Chapter 31: Can We Leave Now, Uncle?

As described by Yao Wenjing over the phone, a middle-aged man sat on the topmost step at the stairway entrance on the fourth floor.

The man had been playing a short video with the volume turned up, but when he heard Lin Zhi and Lu Liu walking upstairs, he immediately lifted his gaze and looked at them. His expression was unfriendly, and his eyes carried an air of scrutiny.

Lin Zhi pretended to be startled and patted his chest. Lu Liu, on the other hand, looked at the man strangely before calmly shifting his gaze away.

The man kept his eyes on them until Lu Liu, who was walking ahead, stopped next to the man’s extended foot.

“Could you move, please?” Lu Liu said with a smile, his tone sincere. After the man withdrew his foot, he politely added, “Thank you.”

Lin Zhi followed closely behind, barely half a step away.

In addition to the man sitting on the stairs, two other men stood at the door of Yao Wenjing’s house, holding cigarettes, leaning against the wall while chatting, occasionally bursting out with unpleasant laughter.

Lin Zhi couldn’t resist glancing at them for a moment. One of the men raised his hand to put the cigarette in his mouth and turned to glare at Lin Zhi, his face seemingly saying, “What are you staring at? Keep looking and I’ll hit you.”

Lu Liu quietly tugged on Lin Zhi, and the two continued up the stairs toward the next floor.

When they reached the corner of the fifth floor, Lin Zhi exaggeratedly said, loud enough for the men downstairs to hear, “That scared me! Why are the people living in this building so strange?”

“Shh, don’t talk nonsense,” Lu Liu chuckled, playing along. “Be careful they don’t come up to hit you.”

Lin Zhi stopped pretending and walked directly to the door of the family in the same direction as Yao Wenjing’s house on the fifth floor. He knocked and shouted, “Chen Guyang, open the door, I’m going to play basketball.”

Yao Wenjing, who had been waiting at the door, quickly opened it upon hearing Lin Zhi’s voice and nearly cried when he saw their familiar faces.

Lin Zhi quickly pushed him back inside, followed in, and as he turned to pull Lu Liu inside, he shouted, “What else do you need to take care of? Why are you acting like one of the girls in our class?”

Lu Liu peeked through the peephole and shook his head at Lin Zhi.

“What’s going on?” Lin Zhi asked in a lowered voice.

“Grandma Chen told me earlier that it seems they’re here to collect a debt from my dad,” Yao Wenjing said with a sad face. “They’ve been coming almost every day recently.”

At this moment, an elderly woman with a stooped figure walked out of the inner room. Yao Wenjing quickly jogged over to help her sit in a soft chair.

“Thank you, Grandma Chen,” Lin Zhi said sincerely. “Thank you for opening the door and letting Xiao Jing in.”

Grandma Chen smiled kindly, her face weathered by time, with a few missing teeth, and her voice slightly hoarse. “Xiaoyao is a good kid, unlike his father.”

Grandma Chen had lived here for over twenty years and had watched Yao Wenjing grow up.

Yao Wenjing, under the harsh “education” from Yao Kangping, had always been timid but kind-hearted. Grandma Chen, now elderly and with bad legs, lived on a higher floor, and every time she had to go upstairs, it was a difficult task. When the younger people in her family weren’t around, Yao Wenjing often helped her run up and down.

Earlier, when Yao Wenjing returned, he saw three men blocking the door to his house in the corridor and nearly got scared stiff by their “fierce” appearance.

The men, seeing his frightened expression, asked if he lived there. In his panic, Yao Wenjing realized something was wrong, so he lied and said he lived upstairs, then hurriedly ran up.

Unfortunately for him, Grandma Chen had been napping at the time. With her poor hearing, Yao Wenjing knocked for a long time without anyone answering.

The old building had poor soundproofing, and when the men downstairs heard the increasingly loud knocking, they grew suspicious and sent one man upstairs to check.

Hearing footsteps approaching, Yao Wenjing saw the man’s shadow growing longer through the small window at the stairwell, causing his heart to race with fear as he repeatedly called, “Grandma, open the door.”

Fortunately, just as the man was about to call out to Yao Wenjing, Grandma Chen opened the door, pretending to scold him for not taking his key when going out, then asked the man what he wanted before sending him away.

“That day, I heard the neighbors downstairs talking to them,” Grandma Chen said, looking at Yao Wenjing with sympathy. “They said your dad borrowed money from them at high interest, and when it was time to pay back, they couldn’t reach him, so they’ve been coming every day to wait for him.”

“I couldn’t get through to my dad just now either…” Yao Wenjing said quietly.

Lin Zhi thought to himself that Yao Wenjing’s dad had probably run off—if they could reach him, it would be surprising.

“Grandma Chen,” Lin Zhi asked, “Do you know when the people downstairs first came?”

“I’m not sure when they came, but I first saw them three days ago in the evening,” Grandma Chen thought for a moment and said. “I remember Xiao Yao saying he was about to take the college entrance exams. That day, I made dinner and went downstairs to call Xiao Yao to eat, and that’s when I saw several unfamiliar men there.”

It really was that day. Lin Zhi felt a shiver run down his spine. That night, Yao Wenjing was the only one at home, and he, a student, was facing several men from high-interest loan sharks. What had happened was truly unimaginable.

Moreover, the very next day was the college entrance exam, and knowing Yao Wenjing’s personality, he would definitely not have told him.

“Has my dad not come back these days?” Yao Wenjing asked.

Grandma Chen shook her head.

“So, what should we do now?” Yao Wenjing looked at Lin Zhi for help.

“Staying at Grandma Chen’s place forever isn’t a solution,” Lin Zhi said, feeling troubled. He couldn’t think of any immediate solutions, so he turned to ask for advice from Lu Liu, who had been silently listening. “How about staying at my place for a few days, calm down, and figure out a solution?”

Lu Liu didn’t expect Lin Zhi to ask him, but he nodded. “Sure, I’ll follow your lead.”

“Then let’s go,” Lin Zhi patted Yao Wenjing’s shoulder. “Is that okay with you?”

“Yeah.” Yao Wenjing exhaled deeply.

After Yao Wenjing adjusted his mood, the three of them bid Grandma Chen farewell and went downstairs.

Lin Zhi, acting like a good buddy, threw an arm around Yao Wenjing’s shoulder and joked, “I’ll show you a few three-pointers later.”

Lu Liu snorted. “Don’t talk big, you might throw your back out.”

“You’ll see whether I’m talking big or not,” Lin Zhi tightened his arm around Yao Wenjing’s shoulder. “Right, Yangzi? You know how accurate my shots are, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Yao Wenjing responded, a bit foolishly, “You’re really accurate.”

Just when Lin Zhi thought they were finally past the fourth-floor corridor, the man sitting on the stairs called out to them.

“Hey, kids,” the man asked in a gruff tone, “Isn’t today the weekend? Don’t you have class?”

Lin Zhi was momentarily stunned, but then heard Lu Liu reply “honestly,” “We have a break for the college entrance exams these days. The classrooms are being used for exams by the seniors in the third year.”

“What school do you go to?” the man asked again.

“Experimental High School,” Lu Liu answered without hesitation.

“Which grade?”

“Grade 10, we’ll be going to Grade 11 next semester.” Lu Liu smiled and asked, “Can we leave now, uncle?”

When they reached the third floor, Lin Zhi deliberately raised his voice again, “Hey Yangzi, do the people downstairs work for the census?”

“Probably not,” Lu Liu replied, “Census workers wouldn’t just stop random people and keep asking questions.”

“True,” Lin Zhi said, “You’re the only one who would answer. I wouldn’t even bother with people like that.”

Lu Liu couldn’t help but laugh and said, “It’s because you ignored me that I answered, otherwise it would’ve been awkward for everyone else.”