Zhu Gui watched Du Xing having a good time on top and laughed, "That bastard, I should have gone myself." I patted his protruding belly: "Are you sure you can handle it?"
Zhu Gui scoffed, "Even if he's not good enough, he still has some skills. You should know that, apart from An Daoquan and Jin Dajian on the mountain, Du Xing's kung fu is among the worst."
"And what about you?"
Zhu Gui, perhaps afraid I'd ask Du Xing myself, chuckled sheepishly, "I'm counting even further back." I joked with him a few more times before returning to my seat. I saw Baozi drinking heavily, sweating profusely. I glared at her and said, "Were you shouting along with everyone?" Li Shishi chuckled to herself. Seeing Liu Bang was gone, I pointed to his empty seat and said, "Where's this kid?" Qin Shihuang gestured towards the dance floor. I turned around and saw Liu Bang, hands raised, swaying his hips and wiggling his buttocks. Joining him was a middle-aged woman with a face full of pimples, clearly the kind of sexually frustrated widow. The two of them were exchanging flirtatious glances.
I pulled Xiang Yu aside and whispered, "Brother Yu, you've dealt with him before, do you know what kind of trauma this kid has experienced with women?"
Xiang Yu said, "I've seen his women, but I can't tell anything about them."
"Is it pretty?"
Xiang Yu nodded.
My curiosity was piqued, and I asked, "How does it compare to Shishi?"
Xiang Yu glanced at Li Shishi and said, "It's hard to say. Shishi seems to be slightly inferior."
I was horrified. Looking at Li Shishi, from her appearance and figure to her temperament, she was the epitome of perfection. Xiang Yu and Liu Bang were mortal enemies, yet he could say that. It's clear that Empress Lü was far superior to Li Shishi. Was Liu Bang's visual senses overwhelmed by such a stunning beauty? Did he simply give up on everything in this regard?
Of course, another possibility is that Xiang Yu's aesthetic sense was also flawed. I asked him, "How does Sister-in-law Yu Ji compare to Shi Shi?"
Xiang Yu slowly shook his head: "Yu Ji wasn't very beautiful, but she was just... that kind of..." Xiang Yu's eyes were full of passion, but he couldn't describe it.
"Catwoman?" I suggested a word to him.
“Catwoman…” Xiang Yu murmured, then suddenly nodded and said, “That suits her very well. When she’s gentle, she’s like a kitten, lying softly in your arms, completely trusting you. But sometimes she can be quite mischievous, and in front of others, she’s so independent and proud.” I suddenly wondered if Xiang Yu’s taste was really questionable, and asked, “Then who’s prettier, sister-in-law or Baozi?”
Xiang Yu laughed magnanimously, then looked at me with a regretful gaze: "Do you want me to tell you the truth?"
"No need to say anything..."
Just then, something happened upstairs. Seven or eight men came running down the stairs, squeezing through the revelers, and ran out the main door. Less than half a minute later, the waiter I had my eye on approached me, leaned down, and calmly whispered in my ear, "Brother Xiao, something's happened upstairs. Manager Zhu wants you to come over."
I could see the anxiety in his eyes, and I knew this was no small matter, so I quickly stood up and followed him. Only after we were quite a distance from our seats did I ask, "What's wrong?"
"Manager Zhu was stabbed in the back."
"Ah!?" I was shocked.
He quickly reassured me, saying, "But the injury is not serious."
I felt a little relieved. Seeing that this young man was steady and reliable, I realized he was indeed a promising individual. So I asked him, "What's your name?"
"Sun Sixin, you can just call me Xiao Sun."
"Have you notified your Manager Du?"
"Manager Du has already gone there."
I nodded, and as I passed a table where a customer had just left, I grabbed a wine bottle and followed him upstairs with my hands behind my back. Liu Bang, thinking something good was about to happen, also secretly followed behind us.
We went upstairs and entered a private room. The first thing I saw was a mess; several male waiters were frantically cleaning up. Zhu Gui sat on the sofa, grimacing, while Du Xing paced back and forth, cursing incessantly. It seemed Zhu Gui wasn't seriously injured. I put down the bottle and asked, "Where is he?"
"He ran away." As he spoke, Zhu Gui released his hand from his buttocks, and I then noticed a cut on his buttocks where he usually got injections. It had bled quite a bit, soaking the sofa. Sun Sixin somehow managed to get some wound medicine and gauze, which Zhu Gui took and said, "Everyone who's alright can go out now. We'll clean up later."
Only Zhu, Du, Liu Bang, and I remained in the private room, and that's when I asked him what happened.
It turned out that Zhu Gui was downstairs when a waiter approached him saying there was a fight upstairs. Zhu Gui went up to ask what was going on and learned that two people in adjacent private rooms had gotten into an argument because the other was singing too loudly, and the fight had escalated. Zhu Gui tried to break up the fight but was accidentally stabbed. Zhu Gui took off his pants, and Du Xing helped him apply medicine and bandage the wound. Du Xing examined Zhu Gui's wound and, knowing it wasn't serious, relaxed somewhat. He deliberately tightened the slit in Zhu Gui's wound, making Zhu Gui wince in pain, and chuckled, saying, "Aren't you supposed to be a crocodile? Your butt is so tender."
Zhu Gui lay sprawled on the sofa, grumbling, "This isn't over yet!" He suddenly looked up at me and asked, "Xiao Qiang, do you have any enemies around here?"
"No, why?"
"It's alright, please inform Military Advisor Wu and the others for me, and then we'll talk."
I felt really awkward that this happened on his first day helping me at the shop. I asked him if he needed to go to the hospital, but Zhu Gui waved his hand and said, "Don't alarm the customers, my injury is nothing."
Du Xing led us out and said casually, "It's alright, he'll be fine after a while, you guys continue playing." Then he went back into the private room.
I couldn't make sense of it for a moment, and then Liu Bang suddenly said at the top of the stairs, "I think your friend has been tricked."
"What's the meaning?"
Liu Bang stroked his chin and analyzed slyly, "The first problem is that the people in the two private rooms complained about the noise from the other. You saw it yourself, you couldn't hear anything from the next room at all. Then, neither group used knives in the fight, but the people trying to break it up used them instead. Don't you find that strange? I also saw those people running out earlier; they were clearly in cahoots. Besides, your friend doesn't look like a pushover. If it were an ordinary fight, even if knives were used, they wouldn't have been able to hurt him. It must have been someone holding him down before they did it. Luckily, they only wanted to scare him, so they didn't actually kill him."
The more I listened to his words, the more I thought they made sense, except for the last sentence, which I didn't take seriously. Was he just trying to scare the Liangshan heroes?
How did you analyze this so clearly?
Liu Bang said triumphantly, "I am the ancestor of scheming, favoritism, poisoning, and backstabbing!"
It was only then that I realized why Zhu Gui had asked me if I had any enemies in the area. He wasn't stupid; he knew he had been ambushed. He asked me to inform Wu Yong so that he could find someone smart enough to help him resolve the matter.
As far as I know, the 108 heroes of Liangshan had very good relationships. This isn't like a unit with over 100 people, where there are always differences in kinship. These 108 people didn't have promotions or salary increases; their positions were fixed and there were no vested interests. They sat together drinking every day—how could their relationship not be strong? What was the English title of *Water Margin* again? "All men are brothers under heaven!"
Even if that's not the case, if Zhu Gui gets stabbed in the backside, it's like Liangshan gets stabbed in the backside. These bandits, especially Li Kui, kill entire families casually, and they're already furious about living in makeshift tents. Now that someone's crossed them, it's like stirring up the biggest swarm of man-eating bees in the Amazon rainforest. All the celestial and terrestrial spirits are mobilized, and I'm the lone nemesis…
I'm really unlucky; I just took over the bar and this happened. Zhu Gui was even more unlucky; he was stabbed in the back after only half a day as deputy manager. Of course, the most unlucky one was the person behind the trouble. Regardless of who he was targeting, he messed with the person he should never have messed with in 2007-2008: Zhu Gui, the deputy manager of the Reverse Time Bar, whose true identity is the ninety-second hero of Liangshan!
What did Huang Jianxiang say again? He's not alone...
Chapter Sixty-Three: Brainless and Unhappy
I took out my phone and thought about it for a long time before finally deciding to tell the truth. Fortunately, Zhu Gui was alright.
I called Lai Zi's phone. He was already home, and he gave me a number, saying it was from someone named Song Qing. I didn't expect Song Qing to have bought a phone too. I called and introduced myself, and Song Qing said gently, "Oh, it's Brother Qiang. Tell Du Xing I've prepared everything he needed. He can start work as soon as he gets back." I chatted with him for a bit and learned that he had used the money I gave him to directly take over a small brewing workshop in Yao Village; everything was ready. It seems this young man is really capable.