Chapter 28

After Wen Jiuze got up and returned to the car, a young girl in the convoy sat next to Lin Guosheng and the others.

“Hey, is that handsome guy someone you knew before? What’s his name?”

“His name is Wen Jiuze. He was a brother who worked with us at the martial arts gym before the apocalypse,” Lin Guosheng replied.

“Linzi, I heard you all call him Brother Jiu. Is he older than all of you? He doesn’t look like it.” The girl smiled, her well-maintained face glowing with charm.

“That’s not true. Our Brother Jiu is only a year older than me. But he’s really powerful. He was unbeatable at the martial arts gym. Even Brother Chai couldn’t defeat him. Calling him Brother Jiu is a sign of respect. Do you understand?”

“He’s so amazing and handsome! Linzi, please introduce him to us!”

Lin Guosheng finally grasped her intentions. No wonder none of his buddies were responding. He was the only one answering her enthusiastically.

“No, that won’t work. Brother Jiu has a girlfriend. She’s in the car right now. Forget about it.” Lin Guosheng couldn’t read the atmosphere and his answer was unusually straightforward.

The girl, Cheng Zhen, had a cheerful personality and loved to laugh. She was well-liked in the group, and several young men were interested in her, but she didn’t fancy any of them. Unexpectedly, she found herself attracted to Brother Jiu.

This is nothing new, Wen Jiuze has always drawn people’s attention.

Lin Guosheng still remembers back at the martial arts gym—no, in the children’s training class. Whenever young women brought their children, they couldn’t help but glance at Brother Jiu a couple of times.

If a child’s aunt or sister dropped them off, the bolder ones would even ask for Brother Jiu’s contact information.

Some even insisted on enrolling their children in the training classes just to have Brother Jiu as their instructor. There were just one or two girls like this, but Brother Rong often found himself having to turn them down day after day.

Boss Huang felt heartbroken, thinking about the missed business opportunity. He discussed the idea of opening a gym together with Brother Jiu and suggested that Brother Jiu become the coach, believing many girls would gladly pay for membership.

Brother Jiu sneered and replied, “Why not just open a club and let me be your top performer? You could auction me off at a set price.”

Boss Huang gritted his teeth and said, “That’s not out of the question, as long as you are willing to go into the sea…”

Then Brother Jiu beat up Boss Huang with a smile.

He didn’t hold back at all. Boss Huang ended up with dark circles under his eyes and was too scared to go to the training class for more than half a month, fearing he would fall into a trap.

Everyone understood why Brother Jiu was popular. He was handsome with an even better physique. Dressed in a black martial arts vest and indifferent to everyone around him, even the girls found him cool.

But no matter how appealing he was, he was taken.

Cheng Zhen glanced at Wen Jiuze’s car and asked, “Does he have a girlfriend? Why didn’t I see her just now?”

Seeing her reluctance to accept this, Lin Guosheng replied unhappily, “I told you his girlfriend is here, and they have a great relationship. If you don’t believe me, ask Brother Rong and the others!”

Cheng Zhen looked at the others. Brother Rong, known for his good temper, smiled and said, “Brother Jiu listens to his girlfriend very well. She told him to be home by 10 PM, and he went home at 9:30.”

Cheng Zhen gasped, “Ah?”

That man didn’t seem like someone who would be “obedient” given his unruly demeanor. Obedient?

“Exactly, his girlfriend told him to squat, so he wouldn’t sit,” another young man, A Chuan, chimed in.

“I once saw Brother Jiu sitting on the railing waiting for a bus. Xue Ling couldn’t get on, so she asked Brother Jiu to get off and squat while she sat on his back. Brother Jiu even let her do it.”

Cheng Zhen felt that their stories were exaggerated and expressed her doubt.

“Hey, don’t doubt me. Brother Jiu is generally indifferent to others. If you talk to him, he might not respond even if you ask him ten questions. But in front of his girlfriend, he becomes chatty. Even if she ignores him, he still approaches her just to get scolded.”

Lin Guosheng didn’t hesitate to spill Brother Jiu’s secrets.

He remembered clearly that one time, Wen Jiuze was having supper outside with them when Xue Ling arrived.

Before she got there, Brother Jiu asked the boss to prepare a lot of her favorite food.

When she arrived, he pretended to ask her what she wanted, saying the restaurant had sold out of her choices one after another, making her face turn red from anger.

He had already ordered the food and brought it over, lying through his teeth that he didn’t know who ordered it, and urged her to eat quickly before someone else came to take it away.

The store only had cold drinks, and since Xue Ling didn’t want any, Brother Jiu went to a nearby shop to buy her drinks at room temperature.

Lin Guosheng was sitting across from them and noticed that Xue Ling had oil on her lips. When she reached for a napkin, Brother Jiu spotted it and pressed a paper towel against her mouth.

He claimed he was helping her wipe it, but he didn’t do it properly, teasing her afterward.

“You wiped your mouth, there’s oil there! And then you rubbed it on my nose!”

“Oh, I saw something shiny on your nose. I thought it was oil, so I wiped it off for you.”

The two ended up bickering.

Lin Guosheng couldn’t describe how Brother Jiu acted at that moment. He had never seen him behave like that in front of anyone else.

The shy A-Lu also chimed in, “I’ve seen bite marks on Brother Jiu’s body. His girlfriend bit him. There were several on his waist.”

While practicing with Wen Jiuze, he accidentally lifted up his shirt and saw them.

A-Lu found it strange and casually asked. 

“Why did Xue Ling bite me? She had an itch and used me to grind her teeth.”

The tone made A-Lu wince.

Cheng Zhen couldn’t take it anymore. It felt like something was stuck in her throat, possibly from eating too much at dinner.

At that moment, Wen Jiuze returned with a ham.

Seeing a few people sitting in silence, he asked, “Why aren’t you chatting? What are you looking at me for?”

It wasn’t that they weren’t chatting. They had just been talking about him.

Lin Guosheng whispered to Cheng Zhen, “Did you see that? He was sitting here talking to us, but he looked so unhappy for some reason. Then he went to the car to absorb his girlfriend’s aura, and when he came back, everything was fine!”

Cheng Zhen looked at Wen Jiuze’s face and felt speechless: “…”

Wen Jiuze ignored her and set the ham down, saying, “Let’s all try this ham.”

“Oh, it’s ham, and it’s so big!” Brother Rong exclaimed as he approached for a closer look.

“The ham has grown mold. Can it still be eaten?” asked Lin Guosheng.

Cheng Zhen cleared her throat and interrupted, “This kind of mold is fine. We used to pickle hams a lot. This one is well-preserved and of high quality. We can just scrape off the mold and eat it.”

She smiled at Wen Jiuze and asked, “Did you find this? That’s amazing! It’s hard to find good ham like this nowadays. Where did you get it?”

Wen Jiuze replied, “I don’t know. My girlfriend found it. I’m just a gigolo.”

Cheng Zhen: “…”

She completely gave up, stood up, and walked away, rolling her eyes as she went.

A scumbag, a bad man, or a love-struck guy were all tolerable, but a gigolo was crossing the line.

Some people present laughed quietly, while others felt disappointed.

“You’re leaving now? I still have so much to tell you,” Lin Guosheng muttered.

He hadn’t even shared the most explosive part yet!

Once, Xue Ling ran into trouble while heading to a dinner party, and Brother Jiu went to pick her up. Lin Guosheng went along and heard Xue Ling call Brother Jiu by his nickname when she was drunk—she called him Xiaoxiao!

His fierce and arrogant Brother Jiu’s nickname was actually Xiaoxiao!

Lin Guosheng had a big mouth and couldn’t keep it a secret, so the news spread throughout the training class that day. Then, all those who laughed about it ended up getting beaten by Brother Jiu.

Lin Guosheng suffered the most. He was beaten to tears and never dared to call out this nickname again.

“What else do you have to say? Weren’t you just saying bad things about me?” Wen Jiuze asked with a smile as he placed his hand on Lin Guosheng’s shoulder.

“Ah… No, why would we say anything bad about you? We were just chatting. By the way, how do you eat this ham? Is it delicious?”

Wen Jiuze replied, “Of course it’s delicious. I’ll cut some slices for you to try. Eat more, Linzi.”

Lin Guosheng beamed, “Okay, I’ll eat more. Brother Jiu still cares about me!”

No one else could bear to look at him. This kid is really foolish.

The ham tasted fantastic, and everyone ate a lot, including Wen Jiuze.

That night, they sat and talked until late before finally resting.

Wen Jiuze mentioned that he would say goodbye to them the next day. Several people were reluctant to let him go, but the older brothers Chai and Rong didn’t try to persuade him. Only Lin Guosheng nearly cried when he saw Wen Jiuze drive away in the morning.

“Brother Rong, can’t you persuade Brother Jiu to come to live with us? It would be great if he and Xue Ling weren’t wandering around alone outside. They might even be bullied.”

The attentive Brother Rong sighed silently. “Didn’t you hear Brother Jiu say that Xue Ling is sick and it’s not convenient for her to come to our place?”

“You only need to go to the base if you are sick. There are doctors at the base.”

Brother Chai patted the fool’s head and said, “Okay, go get the car. We’re leaving too.”

The older ones all sensed that something was off. Wen Jiuze had hidden Xue Ling very well, and no one had seen her. What kind of illness would require such concealment?

During dinner together, he didn’t even mention saving some for Xue Ling.

As long as Xue Ling needed to eat, he couldn’t help but think of her.

I’m afraid…

None of them spoke about this, and they sent him off with heavy hearts.

If their guesses were right, where could he go? What would he do in the future?

“Leaving so soon?” Xue Ling raised the writing board.

“Are you still regretting that there was no follow-up to the gossip you saw yesterday?” Wen Jiuze said as he drove onto the road.

“Don’t you want to talk to your friends more?”

“There’s not much to discuss. Isn’t one night enough?”

Xue Ling asked a new question, “Is the ham delicious?”

“It’s delicious. Everyone says it’s good.” He took back the remaining half.

Xue Ling was satisfied and put down the writing board.

Because she was hungry every day, she especially wanted Wen Jiuze to eat enough and wanted to feed him anything edible she found.

After this unexpected encounter with an acquaintance and resting in the camp for a night, Xue Ling urged Wen Jiuze to find a camp to rest in every night.

Wen Jiuze narrowed his eyes and stared at her suspiciously. “Tell me the truth. Do you want me to go to the camp for my safety, or do you just want to watch the fun and gossip?”

Xue Ling: “…”

Can’t I think about both?

Wen Jiuze suddenly laughed, leaned over, and rubbed Xue Ling’s head. “Your mentality is really quite good.”

His mental state improved significantly.

Xue Ling thought to herself, don’t underestimate the many inspirational quotes I’ve come across.

I used to look down on those motivational videos.

Wen Jiuze still spent most of his time resting in the wild, only occasionally going to the camp.

There’s a lot of excitement in the camp, with affairs, quarrels, snatching, and all kinds of strange events happening.

As soon as Wen Jiuze drove into the camp alone, he was targeted.

A man with a pointed face and monkey-like cheeks knocked on the car window and showed the cards in his hand. “Brother, do you want to play a few rounds with us? We’re still short of one person. Don’t worry, we don’t bet much…”

“Playing cards?” Wen Jiuze rested his arm on the car window, showing the muzzle of his gun, and said with a fake smile, “I prefer beating people. Do you want to try?”

After scaring the man away, Wen Jiuze also snatched a deck of cards from him. He acted more like a bully than the person who had set up the trap to harm others.

As soon as he rolled up the car window, he held up the cards and said to Xue Ling, “This is too boring. Let’s play cards.”