The bright sky that once rose above Imperial soon engulf into darkness as night fell. What was once a crowded street, now empty as people had already returned to their homes.
However, three buildings down from Uncle Zhi's rundown building, a simple looking restaurant was having their own difficulty outside.
"Sir, we are now closed. You need to leave."
A male worker of the restaurant politely asks as he tries to get a drunk customer to leave. They had already cleaned the place and locked up whatever needed to be locked.
The only thing left was to get this man to leave. He had been here since the afternoon and continued to order beer after beer.
"Sir, do you hear me? We're closed now."
He repeated his words and stares at the fat man now sitting on the ground. As much as he wanted to help the man get up, he (the worker) is barely half the size of the drunk man.
"Sir, we are closed. You—"
"Shut up!!"
Xu Zheng angrily yells at the worker in annoyance. He indeed had a little too much to drink and now his head is pounding like crazy. If this worker says one more word, he is going to beat the living hell out of him.
Unaware of Xu Zheng's plans to beat him, the worker continues to ask.
"Sir, do you hear me? We're closed now. Is there someone we can call to come pick you up?"
As the words enter Xu Zheng's ears, his headache became more painful.
Forcing his eyes to open, he was able to open one and glares at the worker in a drunken state of mind. His hand raises and he reaches for the boy.
"Y-Y-You l-little shit. I s-said for you to *hic to shut up…"
Just as Xu Zheng was about to grab the worker, someone pulls the man away from his grasp.
The male worker turns to the person and furrow his brows, "Boss."
It was an elderly man that pulled him from getting beat up. He is the owner of the restaurant and looks at his employee then to the drunken man.
"Leave him be. I already locked the restaurant. Once he sobers, he'll eventually leave, or someone will come looking for him."
It didn't take long before both employee and owner decided not to waste anymore time on the drunk man.
They have dealt with situations like this too much to care about it.
Left alone in silence, Xu Zheng's head drops, and snoring sounds came from him like he had fallen into a deep sleep.
*Ring ring*
"Mmm…"
He groans at the sound of his phone and fumble to get his phone out of his pocket.
"H-Hello…?"
["Xu Zheng! You fat fuck, where the hell are you?!"]
A man's raging yell sounds from the other line as Xu Zheng frowns.
"I… I'm here… *hic"
["Fucken bastard, are you drunk? Didn't I tell you not to drink?!"]
"I... *hic… I only had one beer… *hic"
["You better not screw this up for us! If boss finds out, you're a dead man!!"]
The voice continues to roar in anger and quickly ends the call.
"Hrmm…"
Xu Zheng groggily groans and put his phone away. However, instead of his phone entering his pocket, it slid down to the ground next to him.
Forcing his eyes to open, he held onto the edge of the table and stumbles to stand up. As he stood, he almost lost his balance but was able to steady himself correctly.
He squints his eyes to see better and walks in the direction of his car.
After what felt like forever, he is finally able to make out the outline of his parked car. It was the only vehicle in sight since everyone had already left home.
"Uh…"
He groans at his headache and reach into his pocket for his car key.
Just as he nears his car, a slim arm swiftly wraps around his neck from behind and held him in a choke hold.
"Argh… Who are you…?"
Xu Zheng grown as a growl as he struggles. His key drops to the ground and both his hands grip onto the slim arm to free himself. However, in his drunken state, whoever was behind him had the upper hand.
Before he could fully come to his senses, his eyes rolled up and everything in front of him turned black.
Loosing his consciousness, he falls face flat onto the ground as the man behind stared expressionlessly down at him.
The man slowly lift his hand and his index finger points between his eyes. With a small push, he fixes his glasses.
"Really Qi Li? You couldn't catch him before he fell?"
A voice sounds from the side as a figure steps out from the shadows of a dark alley.
Yiqing shakes his head at Qi Li and walks over to the fat man lying unconscious on the ground.
"How are we going to carry him now?"
Qi Li stares at the man he had knocked out and shrug his shoulder. He wasn't thinking about the aftermath while choking the man.
"I got it."
Another voice sounds from the direction of the dark alley and both men turn to see who it is. The tone was lazy and deep, but they knew who it was.
Yiqing's eyes lit up like he had seen his savior and he stood up from the ground. One hand raise in an okay gesture to the man.
"Alright, we'll leave it to you then, Mr. Muscles."
Jiangyu ignores the nickname and strides over to where Xu Zheng laid. He looks down at the man before lifting his left leg and kicks the man to turn him over.
Grabbing one of Xu Zheng's arm, he pulls the man up and place him over his shoulder like a sack of rice.
"Let's go before someone comes."
His words fell as he did not wait for the other two and walks back into the dark alley where no one can see his figure carrying a heavy load.
Yiqing smiles and quickly follows after in skips while Qi Li remains unmoving.
He arch a brow in amazement at Jiangyu's departing figure.
Jiangyu is tall and bulky, while Xu Zheng is shorter but bigger in weight. However, the bulky man carried the man like was picking up a bag of garbage from the ground.
Shaking his head, he follows after the two men.
Indeed worthy of the nickname, Mr. Muscles.