Chapter 93: Take It Back and Treasure It

Jiang Fan went to Hui Feng Fried Rice Noodle Shop, and the owner, along with the customers at two tables, all greeted him. Since he rented a place nearby and passed by every day, he was already well acquainted with the owner, so exchanging pleasantries was perfectly ordinary.

But when the strangers at those two tables took the initiative to greet him, he knew full well they were only trying to ingratiate themselves because of his quarrel with Brother Lu. Even so, Jiang Fan still felt awkward, answering them stiffly like a wooden puppet.

Back at the fruit shop, Xiao Yuxin wanted to talk with him about what tricks Brother Lu might try next, and what precautions they should take.

During their conversation, Jiang Fan was often distracted and answered off the mark. Seeing that he was completely out of sorts, Xiao Yuxin could only persuade him to go back to his room and rest.

Yet once he returned to the rental room, the quiet only made him feel worse. So he ran back downstairs and sat there dazedly in the fruit shop.

At three in the morning, Xiao Yuxin noticed that Jiang Fan had been staring toward the highway the whole time and showed no intention of going back. Since she still had business to take care of the next day, she simply left the shop open and let him keep watch while she went to sleep first.

Around seven in the morning, Xiao Yuxin’s baby was startled awake by the horns of a heavy truck on the street.

The baby had a habit: once awake, he had to play for a long while before he would fall asleep again.

Xiao Yuxin first fed him a few mouthfuls of milk, then went to the restroom, changed her clothes, and took the baby out for a walk. She meant to lull him back to sleep and then return home to catch a few more hours herself.

When she came out of the restroom, she saw Jiang Fan sitting at the shop entrance, smoking gloomily. She said offhandedly, “Aren’t you planning to stay up all night and become a sage? If you’ve got nothing better to do, help me watch the baby. I want to sleep a little longer.”

Jiang Fan came up into the loft room above Xiao Yuxin’s shop and caught a faint scent of jasmine. He said casually, “Smells nice.”

Xiao Yuxin, who had followed him upstairs, thought he was referring to the fragrance on her body. Her cheeks flushed slightly as she said, “Thinking about your own woman, and still wondering whether another woman smells nice or not. Whoever said men think with the lower half of their bodies was either an immortal or a saint. What a perfectly classic line.”

“I meant the jasmine in your room smells nice.”

The loft was partitioned off from the back half of the shop. Besides a large bed and a wardrobe, there was hardly any spare space left.

Jiang Fan turned his head, intending to keep talking with Xiao Yuxin, but their faces nearly touched.

Startled, he leaned back at once. Xiao Yuxin, tense, hurriedly warned him, “Careful, the baby is behind you.”

On hearing that, Jiang Fan quickly reached out to steady himself against the bed behind him, but instead he grabbed the bra Xiao Yuxin had set beside the bed, ready to put on before taking the baby out.

He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. “I, I, I didn’t mean to.”

Seeing him busy explaining himself while still not putting the thing down, Xiao Yuxin snatched it from his hand and teased, “Holding on to it and not willing to let go, are you? Want me to give it to you so you can take it home and treasure it?”

Jiang Fan picked up the child from the bed and carefully climbed down from the loft. “My home doesn’t lack this sort of thing. If my woman really doesn’t come back, I’ll treasure hers. Right now I’m taking the baby out for a walk. You keep an eye on the shop yourself.”

Seeing the mention of Wang Wenyu on his lips and sensing that he was already somewhat despairing, Xiao Yuxin followed him downstairs, took the baby from his arms, and said with certainty, “Don’t worry. Your woman isn’t going to run off. You don’t need to fret about that.

“Go cover the fruit outside with the tarp. Now that it’s daylight, no one should dare to steal anything. When you leave, there’s no need to pull down the shutter; just close the glass door inside. I’ll sleep a little longer.”

Jiang Fan was very fond of Xiao Yuxin’s son. Whenever he saw the boy, he would play with him for a while, but he lacked patience when it came to holding him nonstop.

After leaving the fruit shop, he thought of going to the dumpling house. With two girls helping to look after the baby, he would be free to move around.

When he arrived at the shop, he did not see the two girls. Instead, he saw Zhang Chungen tidying up the place, humming a tune from the folk song On the Rolling Mountains. Uncle Qiu lay contentedly in a rocking chair, listening to the song and letting it soothe his spirit.

Zhang Chungen, of mixed Han and Tibetan blood and raised on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, sang the old folk song from his hometown with complete ease and naturalness. His thick Tibetan accent was so strong that even Jiang Fan listened in a daze, unwilling to interrupt.

When Zhang Chungen saw him, he stopped singing and said, “Brother, why are you here so early?”

Jiang Fan did not mind at all that Zhang Chungen, who was a year older than him, called him brother. Carrying the child with one arm was still awkward, so he handed the baby to Uncle Qiu, who had stopped dozing, then gave Zhang Chungen a friendly punch and asked, “Are your injuries all right?”

Zhang Chungen bounced twice and said, “It was only skin-deep. It stopped being a problem long ago.”

“Even if you can bounce around, you still aren’t allowed to. I still want to use this matter to give them a little trouble.”

After speaking, Jiang Fan took out the red envelope he had received the day before and laid it on the dining table beside him. “This is the five thousand yuan medical fee I got for you. As for how to handle it, that’s up to you. When dealing with this matter, you must make it look like your whole body hurts.”

Zhang Chungen nodded, then pushed the red envelope back toward Jiang Fan. “There wasn’t really any injury to begin with. They only gave you this money because they’re afraid of you. I can’t take it.”

By nature, Zhang Chungen was honest and straightforward, and even after wandering outside for many years, he had not changed much.

Jiang Fan shoved the red envelope into Zhang Chungen’s back pocket. “I’ll settle my own score with them later. After all, you weren’t hurt that badly, so this may be all you can get. As for how you spend it, that’s your own business. Once this is over, I’ll introduce you to Da Feng for machine repair.”

After seeing how the needlework section chief had gone to the trouble of changing posts just to get a referral fee, Jiang Fan was convinced that the factory must still have suitable vacancies for men.

Zhang Chungen hurriedly waved his hands in refusal. “Brother, I’m uneducated. I can barely recognize a few characters, but I can’t write them. I can only do hard labor. I’m no good at technical work.”

The only jobs available were machine repair and security, and both required men.

Da Feng Factory squeezed its lowest-ranking workers to the limit. In a factory of tens of thousands, there were only a few men in the transport department. When things were busy, the security guards also had to help with factory transport, so Gou Biao was in charge of the transport department as well.

Jiang Fan did not want Zhang Chungen to go into either security or transport. Machine repair did not require much education, but it did require filling out maintenance slips, so at least a little literacy was necessary. Hearing that Zhang Chungen could not even write, he felt troubled.

Seeing his hesitation, Zhang Chungen thought for a moment and said, “Brother, why don’t I work for you?”

Jiang Fan laughed and looked at him. “I’m working for other people myself. What would you work for me for? To eat the northwest wind?”

Zhang Chungen scratched his head and said in a low voice, “I just want to work with you. I can do anything.”

Uncle Qiu, still holding the baby, cut in. “Xiao Jiang, last time you told me about the dumpling house being open around the clock. Yesterday those two girls brought it up again, and your aunt and I discussed it. In the end, we decided to go with their suggestion and let everyone work in shifts.

“As for Chungen, take it slowly. Before he finds a job, it doesn’t matter how long he eats and stays here. Isn’t it just an extra pair of chopsticks?”