Back at the supermarket, Wang Xiaoliang refused to give in. He wanted to make every second count.
Under his direction, the Three Fast Knife Hands worked like wound-up machines. Blades flashed and the fragrance of fruit filled the air. No sooner were boxes of freshly cut fruit placed on the freezer cabinets than the students streaming in snapped them up.
Business was booming.
More and more students were returning to campus.
This was no coincidence. Wang Xiaoliang had put up signs at all three fruit stalls saying fruit would only be available for three more days.
Many students asked, "Why are you stopping? This is so convenient!"
Wang Xiaoliang had heard Li Le explain, "Some pigheaded idiots at the school won't let us sell anymore."
The response he got was, "That's how the school is. Anything good, they ban it. They just won't let us live in peace."
The daily sales figures kept breaking records.
But with every rise in those numbers, the anger inside Wang Xiaoliang flared a little higher.
Fuck, the better it gets, the harder it is to accept!
This should have been the engine that launched my career. Now I have to shut it off and dismantle it myself!
How am I supposed to swallow that?
Li Le was working especially hard, cutting watermelons as though performing acrobatics. He had something bottled up inside him, always feeling that he had caused this disaster. If he had not gotten into trouble and ended up at the Police Station, and his boss had not cursed out that teacher who was a beast in human skin, Boss Wang's stalls would not have gone under.
Yet his boss had not blamed him once, and had even arranged his next job.
Guilt mixed with gratitude, making the watermelon knife whip through