Chapter 85 — Take Him Down and You Are Number Two

Tang Yun's mother naturally knew Zou Ruoming and knew he was a tyrant in the school, though he never patronized her own stall. She had no idea why he had brought so many people here to eat today.

Toward Zou Ruoming, Mother Tang felt rather afraid. Before this, there had been a vendor on the snack street selling hastily fried seafood, and because Zou Ruoming got a bad stomach from his food, Zou Ruoming brought men the next day and smashed the stall to pieces. Nor did it end there. The man himself was beaten black and blue and did not come out to set up his stall for days.

At Zou Ruoming's overbearing ways, the other vendors on the snack street were all cowed into silence, and they hurried to find out who this man was. Once they asked around, they learned he was one of the Four Young Devils of the school. From then on, whichever stall Zou Ruoming favored, its owner would take care upon extra care, terrified of the slightest mistake, and when the bill came would give a very steep discount for fear of displeasing Zou Ruoming.

On the snack street, Mother Tang's was not the only barbecue stall. Zou Ruoming and his crew used to eat at another barbecue stand near the head of the street, something for which Mother Tang had secretly counted herself lucky. Hers was a small business that made little money to begin with, and if trouble came, she could not afford to pay for it.

"Take your time, young men... ah!" Mother Tang carefully set several freshly grilled chicken wings down on Zou Ruoming's table, but the more careful she was, the more likely she was to err. As she put the wings down, her hand shook, and the seasoning flicked off a wing onto the leg of a broad-faced fatty sitting beside Zou Ruoming, leaving a grease stain at once.

"Sorry, sorry!" Mother Tang was suddenly at a loss. She was truly frightened of these young masters, afraid that at the slightest displeasure they would stand up and smash her stall. "Why don't... let me wipe it for you... I can wash it for you too..."

Since being laid off, Mother Tang had kept the whole family alive on this barbecue stall alone. Her husband had injured his leg and lain sick in bed ever since, yet the factory's compensation for the work injury had never come through. After she went to ask several times, the factory leaders had rudely driven her out.

Mother Tang was the typical housewife living at the very bottom of society, humble and weak, yet forced to hold up a family with her own two hands, earning money to send her daughter to school and to treat her husband's illness.

"Ha, it's nothing!" The broad-faced fatty did not get angry at all. He casually brushed the seasoning off his trousers and said with utter indifference, "How would I dare trouble you, Auntie, to wash my pants? Brother Ming would kill me. You will be an elder to us from now on!"

"You little brat!" Zou Ruoming tapped the broad-faced fatty on the forehead. "You are already sucking up?"

"Hee hee hee..." The broad-faced fatty laughed, and the other students who had come with Zou Ruoming burst out laughing with him, unrestrained.

Mother Tang stared helplessly at the broad-faced fatty before her, not understanding what he meant and not knowing what these people were laughing at, though the one thing she did understand was that this broad-faced fatty apparently did not mean to hold her responsible.

Mother Tang breathed a sigh of relief at once and said carefully, "Then... let me treat you to this meal?"

"How could we do that? Is our Brother Ming the kind of man who eats without paying?" The broad-faced fatty waved a hand. "Even if he eats for free elsewhere, he would still pay at your place, Auntie. Besides, we will all be family soon, so we certainly cannot short you!"

Hearing the fatty's words, Zou Ruoming looked quite pleased, a smile hanging at the corner of his mouth. This broad-faced fatty certainly knew how to read the moment. It seemed all his usual kindness to him had not been wasted!

Mother Tang grew more and more bewildered, unable to make out what this broad-faced fatty was talking about. What was all this about family and not shorting money? What on earth did it mean?

Just then, Tang Yun came walking over from a distance. The broad-faced fatty no longer cared about currying favor with Mother Tang. He shot abruptly to his feet, shaking his bulky frame, waving his arms and whistling, while Zou Ruoming's other followers whistled at Tang Yun along with him, winking and pulling faces.

"Sister-in-law is here, sister-in-law is here!" the broad-faced fatty shouted.

Tang Yun saw Zou Ruoming and his men, and hearing the broad-faced fatty's nonsense, her face went white at once. She had never expected Zou Ruoming to track her down here and to say such filthy things in front of her mother.

Before this, Zou Ruoming had written Tang Yun a love letter, which Tang Yun had rejected without mercy, yet Zou Ruoming had seemed not to mind at all, pestering Tang Yun with a shameless grin until the class bell rang and Tang Yun fled back to the classroom as if escaping.

With no stir from him these past two days, Tang Yun had thought Zou Ruoming had given up after being refused, yet she had never imagined he could do a thing like this. If her mother believed she was in a puppy love at school, how heartbroken would she be?

Tang Yun stopped in her tracks and dared not go forward. Zou Ruoming's burning gaze made Tang Yun lower her head in fear, a flush rising on her face, torn between shame and anger.

"Boss, Zou Ruoming's gang is up ahead!" Kang Xiaobo and Wei Zhao were following behind Tang Yun, and seeing Zou Ruoming and his men teasing Tang Yun, Kang Xiaobo flared with anger at once. "That scum is bullying Tang Yun!"

"Oh? So he is called Zou Ruoming?" Wei Zhao paused, recognizing in the leader in the distance the very wretch whose face he had smashed bloody with a basketball a few days before.

"You know him?" Hearing Wei Zhao say this, Kang Xiaobo paused too. "He is Number Two of the Four Young Devils on campus. He is the one I told you about. Take him out and you are Number Two!"

"..." Wei Zhao shook his head and gave a wry smile. It seemed he had already taken this kid out several days ago.

"I heard long ago that Zou Ruoming courted Tang Yun and got rejected, but I never thought he would stoop to such a rotten trick, creating an accomplished fact in front of Tang Yun's mother!" Hearing what the broad-faced fatty was shouting, Kang Xiaobo clenched his fists in excitement.

Wei Zhao himself did not think much of it. Though Zou Ruoming was hateful, he had not provoked him and had no conflict of interest with him, so Wei Zhao was too lazy to meddle in his rotten business.

"Sister-in-law, sit down quick! Brother Ming has already ordered. We were just waiting for you!" The broad-faced fatty winked at Tang Yun, as if he would squeeze his very eyeballs out.

"Yes, Yun-er, don't be shy. We will have to tell Auntie about us sooner or later!" Zou Ruoming beckoned thick-skinned to Tang Yun. After Tang Yun had rejected him before, he had been unwilling to accept it, and at the urging of one of his men, he had hit upon this desperate gambit of creating an accomplished fact before Tang Yun's mother. He knew Tang Yun's mother was a housewife, and though his own reputation at school was none too good, he still counted as young and rich. So long as Mother Tang tacitly accepted the matter, Tang Yun would surely have nothing left to say even if she objected...

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