Chapter 22: The Club
When faced with seduction, Gu Qing’s attitude had always been to go with the flow.
So his hand naturally came to rest on the girl’s tender white feet. Qianqian’s little feet were fragrant and soft, and even through her socks he could feel their supple texture. At this moment, it was actually his completely shameless expression, seriously playing around, that made Qianqian’s cheeks flush red. Her toes under the white socks instinctively curled up, but were mischievously pried open by Gu Qing again and again, until she pleaded softly, “Stop…”
Only then did Gu Qing let go, lying back down on the sofa and picking up the remote to flip through TV channels. Qianqian sat there for a while longer before moving closer to him. After a moment of cautious testing and hesitation, she slowly lay down, resting her head on Gu Qing’s lap as she watched TV.
Gu Qing said nothing—no surprise, no shock, and certainly no embarrassment or reluctance. He just sat there naturally, like a tree growing lush and green in a forest.
And Qianqian was like a little deer resting beneath that tree, docile and gentle.
Only after a while did Gu Qing realize his hand seemed to have nowhere to rest. After a moment’s hesitation, he naturally placed it lightly on her waist. Qianqian’s body trembled slightly, her eyes narrowing as she tried to sneak a glance at Gu Qing’s expression, only to find his gaze still listlessly focused on the TV programs, completely unchanged.
…
Several days later, Gu Qing finally remembered he had important business to attend to.
Calling it important business was perhaps an overstatement—it was just introducing Ji Yueling to the fighting club. The fighting club itself was a niche organization, founded by someone who got carried away after watching some movie and created this mutual aid society-like group. The organization was indeed half filled with demons and monsters, along with some humans and extraordinary beings, all coexisting peacefully and helping each other.
The fighting club’s regular activities were exactly what the name suggested—hosting fight after fight, brutal no-holds-barred contests with only one rule: don’t kill your opponent.
As for the club’s referral process, it wasn’t too complicated. As long as the person making the referral had good relationships within the fighting club and could get half the members to agree to her joining, she just needed to complete the fighting club’s first baptism, and everyone would tacitly accept her.
The fighting club had its own group chat where Gu Qing occasionally lurked. Remembering this matter, he pulled out his phone and, together with the equally bored Qianqian, cheerfully scrolled through the past two hours of chat history before finally speaking up with a complaint: “When did this place turn into a sex mutual aid society? Tone down the hookup culture, you bastards!”
Perhaps because spring had arrived and cats and dogs were all going into heat, the guys in the fighting club seemed particularly enthusiastic about finding entertainment lately. People in the group would occasionally post sexy photos and addresses, with the most outrageous being a troublesome older sister who would post hotel addresses, saying the first man to arrive could stay the night—no motorcycles, no taxis, walking only.
Supposedly four men in the group accepted the challenge and ran all the way there, only to find the hotel completely empty. The four frustrated men ended up getting another person to join them at a gaming hotel where they played games all night, and after losing all night, they went to the club to have two hours of real fighting to work off their frustration.
Gu Qing had become an administrator years ago due to his youth and familiarity with the internet. He directly banned all the accounts posting promiscuous information for a day. Inevitably, someone in the group teased him: “How come little Gu is speaking up? Li Si said you’ve been tangled up with two beautiful women lately—how is it that officials can set fires but citizens can’t light lamps?” Gu Qing angrily replied that he’d swear on his lower half being impotent for the rest of his life that he was still a virgin, asking if the other person dared to take that bet.
The other person laughed heartily and sent him a photo of two girls in little dresses kissing in front of him, asking if he wanted to come visit and watch pure human female college students being intimate. Gu Qing then banned him for three days as punishment.
The person messaging him was a demon, and an S-rank one at that, with no sexual interest in humans. To her, such behavior was probably like watching Animal Planet.
Qianqian beside him watched with a flushed face and racing heart, but Gu Qing had already put away his phone and rubbed her head. “Alright, I need to go out for a bit. Don’t wait up for me tonight.”
“I just can’t sleep so I wanted to watch TV a little longer…”
“If I come home tonight and find you’ve fallen asleep on the sofa again, I’ll…” Gu Qing thought for a moment, then looked at her seriously, “I’ll tickle you mercilessly.”
Qianqian shrank back, curling up in the corner of the sofa and pulling a blanket over her tender white feet, her eyes suddenly becoming timid. “I understand.”
So Gu Qing set off into the sunset, only remembering to message Ji Yueling before leaving.
“Come pick me up. Don’t wear a skirt, wear something sporty, and remember to bring a change of clothes.”
…
Fifteen minutes later, Gu Qing saw Ji Yueling’s silver sports car downstairs.
She was indeed very obedient—her black hair was pulled up with a hair net, she wore a sports tank top with a beige jacket over it, and loose athletic pants that covered her body completely, leaving almost no skin exposed except her neck. Compared to her, Gu Qing was much more casual—a white shirt that Qianqian had hand-washed very clean, a pair of jeans, and before leaving, Qianqian had seriously helped him tie two little pigtails that stuck up. She had laughed until she was doubled over, while Gu Qing didn’t really care.
Gu Qing skillfully got into the passenger seat and looked at her neck. She wore a black choker around her neck, making her already slender swan-like neck look even more beautiful. Indeed, even the most withdrawn and introverted women would put some effort into their appearance. Ji Yueling drove silently and asked, “Where to?”
Gu Qing gave her the address of a bar. Ji Yueling was initially surprised but didn’t ask questions, silently driving to the nightclub-style bar and arriving at the building. They got out and entered the lobby downstairs. Gu Qing approached an elevator and pressed his fingerprint on the fingerprint lock. The elevator doors opened, and Gu Qing pressed the button for the thirteenth floor.
When the elevator opened, they found themselves facing something like a bar counter with many seats around it, scattered with various customers. Gu Qing first brought Ji Yueling to the bar counter, then looked at the bartender in front of them. “One martini, put it on Li Si’s tab.”
The bartender was a middle-aged man with slightly graying hair, wearing an impeccable suit with a rose pinned to his chest, looking quite scholarly. Hearing Gu Qing’s tone, he couldn’t help but laugh. “Does Li Si know you’re putting drinks on his tab again?”
“He screwed up counter-surveillance the other day and got me pestered by women. This is what he owes me.” Gu Qing answered righteously. Then the old man looked at Ji Yueling beside Gu Qing with some surprise. “Rare to see little Gu bring a female companion…”
“She’s a new member I’m referring. Count her in for tonight’s ring.”
Gu Qing answered casually, and the bartender nodded lightly, smiling as he asked, “What would you like to drink?”
“Same as him,” Ji Yueling replied softly.
This was her first time here, and her eyes showed some curious examination of everything around them. Gu Qing quickly reminded her in her ear, “Don’t use your abilities to probe others here. That’s impolite behavior.”
Ji Yueling nodded lightly and put away that thought. The bartender then asked playfully, “Should hers also go on Li Si’s tab?”
“Yes, absolutely,” Gu Qing answered matter-of-factly.
“I can pay for myself,” Ji Yueling hesitated before speaking slowly.
“Drinks here don’t cost money, they cost points. His drink costs between five and thirty points. Points are earned by participating in fights, or you can trade with others. Once you officially join, you’ll get your own member points card. One fight is worth a hundred points, as long as you fight you get them, regardless of winning or losing.”
Ji Yueling quickly understood Gu Qing’s meaning, her eyes shifting before asking, “How many points do you have?”
“Points reset to zero every three months. I haven’t fought in three months, so my previous points are long gone. I didn’t save up many anyway.” Gu Qing quickly answered Ji Yueling’s confusion.
“Little Gu set the club record with twelve fights in one night and drank twenty-three of my cocktails. Last year he even used points to buy some of my precious reserve liquor to treat everyone.” The middle-aged bartender suddenly laughed and shared this tidbit.
“Why bring up my embarrassing moments…”
The feeling of drinking while coughing up blood wasn’t pleasant, and Gu Qing didn’t particularly want to remember it.
Ji Yueling’s eyes still held some confusion, but she didn’t rush to ask questions. The middle-aged bartender quickly mixed drinks for both of them and handed them over. Ji Yueling lifted her glass and took a sip.
Very good liquor.
A martini is a particularly interesting cocktail—the base spirits it requires are all simple, yet different bartenders can always create completely different flavors, making it the most challenging cocktail for testing a bartender’s skills.
Ji Yueling couldn’t help but be curious and secretly took a few more glances at the scholarly middle-aged man in front of her. She knew she definitely had this face in her memory, seemed to have seen it in the Alliance’s classified file database, but couldn’t quite recall it for the moment.
Gu Qing seemed to see what she was thinking and said, “His name is Old Qin. Just call him Uncle Qin.”
The moment this name appeared, Ji Yueling suddenly remembered.
This man with the codename Old Qin was named Qin Wang in the Alliance’s classified files, and his title was also Qin Wang. He had this name because… he possessed demon bloodline of the [King] class.
But at this moment, this [King] class being wasn’t stationed in the Great Wilderness, but stood here quietly and scholarly, playing the role of a bar’s bartender.
“Club activities won’t start until later. We can have a couple drinks first.” Gu Qing leaned back in his chair, playing with the flowers on the table, gently plucking the petals and placing them on the candle to roast until all the petals were burned and charred, releasing a wisp of smoke.
Faced with his childish boring behavior, Uncle Qin just glanced over quietly, smiled and shook his head, without reproach.