Chapter Eighty-Five: "Call Me Brother-in-Law"

A rich aroma filled the air as he bent down and inhaled over the instant noodles.

“Damn! Why do these noodles smell so good today? No way—I’m eating three bowls!”

With that, the big fat fellow got out of bed too, lifted the noodles, and began to eat.

The morning air in October was cool and refreshing. The weather was especially fine that day, bright sunlight spilling down from above, while a gentle breeze drifted past and made Song Nianqiang, in his long sleeves, feel quite at ease.

“Qiangzi, how are you planning to deal with those wandering ghosts from Hua Xia Vocational High tonight?” The fat fellow wore an oversized blue long-sleeved shirt, paired with baggy pants, and looked rather carefree.

“Do you want the truth or a lie?”

Strolling along the road, watching the office workers on both sides hurrying by, Song Nianqiang felt rather content with himself.

“Stop talking nonsense. Of course I want the truth. Only someone bored out of his skull would listen to your lies.”

The fat fellow plucked a leaf from a tree and flicked it out between his fingers.

Though their county town was not especially developed, its greenery was nothing to complain about. Trees lined both sides of the roads, not very tall but with especially broad canopies. The area around First Middle School in particular was even more lush. Song Nianqiang grinned and said to the fat fellow, “Who cares? We’ll figure it out when the time comes.”

The fat fellow glanced at him and also grinned.

“Indeed, not a bad idea.”

I say, how do these two manage to get along so well? In this world, people whose brows never so much as crease until the fire has already singed their eyelashes are truly rare.

“Hey, little darling, come here. Give this old master a smile, and I’ll give you money!”

When Song Nianqiang spotted a familiar figure, he chased after her in a few steps and teased her shamelessly.

“Song Nianqiang, are you looking for death?!”

To his surprise, Jiang Ningzhi had also emerged from her usual gloom. Laughing, she chased after him, pretending to hit him.

“Haha, where are you going?”

After fooling around for a bit, Song Nianqiang and Jiang Ningzhi walked shoulder to shoulder. As for the fat fellow, he sensibly kept a distance ahead of them.

“I’m going to pick up my little sister, then head to school. What about you?”

Jiang Ningzhi smiled faintly and turned her head toward Song Nianqiang, blinking at him.

“Then I’ll pick up your little sister first, and after that we’ll go to school. How about that?”

With a grin, Song Nianqiang then raised his voice and shouted to the fat fellow ahead, “Fatso, wait for me at school!”

The fat fellow in front lifted a hand and waved it back, signaling that he understood.

“Ehehe, Song Nianqiang, I sometimes find you really mysterious. You even hit the dean of discipline at school, and the school didn’t say a thing. It’s like the school rules are nothing but decoration to you.”

With her intelligence, Jiang Ningzhi should long ago have guessed that Song Nianqiang was no ordinary person. Yet she had kept this question buried in her heart until now, only asking it at last because she had decided to truly understand him, to make everything about Song Nianqiang a genuine part of her life.

“Maybe the principal had a brain glitch, or maybe the gift I gave him worked. I stuffed the principal with quite a bit of money!”

He spoke with utter conviction, but Jiang Ningzhi wasn’t about to believe his nonsense.

“Keep bragging. Sooner or later, I’ll dig out every last one of your secrets, just you wait.”

She lifted her little chin as she spoke, her delicate face tinged with a faint blush.

“All right. The day you’ve uncovered every one of my secrets, you’ll be in for it. By then, even if you don’t want to marry me, it won’t be up to you.”

It was only a joke, and yet in the end it would become true. When Jiang Ningzhi learned everything about Song Nianqiang, trouble began to come for her little by little as well.

“Hmph! As if I’d even want to marry you.”

Though she said that, she was overflowing with joy inside, and a soft flush colored her face. Song Nianqiang looked at her and felt his heart start thumping like mad.

I really want to go over there and kiss her.

That thought was intensely strong.

The two of them chatted and laughed all the way to a residential complex. A pretty little thing jumped down from a Mercedes, skipped over to Jiang Ningzhi, and sweetly called out, “Sister.” At that moment, a head poked out from the car and called to Jiang Ningzhi, “Ningzhi, your sister is in your care today. We’ll come get her tonight!”

“You should go now. I know.”

Jiang Ningzhi knew very well this little sister’s temper. Her parents had truly had no choice but to dump this little troublemaker on her. After saying that, Jiang Ningzhi waved toward the Mercedes, but the couple inside showed no sign of leaving. Instead, they looked with some interest at Song Nianqiang standing beside Jiang Ningzhi.

“Ningzhi, is this your boyfriend? Quite a good-looking young man.”

Jiang Ningzhi’s father was a successful entrepreneur. Though the company was still not very large, it was growing by the day, so he was rather open-minded.

“What are you saying? He’s only—ah! Are you leaving or not?!”

At first, Jiang Ningzhi had intended to draw a line between herself and Song Nianqiang. But just as the words reached her lips, a thought suddenly rose in her heart: letting her father mistake Song Nianqiang for her boyfriend wasn’t bad either. At the very least, Song Nianqiang could become her nominal boyfriend.

The Mercedes drove away. Song Nianqiang crouched on the ground with a grin, and no one knew when he had pulled out a banknote. Waving the hundred-yuan bill in his hand, he said to Jiang Ningzhi’s little sister, “Come on, call me brother-in-law, and I’ll give you money.”

The little girl was already five years old, so of course she knew a hundred yuan could buy lots of snacks. Without the slightest hesitation, she sold her sister to Song Nianqiang for free and cried out, “Brother-in-law!”

Song Nianqiang answered immediately, but what he did next made Jiang Ningzhi, standing nearby, stare in disbelief.

“Good girl. Here’s your money!”

With that, Song Nianqiang tucked away the hundred-yuan bill, fished a ten-cent coin from his pocket, and stuffed it into the little girl’s hand, all the while preaching, “Children shouldn’t be spoiled.”

Looking at the ten-cent coin in her hand, then at the hundred-yuan bill Song Nianqiang had not yet put away, the little girl immediately puckered her lips and looked up at Jiang Ningzhi.

“Sister, big brother is bad!”

“Song Nianqiang!”

Jiang Ningzhi was both angry and amused by him, not knowing what to do. She stamped her foot hard.

“All right, all right, I’ll treat you. Little one, what do you want to eat? Brother-in-law will buy it for you.”

Though Song Nianqiang still could not accept Jiang Ningzhi, there was no harm in taking a little advantage with his words.

“Brother-in-law! Hug me!”

Hearing there was food, the little girl’s eyes lit up at once. She opened her arms and toddled toward Song Nianqiang. He scooped her up and kissed her cheek.

“Come on, brother-in-law will take you for a feast!”

And with that, he paid no mind to Jiang Ningzhi, whom the two of them had left standing off to the side. The little girl rattled off a stream of things she wanted to eat, and Song Nianqiang agreed as he carried her away.

Along the way, he learned the little girl’s name: Yanzhi.

After carrying Yanzhi to the school supermarket for a trip, Song Nianqiang ended up draped with bags and bundles of food. He送 Jiang Ningzhi back to her classroom, and then returned to his own.

At that moment, the fat fellow seemed to have run into some trouble. He was surrounded by a group of people, though he wore an obvious look of disdain and was sitting on a bench playing with his phone.

“Kid, I’ll give you one last chance. Apologize to me, or today I’ll beat you until you can’t even take care of yourself!”

A man even bigger and fatter than the fat fellow stood in front of him, blocking him like a small mountain. Several broad-shouldered students stood beside him as well, each one looking intimidating enough on his own.

“A good dog doesn’t block the road. A bad dog blocks the road. Move it, move it!”

Song Nianqiang’s voice rang out from behind them. As he spoke, he squeezed his way into the crowd. Though those people were all big and burly, Song Nianqiang’s strength was tremendous; he easily forced a path through and came to stand beside the fat fellow.

“Kid, you looking for death?! I’m still settling accounts with this fatso. If you’re smart, get lost right now. Otherwise I’ll beat you too in a minute!”

The man held his head high and spoke with arrogance. Compared with him, Song Nianqiang’s build looked like nothing more than a bamboo pole, so he simply did not take him seriously.

“Who is this guy, and how did you offend him?” Song Nianqiang ignored him completely and instead asked the fat fellow, who was still playing with his phone.

“I wasn’t full this morning, so I went to the supermarket and got a few buns. When it came time to pay, I said the big fat guy behind me would pay for them, and then I left. How would I know what happened after that?”

The fat fellow’s tone was filled with grievance, as though he had suffered a great humiliation.