Could You Stop Making Trouble for Me?

Shen Wangjing's expression did not soften at all. He planted the hoe on the ground and crouched in front of Jiang Xun.

His broad back faced him, the contours of his shoulder blades forming two clean lines beneath his black T-shirt.

"Get on."

Jiang Xun held his waist and caught his breath, then held the bowl out to him. "Eat first."

Shen Wangjing did not turn around.

"I'll get on after you eat. Otherwise, I'm not getting on." Jiang Xun pushed the rim of the bowl right up beside the back of Shen Wangjing's head, looking much like a robber holding a gun to a hostage.

Shen Wangjing finally turned his head and glanced at the bowl.

Braised pork and sweet-and-sour ribs were piled on the rice. The sauce had stained the grains dark brown, and the cooled fat had congealed into a thin white film.

Without asking anything, he took the bowl and shoveled the rice into his mouth with rapid strokes of his chopsticks, finishing it in a few bites.

The corners of Jiang Xun's mouth lifted. "That's more like it."

Shen Wangjing set the empty bowl on a roadside rock and turned around again.

Jiang Xun was very careful as he climbed on, but the instant his chest pressed against Shen Wangjing's back, he still gave a muffled groan of pain.

Shen Wangjing hooked his hands beneath his knees and lifted him steadily onto his back.

Shen Wangjing stayed silent the entire way.

He carried him over the rutted dirt road and around the old locust tree at the village entrance. Just before they reached the house, his steps suddenly slowed.

"Could you stop making trouble for me?"

His voice was deep and low, as though he had held it in for a long time before finally forcing out those words.

Jiang Xun had been growing drowsy on his back, but those words jolted him awake.

He thought he had misheard.

"What did you say?"

"Those people were after me. This has nothing to do with you." Shen Wangjing kept walking, his tone even. "Stay here quietly for a month, and you can go back to the city. You don't need to get involved in any of this. Stop making trouble."

This time, Jiang Xun understood.

He struggled off Shen Wangjing's back. Another dull ache shot through his back when his feet hit the ground, but he could no longer spare any attention for the pain.

"I'm making trouble for you?" Jiang Xun pointed at his own nose. "That bald guy blocked the road with five or six people to beat me up. I took a blow from a club, and I'm making trouble for you?"

Shen Wangjing turned around and looked at him with little emotion in his dark eyes. "If you hadn't thrown dates at Li Guizhi's head yesterday, or grabbed Zhao Pengfei's food in the cafeteria today, they wouldn't have-"

"Wouldn't have what?" Jiang Xun cut him off, every trace of a smile gone from his face. "Are you saying I should've pretended to be asleep when they came to steal your chickens? That when Zhao Pengfei insulted your brother and your grandpa at school, I should've sat there and pretended I couldn't hear?"

Shen Wangjing's jaw tightened.

"If you think I'm causing you trouble and want me gone, just say so. You don't need to beat around the bush." Jiang Xun sneered.

"You're the kind of person who bites the hand that helps you! If I ever stick my nose into your business again, I'll call you Grandpa!"

After shouting that, he turned and walked away, his strides fast and urgent. His back hurt so much that cold sweat broke out at his temples, but he did not even furrow his brow.

Shen Wangjing stood on the dirt road as the sky slowly darkened, a streak of deep red sunset still lingering over the western mountains.

Jiang Xun's accusation about biting the hand that helped him had barely faded from the air before the courtyard gate slammed shut in front of him.

He stood there for a long time.

The mountain breeze blew his sweat-soaked T-shirt against his body, and a chill crept up his spine.

Behind the monitor, the director was grinning so hard her mouth nearly twisted out of shape.

What did natural dramatic conflict look like? This!

That speechless silence between them, one walking ahead with a cold face and the other following in a huff-add some emotional background music and captions, and it was guaranteed to trend!

A sudden chill came from behind her. The director instinctively turned and found herself facing Shen Wangjing's expressionless face.

The mountain night had already turned chilly. The cold light of the monitor fell across his face, making his deep-set eyes look like two bottomless wells.

Goosebumps instantly raced across the director's back.

"Shen Wangjing? Is-is something wrong?"

Shen Wangjing stood before her, staring expressionlessly into her eyes.

"I don't know what the rules or purpose of your show are."

"But is this how you protect the people taking part in it?"

The director opened her mouth. Before her mind caught up, she reflexively waved a hand to signal for the camera following him to be switched off.

"Well... we admittedly didn't think everything through," she said with a dry cough. "But you know what kind of show we're making. We're documenting reality. We can't really interfere too much-"

"Documenting reality."

Shen Wangjing repeated the words in an even tone, yet the director felt as though every word came out of his mouth radiating cold.

"Six thugs surrounded a minor with clubs. You had two cameras set up right there and filmed from beginning to end. Not one person stepped in to stop them."

"He took a blow to the back. Three inches farther over, and it would've hit the back of his head."

"If something really had happened, which of you would have taken responsibility?"

Jiang Xun flung himself onto the wooden bed, which was hard enough to sharpen a knife on. Grimacing, he rolled over and buried his face in the pillow, which was so flat that it was little more than two layers of cloth.

The scent of soapberry mixed with the damp mountain air rushed into his nose, making him even angrier.

That ungrateful bastard, Shen Wangjing.

What had he done since yesterday that hadn't been about standing up for him?

Li Guizhi had stood at the gate insulting his grandpa, and he had thrown dates at her.

Gold Chain had climbed over the wall in the middle of the night to steal his chickens, and he had grabbed a cleaver and pinned him down in the coop.

The Village Chief's idiot son had called him useless and his brother a coward at school, and he had dumped a lunch box over that moron's head.

And what had he gotten in return?

Nothing but, "Could you stop making trouble for me?"

As if he really were some troublemaker who did nothing but cause problems.

He must have had nothing better to do, standing up for a jerk like that.

From now on, he would only grab food for himself. Other people getting insulted was none of his damn business. Even if someone climbed onto Shen Wangjing's head and took a shit, he wouldn't care.

The more Jiang Xun thought about it, the angrier he grew, and he slammed his fist into the pillow.

The pillow had already been flat. After that heavy punch, it was flattened into a pancake.