Chapter 10

After leaving the hospital, Sarah changed into her clothes, grabbed her gear, and set off again on the journey towards the Black Mist Bar. Today, was an extremely important day! By the time she arrived, Black Mist Bar hadn't opened for business yet. Walking through the door, several staff members were having lunch. As soon as they saw her, they all stood up with smiles. "Little Peach, you're here so early?" "Considering your pace before, I thought I wouldn't see you until after we opened for business at night!" "Did you have lunch yet? Would you like to join us, Little Peach?" Truth be told, mooching off them for a meal was indeed one of Sarah's objectives. Manager Mike had said before that her food was covered by Black Mist Bar. Now that she didn't have a place to live, she would try to save as much as she could. She replied, "No, would you get me a portion too?" "Eat this, we have an extra serving of egg-wrapped rice!" A female waitress took a serving from the counter and placed it in front of Sarah. "Would you like to try my fried chicken?" Said another, "I just brought it over from the small dining plaza next door, haven't touched it yet!" Sarah happily accepted everything without showing any reservations. Seeing this carefree side of Sarah, everyone felt even better. Compared to the previous in-house singers, Sarah was a refreshing change in the establishment. Unlike those previous singers who looked down on everyone, they were all doing their work, while they always felt superior. Especially that female lead singer, Vivi. Aside from the former Brian, they never saw Vivi treat any of them well. Hence, they didn't have a good impression of these singers. But Sarah is different, they all like Sarah. While having a haphazard chat with them, Sarah casually asked, "I've never been to the Black Mist before, how long has this bar been open?" "Six years!" Another rebutted, "It's more than that, this is a new address. Before here, we'd been open for four years at another place. Adding up, that's ten years!" Sarah nodded, "Ten years, that's quite a long time." An experienced bartender said, "Of course, our Black Mist is the oldest bar in London, and it has always had the best business!" "Do you guys know? Because our big boss behind the Black Mist is so incredible, over all these years, while other bars have been having issues on and off, nothing has ever happened to our bar!" "Big boss?" Sarah took a bite of her beef, filled with curiosity. She asked, "Who's this big boss, he must be quite a character, right?" The bartender whispered mysteriously, "Our big boss is from the States but others say he's from London. He is very mysterious and has a very powerful background. He opened this bar on a whim, not expecting to make money, just for fun. So nobody has seen him in ten years, Manager Mike has been in charge all these years. Sarah pretended to be surprised and widened her eyes, then exclaimed "Wow!" "Anita, let me tell you, half a year before you came, during that period, London was strictly inspecting all types of non-compliant bars, both those which were legitimate and those which were not. All of them were scrutinized!" "How many bars were closed or went out of business during that time? But miraculously, ours never shut for even a day! Can you imagine how badass our boss must be?" "Have you all seen that electric meter box next to the bar?" The bartender continued, directing everyone's attention to the electrical box, "During that time, a bar caught fire because the fire safety measures were inadequate. There were a few cases of bars reconstructing the placement of their electrical boxes. Just think about it, within those few days, did anyone visit Black Mist to say something was wrong?" Sarah also glanced at the electric box. Behind her sunglasses, her bright eyes caught a glimmer of light, as she asked, "Is the master meter box located there?" "Yeah," the bartender said, "Think about it - the bar counter is right next to it. Which average bar would dare to put it here? If they do, they would need to shift it. Heh, in our many years, the location of that meter box has never changed." Sarah agreed, "It seems our big boss does have some skills." She had noticed this meter box before and hadn't realized it was indeed the master one. But this also made her feel somewhat troublesome. With the meter box in such an obvious position, it would be difficult for her to act. Thinking this, she put down her chopsticks, and stood up, "I've finished eating; I need to use the restroom." "Go to the second floor, Little Peach. We haven't yet cleaned the one on the first floor!" "Alright!" Sarah was already planning to go to the second floor. Now, with her bag slung over her shoulder, she quickly ascended the stairs. After several days of physical exercise, her physical fitness had improved. Upon reaching the second-floor washroom, Sarah's first move was to scan the overall layout of the restroom. This was the only spot within the whole Black Mist that was not under surveillance, and being right at the second-floor exit, it was frequented by many people for restroom breaks. She entered the furthest cubicle in the women's bathroom, wherein resided a toilet bowl. Shutting the door, Sarah unzipped her backpack and began searching through the assortment of chemicals she had purchased, quickly locating what she had been looking for. She poured the chemicals into a plastic bag, creating a solution of electrolytes. Once the items were ready, Sarah removed the cover of the toilet's cistern. After tampering slightly with the flush lever, she then secured the bag of electrolytes she had produced onto it. Once this was in place, the contents of the bag would leak into the water whenever someone used the toilet, dissolving and turning the entire reservoir into a battery. Just about done, Sarah took a metal plate out of her bag and placed it on top of the water valve lever. In this way, whenever someone uses the toilet and flushes, the metal plate would come into contact with the electrolyte in the cistern, thereby creating a current. Lastly, she squatted down and located a plug behind the toilet. Normally, there is no power here, and it's not usable. She connected a piece of wire to the plug and then linked it to the drain underneath the cistern. Once everything was in place, Sarah attached a commonly seen rubber band to the door of the toilet, bolting it shut. A small timer was also left on the rubber band so that as the time arrived, the timer would cause the rubber band to snap, allowing those waiting outside to enter the restroom. Once someone uses this toilet, the Black Mist will have a power outage due to the short circuit! After making all the arrangements, Sarah struts out of the ladies bathroom. Having only taken a few steps in the corridor, she locks eyes with an all-too-familiar figure approaching her. Be it the golden hair or the black shirt, Sarah recognizes him immediately. "It's you!" The figure across the hall recognizes Sarah first and starts charging towards her. "Damn it, you dare to show your face around me, I'll kill you!" He bellows at the top of his lungs, but Sarah has no mood to argue, she turns and runs instead. He starts chasing after her even more ferociously. Just as Sarah is about to take the stairs, perhaps recalling how she gracefully escaped down the stairs last time, he pushes off with both legs and leaps forward. He manages to grasp her leg from behind, just before she descends the stairs. And that's how he stops her in her tracks! "Let go!" Sarah is beyond exasperated. How come she runs into him everywhere she goes? Just a few dozen bucks, is it worth all this trouble for such a trivial sum? She turns around, grips tightly onto the man's hair, and forces him to lift his hand. "Ah!!!" The petty beggar screams in pain and, without thinking, releases his grip. Seeing this, Sarah immediately stands up and runs down the stairs. But someone was also coming up from the floor below. On seeing it was Manager Mike, Sarah quickly shouted out, "Manager Mike, there's a bad guy here! Quick, grab him!" "What bad guy?" On hearing this, Manager Mike hurriedly rushed up, "Where? I'm going to catch him and bring him to the police right now!" However, unexpectedly, as soon as he came up, what he saw was Pete collapsed on the ground, clutching his head in pain. "My son!" Manager Mike was terrified. He rushed over to help him up and asked, "What happened to you?" Sarah stared in disbelief, her eyes wide open. "Huh? Mike, are you saying this guy is your son?"