Chapter 38: 038 Confident Young Girl
Pei Ningle could never have imagined that Wang Heng made a special trip to the campus supermarket before meeting up with her, buying an umbrella and a bottle of beer.
There was no sign of rain at all, so logically speaking, there was no need for an umbrella. And that bottle of the lowest grade beer, the first thing he did after taking it out of the supermarket was to pour out all the inferior liquor inside. Then, Wang Heng put the umbrella and empty beer bottle into his backpack behind him, with the zipper opened just a little, ensuring he could pull out these two items at any time.
After experiencing two accidents, Wang Heng felt that if he still didn’t know to prepare for self-defense in advance, he would be too stupid.
So when he arrived at the school gate, Pei Ningle had already been standing there waiting for a while.
“Sorry, there was something going on in the dormitory, I came a bit late.”
Casually spitting out a reasonable lie was a core skill he had honed from being deeply trapped in an asura field before.
Pei Ningle smiled and shook her head: “I’m just happy you came, no problem, I don’t have anything urgent anyway. It won’t start over there for another half hour or so, we can take our time getting there.”
So Wang Heng didn’t say anything more and walked to that bar with her.
Telecommunications Science and Technology University, as one of the top universities in the country, also had a good location, right in the urban area of Rongdu, surrounded by more than one large business district. So places like bars were naturally not lacking.
When the two entered that bar, there were already customers inside. But the atmosphere was slightly cold and quiet.
Wang Heng glanced at the bar’s interior layout and nodded: “Should I say it’s worthy of being a bar near the school? Pretty proper.”
The bar’s lighting was very soft, with no dance floor for people to twist their bodies, and the wall of wine bottles took up an entire cabinet wall, appearing quite high-grade. The light music interwoven from piano and violin surrounded the ears. The overall style was not vulgar at all, even a bit aloof.
“Of course, I definitely chose a quiet bar, otherwise how dangerous would that be?” Pei Ningle said this while taking out her mobile phone to send a text message.
Wang Heng shrugged: “You still know about danger, not easy.”
At this time, the bar owner received Pei Ningle’s text message and came over to greet them. He was a mature man around thirty or forty years old—the main difference between a mature man and a middle-aged man was the charm value. This boss had slightly messy flowing medium-long hair, a neatly groomed goatee on his chin, bronze skin that gleamed under the lights, and a casual suit that created a unique charm of a mature man.
“Good evening, little Pei, and this is?” The bar owner looked at Wang Heng beside the young girl.
“I’m Wang Heng, I’m Pei Ningle’s—”
“He’s my older brother!”
Wang Heng’s words were suddenly interrupted halfway by Pei Ningle, leaving him stunned. He turned his head to glare at her, questioning with his eyes— you didn’t mention this beforehand!
Pei Ningle ignored his gaze and continued: “He’s my uncle’s son, so our surnames are different. We’ve grown up together since we were little, very close!”
Wang Heng was stunned. This girl could actually tell a lie? Without blushing or skipping a beat, and making up a story with a beginning and end, too amazing.
The bar owner smiled: “So you’re little Pei’s older brother, welcome welcome. Later when little Pei sings there, I’ll arrange a bar counter seat for you, drink and listen.”
Wang Heng: “I don’t drink much…”
The bar owner smiled even more happily: “I wasn’t planning to give you alcohol anyway, the drinks here are expensive, free all night would bankrupt me. Brother, cola, sprite, orange juice, or soda water?”
Wang Heng: “Soda water is fine.”
“Good, come sit here. Little Pei, drink some warm water and prepare, singing starts in ten minutes. That’s it, I’ll call you later.”
After saying that, the bar owner turned and walked away.
Three or four meters beside the bar counter, there was a small round stage. On that round stage that could barely fit one or two people, there was a bar stool and a standing microphone. In another ten minutes, it would become the main stage for Pei Ningle to shine.
Wang Heng thought that if he were about to go on stage in a bit, that feeling definitely wouldn’t be relaxed. Even if not nervous to the point of not being able to drink water, at least he couldn’t be as chatty and laughing as Pei Ningle was now.
The young girl sat with him in front of the bar counter, took a sip of warm water, and said: “That person just now is called Yan Zitao, everyone calls him Brother Tao. This bar is his family’s.”
“I could tell,” Wang Heng nodded, “By the way, what are you singing when you go on stage later?”
“An old song, Leaf, have you heard it?”
“I’ve heard it.”
Pei Ningle put down the water cup, a bit helpless: “I actually really want to sing a song I wrote myself, but the best one isn’t finished yet. And in a bar, everyone wants to hear old songs, not originals. It has to be one most people have heard, not too overplayed, and match the bar’s atmosphere…”
Wang Heng: “Sounds not easy either.”
The young girl patted her small chest and got cocky again: “But no problem, I can sing a lot of such songs. You know, for pop songs, I can sing them after hearing once, and after practicing two more times, I can guarantee no off-key!”
“That amazing?”
Wang Heng echoed insincerely—he of course knew this girl’s abilities and wasn’t surprised at all.
Pei Ningle had many flaws in life, or in other words, she was a walking big trouble. But only for her on stage, Wang Heng had never complained or inwardly criticized. When the music started and she sang out loud, she had never disappointed him.
A few more minutes passed, and bar owner Brother Tao came quickly over: “Little Pei, time to go on.”
Pei Ningle nodded firmly and walked onto that small stage without looking back. The lights in the bar adjusted accordingly, with several spotlights shining on the young girl, attracting a few people’s gazes.
There were less than twenty customers in the bar total, most either chatting or playing on their mobile phones, only about five or six paying attention to the stage.
No introduction, no one reminding customers ‘please watch the performance on stage’—whether to attract others’ attention all depended on the resident singer’s own strength. If the effect wasn’t good, then after tonight, the boss clearly wouldn’t let her come back a second time.
But Pei Ningle showed no retreat. She sat on the bar stool, adjusted the microphone height, and waited for the prelude to start.
The bar owner sat in the seat she had just vacated, patted Wang Heng’s shoulder: “I call you little Wang, okay? What do you think of your sister’s singing?”
Wang Heng: “She’s a powerhouse.”
Brother Tao grinned: “You have that much confidence too?”
Wang Heng nodded.
At that moment, soothing piano sounds floated from the speakers, the prelude to《 Leaf》. The prelude to this song was very short, and Pei Ningle was just about to grip the microphone and start singing.
Wang Heng said in a low voice again: “I bet you’ll definitely want to keep her later, but she might not stay here afterward.”
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