Chapter 11

Jiang Wang was very cautious about planning his career and investments.

He currently had plenty of principal on hand, but he had only borrowed the lottery of the World Cup, and accumulating earnings from real estate and liquid funds would be far from enough.

The first step in his plan was to make a foothold, and then figure out where it could end up in the future.

In fact, he really wanted to take the child to study and live in a provincial city. The capital was too far away and unfamiliar. It was better to stay a bit closer.

But some things have happened and they keep finding reasons to delay them. So now this was on hold here for the time being.

The second was how big the business at both ends was going to be.

It goes without saying that in the city, doing business in logistics was naturally more profitable to join in the beginning, and when the development had become strong enough, the superior resources in the city could be exported.

What Jiang Wang fancied was the paper materials and guide books here.

Most people didn’t have the habit of reading, and physical books would not be easy to sell in the future, except for one subject.

——Examination Review Materials.

There were individuals who had to do questions their entire lives. Maybe they had even done more questions than they had slept.

He planned to revitalize the industrial chain first, and then make a set of his own intellectual property.

The name had already been thought of, and it was going to be called “The Twelve Golden Volumes”.

The higher volumes would cover the national examination, the law examination, and the finance examination. While the lower volumes would cover the high school entrance examinations, moving towards the victory of the whole country.

With these macro goals in mind, the man was particularly enthusiastic to visit the book market on Sunday.

Peng Xingwang was still young and heartless, he kept pinching a marshmallow and groping around, as if he was visiting a very interesting market.

Ji Linqiu was a little surprised.

“Does Brother Jiang care so much about education?” He smiled and said, “You don’t have to start looking at the college entrance examination review materials so early.”

Jiang Wang explained his thoughts with a few words, and Ji Linqiu quickly understood. He analyzed what was missing from the two cities while strolling around.

There were vendors on the street pushing glass cabinets to sell bowls of fruits. Pineapples were cut into prisms and strung with bamboo sticks. They looked very fresh as they were stained with clear water beads.

Peng Xingwang was still focusing on gnawing on the marshmallows, his face was slimy, and had no interest in the conversation of the adults.

Jiang Wang felt a little thirsty, and glanced at the rose-purple grapes a few times.

Ji Linqiu spoke one step ahead of him, his voice warm and clear.

“How much is this?”

The small old lady saw that the three of them were dressed clean and decent, this made her eyes roll around before saying a price, “21 yuan per bowl.”

Directly rose more than five times.

Ji Linqiu smiled lightly, he used a low voice as he said a few words in the local language. The tone of his voice was quite authentic.

The old lady’s face suddenly changed, she waved her hand and apologized, saying that it only cost three yuan.

The child didn’t hear clearly, “Zebra? What zebra?”^[1]_{I’m not sure which words they’re referring to that was misheard, so I just translated it directly.}

Jiang Wang squinted his eyes and covered his ears, “You heard it wrong.”

Ji Linqiu picked the freshest small bowl of grapes, wiped the drops of water with a paper towel and tasted one himself.

Then he smiled and his eyes curled, “It’s delicious, not sour.”

He raised his eyebrows slightly and gave Jiang Wang the sweet bowl, then bought another bowl for himself. This was considered as taking care of the old lady’s business.

The old lady also knew the loss, she said a few words of thank you in a row, and then ran away with the cart.

Jiang Wang took a few steps following Ji Linqiu, tasted two grapes to relieve the heat, and slowly said, “This is the first time I saw the teacher like this.”

Seeing the teacher whispering with such a gentle voice, and then looking so fierce that people would not dare to play tricks on him.

Ji Linqiu raised his eyebrows and did not deny it.

This trip was very rewarding. Jiang Wang planned to be both a buyer and a seller, he saved a lot of mobile phone numbers.

In the afternoon, they drove back to City A. The two took turns driving, switching half-way.

When it was Ji Linqiu’s turn to sit in the driver’s seat, he let out a sigh as he rolled up his sleeves. He lowered his head and turned his wrist to take a closer look, “I didn’t pay attention when we were eating grapes, now my sleeves are dirty.”

Jiang Wang sat in the front passenger seat and looked at him, inexplicably feeling that the other person looked cute.

---

On Monday, a certain someone deliberately got off work early and squatted in a phone booth near the way to school, pretending to be engaged in talking to someone.

Not long after, Peng Xingwang appeared at the entrance of the elementary school, with a key hanging around his neck. He walked with his friends holding the straps of his school bag with both hands.

The elementary school students spread out quickly like a flock of birds, and the three long streets became very lively in all ways. The vendors also cheered up and started to yell to sell their goods.

Peng Xingwang looked like he was talking to his classmates, but his eyes kept looking around like searchlights.

Sure enough, there were a few junior high school students sitting at the corner. A few of them blocked the road directly as they stood up, and asked the passing children for money with a smiley face.

The teenage child had watched a bit of the way of the Leifei in Hong Kong movies. He wore a floral shirt and deliberately left unbuttoned the first three buttons, revealing a thin chest with his ribs protruding out. Leaning over, his silver chain dangled around, then he took out a folding knife to peel sugar cane while gesturing wildly.

Peng Xingwang paused, and quickly ordered his friend to change directions. But he bit the bullet and prepared to cross the road near the scene of extortion.

The suffering student who was targeted was about to cry, “Didn’t I already pay the money? I really don’t have any money left. I gave you all the money I would’ve used for lunch to surf the internet!”

The second-rate junior high school student was about to speak when he was suddenly patted on the shoulder.

The shadow of a 1.9 meter tall man, who was smiling politely shrouded them in darkness.

“What is this, about the protection fee?”

The junior high school student was taken aback, and the little sidekick from the fifth grade next to him quickly ran away.

Peng Xingwang almost screamed, he covered his mouth with one hand while hiding behind the telephone pole to peek.

‘It’s over, Big brother has already targeted them!’

‘They are still just students! Big brother!’

The little ruffian didn’t expect an adult to get involved. When he looked up and saw the others’ broken eyebrow scar, his momentum directly weakened. But there were still some of his good brothers watching from the side, so he couldn’t lose face.

He forcibly raised his chest and cursed back in a rough voice, “Is it your business? Do you want to be beaten by this Master!”

Jiang Wang was in a good mood, he motioned to the crying child to go home quickly. Then  he turned the folding knife with one hand, and let out another greeting.

“The brand hasn’t even been peeled off.”

‘Huh? Where’s my knife? Why is my knife in his hand?!’

The junior high school student’s face turned pale, he stretched out his hand to grab the knife but shrank back for fear of cutting his hands. He forcibly learned from the adults and swore again. The  voice could be likened to a male duck, particularly embarrassing especially during puberty when the voice was undergoing changes.

After falling to the ground, his neck was suddenly held against the handle of the knife, and the cold touch rushed directly to his soul.

“This lord happened to be passing by here,” the man lowered his head and said slowly, “and also came to collect a protection fee.”

“I’m covering this street, understand.”

The three junior high school students next to him stood upright, nodding quickly while desperately avoiding the eyes of their eldest brother in the same gang.

“It’s useless to just nod.” Jiang Wang smiled very evilly, and opened his palms, “Huh?”

Several junior high school students took out their money with a bitter face, ten and twenty yuan bills were put into Jiang Wang’s hands.

The little ruffian who led the group had never been threatened with a knife in his life. His face was pale and he didn’t even dare to shiver for fear of offending the eldest brother. He trembled and took everything out of his pockets. As a result, all he took out were bus ticket stubs and shredded pieces of paper.

“The money, the money is all with them.”

The junior high school student next to him shook his head quickly, “It’s not with us, we gave it to the people above.”

“Oh, there is also the top.” The man responded after a long time, then flipped the broken ticket and smiled. “That’s it?”

The little ruffian glared at the short one beside him, and the latter reluctantly took out a whole fifty yuan bill and handed it in.

“Okay, 105 yuan.” Jiang Wang twitched his wrist, and the child with his throat locked almost knelt down.

“The knife won’t be returned, remember to bring more next time.” He raised his hand, and the folding knife flew into the hot dry noodle bowl in the trash can. “Stand straight and say, Brother Jiang, I’m sorry! Then I’ll let you go.”

The leading little ruffian’s face turned blue and white for a moment, but he was firmly clamped down by his accomplices from left to right, and bowed ninety degrees, “Brother Jiang, I’m sorry!”

Seeing that he was about to leave, the little ruffian suddenly cursed.

“Crap! Darn it!”

He stretched out his hand and pointed directly at Jiang Wang’s nose, he turned his head and ran away after speaking harshly.

“I will quickly report you to our leader! Zhanlong Feitian^[2]Flying Dragon. _{I’ll keep it in chinese cause the english is too cringe…} will not let you go! You’re finished!”

Jiang Wang watched silently.

When the group of junior high school students escaped, Peng Xingwang flattened out his school uniform and trotted over, standing close to his eldest brother.

“…Are you here to pick me up?”

Jiang Wang was still hung up on the feeling of being threatened by a school bully in junior high school. After a few seconds, he looked down at the child pulling the corner of his clothes.

“What is Zhanlong Feitian?”

He tried hard to hold back a smile and repeated the name completely.

The child pretended not to hear the eldest brother’s tone. He frowned and thought seriously for a while, then pretended to be stupid.

“I don’t know.”

“Peng. Xing. Wang.”

The child continued to play dumb, “Let’s go, I’m so hungry, what do you want to eat tonight?”

Jiang Wang threw the 105 yuan into the fundraising box hanging from the iron gate of the street committee. He let Peng Xingwang hold the corner of his clothes as they walked forward.

Then he spoke faintly.

“If you don’t say anything, I’ll give you to them to play.”

Peng Xingwang looked aggrieved, “Brother, I’m doing it for your own good.”

After thinking about it carefully, it seemed that this was the case when he was a child.

It’s just that at that time, Jiang Wang was still trying to avoid the severe beating of his father, and he was more worried about how to act cheeky and find food every day. There were very few related memories left.

The two entered KFC and ate a bowl of mashed potatoes each. The child was still hesitating if he should explain things clearly.

It turned out that in the local high schools, there were several gangs with complex forces. They were mainly composed of social idlers and second-rate school tyrants.

The gang activities included dating, smoking, and fighting in groups. Their gathering points were in Internet cafes, billiard halls and school playground corners.

This kind of behavior was too humiliating for adults that it was a bit shameful to mention. But in the eyes of elementary school students and junior high school students, it was no less than the battle of the century between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

Very cool, very awesome.

After Jiang Wang listened, his expression became a little softer.

“How about this Zhanlong Feitian.”

He tried hard not to be too merciful in his tone.

Peng Xingwang thought for a while, still hoping that his eldest brother would not wade into the dangerous muddy water here.

The child squeezed out the most serious expression he could think of, and said with a rigid look, “Zhanlong Feitian is the biggest gang here.”

“I heard,” the child lowered his voice and quietly added, “Their boss… stabbed hundreds of people to death.”

Jiang Wang nodded seriously. “Well, there is more.”

“Their boss has been repeating the grade for many years, and his subordinates use guns. When they fight in groups, the entire playground will be stained with blood!”

“They smoke very fiercely! Smoking even more than you, really! They smoke everywhere they go!”

Peng Xingwang became more scared the more he said, and even sincerely regretted Jiang Wang’s reckless behavior today, “Why don’t we move? Big brother, I’m afraid something will happen to you.”

“Don’t be afraid.“ Jiang Wang held down the young version of himself, and said affectionately,  “Your eldest brother came to this world to promote justice and give the world the light of righteousness.”

The child was particularly moved.

“Brother, don’t pick me up from school anymore in the future.”

“If you get stabbed to death, I can’t carry you.”