Chapter 282
He turned around and walked back.
Zhou Zedong was someone who had a very clear understanding of his own capabilities. He wouldn't act impulsively or do things that were disadvantageous to himself.
There was a line in The Art of War he had been reading recently: "Of the thirty-six stratagems, fleeing is the best."
Sometimes you have to learn to avoid disaster and protect yourself, to steer clear of a head-on collision with an opponent that would leave you worse off.
Seeing him return, Brother Chen and the others, who had been happily hugging their piggy bank, were somewhat surprised.
"Why are you back?"
Zhou Zedong glanced at the few of them. They hadn't known each other long, and he had no intention of asking these guys to risk their necks for him.
Over this period, he had also noticed that these three lived a hard life.
This alley was very old, full of dilapidated sheet-metal houses. Many construction workers lived here, and the surroundings were messy and disorderly.
No wonder Li Youcai had called it a slum earlier.
"Is there any other way out?" Zhou Zedong asked.
It seemed he wouldn't be able to come to this area for the next few days.
The group was stunned for a moment, hearing footsteps outside.
Their expressions changed.
They seemed to understand instantly.
"Hey, you're so young, how do you have so many enemies?" Brother Chen's expression was complicated.
He recognized the group that had just walked past; they were middle schoolers from No. 2 Middle School not far away.
Zhou Zedong was still a primary school student. How had he managed to provoke middle schoolers?
Zhou Zedong looked at him, his tone remarkably calm, as if the one about to be cornered wasn't him at all.
"Because I'm from the countryside."
That's right. Li Youcai's reason for targeting him was simply because he was from the countryside.
Someone from the countryside should keep a low profile and be invisible.
Yet he had stolen the spotlight.
Zhou Zedong wasn't clueless; he naturally understood why the other party disliked him.
"What?" Brother Chen and the others frowned, but soon remembered hearing that teacher call him a country bumpkin and ill-mannered in the alley that day. Their expressions turned complicated again.
They weren't from the countryside themselves, but living in this city, they too had been trampled and mocked by countless people.
In the eyes of these city folks, they were maggots and scum, a single glance at them seeming to dirty their eyes.
At first, they didn't understand and it hurt, but now they were immune to it.
Hearing Zhou Zedong say this, they couldn't help but feel a sense of shared experience.
Yes, this city was like that. It seemed beautiful and prosperous, but the darkness hidden beneath, no one knew.
Although they hadn't known Zhou Zedong for long, he had helped them after all.
The three exchanged glances.
After wandering around the alley a couple of times without seeing many households, Li Youcai's cousin grew impatient. "Cousin Youcai, are you sure it's this way? This place doesn't even seem like somewhere people live."
His cousin's school was famously for kids from wealthy families. Since he could afford to attend such a school, he shouldn't be living in a place like this.
"Impossible, I saw that country bumpkin come here with my own eyes!" Li Youcai was also confused. He had seen Zhou Zedong come here every day for the past few days and had followed him today. It couldn't be wrong.
How could they not find him?
Just as he began to suspect Zhou Zedong had tricked him, a familiar voice sounded from behind. "Looking for me?"
Li Youcai whirled around.
He saw Zhou Zedong standing behind them, having appeared out of nowhere.
He had his schoolbag slung over one shoulder and a book in his hand.
It was usually this very pretentious act that had charmed Xiang'er into ignoring him.
Li Youcai's face instantly darkened. Pointing at him, he said, "Cousin, it's him!"
His cousin was taken aback, not expecting the other party to show himself.
He immediately laughed, "Alright, I'll teach him a lesson for you right now!"
"Hey! I heard you're trying to steal my cousin's girl, right?"
Zhou Zedong frowned. "What do you mean?"
Why would he steal a girl from Li Youcai?
Were there even any 'girls' in their class?
This touched on an area of knowledge Zhou Zedong didn't quite understand.
For a moment, he looked utterly bewildered.
"Still playing dumb? So young and already such a good actor. I'll teach you a proper lesson!"
"Who are you going to teach a lesson?"
The trio, led by Brother Chen, emerged from the alley behind Zhou Zedong. Brother Chen had a crumpled cigarette dangling from his mouth, unlit, looking quite imposing.
After all, they were from the streets. The guys in front were just cocky school kids who hadn't expected to run into actual troublemakers. Their faces paled immediately.
Since they were only dealing with a ten-year-old Zhou Zedong, Li Youcai had only called his cousin and a friend.
Now, the three of them stood before Brother Chen's group, and it seemed like they were the ones being cornered.
Li Youcai's triumphant face from a moment ago instantly changed.
He subconsciously took two steps back.
His cousin's face also changed color.
He had only agreed to help to curry favor with this cousin.
Who knew there would be street toughs here?
And looking at the tools the other side was holding, this was no joke.
He was bold enough to bully people he didn't like at school, relying on his family's money.
But when he really encountered the reckless types from the streets, he knew he'd only be begging for mercy.
Their school wasn't that strict, and there were plenty of street kids around.
He had seen too many fights, people getting hacked to death on the streets by those types, and the police could do nothing about it.
In an instant, the cousin's face turned white.
"Hey, hey, Youcai, you didn't tell me this guy had friends."
As Brother Chen and the others stepped forward.
He kept backing away, putting on a masterclass in knowing when to yield. "This has nothing to do with me! My cousin made me come."
Hearing this, Li Youcai's face turned green.
Looking at Brother Chen, who was much taller than him, he swallowed hard, too scared to meet his gaze. Instead, his eyes met Zhou Zedong's calm ones.
He instantly felt his legs go weak.
That day, he had heard that Teacher Xu went to his grandma, saying Zhou Zedong had people beat her up. He had laughed at Teacher Xu for being stupid, thinking someone like Zhou Zedong would never dare to have someone beat her up.
But now, Li Youcai realized Teacher Xu hadn't been lying.
He stammered, "Y-you, what do you want? I'm telling you, my grandma is a director at the school! If you dare lay a hand on me, I'll have you all thrown in jail!"
"And you, Zhou Zedong! Your mom teaches at the school, right? If you dare bully me, I'll have my grandma make your whole family pack up and get out!"
Before he could finish, Brother Chen grabbed him by his short hair, making Li Youcai grimace in pain immediately.
Brother Chen had a short fuse and hated being threatened the most.
This idiot really managed to hit every single one of his sore spots.
Although he really wanted to beat him up, he still turned to look at Zhou Zedong. "Brother Dong, what's the plan?"
"Don't worry, we're all in this together now. If he dares bully you, I'll definitely help you beat him up. You don't need to be scared."
He thought that although Zhou Zedong was bold, he probably didn't dare to fight either, otherwise he wouldn't have asked for their help last time.
"It's 'we're all in the same boat'," Zhou Zedong corrected him, then looked at Li Youcai.
Just as Brother Chen was thinking he surely couldn't bear to do it, he heard him say, "How about we break his arm?"
Brother Chen: "..."
Fatty & Xiangzi: "..."
Li Youcai: "!"
The air fell into a deathly silence. Zhou Zedong's voice still carried a touch of childish innocence. "Break his fingers one joint at a time. Then he'll never be able to write again, and he probably won't be able to snatch other people's copybooks either..."
Brother Chen hadn't even processed this when he caught a whiff of a pungent, urine-like smell.
He looked down and saw that Li Youcai had actually wet himself in fear.
He immediately let go in disgust. Although he also found it terrifying how calmly Zhou Zedong was saying such cruel things, this guy was too cowardly, actually getting scared to the point of wetting his pants.
Li Youcai was trembling like a leaf. "Y-you wouldn't dare. I-I'm telling my grandma. You... you're dead."
Zhou Zedong stepped forward, placed his foot on Li Youcai's hand, bent down, and said, "Go ahead and tell if you want. That way, everyone can find out how our study committee representative got so scared he wet his pants. Chu Xiang'er will definitely think you're disgusting. No one in class will want to sit with you after this."
"I can just transfer schools at worst, but you'll be laughed at by the whole school. How pathetic."
Li Youcai's face instantly twisted in horror.
Just imagining that scene made him wish he could dig a hole and crawl into it.
Zhou Zedong gave a cold snort, turned, and walked away.
Brother Chen and the others were dumbfounded. "So... are we still breaking his hand or not?"
Zhou Zedong: "..... Do whatever you want." He was just trying to scare Li Youcai; how did they take it seriously?
These guys really were too dumb.
Zhou Zedong hurried home.
But even so, he was still quite late.
Seeing Si Nian frown, he immediately felt afraid.
He tightened his grip on his schoolbag strap.
Si Nian had been paying more attention to Zhou Zedong lately, worried he might be getting bullied.
Although the matter with Teacher Xu was over and he didn't dare target him openly anymore, it was still good to be careful.
So she had instructed both children to come home with Jiang Jiu after school.
But recently, this child hadn't been coming back with his younger brother and Jiang Jiu.
He was coming home a bit later every day.
Si Nian hadn't minded, thinking it wasn't a big delay.
But today, he was back so very late.
Si Nian looked at him for a long moment.
She didn't speak, didn't question him, just turned and went back inside.
Zhou Zedong's face paled, and he hurriedly followed her.
He had just promised Si Nian he would come home early and not linger outside.
Mom had to teach classes every day, bringing their little sister home early to cook for them.
And now their home wasn't far from school, yet he was still causing trouble for her.
Zhou Zedong felt guilty inside.
Second Child was sprawled on the table doing homework. Even though they had a study set up for them, he always liked to work where Si Nian could see him.
He was biting his pencil, looking distracted.
Seeing his brother come back so late today, he was also quite surprised.
"Brother, why are you only back now?"
Zhou Zedong had initially thought about lying and saying he was on cleaning duty.
But he knew Si Nian was a teacher at the school. She could just ask a teacher and would know he was lying.
He didn't dare.
Mom hated liars the most.
He didn't answer his curious younger brother either, just went upstairs to put away his bag.
As soon as he came back down, Si Nian said, "Let's eat."
Zhou Zedong felt even more uneasy. He would rather Si Nian scolded him, hit him, or questioned him than have her act like this.
"Mom," he walked over.
Si Nian didn't look at him, just gave a quiet "Hmm."
Zhou Zedong pressed his lips together and said, "Mom, are you angry?"
Si Nian placed the rice bowl in front of him. "You tell me why Mom might be angry."
Zhou Zedong lowered his head and, under the curious gazes of his younger brother and sister, said, "Because I came back late and didn't listen to you."
Si Nian looked at him for a while. "Is that all?"
Si Nian was good to them, never blaming them. Even when they made mistakes, she was very patient and reassuring, afraid that her reproach might hurt the children's fragile hearts.
But she didn't indulge them in everything either.
She didn't want her patience to spoil the two children.
She had her limits.
She could let them be happy, but not beyond her boundaries.
The eldest was only ten. Although they had been here in the city for a while now, the city could be very dangerous too. Especially with Zhou Yueshen not home right now, Si Nian was even more worried something might happen to the children.
Back in the countryside, he would often walk home hand-in-hand with his younger brother.
But now in the city, perhaps because his younger brother had a good friend in Jiang Jiu, he didn't pay as much attention.
Maybe it was because he was exposed to new people and a new environment, but she felt this child had matured a lot.
His mindset had changed too.
That incident with the police last time still felt a bit strange to her.
A child who used to be even more obedient than Second Child was now repeatedly not listening to her about coming home early.
This made Si Nian feel uneasy.
Zhou Zedong pursed his lips and finally said, "Mom, I was wrong. I hid something from you."
Si Nian was taken aback.
Second Child's eyes widened with curiosity.
"Brother, what did you do? Did you study secretly behind my back again?"
Zhou Zedong ignored his silly younger brother and continued, "I made some friends."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Si Nian was even more surprised.
The probability of Zhou Zedong making friends was lower than the probability of him committing murder, wasn't it?
She was genuinely shocked. In the novel, Zhou Zedong didn't really have friends.
"They're... troublemakers," Zhou Zedong added another bombshell.
Si Nian froze.
Zhou Zedong told her how he met Brother Chen and the others, and also explained that he had been coming home late these past few days because he was doing business with Brother Chen and his crew.
After finishing, he took out the money he had earned during this period and placed it on the table.
A full thirty yuan.
"This is my share from selling egg pancakes, Mom. I'll give it all to you. Please don't be angry." After saying this, he glanced at Si Nian cautiously.
Si Nian sat there, not coming back to her senses for a long time.
Although thirty yuan wasn't much to her, one had to remember that a teacher in the countryside only earned about thirty yuan a month in salary.
And he had managed to earn this in just a week, and it was his share after splitting it among several people.
Si Nian suddenly thought of the few boys selling pancakes at the cinema entrance that day.
Could it have been them?
Although she didn't think Zhou Zedong was the type to see others picking through trash and immediately feel sorry for them, he probably wouldn't lie to her about this.
It took Si Nian a good while to digest everything. Finally, she said, "Xiao Dong, there's nothing wrong with you wanting to do business."
"You just shouldn't have hidden it from your family. Is it because we're not worthy of your trust?" Her expression was serious.
Zhou Zedong panicked and quickly stood up. "Mom, that's not it..."
Si Nian shook her head. "It's great that you thought about earning money at such a young age. I'm happy you can earn money; it proves you're a smart and capable child."
Zhou Zedong's eyes reddened slightly.
"But that's not what you were thinking. You hid it even from us. What is worthy of your trust then?"
"Maybe it's because I, as your mother, haven't done a good enough job. That's understandable, after all, I'm not your biological mother."
Tears immediately streamed down Zhou Zedong's face. "I'm sorry, Mom, I was wrong. Please don't be angry..."
He ran up to Si Nian and cried loudly, "I shouldn't have hidden it from you and asked Brother Chen to beat up Teacher Xu. The reason I came back late today was also because some classmates blocked me, but I didn't hit him. Please don't be angry. I'll tell you everything from now on..."
Si Nian: ?
Good grief!