She always bought some discounted things to bring home, such as toilet paper, toothpaste, or near-expiration food. Most of them weren’t useful, especially the food, and the tastes were hard to describe in words. At times like this, Ren Yandong’s purpose became apparent. The old mom would make him wipe out all the not-so-delicious things: “Hurry up and eat! The taste is just a bit worse, but it can still keep you from starving!”
…So, when the old mom said she had bought super delicious buns, Ren Yandong completely didn’t believe it.
Until the old mom returned from grocery shopping and shoved a bun into his mouth. Ren Yandong groggily climbed up from the bed, took a perfunctory bite, and then stared in shock: “How much did you say this meat bun costs?!”
“Two yuan! Isn’t it dirt cheap? So, when you come back from playing ball tonight, help me buy a few more! That way you won’t have to eat the breakfast I make!” Old Mom said while organizing the vegetables.
As a result, he searched an entire street and didn’t find it.
Why did the bun shop have no sign? Ren Yandong searched back and forth in a sweaty sweat, to no avail, and had no choice but to ask an uncle for help. When he saw the shop with an old bicycle parked in front, he suddenly felt… this bike seemed a little familiar?
Where had he seen it before?
Walking forward in confusion, he carefully inspected it with a few glances. He turned his head and saw an old granny sitting in the counter, drowsily dozing off. Next to it was a low table with three bowls of steaming hot dishes and three sets of chopsticks and spoons.
Ren Yandong leaned over the counter and gently tapped the glass: “Granny! Aren’t you guys selling buns here?”
The granny slowly opened her eyes, uttered an “Ah,” and slowly sat straight. A mass of an undefined shape behind her exposed its edge: “We only sell things in the morning here; there are no buns at other times.”
“There aren’t any!” The tall boy scratched his head and smiled awkwardly, “I thought there would be some in the evening too… Sorry about that, then I’ll come back to buy some tomorrow morning.”
The moment he turned around, he heard a voice coming from the adjacent shop: “Sijia, I’m going back to eat!”
Well, that also sounded a bit familiar.
Not taking it to heart, Ren Yandong got on his bicycle parked by the roadside and unhurriedly left the street.
Clinging to the counter with a heart-pounding scare, watching his figure walk ten meters away, Yan Jun let out a long breath, his legs instantly turning weak and causing him to collapse into a sitting position on the floor.
When Qin Yize came back, he happened to see this look of surviving a disaster.
“Brother, why are you sitting on the floor?” The fake child reached out to pull him up.
Granny also slowly turned her head back to look: “Xiaojun, what are you sitting on the floor for, it’s so dirty.”
Looking with a life-weary expression at these two oblivious people, Yan Jun laboriously propped himself up by his knees and gnashed his teeth: “Mind your own business… I just love sitting here.”
He crawled over to sit by the low table, glaring resentfully at Qin Yize, still lingering with fear: If you had come over two seconds earlier, you would have been discovered by Ren Yandong! Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck… scared the shit out of me!
Noticing again that the corner of this guy’s mouth was stained with red chili oil, Yan Jun’s anger instantly surged from his heart and malice grew toward his guts. Reaching out, he fiercely grabbed the guy’s face, pulling and twisting it hard: “Didn’t I tell you not to eat too many spicy strips with Sijia, do you have no ears?! It’s almost time for dinner, and at eight o’clock you’ll be crying that you’re hungry again!”
“Ow ow ow brother older brother it hurts hurts hurts!”
“Hahaha, Xiaoshu, don’t provoke Xiaojun of all people, you know?”
“Brother brother brother I was wrong, I was wrong!”
Nowadays, this stinky kid was getting more and more in his element on Jinghe Road. Hanging a smile every day, he slept in with Yan Jun in the morning, found the kids’ gang in the afternoon to compete in card-flipping skills, and went next door to watch cartoons with Wu Sijia in the evening, packing his schedule completely full.
One afternoon, Yan Jun came home from training. Right as he met them, he saw Xiao Hui’s mother pulling Xiao Hui along as they walked over, seemingly heading to get a haircut. Just pondering whether he should take Qin Yize to get a haircut too, the mother and son walked up to him, and the mother greeted him: “Hey, Xiaojun!”
“Auntie.” Yan Jun stopped, just wanting to greet Xiao Hui. But the kid snorted and hid behind his mother.
“Xiaojun, look how you have Xiaoshu helping you now, why don’t you make a few more buns? These past few days Xiao Hui couldn’t get up in the morning and missed out on buying any!” Xiao Hui’s mother reproached playfully.
“Is that so? I thought Xiaoshu could pull half a laborer’s weight!”
“Mom, let’s go, hurry and take me to get a haircut…” Xiao Hui pulled hard on his mother.
“Ah right right right! Xiaojun, we’ll go get a haircut first then!”
“Yeah.” Watching them walk away, Yan Jun turned his head back toward the house, his brow furrowing, and he charged back aggressively.
Qin Yize was holed up next door in the convenience store watching cartoons again; today it seemed to be InuYasha. Yan Jun rushed upstairs and couldn’t find anyone, immediately turning back down to drag him up by his ear from the counter: “Why did you provoke Xiao Hui, did you bully him?”
“I didn’t provoke him!” The brat now had experience; straightening his body and smoothly spinning around, he easily broke free from his older brother’s demonic claws.
“You won them all away?!” Yan Jun glared at him with exasperated disappointment: “You won all his cards, who’s going to play with you anymore?”
The fake child pouted nonchalantly: “It’s fine as long as Brother plays with me… Big Sister Sijia plays with me too.”
Sijia leaned in the corner, biting on a spicy strip with a hidden smile: “Little Tree Brother, those cigarette cards were hard-earned by Xiao Hui. You won them all, Xiao Hui must be secretly crying in tears at home.”
“Exactly!” Failing to pull his ear, Yan Jun grabbed him by the arm and dragged him outward: “He’s just a seven-year-old kid, his hands are half the size of yours, how do you have the face to bully him! Hurry up and find a chance to return the cigarette cards to him.”
“But I’m a kid too…” The fake child mumbled unconvinced in a low voice.
“What are you mumbling about!” Yan Jun glared at him.
“Alright alright alright I know, tomorrow afternoon I’ll go find Xiao Hui to play and deliberately lose to him, okay!”
“——That’s more like it!”
As a result, by the next afternoon, when Yan Jun returned from training, he saw this fake child wearing a handsome casual shirt, sitting in the counter blissfully eating a popsicle.
Subconsciously feeling something was wrong, he walked forward and tapped the counter: “Where’d you get the money to buy a popsicle?”
Qin Yize blinked his eyes, that fox-like face seeming to ponder something, before raising the popsicle and arguing logically: “The money Auntie gave me a few days ago, I saved it all up, and went to buy one this afternoon.”
Really? Yan Jun was skeptical, unloaded his sports bag, and went to the bathroom to take a shower.
Prying open the frozen chunks of meat, a colorful popsicle packaging bag was exposed. Yan Jun stared in shock, reached out to pinch it, and gently lifted… Right below the frozen meat, a bag of popsicles unexpectedly appeared, numbering at least seven or eight!
Holy crap! He instantly felt something was wrong.
At this moment, a call came from outside: “Xiaojun! Is Xiaojun there?”
Yan Jun hurriedly closed the fridge door and rushed out; Qin Yize, who had been eating a popsicle in the counter, had vanished without a trace. Instead, Xiao Hui’s mother stood at the storefront, her hands folded, looking somewhat embarrassed.
“Auntie…” Probably guessing what it was about, Yan Jun felt so guilty he couldn’t help cursing Qin Yize in his heart several hundred times.
“Xiaojun, it’s like this… Today Xiao Hui took a hundred-yuan bill from me, and spent it until only sixty-something was left. I asked him where he spent the money, and he said… said he bought popsicles for your family’s Xiaoshu with all of it.”
Xiao Hui’s mother smiled awkwardly, “I’m not here to ask you for money either. Thirty-something yuan, a few popsicles, no need. It’s just… this matter still has to be told to you.”
“Xiaoshu doesn’t know better, asking for popsicles from our family today, what about tomorrow, the day after? This isn’t very good, you have to teach him.”
“Okay, okay! Auntie, I know, I’ll go discipline him right away!” That shame, that humiliation Yan Jun felt—he clearly wasn’t even a parent yet, but he got to experience the feeling of being reported to a parent first.
“He gives them to you and you just take them?!” Yan Jun was furious, trying to pinch his ear across the chair, but was dodged as the kid ducked down: “Things kids play with, when is there ever a need to use money to trade for them? How are you any different from a little hoodlum by doing this?!”
Caught in the act, the fake child rolled his eyes around, let out an “Ouch,” and began faking pain: “Brother! My head hurts so much, I’m dizzy! So painful!”
Yan Jun’s heart shrank, and he hurriedly lunged forward to check his original injury: “Where does it hurt? Is it the side of your head?”
Feeling the caring caress on his scalp, Qin Yize secretly stuck out his tongue and nonchalantly leaned against his older brother’s shoulder. Only then did Yan Jun realize he had been played, and reaching out, he pushed the guy away: “Acting! You think you can escape this way?!… Come with me tonight to apologize, no arguing!”
“Hmph… I know now.” The fake child lay down on the bed dejectedly, even crossing his legs.
At eight in the evening, Yan Jun carried ten piping-hot beef flatbreads, dragging Qin Yize along as they arrived at Xiao Hui’s house.
“Auntie, sorry about that. Xiaoshu doesn’t know better and is a glutton, couldn’t move his feet once he saw popsicles…” He placed the flatbreads on the table, reached out to give Qin Yize’s waist a forceful pinch, and the fake child immediately bowed his head: “Auntie, Xiao Hui, I’m sorry!”
“Ayo, no need to be so formal, they’re just kids, bickering and quarreling is completely normal!” Xiao Hui’s mother smiled as she pulled Qin Yize over, pushing him to sit next to Xiao Hui. Yan Jun didn’t have the nerve to sit down and remained standing: “These flatbreads can be considered as a thank-you gift for the popsicles. Kids giving each other things to eat is totally normal.”
Xiao Hui pursed his lips, looking somewhat embarrassed: “I play video games at night, and always fail to get up in the morning…”
“What video game?” The fake child’s eyes lit up.
“Super Mario!” Xiao Hui got excited too, turned on the television, grabbed him by his small hand, and sat cross-legged on the floor, playing with enthusiastic excitement.
Yan Jun laughed out of anger: They really are just two little brats, forget it all as soon as the fight is over!