Chapter 113: Have I Become a Gigolo?

Yang Meng sat dejectedly beside the salon’s bar, his face scratched into a complete mess by Long Xixiang.

“Hahahaha!” Ling Feng walked over, laughing so hard he could barely stand upright. “Listen, I swear I’m not trying to make fun of you. I really can’t help it! That’s what you get for acting cocky. Feeling good now?”

Yang Meng sighed. “Who would have thought that Second Miss Long could scratch people? Just look at what she did to my face. I can’t show myself in public anymore!”

Ling Feng laughed until he doubled over. “That’s what happens when you provoke a woman. Every woman is basically a cat—the kind that knows how to scratch from the moment she’s born! She’s actually being quite restrained. She hasn’t even brought out her other specialties, like biting and pinching. Those are all innate racial talents women are born with!”

Yang Meng shot him a sidelong glance. “Judging by that reaction, someone has treated you that way plenty of times.”

Ling Feng’s smile froze. “You really know how to bring up the one thing nobody wants mentioned!”

Yang Meng turned and glanced at Long Xixiang and the others chatting on the other side, then sighed. “Women really are strange creatures. This is clearly the first time they’ve met, so how did they become as close as family?”

Zhang San came over carrying a medical kit and set it in front of Yang Meng. “There’s White Medicine, antiseptic solution, and adhesive bandages inside.”

Yang Meng took the kit. “Thanks.”

Zhang San glanced at Long Xixiang and the other girls, who were laughing and chatting together. “Little Yang, I’m a few years older than you, so let me give you a piece of advice from experience: never try to guess what women are thinking. As long as they have a common topic, they’ll quickly become close friends who can talk about anything.”

Yang Meng scratched his head. “What could they possibly have in common? Motorcycles?”

Zhang San laughed. “When I passed by just now, I heard them taking turns criticizing you.”

Yang Meng: “...You definitely misheard them!”

Ling Feng was laughing so hard he could barely straighten up.

“You’re something else,” Zhang San said, changing the subject. “I heard you beat Zhou Chun so badly he couldn’t even find his way home?”

Yang Meng waved dismissively. “That’s nothing. That guy’s riding skills are only average. Third Brother, if you raced him, you’d crush him too!”

Zhang San shook his head. “Don’t flatter me. I know exactly how much I’m worth. Even when I was young, I couldn’t take a U-turn at a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour, let alone now. How did you manage to corner at that speed without flying off the road? Where did you get that much downforce? Are you some kind of eight-hundredcc heavyweight?”

Yang Meng shrugged, neither confirming nor denying it. “Sorry, but my secret technique isn’t for outsiders.”

The moment he finished speaking, someone pushed open the salon door and stumbled in.

“Third Brother, save me!”

“Save you from what? It’s only a scrape,” Zhang San said helplessly. “Charge, how did you manage to crash again?”

The newcomer was indeed Charge. His appearance was hardly presentable. One trouser leg was rolled up to his knee, and blood covered his leg. But as Zhang San had said, it was only a scrape. It looked frightening, but was not actually serious.

Seeing the medical kit on the table, Charge opened it with practiced ease. He cleaned the surface of the wound with medicinal alcohol, sprayed it with an anti-inflammatory wound aerosol, then stretched his leg onto a chair. Without even looking up, he said, “Little Yang, you didn’t go riding at Green Ox Mountain today? I’m telling you, something incredible happened. I heard Zhou Chun got completely humiliated! Some hotshot actually took a U-turn at a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour! I tried it myself. I couldn’t even hold the bike through the turn at fifty and slid straight out.”

Zhang San pointed at Yang Meng. “The hotshot you’re talking about is sitting right there.”

“Huh?” Charge was still looking down as he treated his wound. Hearing that, he raised his head and looked at Yang Meng. “You’re the guy who took the U-turn at a hundred and twenty? Damn! What happened to your face? Who scratched you up like that?”

Yang Meng pursed his lips toward Long Xixiang. “The culprit is over there, laughing her head off.”

“Hmm? Who’s that beauty? Your girlfriend? She’s pretty. Her temper doesn’t seem so great, though. She really went after you. You’re practically disfigured. What did you do to make her this angry?” Charge transformed into a creature of boundless curiosity.

Yang Meng looked disgusted. “Anyone who had a girlfriend like that would have suffered eight lifetimes of bad luck.”

Zhang San curled his lip. “If anyone heard you describing Second Miss Long that way, the sheer amount of spit they’d throw at you could drown you.”

Charge cried out, “Second Miss Long? You mean Long Xixiang? Don’t tell me the woman sitting over there chatting with everyone is Long Xixiang?”

Zhang San nodded. “You heard correctly. It really is her.”

Charge’s shriek attracted the attention of the girls. Qiao Yu glanced at him. “Oh, Charge, you crashed again? Xixiang, let me introduce you. That’s Charge, the worst rider around here!”

“Hey! Hey!” Charge protested. “I’m always working hard, all right? Haven’t you noticed that I’ve been practicing every day lately?”

“That’s not practicing riding,” Chen Jiao said with a smirk. “That’s practicing crashing.”

Charge shook his head and muttered under his breath, “There’s really no reasoning with women.”

Yang Meng nodded in agreement.

Charge shook the can of anti-inflammatory spray in his hand. “Damn, it’s empty. Yang Meng, it’s my fault for using it all up. Wait here—I’ll go buy you another bottle.”

“Buy another bottle?” Yang Meng shook his head. “No need, no need. White Medicine will do.”

“Aren’t you afraid of being scarred?” Charge handed him the bottle of White Medicine from the kit. “Take the medicine first, then apply it.”

Yang Meng waved the bottle in his hand. “All right, thanks. I’ll go treat it in the restroom.”

Once inside, he stared at the red marks on his face in the mirror and smiled bitterly. How could Long Xixiang possibly have hurt him? He had deliberately let himself get scratched so that she would calm down.

He had originally thought that a couple of scratches from Long Xixiang would be nothing. He had not expected an angry woman to have such vicious hands. She had scratched his face into a complete mess.

Naturally, he had a way to erase the wounds instantly, but that would be far too frightening. At the same time, he did not want to leave scars on his face.

White Medicine was excellent for stopping bleeding and treating injuries, but if he wanted it to erase scars, it seemed to be just a little lacking.

After thinking for a moment, Yang Meng pulled out his motorcycle key. Hanging from it was a tiny gourd ornament. He infused it with magical power, and the wine gourd expanded to its normal size. It was none other than Yi Di’s wine gourd.

Yang Meng poured the White Medicine into his palm, then added some immortal wine. The powder immediately became a medicinal paste. He spread it across his face as though applying a facial mask. When he was finished, he shrank the gourd back into a keychain, tucked it into his pocket, washed his hands, and returned to the main hall.

The moment Ling Feng saw him emerge like that, he jumped. “Buddy, what are you doing?”

Yang Meng put on a mournful expression. “My face has been turned into a cat’s face. I’m definitely going to be disfigured now. Women are truly strange. They treat their own faces like priceless treasures, using cosmetics, beauty treatments, and even knives to make themselves look better. But when it comes to someone else’s face, why are their hands so ruthless?”

Long Xixiang was startled when she saw Yang Meng. “What? Is it really that serious?”

Yang Meng pointed at his face. “You scratched me! What do you think? I’m still unmarried, and now my peerless looks have been ruined. What am I supposed to do if I can’t find a wife later? You’ll take responsibility, then!”

“I’ll take responsibility, then!” Long Xixiang blurted out. Realizing that sounded wrong, she quickly changed her wording. “What I mean is, I’ll introduce you to a girlfriend.”

“Listen to yourself. Why are you like this? Was ruining my life not enough? Now you want to ruin someone else’s too? How can you be so selfish?” Yang Meng complained.

Long Xixiang murmured, “How am I being selfish now?”

Yang Meng pointed at his face. “Look, look! You scratched my face and ruined my appearance. That means you harmed me, right? Then you’re going to introduce one of your friends to a disfigured man. Won’t that harm your friend too?”

Long Xixiang froze, looking so anxious that she was nearly in tears. “You were being so infuriating just now, so I... If your face really is ruined, then I... I’ll support you for the rest of your life, all right?”

By the end, her face was flushed, her ears burning, and her voice had dwindled to the faintest murmur.

Seeing her like that, Yang Meng decided not to tease her anymore. He waved his hands. “No, no, there’s no need for you to take responsibility. When all is said and done, this happened because I was running my mouth. You scratched me because I deserved it. It’s actually a good thing for me. Every time I look in the mirror and see these fingernail marks all over my face, they’ll remind me to watch what I say. If you speak without thinking, punishment is only fair. Those people who claim they’re just ‘saying whatever they think’ are usually only demonstrating their lack of manners. I may call myself a nouveau riche, but I can’t really demand that low a standard from myself.”

Hearing him say that only made Long Xixiang feel worse. “How about this? I’ll take you to Goryeo and find the best cosmetic surgeon there to remove the scars.”

“Absolutely not!” Yang Meng was startled. “There’s nothing wrong with my face. I don’t want to go to Goryeo and come back looking so different that even my own mother wouldn’t recognize me.”

“It’s only scar-removal surgery!” Long Xixiang insisted.

Yang Meng waved frantically. “Forget it. I’m not like you people, willing to cut into your own faces just to look beautiful! I’m perfectly fine as I am. What’s wrong with a few more scars? Saint Seiya itself said, ‘Scars are a man’s medals of honor.’ Besides, the medicine I used contains an ancestral secret formula. It won’t leave any scars!”

“What kind of ancestral secret formula can prevent scarring?” Long Xixiang asked anxiously.

Qiao Yu added from the side, “Mengmeng, the injury is on your face. If you don’t remove the scars, it really will affect your life.”

“I added an ancestral secret formula to the White Medicine. It works wonderfully!” Yang Meng explained.

But trying to reason with women was a fool’s errand. No matter what Yang Meng said, they insisted that he wash the medicine off and let them inspect the wounds. He could not refuse them forever, so he had no choice but to take them to the restroom and rinse the White Medicine from his face.

Those women were making a mountain out of a molehill. He had originally intended to use his magical power to smooth the wounds away completely, but now, with everyone watching, how could he possibly use it?

After Yang Meng washed the White Medicine from his face, he found several girls staring at him with astonished expressions.

“Hey, why are you all looking at me like that?” Yang Meng asked, baffled.

“Ah!”

The girls suddenly screamed in unison, startling Yang Meng.

“What are you all shrieking about?”

Long Xixiang suddenly reached out with both hands, seized Yang Meng’s face, and rubbed it back and forth. “Do you have any more of that ancestral secret formula? Hurry up and give me some to try!”

Yang Meng had no idea what was happening. Looking completely bewildered, he tilted his head toward the mirror.

What the hell? Why was his face so pale?

Had he turned into a pretty boy?