Greed, like a giant python emerging from the abyss, always seeks to drag people into the depths of sin.
Brother Dabiao was not a good person.
But in the end, he gave up his evil thoughts.
It wasn't kindness that led him to give up.
He was no saint.
He just felt that the person before him was not to be messed with.
In the end, he still took out the note, hesitating as he passed it over.
Song Heping snatched the IOU from his hand, glanced at it then handed it to Lao Gao, "Is this the one?"
Lao Gao looked at it, his hands trembling, feeling as if he were in a dream.
Song Heping seemed to have fallen from the sky, suddenly appearing.
He had never imagined that his old classmate would be the one to reach out and pull him back from the brink of the abyss when he was at his lowest.
"Yes, that's the one."
Looking at the familiar signature, looking at the bright red fingerprint, Lao Gao still felt like he was dreaming.
"Alright, we're even now."
Song Heping turned to Brother Dabiao, "You can go now."
With the money in place, Brother Dabiao was in good spirits.
He stood up and, surrounded by his lackeys, left the office. Amidst a chorus of "Boss" and fawning laughter, showing his teeth but not his eyes, he ordered his men to book several tables at the city's most luxurious Manlouxiang Hotel that evening for a proper celebration.
Watching Brother Dabiao's retreating figure disappear outside the door, and then surveying the chaos around him, Lao Gao's gaze finally settled on his old classmate, Song Heping. He collapsed to the ground once again, clutching Song's legs, crying his eyes out.
He wanted to say something.
He wanted to explain why he had fallen so low.
He wanted to say he wasn't lazy, nor was he not trying hard enough; he was just unlucky.
He wanted to say he would work like an ox or a horse to repay the money.
He wanted to say…
There was too much he wanted to say.
In the end, it all turned into a man's tears, melted into a simple sentence.
"Heping... I... I'm in such a tough spot..."
"Enough, there's gold beneath a man's knees; get up quick!"
Song Heping lifted Lao Gao from the floor like one might lift a chicken.
What was there to explain?
Who, with hair on his head, would choose to be a leper?
Over the years, Song Heping had his fair share of ups and downs while abroad, facing all kinds of lows.
Two years ago, standing by the roadside outside Illigo City, when he saw Ah Guan already burned to a skeleton in the driver's seat, Tan Pudgy blown up into a tree by an IED, looking at the generator set carrying all his possessions that was bombed into a mess of holes, wasn't his despair akin to Lao Gao's today?
When Song Heping walked Lao Gao out of the company and locked the front door, Xu Pudgy slinked over from the side.
"Is it settled!?"
He hardly believed his own eyes.
"I saw Brother Dabiao and his crew leave, and I was just about to go up and see what was happening."
"It's all taken care of." Song Heping said, "Let's go, find a place for us old classmates to sit, have a meal."
Lao Gao stood to the side, overly timid, bowing his head like a cock spared from the chopping block, not daring to make a sound.
Xu Pudgy, on the other hand, was excited, "Great! Let's go back to our county town, to the Garbage Pig's food stall, eat some roasted goose! It's on me!"
Garbage Pig was the owner of a food stall in the county town. Because his surname was Zhu and he was fat, his food stall had been a roadside stand for many years. Located in a less desirable part of the Old Town, many people criticized the hygiene, but it remained popular because it was tasty and affordable, customers never ceased, and no one seemed to care much about cleanliness.
Back in their high school days, Garbage Pig's was the most upscale place they could afford and profoundly desired.
Two hours later, at the Garbage Pig's food stall in the county town.
The three found a corner spot to sit down, surrounded by the greasy-aproned owner with a greasy menu to take their orders.
After ordering seven or eight dishes, Xu Pudgy pulled out a bottle of Wuliangye he'd brought from home.
"This bottle of liquor was given to me last year when I saved quite a bit of money helping someone buy a good car. Good thing I kept it, so today, I guess I'm offering Buddha a borrowed flower."
As he spoke, he poured three glasses.
"Heping, you really made it big overseas!"
Xu Pudgy was the first to take a sip, uttering a soulful exclamation.
Song Heping had learned of the two million that saved Lao Gao.
Song Heping mumbled, "My boss has money; it's all his money."