Outside the private room, Zhu Tong pressed the answer button as soon as he went out. “Xiao Xin.”
“…”
There was no answer, so Zhu Tong said again, “Xiao Xin?”
“Ge,” came a pitiful, aggrieved cry.
Zhu Tong couldn’t help but smile as fondness washed over him. “What’s wrong?”
Zhu Xin answered, “Have you finished the monthly exam?”
Zhu Tong then told her about going to a classmate’s home for tutoring for the monthly exam.
Zhu Tong finished his story with: “Well, I just finished the test today.”
Zhu Xin suddenly became much more energetic. “Then you are going on vacation, right? When will you be back on National Day?”
“…”
‘National Day?’ Zhu Tong was stunned.
Yes, it’s the National Day holiday soon.
Zhu Tong looked back at the private room and said hesitantly, “I… may not be able to go back on National Day.”
His sister was silent again, making Zhu Tong feel guilty and apprehensive.
After a while, his sister from over the phone gave a cute “hum” and casually said, “Did you find my sister-in-law over there, so that’s why you won’t come back?”
Zhu Tong: “…”
‘Sister-in-law… what sister-in-law?’
He absolutely didn’t understand what Zhu Xin meant. “How is it possible? No, I didn’t come back because… Because I didn’t pass the exam last time, so I want to cram more until I’m caught up.”
“…”
After Zhu Tong finished speaking, he held his breath. Well, because he knew it was a bold-faced lie.
Speaking of which, he didn’t even seem to have explained to Xiao Xin why he changed schools.
After a long silence on the phone, Zhu Tong paused and wanted to comfort her. Instead, she spoke first and said, “Um… Are you okay?”
Zhu Tong suddenly felt his heart warm. With a smile, he replied, “I’m in good health, don’t worry.”
Zhu Xin: “I’m glad you’re fine.”
She didn’t ask Zhu Tong why he cannot go back. Not long after that, the call ended.
‘She is so sensible,’ Zhu Tong thought, feeling both relieved and guilty. He lied to his sister again!
He sighed and turned back to the private room.
After Zhu Xin hung up the phone, she didn’t move for a long time, only looking at her phone’s screen with a blank face. Her emotions were unknown to outside observers.
In the private room, when Zhu Tong returned to his seat, there was already a plate of peeled shrimp on his plate.
He looked at Shao Ming in surprise. “You peeled it for me?”
Shao Ming replied: “Well, I’m afraid that when you come back, Luo Suo will have already guzzled it all up.”
Luo Suo: “??!”
‘I don’t eat five-spice ones, so what is this slander!’
‘But why does Ming-ge seem to be in a bad mood?’
Luo Suo looked at Shao Ming, then at Zhu Tong, and said tentatively, “Who did you just… call? It seems that you haven’t met them for so long?”
Zhu Tong put on his plastic gloves again and said, “It’s my little sister.”
Luo Suo was surprised. “You have a little sister?”
Zhu Tong nodded. “Yes.”
Luo Suo looked at Shao Ming again.
Just now, the low air pressure in the box seemed to disappear.
Luo Suo: “…”
–Both Shao Ming and Zhu Tong have been romantically pursued by boys, so Luo Suo’s thought immediately went that way.
Shao Ming ignored his scrutiny and said to Zhu Tong, “Eat it quickly, it won’t taste good if it gets cold.”
Zhu Tong gradually became accustomed to Shao Ming’s meticulous care for him. He promised to pay it back slowly in the future.
He smiled and nodded. “Okay.”
Luo Suo: “…”
When I went back to school after dinner, there was some noise at the school gate, and he could vaguely hear some voices.
“…The debt collector has come to the school gate, are they crazy?”
“Isn’t Zhou Sui’s family rich? He spent so much money on gifts when he was chasing girls. How could he be in debt?”
“I heard that it was a gambling debt. The debt collectors called his father, but he couldn’t pay it off, so they went to the school to find Zhou Sui and his younger brother.”
“What? Is his father insane? How much money does he think his two sons have?”
“That’s hard to say, didn’t you just hear Zhou Sui’s father shouting at the school gate? Zhou Sui promised to help him pay off his gambling debts within a month. Maybe he really has some means.”
“Speaking of. that… a few days ago, Zhou Sui pursued Zhu Tong with great fanfare at school… Fuck, don’t tell me that he done that to get money from Zhu Tong’s family? Otherwise, how can he get so much money within only a month?”
“That’s right, in this school, there’s only one person who can get with Zhu Tong, and that is our resident Study God… Fuck, it’s him!”
The girl who spoke just now pointed at two people who just appeared at the school gate.
The incident at the gate of the school seemed to have just happened, and the onlookers had not dispersed, and the voice of discussion was not small.
Luo Suo was very curious, so he inquired a loitering student ahead of his two friends. After learning about the situation, he couldn’t wait to run back to share the news with the two.
“We missed a big show today! Zhou Sui’s father asked his son for money in front of the school. Ha, he actually asked a student for money. There is such a strange thing in this world!”
Zhu Tong was also surprised, “…Where are they now?”
Luo Sui said, “Zhou Sui thinks his father is shameful and has already dragged him home.”
“…”
Zhou Sui took his father back to the house. The family that seemed to be quite wealthy had been turned into a mess by the creditors.
Mr. Zhou made a fuss at the school gate. His face was still blue at the moment. He looked at the smashed things on the ground, grabbed Zhou Sui and said, “Look, see what our smashed home looks like? You say you can get the money within a month, so where is the money? Ah? Where did you get the money? Laozu has supported you for so many years, for more than years! Where the fuck the money you promised!”
Zhou Sui was questioned by his father as he was grabbed by the collar. He couldn’t bear it anymore, so he threw him away using force. He said with a cold face, “If you keep yelling in front of me, you won’t get any penny.”
Mr. Zhou could only look at him silently. Inwardly, he had already given up.
Zhou Sui walked to the window and called Qin Junhong again.
Still can’t connect.
Since the last time he asked Qin Junhong to give some of the money first, Qin Junhong has never replied to his news. Zhou Sui didn’t know if he found something, but he still had his trump card. Using that, Qin Junhong should’ve folded.
He contacted the middleman who had helped connect him to Qin Junhong, and sent his screenshots of chat records.
He received a reply quickly.
[If anyone can believe you, you can send out this screenshot.]
After all, it’s just a screenshot, it couldn’t prove that the person who was in contact with Zhou Sui is Qin Junhong. After all, Qin Junhong did not use his own WeChat account to contact him.
Zhou Sui realized that his middleman had already given up on him, looking at him with the eyes of “dead pigs are not afraid of boiling water”. In an instant, he felt breathless, as if someone was strangling his neck. He couldn’t get up.
“Oh shit!”
His face was ugly as he uttered foul language. He threw his phone out with force, and it fell heavily to the ground, instantly shattering into pieces.
As soon as his father saw his reaction, the fire that had just been suppressed rose up again, “What do you mean by throwing your phone like that? Could it be that you can’t get the money? If you can’t get the money, what kind of school are you going to go to! I’m telling you, if you can’t get the money, I will sell the two of you to pay off my debt! Useless things! Two losers, I have raised you two for so many years for nothing!”
“…”
The rough voices in the house were deafening, and Zhou Sui frowned at his mercy, unable to say anything.
Behind the door, flattened against the wall, Zhou Rui looked at his father and brother who were almost scrambling in the middle of the mess, with panic and confusion in his eyes.
He hadn’t seen his mother since he could remember. He heard from the neighbors that she ran away because his father kept gambling and she couldn’t stand it anymore.
When he was a child, I didn’t know what gambling was. He only remembered that a group of people often came to play mahjong at home, and he couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night because of their noise.
The first time he played at the poker table, it was because his father was out of luck, and he pulled him to change his luck. After winning once, he tasted the sweetness and gradually discovered the fun.
He never thought gambling was such a big deal before, because no matter how much money he owed, his older brother would always fill the hole for him.
His older brother was very powerful. It seemed that he always had enough money. He didn’t know where the money came from, but he didn’t care, as long as he had the money.
He always felt that his brother was his role model. He could make money, have different girlfriends, and represented the school’s basketball team to play in the city.
In his cognition, his brother could never fall.
But what happened now?
What went wrong?
What should he do now? Will he be expelled?
He doesn’t want to be expelled!
In the panic, he suddenly thought of something, and he glanced at Zhou Sui.
‘That’s right, Zhu Tong.’
His brother must have come to this point because he offended Zhu Tong. He could go to Zhu Tong to intercede and ask him to let them go!
‘Yes, I should go to Zhu Tong.’ Zhou Rui thought in despair, stopped looking at his crazy father in the room, opened the door, and escaped.
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