Chapter 42: Autumn Embankment

"Mo Ge!"

"Mo Ge!"

Seeing Chen Mo come downstairs, quite a few underlings in the bar immediately stood up to greet him.

"Don't mind me, just came down for a drink, carry on with your own fun!"

Chen Mo waved his hand, dispersing the crowd.

"Mo Ge, there are private rooms available, want me to find a few hostesses to keep you company?" Ruby walked up and asked with a smile.

"Forget the private room, the atmosphere out here is pretty good." Chen Mo reached out and lifted Ruby's chin, raising his eyebrows. "It'd be even better if you could come drink with me."

Ruby knocked Chen Mo's hand away and smiled seductively. "I still have work to do! I'll come keep you company after I'm done."

Chen Mo didn't mind Ruby's rejection at all and gave her butt a squeeze. "I'll be waiting for you then!"

He found a random booth and sat down, and a waiter immediately brought over drinks.

Chen Mo hadn't been seated long before Fei Ji and Gao Jin both came back from outside.

Chen Mo immediately called the two of them over.

"Can you two smile a bit more? With those long faces all day, people will think I don't pay you."

Chen Mo looked at the two of them and teased.

Gao Jin was serious and unsmiling all day long, and Fei Ji was the same.

In the first few days after Fei Ji started following Chen Mo, he still had a smile on his face.

Who knows whether the initial excitement wore off or he'd been around Gao Jin too much, but now both of them loved to put on long faces all day.

Chen Mo somewhat regretted calling these two over for drinks—it was too easy to kill the mood.

He still had to be the big brother and come up with topics of conversation.

The three were chatting sporadically when suddenly they heard the sound of someone smashing bottles not far behind them.

"Huh? Someone's causing trouble in my bar? Let's go take a look!"

Chen Mo suddenly got interested; he wanted to see who was so blind.

Bringing Gao Jin and Fei Ji along, the three walked toward the commotion.

"Mo Ge! Jin Ge! Fei Ji Ge!"

Seeing Chen Mo and the other two approach, the underlings who had just arrived at the scene immediately called for backup.

"What's going on here?"

"So you're Chen Mo?" A fierce-looking man walked up to Chen Mo. "Nothing special!"

"What did you say?" Hearing this man's insolence, Fei Ji was about to rush forward and beat him.

Chen Mo reached out and stopped Fei Ji.

"I am Chen Mo. Where do you run, and who's your boss?"

This man had dragons and tigers tattooed on his body, with a few underlings following behind him—he was clearly from the underworld.

"I'm East Prosperity's Sang Bo, and my boss is Golden-Haired Tiger Sha Meng!" Sang Bo said arrogantly.

Chen Mo looked at Sang Bo with disdain. "East Prosperity people dare to cause trouble at my place?"

"Hey? We weren't causing trouble!"

Sang Bo pointed at a table full of drinks nearby and said.

"A hostess here opened a whole table of drinks for me, but then didn't drink a single cup herself—she's obviously treating me like a sucker! Me teaching her a lesson isn't going too far, is it?"

A hostess's main job was to sell drinks; the more drinks opened, the higher their commission.

To get customers to open more drinks, they would also play games, chat, and drink with them, keeping the customers happy.

As for going out with customers, that was another matter entirely.

Perhaps some hostesses were willing to earn that extra money, but most did not go out with customers.

However, opening drinks without drinking them was indeed a bit inappropriate.

Chen Mo casually glanced at the hostess who had her head lowered and asked, "Is that what happened?"

The hostess looked aggrieved and said timidly, "No, Mo Ge, he told me to open the drinks so I opened them! He asked me to go out with him, I didn't agree, so he refused to pay!"

Chen Mo noticed that the hostess's Gangdao dialect still sounded a bit unpolished and couldn't help taking a few extra looks.

This look was a revelation—wasn't this the Eight Hundred Million Sister from his previous life?

Jackpot!

But now wasn't the time to pick up girls; he should resolve the matter first.

Chen Mo withdrew his gaze and looked at Sang Bo. "What she's saying doesn't seem to match what you're saying!"

"What do you mean? Are you saying I'm causing trouble on purpose?"

Sang Bo shouted, and the few underlings behind him also crowded over, attempting to surround Chen Mo.

Except this was Chen Mo's turf, and underlings immediately surrounded them in return.

Chen Mo gave a cold laugh. "Whether you're causing trouble on purpose or not, I think you know full well. This is my turf, and it's not yet East Prosperity's place to run wild here!"

"Chen Mo, what are you being so arrogant about? East Prosperity isn't afraid of Great Prosperity, and you're nothing but a Red Staff in Great Prosperity. So what if I caused trouble? I don't believe you'd dare do anything to us!"

Not wanting to lose face, Sang Bo, though panicking to death inside, still stiffened his neck and talked tough.

Chen Mo paid him no more attention and turned to say, "Fei Ji, ten slaps each, front and back, then make them pay up and get lost!"

"Got it, Mo Ge!" Fei Ji answered.

With a wave of his hand, over a dozen underlings immediately stepped forward and restrained Sang Bo and his group.

"Chen Mo, you dare! I'm an East Prosperity man!"

Sang Bo was getting anxious.

If he really got slapped, he'd lose face completely.

Chen Mo ignored him, and told the bar girl beside him: "Come with me!"

The bar girl followed nervously behind Chen Mo, walking toward his booth.

Behind them came a continuous slapping sound.

Chen Mo brought the bar girl back to his booth, pointed to the sofa beside him, and said with a smile: "Sit down and chat."

The bar girl cautiously sat down beside Chen Mo.

Although it was her first time encountering Chen Mo, she was well aware of his status.

Someone of Chen Mo's standing could do anything to her, and she couldn't resist.

"What's your name?"

"Qiu Di," the bar girl whispered in reply.

Indeed, it was her.

"From your accent, you just came from the north not long ago, right?"

"I've been here for almost two months," Qiu Di whispered.

Chen Mo reckoned in his mind: she's only been here two months, so the storyline's trigger point is still far off.

"Why did you come to Gangdao? Isn't life okay in the north?"

"A fellow townsman brought me over, saying I could make big money here, so I came. The result......"

At the end of her sentence, Qiu Di found it hard to continue.

"The result is you came to sell yourself, right?" Chen Mo directly continued.

This situation is very common.

Many women who come from the north think they can make big money in Gangdao.

Only after arriving do they discover they're unfamiliar with the place, costs are high, and without any skill they can't survive.

In the end, many become streetwalkers.

Many of them, after returning home, are embarrassed to say what they did abroad, merely boasting that they made money.

Some fellow townsmen's girls think Gangdao money is really easy to earn, and each tries to find a way to come to Gangdao.

Little do they know, they've merely become others' merchandise.

If they encounter a conscientious fellow townsman, it's a bit better—whether to work is up to them, as long as they can find a way to make a living.

If they encounter a ruthless one, they're directly sold to the lackeys of some Triad Society, becoming tools for the Triad Society to make money, with no freedom at all.

Qiu Di came to Hong Kong with a fellow townsman; now she sells alcohol in his bar instead of working the streets outside, which shows her luck is fairly good.