A hundred flavors of life

Chapter 1454 Don't Be Like Your Mother! (Please Subscribe!)

Regarding the report against Hua Shier, Lu Ming made inquiries throughout the department, and sure enough, some classmates had seen Chen Xin privately talking to a professor and mentioning the name 'Xiang Pengfei'.

That day in the cafeteria, Lu Ming, carrying his lunchbox, approached Hua Shier and Wu Shanshan's table, his voice low but unable to hide his resentment:

"Brother, I've found out. It must have been that bastard Chen Xin who stabbed me in the back!"

Even without Lu Ming saying it, Hua Shier knew it was Chen Xin. Not only did Chen Xin report Hua Shier for neglecting his studies of feng shui, but he also reported Hua Shier for buying the old house illegally.

He looked at Lu Ming, who had come to deliver the message, with amusement, and asked:

"So what?"

Hua Shier looked at Lu Ming, who had a 'praise me for being clever' expression, with amusement, and slowly asked:
"So what?"

Lu Ming's eyes widened: "What else? Bro, tell me yourself, what did you do to offend him? He schemed against you like this, are you just going to let it go like this?"

Hua Shier teased him with a laugh, "Then should I take a knife and go find him?"

Lu Ming quickly shook his head: "That's not worth it! It's not worth risking yourself for someone like that."

Hua Shier then asked, "Should I beat him up to vent my anger?"

This time, Lu Ming got excited and nodded repeatedly: "That works! But we have to find a time when no one's around. Wait until he's alone at night, then I'll help you put the sack over his head, and we'll..."

Before he could finish speaking, Hua Shier's chopsticks had already gently tapped his forehead:
"This is getting more and more absurd. Let's eat quickly."

Lu Ming shrank back, reluctantly saying, "Fine, anyway, he reported you, not me. You're not worried, so I can't be the one who's more anxious than the emperor, can I?"

After saying that, he realized something was amiss: "Hey, I'm not a eunuch, I'm a minister."

"You big-headed devil!"

Hua Shier laughed and scolded, "With a head like yours, you can't even put on an official hat and plume."

Wu Shanshan, who was standing to the side, listened to the two bickering and smiled without interrupting. She knew that Brother Pengfei never played such low-level games as sack-tying. Zhang Amei was proof of that. She had been bullied by Pengfei with a few words and was immediately humiliated.

Hua Shier: Sigh, you misunderstood me. Putting sacks on people is actually quite fun!
Wu Shanshan knew that Chen Xin was definitely not going to get away with this, and she was just waiting to see what would happen.

From then on, Lu Ming never gave Chen Xin a friendly look.

Chen Xin probably knew that his little secret had been exposed, so when he saw Hua Shier and Lu Ming in the dormitory, he lowered his head and avoided them, not even bothering to put on a show.

On the contrary, Hua Shier, the person in charge, continued to act as usual, and his attitude towards Chen Xin and Zou Yu remained the same as before.

Lu Ming was privately worried for him: "Brother, even if we're all magnanimous, can't you at least show some anger and give us a hard time? Otherwise, he'll think you're easy to bully!"

Hua Shier simply smiled and shook his head at this.

A week later, Hua Shier was researching in the library when Lu Ming burst in, his voice low but unable to hide his excitement:
"Brother, have you heard? Chen Xin is dropping out of school!"

Hua Shier closed the documents, stood up, and a faint smile appeared on his face: "We're classmates, let's see him off."

Lu Ming looked incredulous: "Give it to him? If you ask me, we should set off some firecrackers to celebrate!" Despite muttering to himself, he still followed.

In the dormitory, Chen Xin was packing his luggage with his head down. He had already completed the formalities and would be leaving school today.

Zou Yu, standing nearby, advised, "Chen Xin, think it over again! Getting into university is so difficult, it's like thousands of people squeezing onto a single-plank bridge. You finally got in, how can you just give up like that?"

Chen Xin's face was ashen, as if all his energy had been drained away compared to his usual self. Hearing Zou Yu's words, his eyes reddened, and he almost burst into tears. Anyone could tell from this expression that this was definitely not his own choice.

He wanted to say something, but when he saw Hua Shier and Lu Ming come in, he immediately shut up and started packing his luggage.

Lu Ming said gloatingly:

"Hey, Chen, you're packing your bags. What are you going to do? Are you really not going to study anymore? Did you do too many bad things and suddenly realize you want to start anew? But that doesn't mean you have to give up your studies too!"

"you!"

Chen Xin suddenly turned around, his eyes resembling those of a wounded wild animal.

"What, you want to fight?" Lu Ming, standing at 1.8 meters tall, took a step forward: "Come on, it's not that I look down on you, but I'll give you a handicap. You think you're any tougher than me!"

Chen Xin's momentum faltered, he gritted his teeth, turned around and continued tidying up.

"Tch, is that all the guts you have?" Lu Ming curled his lip. "When you get to society, behave yourself properly, otherwise you'll get beaten up easily if you act like a coward."

Seeing that Chen Xin didn't make a move, Lu Ming looked down on him.

Chen Xin quickly packed up, nodded to Zou Yu, and said in a hoarse voice, "Let's go." After saying that, he picked up his luggage, didn't even look at Hua Shier and Lu Ming, and walked straight out the door.

Just then, Hua Twelve, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke:
"Chen Xin".

Chen Xin paused in his steps.

"As a classmate, let me give you some advice before I leave: be a good person from now on, and don't be like your mother. Embezzlement is a crime!"

Chen Xin trembled violently, turned around abruptly, and stared intently at Hua Shier:
"How did you know? It was you. You were the one who reported it, weren't you?!"

Chen Xin's mother is an accountant at a collective enterprise in Shanghai. A few days ago, she was reported for embezzlement and falsifying accounts. After investigation, the allegations were found to be true, and she has been detained according to law.

The Chen family not only had to return the embezzled funds and pay fines, but Chen's father was also implicated and suspended from his job.

Chen Xin's family not only had to return the embezzled money, but also pay a fine. Even worse, Chen Xin's father was implicated by his wife and suspended from his job.

Overnight, with his source of income cut off, Chen Xin naturally could no longer continue his university studies.

Crime is a very serious matter in this era, so Chen Xin did not tell anyone about his mother at school.

Now that Hua Shier has said it outright, it's clear that he already knew.

Recalling his two previous reports against Hua Shier, Chen Xin, though unwilling to believe that the other party had such power, still intuitively believed that it must have been the other party who did it, or at least that the other party was involved.

Hua Shier smiled faintly: "I never said that. Don't talk nonsense without evidence, or I'll sue you for defamation!"

Although he did not admit it, the smile on his face was undisguised, clearly telling the other party, "I was the one who reported it, what can you do to me?"

"You little bastard, I'll take you with me to die!"

Chen Xin was about to fight back when Hua Shier turned to the side and delivered a crisp slap, sending Chen Xin staggering to the ground, his vision blurring, unable to get up for a long time.

Hua Shier spread his hands, looking innocently at Lu Ming and Zou Yu, who were already stunned:

“You can testify that he attacked first, and I acted in self-defense.”

Lu Ming and Zou Yu were both so shocked by what had just happened and their conversation that they were speechless. Words like "reporting" and "embezzlement" automatically connected in their minds, and they guessed the general situation.

Chen Xin lay on the ground for about a minute before shakily standing up.

His face was red and swollen, but his eyes had changed. He dared not look Hua Shier in the eye again, and most of the fierceness and resentment he had shown earlier had dissipated.

Hua Shier sighed inwardly, "Some people are just like that. If you don't provoke them, they'll always provoke you. If you slap them, they'll instantly behave."

He stepped forward and patted Chen Xin on the shoulder: "Our score is settled. Learn from this and be a better person in the future."

Chen Xin lowered his head, remained silent, picked up his scattered luggage, and fled the dormitory as if escaping. Some students who had heard the commotion were already peeking out from outside. Lu Ming, quick-witted, immediately laughed loudly, "It's nothing, it's nothing! Just a little emotional saying goodbye to my roommate!" With that, he closed the door tightly.

The dormitory fell silent.

Zou Yu looked at Hua Shier with a complicated expression: "Pengfei, did you really report his mother? I know it's wrong for Chen Xin to tattle on someone to the teacher, but what you've done... isn't it going too far?"

It's clearly a conflict between classmates, but good grief, instead of messing with the classmate, you're messing with the classmate's mother! Who can stand that?!
Before Hua Shier could speak, Lu Ming said:

"What? You think it's okay for officials to set fires but commoners to light lamps? If he does one thing, he can't blame others for doing the next! If you hit someone, you should be prepared to get kicked in the crotch!"

Hua Shier laughed and scolded, "What nonsense are you spouting? Hurry up and take a break!"

After he finished speaking, he turned to Zou Yu and said:
“I’ll just say three things. First, he reported my house purchase. If it’s true that the operation was ‘illegal,’ not only will I lose hundreds of thousands of yuan, but I could also end up in jail. This is a deadly move, you know? If anyone has crossed the line, it’s him.”

"Secondly, embezzlement is the misappropriation of the Guo family's assets. Any conscientious citizen who knows about it should report it. This is a righteous act, and you all agree with that, right?"

Lu Ming nodded and said, "Absolutely. This is different from what you did when you bought the house. We're just following the law and asking someone to help speed up the approval process. But Chen Xin's mother is embezzling money. We can't tolerate that!"

Hua Shier nodded, and then said:

"Third, I did not 'report' his mother. I simply noticed that Chen Xin's daily spending was significantly inconsistent with his family's income, and I happened to know that his mother was an accountant, so I asked someone to investigate according to regulations. If she is innocent, then there is naturally nothing to do with her; since problems have been found, then she has only herself to blame. What do you think?"

He looked directly at Zou Yu, who wanted to say, "Isn't having someone investigate you the same as filing a complaint?"

Zou Yu opened his mouth, wanting to say, "Isn't sending someone to investigate the same as reporting someone?" But he swallowed the words back. After all, embezzlement is a crime, and besides, he had just learned that Chen Xin had reported Hua Shier for buying a house. He also felt that Chen Xin's actions had gone too far, so he ultimately said nothing.

Hua Shier said no more and pulled Lu Ming, who was still rambling on, out the door.

Actually, his third point wasn't entirely correct. It wasn't that he thought Chen Xin's spending level was wrong, but rather that when Hua Shier learned that Chen Xin's mother was an accountant at a small business, he knew there was definitely something wrong.

In the real world, he had an elder in his family who was a retired accountant. He once said to Hua Shier that no accountant is immune to falsifying accounts, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. They either falsify accounts themselves to make some money, or they falsify accounts for their superiors. If they are investigated, they will be caught red-handed.

Of course, Hua Shier himself still had a bright heart, believing that there were always some who remained untainted by the mud. Later, he searched online and found out that, wow, the outstanding accountants were all behind bars. He felt that what the netizens said was right: the end of the accountant career was indeed Tilanqiao.

In a small restaurant outside the school, Wu Shanshan was serving food to Hua Shier, while Lu Ming across from her took a sip of beer and chuckled.

"Brother, I was wondering why you were so calm before. Turns out, a barking dog doesn't bite."

Hua Shier felt a vein throb on his forehead. If he hadn't known that this guy spoke without thinking, even describing himself as a 'eunuch,' he would have thought it was a sarcastic remark.

A sharp rap on the forehead struck Lu Ming, making him cry out in pain.

"How many times have I told you? If you can't speak properly, then speak less."

Lu Ming rubbed his head and chuckled sheepishly, then diligently filled Hua Twelve's glass with wine again:

"Come on, we're happy today, we have to have a toast!"

Two days after Chen Xin left, Zou Yu, whether out of anxiety or to avoid embarrassment, took the initiative to apply for a change of dormitory.

That year, there were few students in the architecture department, and the school did not arrange for new students to move in. Only Hua Shier and Lu Ming were left in the dormitory, which was quiet and comfortable.

Time flowed on, until the autumn of 1987.

Lin Dongzhe and Zhuang Xiaoting were both admitted to Shanghai Jiao Tong University and moved south to Shanghai. The group of friends who used to laugh and play in the alleys of Suzhou are now gathered in this bustling metropolis.

Weekend get-togethers became a regular occurrence. As Hua Shier's friend, Lu Ming participated in two of these gatherings. With his outgoing nature, he quickly became sworn brothers with Lin Dongzhe.

In the blink of an eye, it was 1988.

After graduating from university, Li Jia went straight to work, while Zhuang Tunan continued to bury himself in books and embarked on the path of postgraduate entrance examination.

Hua Shi's studies entered a more intense phase, with coursework beginning to involve the overall design and model making of small buildings. These tasks, which would be quite challenging for others, were handled with ease by him.

However, Wu Shanshan's studies became increasingly demanding, inevitably reducing the time they could spend together.

Therefore, the small villa located on Harbin Road, with clear property rights but always vacant, became Hua Shier's best choice to pass the time.

He first carefully measured the dimensions of each space, recorded the angle of light, and felt the flow of ventilation.

Back in his dorm room, he spread out the blueprints, the pencil scratching on the paper as he sketched out the blueprint in his mind.

What he wanted was neither retro embellishment nor avant-garde eccentricity, but a tranquility and comfort that could withstand the test of time, a simplicity that belonged to the future but was rooted in the needs of present life.

Before construction began, he asked the workers to completely remove the old and outdated decorations.

When the walls are stripped down to the original bricks or mortar, when the ceiling reveals its original structure, when the mottled floor is pried up, the house seems to shed the heavy burden of time, returning to its most authentic state, quietly awaiting a new life.

When it came to the renovation, Hua Shier didn't intend to leave it to others.

He scoured the building materials market, personally selecting every piece of flooring, every bucket of paint, and every tile.

He didn't choose the most expensive one, but the one with the most solid texture and the most warm color.

The flooring is light wood-colored, the walls are painted a matte white, and the kitchen and bathroom feature low-saturation gray tiles. All the hardware is in the style of the Republic of China era, which matches the style of the Western-style house.

For the next few months, whenever he didn't have classes, he would spend all his time in that little house, mixing cement, applying putty, laying flooring, and installing electrical circuits, doing everything step by step in an orderly and patient manner.

Lu Ming occasionally came to help out, and he watched with amazement, saying, "Brother, you have this skill too? Why don't you decorate my house for me?"

He and Zhuang Tunan also bought houses. Not only them, but Song Ying and Lin Wufeng also bought houses for Lin Dongzhe in Shanghai. The group bought apartments in the same community, all over 80 square meters, which are considered large houses now.

Hua Shier kept working and laughed:

"Sure, but you'll have to do it yourself. As an architecture student, you have to try it out yourself to understand how materials and space interact."

Several months later, the finished product was produced.

Outside the window is the bustling Harbin Road, but inside is a simple yet sophisticated space, a tranquil haven of its own.

This little house, which once felt both strange and familiar to him, has now finally been transformed into the ideal house he envisioned.

Just as Hua Shier stood in the middle of the floor, admiring his masterpiece, he suddenly felt a fluctuation in time and space that shouldn't exist in this world.

When Hua Shier noticed this and carefully investigated with his mental power, he found that the spacetime fluctuations from before had disappeared again, as if they were playing hide-and-seek with him.

What he didn't know was that at the same moment, downstream in the rushing river of time, in 2018, a large-scale power outage occurred in an industrial area of ​​Shanghai.

In an underground research lab in this industrial zone, a well-dressed, capable-looking middle-aged man was frowning.

His face still vaguely resembled Lu Ming's younger self, but the years had deepened his composure and authority, and now he was filled with anxiety and doubt.

Before him, a man who looked like a scientist, sweat beading on his forehead, was hurriedly explaining:

"Mr. Lu, our preliminary assessment is that we severely underestimated the instantaneous power demand of 'that device' during startup, leading to a protective trip of the regional power grid."

The middle-aged man, referred to as 'President Lu,' spoke in a deep voice, carrying an undeniable pressure:
"I don't want to hear about the process, I just want the results and the solution. Why did it turn out like this? We've invested countless amounts of money and waited for so many years, we can't let all our efforts be wasted on such a fundamental aspect!"

The scientist quickly replied, "Yes, yes! We already have a contingency plan. Immediately deploy twenty more high-power mobile generator sets to supply power in parallel, constructing a temporary energy system independent of the municipal power grid. As long as the energy supply keeps up, the experiment can definitely continue."

Thanks to 08a, Little Tiger of the Demon Realm, and Brother Li Meng of the God of Death for their donations, and thanks to the brothers who voted for monthly tickets and recommendations. Thank you so much!