Li Chuchu returned home. The house was dark. Shen Yanshan hadn't come back yet.
The incident with the Liu family's daughter - in - law didn't affect her mood. Having finally found a job, she was determined to do it well.
Li Chuchu put the mung bean soup in the cabinet, then lit an oil lamp and placed it on the small table. The lamp flame was as small as a bean, flickering faintly in the moaning wind.
She took out the manuscript from her backpack, pointed at the characters on the paper with her finger, and read them carefully according to the pinyin one by one.
The raindrops outside the window were hitting the glass, and Li Chuchu completely forgot about the passage of time.
...
Shen Yanshan was worried that something might go wrong with that batch of goods. With Li Chuchu at home, there was no other safe place to hide them outside. Fearing that delays might lead to trouble, after finding a buyer, he immediately disposed of the goods in his hands.
The buyers Shen Yanshan found were mostly involved in both the underworld and the legal business. They had plenty of manpower and shops under them, with a large throughput capacity.
Otherwise, regular shopping malls wouldn't take his goods of unknown origin, and the small shops around could only take in a dozen or twenty watches at most. If that was the case, it would take ages to get rid of the two hundred electronic watches in his hands.
The first buyer he met this morning wasn't honest. They wanted to double - cross him and take both him and the goods. Shen Yanshan sensed that something was wrong with them and managed to find a way to escape.
If it had been someone else, they would probably have been scared out of their wits and would have hidden for a while. But Shen Yanshan immediately went on to find the next buyer and sold the goods.
This trip to the south was worth it.
He had earned at least 16,000 yuan.
The capital belonged to Zhou Xun. Otherwise, Shen Yanshan alone couldn't have taken so many goods. After paying back Zhou Xun, Shen Yanshan still had about 10,000 yuan left in his hands.
With this money, Shen Yanshan would have the capital to do business again.
"Brother Shen, if it weren't for you, I might have lost my life today," Zhou Xun said drunkenly, his head leaning on Shen Yanshan. He waved his hands exaggeratedly as he spoke. "You have no idea. When I saw the guns in their hands and the muzzles pointed at me, I almost peed myself. They really came for our lives."
"Brother Shen, luckily you were smart. We pretended to be villagers from the countryside, and those people were actually deceived by us. Hahaha..."
Shen Yanshan took a sip of his wine and said nothing.
His whole body exuded a cold and gloomy aura. There was not a trace of drunkenness in his deep eyes. Instead, he seemed to become even more sober with the help of the alcohol.
For those people, money was more valuable than their lives.
Even if Zhou Xun didn't earn this money, his parents were skilled workers, and his sister was a senior teacher. Given how much he was doted on at home, Zhou Xun could just live off his parents at home.
But Shen Yanshan was different.
Every step he took was a risky one.
But he had no choice. This was his only way out.
Zhou Xun was really drunk. After getting drunk, he kept grabbing Shen Yanshan's collar and shouting that he would follow Brother Shen for the rest of his life.
"Brother Shen, you... You are clearly not an ordinary person. You're different from us good - for - nothing people. I... I want to toast you, Brother Shen."
The wine in the glass was sloshing around, just like a person who couldn't stand steadily.
Shen Yanshan frowned and supported his arm. "You're drunk. Go back."
His voice was completely cold, not at all like someone who had just drunk two bottles of Erguotou.
Zhou Xun was so drunk that he couldn't tell north from south. He hugged Shen Yanshan's arm affectionately and mumbled, "Brother Shen, Brother Shen, I'm not going back. I'm going to follow you."
The boss of the barbecue stand glanced at the two of them, with a hint of contempt in his eyes.
Shen Yanshan thought: I've been haunted by a dirty thing.
"Shasha..."
Suddenly, a heavy rain started outside.
Neither of them had an umbrella. Shen Yanshan was still thinking about how to get this drunkard back when a woman with an umbrella and high - heels ran in through the white curtain of rain.
When she saw Zhou Xun passed out on the table, her face changed drastically. She quickly stepped forward and shook him. "Xiaoxun, Xiaoxun, wake up quickly! What happened to him?"
The boss of the barbecue stand rolled his eyes.
Couldn't she see the four empty bottles of Erguotou on the table? He got drunk, of course.
Judging from her reaction, an outsider would think someone had died in their barbecue stand.
"He's drunk," Shen Yanshan reminded.
This woman was Zhou Xun's sister. She was very strong - willed and took good care of her younger brother. She had met Shen Yanshan a few times before.
After confirming that her younger brother was just drunk and not injured anywhere, Zhou Yan, who had been worried all afternoon, finally let out a sigh of relief.
The next moment,
She stepped on her high - heels and strode up to Shen Yanshan. She raised her hand and slapped him hard.
She shouted at Shen Yanshan angrily:
"Do you know how long my parents and I have been looking for Zhou Xun these days! Shen Yanshan, have I ever told you not to play with Zhou Xun! Don't think I don't know what kind of shady business you're up to! Our family doesn't lack money. Zhou Xun is our only child. If anything happens to him outside, what should we do? Can you take responsibility for that?"
...
This slap stunned everyone present.
Shen Yanshan's head was turned to one side, and a bright red handprint swelled up on his left cheek.
His expression was unexpectedly calm, as if he had anticipated this scene. A strange chill emanated from his whole body, as if it was a coldness seeping out from his bones.
Behind Zhou Yan was the dead - drunk Zhou Xun.
She was like a mother hen protecting her chicks, protecting her younger brother.
On the contrary,
Shen Yanshan was standing alone across from them, with only a group of onlookers waiting to watch his joke behind him.
In her rage, Zhou Yan vaguely felt that she might have gone too far... But if she wasn't tough this time, her younger brother would be led astray by him again next time. Zhou Xun wasn't a person who could distinguish right from wrong, and he needed her help.
Thinking about what had happened today, Zhou Yan felt a chill run down her spine. Her expression then became determined. "If there's a next time, I'll call the police!"
Hearing this, the people around looked scared. Those who could be taken away by the police couldn't be good people, could they?
Their looks at Shen Yanshan were filled with more ambiguous and condemning glances.
Zhou Yan took Zhou Xun away.
The small barbecue shop suddenly became quiet.
The boss of the barbecue stand walked over. "Two bottles of Erguotou, thirty skewers of mutton and thirty skewers of lamb. It's a total of 2.53 yuan. I'll round it down for you. 2.7 yuan."
What a great rounding.
Shen Yanshan glanced at him.
The boss gave a look at the broken plate on the ground. It was accidentally knocked to the ground by Zhou Yan when she was waking up Zhou Xun.
Shen Yanshan paid the bill. After receiving the money, the boss offered Shen Yanshan a cheap cigarette.
His lighter had long been taken away by Zhou Xun,
so Shen Yanshan simply didn't take it.
It was raining heavily outside. Shen Yanshan was going back.
He didn't have an umbrella and was too lazy to take shelter from the rain.
The slap mark on his face was burning. The rain could relieve the pain a bit. The alcohol he had just drunk had made his body extremely hot, and his blood seemed to be rushing to his head. He needed the cold water to calm down.
When Shen Yanshan came back from outside, he was completely wet.
Aunt Wang was opening the door to pour out the foot - washing water. The light from the window allowed her dim eyes to immediately see the obvious slap mark on Shen Yanshan's cheek.
In such a dark night, this slap mark must have been from a woman!
Could he have been caught cheating and scratched by a woman?
There would be some juicy gossip in their compound again!
Aunt Wang quickly covered her mouth and couldn't wait to go into the house to share this gossip with her husband.
The loud "bang" of the door closing was very clear in the night. Shen Yanshan shook the water off his body at the door and didn't even turn his head.
He no longer cared about any of the comments and contempt from others.
He pushed open the door.
He had thought he would be greeted by a cold house,
but unexpectedly, he saw Li Chuchu sitting at the table reading a book.