“This is just a brat who won’t listen to reason, no matter how you approach him.”
Jiang Ran reached this not-so-grand conclusion.
She crossed her arms, took a step back, and looked the person in front of her up and down until the latter felt confused and uneasy under her gaze.
What could Beijiao do?
He couldn’t hit her.
Telling her to stop staring would also sound weak.
So he could only avert his gaze, muttering, “If there’s nothing else, I’ll get back to work,” hoping to quickly walk away from her.
As he took a step forward, attempting to pass her by, the sleeve of his shirt, rolled up to the elbow, was suddenly grabbed from behind—a moderate force yanked him back to where he stood.
“So what were you thinking, preferring to eat shit rather than take the five thousand yuan that rightfully belonged to you?”
The voice beside him sounded flat and emotionless.
Beijiao was puzzled by this analogy—who actually went around eating shit?
And what five thousand yuan?
At first, he didn’t immediately understand, just standing there staring at the fingers gripping his sleeve tightly. It took him a moment to recall what she meant by “five thousand yuan.”
His eyes gradually focused, remembering the morning’s events. His previously subdued aura shifted, his gaze dropping to hide the coldness in his eyes. He raised his hand, calmly and unhurriedly pulling her hand off his shirt.
Jiang Ran didn’t even blink. As soon as her left hand was pushed away, she switched to her right, this time grabbing his pants—hooking her index finger through the loop of the drawstring on his sweatpants.
She didn’t seem to think this grip point was a bit too low. She even leisurely twirled the string around her finger, finishing her sentence in a nonchalant tone: “This money wasn’t given without reason. Before, my dad didn’t know that after your mom married him, she stopped caring about her only son…”
It was true that Beijiao’s mother didn’t care about him.
But that didn’t mean it was appropriate for someone to say it so openly.
Before her words fully settled, the atmosphere had already become tense.
“So you want to pay me for emotional distress?”
His voice was cold, slightly mocking.
He had assumed she would back off after he said that, but to his surprise, she nodded and said, “Something like that. After all, Jiang Huaixin is from Guangdong, and people from Guangdong tend to be quite superstitious, especially middle-aged people who like to talk about karma and retribution when they have free time…”
Beijiao, listening to her digress further, finally grew too tired of arguing with her. He yanked his waist string free from her fingers, took a step back out of her reach, and coldly said, “Forget it.”
Jiang Ran simply said “Oh,” lowered her hand, and asked, “Have you saved up enough for next semester’s tuition?”
Not yet.
But there were still two months of summer vacation.
If necessary, he could take out a loan.
She looked at him and said, “I heard your school dormitory will be cleared out in a couple of days—where will you stay?”
In a bar.
On the street.
At a subway station.
In a public restroom.
Anywhere.
She didn’t stop talking: “Wherever you stay will cost money, right? Have you heard the saying that a rope always breaks at its weakest point? Don’t you look just like that about-to-break rope right now?”
This woman had appeared out of nowhere, yet every question she asked struck him right in the heart, as if she had known him for eight hundred years.
Beijiao was at a loss under her relentless questioning.
He simply refused to cooperate.
He threw out a “Mind your own business” and walked back behind the bar counter.
As soon as he turned around, he saw her floating in like a fairy, unhurriedly following him over, sitting down beside the counter, propping half her face up with one hand, and looking up at him.
He sprinkled dried osmanthus onto two drinks, then decorated the glass of the “hawthorn candy” she had ordered but not yet received, and placed it in front of her with a “thud,” his expression blank.
It was a clear dismissal: “Drink up and get out.”
Thanks to the earlier incident at the other table, the three hawthorn candies used in the cocktail had thawed perfectly. She popped one into her mouth, gently biting down. The sugar shell cracked, and the sourness of the hawthorn made her head tingle with alertness.
Jiang Ran chewed slowly, then leaned down to spit out the seed.
She stirred the drink with the stick from the hawthorn candy, dispersing the osmanthus on the surface. The ice cubes clinked against the glass.
Jiang Ran: “You’re starving, so why bother with male pride?”
Beijiao: “…”
If she were a guy,
She wouldn’t be walking out of this bar upright tonight.
He’d break one of her legs for sure.
Beijiao: “I’m fine.”
Jiang Ran: “Oh.”
She sat there calmly, eyes narrowed, lips slightly upturned, offering the first genuine smile of the night.
He really wanted to smash the tray in his hand onto her grinning face.
…
It was five in the morning when Beijiao, carrying a thick stack of flyers, pushed open the dormitory door after finishing his shift at the bar.
Since the school had relaxed its management during the vacation period, and many students were preparing to leave for trains or flights, the dormitory had lifted its curfew and no longer restricted electricity use.
When he returned, his roommates were shouting loudly while playing video games—
It seemed they had been up all night.
Hearing the door open, the originally hushed voices in the dormitory, urging each other to make a final push before server maintenance, turned their heads toward him.
Zhang Liang glanced at Beijiao and, seeing that he wasn’t drunk, spoke first: “The student union sent a notice tonight saying that students from other universities will start arriving tomorrow. We have to gather at seven to go to the train station and airport to help with reception… The dormitory is being cleared out soon, it’s urgent. Beijiao, have you found a place to stay?”
Beijiao casually tossed the stack of flyers onto the table and simply replied, “Yeah.”
He already knew about it. The bar owner had given him all these flyers; they couldn’t possibly be meant for handing out to students leaving campus tomorrow.
“If you haven’t found a place, you can stay at my house.”
As soon as Zhang Liang spoke, the others in the dormitory also offered to let him stay—
They were all from within Guangdong Province, so going home was just a short trip. That’s why they hadn’t rushed to leave and had stayed in the dormitory until the last day.
“No need,” Beijiao said. “I found a place.”
Upon hearing this, Zhang Liang opened his mouth, staring at him with an expression that seemed like he wanted to say something but held back.
Beijiao stepped forward and tapped the top of Zhang Liang’s monitor, pointing at the bush in the game interface, signaling him to focus on the game… Zhang Liang reflexively threw a skill toward the direction Beijiao pointed, but it ended up pulling out three enemy players like a hornet’s nest.
“Sh*t!” he cursed, his scalp tingling in fear as he quickly dealt with the three enemies. While his hands were busy, he turned his head again to sneak another glance at Beijiao.
Beijiao was taking off his clothes, lifting his T-shirt to reveal a flat stomach, with faint abdominal muscles visible even without exercise-induced blood flow.
Zhang Liang clicked his tongue, finally unable to resist: “Are you staying at that girl’s house?”
Beijiao: “Which one?”
Zhang Liang: “Xu Jiaojiao went to the bar tonight and said she saw you.”
Beijiao: “And?”
Zhang Liang hesitated slightly: “She said the girl from the video call two nights ago came to find you again tonight—”
Beijiao: “…”
Beijiao: “No.”
Zhang Liang sighed: “Bro, really not recommended!”
Beijiao, expressionless, tossed his T-shirt onto the table: “I said no.”
He picked up his toiletries and turned toward the bathroom, while behind him, Zhang Liang’s eyes swept over his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and tall back…
He shrank his head slightly.
Alright, if he said no, then it’s no—
Still a bit scared of the stoic Beijiao. With such a stiff personality, probably no girl would dare to cling to him anyway, huh.
…
The next day.
Bright sunshine, clear skies, and a beautiful sunny day.
Beijiao stared at the tricycle in front of him—
Behind the tricycle was an enormous, silly-looking white polar bear costume someone had somehow obtained.
In front of the tricycle, the bar owner leaned on the handlebars, his jowls wobbling, smiling brightly at him.
Beijiao took out his phone to check the temperature: “Thirty-seven degrees today.”
Bar owner: “I’ll approve a half-hour break every hour, and I’ll reimburse you for cold drinks.”
Beijiao reached out and touched the fuzzy polar bear headgear, already sweating just from touching it: “You want me dead?”
Bar owner: “You’ll finish hundreds of flyers in no time—don’t be so delicate!”
Beijiao couldn’t help but feel ridiculous: “Delicate?”
Seeing the bar owner grin, he felt a chill: “Working is like this—hard work!”
Beijiao: “So I can’t distribute flyers without wearing this crap?”
Bar owner: “Not exactly.”
Bar owner: “I heard from Jiang Ran that she’s coming to campus today to find you again… You know, right? Tsk tsk tsk, that woman really has nothing better to do.”
Bar owner: “Oh, and who was it last night who said he was doing just fine? Do you think working under the blazing sun all day counts as ‘fine’?”
Beijiao: “…”
Cicadas chirped, the summer heat was scorching.
The boy, expressionless, grabbed the polar bear headgear and pulled it over his head.
Author’s Note:
Beijiao – a strong-willed contemporary teenager (not really)
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage