Li Zheng’s brow furrowed, he didn’t appreciate this dressing style.
Looking at Li Zheng’s frown with a serious expression, Xu Wenqian subconsciously threw away the cigarette in his hand, while stamping out the butt with his foot. He didn’t know why, seeing this sixteen or seventeen year old boy, she had the feeling of being caught doing bad things in school by the teacher.
“Excuse me, does Zhong Peng live here?” Li Zheng’s eyes swept over the keys in the woman’s hand and asked politely.
Xu Wenqian froze for a moment, “Huh? Oh. You’re looking for Teacher Zhong?” She looked Li Zheng up and down for a few moments, then took out the key and opened the door, “You come with me.”
The old security door emitted a “creaking” sound, the lower part of the door had lost its paint, revealing dark brown rust.
It seemed that the former professor of the University of Hong Kong wasn’t very happy with his life.
“Mr. Zhong lives on the fifth floor.” Xu Wenqian worked in the nightclub, so she was observant, this teenager, although he wasn’t wearing common luxury brands in the mall, but the material and cut was definitely not cheap.
“Do you have something for Mr. Zhong?” Xu Wenqian asked cautiously.
Li Zheng glanced at her and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, “Teacher Zhong? You are his student?”
Xu Wenqian immediately shook his head, “How can I, do I look like a student? My brother is taking lessons from him. Mr. Zhong’s lecture is good, he’s just a little stubborn.”
Li Zheng walked pass, the walls in the hallway were patchy, many wall paint had fallen off, revealing the uneven concrete surface, the staircase handrails had been plastered with various small ads.
“Here we are.” Xu Wenqian stopped, she went up and knocked on the door.
“Teacher Zhong, are you there?” Xu Wenqian shouted.
The sound of heavy footsteps came from the door, followed by a “click”, the door was opened, a middle-aged man in his forties appeared in front of the two.
The man was wearing a black jacket, his hair was mostly white, and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses were set on his nose. When he saw Li Zheng beside Xu Wenqian, the doubt in his eyes flashed.
“Teacher Zhong, this little brother is looking for you.” Xu Wenqian seemed to respect Zhong Peng, and spoke with some formality.
Zhong Peng’s gaze fell on Li Zheng, and the two looked at each other quietly for a while.
Suddenly, Li Zheng smiled.
“Sorry, maybe I got the wrong place.”
After saying that, he smiled at the puzzled Xu Wenqian, and then simply turned around and left.
Zhong Peng stood silently in place, his hand tugging at the door handle, his thumb stuck in the spring of the door lock but unaware of it.
“Teacher Zhong!” Xu Wenqian looked at the blood seeping out of Zhong Peng’s hand and couldn’t help but shout out in alarm.
Li Zheng’s footsteps paused, but he still didn’t turn around.
Zhong Peng’s gaze was fixed on Li Zheng’s back, he opened his mouth to say something, but never made a sound. It was only when Li Zheng’s figure was about to disappear at the stairway that Zhong Peng violently rushed out from his home and stood between the stairs and said loudly, “What does Sir Li Zheng want from me?”
Xu Wenqian’s eyes rounded in surprise as she looked at Zhong Peng and then at Li Zheng.
Sir? She and Zhong Peng had been neighbors for so many years, but she rarely heard the word sir from Zhong Peng’s mouth.
She vaguely guessed that Mr. Zhong used to be a very important person, because every New Year’s Eve, there were always several people with extraordinary clothes visiting him at home, and she noticed that those people treated Mr. Zhong with respect.
The young man in front of her was the same age as her brother, so why could he make Mr. Zhong call him sir?
Li Zheng slowly turned around, “My lab is still short of a few hands, I wanted to ask Professor Zhong if he was interested, but now it seems that Professor Zhong is not suitable for this position.”
As soon as the door opened, Li Zheng smelled a strong smell of alcohol. He saw through the doorway that seven or eight bottles of wine were standing or lying on the living room floor in the house, scattered around.
Li Zheng heard from Xu Mingsheng about Zhong Peng’s experience and had great sympathy for him, but a person who was addicted to alcohol was definitely not a good scholar. So Li Zheng turned around and left without looking back.
Zhong Peng froze in place, he breathed heavily, his long-silent heart seemed to have a flame to burst out.
“Teacher Zhong ……” Xu Wenqian spoke cautiously.
Zhong Peng turned his head to look at her.
Xu Wenqian was just stunned, she …… had never seen such a glow in Mr. Zhong’s eyes.
As Li Zheng walked down the stairs step by step, the glow in Zhong Peng’s eyes grew fainter and fainter, he wanted to run to him countless times, but at this time his feet seemed like they were filled with lead, extra heavy.
Xu Wenqian looked at Zhong Peng, then looked at the stairway, gritted her teeth, and quickly chased after Li Zheng in the direction he left.
“Mr. Li Zheng!” She had a feeling that if the young young gentleman left like that, she might never see this kind of look in Mr. Zhong’s eyes again in her life.
Only as soon as she ran out the door, she saw her brother, who was covered in blood, stumbling their way.
“Jian!” The blood on Xu Wenqian’s face faded cleanly at once, and she quickly ran up and used her sleeve to wipe the blood from her brother’s face.
“Jian, what happened? Shouldn’t you be in class?”
Xu Wenjian shook his head as he dragged Xu Wenqian inside, “Sister, go home first.”
At this time a group of gangster-like people also caught up, they surrounded the two siblings, “Yo, stealing money from our brothers, your courage is really fat.”
Xu Wenqian put her brother behind her, like a lioness who was protecting her cub, she viciously stared at the crowd.
When Xu Wenjian ran past him with his face covered in blood, Li Zheng subconsciously stopped in his tracks, he considered himself a good person, so he didn’t mind giving a hand if necessary.
Seeing the way Xu Wenqian protected Xu Wenjian touched Li Zheng’s heart, as if he had returned to the day he was reborn, Zhou Sitian also protected him. Obviously, she was a soft girl, but she had to make a fierce appearance to protect the most important person behind her.
Li Zheng secretly reflected on his bad habit of judging people by their appearance, and then walked to the small store down the street and made a phone call.
“This money was obviously taken by you! I …… I just ……” Xu Wenjian’s voice was slightly trembling.
When Xu Wenqian heard that, her heart felt cold, she immediately said to the group of gangsters, “Sorry big brothers, how much, I’ll immediately return the money to you.”
“Why should I return it! Sister, I won’t study anymore, I don’t want your money!” Xu Wenjian suddenly became agitated, he clutched the blood-soaked money in his pocket and refused to let go.
“Pah” Xu Wenqian slapped her brother’s face, she once again turned her head and smiled at the gangsters, then took out a pile of money from her bag and tried to hand it over.
Xu Wenjian’s eyes suddenly turned red, he fiercely grabbed the money from Xu Wenqian’s hand, and then quickly ran towards Li Zheng’s direction.
“Sh*t!” The punks were furious, they dropped the cigarettes in their hands and quickly chased after him.
At this time, the sound of police sirens came from far away from the street, the punks froze and looked at each other.
“Kid, don’t live here if you can, we’ll make you spit it out twice as much!” After saying that, trotted away in all directions.
Xu Wenjian saw the punks leave, a happy smile appeared on his bloodied face, only his smile didn’t last long before his sister’s anger was ushered in.
Xu Wenqian’s hand was raised high, but when she saw the wound on her brother’s forehead, it fell weakly again, and she took out a handkerchief and pressed it tightly against the opening on Xu Wenjian’s forehead.
“If you don’t have money, tell sister ah, why go steal from that group.” The Cantonese in Xu Wenqian’s mouth carried an accent unique to Haidong Province.
“Your sister is right, even if the money is extorted from that group of people, it’s still wrong for you to steal.” Li Zheng, at some point, stood behind the pair of siblings.
His heart was slightly complicated, if …… he meant if, if the original Li Zheng was still alive and he hadn’t woken up from this body, maybe he and Zhou Sitian would be another pair of Xu siblings.
“What do you know!” Xu Wenjian yelled at Li Zheng, and then said to Xu Wenqian with a sobbing voice, “Sister, I don’t want you to make this kind of money anymore! I don’t want to go to school, I don’t want to go to school.”
Xu Wenqian’s eyes were red, she was unable to speak.
Looking at the siblings hugging and crying, Li Zheng pursed his lips tightly.
Zhong Peng eventually walked down, he didn’t have any hope, so when he saw Li Zheng standing downstairs, his face once showed a look of excitement. But he soon saw the current appearance of Xu’s siblings, he didn’t care to talk to Li Zheng, Zhong Peng walked over with a sullen face.
Li Zheng hesitated a little, said a few words to the police officer who came, and left in silence.
“Mr. Zhong, Mr. Li Zheng has left.” Xu Wenqian was the first to notice Li Zheng’s departure, and an anxious look appeared on her face.
Zhong Peng smiled sagely when he heard this, “It’s okay, he’s gone, I’ll just go find him tomorrow!”
This was the first time Xu Wenqian saw such a confident and spontaneous smile on Zhong Peng’s face.
*
“Sister, I’m done with my busy schedule. Do I have this honor to have a meal with you, the big star?” Li Zheng, who had returned to Qing Garden, couldn’t help but call Zhou Sitian.
Zhou Sitian on the other side of the phone sounded a bit flustered, “Xiao Zheng, do you …… know about it?”
Li Zheng froze for a moment, “Know what?” His mind went to that old fox that tried to disturb his sister, Li Zheng’s eyes narrowed, “Sister you are still young, your career is important.”
Zhou Sitian thought Li Zheng found out about Zhao Qiuhua’s existence …
“Sister, thank you.” Li Zheng suddenly said.
Zhou Sitian’s heart felt warm, and the grievances of the day suddenly disappeared completely. Her eyes were slightly wer. “What are you talking about? You work day and night, you should have a good rest. And Zheng Lingling told me that you eat instant noodles every day, and you don’t eat the rice prepared by the staff …”
Zhou Sitian rambled for a long time, the two siblings hadn’t seen each other for a long time, so they talked for a long time.
This was very good.
ty