Pandora’s Box

I did not dare to mention about this when I went home, pretending that nothing happened. Because if I spoke of it, I would be scolded. Cheng Yichen alone could cause me a headache, let alone Zhuo Wenyang. Father and son were so similar in some aspects, they were of the same mold, pure 24K gold.

Furthermore, I didn’t suffer a loss so let’s forget about it.

Although I neither planned to take the civil service exam or pursue criminal investigations on the villain, as Yuan Keke predicted, Gao Qi really came to my door.

However, he unexpectedly reached out to me online after deliberating about it instead of directly contacting me. I supposed he was scared of getting beaten. There was no need to be afraid of me climbing over and beating him through the network in this manner.

“800,000 yuan for compensation and I’ll consider letting you off.”

“???” I was not ashamed to ask, “Can you help me understand why I must give you 800,000 yuan?”

3700 on my ass, wiped clean for Yuan Keke’s sake. But 800,000, bro, were you kidding me?

The opposing party sent me a bunch of documents at the speed of light.

“Here’s our injury report.”

I took a look and was quite happy with myself. These were all my great achievements.

“Is this enough to sue you with? If not, I have more.”

“No, did you start it first? I was acting in self-defense, and I didn’t even chase you when you ran off.”

“Are you injured?”

“That’s not the same.”

“And that’s fine? Tell me, who do you think will win? Don’t think that I’m scaring you, just go and find out yourself.”

Alas, it was because I was too good at fighting.

I sighed, “But I don’t have any money.”

“This is your problem, not mine.”

“All right.”

I couldn’t solve my problem of lacking money so I ignored him. Maybe because my attitude was too lax, irritating the other party, I received another notice after a few days.

“Tonight is the deadline for your chance to privately settle this.”

I asked, “Is it still 800,000?”

The other party smiled regretfully, “As of now, 800,000 is not sufficient anymore. You have to bring your parents to kowtow to us as a public apology.”

I said, “But I haven’t seen my mother for many years. How about you get in touch with me?”

“…..,” the other party angrily said, “I don’t care! If you’re not going to be proper about it, wait for the case to be filed.”

I was not particularly worried about this. These threats didn’t matter to me. If you wanted to squat in the bureau office, then squat in the bureau office. I had seen a lot of assholes, and I was not a proper student who’d fall apart upon hearing about having his records stained.

However, in all seriousness, if I didn’t honestly tell Cheng Yichen in advance, the police station may directly call him to inform that I was arrested. He’d probably die of anger.

I was still a little worried about his reaction.

Unfortunately, the timing could not be any worse–it was almost dinner time. I was still worrying about the big goose that Cheng Yichen was stirring in the pot. Zhuo Wenyang was there too.

I had no choice but to slowly leaned over and whispered, “Uncle Chen, I got into a fight with someone a few days ago.”

“Fight?” Cheng Yichen bewilderedly asked, “With whom? When? What happened?”

Everyone stared at me. I had to narrate the whole thing to them from the beginning to end.

Zhuo Wenyang stared at me and frowned, “Didn’t you promise not to fight?”

I felt guilty briefly but quickly defended myself, “But this time, someone else was looking for me to pick a fight!”

“…..”

Ke Luo sighed, “I didn’t expect to see that you’re quite good at fighting! You’re so skilled!”

Zhuo Wenyang helplessly chided, “Don’t praise him or he will think you’re encouraging him.”

Cheng Yichen became angrier, “Who is this? How dare he asks you to pay for this kind of thing? Is the deadline tonight? Did he ask you to bring your parents to apologize? Okay, I’ll let Lu Feng accompany you there.”

“Why is he coming with me?” It dawned on me, “Oh, is it to counter them with violence?”

All four of them turned to glare at me.

Cheng Yichen said, “For what, it’s because Lu Feng is more suitable to come forward as a parent.”

“…sorry.”

Lu Feng asked, “? Can I go over after eating?”

“Eat what?! This matter is not finished yet, so how can you eat?” Cheng Yichen exclaimed, “Aren’t they asking for an apology? You take Xiao Jing to meet them and have a proper conversation with them. Let them know what a good apology is.”

Lu Feng’s expression spelled out “killing chickens with sledgehammers” but he mustered out, “Fine.”

When I went downstairs, I saw that Lu Feng had two commonly used vehicles parked in the garage of this modest community. This would scare the other car owners to park around in fear of scratching the vehicles when parking and losing their entire money.

Walking to the front of the car, he glanced at me and asked, “Are you scared?”

I shook my head, “No.”

It was not because I was very capable, but rather I made too many mistakes previously. However, compared to this time, I felt that what I did was quite reasonable and not that big of a deal.

He said, “Well, if we can hurry this up, we can return for dinner in time.”

“Good.”

He was really the king of eating.

Usually when Lu Feng headed out, a driver would come to drive him around, and I witnessed that several times before. However, he seemed too lazy to waste time in waiting for a driver tonight. He directly opened the car door and got in himself and ordered me, “Get in the car.”

I absolutely did not dare to sit next to him and he didn’t seem willing to have anyone else sit copilot other than Cheng Yichen. So, I quickly got into the back seat.

Lu Feng, driving in the front, was my driver currently.

I enjoyed acting as the bigger boss than the big boss at the moment, and secretly took pictures to store as a souvenir.

I arrived at the destination, in which was a restaurant. A banquet was probably prepared to celebrate Gao Qi’s discharge from the hospital, and a Hongman Banquest was probably laid out for me. (Hongman banquet refers to a trap in the form of a feast– similar to the Trojan horse story)

Lu Feng walked in front of me like a battle tank.

He was tall with long legs, his posture imposing as he stalked in front of me. He almost looked like he came with a protagonist’s halo special effect BGM. I instantly looked like his little brother or follower.

The waiter judged him visually and deemed him as not a good person. He guided us to the entrance of the private room before rushing away. Lu Feng opened the door and stepped in.

The lively room immediately quieted down. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Lu Feng strolled to the center and looked around. Like an eagle overlooking a flock of chickens, with a blank expression, he asked, “Who wants to claim 800,000 yuan from Lin Jing?”

Everyone in the room remained silent and stupefied. Gao Qi, sitting in the center, did not utter a sound.

I thought they were going to shit themselves out of fear.

Lu Feng’s ruthless appearance was enough to oppress everyone, and his pure villainous aura was seeping from the inside out. Even if you didn’t know who he was, your primal instinct would cause your legs to give out.

Lu Feng became impatient from the silence so he pulled out a chair and indicated for me to sit down. Then, he also pulled out a chair for him to sit.

I suddenly felt that wherever Lu Feng sat, that was actually the C (center) position.

Lu Feng stretched out his finger and lightly tapped the table, “Is there anyone here who can talk?”

“…..”

“Are you wasting my time?”

After a while, Gao Qi’s rescuers finally arrived.

The other party entered through the door imposingly and before he could show off his influence, he caught sight of Lu Feng. A huge smile automatically bursted across his face, replacing his haughtiness. His stature suddenly shrunk by half, almost shorter than the sitting Lu Feng.

“Mr. Lu? Oh, Mr. Lu! Why are you here? Who here displeased you?”

Lu Feng smiled and answered, “Ah, you.”

I found out that Lu Feng was certainly scary when he wasn’t smiling.

However, he was actually down right terrifying when he smiled.

“This is our child,” he pointed at me and said, “I heard that his classmate beat him and asked him to compensate with money?”

“…..”

“You also asked him to bring his parents to kowtow and apologize?”

“…..”

“I’m here,” Lu Feng said, “So who wants me to kowtow to him?”

Everyone immediately reverted their eyes to look at Gao Qi.

Gao Qi looked like he was about to pee his pants, and weakly called out to the fat man, “Dad…”

Lu Feng looked at the fat man again, “Oh, your son?”

Without a word, the fat man immediately went to Gao Qi and slapped him in the face, “Dog! What nonsense do you spout with this mouth!”

Poor Gao Qi still had gauze on his head and nose, but still had to be beaten by his own father at this Hongman banquet in front of a group of people.

“Kneel down, kneel down for me!”

“…..”

This is so amazing. I never imagined that one day Lu Feng would be my escort. My heart fluttered in elation, feeling as if I was a fox pretending to be a tiger.

The fat man slapped him on the left and right several times with his blue veins popping out as he scolded, “If you don’t learn this time, you’ll make more trouble! Apologize to your classmate!”

Lu Feng reminded him, “Lin Jing.”

“Apologize to your classmate, Lin Jing!”

Gao Qi was filled with pure hatred, pain, fear, and unwillingness. With tears in his eyes and a blue colored face, I felt a little sympathetic watching him cry.

Even though I knew he was not worth of any sympathy.

It was just that, sometimes, I felt soft-hearted when I saw others being punished because it seemed too tragic.

On the way back, I said to Lu Feng, “Thank you.”

He glanced at me, “No need.”

I knew he did everything for Cheng Yichen. As long as there was something in this world that could make Cheng Yichen happy, he did not think twice about it and would not hesitate to say anything.

He did not seem to have morals, and Cheng Yichen was his only compass.

When I returned home and opened the door, I saw three people sitting at the table waiting for us.

I craned my neck to take a look. How great, the food was already served on the table. The stewed goose was still hot and no one started to eat yet.

Seeing us at the door, Cheng Yichen immediately got up and greeted us.

“Are you all right?”

Lu Feng said, “Of course, we’re okay. You still can’t trust me.”

The small complaints and tone of voice that was fishing for compliments were shameless.

Cheng Yichen replied, “Hey.”

Then, he grabbed my hand into his palm and looked at me, chattering, “Don’t fight with others in the future, understand? What if you lose money? There is no one who can consistently win in a fight. What if you suffer? No matter how good you are at fighting, losing even once is not worth it. When you encounter something like this, you have to call someone first and let the rescuers handle, understand?”

His palm was very, very warm.

I said, “Okay…..”

“Alright, this incident has frightened you enough so I won’t nag anymore,” he pulled away from me and continued, “Come on, let’s eat quickly. I made stewed goose you mentioned yesterday.”

For a while, I felt that Cheng Yichen was like my father, but now my feelings shifted slightly. I thought he was more like a mother. As for Lu Feng, he… Forget it, I don’t want to think about it, I thought.

After taking our time to eat, Ke Luo dragged us all to play games all night to celebrate and happily checked our rankings.

After waiting for everyone to later disperse and rest, Zhuo Wenyang looked at me.

I immediately defended, “It’s really not me looking for a fight! I didn’t take the initiative to provoke trouble! I was just protecting myself!”

He didn’t know whether to cry or laugh and said, “I didn’t mean to scold you.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t know why, but I was very honest in front of Zhuo Wenyang. This was especially because I was afraid of his anger and being reprimanded by him.

Despite of this, when I was in Nangao, the dean yelled at me for two hours until his blood pressure soured. While he was taking his medicine in front of me, I didn’t even flinch and kept a neutral expression.

“Actually, you did a good job. I asked a friend to transfer the surveillance footage so I watched it. You acted boldly and courageously, responding quickly to protect your friends and yourself,” he praised, “Your vigilance and reaction is very good. Commendable.”

I blushed in response.

“Like my father, I don’t want you to fight but sometimes, violence may be needed as a last resort to control violence. It’s just,” he said, “if you can find me when something happens, I’ll feel more relieved.”

My ears were shooting off steam at this point.

How terrible, Zhuo Wenyang always spoke so seriously and genuinely without any intentions of flirting. Yet, it excited me more than coquettish words.

What kind of talent was this?

The one who benefited most out of this perfectly resolved situation was Yuan Keke. She was unbelievably happy.

“Gao Qi hasn’t bothered me for a while!”

“Rest assured,” I said, “He won’t bother you anymore.”

This matter was similar to the previous fight between Gao Qi and Li Chao. There were no discussions on forums as if nothing happened. Gao Qi suddenly went off grid.

I came out of this incident with achievements and fame tucked away.

“Thank you, Lin Jing.”

“You’re welcome,” I said honestly, “Anyway, it’s not really up to me to settle this matter in the end.”

Yuan Keke said, “I see you now. You do look a bit handsome.”

Caught off guard, I took a sip of the milk tea in my hand.

She immediately added, “Just a little bit.”

“Well,” I said, “you admitting it is better than nothing.”

It was always nice to get validation.

“It might take some time before I can pay you back the money I borrowed from you last time,” she said, “I’ve been working a little less lately…”

I asked, “Ah, why pay back the money? Why do you have to pay back the money you borrowed yourself?”

“???”

She hit me with a book, “What are you talking about?”

“Well, you don’t have to pay it back. Anyways, it’s not even my money.” I was very generous to others.

The main reason was that if I specifically approached Lu Feng to ask him for his account number so I could transfer him 3700 yuan, I was sure he would definitely tell me not to waste his time.

I was afraid that he could easily make more than 3000 yuan during those few seconds it took to transfer.

“Of course I have to pay it back.”

“Take your time,” I said, “Our friendship won’t end after a year or two, and our friendship isn’t measured by money.”

She looked at me.

I said, “For example, remember to let me borrow your homework so I can copy.”

“….. =_=”