Chapter 5: Unspoken Understanding
Although he already knew what was going on, Guan Hai still held onto a sliver of hope. He tore open the red envelope and pulled out one hundred New Beginning Coins.
That's right, there was only one hundred New Beginning Coins inside. Guan Hai had completely ripped open the red envelope, and apart from that, there was nothing else.
"Damn it, how stingy! " Guan Hai complained, not in anger, but with a wry, exasperated expression.
Yang Haoran smiled helplessly and said, "I thought Brother Liu was quite savvy; looks like I overestimated him. I've been in this line of work for a while now, and the minimum for a red envelope is usually two hundred. I was hoping to split it with you, one hundred each, but now that's out the window."
Since Yang Haoran had started this profession, Guan Hai had brought him a lot of business. Yang Haoran had gained a minor reputation on their street, and Guan Hai's contributions were certainly indispensable. Whenever Guan Hai introduced a client, Yang Haoran would always split the payment evenly with him after the job was done. Though he was short on money and liked it, he never let his friends suffer a loss.
He had only squeezed the red envelope earlier and immediately determined there was only one hundred New Beginning Coins inside. So he simply gave it all to Guan Hai. With only one hundred, they couldn't possibly split it fifty-fifty; that would make him seem too petty.
However, Guan Hai didn't take the hundred, but tossed it back to Yang Haoran. "You spent the whole afternoon working. It would be disloyal of me to take this money. Even though I introduced this business, I never expected Brother Liu to be so stingy. What a miscalculation!"
Seeing Yang Haoran still trying to hand him the money, Guan Hai continued, "He's treating us to dinner tonight. I'll definitely eat back my share. Afterwards, I'll take him to my bar to spend some money, and my losses will be recouped. So you don't need to worry about me losing out."
Yang Haoran chuckled at his words, no longer feigning modesty, and tucked the hundred New Beginning Coins into his shoulder bag.
Upon hearing this, Yang Haoran showed no embarrassment at his lie being exposed. Instead, he looked at Guan Hai with disdain, snorted, and said, "Hmph, you, a mere mortal with ordinary eyes, how could you possibly understand the prowess of your Brother Yang? Do you think only you are clever and everyone else is a fool? If I didn't have real skills, I would have been called a charlatan long ago, and my convenience store would have been smashed countless times by now. But have you ever seen me called a charlatan? Have you ever seen anyone come to my convenience store to cause trouble?"
Yang Haoran's question instantly made the smile on Guan Hai's face falter into awkwardness. Indeed, he had never seen anyone call Yang Haoran a charlatan, nor had he seen anyone cause trouble at Yang Haoran's shop. Not only that, but among everyone Guan Hai knew who had hired Yang Haoran for a job, their impression of Yang Haoran seemed to be quite good; some even showed him great respect. From this perspective, Yang Haoran truly didn't seem like a charlatan, at least among the people Guan Hai knew.
However, Guan Hai just had a gut feeling that Yang Haoran was nine times out of ten pretending to be a spiritual master. He had no evidence; it was purely intuition. In the environment he currently lived in, the existence of ghosts and spirits was inherently vague, so finding evidence of Yang Haoran's charlatanry was indeed difficult.
With no evidence, Guan Hai couldn't refute Yang Haoran, so he simply chuckled, trying to mask his embarrassment.
Guan Hai didn't press the topic further, and Yang Haoran didn't relentlessly pursue it to make Guan Hai uncomfortable. When interacting with friends, one often needs to know where to draw the line. No matter how close the relationship, one shouldn't be aggressive or unyielding even when in the right. Even a joke, if taken too far, can leave a lingering resentment in the other person's heart.
Moreover, Yang Haoran knew very well that Guan Hai wasn't wrong. He truly had no real abilities; his slight reputation was entirely earned through acting. If he were actually asked to subdue demons or exorcise spirits, he would undoubtedly run faster than anyone.
However, in handling Mr. Liu's apartment today, Yang Haoran wasn't entirely deceiving him. Some words were false, but some were true. Mixing truth and falsehood together made it harder to spot the deception.
The restaurant where Mr. Liu booked their meal was just a very ordinary one—small, with a poor environment. But Mr. Liu found himself an excellent excuse: the food here tasted great, which was why he chose it. As for the cost, that was completely irrelevant.
If Yang Haoran had never eaten at this restaurant before, and if he didn't know how much Mr. Liu had given him in the red envelope today, he might have believed a few of Mr. Liu's words. But now, he simply smiled without speaking.
Guan Hai owned a small bar on this very street, not far from this restaurant. They had both frequented this establishment before. To be honest, the restaurant's food was quite mediocre, not nearly as delicious as Mr. Liu claimed. Its only advantage was that it was very cheap.
Both Yang Haoran and Guan Hai were well aware of this, but neither of them poked through this "window paper" of unspoken truth. They both maintained cheerful expressions, showing no hint of dissatisfaction.
As the food and drinks arrived, they raised their cups and toasted, the atmosphere wonderfully harmonious. None of the three commented on the restaurant's food, and Yang Haoran and Guan Hai also made no mention of the red envelope. It was an unspoken understanding between them.
Guan Hai, though young, was mature beyond his years. While not a seasoned fox, he had his own methods and principles for dealing with people. He dared to call himself a 'Love Saint' and could navigate the field of romance with ease, something one couldn't achieve without some skill.
As for Yang Haoran, he had spent over a decade roughing it in society, enduring many trials and tribulations. While he couldn't compare to Guan Hai when it came to charming women, he certainly had his own ways of surviving in this world.
The reason he didn't mention the red envelope and still got along famously with Mr. Liu was simply to avoid embarrassing the other party. While it was true Mr. Liu was stingy, he still had his own circle of friends. By not completely falling out with him and leaving him with a good impression, Yang Haoran's client base would expand, and perhaps this stingy fellow could even help him gain a reputation and bring in more business.
Once he laid it all out and accused the other party of being stingy, the outcome would definitely not be pleasant. It would make everyone uncomfortable and might even lead to a complete falling out, possibly even offending someone. This was completely unnecessary.
A smart person's way of doing things is to try to make more friends and fewer enemies. As long as the other party doesn't touch upon a matter of principle, what's a small loss? Perhaps this minor loss could even bring greater gains in the future.
In Yang Haoran's view, everyone was useful, even a fool was no exception; the key was knowing how to use them.
Moreover, fate is a mysterious thing. Today, someone might need your help; tomorrow, you might need theirs. Those who haven't experienced it might scoff, but Yang Haoran had truly lived through it, and it left a profound impression on him. Therefore, under normal circumstances, he generally wouldn't burn bridges, unless the other party was truly ungrateful.
After eating and drinking their fill, Mr. Liu was quite drunk, but Yang Haoran and Guan Hai remained unfazed. It wasn't that the two drank less than Mr. Liu, nor was it that Mr. Liu had poor alcohol tolerance; it was simply that Yang Haoran and Guan Hai had incredibly high tolerances.
Compared to average drinkers, Mr. Liu might have been decent, but next to Yang Haoran and Guan Hai, his alcohol tolerance seemed rather unremarkable.
When the bill came, the three of them had spent over six hundred New Beginning Coins in total. If Mr. Liu had been sober, and they had spent that much, he would inevitably have interrogated the owner with endless questions, spouting nonsense about whether the bill was calculated correctly. But drunk, he was a completely different person: generous, extravagant!
"Small change, haha, small change! I'm happy today, this little bit of money is nothing! " Mr. Liu chuckled foolishly as he paid the bill, without even blinking an eye.
In truth, the restaurant hadn't cheated them. While their food was cheap, they had consumed a lot of alcohol, so the price naturally wasn't low. Yang Haoran and Guan Hai knew this, but whether Mr. Liu did was another matter.
"Let's go, let's go! I just heard from Brother Guan Hai that he has a bar nearby. It's a rare occasion to be so happy today, let's go to Brother Guan Hai's bar and drink our fill! This round's still on me, no one dare fight me for it!"
Mr. Liu held Guan Hai with one hand and Yang Haoran with the other, remarkably intimate. Anyone who didn't know them would think their relationship was incredibly close.
Watching Mr. Liu's frenzied state, Yang Haoran couldn't help but feel a wave of nostalgia, thinking of his past self. He recalled how he used to scrimp and save, unwilling to even buy a decent piece of clothing. Yet, whenever he gathered with friends, he would spend lavishly, always rushing to pay the bill at various occasions, money flowing like water. Often, all the money he had saved through long periods of frugality would be gone in a single bill.
Perhaps in the eyes of some, Yang Haoran's actions back then were a testament to his forthrightness, but others might have seen it as a pathological need, a pretense, a way to seek presence and avoid being overlooked or looked down upon, "pumping up his face to act like a fat man."
When these whispers reached Yang Haoran's ears, he was deeply hurt, because at that time, he genuinely was straightforward and had no intention of showing off in front of his friends. But not everyone saw it that way.
Because of this incident, he learned some lessons and understood that "the human heart is separated by the belly. " You never truly know what another person is thinking. You might consider someone a friend, but they might not see you the same way. You might feel you're simply doing what a friend should, even if it means taking a small loss, but the other person might not appreciate it, and instead, might think you're "acting like a big-tailed wolf."
True friendship requires time to deepen; it's not something that can be compared after just a few casual encounters. "A distant road tests a horse's strength; a long time reveals a person's heart."
However, the Mr. Liu of today was not the Yang Haoran of the past, and Yang Haoran was no longer his former self. He didn't offer Mr. Liu any sarcastic remarks, but instead, cheerfully accepted Mr. Liu's invitation.
"Good! We'll go to Guan Hai's place for a bit. Coincidentally, I haven't had my fill yet! " Yang Haoran said with a hearty laugh. Guan Hai had been busy with him all afternoon and hadn't earned a single coin, so he definitely needed to go to the bar and boost Guan Hai's sales.
Comments