Boss Coal was forcibly dragged away from the car wash by his bird neck.
At first, he still tried to salvage some dignity:
"Heh-heh, we're all men here. Let me save some face! Ohhh-"
When Qingmu suggested that he would be eating raw chestnuts and cold water for a month if he still refused to go home, Boss Coal began pondering the crow-life philosophy of the relationship between love and food. Amid his agonizing inner struggle, he cried out that famous line of poetry:
"Life is precious, but love is worth still more!"
Even the beautiful, proud macaw could not help being moved by his impassioned, heartfelt lament, and shook out its colorful feathers.
And so, when his ringing poetry recital ended, Boss Coal made his decision:
Give up love and go home for braised pork knuckle.
He leaped resolutely onto Qingmu's head, gripped his messy hair firmly with his claws, and raised a wing to give the parrot a jaunty wave. "Sayonara!"
After that delay, the evening lights were already coming on by the time they returned to Ruhua Bar.
Business at the bar seemed unusually good that day. From a distance, Qingmu spotted a large crowd gathered at the entrance, as though watching some performance.
Had Ruhua taken the stage to sing herself?
At the bar's entrance, Qingmu ran into Xiao Qi hurrying out.
"Oh, you're finally back!" Xiao Qi said. "The boss lady's having a drinking contest!"
"A drinking contest? Why?"
"A man showed up with a bunch of people right after we opened today. They were really aggressive. He said he'd paid to keep Mo Yu, but she stood him up. He wanted her to leave with him and said she had to pay him back." Xiao Qi briefly explained what had happened. "The boss lady stood up for Mo Yu, and he started making trouble. Now they've agreed to settle it with a drinking contest. The boss lady said that guy was here to cause trouble and might go back on his word, so she sent me to get some of the neighborhood guys to back her up."
Xiao Qi went off to fetch people, while Qingmu squeezed through the crowd.
A large table in the middle of the bar was covered in beer. Bi Shenghua had one foot planted on a stool and her hands on her hips, shielding Mo Yu behind her.
A young man stood across the table, with four or five sleazy-looking thugs behind him. One of them was a burly bald man whose arms were covered in tattoos.
The young man pointed at the table full of beer. "We're drinking this? You call this a drinking contest?" He turned back to his companions and burst out laughing. "Hey, boys, this is what they call a drinking contest! Hahaha!"
They all laughed along. One chimed in, "Beer doesn't count for shit! Who doesn't know our Young Master Jiang is a famous drinking god on the nightclub scene?"
The young man they called Young Master Jiang continued, "Got the guts to drink something else? How about Rémy Martin? Vodka works too!"
Bi Shenghua slammed the table. "Motherfucker, you think imported liquor's free?"
"Watch your fucking mouth!" one of the thugs behind him cursed.
"This is how I fucking talk! What are you going to do about it?" Bi Shenghua shot back.
Young Master Jiang waved a hand, stopping the thugs behind him from getting physical. "Ha! Feisty! Beer it is, then. But let's get this straight first. Once we're done, not only does she come with me"-he pointed at Mo Yu, then at Bi Shenghua-"you come too. You're just my type!"
Bi Shenghua settled it without hesitation. "If I lose, I'll wash my ass nice and clean, and you can do whatever you want! But what if you lose?"
"How could I possibly lose over a few bottles of beer?" Young Master Jiang said confidently.
"What if you do?" Bi Shenghua asked.
The onlookers joined in. "Yeah, what if you lose?"
"If I lose, I'll let you both off," Young Master Jiang said.
Just then, Qingmu stepped forward, pretending to be a passing spectator. "What kind of bet is that? The stakes aren't even fair!"
Seeing that he had only just returned so late, Bi Shenghua glared at him.
A thug behind Young Master Jiang shouted at Qingmu, "Who the hell are you with, punk? Who said you get a say here?"
"It really isn't fair!"
"Yeah, you're throwing your weight around!" the spectators said.
"How is it unfair? I paid good money to keep her." Young Master Jiang pointed at Mo Yu. "Doesn't my money count?"
"What proof do you have that you paid to keep her?" someone asked.
Young Master Jiang sneered. "Go check. I transferred the money on my phone. Want me to open it up and show you right now?" He waved his phone, then added smugly, "Besides, I burned the soles of her feet and her ass a few times with cigarette butts. If I wasn't keeping her, would she have let me do that?"
The crowd erupted.
Some jeered for Mo Yu to take off her pants and show them. Others said that if she would not take off her pants, she could at least take off her shoes and show the soles of her feet. Looking at her feet would not get her pregnant.
Mo Yu's face turned deathly pale. She swayed, looking ready to collapse.
Just then, Xiao Qi rushed in with a group of people, who lined up behind Bi Shenghua, instantly bolstering her side's presence.
Xiao Qi steadied Mo Yu and gently reassured her. "It's okay, it's okay. Don't listen to their bullshit. I've heard plenty of nonsense and big talk in bars."
Mo Yu's eyes were lifeless, dull and empty, staring at no one knew where.
Bi Shenghua smashed a beer bottle with a crack and cursed, "Are you fucking drinking or not? If not, get the hell out!"
"Of course I am. I'm still waiting to fuck that ass of yours!" Young Master Jiang grinned lewdly. "Tell me, how are we doing this? You set the rules, so no one can say I, Jiang Deqian, bullied you."
"Simple!" Bi Shenghua said. "Straight from the bottle, no spilling, and no bathroom breaks. Piss, puke, or pass out, and you lose. If neither of us goes down, the first to finish a case wins! And get this straight: if you lose, you get out of Liuying Lane and never come back!"
How could anyone drink beer without going to the bathroom? The spectators began discussing it.
The Heineken on the table came in 330-milliliter bottles, twenty-four to a case, which worked out to almost eight thousand milliliters. Someone who could really hold their liquor might manage a case of beer, but the rules forbade bathroom breaks or vomiting. Who could pour eight kilos of beer into their stomach in one go without pissing or puking?
Jiang Deqian seemed to hesitate, but remembering that Bi Shenghua was nothing more than a tomboy with delicate skin, he readily agreed. "Fine! We'll do it your way. Just wash that ass and wait to get fucked!"
The people he had brought all laughed wickedly. From their expressions, they did not believe for a moment that their Young Master Jiang could lose.
Bi Shenghua wasted no more words. She grabbed a bottle from the table, bit off the cap, spat it hard onto the floor, then tipped her head back and chugged the whole bottle down. She wiped her mouth when she finished. "Your turn!"
"Nice!" Enthusiastic applause erupted around them.
Jiang Deqian sneered, took a bottle from the table, and held it out to one side. The bald, tattooed man behind him reached out and gripped the cap. Working together, they applied force, and the bald man pulled the cap off with a pop.
That display of ripping off a bottle cap bare-handed instantly subdued the crowd. The bar fell silent, leaving only the sound of beer gurgling down Jiang Deqian's throat.