“What are you thinking? Didn’t I tell you already? She was sent by the police to protect me. Because we are friends, so her superior thought it would be more convenient for her to do it. We have no other relationship,” Last time I neglected a woman’s sensitive and reserved mind, and brought Sister Tiger to see my old man, which caused Sister Tiger to nag at me constantly afterwards. If she was teased by my stepmother today, she would definitely kill me. So I slowly pushed my stepmother towards the door and begged, “please don’t make me and my friend feel embarrassed. Hurry up and go to the shop.”


  “Okay, okay, I will go. But you have to let me take my bag before leaving, right?” My stepmother must have misunderstood the relationship between me and Dong Xiaoye. She returned to the living room to take her bag and came back to the door again. While holding onto my shoulder with one hand and she put on her shoes with the other hand and smirked, “If you think that I will disrupt you two, then just tell me, Mom is not an insensible person. Hee hee, I won’t be the third wheel. I’ll go back to the shop now.”


  Uh… I felt that I should tell her that I was dating Liusu now to stop this kind of misunderstanding…


  But before I could speak, my stepmother who was about to leave the flat suddenly turned around. The serious expression on her face made me dazed, “Xiao Nan, I am relieved to hear that you have friends taking care of you, but friends are just friends after all. Blood is thicker than water. So next time, if there is something, please don’t keep it from us, okay? And…” My stepmother looked at my injured thigh and said, “no one will deny that you did a good thing, but your dad is really angry this time, because no matter how many lives you have saved, it has nothing to do with him. He only has one son, and that is you. If something happens to you, what do you want him to do? Do you want the Chu family’s bloodline to end? Your father is a very conservative person. He likes to give big philosophical speeches, so he would feel embarrassed to tell you this kind of selfish thing. But I don’t care about those philosophies. Xiao Nan, I am not your biological mother, but I treat you like my real son. If you also treat me like your real mother, then promise me, don’t ever do such a dangerous thing again. Okay?”


  This was probably the reason why my stepmother stayed last night. It was to tell me this. People always disliked the word ‘selfish’, but the selfishness of my stepmother made my heart warm and made me feel happy. I nodded, “Don’t worry, I won’t do it again.”


  This was not only a promise but also to tell my stepmother that in my heart, she was not different from my biological mother.

  “Good,” like the iceberg melting in the spring and flower blossoming, my stepmother smiled. Her rare serious expression seemed to be swept away by the spring breeze, disappearing instantly without a trace. She habitually pretended to be a little girl, gave me a big kiss on my cheek, and said, “if anything happens, remember to call me. If you don’t like to stay in the hospital, then come back early, I’ll make you delicious chicken soup.”


  “Mhm…” Only after I responded, did I remember that I had something else to do tonight. It was impossible to come back early, but my stepmother had already gone downstairs happily…
……

  The city dotted with neon lights was splendid and prosperous. The beautiful night view made the atmosphere in the steel and concrete forest seem a bit less heavy and a bit more relaxed.

  In a small, simple but rustic farmhouse restaurant, even the private booths couldn’t avoid the noise of the guests. It was really lively.

  Brick bed, low table, warm alcohol, a large pot of pork stewed vermicelli, a basket of vegetables and carrots, a pot of small fish paste pancakes, and a plate of stir-fried pork. There weren’t many dishes, but the quantities were not small. In addition, it was cheap and delicious. No wonder there were so many customers here. Everyone chatted and joked with each other, persuading each other to have a drink. It was so noisy that I almost couldn’t hear what Chu Yuan said on the phone.

  “Why is it so noisy over there?” Chu Yuan shouted angrily over the phone, “mom made the chicken soup especially for you and brought it to our flat, but you actually stay outside to drink alcohol! Mr. Chu Nan, you really have the guts! You want to make mom angry, don’t you?!”


  I buried my head under the small square table and was finally able to hear what Chu Yuan said clearly. However, after hearing what she said, I didn’t know whether I should laugh or cry. She was definitely forced to call me by my stepmother, and my stepmother probably wanted to use this opportunity to make Chu Yuan reconcile with me. But after hearing that I was having a meal outside, this little bratty girl instantly lost her temper. Actually, I knew clearly that she had been angry since yesterday. It was just that she had been trying very hard to hold it back.

  “I am doing something important at the moment. Yuan Yuan, pass the phone to mom, I will tell her.”


  “Don’t give me this excuse! What important thing do you possibly have? You can tell me. I know you think mom is dumb, so you can fool her… ow!”


  Chu Yuan made a painful cry before she finished speaking. Then I heard my stepmother’s voice from the phone, “Bratty girl, who are you calling dumb? Xiao Nan…”


  Obviously, my stepmother had been eavesdropping next to Chu Yuan. At this time, she had snatched the phone from Chu Yuan. I smiled and said, “mom, I forgot to tell you this morning that I had an appointment with two friends to talk about something important. I will go home a little bit late…”


  “It’s okay. You are a man. It’s inevitable for men to socialize with friends from time to time. Just ignore what that bratty girl said,” my stepmother expressed her understanding and then suddenly changed her tone. “Are those friends of yours men or women?” She asked ambiguously.

  I was stumped by my stepmother’s question and couldn’t help but look up a little. What I saw was Dong Xiaoye, who was sitting cross-legged on the opposite side of the table finishing one glass of warm alcohol in one gulp, and Zhu Danchen, who was holding an alcohol bottle trying to fill her alcohol glass again. “Men…” I didn’t dare to tell her the truth.

  Seeing the two women’s faces were filled with doubt, I quickly turned my head and smiled, “It’s a business…”


  “Tsk.” My stepmother interrupted me impatiently, “So boring, I thought there were girls, then don’t drink too much, and don’t come back too late. I will stay in your flat tonight. When you come back, I will help you to heat the soup.”


  My stepmother’s reply made me speechless, but Chu Yuan’s response made me even more speechless. Before I hung up the phone, I still clearly heard her yell to my stepmother, “Drinking? No! He is not allowed to drink a drop of alcohol! Whenever he gets drunk, he will bring a woman back home! ”


  “Really? Xiao Nan, then you have to drink more…”


  I hurriedly hung up the phone and wiped the cold sweat on my forehead. Those two… I really didn’t know what to say to them.

  I sat up again, poured myself another cup of tea, and took a sip. After sorting out my thoughts, I asked, “where were we?”


  Dong Xiaoye was already a little drunk. She did not answer my question, but stared contemptuously at the tea in my hand, and sarcastically said, “you are a man, but you can’t even drink alcohol…”


  Damn this woman, didn’t she know that I had an injury? ! I was in a terrible mood because of her words, but I didn’t bother to argue with her. After I glared at Dong Xiaoye, I turned to Zhu Danchen.

  This small restaurant was recommended by Zhu Danchen. Although it was affordable, the conditions were not great. It was a hot day, but not to mention the air conditioning, there weren’t even any electric fans in the small private booth. Plus they had been drinking warm alcohol, the small faces of the two women were very red as if they could emit steam. The fine sweat from their foreheads and noses made them look like peonies with dew in the morning mist, elegant and fragrant. However, their fragrance was the fragrance of alcohol from their hiccups…


  Damn, she was really Dong Xiaoye’s childhood friend. In front of other people, this Zhu Danchen was gentle and dignified, and had a good temperament, but like Dong Xiaoye, when there were no other people around, she didn’t act like a scholarly woman at all.

  If they didn’t have a woman’s appearance, I would definitely suspect that there were two boorish dudes sitting opposite me… It seemed like not letting Liusu come to this meal was the right decision. I really couldn’t even imagine what kind of chemical reaction would occur when those three women got together…


  Different environments would provide different influences; those who kept company with the wolf would learn to howl. I couldn’t help but think of this idiom.

  Although people often said that sorrow could be alleviated by drinking alcohol, sometimes, it would only have an opposite effect. These words couldn’t be more true for Zhu Danchen. She was originally in a good mood, but as she became drunker and drunker, her mood became more and more depressed. She grabbed a small onion, dipped it in the sauce plate, and then started to chew it while smiling bitterly and sighing from time to time. “I have cleaned up the dormitory. The old woman and the kid can move to the school at any time, but as for how long they can live, I can’t give you any promises.”


  I frowned and said, “Why? Is it because of money? If it is because of money, then it is not a problem. I can pay double the cost of accommodation and food…”


  “Pfff!” Zhu Danchen couldn’t help but burst out giggling, “You are really a shameless person. No wonder you can get along with Dong Dong, I think you two are almost the same type of people.”


  Indeed, even if the accommodation and food expenses were doubled, it would only be two to three hundred yuan extra. My face blushed, but Dong Xiaoye wasn’t happy, “Sister Danchen, what do you mean by that?? I have nothing to do with how shameless he is, alright! It was he who came to beg me, and then I, I asked you for help.”


  Zhu Danchen smiled and said, “the school is not mine alone, you also have a share. He offered us such a disadvantageous condition, but not only did you not bargain with him, but you also brought him to me to give me a hard time. Dic* before chicks, hun? And you still dare to say that you are not shameless?”


  “I…I…” Dong Xiaoye’s face became even redder. However, after stammering for a while, she still couldn’t finish her sentence. In the end, she could only glare at me angrily.

  I didn’t have that kind of relationship with Sister Tiger. I had explained it to Zhu Danchen before. But she didn’t believe me, “Sister Danchen, I am still confused. Can you just tell me straightforwardly that how will they be able to stay in the school for a long time?”


  After all, I was asking her to take care of an old woman and a kid for a long time. This was naturally a very difficult request. Zhu Danchen was not Dong Xiaoye, so I had already expected that she would want to make some conditions.

  To put it bluntly, she would bargain with me until we reached an offer that she was happy with. Nowadays, whether it was doing a good thing or a bad thing, the purpose of doing them was nothing more than money, power, beauty, or fame. Good Samaritans no longer existed in today’s society.

  If anyone was willing to help other people without seeking rewards in today’s society, they would probably be regarded as a fool.

  Based on this, it seemed like I was a fool.