By the time Xu Fangfei reached her front door that day, it was already close to ten at night.
The sound-activated light in the corridor was still broken. The entire space was pitch-black, so dark she could not see her own hand in front of her face. She clenched the keyring, her fingers tightening until her knuckles pressed hard against the serrated metal. Her brows were tightly knit, tangled with hesitation.
Thanks to Zhao Yimin and his gang, her clothes were dirty now, her ankle was twisted, and she did not even need a mirror to imagine how bedraggled she looked. On top of that, she had come home so late. Excuses like “cleaning duty” or “doing homework” definitely would not fool her mother.
She needed to think of a convincing explanation in advance.
After pondering for a few more seconds, Xu Fangfei quietly drafted her story in her mind. She pressed her lips together, took a deep breath, and only then used the key to open the door, pretending to be calm as she went inside.
“Where did you go? I just called your homeroom teacher. Teacher Yang said you left school before nine.”
As soon as the door opened, an anxious question came crashing down on her.
Xu Fangfei supported herself against the wall as she changed her shoes, her head lowered deeply. Feeling guilty, she did not dare look at her mother’s face. She simply followed the story she had prepared and said slowly, “It was raining today, and the road was very slippery. I accidentally twisted my foot. A classmate supported me all the way home, so it took a bit longer.”
Qiao Huilan’s brows were tightly furrowed. Noticing her daughter’s awkward posture as she changed her shoes and the mud stains on her school uniform, it really did look like she had slipped and fallen on a rainy road.
Qiao Huilan walked over and used both hands to help Xu Fangfei change her shoes. There was still a trace of doubt and worry in her eyes as she asked, “You just fell? You didn’t run into any bad people, did you?”
“No.” Xu Fangfei shook her head quickly.
“That’s good.” Qiao Huilan did not doubt Xu Fangfei’s words. She let out a breath of relief. “Teacher Yang was really thoughtful. She was worried it wouldn’t be safe for you, a girl, to go home at night, so she specially arranged for a male classmate from your class to walk you back. The one who helped you home was that study committee member, right?”
Xu Fangfei fell quiet, gave a barely audible “Mm,” then gritted her teeth and, steeling herself, pulled off the white sneaker on her right foot. In an instant, the pain made her suck in a sharp breath.
Qiao Huilan lowered her gaze to look. The brows that had just relaxed immediately knitted together again. “It’s swollen this badly.” As she spoke, she bent down and carefully supported the girl’s red, swollen ankle with both hands. “Try turning it.”
Xu Fangfei moved it while enduring the pain.
“It shouldn’t have injured the bone.”
When she was young, Qiao Huilan had helped out in the clinic of a noodle-rolling factory, so she could barely handle some minor injuries and illnesses. With one hand, she took Xu Fangfei’s backpack. With the other, she supported Xu Fangfei to sit on the sofa, then turned and went into the kitchen.
Before long, Qiao Huilan returned, holding a bottle of medicated wine for bruises and sprains.
“It needs to be rubbed to disperse the pooled blood,” Qiao Huilan muttered to herself. She briskly rolled up her sleeves, lifted Xu Fangfei’s right leg onto her own knee, and used both hands to rub her ankle.
The injured spot burned fiercely, hurting so much that Xu Fangfei cried out.
Hearing the commotion, the grandfather in the room weakly called out, his voice drifting faintly with concern, “Feifei is back? What happened?”
“Grandpa, I’m fine.” Xu Fangfei was covered in sweat, enduring the pain as she replied. “I accidentally twisted my foot. It’s nothing.”
The old man relaxed and drifted back into sleep.
After quite a bit of fussing, Qiao Huilan’s technique could not be called professional, but the effect was good. After rubbing for more than ten minutes, Xu Fangfei’s right ankle, which had been swollen like a steamed bun, had subsided by more than half.
Qiao Huilan wiped the sweat from her forehead with a towel and put the medicated wine away.
Xu Fangfei then limped off to take clean clothes and go shower.
Warm water washed away the fatigue from her body. She came out wearing her nightdress and was just about to return to her room when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a plate of freshly steamed buns set on the dining table.
An old ceiling fan spun overhead. The buns were steaming hot, their fragrance spreading everywhere.
Xu Fangfei touched her deflated stomach, limped over, picked up a bun, took a bite, and chewed with puffed cheeks as she asked indistinctly, “Mom, did you steam these buns?”
“I found a bag of flour while cleaning up the house. If we don’t eat it, it’ll expire,” Qiao Huilan said casually as she cleaned the kitchen, her apron tied on. “Oh right, I made a lot of buns. Take a few to school tomorrow and give them to the classmate who helped you.”
Xu Fangfei thought of what had happened tonight, hesitated, and replied, “…Is that necessary?”
“They helped you and walked you home. Of course it’s necessary.” Qiao Huilan’s smile was gentle. “Feifei, when someone helps us, we should be grateful and repay the kindness. A few buns aren’t worth much. What matters is the thought.”
Xu Fangfei held the bun and did not know what to say.
Qiao Huilan said, “Then it’s settled? Boys have big appetites. Tomorrow I’ll pack a few extras for you.”
Xu Fangfei hesitated for a long while. In the end, she could only nod. “Okay.”
The homework assigned by the teachers today was not much, and Xu Fangfei had already finished it all at school. She reviewed her lessons for a while in her bedroom, then turned off the light and went to bed.
Outside the window, the rain had stopped. After being washed by the rain, the small city cooled slightly. Even the night breeze carried a rare hint of coolness.
Xu Fangfei lay under the covers, staring at the ceiling in the darkness.
Her mother wanted her to thank the male classmate who had walked her home. But her mother did not know that the male classmate who had walked her home tonight had run away and abandoned her when danger struck.
Everyone looks out for themselves. With no ties of kinship, Xu Fangfei did not blame Peng Yu, but she would not be grateful to him either.
That group led by Zhao Yimin was capable of doing any kind of vile thing. If not for 3206, her fate tonight would have been unimaginable.
Suddenly, a pair of pitch-black eyes flashed through her mind, unrestrained and reckless, bottomless in their depth.
Her chest thumped twice for no reason. Xu Fangfei felt inexplicably flustered, turned over, closed her eyes, and began counting sheep to lull herself to sleep.
One sheep, two sheep, three sheep…
Come to think of it, was her behavior today a little too much?
He might be a bad person, but he saved her. One thing is one thing. No matter what, she should at least have said thank you to him.
Four sheep, five sheep, six sheep…
Or should she find a chance later to thank him in person? But the group she ran into in the residential compound tonight, the tattooed ones, the ones with ear studs, the crew-cut ones, slouching and cynical, every single one of them had eyes filled with a ruthless, murderous edge. They were far beyond someone like Zhao Yimin, a mere street punk.
Judging by the way those people treated 3206 with respect, it was easy to imagine that he was definitely a terrifying and ruthless figure.
Seven sheep, eight sheep…
So it was better to keep her distance.
Someone like him lived in a completely different world from hers. Any intersection between them was purely accidental. He probably did not lack a single “thank you” from her anyway.
Nine sheep, ten sheep, eleven sheep, twelve sheep…
After making that decision, the stone weighing on her heart finally shifted away. Xu Fangfei felt much lighter, curved her lips, and by the time she counted to the thirty-seventh sheep, a wave of drowsiness slowly washed over her. Her breathing gradually evened out, and she fell asleep.
However, just as she had fallen asleep, a sudden noise rang out:
“Hu! Big Three Dragons! Hahaha!”
“Fuck! Fatty, your trash hand is blessed or what? First round and it’s already this crazy!”
“Boss buying my horse is blessing me. Cut the crap, pay up, pay up.”
…
In the dead of night, the men cursed and reshuffled. The clatter of mahjong tiles and the noisy voices rose and fell, waking Xu Fangfei.
Xu Fangfei rubbed her eyes, which refused to open, and listened carefully. She realized that these sounds were coming from downstairs, from 3206.
Xu Fangfei: “.”
What the hell.
Playing mahjong in the middle of the night. Did they have no sense of public decency at all?
Xu Fangfei was dejected and frustrated. She did not dare go downstairs to argue with those people. She could only pull the blanket up over her head and let out a despairing groan.
*
At the same time, in 3206, just one floor below.
This apartment, 3206, actually had quite a story behind it.
The original owner of this apartment was an elderly woman already well past seventy. Even at her age, she still rose before dawn and worked until late at night, making pancakes and frying youtiao, pushing a breakfast cart near Lingcheng Middle School to sell breakfast, all because she had a good-for-nothing son to support.
Later, this unfilial son befriended a group of shady characters from society and learned to gamble. From then on, there was no turning back. He stole the property ownership certificate of this old apartment and, behind his aged mother’s back, mortgaged the place to take out a loan, using the money as gambling capital.
After squandering all the gambling money, this worthless beast of a son even set his sights on his mother’s coffin money. Under the pretext of making investments, he tricked the old woman out of her remaining ten thousand yuan in savings, which he soon lost clean as well.
After learning the truth, the old woman could not withstand the blow. In less than half a year, she sank into depression and passed away. The gambling-addicted son, in order to evade debts, also vanished from the face of the earth. Later on, this apartment was auctioned off by the court at a low price and left completely vacant.
It was not until this year that the apartment was resold, welcoming its first new owner in several years.
Most of the furniture had been cleared out by the previous owner after the auction. Only two beds, a dilapidated wooden sofa, and an equally dilapidated four-legged table were left behind.
At this moment, several burly men were sprawled bonelessly on the sofa, each with their heads lowered, playing on their phones.
On the four-legged table lay a dark green mahjong cloth. Four tall, heavily built men sat at the east, south, west, and north of the table, cigarettes in their mouths, drinking alcohol, puffing smoke, and playing mahjong, filling the entire apartment with thick haze.
In the first round, the fat man won right away, a Big Three Dragons, collecting from all three opponents. The crew-cut man and the man with the nose ring pulled out thick stacks of cash from their pockets and tossed them over, cursing him loudly as they did.
After winning the money, the fat man did not argue with them, grinning as he counted the bills.
“We’re brothers. Money from one pocket goes into another pocket. What’s there to argue about?” The man who spoke sat on the east side of the table. He looked about twenty-three or twenty-four, handsome in a roguish, wicked way. His brows and eyes were unrestrained, his gaze reckless, and his left shoulder was connected to an extremely exaggerated full-sleeve tattoo.
“Exactly!” the fat man echoed, flattering him eagerly. “Learn from him. Our Young Master Jiang, this is what you call ‘big-picture thinking’!”
Jiang Zhi’ang saw that the crew-cut man and the man with the nose ring were unhappy about losing money. He snorted and said, “Alright, stop fucking sulking. Today, if you win, you take it. If you lose, I’ll pay.”
The moment they heard this, several of them beamed and broke into wide smiles, though their mouths still said, “Young Master Jiang, what are you saying? It’s already our honor that you’re willing to let the brothers accompany you in a game of Hong Kong mahjong. How could we let you pay for our losses?”
“Enough bullshit.” His hand was bad. Jiang Zhi’ang narrowed his eyes, bit down on his cigarette, and irritably tossed out a Nine of Characters. “Draw for me.”
At this moment, a set of unhurried footsteps came from the bedroom, followed by two knocks, someone tapping the door with their knuckles.
The noise in the living room came to an abrupt halt. The men all looked up, their expressions turning respectful.
Zheng Xiye exhaled a white plume of smoke, flicked the ash, and casually tossed the phone in his hand to Jiang Zhi’ang.
The throw was slightly off. Jiang Zhi’ang lifted both arms and nearly failed to catch it. With a hint of confusion, he asked, “What’s wrong, Brother Ye?”
“Old Master Jiang wants you to take the call,” Zheng Xiye said coldly.
Hearing this, the arrogant expression on Jiang Zhi’ang’s face froze for a split second. He then called toward the sofa, “Someone come play for me,” and without daring to delay, raised the phone to his ear and strode into the bedroom. “Dad…”
The bedroom door slammed shut.
A man with dyed blond hair sat down in Jiang Zhi’ang’s seat.
The fat man cheerfully rubbed his tiles and did not forget to shout out, “Boss, buying a horse this round or not? Give the brothers another good hand and let us clean the table!”
Zheng Xiye casually picked up an unopened can of iced soda from the table. He swept a glance over the smoky chaos filling the room. After two seconds of silence, he suddenly said expressionlessly, “Keep it down.”
The group froze, clearly startled and confused.
The next second, the man with the nose ring was the first to come back to his senses. He slapped the crew-cut man and the fat man on the forehead and cursed, “What the fuck are you all yelling for? Didn’t you hear him tell you to keep it down? You don’t know you’re disturbing the boss—”
Before he could finish speaking, he was cut off by a sharp hiss.
Zheng Xiye pulled open the soda can and took a sip.
“There are students living in this building,” he said, shaking the can, slippers scuffing as he turned and headed back to his room. He tossed out the latter half of the sentence with a teasing tone. “The motherland’s little budding flowers. Don’t disturb their rest.”
*
The next day, Xu Fangfei limped her way to school. When she opened her backpack, she immediately saw the buns Qiao Huilan had put inside.
A full four large buns, pickled cabbage and shredded pork filling. Thin skins, generous fillings, wrapped layer upon layer and carefully packed in a food bag.
Xu Fangfei took out her homework for each subject and walked to the front row to turn it in.
The moment she turned back, she ran straight into a tall, thin figure. When the other person saw her, surprise and scrutiny flickered across his face, mixed with traces of guilt and unease. His lips moved, as if he wanted to say something to her.
It was Peng Yu.
Amid Peng Yu’s complicated, hard-to-describe expression, Xu Fangfei quietly went around him and walked toward her seat.
Peng Yu noticed her unsteady steps. He clenched his fists at his sides, as if mustering courage, and called out, “Xu Fangfei.”
Xu Fangfei stopped her slightly limping steps, turned her head back, and looked at him in confusion.
Peng Yu said, “You, last night…”
“I’m fine. I just accidentally twisted my foot,” she replied, and then left.
The entire morning, because of those four large buns that could not find their rightful owner, Xu Fangfei seemed slightly distracted. At lunchtime, she treated Yang Lu to a beef set meal.
“Your campus card was found?” Yang Lu was very surprised. “Where did you lose it?”
Xu Fangfei answered honestly, “A neighbor picked it up.”
“And then returned it to you?”
“Mm.”
“Then you should thank them,” Yang Lu said in a worldly tone after taking a sip of tomato soup from the set meal. “These days, kind-hearted people aren’t many.”
Xu Fangfei smiled faintly, lost in thought, and did not respond.
*
Because Xu Fangfei had fallen and twisted her ankle the night before and was not walking easily, that evening Qiao Huilan closed the paper offerings shop early and rode her bicycle to the gate of Lingcheng Middle School to pick up Xu Fangfei after school.
Qiao Huilan’s bicycle had been bought many years ago and was already very old. When someone rode it, it creaked and groaned.
Fortunately, Xu Fangfei had a small frame and light weight. Sitting on the back seat did not cause too much strain on this elderly, grandfatherly bicycle.
She wrapped her arms around Qiao Huilan’s waist from behind, her face lightly resting against her mother’s back. In a daze, she felt as if she had returned to her childhood.
The wind was gentle, and the night was soft.
The mother and daughter rode through the streets together. Xu Fangfei said nothing, listening to her mother talk about the interesting things she had encountered while running the shop that day.
The school was not far from Xiwang Street to begin with, and riding made it even faster. After just a few minutes, they arrived.
Qiao Huilan locked the bicycle downstairs by the apartment building. Reaching into her pocket, she exclaimed, “Ah, I forgot to bring the flashlight. Feifei, where’s your flashlight?”
Xu Fangfei took out the flashlight and pressed the switch. Nothing happened. She pressed it again. Still nothing.
“It’s out of battery.” Xu Fangfei was already used to climbing the stairs in the dark. She rarely used the flashlight, so she had naturally forgotten to recharge it regularly.
With no other choice, the mother and daughter could only climb the stairs one after the other in the darkness.
Xu Fangfei was fine, being young, but Qiao Huilan was different. She was not as sharp-eyed as young people. After climbing just two steps, she nearly slipped and almost fell. Fortunately, at the critical moment, Xu Fangfei reacted quickly and steadied her.
At that moment, a beam of light suddenly shone from behind them, driving away the darkness and illuminating the entire stairwell.
Xu Fangfei froze and instinctively turned her head.
The person behind them had a tall, slender build. His face was hidden in the shadows behind the light, making it impossible to see clearly at first. When she adjusted her angle slightly, she finally saw his features, striking and handsome, his expression flat, cold and unruly, carrying a chill that revealed no emotion at all.
It was 3206.
Xu Fangfei’s heart tightened. She quickly withdrew her gaze, uneasy and anxious, afraid that this man might let something slip and expose what had happened last night when she was surrounded by Zhao Yimin, right in front of her mother.
However, she soon realized her worry was unnecessary.
From beginning to end, 3206 simply followed quietly behind her and her mother, with no intention whatsoever of starting any casual conversation with her.
With the light provided by the neighbor, the surroundings before Qiao Huilan became clear. She glanced at the young man behind them, found him unfamiliar, and could not help taking a couple more looks.
When they reached the halfway point to the second floor, Xu Fangfei worried that once 3206 went home, the light would disappear and her mother would not be able to see the path clearly. She could not help but whisper, “Mom, let’s walk a bit faster.”
Qiao Huilan looked at her. “With your leg like that, why are you rushing?”
3206 stopped on the third floor.
But he only stood at the doorway and did not open the door to go inside for a long time.
Xu Fangfei did not think much of it. She went up to the fourth floor together with Qiao Huilan and found that the entire stairwell was still brightly lit. She glanced downward and saw that the man was still there.
Suspicion rose in Xu Fangfei’s heart.
Qiao Huilan took out her keys to open the door and suddenly smiled, murmuring softly to herself, “That young man downstairs has a good heart.”
Hearing this, Xu Fangfei froze for a moment. Only then did she realize that 3206 had been providing light for her and her mother.
Qiao Huilan opened the door and went inside.
The moment the door on the fourth floor opened, the light vanished. 3206 went into his apartment and closed the door.
Xu Fangfei stood there stiffly, her heart locked in an intense inner struggle. After quite a while, she made up her mind. She turned around, held onto the wall, went downstairs, steadied herself, calmed her nerves, and only then finally raised her hand and knocked on the tightly closed door.
Knock, knock—
There was no sound from inside.
Xu Fangfei noticed a peephole on the security door. She instinctively lowered her head, opened her backpack, took something out from inside, and clenched it in her hand. She waited nervously.
A few seconds later, with a click, the door in front of her opened.
Xu Fangfei startled and lifted her head. The living room inside was pitch-black, with only one bedroom lit, the light extremely faint and dim.
3206 appeared at the doorway. He wore a simple light-colored top and leaned casually against the doorframe, his posture relaxed, eyelids drooping as he looked at her with a faintly amused gaze.
The fingers hanging at his side were long and well-defined. A cigarette was held between his index and middle fingers, not yet lit.
His entire presence was careless and dangerous.
“……” Xu Fangfei took a quiet breath, gathered her courage, and handed over the food bag she was holding.
Zheng Xiye took it casually.
It was pitch-dark around them. He looked carefully for a moment before seeing clearly that it was a bag of buns. Then he lifted one brow slightly and looked at her, a hint of questioning in his eyes.
“Thank you.”
After blurting out those three words at lightning speed, Xu Fangfei’s heart pounded wildly. She did not dare linger any longer and limped upstairs.
Zheng Xiye watched the slender figure.
The small student brat fled as if escaping, disappearing into the stairwell. That determined, injured movement looked as though she were avoiding demons and monsters. Immediately afterward, there was a loud bang from the fourth floor as the door was shut tightly.
At the same time, Zheng Xiye keenly sensed that there was now an extra wisp of lingering, hazy sweetness in the air around him.
Exactly the same as last night, the scent he had caught at a certain moment—
Under the light of a lone lamp, it fell upon the girl, draping her in a thin layer of warm gauze. She had twisted her ankle and stumbled, nearly falling. He had instinctively reached out to steady her and saw a strand of black hair slip down beside her cheek, gently drifting in the gray, rainy night.