Blood Neon-Chapter 27

Chapter 27
Falling into the Trap
Question: How can one quickly win over a middle school girl?
Answer: Displaying results from the web search for “How can one quickly win over a middle school girl?”.
Question: If one doesn’t want to spend too much time dating, how can one most quickly reach home base with an underage girl?
Answer: Make her lose consciousness.
Question: If at present one only has alcohol and no other substances, what should one do?
Answer: Find a way to make her drunk.
In his mind, Liu Hao quickly completed a round of self-questioning and answering, forming two parallel plans.
...
The moment Lin Ying stepped into the room, she was choked by the thick stench of smoke and alcohol that rushed toward her.
Inside the noisy room, the lighting was bright enough to reveal a dozen or so little gangsters and delinquent girls, scattered across several long sofas, drinking, chatting, and making merry, calling each other brothers and sisters, the bond of “loyalty” and “sisterhood” strong and loud.
This, Lin Ying thought, was probably the most “street” and “mature” version of themselves that people like them could imagine.
After doing a good job of appearing timid and cautious, Lin Ying obediently stayed among the group of late-arriving students who had just entered, looking like a princess being “escorted” by knights.
In a certain sense, she really did seem like the princess who belonged in this scene.
When she first came in, being surrounded by a few people made her inconspicuous, so the others in the room didn’t pay her much attention or react particularly.
However, Lin Ying did feel somewhat uneasy.
At the beginning, she thought that the guy who had approached her had ill intentions. When she sensed that faint trace of lecherous emotion from him, she figured that if she played along, she might at least get a free meal out of it. That was why she went along with his act and followed him into the private room.
But now, seeing so many people here—both guys and girls—this clearly wasn’t some kind of crime scene. Judging by the way they were drinking and laughing together, it really seemed like they had just come to the bar to hang out and have fun, even on this Mid-Autumn night.
For now, she couldn’t sense any clear hostility directed at her, and that made a dark line appear above her head.
That meant if the guy had really just wanted to flirt a bit, sing a few songs, and drink together, then she had no reason to act out—and she would end up being taken advantage of for nothing.
For the sake of the hunt, giving a bit of fan service was necessary bait—one could consider it a farewell gift before the prey’s death, and that would be fine. But if the other party didn’t actually go too far...
Then she would be in trouble.
What should she do? Would it be better to just run now?
That could be treated as Plan A. In that case, it would be best if the other side tried to stop her by force—preferably something rough.
Or perhaps, if she drank later, she could pretend to be too drunk to stay conscious, collapse, and see what the other party did next—then decide whether to act or not.
Still, that plan carried its own risk. There were too many people present, and not all of them were gangsters. A would-be criminal might hesitate to make a move precisely because of all the eyes in the room.
Lin Ying was a bit troubled. After all, her non-lethal means were still too limited. If she extended her tendrils from the shadows and controlled them properly, maybe things would be fine—but if she lost control for even a moment, everyone’s sanity in the room might instantly hit zero. That wouldn’t be much different from directly killing them.
Still troubled over how to gently lead everyone in the room into that night, Lin Ying was finally brought before the big boss.
The guy with the raspy, duck-like voice who had been leading her seemed to say something to the boss, then stepped aside.
Lin Ying wore the expression of a small animal led into an unfamiliar environment, trying her best to appear like a cute, obedient little bun.
Sure enough, before three seconds passed, a wave of intense desire flooded into her mind—a mix of lust, sadism, possessiveness, and some other vague emotions hard to define.
When she looked closely, the young man staring straight at her wasn’t that the same black-haired boss who had been giving orders yesterday? Tch. Being stared at by that lecherous face made her scalp tingle.
Lin Ying admitted that, during the days she had spent in this world, she had been stared at by quite a few people with predatory eyes. She had built up some resistance to it... yet every time she saw such naked, unrestrained desire on someone’s face, it still made her deeply uncomfortable.
Fortunately, the feeling only lasted for a few seconds. Otherwise, Lin Ying suspected that if it had continued, she might not have been able to hold herself back and would have acted on the spot. It seemed the man had managed to keep himself in check, at least for now.
Lin Ying was somewhat curious about what he was planning.
...
“I heard everything from Little Wang—you’re that Zhang Qiming’s little sister, right?”
“Yes.” The girl’s voice was soft and weak.
Liu Hao cleared his throat while trying to suppress the rush of blood that had just gone to his head.
He shifted forward a little, sitting up straighter, putting on the appearance of a proper, respectable person.
“You probably understand the situation already. Don’t worry, bringing you here today is just so you can sit, hang out, make some friends. Nothing else will happen.”
The girl fidgeted a little, glancing uneasily at the big TV screen playing the music video in the corner.
“Actually, I… I’m not really good at singing.”
Pfft.
Liu Hao laughed quietly to himself.
To still be worried about such things in a situation like this—he could only say, as expected of a pure, inexperienced schoolgirl who hadn’t seen the world.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Making friends doesn’t mean you have to sing. If you’re shy, you don’t have to.”
After all, they weren’t really there just to sing karaoke for fun. Someone like him, tone-deaf as he was, had only sung one song at the start to liven up the atmosphere.
Waving his hand and smiling, Liu Hao picked up the half-empty bottle of foreign liquor beside him and poured himself a glass, mixing it with Sprite.
“But no matter what, you have to drink at least one glass first.”
He pointed with his finger at the glass that was still bubbling.
The girl’s face showed a hint of discomfort; her gaze darted around nervously, and she stepped back slightly.
“Um, about the drink, I…”
Her weak protest hadn’t even finished before someone interrupted.
“What, you dare not drink Brother Liu’s liquor?”
“Little sister, maybe you don’t know how things work, but in this kind of setting, refusing a drink means you’re not giving face.”
“Yeah, and you’re not just representing yourself—you’re representing your brother too.”
“What’s there to be afraid of? Making friends means drinking together!”
A few others around them began to chime in one after another.
“Just one glass, bottoms up and it’s done!”
Surrounded and pressured by the group, the girl seemed too embarrassed to refuse any further. She took the glass, and under everyone’s expectant gaze, first took a small sip, then started coughing as though she had choked on it.
“Take it slow at first—your throat will get used to it,” Liu Hao said, not forgetting to offer his friendly “beginner’s advice” from the side.
Then, under the watchful eyes of everyone present, the girl frowned and forced herself to finish more than half the glass, sip by painful sip.
When she finally exhaled deeply and set the glass—still with a little liquid left—on the table, the people around her all burst into applause.
“Nice!”
“Got guts!”
“Beautiful!”
“(Whistling sounds)”
The others each took a sip from their own glasses, though what they were drinking was only beer.
Liu Hao also drank deeply, satisfied. His parallel plan—to get her drunk while chatting—seemed to be going quite smoothly so far.