The Taming of the Ruffian Hero

There was a street behind Zhao Yuan’s home. It was not very wide and seldom traveled by vehicles, but as it connected two counties, it was frequently traveled by pedestrians. As such, there were many shops and unlicensed street vendors.

Zhao Yuan pointed at two men who were smoking at a corner of the street while glancing around from time to time and told Lin Wenxin. “They must be urban management officers.”

Before opening this small shop, Zhao Yuan’s father Zhao Ming had been an unlicensed street vendors and feared the urban management officers just like the other vendors.

At the crossroad, located a teahouse. Its owner would inform the vendors of the coming of the urban management officers by calling the most respected guy among them. Once this vendor saw an incoming call from the teahouse owner, he would tell all the other vendors that the urban management officers were coming. In an instance, these vendors stood up and pretended to be pedestrians. They would walk around while carrying two baskets on a shoulder pole. Upon seeing that, the urban management officers had no reason to arrest them. Once the officers successfully arrested an unlicensed vendor on the spot, the vendor would get completely unreasonable and even make a scene with them. Even if the officers just came to give these unlicensed vendors a warning, they would become agitated and accuse the officers of not giving them a chance to make a living.

Gradually, the urban management officers got used to turning a blind eye to the unlicensed street vendors, as long as they did not hinder the traffic. In the past, Zhao Yuan had often opened the back door of his house to set up a stall on the street. As he got along well with his neighbors, they would help him guard against the urban management officers. Once the officers came, they would tell him to pack up his things and close his back door. As such, he had never gotten caught by the officers. When he and his father had some money, they applied for a business license and opened this shop at the back of their house. Now, Zhao Yuan often helped the unlicensed street vendors guard against the urban management officers.

After hearing Zhao Yuan’s story, Lin Wenxi frowned slightly.

Zhao Yuan said with a smile. “Do you think I shouldn’t do this?”

Lin Wenxi replied bluntly, “Yes.”

Upon seeing the serious look on Lin Wenxi’s face, Zhao Yuan did not know whether to laugh or cry. He explained. “This is a market. Without it, this street won’t be so lively.”

Lin Wenxi said righteously, “No, if everyone refuses to obey the regulations, this street will be blocked up.”

Zhao Yuan did not want to argue with Lin Wenxi. He thought that it was alright to do anything to make money as long as it was not illegal. Lin Wenxi’s reaction made him feel a little uncomfortable. He asked, “Is someone in your family an official? You really talk like an official now.”

Lin Wenxi looked somewhat nervous and honestly replied: “Yes. Do you hate officials?”

Zhao Yuan said. “Yeah.” Zhao Yuan vaguely remembered that his father had said that the reason he got broke was that a newly promoted official hindered him from completing his project even when he managed to get all the certificates required. Because of this failed project, Zhao Yuan’s father became deeply in debt, and the life of his family got completely changed.

As such, Zhao Yuan really did not like officials very much. He told Lin Wenxi what he felt directly, as he wanted to be honest with him. He would never voice his thoughts so directly in front of the other people.

Upon seeing the flicker of disappointment within Lin Wenxi’s eyes, Zhao Yuan pointed at a box of snappers and asked smilingly, “How much do you think this box of snappers is worth?” (Snappers are a kind of firecrackers that you throw to the ground to make snapping noises and often played by small children.）

By doing this, he successfully diverted Lin Wenxi’s attention. Upon looking at the nicely packaged box, Lin Wenxi could not help but reach out his hand to touch it. He said, “I think that it’s worth at least a dozen yuan.”

Zhao Yuanxi chuckled and said, “Alright, I sell it to you at 10 yuan now. That’s such a bargain for you!” Afterwards when Lin Wenxi knew that Zhao Yuan sold such a box of snappers at 10 yuan when he bought it at 2 yuan, he could not help but call Zhao Yuan a black-hearted businessman.

Lin Wenxi used to hate the children who played with snappers on the street, as he did not like noise. Today, however, when the children in the street came to play together with him, he felt somewhat excited and gave them his snappers for free. Soon enough, all the children nearby knew about this and came to beg him for snappers. As such, no one wanted to buy the snappers anymore.

Lin Wenxi thought it was alright to give them some snappers as they were cheap. At first, he still secretly counted how many boxes he consumed. Gradually, he forgot about this since he had a good time playing snappers with the children.

Zhao Yuan did not have many snappers now but still happily gave them to the children for free. He sighed with a smile while looking at Lin Wenxi. He thought, “No matter a person is rich or poor, he or she can find a way to have fun. As long as he’s happy, I feel contented.”

Suddenly, a little boy came up and grabbed Lin Wenxi’s hand. He pointed a finger at a noisy crowd nearby while sobbing and saying that his grandpa was bullied. Lin Wenxi looked at the boy and remembered that he was the child who had given him a crab apple yesterday. He rushed into the crowd and saw that two men who wore auxiliary urban management officer armbands were about to throw a wooden cart filled with apples down the bridge.

When the wooden cart shook, many apples fell from it. All of these apples had lucky words printed on them. Beside the cart, the old man, who was arrested by another two auxiliary urban management officers, was overcome with sadness and kept crying.

Some people who lived nearby wanted to pick up the apples for the old man, but the auxiliary urban management officers stopped them by shouting at them. A few children crawled into the crowd, picked up some apples, and ran away while eating the fruit.

When the cart of apples was about to be thrown down the bridge, Lin Wenxi shouted, “How dare you!”

Upon hearing that, the auxiliary urban management officers shifted their gaze to Lin Wenxi and shouted at the boy, “You brat, piss off!”

Lin Wenxi was irritated and roared, “You should piss off! How can you bully an old man like him? Where’s your conscience?”

The auxiliary urban management officer, who insisted on throwing the old man’s cart down the bridge, was named Yang Anbang. He used to be a street hooligan and had just got this job through his connection. He felt at home in the urban management team and became excessively arrogant now. Lin Wenxi’s reaction made him feel somewhat disgraced. He overturned the wooden cart and ran to Lin Wenxi while stepping on the apples on the ground. He grabbed the boy’s collar and shouted, “Fuck off, if you don’t want to die here.”

Lin Wenxi was not afraid of Yang Anbang at all. He violently pushed the man away while shouting, “You must pay for the apples you ruined!” The next moment, Lin Wenxi’s vision went black, his cheeks stung and his ears started tingling. He knew that he got slapped across the face. He wanted to fight back but did not know how. During the moments of darkness, he heard some people laughing and then whining.

When Zhao Yuan could not find Lin Wenxi anywhere around his shop, he heard him shouting somewhere outside. When he ran to the crowd, he happened to see Yang Anbang slap Lin Wenxi. He was furious and elbowed his way into the crowd. Upon seeing Yang Anbang kick Lin Wenxi, he felt worried and irritated and kicked the man away. Upon seeing that, the other auxiliary officers came at Zhao Yuan together.

Zhao Yuan defeated all of them easily. They fell to the ground while whining before they could get close to the boy. Zhao Yuan did not want to get into any trouble. He pulled Lin Wenxi up and ran together with him. To his surprise, they ran into several policemen in black uniforms the moment they rushed out of the crowd. Zhao Yuan did not run away as usual. Instead, he stayed in the place while tightly holding Lin Wenxi’s hand.

The crowd of people who witnessed what had happened all took up the cudgel for the two boys, but the policemen said that these boys needed to give the police a statement and took the boys and the auxiliary urban management officers away in their patrol cars.

Zhao Yuan insisted on sending his friend to see a doctor first. As such, the moment they arrived at the police station, a doctor came to see Lin Wenxi and gave him some painkillers. After that, they were asked separately by the policemen.

Zhao Yuan could not find anyone to help them out at this moment, as his cellphone was temporarily expropriated by the police. He behaved cooperatively and then managed to contact one of his friends by giving a policeman a hint. According to the investigation, Yang Anbang was the one who had started the fight, so Zhao Yuan was released in the evening. Besides, the auxiliary urban management officers did not get badly wounded. Yang Anbang was just slightly injured, and the other auxiliary officers, who were always afraid of getting hurt, had just pretended to get wounded by falling to the ground.

The moment he got his cellphone back, he immediately contacted Lin Wenxi. To his surprise, he found out that Lin Wenxi’s cellphone was power off. He asked around and discovered that Lin Wenxi had not been released yet.

Zhao Yuan begged the policemen for a long time and told them that they could not detain his friends as he had not turned 18. After some time, the policemen lost their patience and drove Zhao Yuan out of the police station.