Damn, Li Lu only then realized it was someone on the other side who had jumped into the river. It was too dark. He had not even noticed that side at all.
“Don’t, don’t go. Call the police.”
The girl held her boyfriend back. He could not swim.
“Splash.”
A dark figure had already followed in.
People on the riverbank quickly gathered, and the cries for help drew a large crowd.
Li Lu was in good shape. Though they called it a river, it was really just a moat, and the water was not deep.
With the help of more than a dozen phone flashlights on the bridge, they quickly found the person who had fallen in.
A few minutes later, he had already dragged the person to the bank.
He gasped for breath. In weather this cold, around ten degrees, the water felt freezing.
By then, even his teeth would not stop chattering.
After looking at the person he had pulled up, he sighed inwardly. Yeah, probably another victim of love.
“What do we do?”
“The ambulance still hasn’t arrived.”
…
The bank was noisy as hell. Li Lu pushed away the clothes someone handed him.
He grabbed the boy from the couple earlier.
“I’m fine.
Come on, you do the mouth-to-mouth on her.”
After saying that, he stood up, shivering all over, and started walking out of the crowd.
“Don’t go, handsome. The ambulance will be here soon.”
“Hero, don’t go. I already sent a news tip to the TV station. They’ll be here any minute.”
…
The girl just thought this guy was ridiculously handsome, with a high nose bridge and bright eyes.
His wet hair only made his opposite-sex charisma even stronger.
Li Lu did not look back. He pushed through the crowd. It was no longer his business.
He had been taught since childhood to do good deeds without leaving his name.
Ha ha.
He was about to retire from the circle anyway. Why wait for the TV station? That kind of exposure was not worth it.
The phone in his pocket rang. It was an IP68-rated phone, and its water resistance was pretty good.
“Hello, Mom.
What is it?”
Li Lu’s lips were purple from the cold, but he could not ignore his mother’s call.
“What, I can’t call you if I have nothing to say?”
“No, I was just saying that casually.”
“You brat, if I don’t call you, will you ever call me first?”
“Sorry, sorry, I was wrong, I was wrong.”
Li Lu begged for mercy repeatedly. His mother was even harder to deal with than a girlfriend.
“Did you break up with that Xiao Nuan?”
“Oh, Mom, you’re being nosy too.
We were never together in the first place. Didn’t the internet already say that?”
His heart warmed. His mother was not being nosy at all; she probably kept up with his news online all the time.
“I can’t be bothered to keep up with you. When are you coming home?
You come back once a year, stay for just a few days, and I’m almost starting to forget I have a son.”
“I’ll go back in a few days and see you guys.”
After saying a few words, Li Lu felt much warmer.
Right, he had originally planned to go back and ask them for help.
Now it was even better… his mother had brought it up herself.
“Do you still remember the neighbors from when we were kids, your Uncle Gao’s family?”
“Uncle Gao?”
A tall figure instantly surfaced in Li Lu’s mind, and he started shivering again without meaning to.
“I remember.”
“Haha, they’ve moved back from abroad. You’ll get to meet them when you come back.”
When Li Lu heard it was the whole family, he felt even colder.
Uncle Gao was very tall, probably around 1.9 meters.
When he was little, the man was a giant in front of him.
But it was not the man he was afraid of. What he feared was the man’s daughter.
Gao Xiaolan.
Same age as him. The neighbor’s kid. She had bullied him since childhood.
A girl who was a whole head taller than him.
He could not beat her in a fight, and academically she left him in the dust.
Worst of all, the two families were neighbors, living right next to each other, riding the same car to and from school every day.
She had bullied him since first grade. During PE class, when they played drop-the-handkerchief, she always dropped it behind him.
When they played basketball, she was the undisputed starter on the class team, and he was the substitute.
Back then, the class team was not split by gender.
She got perfect scores on exams, while he failed, and he got scolded every single day.
At family gatherings, his mother would tell the sensible Xiaolan to keep an eye on him.
And she actually took it seriously.
She had the teacher change their seats so they sat together, watching over his studies. Even if he dozed off in class, she would wake him up with a tap.
She also loved tattling.
When he tried to act cool and play guitar, she told his mother that he had not even finished his homework and only knew how to play around at school.
When he tugged on a cute girl’s hair from behind, the girl did not even say anything.
She, on the other hand, told the teacher he was bullying a female classmate.
…
A whole basketful of crimes. Too many to count.
Luckily, in fifth grade, their family moved abroad.
Whenever his mother mentioned Uncle Gao’s family, he would immediately think of that girl with the single ponytail.
“Sure. It has been many years since I last saw them.”
Li Lu gave a soft laugh. What was he thinking?
Everyone was grown up now. The childish things from the past were all fond memories now.
I wonder if Gao Xiaolan is back too?
It had been so many years. Suddenly hearing her name again, he actually missed her a little.
With that kind of build, broad and sturdy, she would probably suit a foreign muscle man pretty well.
Maybe she even had kids by now.
A tall figure had already formed automatically in his mind.
When she was 10, she was already 1.67 meters tall.
So now what? At least 1.8 meters, maybe even taller than him.
It was in the genes. Uncle Gao was that tall.
And with that build, even as a child she had been much sturdier than him. So now?
A WWE female giant?
“You know what’s funny? Xiaolan, Old Gao’s Xiaolan, is still single.
You remember Xiaolan, right?
Your Aunt and I discussed it. You come back, the two of you meet up, and if you hit it off, won’t that settle things for both families?”
His mother was laughing so hard on the phone she could barely breathe. What a coincidence.
The two kids were such a perfect match… childhood sweethearts, knowing each other well, and well-matched in status.
If it were not for getting him back for a blind date, she would never have bothered to call him.
Ungrateful brat. It was almost like she had given birth to him for someone else.
“Ha, ha.”
Li Lu let out two dry laughs. Did he hear that right?
So she wanted him to go on a blind date, and it was with Gao Xiaolan.
A mismatched pairing. Wasn’t that basically a death sentence?
A scene immediately flashed in his mind: himself trapped under a dark shadow’s armpit.
A huge hand kneading him hard as he slowly sank into the darkness.
So miserable. So miserable.
“Uh, Mom.
You know I’m an artist.
I’m busy every day. I don’t even have time to rest.
Actually, I already took another job.
I signed a contract. I have to go.”
Cold sweat poured down Li Lu’s back as he finally managed to hail a taxi.
Damn, if he was not frozen to death, he would be scared to death by his mother.
“Stop brushing me off.
Tell me, in how many days are you coming home?”
Mother Li knew him too well.
“One program takes more than half a year. How about this? I’ll definitely go back in six months.
Mom, I’m hanging up now.
A reporter wants to interview me.”
Li Lu did not wait for a reply and hung up.
Damn it, when it rains, it pours.
He hoped that in six months, their family would have gone back over there.
Sitting in the car, he slowly calmed down.
He had never thought he would one day be arranged to go on a blind date.
He was soaking wet and felt awful. The driver only took him after he added an extra three hundred.
Why was he so unlucky? Damn.
Since childhood, he had helped pretty little girls cross the street and eaten candy for little kids because he was afraid they would get cavities.
He had done so many good deeds. Why was there no good karma at all?
His luck was getting worse and worse. Damn.
Beep beep.
A text message arrived.
『Dear XX Bank customer, your monthly mortgage payment is 200,000 yuan. The due date is the 8th. If your repayment account balance is insufficient, please deposit funds in time.』
Damn.
Li Lu cursed under his breath. His balance really was insufficient.
What was he trying to act rich for earlier? He was only suffering for his pride.
If I had one more chance, I would definitely have taken that five million.
Now I’m screwed. I had originally planned to go home and ask my mother for support.
Why am I such an idiot?