t

  This was old man Fang’s first ‘check’ throughout the entire game.

  The two pawns that had crossed the river were especially eye-catching, positioned right outside the four-squared box as they were. The two old men Ling and Xiao stood there and looked for a while before turning to leave, saying nothing.

  As the door closed, the man within collapsed.

  Old man Fang was carried in on a stretcher. The doctors and nurses rushed in, embedding tubes and various other equipment all over his body again.

  After the door had closed, that shrivelled figure finally vomited blood over by the bedside. Xu Tingsheng realised that as a father, old man Fang was definitely not apathetic to the fates of his children after having seen too much bloodshed in life. It did hurt, just that he was truly already helpless to do anything.

  “The brats are disappointments. They all had wrongdoings to catch. The Ling and Xiao families have actual evidence on hand, just that they’re going in a little more strongly than usual. My second son may have it a bit better, but the other two will probably never be able to leave.”


  The old man looked abjectly piteous for the first time in days.

  “In Hebei in 1978, someone weighed my bones and divinated my life, saying that I would not have children to see me off in this lifetime. I trashed his stall, saying that he was talking trash. Wonder if he’s still here now……I guess I should apologise to him.”


  Xu Tingsheng did not answer as he walked closer and helped him wipe off the bloodstains by his mouth before asking softly, “Wait till you have the energy before speaking. I’ll call someone in……Fang Chen or Yuqing?”


  The old man opened his eyes and said, “Yuqing, no, Fang Chen.”


  Xu Tingsheng nodded and walked out.

  Behind him, the old man said, “Hold on. I’ve changed my mind. You should speak your mind and ask whatever you want to ask now. I should still be around a few days later when you come, but I might not be able to speak then.”


  Xu Tingsheng stopped.

  “In that case, don’t get mad when I ask you this,” Xu Tingsheng ventured cautiously, “The two of them look smarter than you. Why were you always higher ranked than them? And they can’t even beat you in chess.”


  The old man seemed to laugh, “Let me tell you about the past.”
……

  When Xu Tingsheng left the interior room, he unexpectedly found that Ling Xiao who had left earlier was there too.

  On seeing him, she stood up and said, “My families asked me to tell you that you’re welcome to go over and visit any time you feel comfortable.”


  Xu Tingsheng smiled and nodded, replying, “I’ll definitely find a time to visit and pay respects.”


  “You should get in touch with me first at the time,” Ling Xiao left a name card behind and exited the sick ward.

  Xu Tingsheng put the name card in his pocket and looked for Fang Chen, whom he spoke to. She went to the interior room. Now, he found that everyone in the exterior room was looking at him, some with unfriendly looks on their faces.

  “Rest assured, the old man is fine,” Thinking that they were worried, Xu Tingsheng consoled.

  A girl of around fourteen or fifteen stood up, walking over to him and exclaiming, “Huh! Traitor. Lackey who bows and scrapes before the enemy. Country bumpkin lecher, unable to move with a woman before you.”


  Her rebuke itself was a bit old-fashioned. She had probably seen it on television or just heard it being said by someone else, now using it for herself.

  Xu Tingsheng and Ling Xiao had entered together and not acted like strangers. With Ling Xiao specifically waiting for him and inviting him to their home as their guest……it was actually normal that some members of the Fang family would feel rather offended by this.

  “What is your name?” Xu Tingsheng smiled and asked this youngest member of the Fang family’s third generation.

  The young girl stubbornly looked at him, making a disdainful expression, “Tsk, tell you my name? How disgusting?!”


  Seeing this, Fang Yuqing walked over to Xu Tingsheng and introduced on her behalf, “This is my younger cousin from my second uncle’s family. Of all our family’s names, it’s her and her brother’s that are the most interesting. He is called Fang Ruju while she is called Fang Ruli.”


  The girl glared furiously at Fang Yuqing, blaming him for telling Xu Tingsheng her name. It looked like she was usually spoiled by everyone and therefore did not have good manners.

  A woman present stood up, walking over to stand between Xu Tingsheng and Fang Ruli. She looked at her palm, then glanced at Xu Tingsheng, seeming rather troubled and pained.

  As per old man Fang’s earlier rules, of the Fang family’s third generation, anyone who was disrespectful to Xu Tingsheng and offended him was to be punished with a slap. Fang Zhong had been a previous offender. At the time, it had been Fang Yuqing’s father, the third son of the Fang family, who had dealt the slap……now he had already been sent to prison.

  The woman clenched her teeth and raised her hand towards the young girl.

  A shocked Xu Tingsheng hurriedly grabbed her wrist. Despite knowing that the other party had glanced at him and acted slowly just so that he could stop her, Xu Tingsheng still made sure to cooperate the best he could.

  “This is my second aunt. Ruli’s mother,” Fang Yuqing introduced.

  “Don’t, auntie. Ruli is still a child. If you slap a girl’s face, they’ll have no dignity,” Xu Tingsheng advised.

  The second daughter-in-law of the Fang family brought her hand down like he had asked.

  But the little girl would not back down as with tears in her eyes, she still rebuked, “Mutt! No need for you to pretend to be a good guy.”


  Xu Tingsheng helplessly forced a smile, bidding his farewell and leaving the sick ward.

  He took Fang Yuqing’s car key and looked for the car downstairs. Fang Ruli had run out at some point in time as she leaned over the railing on the second floor and yelled as she held her face, “Mutt. Traitor! You only know how to harm our family……don’t ever come again! I’ll scold you every time I see you. Even if I get beaten.”


  It seemed she had been slapped in the end. Xu Tingsheng wondered if it was Fang Zhong or Fang Ying who had indoctrinated her with the viewpoint that he was harming the Fang family.

  The little girl seemed pretty good at scolding people as she seemed to know no need for rest. From the looks of it, she had also been serious when she had said she would scold him every time she saw him.

  Xu Tingsheng looked up exasperatedly and asked, “You’re fourteen?”


  “How’s that any of your business, mutt.”


  Xu Tingsheng smiled and said earnestly, “Did you know? I have a girlfriend who’s only a little older than you. I just remembered. I think she was only fourteen when I started to chase her. Get what I mean? I, you know……”


  The fear in Fang Ruli’s gaze slowly intensified……meeting a pervert was so much scarier than getting hit.

  “Your looks are pretty good too. Maybe still a bit underdeveloped, but it’s fine……”


  Before Xu Tingsheng could finish, Fang Ruli who had been scolding him relentlessly despite having been slapped ran away……

  It was already evening when Xu Tingsheng reached his home in Yanzhou. He hurriedly opened the door as thick smoke roiled all around, as if an explosion had just occurred.

  His girlfriend whom he had started chasing when she had been fourteen, the seventeen-year-old Xiang Ning, came out from the kitchen, wiping her sooty face with tears in her eyes, “I wanted to cook for you……then I don’t know what happened, it somehow ended up like that.”


  Xu Tingsheng settled her down on the sofa and rushed into the kitchen to tidy up the scene.

  When he emerged, he forced a smile and asked, “How is it that you suddenly thought of cooking for me?”


  With streaks of soot across her face, Xiang Ning said earnestly, “Mum said that you met some difficulties recently. With many things bothering you, you may be tired and troubled. She asked me to be more sensible and learn to take care of others rather than always being like a little kid.”


  Xu Tingsheng leaned in and kissed Miss Xiang on the forehead, saying, “Thank you. You’re the best.”


  He wrung a towel and carefully helped her to wipe the soot off her face and hands. While eating dinner afterwards, he deliberately acted like some food connoisseur as he sampled her dishes.

  While eating a mouthful of charcoal of what might originally be eggplant, he concluded in praise, “This dish of yours should be the peak possible amongst those cooking for the first time. As only befitting of someone whose family runs a restaurant.”


  Understanding what he really meant, Miss Xiang menacingly chased him from the living room to the bedroom, then to the balcony and back again.

  On the living room sofa, Uncle Black Bear lay there shamelessly enjoying a lap pillow from Miss Bee as he felt full of himself. The two spoke for a while. Xu Tingsheng spoke about some things without elaborating clearly on the circumstances, talking about what to and what not to do.

  Uncharacteristically obedient, Miss Xiang agreed to all of it. Then, she stroked Uncle’s face that was a little tired and moved her legs together for him to rest a little more comfortably.

  She asked him, “How do you feel, lying like this?”


  “It feels as if the entire world turned wonderful.”


  “Hehe. Then, will you also accompany me and wait for me outside the venue when I take the university entrance examinations?”


  “I will.”


  “I just knew you would.”


  “Why?”


  “Because, after the examinations……you know, I don’t have to say it.”


  Xu Tingsheng thought about it, “You mean that after the exams, I’ll carry you straight home, and then……”


  Miss Xiang poked his face, “Dirty ruffian, dirty ruffian……”


  “Right, there’s something I wanted to show you. I nearly forgot,” Xu Tingsheng got up and went to the study, where he retrieved a stack of papers and design sketches.

  He separated and took some design sketches which he passed to Xiang Ning, asking, “Renovation for the house will be beginning soon. What do you think about this sort of design?”


  While Xu Tingsheng had found someone to produce it, these ideas had come from he himself.

  It was a style that gravitated towards wood, virtually copying from a design that Muji would use some years in the future……that was just to the level he could appreciate.

  Xiang Ning looked at a few design sketches and excitedly expressed that she really liked them.

  Xu Tingsheng had known that she would like them, actually. In his previous life, when they had thought that they would surely be together forever, the two had once analysed and discussed this in detail before. This was the version of their ideal home that Miss Xiang had personally decided upon.

  The home that he owed her that lifetime was finally soon to be realised.

  “But……” Xiang Ning trailed off.

  “But what?”


  “It’s nothing.”


  “Say it.”


  “They were saying that Ning Garden doesn’t have the housing certificate, that they can’t hand out the homes. They were also saying that you could see from the rooftops a few days ago some people sitting at the entrance of Ning Garden, afraid that you guys would run away……”


  What Xiang Ning said was the truth. Due to the increasing amount of rumours recently, it was true that the sales building of Ning Garden was kind of being besieged.

  Without giving further explanation, Xu Tingsheng glanced at the time and proposed for them to go out for a walk together.

  The sky was already dark at this time. The two held hands as they walked towards the east of the river. The further they walked, the more the cars and pedestrians there were. When they reached the bridge, gazing into the distance, Ning Garden was visibly crowded with people.

  “This is?” Because of all those stories she had heard, Miss Xiang looked up and asked Xu Tingsheng rather uneasily.

  Xu Tingsheng smiled and stroked her head, letting her turn her gaze in the direction of Ning Garden……

  A huge piece of cloth that was wrapped entirely around slowly descended in mid-air.

  “The skirt’s coming off!” Someone yelled, in what was a pretty good description.

  Amidst the darkness, ‘Little Pert Waist’ slowly revealed its form. Startled exclamations hereby resounded.

  Regarding this modern tower, Xu Tingsheng’s original design was Guangzhou Tower which was not even in the works now. He had relied on his memories and worked together with designers to make a mini, intricate version together.

  Guangzhou Tower had an outstanding design with slim contours, really resembling a girl in a skirt which highlighted her intricate little pert waist.

  Ning Garden’s Little Pert Waist was unveiled this very night.

  Having heard the news earlier, citizens had congregated from all around to witness the face of this ‘future iconic landmark of Yanzhou’ that Zhicheng so claimed as well as verify with their own eyes if Zhicheng was really about to fall apart like in the rumours.

  At this moment, as that cloth fell, the half-lit tower attracted countless gazes. Because it was night, it was difficult to see when far away. What was visible were only the contours and some lights that reflected off it from the other side of the river. The crowds could not help but exclaim in wonder while flocking closer to get a better look.

  “Quick, let’s go over too……” Tugging Xu Tingsheng’s hand, Xiang Ning excitedly made to squeeze into the crowds.

  To her, this Little Pert Waist had so much more significance than it had to others.

  She knew that what everyone was feeling wonder at was actually just a shameless confession by a certain ruffian Uncle. That was her……Little Pert Waist.

  Xu Tingsheng exerted force and pulled her back.

  “We’re not going over?”


  “No need.”


  Xu Tingsheng held his phone with one hand and said, “Light it up.”


  The tower amidst the darkness instantly radiated light……

  “Wow! Man!”


  “Too pretty!”


  “It’s like she’s wearing a colourful long skirt.”


  “What a magnificent sight.”


  “Little Pert Waist……how supple and beautiful.”


  Xiang Ning turned and looked at Xu Tingsheng, “It’s beautiful.”


  “Not as beautiful as you.”


  “Huh? Mm.”


  “Meeting you is the best thing that ever happened to me.”


  “What?”


  “Turn back and look.”


  Xiang Ning redirected her gaze at Little Pert Waist. The tower was still resplendent, but a row of words was now additionally visible on it: Meeting you is the best thing that ever happened to me. Everyone was reciting this line.

  “Uncle’s actually confessing like this……”


  “Can I have a reward from Miss Xiang?”


  “Yes. Okay. What do you want?”


  “I want to kiss you in the crowd.”


  “Huh? ……Okay.”


  Xiang Ning mustered up her courage and nodded forcefully. She closed her eyes and raised her head slightly.

  That night, in Yanzhou, Little Pert Waist shook a city……City Toppling Little Pert Waist.