Music Tavern

The taxi pulled up smoothly in front of a tavern bathed in warm yellow light.

"Here we are."

"Guaranteed to satisfy."

The chatty taxi driver in the front seat said, his face lighting up with enthusiasm.

Lin Yu looked at the driver's overly bright smile through the rearview mirror and silently smacked his lips a couple of times.

He just felt that those words sounded a bit off.

What he had said earlier shouldn't have been easily misinterpreted as something else, right?

Hmmm...

Probably not.

Settling his mind.

Lin Yu paid the fare and got out of the car.

Pushing the door open and entering the tavern, Lin Yu quickly realized he had misunderstood the taxi driver.

The tavern he recommended was actually very decent.

The environment was clean, and the lighting was soft.

The patrons weren't noisy; they just gathered in twos and threes, whispering in low voices.

Not far away, there was a small stage bathed in light.

A young woman in a long white dress sat elegantly on a wooden chair on the stage, embracing a cello. The lights surrounded her in the center of their glow, as if holding a precious treasure.

She slowly bowed the strings, and the melodious, deep sound of the cello filled every corner of the tavern with her movements.

Mhmm.

Lin Yu nodded to himself.

Looking around.

Lin Yu felt this place was really quite nice.

Perfect for having a quiet, solitary drink.

There were still empty tables around.

But Lin Yu didn't bother joining the crowd.

He was all by himself.

Why sit at such a large table?

Lin Yu turned and walked to the bar, sitting down on a high stool where even someone of his height couldn't rest his feet flat on the ground.

"Sir, would you like something to drink?"

A familiar voice sounded in his ear.

Lin Yu instinctively looked up and saw someone unexpected, completely out of context.

Why is he working here now?

Lin Yu raised his long eyebrows, somewhat surprised.

He still remembered their previous two encounters.

Once, the guy was working in the kitchen of a fried chicken shop in a mall.

Another time, he was handing out flyers in an underground plaza.

Right.

The first time they met, he even mentioned he was a student.

Does a student really have this much time for odd jobs?

Looking at the young man in front of him, Lin Yu was full of questions.

However, Lin Yu didn't question the man directly. Instead, he answered his initial question:

"Mix me a cocktail."

"Not too strong, something easy to drink."

The young man, who looked to be around twenty, nodded and turned to select suitable liquors from the dazzling array on the shelves behind him.

Lin Yu kept his eyes fixed on the man.

The look the man had just given him was indescribably complex.

There was no malice in his clear eyes.

Nor was there any fondness.

What filled his eyes was only a complicated, faint wariness.

They were both grown men.

Why was he wary of him?

Lin Yu couldn't quite figure it out.

It wasn't like he was some stunning beauty; was there really a need for that?

The man's hands were very nimble.

Two interlocking metal shakers spun and flipped in his palms, a pleasing sight to watch.

In a short while, he had mixed a cocktail.

Looking at the cocktail pushed in front of him, Lin Yu picked it up, took a gentle sip, and joked casually with the man:

"You change jobs pretty frequently, don't you?"

Seeing him working in three different places over the span of a few weeks, Lin Yu naturally assumed he was just picky and hadn't been satisfied with the previous two jobs.

To Lin Yu's surprise, after a moment of silence, the young man gave a different answer.

"I didn't change jobs."

"You didn't change jobs?"

"Weren't you frying chicken in a fast-food joint just a few days ago? And before that, I saw you handing out flyers in the underground plaza."

Lin Yu asked, puzzled.

"Yeah."

The man didn't deny it; he fully acknowledged it and said:

"I'm still doing those jobs."

Hearing the man's words, Lin Yu's eyes widened.

"Still doing them?"

"You're working three jobs at once?"

The man nodded calmly.

"Working this hard."

"Do you need money urgently?"

Lin Yu took another sip of his cocktail with great interest, looking as if he had just found the perfect appetizer to go with his drink.

He couldn't help it.

After all these years.

Lin Yu's habit of loving gossip and enjoying a good show hadn't changed at all.

"Yeah."

The man nodded. He let out a long breath and said, looking somewhat exhausted:

"I have to help someone pay off a huge debt."

"Help someone pay off a debt?"

"Who?"

"How much do they owe?"

Lin Yu pressed on like a curious child.

The man pursed his lips, seeming a bit reluctant to discuss the topic, but after a moment, he still answered:

"I guess you could call him a friend I just met recently."

"He owes over six hundred thousand."

Hearing this, even more question marks popped up in Lin Yu's head.

"A friend you just met recently?"

"Then why are you paying off his debt?"

"Do you like her?"

Lin Yu tried his best to use normal human logic to guess the man's motives.

"He's a guy."

"He has a family."

"His child is already three years old."

The man's tone was flat, swiftly and decisively ruling out the possibility that he was some hopeless romantic.

So the question remained.

Lin Yu looked completely baffled.

"Then why on earth are you paying his debt?"

"Do you owe him something?"

The man shook his head and said frankly:

"No."

"Then why do you want to help him pay off this money?"

Lin Yu asked, utterly unable to understand.