Chapter 23.1
Editor: Jodi
The thief was speechless.
“Tsk, this d*mn wallet only has fifty cents.” He sneered, “And you’re making such a fuss over it.”
Ning Sheng: “What? Only fifty cents?”
“We have thirty thousand in our bag.” Ning Sheng told the thief, “Hand over the rest of the money!”
The thief: “???”
The thief: “Huh?”
Ning Sheng: “Hurry up!”
“Give it to him quickly.” A passer by told the thief.
The thief was dumbfounded, then he screamed, “Help, extortion!”
Xu Ling and Lu Peng handed the thief over to the police who arrived after hearing the commotion.
And along the way, the thief kept protesting, insisting that he had encountered a case of being double-crossed by his own kind.
Xu Ling reached out, taking the school uniform jacket Ning Sheng was giving to him. “Thirty thousand was an exaggeration, my mom’s wallet can’t even fit thirty thousand.”
“I didn’t know that.” Ning Sheng told him, “I usually just use my card for these amounts.”
“The thief didn’t even know, he was just scared by princess.” Lu Peng chuckled in amazement.
Ning Sheng: “Must be so poor to have never seen thirty thousand.”
Xu Ling: “……”
Lu Peng: “……”
“Princess, let’s be forgiving of people.” Xu Ling draped the jacket over his shoulders, feeling Ning Sheng’s warmth still lingering on the fabric.
“You also know it’s be forgiving of ‘people’.” Ning Sheng took the wallet and pulled a picture out from its compartment.
It had been taken the day of their elementary school graduation.
The sunlight had been intense that day, the sky so clear that there wasn’t a cloud in sight, the weather scorching hot. Ning Sheng had been reluctant to take a picture, but was dragged by Xu Ling to the school gate for it.
In the picture, he had an unhappy expression on his face as he pouted a little reluctantly, while Xu Ling held his face towards the camera with a smile.
On the contrary, Xu Ling, half-hugging him, was smiling happily, as if he had encountered something joyful, and the camera captured that moment.
Ning Sheng took out the picture, and pinching it between his fingertips, stuffed it into Xu Ling’s pocket.
“Taken so ugly, find a place to hide it properly. Don’t lose it so it becomes a laughingstock.” Ning Sheng told him.
“It’s not ugly at all.” Lu Peng had seen the picture before, “My mom said Princess’s face is much prettier than many child stars’ and even more precious.”
”Don’t call me Princess anymore! I’m already in junior high 1after checking, I realised that the Chinese word used here, 初中 means both junior middle school and junior high school and since I’m not sure whether Ning Sheng and the rest are in high school or middle school, I’m using junior high, though I’m inclined to believe they are in middle school because of their ages.” Ning Sheng grabbed the biscuit back, “Stop eating, don’t eat it. Advantage taker.” 2the definition of the word here -吃里扒外lit. Means -living off one person while secretly helping another, and here I’m guessing Ning Sheng means Lu Peng is eating his cookies while calling him Princess because he has already said they should stop calling him that. I’ll stop here because I’m getting verbose ha ha
Lu Peng: “Young master, give it back, I still want to eat.”
Xu Ling slapped Lu Peng’s hand away, “Have some dignity.”
Then he took the biscuit from Ning Sheng’s hand, “It’s mine now.”
“Hey, there’s a stage set up over there. Do you guys want to go see?” Li Haoyue who was by the railing of the second floor pointed in a direction.
“I want to go.” Ning Sheng announced.
This kind of thing that kids in the town were used to watching, Ning Sheng found it fascinating and never got tired of watching it.
He grabbed Xu Ling’s hand and made his way through the crowd, diving into it.
There was no need to worry about getting crushed, as Xu Ling was strong enough to push through the crowd for him.
Qing’an Town wasn’t big, but the theatre troupe they hired was quite good, performing a play that had been sung a thousand times. Ning Sheng watched with tears in his eyes, then rubbing his eyes, he turned to them—
Ning Sheng: “What are you guys doing!”
Lu Peng was standing there, absorbed in playing mobile games.
Xu Ling had even gone further, selling the small toys his mom made from leaves. They were usually two yuan each, but he had raised the price to twenty yuan each today and had sold quite a few, causing children who were passing by to cry, saying that they wanted some.
As for the math nerd, he was definitely doing math problems.
“You guys don’t understand the art of appreciation at all!” Ning Sheng told them, “Such a touching love story!”
Ning Sheng: “This is art! You bunch of heartless fo….”
An ice candy apple was shoved into his mouth.
Ning Sheng: “Wuu wuu wuu.”
“See, quiet now.” Xu Ling said smugly.
“Xu Ge is amazing.” Lu Peng admired.
Lu Peng: “Xu Ge, be careful!”
Xu Ling: “……Hiss, just this? Use a bit more force next time.”
Ning Sheng was furious.
So Xu Ling said insincerely, “Ouch.”
With many people at the temple fair, their commotion caused the crowd behind to surge forward, causing Ning Sheng to lose his good viewing spot for the show, as the dense crowd ahead blocked his line of sight.
Ning Sheng: “……”
“Did they end up together in the end? I haven’t finished watching yet.” He said regretfully, “And why is the villain still alive? What’s the grande ending?”
Xu Ling: “The ending is that the guy……”
“Shut up!” Ning Sheng said, “You actually dare to spoil it, you’re worse than the villain.”
“Really, I’m speechless.” Xu Ling said with three scratch marks on his neck, stuffed the last grasshopper made of straw into Ning Sheng’s hand, then crouched down, “Get on. Lu Peng, give him a hand.”
Ning Sheng: “?”
Then caught off guard, he was lifted onto Xu Ling’s shoulders.
The entire stage appeared vividly before his eyes, but the feeling of being suspended made him grip Xu Ling’s hand tightly as he swayed unsteadily.
On the stage, the lovers finally reunited, and everything was perfect.
Below the stage, Xu Ling and Lu Peng were sweating, and Ning Sheng was nervous as well.
“Put me down.” He said, “It’s over.”
Then Ning Sheng, still shaken: “Do you guys always have to go through this much trouble to watch a show here?”
The play ended, and the crowd gradually dispersed. Li Haoyue was standing not far away, with a great view from the second floor, looking at them with an expression that said they were idiots.
“Idiots.” Li Haoyue said, “Why didn’t you come up here to watch?”
Ning Sheng: “……”
Xu Ling: “Try cursing again?”
It was the weekend, so the group wandered around the temple fair until it got dark.
Xu Ling earned 600 yuan, and Ning Sheng spent 650 yuan.
And he was holding a full bag, all filled with small gifts for his grandmother.
“Let’s head back.” Lu Peng yawned, “We have class early tomorrow morning and a ton of homework for it.”
“Let the math nerd lend you his to copy.” Ning Sheng told him, “But throw a few mistakes into the mix.”
Ning Sheng tossed his pile of random purchases into the basket of Xu Ling’s bicycle and jumped onto its back seat.
“Don’t forget to do your homework.” Xu Ling told him.
Ning Sheng: “Do I need you to remind me?”
City Experimental Junior High School had a branch in Qing’an Town, where the kids from Qing’an Town went to school.
Unfortunately, when they were divided into classes, Lu Peng and the math nerd ended up in the class next to theirs.