refined scum said, "Do you think just anyone can become my student?"

Chi Ning: ...

He had never suffered this kind of disdain in either life.

With a solemn expression, Chi Ning picked up the cue and measured the distance between the black ball and the middle pocket, then used his arm as a ruler to calculate the angle and force.

He could not reach it while leaning down, but if he held the end of the cue and struck straight, he could still hit it.

He flipped the cue around and swept it sideways with the thick end at the bottom. The black ball flew out and dropped into the pocket with a thunk, like a firecracker.

It was accurate, but it had nothing to do with the elegance and gentlemanliness for which billiards was known.

"Pfft." The customer who had first commented laughed out loud. "He's angry. He's kind of cute. If you don't want him, I do. I don't have a student yet."

Chi Ning rolled his eyes inwardly.

Still being picky?

Did they think this was a vegetable market?

He bent down, picked all the balls out from beneath the table, and placed them back on it. Using the triangle rack, he gathered the round, strawberry-colored red balls together.

Just as he bent over to push the fifteen red balls into position, that refined scum walked over, pulled a business card from inside his suit jacket, and said, "My surname is Mo."

One did not slap a smiling face.

Chi Ning accepted the card and glanced down at it. "Hello, Mr. Mo. My name is Chi Ning."

"How long have you been playing?" the man asked, leaning against the table.

"Twice." Chi Ning was carefully examining the business card.

Black lettering on a white background displayed a name—Mo Yuanzhou.

Mo Yuanzhou's glasses slid down his nose, and his tone rose slightly. "How many times?"

"Twice." Chi Ning repeated himself distractedly, holding the card closer to inspect the densely packed titles.

—World Grand Prix Champion, Hua Nation Open Champion, World Championship Champion, Masters runner-up, and so on.

The tiny gold-stamped words were so densely packed that he could not finish reading them. They made his head spin.

Chi Ning suddenly reflected on himself. Had he hit that shot a little too loudly just now? It was understandable for a world champion to have a sharp tone. Back when he had been in the lab in his previous life, he had been much fiercer than this man.

As he was reflecting, Mo Yuanzhou's voice sounded beside him. "Sorry. We shouldn't have discussed you in private. If you weren't lying, being this good after only playing twice is already impressive."

He shielded the business card's tiny lettering, which reflected under the lights like golden ants, with his hand. A hint of shyness entered his voice. "Careful of your eyes."

Chi Ning: ...

His teeth ached.

Mo Yuanzhou was too much like Qin Heng from his previous life. Looking at him made Chi Ning's psychological trauma surge up.

"What can I do for you?" He tilted his head, his tone carrying just the right amount of sarcasm. "Was my playing too noisy for you?"

Mo Yuanzhou smiled. His future student was quite vindictive. Kind of cute, too. "I came to ask whether you want to be my student."

His tone was calm and his attitude open, as though he had not been the one dismissing Chi Ning earlier.

Chi Ning remembered it perfectly and declined tactfully. "I may not pursue a professional career in the future. I'm only playing for fun right now."

Mo Yuanzhou sighed in relief. "That's good. Snooker players generally do not earn much prize money. Most people find it difficult to support themselves solely by playing."

He turned over the business card in Chi Ning's hand. On the back were the words—VERGINE Design Director. "This is actually my main job."

Chi Ning's scalp tingled. He felt as though he had run into an overachiever.

He no longer cared about world champions or anything else. Afraid of being worked to death by comparison, he sincerely and practically refused, "Mr. Mo, I'm not motivated in my studies, I don't work hard at school, I just like to mess around, and I'm a very laid-back person. I'm not suited to being trained as a champion's successor. Please find someone else."

Qin Heng, who had been watching from nearby, could not help laughing. He had thought Chi Ning was defenseless around everyone. It seemed he had learned to be clever.

At this rate, even proper teachers would probably not want him.

Yet Mo Yuanzhou nodded. "Not bad. I only want to teach for fun too. If you want to win championships right away and play too focused on winning, I would not want you as my student instead."

Chi Ning took a wary step back. "You don't have any requirements at all. Are you going to charge a lot of money? How much are the lesson fees? I'm very poor."

Zhang Qiuwen, Xu Jiahao, and Qin Heng all wore extremely fascinating expressions.

According to the rumors, the Chi family's stock price was somewhat unstable, but that did not change the fact that they were Yangcheng's richest family. As long as the Chi family did not change hands and there were no major changes in share ownership, they would remain wealthy.

But what was Chi Ning saying now?

Poor?

"It's fine. I have plenty of money. I don't need your few hundred yuan." Mo Yuanzhou folded his arms and looked at Chi Ning leisurely, as though he had not been the one scrutinizing and judging him earlier. He was offering it for free with remarkable generosity.

"No." Chi Ning had been fooled too many times and did not fall for it at all. "Free is the most expensive."

The customer who had encouraged him to take on a student laughed with great schadenfreude and said to Mo Yuanzhou, "So you have a day like this too?"

People in design had an innate fondness for good-looking things.

The boy in front of him seemed to have suffered some kind of harsh social beating. He was extremely wary of strangers. If Mo Yuanzhou had no requirements at all, it would instead make it impossible for him to let down his guard.