At six in the morning.
Xie Huai stood stretching on the steps outside the police station.
The breakfast stall next door had just opened, and he ordered a cup of soy milk and two youtiao.
Xia Xia insisted on paying as thanks for last night, adding a bowl of tofu pudding and two tea eggs to his order.
She only got herself a bowl of plain porridge and a dish of pickled vegetables.
Xie Huai pushed the tea eggs toward her: “You earned so much from handing out flyers, yet you can’t even afford a tea egg?”
Xia Xia hesitated: “I don’t want any.”
“Not for you to eat – I want you to peel them,” Xie Huai said matter-of-factly.
Xia Xia obediently peeled the eggs and handed them to him. Xie Huai stirred the chili sauce into his tofu pudding and quickly finished it in a few gulps.
Xia Xia ate quietly.
She hadn’t rested well last night, with faint dark circles under her eyes. The slight shadows only made her skin look whiter, and her eyelashes trembled as she swallowed.
After finishing her porridge, she took out a hundred yuan from her bag and placed it in front of Xie Huai: “Here’s this month’s payment.”
Xie Huai didn’t take it, wiping sauce from the corner of his mouth with a napkin: “If you’re short on cash, you don’t need to rush to pay me.”
“I can manage,” Xia Xia said. “Two days of part-time work per week is enough.”
Xie Huai took the money, and Xia Xia suddenly asked: “Xie Huai, can I ask you something?”
“Does your family have connections?”
Xie Huai paused, then curved his lips: “Why do you ask?”
Xia Xia voiced a long-held curiosity: “That day at the police station when you smashed the cabinet, the police even apologized to you afterward. How did you manage that?”
Xie Huai fell silent after hearing her question.
After last night, Xia Xia felt closer to Xie Huai and spoke without hesitation, but seeing his expression, she wondered if her question had been offensive.
Just as she was about to say he didn’t have to answer, Xie Huai spoke.
His voice was deliberately lowered and hoarse: “I’ve worked so hard to hide my identity, but you’ve discovered it anyway, so I might as well come clean.”
“Within dozens of miles around my home, who doesn’t know Xie Huai? All the underworld bosses call me brother, and every month they send their men to pay respects at my house. They won’t leave until they see me, and after seeing me, they have to kneel and kowtow, calling me Father Huai.”
“I told the police, if you don’t apologize, want to bet I can make one call and bring hundreds of brothers here? We’ll bring bulldozers and level your station.”
Xia Xia exclaimed: “That’s incredible!”
She looked at him with admiration, stars in her eyes.
Xie Huai: “…You believe that?”
Xia Xia: “…”
Xie Huai sighed: “His office wall had the mid-year evaluation posted…”
He spoke tiredly: “Brother Huai is a law-abiding citizen. I just told him that if he didn’t apologize, I’d sit in the police station lobby and cry, ruining his mid-year evaluation. If crying at the station didn’t work, I’d call the mayor’s hotline to complain, and if that still didn’t work, I’d cry outside the city government office.”
“He said he could detain me for obstructing official duties.” Xie Huai smiled mockingly. “I told him to go ahead – until he apologized, this wouldn’t end. I’d continue making trouble after being released. Let’s see if his reputation would be ruined first, or if I’d die first.”
“What did he say to you?” Xia Xia was confused now.
If Xie Huai had such a temper, he had only verbally threatened her when she caused him so much trouble. Even when Cai Yun insulted him behind his back, he didn’t get angry enough to throw chairs and break things. She couldn’t imagine what the police had said to make him so furious.
“What he said about me doesn’t matter,” Xie Huai said flatly. “But he shouldn’t have brought up my father.”
Xia Xia froze, understanding.
People in Old Chang City spoke crudely – it was a local custom to joke about parents. Those who grew up there didn’t think anything of it, but newcomers found it deeply offensive.
The police officer must have casually sworn, and the curse involved Xie Huai’s father.
Xia Xia asked disappointedly: “So what you said about the underworld followers was all fake?”
“What are you doubting?” Xie Huai looked at her. “Do I look like someone who runs with gangsters?”
“Not really,” Xia Xia glanced at his shoes – he was wearing the 28,000-yuan pair again.
If Xie Huai had so many underworld followers, wearing such expensive shoes would make sense. How else could she explain it? Someone wearing 28,000-yuan shoes needing to constantly find ways to make money, selling bedding and delivering food – anyone would think Xie Huai was as poor as her.
“Oh, these?” Xie Huai lifted his foot casually. “19.90 yuan from Taobao. Is there a problem?”
“Don’t lie to me,” Xia Xia said. “19.90-yuan shoes don’t look like that.”
When it came to 19.90-yuan Taobao shoes, Xia Xia was an expert.
Whether in quality or appearance, Xie Huai’s shoes couldn’t possibly cost 19.90 yuan or even 199 yuan. She hadn’t seen enough expensive shoes to make a definitive judgment.
“These replicas…” Xia Xia thought for a moment, “Must cost at least 300 yuan, right?”
Xie Huai laughed.
Xia Xia asked puzzled: “Did I guess too high?”
“Ridiculously high,” Xie Huai stood up, putting the motorcycle helmet on Xia Xia’s head. “Let’s go, Brother Huai will take you back to school.”
The sun rose in the eastern sky, casting brilliant morning light everywhere.