Strangely, regarding Huang Mao’s unfiltered joke, no one added another word. Even Li Lan Fang didn’t probe into what he meant. Though the courtyard fell silent for a few seconds, everyone quickly returned to their tasks as if they hadn’t heard anything.
This scared Huang Mao into a cold sweat. He nervously kept glancing at Xing Wu, trying several times to find an opportunity to apologize, but Xing Wu’s expression remained calm, seemingly unbothered by his thoughtless comment. This left Huang Mao feeling like he had thorns all over his body, unable to sit still all evening.
After dinner, Qing went to the office to balance the accounts. Soon after, Xing Wu came in with a drink and told her, “Go rest after you finish the accounts. We’re done for today.”
Qing turned to look outside, and seeing no one around, lowered her voice to ask him, “Didn’t your mother ask you anything?”
Xing Wu unscrewed the bottle cap, handed her the water, glanced at her, and replied, “No.”
Qing collapsed into her chair: “This Huang Mao…”
She took a big gulp of water and handed the bottle back to Xing Wu: “Don’t you find it strange? Nobody said anything.”
Xing Wu took the water, screwed the cap back on, and set it aside, saying playfully, “Haven’t you considered that maybe they already knew?”
Xing Wu’s words made Qing’s expression change in an instant, and then after a while, she suddenly felt like an idiot, thinking they had hidden it so well when people around them already knew.
Xing Wu reminded her: “Stop spacing out, finish calculating so we can leave.”
Qing snapped back to reality and quickly tallied up today’s cash, Alipay, and WeChat accounts. Then she looked up at Xing Wu: “Guess how much we made today?”
Xing Wu put down his phone and looked up: “Not less than ten thousand.”
“Fifteen thousand plus, though we still need to deduct costs.”
Xing Wu sighed: “Better than expected.”
“I plan to pay back Quan Ya first, then give Du Qi Yan and Liu Nian some wages. They’ve been too tired lately.”
Xing Wu held her hand: “Do what you think is best. Ready to go?”
Qing saw the sparkle in his eyes and smiled: “Let’s go, I’m done. Tomorrow’s Sunday, can we take a two-hour break?”
Xing Wu said meaningfully: “What do you want to do?”
“Hmm… sleep.”
“Just sleep?”
“What else did you have in mind?”
They smiled at each other and left the office. Outside, the others were still cleaning up. Xing Wu went to help Liu Nian carry the tables back. Huang Mao was boredly burning balloons with his cigarette butt, making them pop with loud bangs, scaring Fang Lei who kept scolding him. The more she scolded, the more excited he got, chasing her with burning balloons until Fang Lei nearly fought with him.
Shi Min smiled while organizing the remaining items. Quan Ya stood at the courtyard entrance dismantling the frame, occasionally glancing at the group with a slight smirk. Pang Hu followed them around filming with his phone.
Qing casually picked up a package of sweet potato chips, fed one to Shi Min, and took one herself while watching Huang Mao and Fang Lei’s balloon war.
Pang Hu walked over to Qing, turned his camera to her, and asked, “Is it good?”
Qing handed him a piece, suddenly getting into it and introducing the sweet and soft potato chips in perfect Queen’s English. Pang Hu laughingly asked what else she had.
Qing took another snack package from Shi Min and switched to an authentic New York accent, making Pang Hu and Shi Min laugh uncontrollably.
Xing Wu came out and watched her with a smile. Qing then switched to an Indian accent, with rolling R’s that made Li Lan Fang call out: “What’s that? Burned your tongue? Your swishing is giving everyone a headache!”
Qing stared at Li Lan Fang in bewilderment, completely unable to understand her dialect. Meanwhile, Pang Hu and the others were about to collapse from laughter, even Quan Ya cracked a smile.
After cleaning up, the group left the factory. Fang Lei and Huang Mao were still going at it, somehow moving from balloons to literature. Huang Mao insisted he was proficient in poetry and prose, so Fang Lei casually recited two lines of classical poetry for him to continue. Not only did Huang Mao fail to continue, but he accused Fang Lei of deliberately challenging him with obscure poems and then turned to ask Qing for one.
Already straddling the motorcycle, Qing called back without turning: “The sun shines on the incense burner producing purple smoke.”
As soon as she finished, a chorus of voices responded: “I touch my pocket and find no money.”
Qing turned back with a smile. They waved to her in the night. In the prime of youth, with good years ahead, she suddenly had a thought – it would be nice if time could stop at this moment forever.
That night, she spent a long time showering, until Xing Wu almost burst in to check if she had fallen asleep.
She opened the door and stared blankly at Xing Wu, suddenly looking dejected: “I used to complain about my dad always being on the phone, busy with company stuff. Now I understand money isn’t easy to make. We worked ourselves to death for half a month, and this ten thousand plus, after deducting costs, paying Quan Ya for packaging, and giving out wages, there’s nothing left.”
She stood dejectedly by the bed, almost crying: “I still owe Old Xie for a batch of goods, and now we’re out of stock.”
Xing Wu put down his phone and looked up at her: “The beginning is always the hardest.”
Qing suddenly slumped onto the bed: “The middle is hard, the end is hard, it’s all so hard. I want to buy an ER200, but I can’t bring myself to.”
“Is that the dictionary you used before?”
Qing nodded: “I’ll wait a bit longer.”
Xing Wu said nothing and looked down at his phone. Suddenly Qing’s phone rang. She picked it up to see Xing Wu had transferred her five thousand. She looked at him in surprise. He pulled her close and smoothed her hair: “Buy it.”
But Qing struggled to sit up: “Don’t you need to pay for grandmother’s hospital bills? Where did this money come from?”
Xing Wu said casually: “Picked up some odd jobs.”
Qing frowned at him. Xing Wu lazily smiled: “I’ll figure out the money situation.”
But Qing suddenly asked: “Do you… still need to go to driving school? It’s been over three months and you still haven’t passed?”
Xing Wu lowered his eyes and said casually: “Well, there was that delay during New Year’s.”
“Hmm…” Qing lay down. Xing Wu turned off the lights and held her from behind. As Qing interlocked their fingers in the darkness, she secretly felt his palm, which had somehow developed a layer of calluses.
Qing turned around in his arms, hugged him tightly, and choked back a silent sob.
In the first assessment test after school started, Shi Min and Fang Lei both broke through 400 points, while Pang Hu was approaching 450. Qing still scored just over 700. Old Yang told her she could appropriately slow down her pace in these last few months – maintaining this score would be fine for the college entrance exam.
Worth mentioning is that besides Qing, An Zhong had several more students scoring above 500 this time, all from Qing’s night study group.
An Zi County was, after all, a small place with limited educational resources. The question banks they usually had access to were somewhat limited. During this time, Qing shared many of the question banks that had helped her improve with her night class students. This indeed had a significant effect on improving their thinking ability and grasp of question types.
As a result, their night study group grew by over twenty people in just a short month, and the factory space was barely enough to seat everyone.
Time flowed like the sand in the hourglass Xing Wu gave Qing, endlessly trickling away. Before they knew it, it was late March. Recently, Old Dong had been coming to find Xing Wu in class more and more frequently. Qing knew the competition was drawing closer.
The county sports meet was held on a Saturday in late March. The weather that day wasn’t good – just like when she first came to Zhazha Pavilion, thick clouds covered the sky, blocking out the sun with no sign of clearing.
Xing Wu told Qing the competition would end by morning and that she didn’t need to get up early to go with him – he would return at noon to have lunch with her. But that morning, as soon as dawn broke, Qing was awake. She lay with her eyes closed, listening to Xing Wu getting up, getting dressed, and washing up. Before leaving, he placed a light kiss on her forehead.
Only after Xing Wu closed the door did Qing suddenly open her eyes and spring up. She arrived early at the meeting spot arranged with Huang Mao and Pang Hu. When she got there, Lang Dai, Zhang Kai, and their group were already there. Huang Zhi Ming, Sun Dong Cheng, and Xiao Ling Tong from Class 2 had all come with Pang Hu too – nearly twenty people in total.
Huang Mao asked her: “Has Brother Wu left?”
Qing nodded. Pang Hu quickly asked: “Did he still not say anything last night?”
Qing shook her head again. Lang Dai cut in: “Never mind, let’s head over first.”
To their surprise, they ran into Da Hei and his group on the way to the county sports meet. Huang Mao called out from across the street: “Brother Hei, did my Brother Wu ask you to come?”
Da Hei walked toward them saying: “No, we were worried so we came to check things out. What about you guys?”
Only then did everyone exchange glances, realizing Xing Wu had truly gone to compete alone, without calling anyone.
Recently, whether it was Huang Mao and the others asking directly, or Qing inquiring indirectly, Xing Wu had casually dismissed it as just going to compete, saying there was no need to call anyone or have people follow along.
But everyone in the area knew about Xing Wu and Da Cao settling things at the county sports meet. Since Da Cao was so confident in forcing Xing Wu to participate, he must have made thorough preparations. How could Huang Mao, Da Hei, and the others just watch Xing Wu take such a risk alone?
Only when they reached the competition venue’s entrance did they see cars filling both sides of the road, and the situation inside was far more complex than they had imagined.
The county sports meet the required tickets for entry. In previous years, these meets had very few spectators, mostly just participants’ family members or friends. Such an insignificant county meet would normally have practically no audience.
The competition venue in the county town wasn’t large, but today the stands were packed with people. From the moment Da Hei’s group entered, unfriendly gazes came from all directions.
They sat in the last few rows near the door. Qing frowned as she searched the field but couldn’t see Xing Wu. However, she quickly noticed something strange about the atmosphere in the stands. Apart from some track and field team members and teachers, looking toward the left side, there were at least a hundred people who didn’t look like they were there to watch the competition – all with stern faces and an unusually heavy atmosphere.
Hua Bi’s voice came in a low whisper: “An Tang’s people are here.”
These words made Qing’s heart leap. She had heard this name long ago from Xing Wu when they went to protect Du Qi Yan and clashed with Da Cao. Xing Wu had told her An Tang’s people weren’t to be trifled with. Da Cao was born in the target factory and had An Tang’s protection. Although Qing didn’t know exactly what An Tang was at the time, seeing the current situation, even someone slow would sense the undercurrent of this force.
Huang Mao was unusually serious as he watched those people and added: “An Zhi also brought quite a few people today. Cao Ping called everyone he could.”
Da Hei leaned back in his chair, coldly observing everything, and after a while said: “Across from us, even Old Brother Shen Si and his group showed up. This little county sports meet has turned into an unprecedented event.”
Qing silently listened to their conversation, her heart beating faster and faster. She quickly understood the situation before her – all the troublemakers in this county town had gathered today, from the common thugs to the respected bosses.
The purpose behind calling so many people was clear without guessing – Da Cao wanted to humiliate Xing Wu in front of everyone, crush his spirit in one go, make him keep his head down forever in this county town, and become Cao Ping’s defeated opponent.
But why would Xing Wu knowingly walk into the tiger’s den?
Since sitting down, Qing’s eyes had been constantly scanning the field. She felt something was wrong but couldn’t put her finger on it. From the moment she entered, her heart had been beating uneasily with an inexplicable feeling.
About ten minutes before the competition was set to begin, she couldn’t help standing up and saying: “I’m going to the bathroom.”
Da Hei immediately stood up too and kicked Hua Bi: “Let’s go together.”
When Qing came out of the bathroom, Da Hei and Hua Bi were smoking not far from the door. Though they didn’t say anything, Qing could sense something unusual about their unwillingness to leave her side.
On their way back to the stands, they encountered a group of people head-on. Qing was walking last and saw Da Hei and Hua Bi’s cold expressions as they stared at the others. There were four or five people in the group, led by a man in his thirties with stubble, giving off a rugged, unrestrained air. Qing had never seen him before, but his eyes fell on her face.
Suddenly someone in the group threw their water bottle at Qing. Da Hei reacted instantly, his fist sending the bottle flying far away, bouncing twice on the ground.
Hua Bi immediately cursed: “Are you fucking blind?”
The crew-cut guy who threw the bottle grabbed Hua Bi’s collar. Da Hei directly blocked the thirty-something man’s path, saying with a cold smile: “Didn’t expect Brother Fang to participate in this kind of thing. Joining in to kick someone when they’re down?”
The man called Brother Fang raised his hand and pulled the crew-cut guy back, saying with an ambiguous smile: “It’s quite a show, worth joining in. We’re all here to watch the competition. Before it starts, we should still show some respect for the athletes. Don’t make trouble.”
Da Hei stared at him expressionlessly. Hua Bi spat. Brother Fang quickly turned his gaze back to Qing, casually looking her over and asking: “You’re Qing Ya, right?”
Qing frowned slightly, watching him guardedly without making a sound. Da Hei shifted to block Brother Fang’s view and said to Hua Bi: “Let’s go.”
As Da Hei brushed past Brother Fang, Hua Bi glared fiercely at the crew-cut guy. Qing lowered her eyes and followed behind Da Hei, but as she passed Brother Fang, he suddenly bent down and said to her: “You’d better leave early later.”
Qing was suddenly stunned. When she looked back at Brother Fang, he acted as if nothing had happened, leading his people toward the other end of the venue.