Chapter 1 — The Miraculous Mission
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"Xiao Yi, I raised you for fifteen years, fed you, gave you drink, bought you a laptop, bought you a 3G card..." The old man rolled his eyes and nagged on and on. "I ask you to do one little thing and you have so many questions. Don't force me!"
"Damn it!" Wei Zhao flared up at those words. "You raised me for the first three years. Since I was six, I have been the one cooking, chopping firewood, and weaving straw sandals to earn money to support you. Don't you force me either!"
"You sneak up at midnight to watch porn on your computer. Don't think I don't know!" The old man glared and said, "You forced me to say it! You were facing the computer and..."
"Fine... I will go... I won't run away, all right?" Wei Zhao blushed. He had not expected that something he had done so secretly had been noticed by this old wretch. Damn humiliating. If he let him go on, who knew what unspeakable scenes he would describe.
And so, under Old Man Wei's threats and bribes, Wei Zhao packed his bag, boarded the northbound train, and traveled thousands of miles to Songshan City, that modern international metropolis.
Sitting on the train, Wei Zhao thought he would have to encrypt his porn films from now on, hide them in the system folders, and when he did the deed, keep his eyes open in all directions and his ears pricked on all sides.
Still, he was looking forward to this mission. A good deal that let him retire after one job was exactly what he dreamed of, though from Old Man Wei's words he could sense this task would not be simple. Well, the harder the better, the more challenge the better!
"Pop", the pockmarked man sitting opposite Wei Zhao pulled open a canned cola, then tossed the pull tab casually onto the table.
The flat-headed man beside him pretended not to care as he picked up the tab and fiddled with it in his hand. After fiddling a few times, he suddenly shouted, "Wow! Wow! Holy crap! First prize!"
Though the flathead's voice was not very loud in the noisy carriage, the nearby passengers all heard it and turned to look at him.
The pockmarked man was no exception. Seeing that the tab in the flathead's hand was the very one he had just thrown away, his face turned rather unnatural. "Give it to me. That is mine..."
"Yours? Where is your name written on it?" The flathead snatched back his right hand, clutching the tab tightly in his fist, and glared. "Is your name First Prize?"
"No... I am not called First Prize... that first-prize tab was thrown away by me..." Seeing the flathead's fierce looks, the pockmarked man grew timid, yet unwilling to lose what was rightfully his, he stammered out.
"You said it yourself, you threw it away. Since you threw it away, whoever picks it up owns it." The flathead snorted with disdain.
"Hey, how can you be like that?" The pockmarked man grew anxious and called out to a passenger opposite him, the bespectacled man sitting to Wei Zhao's left. "Sir, you look like a scholar. Judge for us. How can he act like this? Isn't this just being a scoundrel?"
"Who is being a scoundrel?" The flathead was unhappy too, and turned to the bespectacled man. "Master, you tell us. Who should this tab belong to?"
"Hmm..." The bespectacled man pushed up his glasses and hesitated before saying, "I am a university teacher. Since you both trust me, I will judge this for you."
"Please, please!" Both the pockmarked man and the flathead nodded eagerly, staring anxiously at the bespectacled man who called himself a teacher.
"Strictly speaking, this tab was pulled off the can by this brother here, so the thing should be his..." The bespectacled man had only said half when the pockmarked man showed a smug expression, while the flathead grew anxious and was about to speak, but the bespectacled man waved him off and went on. "However, since this brother already threw the tab away, and this other brother picked it up, then it should belong to the latter..."