Life-Saving Days by the Husky’s Side

When the Zhou family received the news, all members were simultaneously shocked.

Zhou Luwen has been a model student and a good boy since he was a child. He has never been beaten by another person in his entire life. He just went to see his friends, how did he get hit?

Madam Zhou held the phone, “What did you say? What happened to Xiao-Wen?”

The driver said, “He was hit, they’re at the police station right now.”

He had just finished parking the car at that time. The moment he had locked the door, he saw the scene of Zhou Luwen being smashed in the face and hurried over to help.

At the same time, those teenagers went crazy and wildly beat the guy who had hurt Zhou Luwen. The other side’s anger was provoked and their punches became even more ruthless. The two groups quickly rolled into a ball. In the chaos, Zhou Luwen was unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of another punch, and after that, the driver stopped any chances of him being touched again.

Later, a few other takeaway brothers ran over and worked together to pull the two sides apart.

But the effort put in proved to be useless as there was a police station nearby, and the police arrived at the scene shortly after to detain them.

The little brothers raged. “Arrest them, stealing the customers’ takeaway, are you fucking shameless!””

The takeaway brother was also enraged. “You guys are spouting bullshit, blaming us just because you aren’t fast enough to take the orders, are you sick in the head!?”

The little brothers were met with such a brazen person for the first time and immediately kicked up a fury.

“Bullshit, you are the ones sick in the head, stealing other people’s food!”

“Useless fucks, go die in a hole, see if your intestines rot!”*

[T/N: 缺德玩意, 不得好死，小心烂肠子: meanings in order: person lacking of good morals, (curse you to) never die a well/a normal death, be careful of your intestines rotting]

“See if your heart and lungs rot!”

“Throw yourself into the fucking garbage!”

[T/N: 整个一大写的垃圾: don’t know what this means]

The boys were riled up even more. “How did your parents educate you, to have such vicious personalities? We were going to let you off easy since you’re so small but you still have the audacity to slander people?!”

“Fuck your mother, your parents didn’t educate you well!”

“Fucking%￥#……”

“God*￥#……”

The two sides abused each other back and forth with rapid speed, and in the blink of an eye they began to cuss out the other party.

Before the policeman could finish yelling “All of you, shut the hell up”, Lao San was about to run over to beat up another boy out of rage. He was pulled to a stop by the policeman and pressed down to the floor. Lao San was forced to bend over and, seeing a certain takeaway brother’s thigh so close to his face, opened his mouth and chomped down.

The little takeaway brother cried out, tears instantly falling out.

The policeman: “……”

Onlookers: “……”

Zhou Luwen, who was covering his face: “……”

Er-ge said, “Lao San, keep it there, don’t let go!”

Lao San was really obedient, being kicked twice by the howling little brother but still keeping his teeth in place.

The policeman roared, “…shut up, quit messing around!”

The police ripped the two apart with black lines shadowing their faces and proceeded to bring them all into the police station.

The driver naturally had to follow them and the Zhou family was notified.

Madam Zhou hung up the phone and wanted to rush over to the station with Zhou Li. Father Zhou and Zhou Lubo just happened to come home, so in the end, all members of the family drove over.

When they arrived, the person in charge of the food delivery company in this area also arrived.

The little brothers and the little takeaway brother were still accusing each other. Zhou Luwen sat on a stool with a towel stuffed with a popsicle, pressing it against his face. Seeing Zhou Li and the others enter the room, he stood up.

The little brothers immediately became honest.

They weren’t afraid of fighting or cursing out others, but when they saw Zhou Li and the rest of the Zhou family, they remembered how the family had made so much space in their busy schedule just for them. They had a severe guilty conscience, not only because they caused trouble on the first day of work, but because they didn’t protect Zhou Luwen.

Zhou Li glanced at them nestling together like quails, then attended to Zhou Luwen first.

Zhou Lubo was also examining Zhou Luwen’s injury. He squeezed the boy’s chin and lifted his face to look at it from all angles. When he saw the grew splotch of blood at the corner of his mouth, the man’s face suddenly became cold. He released his hold and looked at the policeman to ask what was going on.

His aura was truly too intense. One look and you could see he wasn’t someone to be provoked.

The takeaway boy who started the fight wanted to explain himself but after spitting out a few words, the man sent him a cold glance. After that, he didn’t dare to say anything again.

Zhou Lubo patiently listened to the police’s account, then looked at the little brothers. “Were they stealing food from the customers?”

The boys nodded in unison.

Zhou Li raised his eyebrows.

During this period when the takeaway industry was just taking off, the system will not be ‘perfect’ and standardized for the time being. Similar incidents also happened in his world. He remembered this topic showing up on the news at that time, and it seems to be heading in the same direction here.

The takeaway brothers refused to back down. “We didn’t steal the food, it’s ‘cause they couldn’t snatch orders and held a grudge.”

Zhou Lubo coldly asked, “Which orders are you talking about? List all your orders by time and show me.”

The takeaway brothers said, “…they couldn’t snatch ours so they’ll take the others. How can you tell?”

Zhou Lubo said, “Then pull out your orders separately. I will find someone to check the monitoring of the specified areas and see if you stole the food to eat, then we will know what’s going on.”

The policeman: “……”

The takeaway brothers: “……”

The little brothers: “! ! !”

The phones were all with the police and the policeman was also trying to get down to the bottom of this. Together with the takeaway brothers, they looked at Zhou Lubo in shock, wondering if he was just deceiving them.

Zhou Lubo proceeded to prove himself a very vigorous and resolute person. After getting the order list, he made a few phone calls, then he sat in a chair and waited for the result.

The person in charge knew his identity and wanted to scale down this matter that has unexpectedly grown so big. At this time, they saw the assistant come over to said that the public were more concerned about this matter. Not only did they kick up a fuss on Weibo, they also clued in the media about the ‘stealing of takeaway foods’. Just a few moments ago, a reporter had already called the company.

Zhou Li was about to walk over to chat with the little brothers. Passing by the company staff, he happened to hear the last comment and interrupted, “The food delivery industry is getting more trendy. If these events have been happening for some time already, I am afraid that the reporters have long been undercover.”

It seemed that this was the reason why the topic had been on the hot search so quickly. He slowly added, “If the undercover reporter receives this update, they will definitely make a move first.”

The eyelids of the person in charge twitched fiercely, feeling that this was no longer something he could handle by himself, so he scurried away to contact the boss.

The handful of takeaway brothers saw the person in charge’s attitude towards the reporters, then the terrifying man’s calm appearance. Their expressions changed, with a bad premonition itching at their minds.

They were right about the premonition.

When the company’s emergency meeting was over, Zhou Lubo happened to receive the results of his investigation.

It wasn’t a coincidence for everything to line up so timely*. The person Zhou Lubo called started the investigation, matching footage in accordance to the most recent orders on the list. Nowadays, the city is under surveillance everywhere, so there will always be one or two cameras that records someone doing something. Sure enough, in one surveillance footage, they saw someone opening the takeaway and stealing bites.

[T/N: 实在不凑巧，现在正是饭点: not sure what this means, could be that Zhou Lubo wanted proof of the boys stealing food along with knowing how the company will manage things if accusations turned out to be true to put more pressure on the takeaway boys]

With evidence right under their noses, the little takeaway brothers finally wept and apologised.

But the apologies were useless. The company had already decided to expel them, also in part of how they were caught brawling in the street, picking fights and gathering a crowd to aid their brawl. They were to be detained for five days and fined. As for the little brothers, because they were minors with a reasonable excuse for throwing themselves into the fight, they simply given a lecture before being released.

Zhou Li took them out and asked, “Next time, what should you do if you see such a thing again?”

The boys mumbled, “At…at least record them talking or take a video, then hand it to the company to deal with.”

Zhou Li endorsed with a light “en” and asked again, “WIll you continue to work?”

The boys hesitated for a moment. “Continue…ba, this is only our first day, we can’t give up halfway.”

“Ying-ge, we were wrong, we will not be so impulsive in the future.”

“We promise to work as hard as we can.”

Zhou Li nodded, knowing that the person in charge will take care of them, so he handed them over to the other party before leaving in his family’s car.

He looked at Zhou Luwen. “Are you okay?”

Zhou Luwen reassured, “Just a small injury.”

But this was the first time he had been involved in such a thing. He felt a little helpless but found the event to be laughable, but he still helped speak up for the boys, “Although they are impulsive, their starting point is good.”

Zhou Li was noncommittal and accompanied him to the hospital to check his injuries before returning home.

The takeaway company was extremely efficient and an update was issued that very night.

They felt that instead of waiting for the media to ask questions, they should take the initiative to speak out, so they revealed the incident to the public and sincerely apologised, promising that they will undergo an internal detoxification and improve their organisation. As for the employees who bravely intervened, they will be rewarded with 1,000 yuan in cash, although they also added that the company does not approve of using violence to solve the problem. This will be the only time, not to be made an example.

As soon as this announcement came out, the company immediately gained a round of goodwill.

The local media did not let this hot search go and rushed to interview those employees.

When Zhou Li received the update, it was already the next morning.

Today, the Zhou family and the Ji family’s cars happened to meet at the entrance of the neighbourhood. Ji Shaoyan messaged Zhou Li and both cars stopped to swap one person out. Zhou Li and Ji Shaoyan sat in one while Ji Tianyang was forced out and into Zhou Luwen’s car by his brother.

Ji Shaoyan raised the soundproof board once again, thinking to himself that since there were no damn dog heads around, they can finally keep each other in good company. 

At this time, when he looked up, he notice Zhou Li was looking down at his phone, so he leaned into the other’s space. “What are you looking at?”

Zhou Li turned his phone to the side and they watched the video on the screen.

In the video, Er-ge and the others righteously proclaimed, “Next time we see such a thing, we will still take care of it!”

“Right, such a wicked act, no normal person will be happy to sit back and do nothing.”

“As food deliverymen, it is our duty to deliver goods to customers in perfect condition!”

“But fighting really isn’t the right thing to do. I hope that the majority of netizens will not learn from our actions.”

This wasn’t over yet. After careful questioning, the media found that the delivery boys themselves were far more interesting than the takeaway.

They were all high school students who had gotten into a disagreement with their parents on the issue of “going to university or graduating to work”, so their parents specially allowed them to take half a month’s leave to let them experience the life of a deliveryman before graduation, which was why they were currently out and about the city working.

What’s this?

This was an analysis about education ah!

Another hot search topic! An interview with the parents must be arranged!

The little brothers said, “No, no, it’s all mostly thanks to our good brother, he’s the one who persuaded our mums and dads.”

“Right, without him, we wouldn’t be standing here… En? Without his consent, we can’t tell you who he is for the time being.”

“Anyway, he has always been supporting us from behind, he is our good brother for a lifetime*!”

[T/N: their group chat name lol]

“…reality? The reality is that society is not as beautiful as we imagined. Here’s some advice to all who are still studying: you need to cherish it ah!”

Zhou Li: “……”

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

As of now, the video has been liked more than 10,000 times.

The comments were basically praising them, praising their young heroic personalities, and some companies’ official blogs also joined in the fun, saying that if they weren’t admitted to university in the future, their business was willing to take them in.

Zhou Li looked at the seven heads* on-screen silence and turned off the phone in a complicated mood.

[T/N: 七头蒜/seven heads of garlic: don’t know what this means]

The picture he imagined was that once these dumbass teenagers were severely beaten by society, after being force-fed enough life lessons, they will run back to him, crying bitterly and begging him to help them study. As it turned out, the plot had ended right after being severely beaten. He was absolutely stupefied. With these boys, ‘plot’ has never been normal when it came to them.

…that’s right.

These guys could even pull things like selling vegetables in the beginning, he should’ve known that they might not take the usual path this time around.

Ji Shaoyan glanced at him. “Are you thinking that after being hounded by the praise of the public, they might fall in love with the work of a takeaway deliveryman?”

Zhou Li said, “It’s hard to explain.”

“With the influence of the hot search, they will focus on work more seriously and settle down after a few more days. Even if they really choose to down down this path, it is still their decision.” Ji Shaoyan paused after this reassurance, trying to say as gently as possible, “Don’t think about them anymore, think about me.”

Zhou Li heard the slight sour note on his voice and laughed. “What part of you do you want me to think about?”

Ji Shaoyan said, “Whichever.”

Zhou Li turned his body to the side to look at him, unmoving.

Under the watchful eyes staring at him like this, Ji Shaoyan felt his heart warm a little. Leaning closer, he said, “What are you thinking about?”

Zhou Li: “Eggy.”

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

Seeing the young master’s smile become slightly more handsome, Zhou Li stretched out his arms and hugged him before the other could speak. Along the way, he played with the other boy’s hair, thinking to himself that it didn’t feel as good as Eggy’s.

He was about to sigh with emotion when he felt Ji Shaoyan hug him back, so he moved a little back to look at the other’s face.

The two were very close, close enough for their breaths to melt together.

En, although he doesn’t feel as good as Eggy, he was much more pleasing to the eye.

As these thoughts flashed by Zhou Li’s mind, he felt a soft pressure on his lips, along with the unique fragrance belonging only to Ji Shaoyan. His heartbeat instantly skipped a few beats and he stared at the person who had leaned so close to him. Then he closed his eyes.

When Ji Shaoyan got out of the car, his smile was particularly bright and his entire body exuded a sense of joy from inside out.

But the students of Mingying didn’t pay attention to his peculiar appearance, because they realised Zhou Luwen’s face was bearing a wound. All were instantly taken aback; drama in the Zhou family was finally about to unfold! 

“Say, do you guys think it’s like this?” Some brain-dead fans felt that they had uncovered the truth. “Zhou Li is actually not doing well at home. He had never had any allies in the past, so he pulled Ji-shao into his camp. With such a strong backing, he dares to challenge Zhou Luwen!”

“Fuck, you’re so right, these rich giants seem to have a good relationship on the surface, but in fact, the’re totally incompatible with each other!”

“When Ji-shao hugged him, it was probably because he was feeling distressed. Ji-shao was comforting him, right?”

“They were teammates. Can it be that, Ji-shao agreed to help him, then fell in love with him?” 

The idiotic devotees strongly felt that this was something their Ji-shao would do and were deeply touched.

Such a kind man, worthy of being their divine school grass!

Zheng San ran to Zhou Luwen’s classroom immediately after hearing the rumours.

Zhou Luwen happened to be heading out and met him at the door. Zheng San stared at the bruise by the corner of his mouth and asked, “You’re hurt ah, Er-shao, how did that happen?”

Zhou Luwen simply explained, “I saw people fighting on the streets yesterday and was injured accidentally when I tried to break it up.”

He thought Zheng San was here to look for someone else so once he finished clarifying, he dodged the other person to leave. 

Zheng San stood there, unmoving and still staring.

His attendants* also saw Zhou Luwen’s injury and discussed amongst themselves.

[T/N: followers]

“What accident, he must be holding stuff back.”

“Zhou-shao hit him bei?”

“Probably ba, after all, he used to be the school bully ah!”

Zheng San didn’t say a word, turning around and returning to his classroom.

He silently struggled through two classes. For the sake of Zhou Luwen giving him ‘relief’ yesterday, he took Zhou Li to the school’s milk tea shop during the long break and bought something for the other to sit down and eat.

Zhou Li has also been rather absent-minded during classes.

This was his first romantic relationship. The entire concept was a bit novel and hard to adapt to, but kissing really is a good medicine to break down the walls in a relationship. Ji Shaoyan was the only thing that occupied his thoughts during these last two classes. He heard Zheng San ask him how he and Zhou-er were getting along at home and casually replied, “Very well.”

“Very well, then why is there a bruise on his face?” Zheng San said, “I listened to my people’s advice, he is a bit hateful, but problems can never be solved physically. Look at me, I’ve been the school tyrant for so many years, but haven’t I never laid my hands on him? Because the ones who solve things hand-on will always suffer losses.” 

Zhou Li was taken aback, stuck between crying or laughing. “I wasn’t the one who hit him.”

Zheng San was also taken aback, furiously smacking the tabletop. “Fuck, who was it!”

Zhou Li and his attendants stared at him in one simultaneous movement.

“……” Zheng San slapped the table again, excitedly hollering, “Such…such a strong punch ah! Far too skilled, that guy! I’ve been fed up for so many years, how nice it is to have someone take the burden off my shoulders. I’ll treat him to dinner!”

Everybody: “……”

Are you tired? The tone changed so sharply that we’re choking on your behalf.

Zhou Li laughed, “Alright you can stop your act, I know you actually care. Even if you say no, you guys are still childhood friends. If I had a friend I’ve known since we were young, no matter how bad the relationship, I would still care about them.”

Zheng San was relieved of his burden in an instant and patted him on the shoulder. “It’s still a brother who knows me best. Now, what the hell is up with that guy?”

Zhou Li briefly clued him in about yesterday’s lead-up and outcome, ending on how everything had already been resolved.

Zheng San reflected on how Zhou-er really wasn’t lying, it’s just that his fate truly must be cursed.

He was about to make a comment but was interrupted by Ji Tianyang’s voice coming from behind him.

Ji Tianyang also came out to buy drinks with his classmates. When he saw them in-store, he stepped forward to say hello, and after paying for his drink, sat at the table next to them, placing his phone aside to drink his milkshake.

Zhou Li glanced at the phone charm dangling off the case and almost choked on his juice.

It was a carved piece of wood, the charm taking the shape of a flower petal, and in the very centre of the petal was a single character. It was carved out almost exactly in the shape of the jade lotus pendant.

He managed to adjust his expression, pretending to be curious and picking up the boy’s phone, inspecting the case then saying, “It’s quite unique, where did you buy it?”

Ji Tianyang said, “I drew it myself and asked someone to carve it. They delivered it this morning, so it’s brand new. Zhou-ge, if you like it, you can have it, I’ll just get someone to carve it again. It’s not much trouble anyway.”

Zhou Li said, “No need, I don’t use phone chains.”

He put the other’s belonging back on the table and randomly chatted with Zheng San and the others. Holding the cup of juice he bought for Ji Shaoyan, he went upstairs in the main building and strode into Ji Shaoyan’s classroom.

Ji Shaoyan was in the middle of teaching his classmates and was startled when he saw the other walk in.

Zhou Li handed him the juice and considered the situation, asking, “Are you busy?”

Ji Shaoyan warmly replied, “Not busy, do you need anything?”

Zhou Li: “I miss you, I wanna speak to you alone.”

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

Everyone else around them: “……”

Zhou Li looked at the classmate who was waiting for an explanation for the question and sincerely pleaded, “Lovesickness is difficult to treat, so can you help me fulfill my needs first?”

What can they possibly say?

The person with the question looked like they were lacking a brain* as they watched Zhou Li push their divine school grass out the door.

[T/N: 问题的人神色木然: devoid of all expression/dazed]

The author has something to say:

Ji Shaoyan: Silly Fool is suddenly so sweet, it must be because of my kisses, how useful!

I saw in the previous chapter that someone asked whether the takeaway story was true or not. En, it was indeed on the news. It happened a few years ago, but as the industry becomes more and more standardised, businesses will pack their takeaways far more strictly. The delivery brothers have to deliver their goods within a set time limit. Now, this situation should rarely happen ba.