Into the Dreams Land Chapter 2

The taxi stopped at the door of the bar. Nate Ning and Zach Zhou got out of the car, walked past a row of black people in suits at the door, followed the two guests timidly, paid the entrance fee and went in.

As the door opened, laser smoke and strong sound waves surged up, wrapping Nate Ning and Zach Zhou.

The DJ on the stage was playing a warm-up set. There weren't too many people in the dance floor, but the vast darkness and the pungent smell of cigarettes and alcohol in the air still made Nate Ning and Zach Zhou huddle together.

After standing in the hall at a loss for about two minutes, Nate Ning bravely took the first step. He grabbed a waiter and asked where he could sit.

The waiter was slightly stunned, and after communicating with his colleagues, he took them to an unreserved booth.

Nate Ning took the wine list and looked at it for a while. He couldn't tell the types of wine, so he ordered a champagne set meal at random to meet the minimum consumption. Zach Zhou didn't say a word the whole time, huddled next to Nate Ning, staring blankly at the chaos on the dance floor.

After the waiter left, Zach Zhou leaned close to Nate Ning's ear and said nervously: "Nate Ning, how long are we going to wait?"

Nate Ning piled the two people's schoolbags together, thought for a moment, and said, "We have to finish eating. We can't waste anything."

Soon, the wine and snacks were served on the table. The waiter, probably because he saw that they were too out of tune with the atmosphere of their industry, considerately mixed green tea with a few glasses of wine for them, explaining: "It will taste better if you mix it."

The store was crowded, and the waiter went elsewhere. The two looked at each other in silence for a while, and Zach Zhou asked Nate Ning: "Who wants to drink first?"

Nate Ning took a cup and put it to his lips. He smelled a strange sweet wine, so he moved the cup away and asked Zach Zhou: "Let's drink together."

So Zach Zhou also picked up a glass, and they both slowly raised their glasses and took a sip at the same time.

The familiar taste of iced green tea was suddenly mixed with a faint smell of alcohol, like a spoiled drink, which made Nate Ning feel very insecure. He looked at Zach Zhou with the wine in his mouth and found that Zach Zhou had swallowed the wine first, although his expression was not very good.

Nate Ning held it in his mouth for a while before overcoming his psychological barrier and swallowing the wine with great effort. He said to Zach Zhou with a bitter face, "It's too hard to drink."

"Indeed, indeed," Zach Zhou put down his glass, agreed with Nate Ning, and asked, "Nate Ning, why did you suddenly come to the bar?"

Nate Ning reached out and took a strawberry, put it in his mouth, and gave one to Zach Zhou as well.

"I can't explain it clearly," Nate Ning said vaguely, "I just wanted to come and take a look."

Several years ago, Liam Liang was still studying at D University and lived off campus. His house was very close to Nate Ning's D University Affiliated High School. Nate Ning would always go to Liam Liang's house to use the Internet to check things.

Liam Liang has a bad friend named Will. One day when he came to Liam Liang's house, he insisted on dragging Liam Liang to the bar, saying that someone was waiting for Liam Liang. Liam Liang evaded the question, saying that he had to provide meals for Nate Ning and it was inconvenient.

Nate Ning heard it from the side and asked what the bar was and who was waiting for Liam Liang.

Liam Liang avoided the topic and refused to answer directly. Will, a bad friend, smiled ambiguously and asked Nate Ning if he really wanted to know. Nate Ning nodded seriously and said yes. Before his bad friend could open his mouth, Liam Liang stopped him and drove him away with a sullen face.

Nate Ning wanted to ask more questions, but Liam Liang pushed him back: "Just read your book."

Seeing Liam Liang coming to pick up Kyle Kong, Nate Ning suddenly remembered this matter and decided to come and find out what was going on.

Who knew that the wine in the bar was not tasty, the variety of fruits was scarce, and the intense ambient noise exceeded 100 decibels, making the already irritable Nate Ning even more uneasy. He kept wondering how Liam Liang knew him, why he came to the school to pick up Kyle Kong, and why he came to the school secretly without telling him. However, he didn't want to call Liam Liang to find out.

Liam Liang never opened the car door for him, so why should he be obligated to report his itinerary to him?

Zach Zhou didn't notice anything wrong with Nate Ning. He thought the fruits in this store were delicious, so he reached out and took another piece of pineapple.

Just after taking a bite, Zach Zhou's phone on the table lit up. He wiped his hands, picked up the phone, and saw the content of the email, which immediately shocked him. He pulled Nate Ning, who was sulking, and handed the phone to Nate Ning: "Yi, Nate Ning, take a look at this RMP!"

"What---" Nate Ning looked at it carefully and showed a happy expression, forgetting Liam Liang and Kyle Kong, "latticeQCD, let me see."

The top DJ came on stage on time and lit up the whole bar. Dazzling laser beams flickered and spun in the crowded dance floor. Confetti fell from the sky. Men and women pressed their bodies against each other, twisting their H!ps and swinging their arms. People sitting in the dance floor booths and booths seemed to be bewitched by alcohol and electronic music, laughing loudly and flirting with each other.

Although the occasion was not appropriate, Nate Ning and Zach Zhou still turned on the flashlights on their mobile phones, read a new article in the journal Physics Reviews together, and had an in-depth discussion.

High-energy physics was Zach Zhou's greatest interest. Once he started talking, he couldn't stop and drank several glasses of champagne. He became more and more excited and his stuttering became less frequent. He started from the review paper "On the Scattering and Resonance Process of LatticeQCD" and discussed in depth with Nate Ning his views on contemporary high-energy physics.

At nearly half past ten, the fruit plate was finished and Zach Zhou had drunk too much. He finally stopped, yawned, and said to Nate Ning: "Nate Ning, I, I'm a little sleepy."

Nate Ning was also annoyed by the long-term high-decibel noise, so he asked the waiter to pay the bill.

The waiter handed the bill to Nate Ning. Nate Ning patted Zach Zhou's heavy head that was resting on his shoulder and said, "Don't sleep yet." Then he took the bill and took out his wallet, only to realize that something was wrong.

He forgot to take the card his parents gave him.

FortuNate Ningly, Nate Ning always carried a lot of cash. He took out a stack of cash from his wallet and began to count it in front of the waiter awkwardly. After counting the last bill, he left the account.
 
The amount due is still three hundred and fifty yuan.

"Zach Zhou, do you have money?" Nate Ning pushed Zach Zhou, who woke him up. He looked up for a moment and slowly took out three hundred yuan from his schoolbag: "This is all I have..."

"Where's the card?" Nate Ning asked him.

Zach Zhou shook his head: "No, I didn't bring it."

Nate Ning put Zach Zhou's three hundred yuan on the leather bill book, and there was still fifty short.

"You can use mobile payment." The waiter couldn't help but remind.

Zach Zhou said disdainfully: "We don't have mobile payment, we pay with cash." Both of them are extremely distrustful of mobile payment and never link their bank cards to any financial platform.

Nate Ning grabbed his wallet and suddenly remembered that Liam Liang had given him a credit card a long time ago, which he had casually stuffed into the inner pocket of his wallet and had never taken out.

He struggled internally and opened the inner pocket to take a look, and sure enough, the dark grey card was lying inside.

"Sir?" the waiter asked politely.

Nate Ning took out the card with hatred and handed it to the waiter: "Use this card for the remaining fifty."

Three minutes later, Liam Liang called.

Nate Ning picked up the phone.

"How come the sun is rising from the west today? I'm finally willing to swipe my card." Liam Liang was obviously drunk, and his voice was louder than usual. The environment he was in seemed very quiet, without any noise. He asked the people around him, "Laila, what can I buy with 50 yuan now? What is this place - Huangtian Entertainment Management Co., Ltd.?"

A female voice said something, and Liam Liang fell silent almost immediately. After a few seconds, Liam Liang's voice became gloomy, and he asked Nate Ning: "Where are you?"

Nate Ning hesitated for a second and hung up the phone.