Xiang Ning was resting in Xu Tingsheng’s embrace.

  Zhao Yanan coughed and turned, pretending that she had not seen anything.

  “Indeed, since one has accepted another’s benefits, they’ll have no choice and no voice. My mother’s philosophy……” Xu Tingsheng mused inwardly, “If, before, I had dared to hug around with Little Xiang Ning like this, wouldn’t she have torn me apart?!”


  “Be good. See the flats with your cousin. I’ll go meet with that person,” Xu Tingsheng coaxed Xiang Ning out of his embrace.

  Facing away from them, Zhao Yanan secretly signalled to her soon-to-be husband.

  “Twenty percent off?” The man stared all wide-eyed, mouthing in disbelief.

  Zhao Yanan nodded emphatically.

  The man very nearly leapt up, emotional as he was.

  “This must be cousin-in-law?” Xu Tingsheng went over and extended his hand in greeting.

  Having already called Zhao Yanan his cousin, this cousin-in-law was simply natural. Zhao Yanan could only accept it voicelessly.

  As the two shook hands, cousin-in-law was still a bit emotional as he repeatedly exclaimed, “Thank you, Boss Xu. Thank you, Boss Xu……”


  “No, no, just call me by my name, cousin-in-law. My name is Xu Tingsheng,” Xu Tingsheng dragged him over to the side now, secretly pointing at Zhao Yanan before asking him softly, “Truly, a first-rate policewoman? Super at fighting?!”


  Cousin-in-law nodded, saying rather mournfully, “From the Vice squad.”


  “.……It must be hard, huh.”


  “I can only be careful. If anything seems wrong, bend the knee right away……”


  “I see. Good luck with that.”


  The two fraternised in hushed tones for a bit, their relationship improving significantly. Next, Xu Tingsheng went upstairs while Lin Yixian and Little Xiang Ning followed the couple to choose a flat.

  Cousin-in-law covertly grabbed Zhao Yanan, exclaiming in a hushed but urgent tone, “Ask your cousin to hurry up and get married! Only a fool wouldn’t……”


  Zhao Yanan shot him a look.

  “Did I say something wrong?” Cousin-in-law asked blankly.

  “Little Ning’s still just seventeen,” Zhao Yanan replied coldly.“I was wrong!” Cousin-in-law promptly admitted his wrongdoings, putting his head between his hands……

  Once in his office, Xu Tingsheng poured Huang Gui a glass of water and got him to sit down. Next, he asked the two security guards to leave. If it was someone of Huang Gui’s calibre, as long as it was not an ambush, he could fight off ten of them at once.

  Right now, Huang Gui was destitute……or perhaps fatigued and dishevelled would be a more fitting description.

  “Why did you suddenly think to come find me for revenge after two years?” Xu Tingsheng questioned calmly, in much the tone of ‘Bro, why have you only come to see me now?’.

  Huang Gui looked first at the glass of water before him and then at Xu Tingsheng.

  “Xu Tingsheng, are you a jinx in my fate?” He voice was a little shaky and tearful, as if he had been dealt an immeasurable injustice.

  “Hey, do you know what you’re saying? Between our two families, it was your family that first pushed my family to the abyss’s edge,” Xu Tingsheng said.

  “Right, that was the first time……”


  His throat parched and his eyes dry, Huang Gui paused and licked his lips. He was actually extremely thirsty.

  He grabbed that glass of water on the table and ferociously gulped it down……

  Huang Gui stared incredulously at Xu Tingsheng, his mouth hanging open……

  “Arghh……it’s hot?!”


  He grabbed his mouth and leapt up, howling in pain.

  “It’s winter……” Xu Tingsheng explained rather guiltily.

  As Huang Gui finally managed to calm down, Xu Tingsheng hastily searched for a bit of something cold. As he seldom came to his office, there weren’t many things in the small refrigerator. Finally, he managed to find a bottle of Coke which he poured for Huang Gui.

  Receiving the glass of Coke, Huang Gui touched it. It was icy-cold.

  He then ingested it……

  “Ah……”


  Huang Gui’s mouth which had just been scorched by the hot water was stimulated by that icy-cold Coke……Huang Gui leapt up once more……

  Some time later, he finally sat back down with tears in his eyes which were reddened as he glared at Xu Tingsheng.

  “I’ll kill you dead……”


  Finally, he ended up crying.

  “Actually, I did think about what happened with my family at the time, but I really didn’t have so much determination as to find you for revenge. You know, I’m pretty useless and don’t have very much ambition. As I could no longer stay in Libei, I had no choice but to leave. Afterwards……”


  After crying, Huang Gui began narrating his experiences.

  It was basically this: Lazy good-for-nothing, used to acting all tyrannical and prideful, exceptionally inept in surviving self-sufficiently.

  So Huang Gui had suffered quite a bit.

  “Afterwards, somebody finally introduced me to a new line of work. I was doing pretty well too,” Huang Gui said.

  “In that case, why did you suddenly come here to take revenge on me?” Xu Tingsheng asked.

  “Why but your ruthlessness? I was already keeping away from you, but you still wouldn’t let me go……” Huang Gui complained aggrievedly.

  “Me? What did I do?” Xu Tingsheng pointed at himself, feeling lost.

  “Gutter oil……wasn’t it you people who did it? Isn’t that Hucheng yours? They arrested me! This old man was happily going back to work after the New Year, and ended up getting put in jail, detained, fined……after this and that, I’ve got nothing left! If not for how my factory was small, maybe I wouldn’t even have gotten out!” Huang Gui yelled in tears.

  Realising what had happened, Xu Tingsheng said rather helplessly, “Unintended casualty. Right, why were you doing that anyway? It’s illegal, you know?”


  “Illegal my ass. When you weren’t busting us, how many people were doing it? Who wasn’t peacefully and abidingly lining up their wallets?”


  “But it’s illegal……also, shouldn’t that be pretty tiring? With a bad work environment too.”


  “I was a supervisor, okay? Hiring a few workers, then wearing a mask and getting a bottle of wine, and all I had to do was lie there everyday. Once the stuff was made, some boss on top would naturally come to collect it. How relaxing is that? I even thought that I could pass my whole life by just like that, and yet I got jinxed by you again. You’re the jinx in my fate, Xu Tingsheng.”


  “So, you decided to come take revenge on me?” Xu Tingsheng asked.

  “Yes. I really can’t stand you anymore,” Huang Gui answered earnestly.

  “But I already left Hucheng previously.”


  “I don’t care about that. We already had enmity between us, and looking for you is more convenient too. While everyone else is looking for that Lu Zhixin person……I’ll look for you. I’m more familiar with Libei anyway……”


  “You went back to Libei?”


  “Right.”


  “Why didn’t you make your move there?”


  “You ask why? I hurried back to Libei and barely managed to crouch down outside the courtyard of your house……when you bastard got on your car with your bag, bringing someone with you too. I could only watch as you drove off before my eyes just like that……” Huang Gui said aggrievedly.

  “Then, because I know that you’re studying in Yanzhou, I had to chase you all the way over. Right after you left, I immediately headed off to the station.”


  “And you arrived yesterday? You’ve been waiting here for me for a day?”


  “I only arrived today.”


  “Right, you had to change trains.”


  “Change? Hah! This old man took the train to Jiannan, but when I wanted to change trains, I realised that I had run out of money……I had to walk all the way over from Jiannan to Yanzhou……”


  “You……walked? How far is that!”


  “Yeah, it took me more than one day of walking to get here. I’m dead tired.”


  “.……How did you find me afterwards?”


  “I simply couldn’t find you! I was freaking hungry, so I thought of finding a construction site and working for a few days to fill my stomach……and in the end, right after I got here, I saw you getting off from your car.”


  “So you grabbed a brick and came over?”


  “Yeah.”


  “Well, are you still looking for a job now?”


  “A job?”


  “Yeah, a job. This place belongs to me.”


  Huang Gui asked dazedly, “What do you mean? You’ll give me a job? At the construction site? I can’t do it. I’m a lazy good-for-nothing.”


  No one could declare themselves a lazy good-for-nothing as righteously as Huang Gui.

  “True,” Xu Tingsheng thought about it for a while, “How about you be a security guard then? Security guards at construction sites spend most of their time sitting and lying about, walking around with the others every once in a while. If there’s no work in the evening, you can even go for meat and wine with the bros……how about that? If you’re interested, I can introduce you to the supervisor here.”


  Huang Gui looked at Xu Tingheng.

  “What do you think?”


  “.……At least I won’t be going hungry.”


  “We’re decided then.”


  Xu Tingsheng called over the person in charge of security and gave him some instructions. He was to keep an eye on him while indeed keeping him fed too. Like Huang Gui himself had said, he might truly have no ambition for revenge anymore……

  Having settled Huang Gui’s affairs, Xu Tingsheng began to worry about another matter. Huang Gui had said earlier: ‘While everyone else is looking for that Lu Zhixin person……’.