‘You useless piece of trash!’

Cheng Ke sat on the staircase at the side of the road while the northern winds were blowing. He took out a cigarette from his pocket and held it in his mouth.

Those were the last words he heard before he left home, probably his dad… no, probably the last comment made by his whole family towards him.

Piece of trash.

Cheng Ke nodded his head, thinking it was a very genuine comment.

He put his head on his lap, elbows hugging his face. He then used his jacket to cover his face, facing away from the wind, and tried all sorts of ways to ignite the cigarette. After failing multiple times, he tossed the lighter into the bushes at the side of the road.

‘Fucking hell!’ Cheng Ke cursed.

‘A piece of useless trash that cannot even light a cigarette.’

But the cigarette still needed to be lit. After all, he was a piece of trash that could not give up on smoking after two years; it was even more impossible to give up smoking at this kind of time naturally.

Cheng Ke watched the lighter disappear in the bush.

The branches were a little thick.

He imagined himself squatting there and aimlessly searching for random things…

Cheng Ke looked around; there were a lot of people about, the people coming and passing hastily walked across the yellow leaves blown by the wind. He was always bored; he could never understand the state of not even having the time to glance at the strangers on the street.

After maybe a whole five minutes, he finally exchanged eyes with a young lad that just threw away his cigarette bud.

‘Hey bro,’ Cheng Ke stopped him, ‘lend a fire.’

‘Kay.’ The young lad took out the lighter.

Clink.

Clack.

Click.

The young lad concentrated on pressing the lighter again and again as Cheng Ke quietly held his cigarette in his mouth. Holding his breath, he waited.

Just as he was about to pass out, the head of the lighter clacked and flung out of the young lad’s hands..

Cheng Ke looked up at the young lad.

‘Oh… s-sorry,’ the young lad felt very awkward, ‘It was still good when I lit mine.’

‘Appreciated.’ Cheng Ke nodded his head and sucked in two breaths, ‘Thank you.’

The young lad walked away hastily in embarrassment; Cheng Ke put the cigarette back in his pocket.

In passing, he fondled around in his pocket, certain that there was nothing else but that box of cigarettes.

Phone, wallet, everything was left in the house with that sound of ‘piece of trash’.

‘That place that I probably will never go back again.’

He walked back to the side of the bushes and stood there. He peeked in through the branches and wilted leaves, but could not find the lighter he threw inside before, only two bundles of tissue.

He turned around and walked towards a small nearby supermarket.

Cheng Ke did not have an intense smoking addiction, but humans were just so strange. The cigarette and lighter were all by his side everyday and he would not even touch it but once he did want to smoke, he was unable to endure at all as if he had some kind of disease.

‘Good evening.’ The young girl at the checkout counter greeted him.

‘Good evening.’ Cheng Ke walked towards her, picked out a lighter from the two rows of lighters and placed it on the counter.

Before the girl could react and ask him whether or not he was going to buy it, he had already completed the series of actions in lighting his cigarette and putting the lighter back on the counter. He pushed the door and walked out.

Natural and smooth.

The most shameless operation he had ever done in his life was done so smoothly.

Finishing one smoke while sitting on the steel bench at the side of the road, Cheng Ke stood up. The coldness that penetrated his bottom all the way to his lower back made him sigh.

He looked at his watch and saw that it was a little past nine o’clock.

He didn’t have the habit of wearing a watch. This Jaeger-LeCoultre was something Cheng Yi gave him last month. He was quite surprised, thinking this might be the start of their brother relationship’s improvement, so he continued to wear it.

It’s just that he never imagined that something more surprising would be waiting for him as one month later, he was kicked out of the house by his father personally.

And his thoughts before were that it was most likely an awkward misunderstanding.

How much of this had been Cheng Yi’s efforts, exactly how much pressure was put on him, Cheng Ke didn’t think of it deeply, and didn’t want to anymore. He didn’t even ask ‘What’s happening?’

It was just as his dad said: “Have you become so useless that you don’t even know when to ask why!”

Ah.

He was not interested in the business things, but his dad forced him to do it together with Cheng Yi. He felt like he was no different from trash in front of Cheng Yi. It was only so that he could please his dad a little after being a piece of trash for so many years.

He really did not know why he should have asked why. He only felt surprised.

Instead of thinking about what happened earlier that day, he prioritised thinking about where he was going to stay because he had no money on him.

Cheng Ke followed the road forward thinking, “At this time, Liu Tian should probably be in the shop, it’s not so far away from here, strolling over should probably take only…one hour.”

After walking for a while, the wind started getting stronger and the sky darker. The people on the street decreased and scenes of debauchery started to play out on either side of the street.

A short sound of honking came from behind.

Cheng Ke did not turn around and continued walking. A red car passed him by, and stopped at a place two to three metres in front of him.

It was Cheng Yi’s Maybach.

He often drove this car recently, almost making the driver unemployed so he knew this car very well. He didn’t need to even listen to the engine sound or see the car logo. He knew just by smelling the smoke from the car, a smell of soot.

The window from the assistant seat rolled down, Cheng Yi’s head came out from it: ‘Where’re you going?’

‘Heaven.’ Cheng Ke answered, continuing to walk.

‘I can give you a lift?’ Cheng Yi said,

‘Don’t be so confident,’ Cheng Ke stopped, ‘Maybe you’re the one going down.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ Cheng Yi smirked, passing out a wallet from the car window, ‘Here. You left it at home.’

Cheng Ke didn’t talk but reached out and took the wallet.

Only the wallet. No phone.

‘Your phone is in the room. I didn’t go in.’ Cheng Yi said.

‘Oh,’ Cheng Ke glanced at him, ‘then my wallet must have wandered out from my room by itself right?’

‘The wallet was taken from the jacket you put in the living room.’ Cheng Yi said,

‘If you still need anything just tell me, I can go with you to get it when dad’s not home.’

He said it quite caringly, Cheng Ke could help but want to snicker. After trying to lift the corner of his mouth, he realised he could not smile.

‘Just find a guest house to stay for now,’ Cheng Yi looked at him, the corner of his mouth still raised into a smile, but his eyes had become cold: ‘Your loser acquaintances, maybe someone would take you in.’

Cheng Ke did not speak. He just looked at him.

‘Start everything over by yourself,’ Cheng Yi said, ‘Don’t just try to depend on the family.’

Cheng Ke continued to stay silent because this time he really had nothing to say. In that home, apart from dad, who had ever been forced to ‘start everything over’? He could not understand Cheng Yi’s position to be saying this seriously.

‘Drive.’ Cheng Yi said to the driver and rolled up the window.

Cheng Ke could not say what feelings he was having right now. After staring for a while in the direction the car drove, he finally lowered his head to open his wallet.

ID card.

Cheng Ke scrunched his brows.

Apart from that, there was nothing else he could recognise. His various member cards, credit cards, deposit cards were all not there.

‘Great.’ Cheng Ke flipped through the layers again.

Before, when Cheng Yi told him to find a guest house to stay, he thought he was only playing with him but now looking at the money in that one layer, he finally realised.

Cheng Yi was telling the truth.

100 dollars.

The guest houses were probably all faraway bunk beds.

Also, he usually didn’t have cash in his wallet. Cheng Yi had purposely put the 100 dollars in.

Cheng Ke gripped the red note out, clearly seeing his own fingers shaking, probably in anger.

He still felt confused as he looked at the $100 note. This sort of anger had never appeared. Even when he had been backstabbed by his own younger brother, kicked out by his blood father, been told that his friends would not keep him, even when he wanted to smoke but could not find the lighter.

However, right now it had been immediately ignited by embarrassment.

‘Fuck!’ Cheng Ke said in a low voice whilst clenching his teeth, and threw the thing in his hand violently into the rubbish bin near him.

Every time he threw stuff into the rubbish bin, as soon as the distance exceeded one meter, it usually took a second time. Now being two to three meters away, the wallet surprisingly landed accurately into the rubbish bin.

Only that one hundred dollar note floated to the floor.

Cheng Ke walked over and picked up the money, scrunched it and threw it violently again, so much so that his elbow started hurting a little.

Then turned and strode along the road.

All the way to the end of the road. Only after seeing the green pedestrian crossing light did he stop.

He originally planned to go to Liu Tian Cheng’s place first, but it seemed like he couldn’t go there now.

He believed Cheng Yi’s words as it was him who single handedly kicked him out of the home and cut off all his backup solutions along with it. To Cheng Yi, it was not a big deal but to him, it was.

He didn’t have any particularly sincere friends. It was all people he knew from drinking and eating. This kind of relationship also was mostly founded on continuous drinking and playing. People like him who were unenthusiastic in playing barely had stable relationships, even with those ‘friends’. Therefore, he did just as Cheng Yi wished, having nowhere to go.

So…

Cheng Yi stared at the changing red traffic light for a while. At last, he sighed, turned around and walked back down the road.

He needed to have a place to stay tonight and would think about ideas tomorrow.

That one hundred dollar could at least solve a small emergency.

He needed to pick it up.

The rubbish bin was a green rectangular bin.

Two were placed next to each other.

The lid that was always open before had been closed by some responsible citizen from nowhere.

The bin surface perfectly reflected the neon lights of the bar on the opposite street. The bar seemed very unique, the little person’s position printed on top even looked like a DJ.

Cheng Yi stood there for quite a while.

Firstly, people were passing by. Secondly, he never thought one day he would be searching through rubbish so he was very flustered on the inside.

Thirdly, he forgot which bin he threw the money and wallet into, whether he threw it both into one bin, or separately into two bins.

‘Fuck me.’

At last, he randomly picked the left one, walked over and carefully lifted the lid with his fingertip before peeking inside.

The rubbish bin was not full and he could not see what was in there, but it was quite a clean rubbish bin on the outside, up close it still smelt a lot.

Cheng Ke lifted his left hand, put it down, and lifted the right hand, and put it down. After repeating this motion twice, he stopped because it was little hard to breathe. His eyes were also uncomfortably puffy. He was even able to clearly count the times the vein at his temple pulsed.

The anger that was scattered because he had to search through the rubbish bin, at that moment elevated directly to the top of his head like an explosion. Cheng Ke stepped back one, and gave the rubbish bin a hard kick. The ‘tonk’ sound was very stress relieving, the rubbish in the bin cooperated making a rustling sound as it scattered across the floor.

Teared packaging, old newspaper, takeaway containers with remaining liquid, kebab sticks with still some meat…Just as Cheng Ke was about to observe from afar to see if his wallet and one hundred dollars was inside the bunch of mess, something moved a little. His body hair all stood on its ends.

Rats, spiders, and snakes, the things he was most afraid of.

Was it a rat?

Before he could retreat in disgust, a shadow bounced out from the darkness. Cheng Ke could not even see what it was as he was already hit hard in the face.

Oh.

It was a person.

The punch that came leaping from the rubbish bin side hit pretty hard, Cheng Ke who was totally defenseless could not come to consciousness for at least three seconds.

Ever since he was small, apart from going to the gymnasium to practice, this was the first time he had been hit by someone in the face without protective gears, and it was on the street.

‘Are you crazy?!’ Cheng Ke turned around, seeing the person clearly.. This was the first reaction in his brain when he encountered a psycho.

‘Do you have some problems?’ This person shouted almost at the same time.

CHeng Ke’s face hurt even more and he almost thought he was hallucinating because of the pain: ‘Huh?’

‘Who the **** told you to kick it?’ The person glared at him.

‘I kicked…’ Cheng Ke finally became conscious and his anger that was on hold immediately came back, ‘Sorry I kicked you? Are you my damn relative?! Why should l care?’

That person did not speak, just lifted his leg and kicked at him.

A very powerful push kick, but quite obviously a self-taught amateur. Under this circumstance, Cheng Ke went on the defensive. He dodged this kick easily, and gave a left jab to the person’s chin.

That person wobbled a bit before standing stably in his original position.

Cheng Ke used the second the neon light flashed to quickly examine the person in front of him.

Quite tall in height, wore a knit hat, the hat was pulled low. He could not tell the facial features because the face kept flashing in green, red, and yellow and could only see a scar stemming from the left temple to the corner of his ear.

Just from this scar, he knew that this person was nothing good.

Cheng Ke took this person out from being a psycho to the category of a brute.

But thinking again put him back in the psycho category.

Because in this weather, a lot of people had put on a down jacket, but this person was only wearing a short-sleeve t-shirt.

Feeling cold just by watching him, Cheng Ke almost couldn’t bear to hit him.

But this scar guy continued to hit him. He didn’t even wait for Cheng Ke to finish examining him from top to bottom as a side kick already came over. Cheng Ke did not dodge as this kick was pretty high. Instead, he used his elbow to hold this person and pushed his leg to the side, and hit a hand chop on the inside at the root of his thigh.

‘Fuck!’ He roared.

‘Fuck.’ Cheng Ke frowned a bit, this person was not that bad since he didn’t fall over.

The scar wanted to kick again but Cheng Ke pointed at him: ‘Not finished huh? Is this fucking rubbish bin yours?’

‘You’re just a dumpster diver! Why do you care whose rubbish bin this is?’ Scar also pointed at him, ‘Why don’t you tell me whose rubbish bin don’t you search?’

‘You fucker!’ Cheng Ke felt like this sentence carried blades that opened his wounds once again..

The anger inside his stomach that had nowhere to go, exploded at this sentence as he went forward to tackle Scar.

Scar also punched over without hesitation.

The following fight had no discipline. Even if Cheng Ke knew that every technical move he made were all off, he didn’t care. Because he wanted to release anger, his moves were all over the place.

He also realized at this time that he had looked down on this scarred man. He was an amateur, but he hit hard, full of power, lock, twist, chop. Not a single move was correct to his standards, but also no move had missed.

Cheng Ke didn’t know which move triggered his fighting spirit, but he used moves that were comparable to Scar’s. In an instant, they had gone from stylish martial arts to wrestling.

Cheng Ke only jumped to consciousness till consecutive horning sounds came from behind. He didn’t care by this point if there were passersby watching, didn’t care if the police would come over, the only thing he cared…was if he was seen by Cheng Yi.

He pushed Scar away forcefully to take a look behind him.

His heart first clenched in fear but after seeing who it was, he finally relaxed. It was a white Land Rover. Accompanying it came a strong wave of distaste. ‘How did I fall so low within two hours?’

A person jumped down from the car, holding a wooden or metal bat. He came over and pointed it at him: ‘Bet you wanna fucking die right!’

‘You wanna go?.’ Cheng Ke stared at him.

‘Don’t spit crap,’ scar said coldly to the side, ‘Where’s my clothes.’

‘Oh.’ The person holding the bat glared at Cheng Ke again, took out a jacket from the car window and threw it at scar, ‘what’s happening here? I’ll call some people…’

‘Take the cat out,’ scar interrupted him, turned around and looked at the direction of the rubbish bin, ‘fuck!’

Cheng Ke also looked at it, suddenly a rush of disgust, quickly teared his jacket off, shaking like crazy. That rubbish bin that was kicked over, at some point had dissembled, squashed out of shape.

Cheng Ke didn’t want to think anymore about how you could roll onto the rubbish bin during the fight. Only waves of disgust showed on his face as he was covered in the smell.

‘Kitty, kitty?’ Scar supported his hand on the ground, lied down and stuck his head into the rubbish bin searching, ‘meow meow? Kitty~ kitty~ meow?’

Cheng Ke rubbed the corner of his mouth, looked at him in shock.

‘Kitty…’ The guy with the bat also wanted to lie down and call out, only said half a sentence and was cut off by Scar.

‘Go scavenge.’ Scar said.

He nodded, reached inside the disformed rubbish bin that is rolled over on the floor without hesitation.

And a period of searching began.

Just as Cheng Ke felt his stomach rumbling, he took back his arm. In his palm was an extra dirty grey kitten that was only the size of a fist. Cheng Ke went blank for two seconds, turned around, preparing to leave.

After this whole mess of struggling, he didn’t know if his anger was beaten away, if he was distracted, or just dumbfounded. Without walking two steps, Scar’s laughter came from behind: ‘You son of a bitch, this is what you were looking for right?’

Cheng Ke turned his head round, following the direction scar’s finger was pointing. It seems that they had found the one hundred dollar bill among the rubbish. His heart clenched a bit as all the humiliation flooded in.

But he did not reply. Instead, he turned back around and walked forwards but after walking a few steps, he suddenly felt tired.

The kind of tiredness that made him feel he could not walk another step.

That Land Rover passed him by, went in the direction of the end of the road, he stared at the back of the car for a while, turned around and walked again in the opposite direction.

‘At this sort of time, l shouldn’t be stubborn. Although tonight l has nothing on me, l will not die on the street. I should pick the money up naturally. I need it…’

‘Go back.’ Jiang Yu Duo said while using wet tissue to clean the dirty fur on the kitten.

‘What?!’ Chen Qing went blank for a bit, but still tread on the brake, and turned the car around, ‘What are we doing going back?’

‘Look at that guy.’ Jiang Yu Duo said.

‘Wait what,’ Chen Qing looked at him, ‘Why are you going back to see a homeless trash that you just beat up?’

‘A homeless trash looks like that?’ Jiang Yu Duo reached for Chen Qing’s jacket on the backseat and wrapped the kitten up, ‘Didn’t you see? He was wearing a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch.’

‘Jaeger-LeCoultre?’ Chen Qing was confused, ‘A watch?’

‘Yeah.’ Jiang Yu Duo didn’t want to talk anymore.

‘Fine,’ Chen Qing nodded, ‘Anything third brother wants. You bet I’m going back to steal it.’

Jiang Yu Duo looked at him.

‘Don’t worry,’ Chen Qing also looked at him, ‘I’ve brought the stuff, one hit one punch and it’s over. I promise…’

‘Shut up.’ Jiang Yu Duo said.

...To be continue... ...

Cheng Ke looked at the young man smashing plates for about ten seconds, he then gritted his teeth and walked over.

When he was about to bend over to pick up the money, someone shouted behind him, “Hey!”

Cheng Ke did not look back, listening to the sound of the engine, he wanted to bang his head on the ground.

Because he was too distracted, he did not notice when the car stopped, and a voice that really embarrassed him to the extreme spoke.

The voice was quite magnetic, he clearly recognized it, it was from that scarred face bastard.

“Do you really need this one hundred?” There was a tint of mocking in his voice, if one was to turn around, one could definitely see a smile on his face.

“Pick it up, hurry,” said the scarred face, “Others will pick it up if you’re too slow.”

Cheng Ke straightened his waist and turned around, “I’ll leave it to someone who needs it more.”

“Huh?” The scarred face leaned on the car window and looked at him.

“Pick it up,” Cheng Ke said, “It’s a waste to come back empty-handed.”

The scarred face smiled, took out a cigarette, and flicked his lighter, “There’s a wallet inside, it’s also yours, right?”

Cheng Ke did not speak.

“I didn’t ask you to dig up garbage,” the scarred face exhaled smoke, “it’s all done while we’re talking.”

“Give it to me,” Cheng Ke said.

“What?” the scarred face looked at him.

“Lighter,” Cheng Ke said.

The scarred face was taken aback, and he handed the lighter over, “it’s illegal to burn money. let alone one piece of paper, it’s not something to brag about.”

Cheng Ke took a cigarette out and lit it, and put the lighter into his own pocket.

The scarred face looked at the other’s pocket.

“Thank you,” Cheng Ke nodded at him.

The scarred face man did not say anything; after searching in his pocket for a while, he handed over a business card to the other, “This young master, who is in trouble, this is my business card. If you need any help, please call me.”

Cheng Ke stood still, not moving.

The scarred face man continued, “My name is Jiang Yu Duo, call me Third Bro.”

Jiang Yu Duo? Third Bro?

Cheng Ke still stood there without moving.

“The ****. This motherfucker? Are your eyes only for decoration, this is the Third Bro! This whole area that you’re in is on Third Bro’s site!” The driver leaned his body over and pointed at the standing man, “Third Bro offered his help, yet what the **** are you acting all indifferent for?”

Site?

Cheng Ke remembered his fight with this Third Bro, a person, who would get into a fight with other people in a dump, actually had his own site?

Are you in charge of the forty-nine trash cans here? One of them was crushed by the boss himself.

Cheng Ke could not help but look up at the Third Bro, Jiang Yu Duo, with thoughtful eyes.

The man did not wear a hat this time, and he looked to be in his early twenties, just an ordinary handsome guy. But the viciousness in that emotionless face made people a little wary, probably because of the scar on his face.

“Keep it,” Jiang Yu Duo pushed the card in between his fingers toward the other, “it’s always better to have a back-up plan.”

Cheng Ke hesitated for a few seconds then took the card from the other.

While he was reading the card, Jiang Yu Duo rolled up the window and drove away.

Cheng Ke glanced at the card and raised his head violently, staring for a long time in the direction of the car.

Does this man have mental issues?

He could not help but look down at the card in his hand.

He had received countless business cards, the designs were exquisite, casual, business, elite, even scholar style…but this was the first time he received a tobacco box business card.

This ‘business card’ given to him by Jiang Yu Duo was literally a cut from a tobacco box, no, to be exact, a torn piece from a tobacco box.

Three words were written on it with a ballpoint pen, “Jiang Yu Duo”.

Below was a phone number.

This level! This style!

He looked an errand boy for some shopkeepers around here, what kind of Third Bro? Owning his own site? I’m afraid that those forty-nine trash cans will account for 20% of the shares!

“Third Bro,” Chen Qing turned to look at Jiang Yu Duo’s face while driving, “Are you okay, you didn’t take his stuff, why do you need to go back?”

“Look while driving,” Jiang Yu Duo said.

“…Look at what?” Chen Qing was quite puzzled, thought about it then nodded, “Practicing my own judgement you mean, a closer look, this person is definitely not some kind of stray and he dressed quite well. He looks more like a little…”

“Look at the road,” Jiang Yu Duo interrupted him.

“Okay,” Chen Qing turned his head to stare ahead. When Jiang Yu Duo reminded him, he had already gone through a red light.

“I’ll give you twenty yuan,” Jiang Yu Duo touched his eyebrows, “You need to have your head check out.”

“What can you check with just twenty yuan?” Chen Qing said.

“Should be enough for your brain to not stop at a red light!” Jiang Yu Duo slapped the back of the headrest, “I think fifteen would be enough!”

“The ****!” Chen Qing swore, “I didn’t pay attention!”

Jiang Yu Duo slapped the backrest again, “Fucker, I’ll give you extra five yuan for breakfast!”

“It’s okay,” Chen Qing thought for a while, “This is Lao Yang’s car, let him pay the fine. Every day, he always gets himself in a traffic violation one way or another, I bet he can’t keep track of them.”

Jiang Yu Duo sighed.

“Go straight home?” Chen Qing asked, “I’ll send you back to your sister’s place so you can play two rounds with her.”

“Uh,” Jiang Yu Duo responded.

“What about the cat?” Chen Qing asked again, “It’s not all that tasty when it’s small, you have to raise them first.”

“How the hell did I grow up with you?” Jiang Yu Duo looked at him, “I should have let you die premature.”

“We’re so close to each other,” Chen Qing laughed, “If it weren’t for you picking me up at the river that time, I would have died by now.”

Jiang Yu Duo did not say anything, and turned to look out the window.

“That young master just now,” Chen Qing said, “do you just want to save him once and then get some use out of him later?”

Jiang Yu Duo still did not speak.

“I’m right, right; look at his person. It doesn’t look like someone sent him to trouble you,” Chen Qing did not need him to respond, then continued to analyze on his own, “But you didn’t ask for his name, what kind of situation is this…or should I ask the others to follow him?”

“Would you like to go directly to him to say it,” Jiang Yu Duo turned his head to look at him.

Chen Qing laughed, “Okay, I get it, it can’t be so obvious.”

Cheng Ke felt that he did not know much about life, to put it frankly, he was just a useless person.

For example, what could he do with just a hundred yuan and an ID card?

Aside from spending hours at McDonald’s, he really could not think of anything else.

Fortunately, there were not that many people at McDonald’s. There were a few travelers with their luggage, three or five students were doing their homework at a table, no one spoke. It was quiet, peaceful.

Cheng Ke looked at a cup of coffee in front of him and yawned.

So sleepy.

Cheng Ke has already washed his face twice. The first time was to wash the bleeding wound from fighting Jiang Yu Duo; the second was due to the heat, he had almost fainted from it.

Cheng Ke touched the corner of his eyes. The wound was quite big, but he was not afraid of pain. When he used to fight with Cheng Yi as a child, the other slammed a stool on his head, causing him to need several stitches on his head. He just swallowed it and didn’t say anything.

But what he found quite surprising was that he did not feel the pain from this wound.

This was not a question of whether he could stand the pain or not, the punch from earlier must have paralyzed it.

Cheng Ke looked at the cup of coffee in front of him, smiling, then laid down on the table.

Or it could be that there was a more extreme pain than the wound on his face, so he did not feel it.

Tonight was the first time Cheng Ke slept somewhere that was not home, and in such a position.

Not only did he fall asleep, he also had a dream.

From a distant memory of his father’s words “respectful and cautious are the other meanings of ‘Ke’,” to the three words “Jiang Yu Duo” written by the blue ballpoint pen.

The dream was supposed to be very long. If he were to title his dream, he would call it “The First Half of My Life”, but since there were a lot of excessive and meaningless plots being omitted from it, after a few scenes it was over.

When Cheng Ke opened his eyes, he could not help but sigh dejectedly If it weren’t for this dream, he would not have expected that his life of more than twenty years had been so boring.

There were now a lot of people carrying their meal trays around, and Cheng Ke immediately met several disapproving eyes when he looked up.

He took a glance at the time, in such a situation, such an environment, in such a posture, he could actually sleep until eight o’clock in the morning, he was not sure if this could be counted as some strange power.

He stood up and walked to the restroom. Even after washing his face, he still felt that his whole body had still not awakened from that dream. His steps felt like they were floating, there was this lingering illusion that he had not completely woke up from that boring dream.

He really had no idea where to go after exiting McDonald’s. There was a little supermarket right across, so he went in and bought a bottle of mouthwash, then he went back to McDonald’s.

He could have just washed his mouth on the side road, but he wanted to differentiate himself from a hobo.

He felt a lot more awake after leaving McDonald’s for the second time.

Cheng Ke stood on the side of the road, and again he suddenly felt at loss like last night, so he stood there, stunned, for a long time.

He was going to make a replacement for his bank card to withdraw money, then he would buy a cell phone and a new sim card…Honestly speaking, he really did not know how much money he had in the account, but there would always be money every time he withdrew. Also he did not plan on a big expense, maybe to buy a meal and two sets of clothes or something.

Cheng Ke suddenly had a thought, what if his mother only put in enough money for a meal and some clothes?

No, no, it would not be so. Even though he was a useless person in the eyes of his whole family and could not even be compared to Cheng Yi’s fingernail, there must be some allowance in his account, right.

Not to the point of…

Cheng Ke turned around and wanted to head to the intersection, planning on finding a bank and asking how to replace his card.

He only took a few steps before immediately bumping his shoulder into someone.

“Are you fucking blind?” the man roared.

Cheng Ke was about to say “I’m sorry” when the man roared at him again, his own words getting stuck in his throat.

He did not say anything, he also did not look at the man, instead he continued straight on.

Before yesterday, the other person would not have been able to complete that sentence.

He was not at all in the mood for that now, not wanting to start a fight, and even not in the mood to scold the other man. He just wanted to do what he urgently needed: withdraw money and buy a cell phone.

His right shoulder was hit hard from behind by someone.

A cell phone.

Cheng Ke staggered forward two or three steps before stopping.

When he turned back to look, there were four people standing behind him.

Those must be drunkards who had been out all night, from a distance they had the same smell as those trash bins in the back door of the bar.

Cheng Ke brushed his shoulder twice, turned sideways, and made a pose of he had to go.

As expected, those people started to attack him. He took up a stance and threw a punch at the face of the man in front with his right hand. The man stumbled at the impact and took a few wobbly steps back before catching his footing.

Even for a strong man, landing such a hard punch, Cheng Ke felt his wrist twinge from the punch.

He was not the type to look for trouble, whatever he did, those activities were usually with a group of his ‘drinking buddies’. Even when they were met with trouble, he did not have to face it alone.

He didn’t know what happened these past two days, seemed like bad luck and annoying incidents found him one way or another.

This punch of his could be counted as the release of his irritation.

He had a fist fight with Jiang Yu Duo but he did not have the upper hand and there were several injuries on his face. Now this punch had made him feel all better.

But the consequences of this impulse had to be dealt with by himself. Three of the other four began to take weapons out of their pockets. No matter what they pulled out, he definitely did not want to be their opponent.

Cheng Ke made a split second decision.

He turned around and ran to the intersection.

There were quite a few people going to work at this time. After a few quick looks, the escape route was blocked. He could only change direction and run to a place where there were fewer people. After all, escape was not his strong point. There was no one chasing him, maybe they had given up.

After running wildly for a while, Cheng Ke was really annoyed. He really underestimated the determination of a few drunkards to pursue such a trivial matter.

Looked like those drunkards were the scum of this area. They were quite familiar with the terrain around here and when Cheng Ke turned three corners and ran out of a small fork, two of them were waiting there to ambush him.

“Fuck!” Cheng Ke was quite out of breath. He glanced back and found out that these four had formed into two groups of two.

Cheng Ke felt that he was actually a person that gives up easily. Any small setback would discourage him and so in this situation there was a moment in his mind when he thought that he would rather stop running and just let them beat him up. No big deal.

Fortunately, he spotted a small alley between two residential buildings from the corner of his eye.

Last one. If he could not get away, he would give up.

Cheng Ke gritted his teeth and rushed into the alley.

There were two buildings on the other side of the alley and another narrow alley. He continued to rush forward.

He froze when he ran out of the alley .

At the back of several residential buildings, was an open small garden in the middle of the street. A very common place, a common place for walking and birds sighting during the day, and square dancing at night.

But now it was not very common.

At a flower bed directly ahead of him sat a large group of people sitting and standing around, at least a dozen of them. In the middle sat Jiang Yu Duo with a cigarette in his hand.

When he rushed out from the alley, all the people in the group turned their heads and stared at him. He could almost hear these eyes shouting in unison “We all are not good people!”

The only difference was that Jiang Yu Duo, regardless of his expression, was very calm. From the beginning, Cheng Ke could see a smile on the corner of his mouth.

In this embarrassing stalemate, the people behind caught up to him.

The one who ran at the front flew forward as soon as he rushed out. Cheng Ke dodged and the man threw himself into an empty space.

Jiang Yu Duo, who had been sitting still for a while, finally raised his arm and stretched his waist.

A group of people around him seemed to have received an order, and charged over.

Cheng Ke was suddenly surrounded by a whole lot of people. So many people in fact that he had no clue where they had come from. But they all quickly disappeared. The group of people along with those four drunkards were gone.

Only he and Jiang Yu Duo left at the scene.

“Such a coincidence,” Jiang Yu Duo took the cigarette out of his mouth and looked at the other with a smile.

Cheng Ke felt that Jiang Yu Duo looked more pleasing during the day than at night but his smile did not suit his face. He felt a shiver run up his spine at the smile.

He cleared his throat and turned his head. Looking in the direction the group had gone. From a distance, he could hear the voice of someone screaming, not knowing whether they were fighting or being beaten.

“They…” Cheng Ke pointed to the direction of the sound.

“A bunch of losers,” Jiang Yu Duo said, “Why are you messing with them? Did you flip the trash can and fight again?”

Cheng Ke looked at him.

“If I were not here,” Jiang Yu Duo pressed the cigarette butt out on the ground, “you would not have gotten out in one piece today.”

“…Thank you,” Cheng Ke hesitated and thanked him, although he could not judge whether the group of people who rushed out just received Jiang Yu Duo’s order to save him or because they had been enemies before.

“Didn’t I say to call me if you’re in trouble?” Jiang Yu Duo said.

“Oh,” Cheng Ke touched his pocket subconsciously and found that the piece of paper Jiang Yu Duo gave him was no longer in his pocket.

“Lost the business card?” Jiang Yu Duo asked.

“…What did you call that thing?” Cheng Ke could not help asking.

“It’s okay,” Jiang Yu Duo pulled out a flat tobacco box paper from under his back pocket, “I’ll give you another one.”

“No need,” Cheng Ke quickly waved his hand, “Really, no, thank you.”

Jiang Yu Duo looked at him and squinted his eyes, the expression on his face somewhat unpredictable.

“Thank you,” Cheng Ke took two steps back, turned around and walked quickly towards the road.

He did not know why this man was so keen to give strangers a cut out of his tobacco box. He only knew that Jiang Yu Duo’s smile disappeared from his lips when he refused to accept the business card again.

Whether he was in charge of the trash bins or not, this man was also a boss who could easily order twenty people with just a nod. The key was that these twenty people were still here and Cheng Ke did not want to get into any trouble.

Withdraw the money, and buy a cell phone.

He never expected that there would be a day when he would be longing for these two items.

“Order someone to follow the kid,” Jiang Yu Duo lit a cigarette and said to Chen Qing who had just run over.

“Which kid?” Chen Qing asked.

“Your father,” Jiang Yu Duo frowned, sarcasm lacing his voice.

“Got it, Chief,” Chen Qing nodded, “let me follow him, it’ll be better.”

Jiang Yu Duo did not say anything, Chen Qing turned around with confidence and walked away.

“On the right,” Jiang Yu Duo sighed.

“Huh?” Chen Qing turned to look at him.

“He went right, you dumbass!” Jiang Yu Duo roared pointing at him, “I give you three seconds to run, after three seconds, I’ll beat the fucking hell out of you!”

“Coincidently, my car is parked on the right…” Chen Qingsaid, immediately running to the right.

Jiang Yu Duo sat down by the flower bed and finished his cigarette. Once done, he got back up and left the garden.

Thinking of what to eat for breakfast everyday was quite a troublesome thought. Jiang Yu Duo likes breakfast from the street vendors, but now it had already passed breakfast time, plus he had been eating from them for more than half a month now, he was quite bored with them already.

“Third Bro!” Someone called him from behind.

Jiang Yu Duo clenched his fist around a pocket knife inside his pocket.

“Have you eaten breakfast yet?” A child named Skinny Monkey ran over asking in a flutter. The kid would blow away with the wind if it were just a bit stronger, “Let’s eat together?”

“Soy milk and fried dough again?” Jiang Yu Duo looked at him with disgust.

“Of course not, at least it’s sauced beef,” said Skinny Monkey, “Inviting Third Bro to breakfast means that there must be at least some meat!”

Jiang Yu Duo followed Skinny Monkey into a newly opened breakfast shop next to them. Seeing that Skinny Monkey had brought over a bunch of food, he asked with a frown “the hell, what did you do last night with whom?”

“No way!” The Skinny Monkey was anxious, “I listened to you and I work as a waiter at a net cafe! I just got paid yesterday! I immediately thought of you…”

“I see,” Jiang Yu Duo picked up his chopsticks, “Don’t order any more, this table of food is worth a month’s salary already.”

“No,” the Skinny Monkey happily patted his pocket, “there is still some here.”

After having a bite or two, Jiang Yu Duo’s phone rang loudly, it was from Chen Qing.

“Come over and eat breakfast,” Jiang Yu Duo answered the call.

“Jaeger has entered a bank,” Chen Qing said, “He’s been talking to the branch manager for a long time, do you think he’s going to take out a large sum of money? Do you think you should call for two more guys to come over and wait for him to come out…”

“Go buy two buns and eat them first,” Jiang Yu Duo said.

“Ah?” Chen Qing froze.

“Skipping breakfast is bad for your IQ,” Jiang Yu Duo hung up the phone.

This troubled young master was indeed a bit strange. When he fought with the other yesterday, he had touched all the pockets on this young master’s body. He had nothing on him but half a pack of cigarettes.

Even if with that one hundred yuan, did he just go into the bank with one hundred yuan and half a pack of cigarettes?

Jiang Yu Duo frowned, he was indeed very strange.

...To be continue... ...

After breakfast, Jiang Yuduo forces the skinny pretending-to-be-rich kid into taking all the uneaten food home.

“Having all this food…” The skinny kid argues, “I was gonna walk around the streets. Third bro why don’t you…”

“Don’t look at me. I’m on a diet.” Jiang Yuduo waves his hands. “Give it to beggars, stray cats or cats, or even rats.”

“Fine.” The skinny kid sighs. “Then I better get going, third bro.”

“Eff off.” Jiang Yuduo replies.

The skinny kid takes off with the food. Jiang Yuduo is on his way to see what the little brat who got himself into a fight was up to but his phone rings after just a few steps.

Cheng Qing was a good guy, he just had limited brainpower and dreamed unrealistically about becoming a top leader in the underworld. Jiang Yuduo digs out his phone and thinks about beating the shit out of Cheng Qing, just enough to make him dumb enough so Jiang Yuduo wouldn’t have to worry about him.

“Follow him for now, I’ll call you later.” He says as soon as he picked up the phone.

“… Yo third, you’ve got guts ordering me around.” The voice on the other end of the phone isn’t Cheng Qing’s.

Jiang Yuduo brings the phone closer to his face. It’s Zhang Daqi’s name on the caller ID.

“What’s up?” He asks.

“Don’t even pretend with me. How can you not know what’s up?” Zhang Daqi yells furiously across the line.

“I’ve lost my memory.” Jiang Yuduo replies.

“I’m telling you, Third,” Jiang Daqi continues shouting, “Control your damn ducklings and don’t let me see them on my turf again. Don’t think you’re some big shot just because I give you a little bit of respect.”

Jiang Yuduo barks back impatiently, “How many times do I have to say it? Save your respect, I don’t need it.”

“You motherfucker…” It sounds like Zhang Daqi is on the verge of cursing up a storm.

“Uncle Daqi, I’ve heard your bar is doing pretty well these days,” Jiang Yuduo cuts off the stream of obscenities before it begins, “you’ve got the nerve to shout at me when you can’t even be bothered to pay ￥3000? It’s been two months.”

“How’s that any of your damn business? Are you my mom or my dad? Or are you running a fucking shelter?” Zhang Daqi says. “I’m telling you that if I see another one of your goons here tomorrow, I will beat the living shit out of them.”

“Fine, I won’t have them come around tomorrow.” Jiang Yuduo lights a cigarette. “I’ll come myself.”

He hangs up before Zhang Daqi says another word.

“Sir, you have to bring your personal ID card to the new account services station and file for a lost bank card there.” The manager smiles and informs Cheng Ke.

“New account services?” Cheng Ke thinks long and hard for about 5 seconds, “But I don’t remember where I opened the account…”

The manager replies, “We can check that using your card number.”

“But I don’t know the card number,” Cheng Ke is becoming frustrated, “Can’t you use my personal ID to look that up?”

“I’m afraid not,” The manager says, “but it’s definitely not here. You could try at one of your local branches.”

Cheng Ke opens his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he mutters a “thank you” and leaves the bank without another word.

The manager continues speaking as he walks away, “You could also try logging on to your mobile banking app.”

As if Cheng Ke had a damn cell phone. But even if he had a phone, he wouldn’t have mobile banking.

Cheng Ke stood underneath a tree right outside the bank. What was supposed to be a simple task seemed impossible when it came to him.

He needed a phone. No matter what he was looking for or where he was going, he at least needed a place to sleep. Then he could use his ID and try all the banks near his house to find the damn branch that opened his account… except that he didn’t even have the money to take a cab.

He looked around his pocket, dug out the pack of cigarettes and the lighter. As he pulled out the cigarettes, a piece of cardboard attached to the cigarette pack fell onto the ground.

As soon as he picked it up, he saw the words written in ballpoint ink.

Jiang Yuduo.

‘If you ever need anything, come find me.’

Cheng Ke stared at the string of numbers on the packaging.

He did it for so long that he felt like he memorized the thing before lifting his head to look around.

In this day and age, did people even know what public telephones are? Since he had no cellphone on hand, Cheng Ke didn’t know what he could do with the number.

As he withdrew his gaze from his surroundings, a movement from a tree just a few steps from him caught his eye.

When Cheng Ke looked closer, he realized the slightly awkward man meeting his gaze was none other than the driver who helped Jiang Yuduo dig out the kitten from last night.

“You!” Cheng Ke points at the man and exclaims.

The man quickly adopted a “I’m just an innocent passerby” look and turns around to look behind him in the direction Cheng Ke is pointing.

“I’m talking about you,” Cheng Ke says as he walks up to the man, “You’re Jiang Yuduo’s driver, aren’t you?”

“Honor guard.” The man corrected him immediately.

“… Oh, the one on the left or the one on the right?” Cheng Ke asked.

“T- the head.” The man pointed at himself. “I cover every part of him.”

“Ah,” Cheng Ke looked at him and was certain this man was indeed the same type as crazy as Jiang Yuduo.

“You have a phone I can borrow?”

“Sure,” the head honor guard took out his phone and handed it over, all smiles, “who are you calling?”

“Not calling,” Cheng Ke took the phone, “I’m going to log on to WeChat for a bit, I need to get in touch with a friend.”

“Oh,” the head honor guard answered, “But my phone doesn’t have data.”

“What?” Cheng Ke looked up in surprise.

“Why don’t I take you to Third Bro? He’s got a data plan.” The head honor guard waved his hand, “C’mon.”

“Where to?” Cheng Ke was wary.

“To Third Bro,” the head honor guard said, “he lives right behind this skyscraper. He should be somewhere around there this time of day.”

“No need,” Cheng Ke refused to go anywhere that’s not a street after what happened. He tapped the call button on the phone and saw that the head guard called Third Bro about 5 minutes ago. Without hesitation, Cheng Ke hit redial, “I’ll give him a call.”

“Oh for chrissake, what now?” Jiang Yuduo picked up on the other end.

“Hello,” Cheng Ke answered, “Is this Jiang Yuduo?”

“Who is this?” Jiang Yuduo’s voice immediately cooled a few degrees.

“This is Cheng Ke,” Cheng Ke suddenly felt very awkward, “I was just…”

“And I’m the damn driver,” Jiang Yuduo interrupted, “Where is Cheng Qing?”

[TN: Cheng Ke’s name sounds the same as “passenger” in Mandarin]

Cheng Ke furrowed his brow not knowing how to continue the conversation, so he handed the phone back to the head honor guard, “He’s looking for a Cheng Qing.”

“That’s me,” the head honor guard nodded and took the phone, “Third Bro, I’m here, the other guy is Mr. Jaeger.”

Cheng Ke looks over in stunned surprise.

“You…” Jiang Yuduo bit his tongue. If Cheng Qing was standing in front him, he’d kick his ***. He breathed out slowly and tried to say calmly, “Don’t call him Mr. Jaeger in front of his face.”

Cheng Qing said quietly, “But I don’t know what his name is.”

“Didn’t he just fucking say his name is Cheng Ke?” Jiang Yuduo ended up shouting after all, “Give him the phone!”

“Hello,” Cheng Ke answered again.

“Your last name is Cheng, right?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Yup, Cheng Ke. Ke as in Keshou or being scrupulous.” Cheng Ke answered.

“Why are you looking for me?” Jiang Yuduo asked again.

“I… would like to borrow your phone,” Cheng Ke said with some difficulty, “Your head honor guard says his phone doesn’t have data.”

Jiang Yuduo remained silent.

‘Borrow his phone?’

‘What kind of idiotic excuse is that?’

‘That guy is definitely suspicious.’

Jiang Yuduo twitched his lips upwards, “I’ll be there, have Cheng Qing bring you to the crossroads.”

“Can you come to the entrance of the bank?” Cheng Ke asked.

“No.” With that, Jiang Yuduo hung up.

Cheng Ke followed after Cheng Qing towards the crossroad and felt ridiculous. The longer he stood there, the more uncertain he felt.

He just wanted a phone to call some friends and had no idea how that turned into a situation of looking suspicious like people meeting up to exchange fake IDs.

It was suspicious no matter how you looked at it.

When Jiang Yuduo and two other people came out from the alleyway next to them, Cheng Ke’s heart sank. He made an attempt to leave but it’s already too late.

Cheng Qing immediately blocked him from the front, and before Cheng Ke could push him off, the two men Jiang Yuduo brought along had him flanks on either side.

Cheng Ke was so surprised and shocked that he couldn’t be bothered to be anxious. He turned around to look at Jiang Yuduo and demanded, “What’s the meaning of this?”

“Follow me,” Jiang Yuduo looked at him, “You try to run, and I’ll stab you right here in the streets.”

“Go ahead,” Cheng Ke responded.

Jiang Yuduo pulled his hand out from his pockets and by the time Cheng Ke knew that Jiang Yuduo had a knife in his hands, the knife had already punctured through his clothes and cut the right side of his waist.

The tip of the knife pierced through his jacket and the T-shirt underneath and the blade dragged across his skin.

Cheng Ke could clearly feel pain coming from that area by the time Jiang Yuduo pulled the blade out.

He hadn’t noticed the dude being a leftie during yesterday’s fight.

Cheng Ke had never experienced this in his entire life. Even when he was causing trouble with friends, it usually involved all out brawls but rarely one-on-one confrontations.

It feels unreal to be stabbed by someone who was standing right there in front of him.

Either Jiang Yuduo missed, or this guy must be incredibly good at stabbing people with precision. After seeing the look in Jiang Yuduo’s eyes, Cheng Ke was leaning towards the latter.

“Come along,” Jiang Yuduo said again, “Don’t piss me off and nothing will happen to you.”

Cheng Ke kept quiet, glancing at the hole in his jacket and followed Jiang Yuduo towards the alleyway they had just come out of.

It was a short alley and a few steps later, they emerged onto a block of old residential buildings. Cheng Ke had been here to drink before, but he never knew that there were so many buildings behind the skyscrapers.

As they walked between the buildings, Cheng Ke glanced around and noticed that most of the buildings had been rented out. The windows were hung with signs or LED displays advertising salons, card cafes, self-care facilities, and also those suspicious education facilities.

Jiang Yuduo ducked into another hallway and Cheng Qing and the two other goons stopped there.

“Come.” Jiang Yuduo turned around and tilted his head at Cheng Ke in invitation.

Cheng Ke looked both ways before following him inside.

To be honest, while this place looked shabby, it was clean and orderly and didn’t seem like a place where someone could get murdered.

Jiang Yuduo opened a door on the first floor.

Cheng Ke looked inside and saw that it was an ordinary home. No fancy decorating, just white halls and a tile-covered ground with a mix mash of furniture, tables, and chairs. Very down to earth.

But it looked clean and Cheng Ke even detected a hint of flowers in the air.

“Come in,” Jiang Yuduo held the door open.

Cheng Ke walked in and examined the layout of the room. It was a two-bedroom unit and one bedroom had its door open so that you can see the tiny yard on that side.

“Not bad,” He couldn’t help but exclaim, “Can’t believe you have a house in this area of the city.”

“Want to look around?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Sure,” Cheng Ke nodded in agreement.

Jiang Yuduo led him to the backyard.

It was a tiny yard, no bigger than ten square meters. The walls surrounding it were high and you couldn’t see beyond them to the outside. Some unknown plants lined the wall, but they had dried up and things looked a bit sad.

As he took stock of the environment, something brushed against Jiang Ke’s pant leg.

Rats!

Thanks to his first instinct, Cheng Ke jumped in surprise.

Before Cheng Ke raised his right leg to step on the animal, Jiang Yuduo kicked out his own and stopped it in midair.

“My cat,” Jiang Yudou stared at him, “step on it and you’re dead.”

Cheng Ke looked down and saw a palm-sized kitten toddling past him, tumbling down the steps and into the yard.

The kitten reminded Cheng Ke of the real relationship between him and Jiang Yuduo and the bizarre circumstances that had brought him to this yard.

And in the next second, he felt the burning pain flare back to life on his right side.

‘How can l stand here and look at the yard with Jiang Yuduo under these circumstances?’

He didn’t know if the same thoughts were circling in Jiang Yuduo’s head, but he lowered his leg after a few seconds of silence and then turned to head back into the house.

“Tell me.” Jiang Yuduo sat down on the sofa in the living room and spread his arms out on the backrest.

Cheng Ke stood in the middle of the living room and experienced first-hand the aura of “Third Bro” surrounding Jiang Yuduo.

“Tell you what?” He asked.

“What you’re here for.” Jiang Yuduo answered.

“I’m here to dig through trash.” Cheng Ke replies.

Jiang Yuduo stayed quiet and tilted his head to look at Cheng Ke.

“Third bro.” To make talking easier, Cheng Ke hooked a leg over a chair and dragged it over to sit on it. He used the term as a sign of respect and continues, “Let’s be fair, I didn’t want to be here. I was just passing by when you dragged me here. All I want is to borrow a cell phone. If I can, great, if not, fine. Why are you doing this?”

“Where’d your phone go?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“I left it at home,” Cheng Ke answered.

“Oh,” Jiang Yuduo scoffed, “so why don’t you go home and get it?”

“I don’t have money for cab fare” was Cheng Ke’s reply.

“A hundred yen can’t get you where you need to go?” Jiang Yuduo continued with the questions.

“I spent it all.” Cheng Ke returned.

Jiang Yuduo fell silent.

“One hundred,” Cheng Ke lifted up a finger, “not a thousand.”

“You’ve only got a damn hundred on you and you didn’t immediately go home?” Jiang Yuduo suddenly sprung up from the sofa and moved in front of Cheng Ke. He slammed his arms onto the walls behind Cheng Ke and leaned in so that the tip of his nose was almost touching Cheng Ke’s face.

Cheng Ke leaned back to put some distance between him and the tip of Jiang Yuduo’s nose.

Except the back of the chair right behind him prevented Cheng Ke from leaning back much further. All he could do was avert his gaze, which then fell on the long scar that stretched from Jiang Yuduo’s collarbone to somewhere hidden by his shirt.

He wrinkled his brow.

Jiang Yuduo stared at him and continued asking, “If you didn’t have enough money, couldn’t you take a cab, get home, and then pay the driver?”

Cheng Ke lifted his eyes to look at Jiang Yuduo.

These two days felt like a fucking dream. He didn’t have a place to stay and had somehow gotten himself involved with a loose cannon like the weirdo in front of him.

It was only at this point, after having answered a series of questions from Jiang Yuduo and having him come this close, that Cheng Ke began to wake up from the dreamlike sensation.

“Fess up!” Jiang Yuduo screamed next to his ear, “who sent you?”

Cheng Ke thinks his heart just about exploded out of his chest because of the shouting. If he had his mouth open, his heart might have jumped out.

Without thinking, he slammed his arm against Jiang Yuduo’s collarbone.

When Jiang Yuduo bent down because of the pain, he elbowed Jiang Yuduo’s chin with a violent motion.

“… ****.” Jiang Yuduo held his jaw with one hand and his ribs with the other, backed off a few steps, and fell onto the sofa.

Cheng Ke pounced forward, slamming Jiang Yuduo’s shoulders into the sofa, and positioned his bent knee between Jiang Yuduo’s legs.

“Move and I’ll crush your balls!” Cheng Ke pointed at Jiang Yuduo.

“Let me go in the next three seconds,” Jiang Yuduo looked at him, “or don’t think about stepping foot outside this door.”

“One, two, three.” Cheng Ke counted.

Jiang Yuduo looked at him, then looked down at his crotch area where Cheng Ke’s knee was resting.

“Move or I’ll get a hard on.”

“What did you just say?” Cheng Ke was shocked.

“One, two, three.” And then Jiang Yuduo thrusts his hips forward.

“Fuck you bastard!” Cheng Ke loosened his grip and jumped back several steps.

Jiang Yuduo laughed and sat up, calmly lighting a cigarette and sucking on it, “If you don’t want to say, fine. Leave or use the cell phone.”

Cheng Ke stared at him.

“Next time you’re trying to follow someone, try to think and come up with something a little bit less obvious,” Jiang Yuduo says, “If I catch you again, you won’t be so lucky.”

Cheng Ke suspects Jiang Yuduo was speaking in a foreign language because he understood absolutely none of that.

“Still want to use the phone?” Jiang Yuduo took out his phone and waved it around before placing it on the coffee table.

Cheng Ke understood this question and he refused flatly. “No.”

“See,” Jiang Yuduo’s mouth ticked upward in a smile, “you said before you wanted to use my phone. Now that I’m giving it to you, you say you don’t need it. It’s only been 20 minutes and you can’t keep your story straight.”

Cheng Ke was shocked again.

Three seconds later, he snatched the phone from the coffee table.

Jiang Yuduo’s phone didn’t have a passcode and it was easy to find the WeChat app. Cheng Ke found that though the phone wasn’t locked, WeChat wasn’t logged into either. He breathed a sigh of relief. He had no doubt this brainless idiot would accuse him of trying to steal information if he had pulled up Jiang Yuduo’s account.

He finds the option to verify identity via voice print.

We need to verify your voiceprint. Please hold the button and read the following numbers aloud.

Cheng Ke was glad that he doesn’t have a cold or a sore throat today, even if this method of verification made him look stupid… He held the button, cleared his throat, and said “seven-four-one-two-nine-six-five-eight.”

Jiang Yuduo chuckled.

There were several messages in his WeChat, but Cheng Ke didn’t have the time to go through them one by one. He quickly clicked on Liu Tiancheng’s name and hit the audio call button without bothering to type out a message.

But until the call times out, Liu Tiancheng doesn’t pick up.

Cheng Ke furrowed his brow and saw Jiang Yuduo smirking at him with interest over there on the sofa. He felt offended at the sight.

It was not that he cares about his reputation, but this was unacceptable.

He clicked over to Xu Ding’s chat and saw that Xu Ding left him a message yesterday.

[Coming out to play?]

Looks like Xu ding didn’t know about him getting kicked out yesterday, probably because they don’t usually hang out, so Cheng Yi forgot to “clean” him from the list of Cheng Ke’s friends yesterday.

“Why aren’t you using the phone?” Xu Ding picked up the audio call.

“I’ll wait for you in front of Secret,” Cheng Ke responded, “Come now.”

“… I’m not in the city,” Xu Ding replies, “I just drove out, will probably be back in three days.”

“Fine,” Cheng Ke didn’t have time to worry about how close he was with Xu Ding and said, “I’m going to stay at your spare house in the Roman Gardens. You’ve got spare keys?”

Xu Ding paused in surprise, “Yeah, with the concierge. I’ll call them and you can go pick up.”

“Thanks.” Cheng Ke hanged up the audio call, logged out from his account, deleted all his info, then placed the phone back on the coffee table.

He felt more relaxed now knowing that he had Xu Ding’s keys, which means he had somewhere to stay quietly for the next few days. He’s got a lot to think about, from trying to get his bank card and a phone or that nebulous future that he never thought of before.

“Can I leave now?” He looked over at Jiang Yuduo.

“Just like that?” The cigarette dangled from Jiang Yuduo’s mouth, “I saved you once, let you use my phone, and allowed you to rest at my home…”

Cheng Ke interrupted, “All I want to know is if I can leave now.”

“Go,” Jiang Yuduo answers, “I’ll remember these things for you.”

“Don’t bother,” Cheng Ke yanked off the watch from his wrist and tossed it onto Jiang Yuduo, “You’ve been eyeing this for a while, haven’t you? Is this enough?”

Jiang Yuduo looked at him and smiled without saying anything.

Cheng Ke pulled open the door and stepped out.

Cheng Qing and the other two goons were there still. As soon as he saw Cheng Ke step out, Cheng Qing shouted, “Third bro?”

“Let him go,” Jiang Yuduo answered from inside the house.

Cheng Qing stepped aside.

Jiang Yuduo picked up the watch and examined it. It looked brand new, probably hadn’t been worn for very long.

Cheng Ke didn’t even hesitate when tossing the watch over, as if this were just a fake…

Jiang Yuduo squinted and picked the phone back up again.

“We’re just gonna let him leave like that?” Cheng Qing stepped inside.

“Or else what?” Jiang Yuduo said.

“… isn’t that his watch?” Cheng Qing stuck his face closer, “Well goddamn, did you steal it from him?”

Jiang Yuduo cracked his knuckles.

“No,” Cheng Qing realized, “He gave it to you as a thank you!”

Jiang Yuduo thought about the disgust and anger on Cheng Ke’s face as he tossed the watch over and said, “Something like that.”

“Kudos to you.” Cheng Qing remarked.

“Get someone to look at it and see if it’s real.” Jiang Yuduo handed over the watch.

“And then?” Cheng Qing asked.

“Sell it.” Jiang Yuduo commanded.

“Got it.” Cheng Qing took the watch and headed out the door.

Jiang Yuduo closed the door and walked back to the window, where he lifted a corner of the curtains and peeked out. There was nothing strange happening outside. It was during the workday and only a few elderly men and women were walking around.

He picked up a can of cat food and tapped on it with his fingers.

The kitten dashed out from somewhere around the house. He only fed it a tiny bit of food yesterday, no more than a fingertip’s worth, and already it recognizes the sound and reacts appropriately.

While the kitten grabbed onto the spoon and licked the food clean, Cheng Qing called. “Third Bro, that dude really isn’t a random hobo!”

“Hm.” Jiang Yuduo hummed in agreement.

“This watch is a Jaeger. Something double sided something rotational.” Cheng Qing continued. “It sells for somewhere along the lines of 160,000 to 170,000 yen.”

“Hm.” Jiang Yuduo hummed again as he squeezed the kitten’s ear.

“Are we selling it?” Cheng Qing asked. “Big Pie says since we don’t have the original box or a receipt, the best he can do is ten thousand.”

“Bring it back.” Jiang Yuduo decided.

“Sure thing. You can wear it yourself.” Cheng Qing agreed. “It sure does look nice.”

“Piss off, I’m not gonna wear it.” Jiang Yuduo stretched lazily, “He’ll be back.”

...To be continue... ...