The night in the mountains is very quiet, and although the sky is dark, it seems particularly clear. It's not like in the city, which is always covered in brick-red by light pollution, whether it's bright or dark.
Ji Zhun's hair was not completely dry yet, and it was wet and stuck to his forehead. The loose collar of the sweatshirt exudes heat with the fragrance of shower gel.
He held his chin lazily, looking at Tan Jingyang beside him with half-lowered eyes and a slight tilt of his head.
In the night, Tan Jingyang's voice sounded deeper than before. Stripped of the 70% gentleness and 30% smile that always come with his usual words, his plain and objective tone is like a pool of cold water in the middle of the night.
"Zou Yiming's father died when he was very young. His mother took him to rent a house converted from a warehouse in an old neighborhood in Nancheng. It was not easy." Tan Jingyang's fingers gently touched his knees. knocking.
"As for Liu Zheng, his family owns a high-end hotel, and he is a second-generation rich man like you." Tan Jingyang smiled, but his eyes remained dark.
"Probably when they were in their second or third year of junior high school, Liu Zheng's mother found Zou Yiming's mother from the home economics center to work as a nanny at his house. When Zou Yiming's mother heard that the salary was quite suitable, she went happily..."
Following Tan Jingyang's words, the scene turned into a spacious and bright mansion.
The plainly dressed woman wearing an apron showed an embarrassed expression when she looked at the pile of examination papers spread out on the table.
Exam papers are Zhang Zhang, the score is as low as 20 and as high as 40.
Liu Zheng on the side was shaking his legs, his small eyes narrowed into slits on his shiny face.
Seeing that the woman didn't move for a long time, Liu Zheng yelled at her impatiently: "I said, you should sign quickly! You have to sign all these, don't leave any one behind."
The woman rubbed her hands nervously, opened and closed her lips a few times, and then said softly: "Zhengzheng, this aunt really can't sign for you. Your teacher will see it."
"Oh, can you stop talking nonsense?" Liu Zheng's eyebrows bulged, "My mother and the others will be back soon!"
The woman took half a step back, but shook her head and said, "No, no, aunt can help you with everything else, but you still have to let your parents know about your study problems."
Seeing Liu Zheng frowning in dissatisfaction, the woman continued to try to persuade: "Look, if my Xiao Ming lied to me like this, I would definitely be angry. As a human being, the most important thing is to be honest. Look at Xiao Ming. ..."
"Come on, you!" Liu Zheng snorted with his nose turned to the sky, and his body trembled a few more times, "Xiao Ming Xiao Ming every day, if our family didn't give you money, you and your Xiao Ming would both be hungry. die!"
The woman's expression changed, but she finally swallowed her grievance. She forced a smile again and coaxed carefully: "What do you want to eat for lunch? Can Auntie make you your favorite fried chicken wings?"
"Don't eat!" Liu Zheng pulled the stack of papers on the table in disgust, and sneered, "Don't think I don't know, you just want to wait until our family can't finish eating, and then take the chicken wings back. Use our family's Money, buying your family's food, my mother actually said you were honest?"
"Zheng Zheng, you don't dare to say that!" The woman was obviously anxious, "I work hard every day, and I have never been greedy for any money from you except for the salary I deserve. What you say is really, really...!"
"What are you yelling about! If you are unhappy, go to my mother and sue me. See if she is facing you or me!" Liu Zheng said arrogantly, "You'd better figure it out, she is my mother!"
After finishing speaking, he walked into the room with penguin-like steps, and closed the door with a "bang".
Liu Zheng in the room jumped on the bed, and his fat body sank into the quilt.
At this moment, his cell phone rang suddenly. When he looked at the number, he quickly answered the call and sat upright.
"Hey, Brother Nan. Ah, I, I just got home... Paper, paper..." Liu Zheng's face turned from red to white, and he stammered, "I haven't found a chance to tell the nanny about this yet."
Across the phone, an unceremonious voice came from the other side: "Liu Zheng, you promised us before that you would settle things. This is also our test for you. If you can't even pass this level, you won't be able to do it in the future." Don't even think about messing with us."
"Don't worry, I will definitely take care of things and bring the signed papers to school tomorrow!"
Liu Zheng nodded and bowed to the phone, trying his best to please her, completely losing the arrogant look he had before the nanny.
"That's fine." The person on the other end of the phone snorted and hung up the phone.
Hearing the busy tone from the phone, Liu Zheng threw the phone on the bed violently. Then he grabbed the pillow and threw it into the corner.
"Bastards! They're all bastards!"
As if he was still angry, he angrily swept the models on the desk to the floor. There was a crackling sound, and the originally exquisite and complete model instantly turned into pieces.
Liu Zheng stepped on the debris with his slippers on, and kept cursing: "You're going to fucking bully me! Go to hell! You idiots!"
Unexpectedly, his feet slipped and he sat down on the ground. The hand that was supporting the ground was scratched by the model fragments, and blood started to appear in an instant.
"What's wrong?! What's wrong Zhengzheng?!"
Liu Zheng's mother, who had just entered the door, just heard the noise and rushed into Liu Zheng's room in a panic. Seeing Liu Zheng paralyzed on the ground with the gash on his hand, he exclaimed: "Son--! You, you, are you okay?!"
When Liu Zheng saw his mother, he howled in grievance. Before the tears could even flow down her cheeks, they were caught in her flesh.
Liu Zheng's mother helped her son up while feeling distressed, and screamed outside: "Sister Wang! Sister Wang! What did you do?! You don't even know Zheng Zheng is injured!"
Yiming's mother, who arrived shortly afterwards, panicked when she saw this and hurried to help Liu Zheng.
Yiming's mother: "Oh, how did this happen!"
Liu Zheng pushed Yiming's mother away and shouted loudly: "It's all your fault! It's all your fault!... It hurts so much, it hurts me so much! Mom, Mom! It's her who made me angry, hurry up Open her up!"
"No, it's not like that..." Yiming's mother said quickly, "Sister, please listen to my explanation first. After Zhengzheng's test scores came down this time, he asked me to sign for him and several other children. I, I dare not agree..."
When Liu Zheng saw this, he cried even louder.
"It hurts me so much-ouch-Mom, I'm so dizzy!"
Liu Zheng's mother's face was instantly filled with distress, and she couldn't help shouting to Yi Ming's mother: "What are you talking about now! Didn't you see that Zheng Zheng's hand was bleeding?! You don't feel distressed when you are with a son who is not your own." right!"
"I, I..." Yiming's mother clenched her hands anxiously, but still hurried to the cabinet to rummage through the medical box.
Seeing Yiming's mother's panic expression, Liu Zheng's little eyes quietly showed a hint of joy.
In the kitchen, Yiming's mother raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead. Use chopsticks to pick up the chicken wings and put them into the hot oil pan. The chicken wings are cooked and fried at high temperatures, giving them an extremely attractive sheen.
Just when she was focusing all her attention on the fried chicken wings, a pair of fat feet suddenly popped out from behind her. Immediately afterwards, a glass marble was flicked into the pot with a rubber band.
"ah!"
Yiming's mother gave a short exclamation and instinctively ducked aside. However, the hand holding the chicken wings was still burned by the splash of hot oil, and a string of blisters instantly appeared.
"I'm sorry, I accidentally missed the shot." Liu Zheng, whose hand was wrapped in gauze, shrugged and apologized with a feeling of gloating.
"Hiss--"
At this time, Yiming's mother only felt that her hand was in severe pain, so she unscrewed the water pipe and kept pouring it down.
Her eyes were a little red, and she sniffed hard to suppress the pantothenic acid in her chest.
During the meal, Liu Zheng's family still sat at the dining table as if nothing had happened, talking and laughing happily. Liu Zheng's appetite was surprisingly good today. He only had two chicken wings left in a plate full of chicken wings.
He rubbed his swollen belly with his gauze-wrapped hands and burped loudly.
Zheng's mother on the side glanced at the blister on Yiming's hand, and pretended to be concerned: "Hey, Sister Wang, what's wrong with your hands?"
Before Yiming's mother could speak, Liu Zheng spoke first: "I accidentally flicked the marble into the pot, but I have already apologized to Aunt Wang. Right Auntie?"
"You little bastard, you are so disheartened that your hands are hurt!" Zheng's mother pretended to pinch Liu Zheng's face, then turned to Yiming's mother and said, "I'm sorry, Sister Wang, I just bought it from the supermarket today. Come back with some fresh chicken wings, take some back with Xiao Ming when you leave."
Liu Zheng's small eyes squinted at Yiming's mother again, with disdain.
"No, no, Xiaoming doesn't like chicken wings." Yiming's mother hurriedly waved her hand.
"Hey, is it time to see someone else?" Zheng's mother smirked, pretending to be familiar, "Hold it, hold it, I was a little anxious when I saw Zheng Zheng was injured, and I spoke a little loudly, don't go Go with your heart!"
Yiming's mother pursed her lips stiffly, and finally managed to squeeze out a smile and said softly: "Kid, it's okay."
After dinner, Zheng's mother and father went back to the bedroom. As soon as she closed the door, she started complaining to her father.
"I think this sister Wang is very problematic now! Zhengzheng has told me that she took advantage of our family while we were not at home." Zheng's mother rushed outside and whispered, "Just last time Of the cherries I bought, she pinched two of them when she had nothing to do, but they were all gone before I even ate them."
Dad Zheng took the remote control and turned on the TV. Hearing this, he said indifferently: "Hey, why don't you just break the fruit! Just eat it."
Zheng's mother stared and retorted: "What's 'just some broken fruit'?! Today I stole our fruit, but tomorrow I stole money!... Tsk, it's said that slaves bully masters, slaves bully masters, a bit That's right!"
"Then what do you want?" Zheng's father responded one after another.
"If you ask me, just quit her and find another one."
"Tsk, what a hassle."
"I won't let you worry!"
"Okay, okay, you can do whatever you want, I don't have a problem with it...good shot!"
Zheng's mother rolled her eyes at Zheng's father and muttered: "You work all day long, what can I expect from you?"
That night, Yiming's mother received a call from the housekeeping company.
She was fired by the Liu family.
"Mom, I'm hungry. What shall we have for lunch?"
Zou Yiming, who came back from school, opened the door curtain and poked his head in. His face changed when he saw Yiming's mother's hand.
"What happened to your hand?"
"It's okay, I accidentally burned it before." Yiming's mother pinched off the hair sticking to her neck, and smiled at Zou Yiming, "Hurry up and do your homework. Mom will give you chicken wings at noon."
Under the dim light, above the narrow window, an old exhaust fan filled with black oil smoke made a dull noise.
Buzz--
...
After listening, Ji Zhun didn't speak for a long time. There are too many feelings in my heart, and they are mixed together and stirred over and over again. Wanting to have a cigarette, he touched his pocket and found that he didn't bring it out.
"After graduating from junior high school, Liu Zheng thought he could finally get rid of those who bullied him, but he didn't expect that he and Zou Yiming would become classmates again." Tan Jingyang said with a joking tone, "What a coincidence, right?"
"The weak raise their knives to attack the weaker..." Ji Zhun rubbed his brows and summed up the past.
Tan Jingyang turned his head to look at Ji Zhun, his eyes were filled with a sense of world-weariness in the night.
"So who was at fault first? Zou Yiming or Liu Zheng?" When he said this, he was calmly asking a common multiple-choice question.
"How do you know?" Ji Zhun didn't answer Tan Jingyang's question directly, but instead asked
"Did Zou Yiming himself tell you about Zou Yiming's mother?"
"If you have lived in a slum, you will naturally understand." Tan Jingyang replied lightly.
Ji Zhun frowned: "But even so, do you really let it go?"
Tan Jingyang laughed in a low voice when he heard the words, then looked at Ji Zhun leisurely and said, "Then tell me, what do you want to do?"
I don't know whether he lengthened the tail tone intentionally or unintentionally. It sounded like an adult pointing to the birds on the tree and asking a child, "How many are there?"
Ji Zhun didn't like the teasing tone of the other party. He narrowed his eyes and said coldly: "Although I haven't thought of it yet, if you keep letting it go like this, sooner or later something more serious will happen." He curled his lips and retorted. , "You, the squad leader, who didn't report the knowledge at that time... I'm afraid you can't absolve yourself of the blame, right?"
"Rather than caring about others, you should pay more attention to your own affairs." Tan Jinyang closed his eyes and said softly, "After tonight, Brother B and the others will probably hate you even more."
"Ha." Ji Zhun chuckled, "I'm afraid of him being a hammer."
"Besides..." He winked at Tan Jingyang, "Isn't there you, the squad leader?"
...