Chapter 38.2
Editor: Jodi
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At the brick factory, outside the warehouse.
Three streetwise thugs kicked a seventeen to eighteen-year-old boy to the ground.
“Just give it up. Just you, you actually think you can get back that 250 yuan pay for lifting bricks?” A tattooed guy sneered.
“It’s 200 yuan!” The senior said angrily.
The tattooed guy beat him up again, then tossed him to the side of the warehouse.
The senior sighed, looked up, then saw three people sitting on a brick pile opposite him.
The senior: “…….”
“I don’t expect you guys to play heroes, but isn’t it a bit much to sit there snacking on melon seeds while watching?” He asked.
“What you said about making money during the New Year, is this?” Ning Sheng asked him.
Lu Peng slid down the brick pile, followed by Li Haoyue, and together, they pulled Ning Sheng down with them.
“Two hundred yuan?” Ning Sheng asked.
The senior tensed up. “What do you plan to do?”
“This young master is in a bad mood today.” Ning Sheng said in reply.
**
There was a paper sign pasted on the wall by the entrance of the brick factory that read, “Help Wanted.”
Lu Peng, hands in his pockets, strolled over. “Reporting for work.”
The young thug’s eyes lit up, then he handed him an employee badge.
Li Haoyue, whistling, swaggered over. “Looking for a job.”
The thug hesitated, then handed over another badge.
Ning Sheng, sucking on a lollipop, looking lazy and unfazed, wandered over. “Clocking in.”
The thug froze.
“We don’t hire minors.” The tattooed guy said.
Ning Sheng: “???”
Ning Sheng slapped him straight away.
Lu Peng and Li Haoyue spun around, “Whoa!”
They were shocked, but hey, they could always start a fight first.
“You actually got people to beat me up just because of a measly 200 yuan?” The tattooed guy, now pinned under Lu Peng, yelled at the senior.
“You actually dared to call me short.” Ning Sheng punched and kicked, “We’re all minors, why are you calling me a child worker?”
Li Haoyue: “……”
“Dude.” Lu Peng said, “This isn’t just about 200 yuan anymore.”
Xu Ling rushed from the car wash over to the brick factory and arrived just in time to witness this brawl.
Lu Peng had the tattooed guy by the collar: “Is that a shrimp line tattooed on your neck?”
The tattooed guy looked up furiously mid-fight. “It’s a dragon! Do you even have taste?”
Li Haoyue grabbed a broom and swung it at the “dragon”.
Ning Sheng propped himself up on a table, flipped over, and kicked one of the tattooed guy’s underlings right in the chest.
The tattooed guy: “Fuck! I didn’t say you are short! I swear that’s not what I meant!”
Xu Ling: “…”
Xu Ling: “……..”
He glanced around, then kicked one of the guys lifting a brick clear across the yard.
The streetwise gang surrendered, and the fight ended.
And the senior, clutching a bag of 200 yuan in coins, looked dazed.
He actually….. got the money?
*
There was a small hillside that sloped down toward a stream of clear water outside the brick factory.
Ning Sheng dipped his hand in the stream, his pale fingers combing through the flowing water as he washed his hands clean carefully.
Xu Ling was crouched beside him, rinsing a short branch off.
“A wild brick factory, with just those three.” Xu Ling started. “You guys didn’t even know how many people they have there, yet you guys still dared to pick a fight?”
Li Haoyue: “Uh…”
Lu Peng: “We didn’t mean to stir things up. We just wanted to blend in and find their boss, try to help that senior collect his debt.”
Xu Ling gave the senior a quick look. “And then?”
Lu Peng: “Then a little thing went wrong, and Princess slapped someone.”
Li Haoyue: “…..”
Ning Sheng: “Like that’s any of your business.”
The little devil king finished cleaning the branch, picked the splinters out, spread Ning Sheng’s hand open, then gave his palm a swift smack with it.
Ning Sheng: “Ow!”
A red mark spread across his pale, snow-white palm in an instant.
“Xu Dashan!” Ning Sheng pulled his hand back, raising it to hit back, however Xu Ling grabbed his wrist.
Ning Sheng struggled twice but couldn’t break free.
“Hey, hey, hey! Dog Xu, what are you doing?” Lu Peng blocked him.
“I taught you how to fight so you could protect yourself.” Xu Ling said. “Not so you could provoke people like that! These guys were cowards, but what about next time? There are plenty out there who don’t go to school and carry knives.”
“How does it concern you!” Ning Sheng retorted. “You’ve grown up and decided I don’t matter, planning to go back to S City with your President Wang!”
Xu Ling: “My biological father’s last name is Tang!”
Ning Sheng: “Like I care if your dad’s last name is Sugar, Salt, or MSG 1Tang, pronounced a different way means ‘sugar’! Get lost! You’re not my dog anymore!”
Xu Ling: “…..”
Li Haoyue: “……”
Lu Peng: “……”
Xu Ling took a deep breath. “When did I ever say I was going back to S City?”
Ning Sheng: “Huh?”
Not going, huh.
“I’m going back to my grandma’s place.” He stood up.
“Go on, leave right now.” Xu Ling told him. “But we’ll split Pei Pei and Qi Qi up first. You take Qi Qi, and I’ll string Pei Pei up to roast right here.”
Ning Sheng: “……..”
“You crazy dog!” He muttered.
“Whoever raised it should be responsible for it.” Xu Ling grabbed him, stopping him from leaving.
“Um…..” The senior chimed in, “let’s not fight, alright?”
The senior: “I’ll treat you guys to grilled pork belly.”
The four of them turned to look at him at the same time.
The senior: “…..”
*
Five people sat down together at the entrance of a small barbecue joint in Qing’an Town.
“Tell him to turn on the fan.” Ning Sheng nudged Lu Peng.
Lu Peng passed the message along.
Xu Ling: “…..”
Xu Ling: “Turn what fan on? It’s the middle of winter. No way.”
“I want this, that, and this one too.” Ning Sheng pointed at the menu. “I’ll drink this, that, and add those, too.”
“Got it.” The owner’s wife tapped on a calculator.
“Three hundred.” Li Haoyue blurted out.
The four of them turned to look at the senior: “Pay up.”
The senior followed the owner’s wife to pay the bill.
“Young man.” The owner’s wife said, “The barbecue is really delicious, so why are you wiping your face?”
The senior: “Auntie, it’s nothing. It’s just that I suddenly realized that these guys are even more ruthless than the brick factory.”
He’d collected back 200, spent 300, and ended up down by 100.