Chapter 391 — Let's Just Switch to Baijiu

"Beer, straight off the bat? That's hardly any fun." Wei Zhao said, wholly uninterested. "Drinking is something a few people do together. It isn't mineral water — what's there to quench?"

"Then let's drink together!" An Jianwen thought. A few of them drinking together — what could be easier? A whole crowd of us against you alone! And he raised his glass. "I'll toast you! I'll down mine — drink yours or don't, as you please!"

With that, An Jianwen tipped back his head and a whole can of beer went down. The alcohol content of this beer was no joke, but to a seasoned hand like An Jianwen it was truly nothing at all.

An Jianwen could hold an enormous amount of liquor; several bottles of Moutai in a row were no trouble to him. Which of the former four young masters of Songshan had not been a walking wine vat? And what put An Jianwen at ease was that today he had another trump card up his sleeve: Su Taiwei.

"Good." Wei Zhao nodded, and, imitating An Jianwen, tipped his head back too, then set the empty can down on the table.

"Brother Lin, you really can drink!" An Jianwen said, praising him while, without the slightest show of it, taking up the empty can in front of Wei Zhao and setting it on the floor, replacing it with a freshly opened beer.

An Jianwen wanted to check whether Wei Zhao had really swallowed the beer in front of him; when he found the can empty, he relaxed. Still, he privately mocked himself for being far too suspicious. This "Tactical Nuclear Penguin" beer was a rare thing indeed — these few cases he had gone out of his way to have a friend bring back from abroad. That bumpkin Wei Zhao would surely take it for ordinary foreign liquor; most foreign liquor ran low in proof, and that was why he had drained it in one go.

All the better, though. Let the bumpkin drink his fill. Each man would down a can with him, and then they would bring out the baijiu. It would not be long, he reckoned, before Wei Zhao landed in a hospital bed.

"This beer tastes rather good? Never seen it before?" Wei Zhao put on a look of great curiosity as he studied the words printed on the outside of the can.

"Ha, that's right — foreign liquor, and not cheap!" Su Taizao laughed it off. Fearing Wei Zhao might spot the alcohol content printed on the can, he hurried to cut him short: "You and me, another round..."

"Sure!" Wei Zhao nodded readily.

Su Taizao cheerfully drained a can apiece with Wei Zhao. Watching, An Jianwen nodded to himself. He felt he had seen clean through Wei Zhao now: the fellow was a bumpkin with a bit of petty cleverness, but plainly fond of a small free advantage — otherwise, why would he come out every single time he was invited to a meal?

From the way Wei Zhao drank, An Jianwen understood: the boy had most likely hardly ever touched foreign liquor, and now that the chance was here, how could he let it pass? He had originally been turning over how to cajole Wei Zhao, to get everyone at the table to toast him in turn — but now there was no need for cajoling at all! And then something happened to delight An Jianwen even more!

After draining a can with Su Taizao, Wei Zhao seemed not quite satisfied; he raised the empty can and tipped it toward his mouth again, then set it down with a certain reluctance.

Faint as Wei Zhao's display was, and little as he said, An Jianwen caught it all, and his heart grew all the lighter.

"Actually, the taste is only so-so. Nothing remarkable." Wei Zhao said mildly.

Hearing this, An Jianwen nearly burst out laughing. So-so? If it's so-so, why drink it so fast? You've had your foreign liquor now, that's what — and you don't want to owe me a favor. But An Jianwen did not say it aloud; in his view none of it mattered, so long as Wei Zhao ended up in the hospital.

"Brother Lin, let me toast you as well!" Yang Ganglou now rose to his feet and handed Wei Zhao another can of beer. "For what happened to Brother An that day — thank you, truly!"

"Heh, think nothing of it, nothing of it..." Wei Zhao could not hide his delight as he took the beer from Yang Ganglou and drained it at a gulp. A relay of toasts, is it? Heh. How very inventive... Wei Zhao felt a flicker of contempt.

If he had not still needed to stay on in Songshan City, Wei Zhao would not have minded tossing these few pieces of trash out the window right now, one after another, and letting them find out for themselves what it felt like to be Superman.

But for the time being — at least on the surface — Wei Zhao would not go looking for trouble. So toward the plans of An Jianwen and his lot, he took the attitude of a man watching a play.

Once Yang Ganglou had finished, Su Taiwei stepped up. This time, though, he came holding four cans of beer; he set two of them before Wei Zhao, then opened the remaining two. "Brother, you saved Brother An's life, which makes you the savior of Wei-ge's life as well. One can of beer is no longer enough to express what's in my heart, so I'll use two! But you, Brother Lin, drink as you please!"

Wei Zhao saw through the man's thinking at a glance. He had probably worked out that once the beer had gone this far, what followed would be casual sipping at best — there was no way several men could keep taking turns pouring beer into Wei Zhao as they had been doing, and he was the last of them left. He meant to seize his opportunity.

"Since Wei-ge can perform, then I'll perform too!" Wei Zhao thought — and then: who goes around calling himself Wei-ge? Some nerve, this fellow. So he deliberately gave the first "perform" an extra edge, echoing Wei-ge's name from across the table...

Su Taiwei of course caught the little trick in Wei Zhao's words, but since he had to drink with the man, he could only pretend not to have heard, and laughed. "Fine. Then I'll be the first to drain mine, out of respect!"

Two cans of beer went down, and Su Taiwei drank as though it were water — not a flush on his face, not a flutter in his heart, no sign of anything amiss. But when one turned to look at Wei Zhao, he was just the same.

An Jianwen and Su Taizao exchanged a glance, and a flicker of alarm crossed each man's eyes. So the boy Wei Zhao had some capacity after all. Thank goodness they had brought Su Taiwei in; otherwise they might truly have had no way to handle him.

Seeing that things could go on this way with little effect on Wei Zhao, An Jianwen shot Yang Ganglou a look, signaling him to move on to the next step — the beer-drinking stretch could be skipped.

The beer's proof was not low, but set against baijiu it fell far short. Rather than fill their bellies with beer, better to switch straight to baijiu.

If Wei Zhao drank too much beer and got himself full, and then would not touch the baijiu, the loss would outweigh the gain.

"Brother Lin, you can really drink! I'm in awe!" Yang Ganglou laughed. "It seems Brother Lin is a man who loves his liquor. Then why don't we switch to the white stuff? Otherwise we'll never get properly drunk."

"You should have said so sooner!" Wei Zhao tossed the empty can in his hand aside. "If you'd said so, I wouldn't have drunk the beer at all. I'm a man with no interest in low-proof liquor! Brother An treated me to red wine, and drinking it made me thoroughly miserable. Since we weren't yet acquainted, I couldn't very well make demands. But this time it doesn't matter — we all know each other well enough now. So let's just switch straight to baijiu!"

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