A hundred flavors of life

Chapter 1433 Are you always this brave? (Please subscribe!)
P.S.: I went to my parents' house for New Year's Day and didn't get back until late at night. I'm so sorry.

Xiang Dong called from Tianjin, saying that he was doing well under Li Yiming and was determined to have his wife, Zhuang Hualin, come north to reunite with him. This summer, his son would continue to live at his uncle's house.

"Brother, sister-in-law, I'm troubling you again."

Xiang Dong sounded very embarrassed on the phone.

Zhuang Chaoying and Huang Ling readily agreed, as they had long regarded Hua Shier as their own child. The former even happily reported the good news that her nephew had won first place in the high school entrance examination, which greatly excited Xiang Dong on the other end of the phone.

So, Hua Shier happily stayed in Suzhou for the summer vacation.

This was an era before the definition of 'involution' existed. Summer vacation was free from the shadow of various cram schools. For children, summer vacation was undoubtedly free and colorful, and many years later, it would be a very 'wonderful' memory.

Time seemed to stretch out and bright in the alley. Hua Shier was almost never idle, because he usually studied in Suzhou but had never really explored the city. Well, at least that's how it seemed to the children.

So Lin Dongzhe, Zhuang Tunan, Zhuang Xiaoting, and Wu Shanshan formed a very energetic 'guide team' that dragged him out every day.

They rode bicycles, their bells ringing, through the ancient streets and alleys.

Go to the garden to see the lotus flowers, explore the secluded Tiger Hill, catch crickets by the nameless wild pond, and occasionally lie under the starry sky to listen to Hua Shier tell novel stories such as "Ghost Blows Out the Light".

Sweat, laughter, and the sweetness of popsicles intertwine to create the purest prelude to summer.

That day, Hua Shier followed them up to the Panmen city tower. He suddenly remembered that the direction the statue of Ji Gong Luohan in Xiyuan Temple pointed to that night seemed to be right here. He immediately looked around and saw a large open space below the city tower, with a dilapidated pagoda a few hundred meters away.

He asked the children, "Where is that over there? What kind of tower is that?"

Hearing him ask this, Zhuang Tunan also became interested:
"That's Ruiguang Pagoda. A few years ago, I came here with my classmates. My classmate went up to raid a bird's nest and found a Buddhist treasure there. It even made the newspaper!"

Hua Shier asked curiously, "Buddha treasure? What Buddha treasure?"

Before Zhuang Tunan could speak, Lin Dongzhe interrupted:

"I know, I know, it's a pagoda over a meter tall, they say there's something inside."

Zhuang Tunan chuckled and added, "They're relics! That wasn't a pagoda either; later, experts said it was called a 'Pearl Relic Pagoda'!"

Lin Dongzhe chuckled: "Yes, yes, that's it, what a relic!"

Hua Shier knew that the opportunity mentioned by the Ji Gong Arhat statue was probably that pagoda. He figured that besides the relic banner discovered by the experts, there must be some other treasures there.

He remained outwardly calm, but with a single step, the four plates of Heaven, Earth, Man, and God opened up, instantly encompassing an area of ​​ten miles.

The next moment, Hua Shier raised an eyebrow. Deep beneath the tower lay an underground palace, containing something filled with the powerful energy of Buddhist faith.

Buddhist treasures?!
Hua Shier thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled. The trace of spirituality in the Ji Gong Arhat statue might be well-intentioned, but whether it was a blessing or a curse, who could say for sure?

This thing is not meant for him, so let it stay here!

Lin Wufeng is an engineer at a compressor factory. Since last year, some collective enterprises have been asking him to be their consultant.

These kinds of part-time jobs were not compliant with regulations at the time, but township enterprises were eager for talent and offered really attractive compensation. Just a few pointers on the weekend could earn you a high salary of 100 yuan.

In the end, Lin Wufeng couldn't resist the temptation and often went out to find work on weekends, which made the Lin family more well-off.

In the sweltering heat of July and August, Song Ying and Lin Wufeng discussed buying a refrigerator.

Since the two families shared a kitchen, the refrigerator was also placed in the common area, and it was filled with popsicles to help the children cool off in the summer.

With the refrigerator, food wouldn't spoil. Huang Ling also specially ordered milk for the children, saying that studying was mentally taxing and they needed to replenish their nutrition.

From then on, Hua Shier was able to drink a bowl of warm milk every morning.

After summer vacation, Zhuang Chaoying and Huang Ling took leave to send Zhuang Tunan to Shanghai for school. Lin Dongzhe insisted on going with them, but Song Ying slapped him and shut him up.

Hua Shier and Wu Shanshan entered high school. Perhaps it was fate, but despite having two top classes, they were still assigned to the same class, which made the girl happy for several days.

Days continued to flow forward like water, autumn deepened, and the leaves of the sycamore trees fell.

Hua Shier and Wu Shanshan came home early that day and sat under the sycamore tree at the alley entrance reading books while waiting for Zhuang Xiaoting to get out of school.

Zhuang Xiaoting arrived home half an hour later than usual.

Hua Shier couldn't help but ask, "Xiaoting, why are you back so late?"

Zhuang Xiaoting was a little annoyed: "Brother, someone pulled out the valve core of my bicycle again."

Hua Shier looked and, sure enough, the rear tire was flat.

Lin Dongzhe was somewhat indignant: "Brother Pengfei, this isn't the first time Xiaoting's valve stem has been ripped out!"

Hua Shier also knew that Zhuang Xiaoting had had her valve core pulled before, but these days kids are mischievous, and it's normal for the valve core to be pulled occasionally.

He frowned and asked, "How many times has this happened?"

Zhuang Xiaoting pouted and held up three fingers: "That's the third time. I'm not riding my bike to school tomorrow. I'll take the bus from now on!"

Hua Shier shook his head:

"Once is normal, twice is just bad luck, but if it happens again and again, then that's not normal. If this matter isn't resolved, taking the bus won't help; the people who want to cause you trouble will still cause you trouble!"

"Okay, Xiaoting, you can continue riding your bike to school tomorrow. Then wait for that person who pulled out your tire valve to do it again. I want to catch him red-handed and see what he's up to!"

Lin Dongzhe, who had been listening intently, immediately patted his chest and said:
"Brother Pengfei, you don't need to lift a finger, leave it to me!"

Hua Shier nodded to Lin Dongzhe: "Okay, let's do it together then!"

Turning to Zhuang Xiaoting, he said gently:
"Don't worry, you can still ride your bike to school tomorrow. I promise this won't happen again!"

Zhuang Xiaoting had an almost blind trust in Hua Shier. Upon hearing this, she nodded, and most of her worries disappeared.

The next afternoon, Hua Shi skipped his last class and squatted behind the flower bed opposite the bicycle shed to smoke. There was a flower bed about half a person's height blocking the view, so he wasn't afraid of being seen by the school teachers.

Lin Dongzhe arrived shortly after. He was surprised to see Hua Shier smoking. He took the cigarette from Hua's hand, looked at the brand, and suddenly laughed:

“Brother Pengfei, I think I’ve caught you red-handed. How about this, from now on you’ll call me Brother Dongzhe, and I’ll call you Brother Pengfei. I promise I won’t tell Teacher Zhuang and Aunt Huang Ling about your smoking!”

Before Hua Shier could speak, the school's loudspeaker announced:

"Hey you big idiot standing behind the flower bed smoking, which class are you in? Get your ass over here to the administration office! Don't even think about running away, I'm telling you, the teachers are watching you!"

Lin Dongzhe was struck dumb, while Hua Shier squatted there laughing uncontrollably, his shoulders swaying.

"Guess why I'm squatting down to smoke?"

Hua Shier was about to laugh when he waved his hand and said, "Alright, hurry up and go. Remember not to betray me!"

Under the remote 'lock' of the Dean of Students, Lin Dongzhe went to the Academic Affairs Office dejectedly.

After he left, Hua Shier lit another cigarette and continued smoking.

After a while, three boys wearing school uniforms on their upper bodies and bell-bottoms on their lower bodies walked over from the teaching building. They glanced at Hua Shier, who was squatting and smoking, and then went straight to Zhuang Xiaoting's bicycle, where they pulled out the valve core.

Hua Twelve stood up: "Alright, I've been waiting for you guys for ages!"

He took a running start, rushed over, and kicked a boy flying, knocking over several bicycles. Then he swung his backpack and smashed another boy in the head, slamming him to the ground where he couldn't get up for a long time.

The last one, the one who tried to pull out the valve stem, had just raised his fist when Hua Shier kneed him in the groin, instantly turning him into a shrimp.

Hua Shier grabbed the guy's hair and slapped him five or six times across the face, asking as he did so:

"Haven't you heard the story of the crew-cut guy from the cotton mill?"

"Don't you know that Zhuang Xiaoting's brother, who is me, has practiced martial arts?"

"Have you always been this brave?"

Hua Shier slapped him once, asked a question, and then let go, leaving the guy sprawled on the ground. He placed his backpack on the back of Zhuang Xiaoting's seat and pulled out his belt.
"It doesn't matter that your parents didn't raise you well. Reality is your best teacher. Today, I'll teach you a lesson and make you face reality!"

"Didn't you all just hear that? Stop yelling like a woman!"

Hua Shier then lashed out with his belt, striking the guy's thigh with it. The guy let out a scream that was even worse than a woman's.

He swung his belt and whipped the three boys until they cried and begged for mercy on their knees before he stopped.

Hua Shier then fastened his belt again and took out paper and pen:
"Write a confession for me, including your name, age, class, home address, why you bullied my sister, how many times you pulled the valve core, and what bad ideas you had. Write it all down clearly, then sign and put your fingerprint on it!"

None of the three boys were good students, and they often got into fights, but they had never seen anyone so fierce before. They were so scared that they behaved themselves and wrote down everything Hua Shier asked them to do.

Hua Shier ordered them not to look at each other's confessions. After they finished writing, he took the three confessions and began to question each other, asking them to state their names and other information. Only after confirming that everything was correct did he begin to look at the events described on them.

It turns out that these three were also freshmen in the first year of high school this year. One of them saw that Zhuang Xiaoting was pretty and tried to chat her up several times but was ignored by her. Feeling resentful, he decided to play a prank.

Such things are common in this era. Huashi No. 12 just didn't expect that something like this would happen at a key high school like No. 1 High School.

He held up three confessions and threatened the three men, saying:

"You know about the salt production this year, right?"

“I’m going to hand in your confessions. Guess what will happen to the three of you? Just because you tried to talk to a girl and she ignored you, you damaged her property. Your actions were egregious, you know?”

When Hua Shier mentioned the salt-making incident and said he would have to hand in their confessions, the three boys, who were already feeling guilty for their bad deeds, were so scared they almost wet their pants.

They all kowtowed to Hua Shier, begging him to be lenient and promising never to do it again.

Hua Shier nodded with a smile:

"Originally, I wanted to hand you over to Uncle Hat, but I'm too soft-hearted. So let's leave it at that for now. If anyone harasses my sister again, or if anything happens to her, like the valve core being pulled out again, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

One of the boys mustered his courage and asked, "What if someone else did it?"

"Then I'll put that on your heads too!"

Hua Shier kicked one of them and said, "Get lost!" The three of them scrambled away.

Watching the three leave in a sorry state, Hua Shier shook his head with a smile, believing that after this lesson, the three brothers would never dare to harass Zhuang Xiaoting again. Not only that, but they would probably even take the initiative to help if they saw someone else bullying Zhuang Xiaoting.

As for whether their parents will come knocking on their door after the three brothers returned home covered in injuries?

Hua Twelve has absolutely no worries!
In this day and age, people are simple and honest. If they dared to go back and tell their parents that they were beaten up like this by a girl's brother because they pulled out the valve core of her bicycle tire, then without a doubt, their parents would give them another lesson and teach them how to be good people.

After the three people walked away, Hua Shier picked up the valve core from the ground, put it back in for Zhuang Xiaoting, took out the air pump from the storage space, inflated the tires, and then left the scene before school ended.

Just as Hua Shier had expected, the three of them went home and said they had gotten into a fight and that's how it happened; they didn't dare mention what happened at school at all.

When the three of them remembered what Hua Shier had mentioned about the "cotton mill crew cut guy," they asked their friends in the underworld for information. They were almost scared to death. The guy who had harassed Zhuang Xiaoting was still herding sheep in the west.

After this incident, no one dared to cause trouble for Zhuang Xiaoting within the school's jurisdiction. If anyone was really blind to her abilities, the three brothers would rush up to her without Hua Shier even having to lift a finger.

The only downside to the whole thing was that Lin Dongzhe's parents were called in.

After Song Ying returned, she grabbed a feather duster and chased Lin Dongzhe down the entire street.
"You little brat, I think you're up to no good! You're even smoking! You're not learning to be good anymore. Do you want to become a hooligan, a petty thug, a scoundrel in the future?!"

Wu Jianguo and Wang Yong, who were chatting at the alley entrance, were both speechless, and then silently stubbed out their cigarettes.

Afterwards, Lin Dongzhe complained to Hua Shier, "Brother Pengfei, you really got me into trouble. My butt still hurts!"

Hua Shier couldn't help but laugh, while Lin Dongzhe felt even more aggrieved:

"You can still laugh!"

Finally, Hua Shier treated Lin Dongzhe to a meal of squirrel fish at Songhelou Restaurant, which finally soothed the boy's wounded heart.

But Lin Dongzhe didn't stay quiet for more than a few days before he started causing trouble again.

That evening, Lin Dongzhe came to find Hua Shier and whispered:
"Pengfei, do you miss Tunan? Do you want to see what Tongji University is like?"

This guy was making faces as he spoke, trying to pique Hua Shier's interest.

In the original storyline, also during this semester, Lin Dongzhe wanted to visit Zhuang Tunan. It was through Uncle Qian's connections that Xiang Pengfei helped him skip school and go to Shanghai.

Therefore, Hua Shier naturally knew what Lin Dongzhe meant by bringing this up with him, and immediately chuckled:
"What do you want? What if you don't want to?"

"How could you not want to!"

Lin Dongzhe directly answered the multiple-choice question for Hua Shier, and then said:
"I have a suggestion, let's ride our bikes to Shanghai, visit Tu Nan, and see what university life is like, okay?"

Hua Shier wanted to laugh when he heard this. Even in the future, when the road conditions were good, it would take three to five hours to cycle from Suzhou to Shanghai. With the current roads, he would have to stay awake until the next day to get to Shanghai.

So he decisively called out in the yard, "Aunt Song, your son wants to skip school and go to Shanghai!"

Lin Dongzhe was struck dumb, his finger trembling as he pointed at Hua Shier, as if to say, how could you betray the revolution and sell out your brothers!
Before he could speak, Song Ying rushed out, grabbed his ear, and dragged him home. Then, the Lin family was filled with the furious roar of his mother:

"Lin Dongzhe, I think you're getting cocky again, aren't you? You still want to skip school? You still want to go to Shanghai? Let's see if I can still go after I break your leg!"

Breaking his leg was out of the question, after all, he was her own son, but Song Ying still dragged Lin Wufeng along and gave Lin Dongzhe a mixed doubles beating, like stir-frying bamboo shoots with meat.

In the courtyard, listening to the screams coming from the Lin family, Zhuang Xiaoting leaned close to Hua Shier and whispered:

"Brother Pengfei, isn't it a bit unfair to trick Lin Dongzhe like this?"

Hua Shier patted Zhuang Xiaoting on the head: "Girl, are you feeling sorry for her?"

Zhuang Xiaoting's face instantly turned bright red: "Brother, what nonsense are you talking about!"

Seeing that the girl was shy, Hua Shier stopped teasing her and said instead:

"Lin Dongzhe is too audacious. It's good to teach him a lesson so he won't cause trouble in the future!"

The next day, when Lin Dongzhe went to school, he was limping. He saw Hua Shier with a resentful look on his face and ignored Hua Shier for three whole days.

Hua Shier just smiled faintly at this. That day, he, Zhuang Xiaoting, and Lin Dongzhe were all doing their homework in the yard. Lin Dongzhe deliberately moved his desk further away, making it seem like they were completely separated.

Zhuang Xiaoting pointed over there to Hua Shier, as if to say, "See, you've offended everyone."

Hua Twelve smiled faintly, then suddenly coughed lightly:
"Xiaoting, do you want to go see Tu Nan? Yiming's company bought a new car, also a Crown. If you want to see your brother, I'll lend out the car when you have a holiday. We can drive to Shanghai. We can go in the morning, have a day of fun, and come back in the evening!"

Before Zhuang Xiaoting could speak, Lin Dongzhe pounced on her and hugged Hua Shier's leg:
"You are my half-brother, so Pengfei, you absolutely have to take me with you!"

This scene made Zhuang Xiaoting, who was standing next to her, laugh out loud.

On the weekend, Hua Shier kept his word, went to Guanqian Street, drove out the Crown he had provided for Song Xiangyang, and parked it at the street corner.

Lin Dongzhe and Zhuang Xiaoting had been waiting there for a while. Seeing him park, they quickly got in and excitedly asked:
"Brother Pengfei, when did you learn to drive?"

Hua Shier chuckled: "I've driven a tractor in the countryside of Guizhou. Besides, driving a car is as easy as having hands!"

Lin Dongzhe was so excited that he danced around: "Let's go! Pengfei, hurry up and drive!"

Hua Shier didn't listen to him at all: "What's the rush? I'm asking you, have you two explained things to your families since you came out?"

Lin Dongzhe nodded repeatedly: "Yes, I did. I said we were going to a classmate's house to play, and we'd be back before dinner. My mom even gave me a dollar to buy soda!"

Zhuang Xiaoting also took out a dollar: "My mom gave me one too. I feel like it's not right for us to lie like this!"

Hua Shier thought for a moment and said, "That is indeed a bit inappropriate. You can get out of the car, and I'll return it!"

The two women simultaneously said no, which made Hua Shier chuckle. Just then, the back door opened, and Wu Shanshan, who had dressed up, got in. Only then did Hua Shier start the car and say with a smile:
"Everyone's here, let's go!"

Only then did Lin Dongzhe and Zhuang Xiaoting realize that Pengfei had been waiting for Shanshan!
　Thank you to 08a and Little Tiger of the Demon Realm for the donations, and thank you to all the brothers who voted with monthly tickets and recommendation tickets. Thank you so much!

　　(End of this chapter)