Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 656 - 3 Conflict at the Barbershop_2

Chapter 656: Chapter 3 Conflict at the Barbershop_2

"See, this is what happens when you don’t keep still. I’ll fix it up for you, otherwise, you won’t be presentable." The female hairdresser wore a concerned look on her face. Taking advantage of the girl’s hesitation, she quickly made a few more cuts, ensuring that the girl had no option but to stay.

This girl was a freshman and had little experience in life. Her hesitance was perfect for exploitation.

"Are you going to pay and leave or not? You’re interrupting our business." The hairdresser started to rudely and contemptuously berate the girl who had colored her hair, "Why would you dye your hair if you can’t afford it? Perhaps you deserve to have bad hair."

"You..." The girl started to weep with rage. She hadn’t planned on dyeing her hair at all. The hairdresser in front of her had said that her hair quality was poor and needed to be maintained, otherwise it would get worse faster. And that hair dyeing wasn’t expensive, just thirty bucks. While the girl was still hesitant, the hairdresser had already started mixing the hair dye. Saying it was too late, the hairdresser declared that the dye had been mixed and needed to be paid for. At this point, the girl was fed up, but in the interest of avoiding trouble, she agreed to the hair dyeing since it was still within her budget. Yet, who would have known that in the end, they would charge her three hundred bucks, equivalent to her entire monthly living expenses. Even if she were to live extravagantly, she couldn’t afford to spend her family’s money like this.

Looking at the sobbing girl, the hairdresser felt victorious and sneered in her heart, "This is the perfect victim for a scam, such a weak and pitiful creature. Three hundred bucks? The cheap hair dye she used could be bought for three bucks for five bottles. Would I ever tell you that?"

"What are you crying for? How are we supposed to run a business here? Hurry up, pay and get lost." The man coming down from the second floor was pudgy, with a barring belly, dark face and a harsh way of rebuking these girls.

The other girls who were waiting for their haircuts got scared and stood up to leave, but the hairdresser’s apprentice reacted quickly. She grabbed a mop and moved to the door, pretending to be cleaning the floor and blocking the exit.

"You’re ripping us off!" Faced with a portly man, the girl became even more frightened, her strength to argue withering away.

"Who’s ripping you off? Where’s your evidence?" The middle-aged man shouted angrily, "You have to compensate me for my loss. Look, they all want to leave because of you. Stop them and add another two hundred bucks, and you are done."

This boss was very cunning, with just a few words he was able to divide the girls and diffuse the potentially unified front against him.

Hearing that she had to pay more money, the girl started crying even more.

"Let us out, we’re not doing it." The girls shouted at the apprentice blocking the door, but she didn’t even bother, she just kept on cleaning and asked them to move. She had been working in the salon for two months. If she couldn’t even learn these kinds of tricks to keep customers, she would have been kicked out long ago.

Once someone took the lead, the other girls also plucked up courage and started making a fuss.

"Leaving? Sure, but each one of you needs to pay five bucks as idle time compensation." The middle-aged man scoffed, looking the girls up and down mockingly, especially their chests. Too bad it was winter, and they were dressed too warmly for anything to catch his eye.

"Why should we? Your hairdressers are still working. Where’s the idle time?" The girls were taken aback. If they couldn’t tell that this was a unscrupulous business by now, they must be blind.

"If you hadn’t come in, others would have, waiting their turn. Now you want to leave. Am I not losing out then?" The middle-aged man was full of absurd views that left the girls stunned.

"That’s not right. You’ve been wasting our time. You should be paying us." Finally, one of the girls was able to retort and see through the situation.

"Rubbish, pay up quickly, or I’ll go to your school and talk to your counselor, accusing you of not paying for your haircuts." The middle-aged man started threatening them. Mentioning the school counselor indeed made the girls change color and start to back down, although two girls were still struggling.

"Counselor Li is a good person, he wouldn’t believe your nonsense." One of the girls accused the middle-aged man.

"Oh, is that so? Counselor Li? Is it Li Hengsheng or Li Huan? Hmm, from the School of Economics and Trade, right? It doesn’t matter if I don’t talk to him or if you don’t pay compensation. But if the rumor spreads at school that you girls are involved in some illegal activities, don’t go committing suicide out of regret." The middle-aged man had many sly tricks up his sleeve, dealing with a few freshman girls was a piece of cake.

The color drained from two of the girls’ faces instantly, they were the quickest to realize that he was threatening them. Without paying, they knew they wouldn’t leave today, but they still held a glimmer of hope.

"Don’t be scared, she doesn’t know our names," a sophomore girl speaks up, trying to keep calm.

"Idiot, she tricked you into revealing that your advisor’s surname is Li. This could easily give away your faculty. The folks who earn a living near the university, wouldn’t they likely be familiar with the advisors?" Tang Zheng sighs and shakes his head. Mobile phones these days are too advanced. A few pictures of you guys easily taken and shared. It’s all too simple.

As expected, the next second, the middle-aged man pulled out his device and snapped a few shots, reducing the hope on the girls’ faces to ashes. After a moment of hesitation, each of them begrudgingly reached into their wallets and pulled out five yuan.

But what was frustrating was that the man didn’t even accept it.

"We’ve paid you, can’t we leave?" one of the girls screamed, understandably upset after being tricked and threatened.

"Humph, leaving earlier would’ve cost you five yuan, but since you’ve been lingering at the entrance for so long, it’s fifty yuan per person." The middle-aged man, noticing that the girls were easy targets, didn’t hold back. He intended to milk them for all they were worth, knowing they wouldn’t return anyway.

"You’re such a bully, I’m calling the cops." A girl pulls out a flip phone, intending to dial but freezes at the man’s following words.

"Go ahead, call the police. And then, get into the police car and give your statements together. Whether you admit it or not, you’ll have to explain, won’t you? Besides, you really did dye your hair. I haven’t overcharged you, it’s only two hundred yuan." The middle-aged man appeared calm, but he felt annoyed inside. Even though calling the cops wouldn’t cause any major trouble, it would still mean extra expenses and hassle.

The girls, however, were frightened into silence and stood there, unsure of what to do.

"Boss, it’s three hundred," the female barber quickly reminded him.

"Hurry up and pay, or else the price will go up again." The middle-aged man coughed twice to cover his slip up, then smugly laughed at the naïve students, "How innocent, thinking you’ll be fine once the police arrive."

"Hey, a simple buzz cut only costs fifty yuan, how is this possible?" One of the male students who had just finished getting his haircut gawked as he was about to pay.

"That’s the price tag at our shop!" The female barber thought to herself, ’another fool, who’d return to our shop after experiencing such a scene?’ They needed to trick every customer at once this time around.

"You’re scamming people. It’s only five yuan at other places." The male student, initially amused now flustered, complained, "And you’ve also taken my pictures to disseminate."

The girls looked at him as if he was their saving grace, only to be immediately let down the next moment.

"Kid, you’re a junior, right? You must have heard of Laowu who’s active nearby, wanna see him in person?" The middle-aged man, smirked coldly as he stared at him like a venomous snake.

This scared the male student. He knew that Laowu was not a good man, having frequently heard his classmates speak of him. Consequently, he had no choice but to accept his fate, pay up, and get it over with. Seeing the hopeful gazes of the girls shift away from him, he felt as if his heart was shattered. He thought if he had been man enough, perhaps one of the girls might have fallen into his arms.

"You did a good job, what about you all? Still want to call the cops?" The middle-aged man turned to face the other girls.

The girls didn’t reply. Instead, they all pulled out their wallets with the intention of leaving as soon as possible.

"Hmm, keep your mouths shut outside. If I hear any bad rumors about my barbershop, you better watch for the spread of rumors about yourselves." The middle-aged man didn’t forget to add another threat before turning to Tang Zheng, "Hey, you! Are you getting a haircut or leaving?"

The barbers laughed smugly, a scene they had witnessed far too many times. The boss was always the victor. What could they do? The boss was an expert at picking out the weak, the soft targets. (To be continued. If you like this novel, please vote and support at qidian.com. Your support is my biggest motivation.)