Lin Ting’s mood was still quite cheerful; even when he got home, he carried an unmasked smile. As Su Li was tinkering with her seemingly expensive flowers and plants in the yard, she couldn’t help asking, “Getting along well with your new classmates?”
“Not really, almost got into a fight.” Lin Ting answered honestly.
Su Li didn’t get angry or scold him; her expression remained as cold as ever. I knew it. With that, she didn’t look at Lin Ting again.
By dinner time, Lin Ting was still in high spirits, unable to keep the corners of his mouth down. Gu Jiang, sitting at the head of the dining table while cutting his steak, smiled and asked, “How was Lin Ting’s first day at school? Anything you’re not used to?”
“It’s pretty good.”
“And the classmates, are you getting along with everyone?”
“Yeah, they’re all alright.” Lin Ting chewed on his beef, not even waiting to swallow before giving a vague reply.
“I heard from Su Li that you almost got into a fight with a classmate?” Gu Jiang asked with a hint of probing. “If anyone bullies you, just come and tell us. Everyone in this circle is prominent and well-connected, so people have to maintain a certain level of etiquette and propriety… You still need to change some of your habits.”
“Is that so…” Lin Ting thought for a moment, feeling that Gu Jiang must have some kind of misunderstanding about those people.
“Ahem.” Gu Jiang glanced at Su Li, who couldn’t even be bothered to lift her eyelids and gave a slight shake of her head.
.
Lin Ting’s good mood vanished instantly, as if he had been injected with a dose of anesthetic. He felt somewhat floaty, having no idea what he was eating, what he was hearing, or what he was seeing. Operating purely on basic muscle memory, he went through the motions and said something, and by the time he snapped back to reality, he was already lying in the large bathtub in his room.
“I should buy some bath bombs tomorrow. After all, now that I’m part of the upper crust, the water I soak in can’t just be tap water, right?” Lin Ting muttered to himself into the empty air, then suddenly thought of the last thing he had said to Wen Lan and burst out laughing.
It was hard to say about other families, but in this Gu family, the water definitely had some issues.
Until Saturday arrived, Lin Ting spent every day repeating the cycle of bickering with Wen Lan, making threats, and occasionally shoving each other. Every time, Wen Lan’s closing remark would be, “You just wait for Saturday. I’m going to make you get down on your knees and call me daddy.”
On Friday afternoon, Lin Ting finally put a neat full stop to that line: “My dad is dead.”
Followed by Wen Lan’s furious outburst and Lin Ting’s howling laughter.
On Saturday, when Lin Ting left the house with his backpack, not a single member of that family of three asked a thing. The excuse he had spent two whole seconds preparing didn’t even come in handy.
As for why Lin Ting showed up, it wasn’t because he was particularly scared of that fellow surnamed Ye. After all, it was their business, and waiting for them to finish fighting and then letting him know who won wasn’t out of the question. Thinking about this, Lin Ting found it somewhat amusing. While waiting for the bus at the station, he couldn’t help chuckling out loud, prompting an old grandma nearby to look at him with worry before shuffling away a few steps.
By the time Lin Ting arrived, Wen Lan was already waiting with his gang of upper-class brats. As if he hadn’t swallowed his anger yet, Wen Lan barked, “Just wait, in a few hours I’ll be your… your grandpa!”
“My grandpa is dead too.”
“Really, just a few months ago. If you don’t believe me, I can show you photos from his funeral.” Lin Ting made a move to pull out his phone.
“No, no, no.” Wen Lan stopped Lin Ting’s hand. “I believe you.”
With that, he flopped onto a nearby dilapidated sofa, cast a complicated look at Lin Ting, and closed his eyes to conserve his energy.
Come to think of it, decades ago this cotton mill used to be an iron rice bowl—the kind even sturdier than today’s civil servants or teachers. Back then, everyone wished they could work there to secure a happy and peaceful life. Yet time defeated everything: the factory had been retrofitted, the developer had gone bankrupt leaving the project unfinished, and the cotton mill now stood as an empty shell, bearing no trace of its past glory. Lin Ting had never seen it before, and even looking at movies couldn’t help him imagine it.
People always struggled to imagine things they hadn’t experienced.
Just like how Lin Ting couldn’t understand what these brain-dead morons in front of him were doing.
Wen Lan’s lackeys looked fiercely loyal. At the moment, they had spread out into a formation, with two bodyguards stationed on the left and right of the sofa, staring straight ahead with solemn expressions to safeguard Wen Lan’s safety.
Farther off to the side, a pockmarked guy clutched an unopened cup of milk tea, while another boy with ears twice the normal size held a bucket of cucumber-flavored potato chips, looking as reverent as if he were holding the pure-water vase belonging to Guanyin herself.
The rest of the crew stood watch by various windows, doors, and entrances, peering left and right, just waiting for Ye’s gang to show up so they could report the enemy’s movements immediately.
Every single one of their faces wore a serious, tense expression as if they were going to war. Not a word was spoken; every few seconds they would exchange glances and then nod at each other meaninglessly.
They might as well have assigned Lin Ting a sentry duty task too.
Tch.
Lin Ting had only shown up for the spectacle—after all, staying at the Gu residence all weekend would drive him crazy. But now, looking at this bunch of blockheads, he was starting to regret it.
It felt like agreeing to tag along with your younger cousins to play house over Chinese New Year, only to realize belatedly how awkward it was.
If he left now… Lin Ting lifted his foot, preparing to slip away while Wen Lan had his eyes closed.
“What do you think you’re doing?” The pockmarked guy blocked Lin Ting’s path with his milk tea.
“Hand over the milk tea. He doesn’t look like he wants to drink it anyway.” Lin Ting reached out to grab it.
The pockmarked guy quickly sidestepped to the left, and Lin Ting seized the opening to slip right out of the factory building.
Before Lin Ting had taken two steps, Boss Ye’s crew appeared at the entrance of the mill.
Tch, bad luck.
Wen Lan’s lackeys were quite dutiful. They immediately swarmed into a sprint to relay the message, passing it down like a beacon fire until one of the bodyguards whispered something into Wen Lan’s ear.
Wen Lan slowly lifted his eyelids, propping his chin in one hand as he gazed toward the factory entrance.
Before long, the echoing, slightly empty factory building was packed with a dense crowd of people.
The atmosphere of playing house with your cousins over New Year instantly tightened up.
Boss Ye walked in, whistling with high spirits. “Did you guys eat? Dinner.”
“What? Are you treating us to dinner?” Wen Lan had no intention of getting up from the sofa. He spoke in a casual tone, yet his expression was serious without a trace of a smile.
“Sure!” Boss Ye was in high spirits. “Provided you’re still able to walk out this door.”
“Then I’m definitely having a meal, but you might not be.”
Boss Ye burst into a loud laugh, clutching his stomach as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world, and his entourage of lackeys joined in.
In the next instant, he gave a heavy kick to a rusted iron paint bucket lying on the ground.
With a loud bang, the iron bucket slammed against the corner of the sofa and bounced back onto the floor, producing a massive echo.
The factory fell into absolute silence, broken only by the reverberations of metal clanging through the empty space.
Wen Lan’s complexion turned dark and ashen, resembling a startled beast awakened from slumber. His gaze was sharp and direct, like a dagger, ready to slice his opponent in half the next second and swallow them whole, flesh and bone.
He hadn’t moved from the start, maintaining his exact posture. “Is Boss Ye doing this…?”
“Little Wen, it’s not that I’m not giving you face,” Boss Ye said. “You grew up in this circle too. Even though your parents… well, you should still have basic etiquette and upbringing, right? You’re not some lower-class nobody.” At that line, Boss Ye glanced over at Lin Ting.
Lin Ting was now certain that the tap water at the Gu family and the tap water at the Ye family likely came from the exact same source.
“I’ve actually never known your age,” Wen Lan said. “Now I see, you must be at least seventy-six years old.”
“What kind of nonsense are you spouting?”
“I’m saying, it has been seventy-six years since the founding of New China. Have you checked the news?”
Lin Ting suddenly felt that while Wen Lan’s deadpan jokes weren’t great, they weren’t entirely brain-dead either.
At least among a group of blockheads, it made his condition look a bit milder.
Boss Ye clearly had spent a long time mixed up in the streets; he switched his emotions effortlessly without a pause. The tense atmosphere instantly dissolved into hearty laughter as he cracked up. “Little Wen, you really are… quite humorous.”
“How are we doing this today?” Wen Lan lowered his eyes to look at the rusted iron bucket at his feet. “Bare hands or weapons?”
“Weapons.”
Wen Lan nodded. “Alright.” With that, he rose from the sofa and gestured with a hand. The big-eared boy holding the chip bucket switched it to one hand, while his other hand reached into his pocket to pull out brass knuckles, respectfully placing them into Wen Lan’s palm.
“Let’s all play together today,” Boss Ye added.
Lin Ting didn’t feel much about this remark, but he noticed Wen Lan’s expression instantly and uncontrollably darken completely.
Lin Ting could even clearly see a flicker of panic darting beneath the dark clouds in his eyes.
“Wasn’t it always just the two of us in the past?” Wen Lan slowly put on the brass knuckles, his clenched fists tightening.
“That’s no fun. Let’s try a different way today, how about it?” Boss Ye smiled.
Lin Ting knew what Wen Lan was worried about.
It wasn’t because Boss Ye had brought seven or eight more people than Wen Lan had.
It was because Boss Ye’s subordinates were all brawny, muscle-bound thugs covered in thick muscle, the kind who looked like they engaged in street brawls every single day.
Meanwhile, Wen Lan’s gang, despite putting on a show as little gangsters, were the kind of kids whose moms would call their smartwatches demanding they come home for dinner, and who probably had to cook up all sorts of excuses just to sneak out tonight.
Forget muscles; most of them needed to lose the flab on their bellies.
Among this bunch, Wen Lan was probably the only one who could actually fight. And since they mentioned weapons… Lin Ting swept his gaze across the surroundings. Boss Ye’s thugs had already pulled out various spikes, brass knuckles, and folding knives.
On Wen Lan’s side, there was one pair of brass knuckles, and he probably had a folding knife in his pocket.
Then there was the pockmarked guy holding milk tea, the big-eared boy holding potato chips, and a bunch of utterly bewildered bystanders.
Clearly, Wen Lan hadn’t expected the other side to pull this move.
Yet in a situation like this, you couldn’t exactly call the police to uphold justice.
If a fight broke out, the outcome was obvious.
Realizing what he was about to do next, the corners of Lin Ting’s mouth curved upward involuntarily.
It seemed he had been taking baths too frequently lately, letting too much imported tap water seep in and making his brain stop working properly.
He looked over at Wen Lan. Wen Lan wore a solemn expression, his back held straight. Tonight’s moonlight was exceptionally bright, sliding down the bridge of his straight nose and resting upon his tightly pressed lips, while his high brow ridge cast shadows that hid his eyes, making his expression unreadable, though a profound chill emanated from that darkness.
Just as Wen Lan opened his mouth to speak, Lin Ting cut in:
“Say, did you guys forget what we even came here for today?”