Chapter 13: “The Innocent Hooligan”

The next morning, shortly after breakfast, Shen Tingjun knocked on the Xu family’s door.

Jiang Lan turned and went into the kitchen. Her stepfather, Xu Weishan, stared intently at his newspaper as if he hadn’t heard a thing. Xu Huirong rolled her eyes and went back to her room. Only the chubby little Xu Huipeng seemed excited.

“Second Sister, are you going to the Red Star Restaurant again today? Can I come with you?”

Jiang Wanwan was in a hurry to change her clothes so they could leave and didn’t have the patience to deal with him. The boy didn’t mind; he happily followed her. When Jiang Wanwan closed her bedroom door, he lay on the floor and shouted through the crack.

“Please take me, Second Sister. I’ve never been to the Red Star Restaurant before. Sun Xiaohu from my class said their food is a hundred times better than the Peace Restaurant. I want to try it, too!”

When Jiang Wanwan came out, the boy grabbed her leg and sat on the floor, holding on tight.

“Xu Huipeng, let go! I’m not going to the Red Star Restaurant today, and didn’t you eat the leftovers I brought home already?” Jiang Wanwan said, trying to pull his chubby little hands off her leg.

But Xu Huipeng’s strength was not to be underestimated. Despite his age, he was surprisingly strong, and Jiang Wanwan couldn’t get him to let go. With no other choice, she started to drag him toward the door. The boy kept grumbling as she pulled him along.

“The food you brought home was leftovers! Mom reheated it, and it had no flavor. Sun Xiaohu said that food is only good right after it’s made, and he never eats leftovers. I don’t want to eat leftovers, either! I want fresh food!”

By the time Jiang Wanwan managed to drag him to the door, she was out of breath. She looked up and saw Shen Tingjun leaning against the door frame, watching the show. She gave him a look and gestured for him to help her get rid of the boy.

Shen Tingjun laughed and called out to the boy. “Well, well, if it isn’t my little brother-in-law! Is your brother-in-law taking you out to play today?”

Xu Huipeng looked up at the sound of his voice and quickly buried his face in his sister’s pants. He grumbled weakly, “You… you’re not my brother-in-law!”

Shen Tingjun pretended to be heartbroken. “Oh, really? I was hoping to win over my little brother-in-law, so I brought him a piece of chocolate. Now you don’t accept me… What am I supposed to do with this chocolate?” As he said this, he pulled a small box out of his pocket.

The moment Xu Huipeng heard the word “chocolate,” he scrambled to his feet, he scampered forward, his eyes fixed on the chocolate box.

“Do you want it?” Shen Tingjun asked, holding up the chocolate.

The chubby boy nodded vigorously.

“Call me brother-in-law.”

The boy shouted, “Brother-in-law!”

Shen Tingjun laughed and held the chocolate out to him. As the boy reached for it, a hand shot out and snatched the chocolate away. Xu Huipeng looked up, stunned, and saw that it was his second sister who had stolen it.

Jiang Wanwan’s face was dark as she looked at her troublesome brother, thinking he deserved a good spanking. “You’d sell me out for a piece of chocolate and you still have the nerve to eat it? The chocolate is confiscated!” When she saw him pout and get ready for a full-blown tantrum, Jiang Wanwan quickly broke off a third of the chocolate and shoved it into his mouth, blocking his impending wails. Then she turned and pulled Shen Tingjun away.

As they rode off on the bicycle, Jiang Wanwan chewed on her chocolate, grumbling, “Why did you give him chocolate? That little fatty is so selfish. He’s always been so bad! He’s eaten so many good things and never gave me any. Don’t ever give him anything again!”

Shen Tingjun found her indignation funny but still played along. “Okay, okay, from now on all the good stuff is for you! Besides, this chocolate was for you anyway. I just used the box to distract him so you could get away. Here, I saved two more boxes for you.” He pulled two small boxes of chocolate out of his pocket and handed them to her.

Jiang Wanwan took them and was finally satisfied.

At the department store, Shen Tingjun led Jiang Wanwan directly to the ready-to-wear clothing counter on the second floor. He pointed out different clothes, saying how a certain dress looked good on her and how a particular shirt made her look fair. Jiang Wanwan was swayed by his sweet words and bought several new outfits.

It wasn’t until she was on the back of the bicycle, leaving the store, that she came to her senses. This wasn’t her past life where you could buy clothes on every street corner. In this era, you needed ration coupons to buy clothes and fabric, and ready-made clothes were expensive. Most families bought fabric from the cooperative store and made clothes at home, which was much cheaper.

The sales clerk had told her that the ready-made clothes in the department store were the latest fashions from bigger cities and were more expensive than those at the cooperative. The money and ration coupons she used to buy the few outfits could have been enough to buy fabric for an entire set of clothes for all five members of the Xu family.

Even though Shen Tingjun paid, Jiang Wanwan still felt the sting of the expensive purchase and couldn’t help but complain that he hadn’t tried to stop her.

“You look beautiful in them, and I’m happy to see you happy. That makes the money well spent!” Shen Tingjun said. With one hand on the handlebars, he took something out of his pocket and handed it back to Jiang Wanwan.

Jiang Wanwan took it and saw a delicate pearl hairpin, beautiful and out of place in this simple era. “Where did you get this?”

“It was my mom’s. This little pearl isn’t too flashy, so it won’t stand out. Put it in your hair and clip back that ugly fringe. I really don’t like it… Hey! What are you doing?!”

Shen Tingjun’s expression suddenly changed. One hand steadied the wobbly handlebars while the other clamped down on the small hand that was digging around in his pants pocket.

“I just want to see what other good stuff you have in your pocket,” Jiang Wanwan said. She had been curious about his pockets for a while. They didn’t look big, but he’d already pulled out three boxes of chocolate, money, ration coupons, and now a pearl hairpin. Was it some kind of Doraemon magic pocket? She couldn’t hold back her curiosity any longer, so she tried to feel how big it was. She didn’t expect such a strong reaction from Shen Tingjun.

Shen Tingjun had stopped the bike and was glaring at her fiercely.

“I wasn’t trying to steal your money! What are you so mad about? Your face is all red.” Jiang Wanwan was confused. No matter how mad Shen Tingjun had been before, he was always calm and smiling. This was the first time she had seen him so flustered.

Mistakenly thinking his red face was from anger, Shen Tingjun opened his mouth to say something but found the words hard to come by when he saw her naive, confused expression.

“Just behave yourself!” he said angrily. “If you try to go in my pockets again, you can walk home!” With that, he started pedaling again. Sitting on the back, Jiang Wanwan looked at his beet-red ears, and it slowly dawned on her what was happening. Her own face began to turn red.

Amid her embarrassment, she found it hilarious. The big-shot hooligan was such a pure-hearted little boy!