Chapter 25 Bar?

Chapter 25: The Bar?

The punishment ended, the stinging sensation faded. Jiang Jiang rolled over, burying his face into the soft pillow.

Two minutes later, the young man in bear-print pajamas squirmed a couple of times, then suddenly began inching his way across the mattress.

What am I gonna do, what am I gonna do... He couldn't possibly fail each time and get electrocuted every time, could he?

Inch by inch.

He wriggled to the foot of the bed.

Wuwu, what should I do...

Inch by inch.

He wriggled to the head of the bed.

"Knock, knock, knock." A knock at the door interrupted him.

Inch...

Jiang Jiang sat up, rolled over, and climbed off the bed. "Who is it?"

Before he even reached the door, he heard Nanny Wang's voice. "Young Master, it's me."

He rubbed his face, smoothing the gloomy look from his features, and replaced it with his usual carefree smile before pulling the door open.

"What's up, Nanny Wang?" he asked in a light tone.

"Downstairs... that Assistant Lin who brought Xiao Lv last time is here again. He says... he's here to deliver something for you."

Goodness knows how Nanny Wang felt when she heard Assistant Lin was coming to deliver something again. The week Xiao Lv was here had worn her out completely.

Assistant Lin? Hearing the name, Jiang Jiang was momentarily stunned.

Since learning that the main love interest was Lu Xingye, he had indeed intentionally reduced his harassment of Lu Nanzhou. He didn't even have to do the daily "Good Morning, Lu" task that 404 used to force him to do every morning.

Coupled with that damn task, it seemed like he hadn't contacted Lu Nanzhou for several days now.

Nanny Wang cautiously asked, "Will you see him?"

Jiang Jiang snapped back to reality. "Yes, yes. Nanny Wang, please show him in first. I'll change clothes and be right down."

With that, he slammed the door shut with a *bang* and rushed into the walk-in closet to change out of his bear pajamas.

In the living room, Assistant Lin sat primly on the sofa. On the coffee table in front of him sat a cup of steaming, fragrant tea.

On the sofa beside him were piled some exquisitely packaged gift boxes.

...

"Assistant Lin?"

Assistant Lin looked up towards the source of the voice.

The young man was wearing a beige shirt with a little brown bear on the left chest. The shirt was half-tucked into light blue jeans, accentuating his slender waist. His slightly curly chestnut hair seemed a bit unruly, with a few strands sticking up. He was looking at him with a beaming smile.

It was Young Master Jiang.

Assistant Lin quickly stood up, giving a slight bow, his tone respectful and attentive. "Good afternoon, Young Master Jiang. President Lu is very concerned about your condition and specifically asked me to come check on you."

Hearing this, Jiang Jiang blinked.

Lu Nanzhou was so weird.

If you said he didn't care, he remembered the foot injury and even sent his most capable assistant. If you said he cared, he only sent his assistant.

He really hadn't messaged Lu Nanzhou these past two days, but the other hadn't contacted him either.

Hmm, maybe he didn't count as a good friend in Lu Nanzhou's eyes.

"How is your foot injury?" Assistant Lin asked with concern.

His gaze followed Jiang Jiang's movements.

"Look, it's all better now."

"That's good." Assistant Lin turned sideways, casually picking up two boxes from the pile beside him. "These are some gifts from President Lu."

Jiang Jiang wasn't particularly interested in gifts initially, but when he saw the familiar logo on the boxes in Assistant Lin's hands, his eyes lit up.

Wasn't this the box from Liang's Pastry Shop in the east of the city? He loved their crepe cake.

But this shop was so famous, you basically had to wait in line for at least an hour to buy anything. He hadn't had it in ages.

He pattered over in small, quick steps and took the boxes from Assistant Lin's hands.

"President Lu specifically instructed me to buy these for you," Assistant Lin emphasized the word "specifically."

After saying this, he stepped aside and pointed to the other boxes. "And these."

Jiang Jiang followed his pointing finger. "Wow."

Many were brands he recognized, all delicious little snacks.

"Thank you!" Jiang Jiang said, grinning from ear to ear.

Assistant Lin smiled and shook his head. "No need to thank me. It was all arranged by President Lu."

He exchanged a few more polite words, confirmed that Jiang Jiang's foot injury was indeed fine, then politely took his leave.

After seeing Assistant Lin off, Jiang Jiang was like a little mouse that had fallen into a rice vat.

"Nom!" He scooped a large spoonful of crepe cake into his mouth.

The sweet cream melted in his mouth. Jiang Jiang squinted his eyes in bliss.

Soon, his cheeks were stuffed full.

Lu Nanzhou held an expensive fountain pen between his fingers. A document lay open before him, but his gaze wasn't focused on the text.

The document had been open for a long time, still on the first page.

......

His slender fingers began unconsciously tapping the desk again.

"Ding dong."

A phone notification chimed.

Lu Nanzhou immediately set down his pen and picked up his phone from where it lay face-down on the desk.

It was a message from Jiang Jiang.

Jiang Jiang: [snack photo].jpg

Jiang Jiang: [Jiang Jiang posing with snacks].jpg

Jiang Jiang: [Jiang Jiang giving a thumbs-up to the snacks].jpg

Jiang Jiang: Thanks for the snacks, bro! They're so good!

Lu Nanzhou didn't even realize that the corners of his mouth had quietly curved upward.

He tapped open the photo of Jiang Jiang with the snacks.

The photo was large, 12MB, and was very clear when downloaded.

He could even see the tiny crumbs at the corner of Jiang Jiang's mouth.

He casually saved it.

Lu Nanzhou: Glad you like them.

The document, untouched for half the day, finally turned to the second page.

......

Half an hour later, Assistant Lin returned to the company and went straight to the CEO's office.

He had heard from colleagues that the boss seemed to be in a bad mood today.

He carefully weighed his words while observing the boss's expression.

Young Master Jiang was wearing a beige shirt with a little brown bear on the left chest, the shirt half-tucked into light blue jeans.

Young Master Jiang seemed to be in a pretty good mood today.

He gave a detailed report of every little thing.

Lu Nanzhou listened, his face still wearing its usual indifferent expression, but he neither interrupted nor showed any impatience.

Assistant Lin continued his report with relief.

Young Master Jiang shifted his feet and even took a few small running steps.

Young Master Jiang was very happy with the gifts, especially the mille-feuille cake from Liang's.

Young Master Jiang...

By the end, Assistant Lin's throat was getting dry from all the talking.

"Hmm, noted. You may go."

The office fell quiet again. The document in Lu Nanzhou's hand finally turned another page.

......

After 404 activated the assistant function, the interface kept showing that the main system was calculating...

It calculated for two days, right up until the second mission was about to begin, and still hadn't produced a result.

404: ...

Even the main system is starting to be unreliable.

It can't be that even the main system can't figure out who can assist Jiang Jiang in completing the mission, right...

It tilted its head up 45 degrees, looking at the sky.

They say if you look up like that, the tears won't fall.

......

Jiang Jiang enjoyed two carefree days without missions.

At noon that day, it was still just him and his second brother, Jiang Huaiyu, at the dining table.

He was busy shoveling food into his mouth.

"Ding, mission has been released. Please check the system space promptly."

The system notification suddenly rang, startling Jiang Jiang. He gasped in surprise, and the next second, the spicy soup instantly went down the wrong pipe.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough—"

He started coughing violently, tears streaming from his eyes.

"Tsk." Jiang Huaiyu, sitting across from him, frowned in disdain, his words merciless. "You can even choke yourself while eating. Jiang Jiang, you're really something."

But his actions were anything but slow. He quickly pulled out a few tissues and handed them over, while getting up to fetch a bottle of ice water from the fridge.

Jiang Jiang took the tissues and wiped away the tears from his coughing fit.

Just as he was catching his breath a little, a bottle of ice-cold water was shoved into his hand.

He quickly gulped down several large mouthfuls. The cool liquid slid down his throat, temporarily suppressing the burning, stinging sensation.

"Cough... Th-thanks, Second Brother."

He thanked him hoarsely, but his mind had already flown to that damn system mission.

"What's going on?" Jiang Huaiyu sat back down, raising an eyebrow at him. "Can't even focus while eating?"

"Well," Jiang Jiang's eyes darted around as he made up an excuse on the spot, "because I choked, that's why I choked."

Jiang Huaiyu: "..."

He shot Jiang Jiang a look that said, "You must be kidding me," and couldn't be bothered to deal with his clearly distracted younger brother any further.

Jiang Jiang hastily finished the rest of his meal, pushed his bowl away, tossed out a "Second Brother, I'm full, you take your time," and then bolted back to his second-floor bedroom as if his pants were on fire.

He opened the system space to check the situation.

"Mission Background: After your deliberate encounter with Lu Xingye last time, you recalled your past good times together. Thinking of Lu Xingye's handsome face, your heart started beating fast again. You wanted to test his attitude, so upon learning that Lu Xingye and his band friends would be performing at the Mesmer Bar tonight, you took the initiative to go to the venue, joined their gathering, and played Truth or Dare with them."

Jiang Jiang had a lot of points he wanted to criticize.

Handsome face? He found it annoying just looking at him.

What did it mean, his heart started beating fast again? If a heart doesn't beat, that's called a corpse.

"Please play Truth or Dare with Lu Xingye and deliver the line: □□□, I like you."

"The mission countdown: 8 hours, 35 minutes, 29 seconds."

Wait a second.

Did he just see those censored blocks again?

Jiang Jiang rubbed at his eyes.

"404, you..."

404 saw it too. Before Jiang Jiang could finish, it let out a sharp, piercing shriek, "Ahhhhh! What's going on?! Wasn't it fixed already?!"

It kept refreshing the page, but the blocks still didn't disappear.

This isn't right, this isn't right!

404 instantly went offline.

Jiang Jiang stared at the blocks, stroking his chin.

Since 404 couldn't recognize these three characters, did that mean he could fill in any name he wanted?

Half an hour later, 404 returned.

Its tone was particularly weary: "The repair queue is backed up for two months. The maintenance system gave me a quick check and said it might be because I got electrocuted last time when you failed the mission."

Why is my life so hard? Doesn't anyone care about this thousand-year-old veteran?

"What about the mission?" Jiang Jiang was more concerned about that.

"It still has to be done. Based on context, the blocks refer to Lu Xingye. Play it by ear, and I'll try to figure out a way to fix this." After saying that, 404 grew wary again. "This time... can you handle it?"

Jiang Jiang smiled innocently, "Don't worry, I can handle it."

404 didn't expect him to be so cooperative this time, but it felt a vague sense of unease.

......

8 PM.

At the Glamour Bar.

Jiang Jiang sat in a corner booth.

He happily ordered several glasses of the delicious cocktails he'd tried last time.

Since Lu Xingye and the others hadn't arrived yet, why not let him sample these tasty little drinks first? Hehehe.

"Gulp, gulp."

One glass was quickly downed. Jiang Jiang smacked his lips twice.

It was delicious, but the glass was just too small.

He picked up another glass of a pink, delicate-looking cocktail.

"Gulp, gulp, gulp."

Man, why are all these little drinks so tasty?

.......

Meanwhile, Lu Nanzhou had no social engagements or overtime work for once today. He stood by the floor-to-ceiling window with a glass of water, gazing at the city nightscape illuminated by neon lights.

Ever since sending the gift that day and receiving Jiang Jiang's thank-you message, their chat had fallen silent again.

It had been two days.

His fingers unconsciously rubbed the cool surface of the glass. After a moment of thought, he picked up his phone and took the initiative to send a message.

Lu Nanzhou: What are you doing?

The message was sent, but it sank like a stone.

After waiting nearly half an hour, a notification finally sounded.

It was a voice message.

Lu Nanzhou tapped to play.

The chaotic background noise of music rushed out first, almost drowning out the voice.

Jiang Jiang's voice sounded distinctly unsteady, "I... I'm at, Glamour Bar, wh-what's up?"

This voice... clearly sounded drunk.

Author's Note: Lu Nanzhou: ?

-----------------------

Where did Jiang Jiang say he was?

Everyone's so enthusiastic, hehehe.

I originally wanted to do a giveaway for 66 readers, but it's limited to 5% of the total bookmarks, so only 40 spots.

We'll do another one next month~

Check out the upcoming works if you're interested and feel free to bookmark them!