Chapter 81 – A Thorny Problem
My actions were clearly beyond Shu Zhe’s expectations and he was momentarily dumbfounded.
“You… Brother Ye Lin, how can you do this! I trusted you, you can’t just take it!”
I chuckled, reached out and patted Shu Zhe’s head. His stature was pretty similar to Xiao Qin, it was pretty easy to reach his head.
“Brat, you’re still too soft! If you wanna make it in JiangHu, how can you not take a few cuts? Let today be a lesson to you!”
Shu Zhe forcefully swatted my hand off his head and angrily said to me:
“No way! You can’t take my stuff for free! I’m desperate for money, so give me my money!”
He said as he extended his fair skinned hand towards me.
Really, such a white pair of hands, yet he commits such filthy acts.
I stuck both my hands in my pockets and stood calmly and composed with one foot on tip toes. I continued to use an elder’s tone to lecture him:
“Shu Zhe if you really want money, stop always using your sister. Isn’t the supermarket near our school hiring people for distributing pamphlets? Middle schoolers can do it too. If you work for a day, you’ll probably earn at least 50 bucks?”
When he heard me mention pamphlets, Shu Zhe’s brows scrunched together into a ball, he looked extremely disgusted.
“Hmph, I won’t do that kind of work! It’s tiring and you barely earn anything! During winter break I’ve spent an entire afternoon standing in the wind with Xiao Hua, in the end we could barely even afford a fast food combo… smart people should have smart methods!”
“Oh, that’s right! Then I’ll let you, the smart person, think of a way for me to give you the money.”
I looked down on him, and took joy in watching him trying to think of all different solutions.
Shu Zhe glared at me for a while, but he could not think of any solutions, so he could only admit defeat.
The action he makes of biting his lower lips when he’s mad was just like his sister.
“Brother Ye Lin, let’s put the payment stuff aside for now, I wanted to talk to you about something else.” Shu Zhe changed the topic of discussion, “The second year Li CunZhuang, the guy nicknamed Li ErLeng, do you know him?”
Isn’t he the guy who weighs 100 kilos (~220 lbs), can’t open one eye, and always repeats his sentences? And it’s also said that his parents were siblings?
“Why are you asking about him? Did you sell this to him too?”
“No, I didn’t sell anything… I just wanted to know, are the two of you close?”
The two of us didn’t talk much. He was mentally deficient, and always fights to the death. He never gets close to anyone.
“We’re not close. Also even though he’s dumb, he doesn’t randomly pick on people. What did you do to stir him up?”
Shu Zhe’s eyes quickly darted around.
“Brother Ye Lin I just want to know, if you two fight, who would win?”
“Obviously I would! You don’t even have to ask!”
Li ErLeng’s two main strengths were his weight and his ferocity. I have ways of dealing with both of them.
Shu Zhe took a long breath.
“Brother Ye Lin, if Li ErLeng hits me, you have to help me.”
I thought it sounded weird, so I questioned Shu Zhe exactly what happened with Li ErLeng. Shu Zhe initially didn’t want to say anything, but I told him that I would just watch if Li ErLeng came to hurt him.
Shu Zhe had no choice but to explain: He took Li ErLeng’s deposit, but he wasn’t able to get a photo of his sister naked, so now Li ErLeng is threatening to beat him up.
“You deserve it!” I said as I took joy in his misfortune, “A business is built upon integrity, if you don’t deliver the goods after receiving a deposit, you deserve to get beat!”
Shu Zhe was angry beyond belief and counterclaimed: “Brother Ye Lin, how can you say that after you stole my goods and didn’t pay me!”
I laughed, “You’re pretty dumb, and you said you were smart! I don’t have to pay you since I’m stronger than you; but since you can’t beat Li ErLeng, you have to fulfill your promise with him!”
Shu Zhe was left speechless with a face of anxiety.
“Stop worrying about it, you could just return his deposit!”
Shu Zhe looked as if he was about to cry.
“Brother Ye Lin, the deposit money was all spent by Xiao Hua and me! Li ErLeng is also really stubborn. I’ve told him before that I would return his deposit, but he refused and demanded I give him nude photos of my sister…”
You definitely have yourself to blame. Maybe it might teach him a lesson if he got a beating from Li ErLeng.
But if I thought about it, Li ErLeng always hits to the death. With Shu Zhe’s frail body, if he was broken, the class leader would be upset.
“Ok Shu Zhe, I’ll give you a good idea!”
When he heard I had a good idea, his eyes lit up and he perked up his ears.
I stuck out two fingers signifying that I could help him, but I had two conditions.
“First, apologize to your sister. Tell her all of the things you’ve been doing recently.”
“Second, stop taking advantage of your sister. If you need money, talk with you sister, or get a job!”
“If you can fulfill those two points, I’ll help you take care of Li ErLeng —— otherwise don’t even think of expecting my help!”
Shu Zhe lost interest halfway.
“Brother Ye Lin, you don’t have a girlfriend so you don’t understand. Xiao Hua spends money like it grows on trees, if I can’t satisfy her, she’ll break up with me! Then she would tell everyone of how I don’t even have money for my girlfriend, and how embarrassed would I be!”
Damn! You’re almost about to be crippled by Li ErLeng, and you’re still worrying about your reputation! Is your reputation that important to you!
Anyhow, it’s pretty embarrassing when a junior tells their senior that they don’t have a girlfriend. I decided to counterattack and get rid of his thoughts of selling his sister to me.
“Shu Zhe, how do you know I don’t have a girlfriend? That day on the fields, didn’t you see me walking side by side with her? She’s my girlfriend, and she never asks me for money!”
Shu Zhe twisted his face in disbelief.
“Brother Ye Lin, you still have the nerve to talk about her? She’s called Ren XiaoQin, wasn’t she the one you bullied since childhood and is a bit glued to you?”
Who told you that! I was the one who was bullied by her since childhood! If I bullied her since childhood, why would she be glued to me!
Shu Zhe continued to say:
“It’s impossible to have any romance in a childhood friends relationship due to being too familiar, all those manga lied. Recently manga have been going on about “siscon” relationships, how fake is that? Take me for example, while I did have interest in my sister’s body when I was young, now that I got a girlfriend, I have zero interest now.”
I guess this would be considered good news? Even if Shu Zhe has an early relationship, it’s probably better than being interested in his own sister?
I spoke with him an entire afternoon, and he still did not agree to my two conditions. I used Li ErLeng to threaten him, but he just said that their negotiation did not completely break down and he would try negotiating again.
Finally Shu Zhe said that he doesn’t want the money, but wanted me to return the bag back to him.
I did not satisfy his request. For one, I didn’t want to touch the class leader’s panties with my bare hands. And two, if he wants the bag back he definitely does not have any good plans. He might try to steal another pair of his sister’s underwear and sell it at a high price.
So Shu Zhe lost everything, and didn’t reap any benefits. He could only curse himself for failing and worrying about being beat by Li ErLeng while walking back to the school building with a bitter face.
The problem now is what should I do what the class leader’s underwear.