Chapter 256 - Let’s Us Bring You For Some Fun (1/2)

Zhang Heng didn’t stay at the bar for long. He pulled his hoodie over his head and walked out of the with his head lowered.

Instead of going back to school, he went to a nearby public restroom.

Since it was a little over two in the morning, no one else was around. But the lights were on, and the air smelt of cheap disinfectant. Zhang Heng walked up to the sink in the men’s toilet. The leaky faucet on his right dripped with a steady plop.

However, his eyes were on the mirror above the sink.

Back in Sex City, he did feel like his younger self again, but only now did he have a chance to examine his reflection. The beard on his face was gone, and the weathered hue on his skin had lost it’s bronze tone. The callouses and scars on his body had disappeared too.

His face was ten years younger than his time in Nassau, a sight he found a little unfamiliar.

Most importantly, he understood what the bartender meant when she said that he looked like a completely different person. Physically, he might look the same, but he had retained the temperament of an 18th-century pirate.

This was actually going to be troublesome. Most wouldn’t notice it, but those who were close to him would be able to tell from a glance that he had changed a lot, especially since the Spring Festival was approaching, and he would have to return home soon. His parents, who had been having the time of their lives in Europe, may not sense the change in him, especially considering the fact that they never once remembered his birthday correctly. He could even send someone else of the same height and age back, and they probably couldn’t even tell the difference. Nonetheless, his grandad, who had raised him since he was a child, would definitely sense something.

More importantly, with his current demeanor, he would inevitably be asked to have his ID checked whenever he was out on the street.

While he was still deep thought, a group of young men with colorful hair swarmed into the restroom, each with a cigarette between their fingers. They gave off the appearance of the neighborhood’s small-time ruffians. Zhang Heng saw them outside of the bar a few times before; many of these the children of relocated villagers. Initially, there were two relatively large villages here. As the city continued developing rapidly, expanding further into the wilderness one ring after another, many small hamlets turned into either industrial or residential areas.

This was something worthy of celebrating – the villagers received compensation and were relocated from their small wooden huts to chic and modern high-rise apartments. Many of them switched from farming to playing mahjong all day and collecting rent. Along with the sudden influx of wealth came its own set of problems, where the once simple villagers started to lose purpose in life, and their children lost the motivation to be diligent.

After all, all they needed to get by was to collect rent. As a result, most of the village’s youth turned into neighborhood thugs after high school. Of course, to the common man, there was a certain light-heartedness within the cacophony even though it was a nuisance.

Every day, these youths who dressed like gangsters from old Hong Kong films did nothing all day but patron the arcade, cyber cafes, or roughing up hawkers operating nearby – nothing but indulging in their own folly and fantasies.