Chapter 33

Su Yan quickly said, "At the corner near Pear Blossom High School, someone's being robbed. Five thugs."

Su Yan moved fast. By the time he finished the call and slipped his phone into his pocket, the five thugs had only just come to their senses. The leader immediately roared, "You called the police? You fucking called the police?!" They specialized in bullying students from the school and had robbed plenty of money so far. Those students had always meekly let themselves be robbed; even those who resisted eventually compromised after getting beaten. But no one had ever called the police directly!

"Anyone who doesn't call the police is an idiot." Su Yan sneered.

"Fine! You've got guts! I'll make sure you can never show your face at Pear Blossom High School again!" The thug swung a fist at Su Yan while the others grabbed hold of Su Yan's bicycle.

Su Yan stretched out his leg and kicked them directly, one kick per person—fast, accurate, and ruthless. He aimed straight for their vulnerable stomachs, and in the blink of an eye, three of them had collapsed clutching their bellies.

There was a police station not far from Pear Blossom High School, and before long, officers arrived on motorcycles. Su Yan stopped at the right moment and let the thug leader punch him in the jaw. Su Yan pretended to be in pain and fell to the ground.

"What are you doing?! What are you doing?!" The police rushed over and easily restrained the thug leader. The few people lying on the ground were also tied up.

"Who called the police?"

"I did, Officer." Su Yan stood up, rubbing his injured jaw. "I'm Su Yan from Class Two, First Year at Pear Blossom High School. I'd just gotten my report card and was on my way back from school. Since I was lucky enough to win the first-prize scholarship of one thousand yuan, these people targeted me." As he spoke, Su Yan deliberately took out his red certificate booklet and the crisp one thousand yuan.

The officer looked at the proof in the booklet, and his attitude immediately improved. "First in the entire grade? That's really impressive."

"Thankfully, the police arrived today. Otherwise, if I'd been beaten into the hospital, one thousand yuan wouldn't even have covered the medical bills."

"You! Su Yan... you injured my brothers. You're the one who should pay the medical bills!" The thug leader glared at Su Yan resentfully. The officer barked, "Shut up! You little punks refuse to study properly and run around causing trouble all day. You think being underage means the law can't do anything to you? Look at yourselves, then look at Su Yan. You'll never get anywhere as thugs. Study hard and work hard. Getting into university is the only way to have a future. What a waste of your youth—you're a blight on society! Take them all back and notify their teachers and parents to come identify them!"

"Su Yan!" Lin Qiang ran over from around the corner, looking uncertain and alarmed. He stared seriously at the police and the thugs. "What happened?"

"It's nothing major. It's already been dealt with."

The police dragged the thugs away. Lin Qiang kept asking questions, and Su Yan casually told him what had happened. Lin Qiang breathed a sigh of relief. "Good thing you were sharp. Otherwise, you would've been robbed for nothing and gotten beaten up too... Wait, aren't those rotten eggs Wan Xing's followers? You slipped away ahead of time, so how did they know?"

"Who?"

Lin Qiang frowned and said in a low voice, "Wan Fang's thug brother."

"..."

"So he'd been watching you for a long time?"

Su Yan froze. "...Let's not talk about that for now. How did you get out too?"

"It was boring. I told my dad I was going to your place to hang out, and he let me come out."

"I was just heading to the fruit shop. Want to come along? I talked it over with the owner last time—fifty yuan a day. Are you in?"

"I'm in! Hahaha, fifty yuan a day means five hundred in ten days! That's a lot! I've never earned a single cent in my life. Oh, no—one of my essays got published in the newspaper in middle school, and I got thirty yuan in royalties."

"There are no days off. We'll work until the morning of New Year's Eve, then reopen on the morning of the first day of the new year and keep going until school starts."

"No problem!"

"Then get on."

Su Yan gave Lin Qiang a ride straight to the market. When Su Yan reached the vegetable stall, he said, "Aunt Xu, I brought a classmate with me. He'll watch the fruit shop with me."

"Oh, oh, that's good too. We can open tomorrow then—I was just worried we wouldn't have enough hands. Xiao Yan, take your classmate over and get busy."

Lin Qiang followed close behind Su Yan.

"Can you read an electronic scale? You know how to do accounts, right? Can you tell real bills from fake ones?"

"Mm-hmm. Come on, such little things won't stump me."

"Then there's no problem. Aunt Xu is my neighbor. She's a very nice person, and she pays at the end of each day."

"So she's your neighbor. No wonder she was so easy to talk to. Thanks so much. Maybe I can even earn all my tuition during winter break."

"That's for sure. Our tuition is cheap, so it won't be hard to earn."

As they talked, they arrived at the fruit shop. Su Yan raised the rolling shutter, and Lin Qiang looked around. "This shop gets plenty of foot traffic and really stands out. Selling fruit around the New Year can't go wrong."

"Let's take out the fruit and arrange it with price tags first. We've got a lot to do today." Su Yan began dragging out the wooden racks, and Lin Qiang went over to help. Lin Qiang was full of enthusiasm now. He put all his strength into the work, sweating profusely without complaining of fatigue, his face full of smiles.

The two of them worked through most of the afternoon before they finished setting up the shop. Every fruit was arranged neatly, and every price was clearly marked. During that time, some people even came in to buy fruit. Lin Qiang weighed it efficiently, took payment, made change, and recorded the accounts without a single mistake.