Turning his head to confirm that the girl had certainly gone up the stairs, Fu Mingxiu threw the plastic bag in his hand back onto the table and pointed angrily at it with glaring eyes, “What is this? What is the meaning of this? This is a soft knife, isn’t it? Are you trying to get on my good side? It’s no use I tell you. No! Use!”
Lin Yujing had awoken from the grumbling of her stomach.
When she roused, the curtain of the night had already fallen. The luminous digital clock only showed that it was 9pm. She had slept for two hours, going into slumber the moment she went upstairs and entered her room.
She even had a terrifying dream in the middle. She dreamt seeing the delinquent brother Shen Juan holding a drill-like object, staring at her. The drill produced buzzing sounds and Shen Juan expressionlessly told her, “Take your pants off. I’m going to tattoo Hello Kitty on you.”
Lin Yujing said, “No. My ass is too good-looking and the Hello Kitty you drew is too ugly. It doesn’t deserve my butt.”
Shen Juan replied, “Then I’ll tattoo a luminous nightwatch for you.”
Lin Yujing felt that rather than being awoken by hunger, she clearly should’ve been scared awake by this.
She sat herself up and leaned against the headboard. At first she went into a daze for a minute, then soon, she felt like getting something to eat.
Her stomach was growling with hunger.
Ever since coming back from the mall in the afternoon, she had only drunk a glass of water. She originally wanted to eat dinner before coming but after Old Li’s call, she had forgotten about this matter.
Lin Yujing reached out a hand to take the glass from the table beside her bed and guzzled another glass of water down, soothing her hunger.
She then laid back into the bed once again and stared at the ceiling. For some reason, she started to think about Old Li and the youth that was probably his son.
If she were him, with that kind of father, would she also be able to act like a spoiled child and throw a little temper?
She suddenly knew why she had felt annoyed earlier.
She was envious.
Lin Yujing felt that she was being a little odd right now. She had never been the type to get depressed. It was probably because she was now in an unfamiliar city, an unfamiliar environment, and was about to confront an unfamiliar life which didn’t give her any sense of security, and so, she had become extremely sensitive.
After all, leaving the place she had lived for several years, and even including the matter of Lin Zhi and Meng Weiguo’s divorce, it still left a bit of impact on her.
No matter how unbearable it was before, no matter what, it was still her home, but now, she didn’t even have a home.
The rumbling sound of her stomach coincidentally interrupted her melancholy. Lin Yujing raised her hands and rubbed her face. She then scratched her messy hair and turned around to get off the bed. She casually found a pair of pants to put on and took her keys and phone, preparing to head downstairs and scavenge for food.
The kitchen should have food but in order to avoid unwanted trouble, she didn’t want to look through the storage without permission at this time.
The villa and pillar lights were soft and pretty. After all, it was a very expensive home. The standard of lighting and art were comparable to Italy’s Glow Festival.
When she was being driven back, Lin Yujing didn’t feel the distance too far. At this moment, it had taken her a good while to finally leave the big gates. The streets were brightly lit by the traffic of cars, the smell of the big city lingering everywhere.
Lin Yujing walked towards the old alley in accordance with her memory. She seemed to have recalled seeing a 7-11 convenience store when she passed by this place in the afternoon.
Her sense of direction was quite good because after walking for about 10 minutes, she saw the red and green trademark of 7-11 emitting a familiar light.
Lin Yujing walked inside and took a rice ball and a bottle of fruit juice. She also wanted an oden[1]–but was only left with 3 meatballs, spinach, tofu and a piece of fish steak. She paid, took her paper cup out the store and squatted down in front of the entrance, picking a meatball and stuffing it into her mouth.
The temperature at night didn’t feel as hot as it was in the afternoon. There was a difference in temperature during the night in this city. The wind carried a damp chill and it wasn’t too cold. It was just the right coolness, blowing away the gloomy feelings she had surging in her consecutively for the past two days.
Lin Yujing chewed on the meatballs in good spirits and was about to take her second piece. She popped it into her mouth then raised her head, seeing a few people turn from the corner opposite her.
At first, because there was still quite a distance, she couldn’t see their faces clearly.
Later on, the group of people walked to the roadside, preparing to cross the street. When she spotted them clearly about to head in her direction, she finally saw their faces clearly.
It was Mopheads 1,2 3 and behind them, was the delinquent brother that was difficult to wake up.
The delinquent brother must’ve gotten his sleep in the afternoon and finally looked less tired. He was wearing the same clothes he wore in the afternoon and added a shirt to act as a jacket. His hands were in his packet and his head was down as he listened to the others speak.
She didn’t know what they were talking about but the two people in the front laughed, and they crossed the road, heading towards Lin Yujing.
Mophead 1 finally saw her.
Lin Yujing hesitated whether to greet them or not. In truth, she didn’t really plan to go to the tattoo workshop again and even assumed that she would never bump into them.
In the end, fate was everywhere. However, since the workshop was opened here, this place could be considered their business area.
She placed the whole meatball into her mouth and threw the bamboo chopsticks back in the paper cup, seemingly about to raise her hand to greet them as a formality.
On the other side, Mophead 1 suddenly turned over and told something to the others in a low voice.
After that, Shen Juan raised his head and looked over, their eyes meeting.
They had already crossed the road, the convenience store and the light of the yellow street lamps working together to stretch their shadows. The dark night enveloped the youth’s facial features, making him look profound and mysterious, like an old photo with noise. His dark eyes hid in the shadows, his mood indiscernible.
Lin Yujing recalled that short and lifelike dream and subconsciously looked at his hand, fearing that he would raise his electric drill and rush over to say, “Take off your pants, I’ll tattoo Hello Kitty on you.”
Three minutes later, Shen Juan drooped down his head with an indifferent expression.
Lin Yujing stared blankly, blinking her eyes. The meatball in her mouth had already been chewed up and swallowed into the stomach but she didn’t care and took up the chopsticks again, focusing on picking the spinach and tofu.
Just as she picked it up, a burst of noises came from the other side of the road and another group of people came out to the street. They were a group of 6 to 7 people walking over to her.
Mophead 2 cursed and started to roll up his sleeves, entering into battle mode.
Lin Yujing had a flash of realization.
This was a gathering place for delinquent brothers to compete and battle. The concrete flow was probably ‘peaceful measures before using force’, ‘using words before punches’. Everybody met at the entrance of 7-11. The bosses of both groups would exchange greetings until one of them acted first. And this process was called ‘Lighting the cannon’.
The next stage was where the person who lost the verbal fight would fly into a rage out of humiliation and instantly take out a 50 meter long knife while calling out his own brothers, preparing to throw blows.
She watched the two formidable-looking sophomores approach closer and closer, standing at the entrance of 7-11, and the guy who looked like the leader didn’t seem to be that old.
With the appearance of an eighteen or nineteen year old, he sucked the cigarette, and with an ill complexion, the words “I am a hateful person” were written all over his face.
Seeing the two groups huddled together, the passersby all made detours around them. Lin Yujing squatted down on the steps before the entrance of the convenience store with a cup of oden in hand, appearing a little eye-catching.
Hateful Big Brother turned his head and cast her a glance.
It was not as if Lin Yujing hadn’t seen the wider world. She stared right back at him, still chewing on crispy meatballs, her line of sight not budging.
Big Brother’s line of sight slid down to her slender white legs exposed by her shorts and paused there. He puffed out a cloud of smoke and was just about to say something.
Shen Juan suddenly turned sideways and took a few steps, standing before the girl and blocking his view.
“Where do we talk?” Shen Juan lifted his chin.
Hateful big brother: ?”
Shen Juan: “Don’t you know it’s impolite to intrude on someone eating oden?”
The author has something to say:
“Look at yourself, do you think she’s something you can look at?” –Shen Juan, a polite delinquent.
[1] Oden is Japanese fish cake stew