Gangs and the government were two distinct rivers. The wealthy area where the original owner lived and the European style commercial street were inhabited by foreigners and dignitaries, so gangs dared not come and there were often police patrols.
But in places where civilians lived like this, there was dual jurisdiction by gangs and corrupt police, with both the white and black bosses oppressing the common people at the same time.
It was the first time that An Yinong witnessed the arrogant and domineering black forces of this era. He felt very complicated. Even the crispy and tender roast duck legs could not soothe him.
These people had no bottom line. If he didn’t have other golden fingers, and if he also encountered the kidnapping that the original owner encountered, I’m afraid he won’t be able to escape, and no matter how much he cried out to the sky or the earth, no one would help him.
“Is this the territory of the Crocodile Gang?” An Yinong asked Zhang Wei who seemed to know something.
“It used to be the White Tiger Gang’s territory, but it was later taken over by the Crocodile Gang. The relationship between the two gangs is very tense, and they fight once a month with knives.” Zhang Wei whispered, “The shops here are in a terrible situation. They have to pay protection fees several times a month, plus the protection fees to the police. The money they earn is not enough to pay rent.”
“You understand so well.” Zhao Gang was also amazed.
“My home is nearby.” Zhang Wei looked around and said mysteriously, “We have nothing to do after dinner. Do you want to come to my home? I have a lot of autographed photos of celebrities at home.”
“Okay, okay.” Zhao Gang responded positively.
As for An Yinong, it was all right. So, after they finished their meal, they went to Zhang Wei’s house.
Zhang Wei’s two-story home was not far. The front of the first floor had been converted into a shop. There was a sign “Afang Clothing” on the door. It was a typical private workshop. His mother was operating a sewing machine inside, with one hand on the cut cloth, as if she was making clothes for someone.
There were also a lot of clothes hanging on the wall to her right, with exquisite workmanship. On the other side were fabrics and accessories, as well as a small table with tailor’s scissors, tape measures, white chalk and other things on it. Overall, it was small but had all the necessary functions.
In the small clothing shop, there was a woman standing with a graceful back. She was pinching her slender waist and asking the owner to tighten the waist a little more.
“Auntie, it’s me. I’m here again.” Zhao Gang came in and said.
“Hello, Auntie.” An Yinong also came in and greeted her.
Zhang Wei’s mother stopped working and looked at An Yinong with some surprise. Even though he didn’t come by car, the elegant and noble temperament of a young master was still very obvious.
“Hello, you are the good-looking classmate that Wei mentioned. You are really beautiful.” She covered her mouth and laughed, making Zhang Wei’s face flush.
“Hey, Awei, you seem to have grown a lot after not seeing you for a few days? Whose family is this little master, and why is he here?” The woman, who had only been seen from the back before, turned her head. She was wearing blue eyeshadow and bright red lips, and looked very gorgeous.
Awei’s mother frowned slightly and held Awei’s hand: “Mom has something else to do, you take them upstairs to play first.”
“Okay.” Zhang Wei walked into the dim inner room and pulled a cord to turn on the light at the stairs.
An Yinong looked back and seemed to hear the woman’s delicate voice through the curtain: “Mrs. Zhang, what are you doing? Are you afraid that I will eat your son?”
“Ms. Huang really loves to joke. This place is too small. If a few people squeeze in, there will be no place to stand.”
The three of them walked up the narrow wooden stairs to the second floor. Zhang Wei’s room was very small. It only had a 1.4-meter single bed, a desk and a wardrobe, and no room for anything else. However, there were many posters of martial arts stars on his wall, which looked lively. This was a small room separated from a large room, and the other side was said to be his sister’s.
An Yinong was very curious about all of this. While Zhao Gang was pestering Zhang Wei to see autographed photos of celebrities, he was carefully looking around the small room.
There was a bamboo bookshelf on the small desk, on which displayed traces of a person’s growth, photos, various collections, and some strange little gadgets. The neatest thing he saw was a row of magazines, with several comic books next to them.
“Tiantong, do you want to read it? I can lend it to you.” Zhang Wei saw him standing there flipping through it for a long time and thought he liked it.
But An Yinong didn’t want to take away someone else’s favorite things, so these comics were placed there carefully by the owner, without even a wrinkle, which shows how much the original owner cherished them.
“I’m just curious. It turns out you like reading comics, too.”
“Of course, I often go to the bookstore to read.”
“What kind of comics do you like?”
“It’s a martial arts hero… Don’t call me Awei, call me William.” Zhang Wei said.
“Okay, Awei.” An Yinong squinted his eyes and smiled.
“Okay, now I know you’re such a bad person.” Zhang Wei rushed over, “Agang, come and hold him down. I want to draw a flower on his face.”
After playing around for a while, Zhang Wei sat on the bed, panting: “I don’t have a particular preference, but this “Blood Eagle of Tianshan” is the best comic book I’ve read recently.”
“I think Paul Lee’s ‘The Chamber’ is great, the mafia is so cool.” Zhao Gang interjected.
“His style is too bloody, and the fighting scenes are not cool at all, and have no beauty at all. But ‘Blood Eagle of Tianshan’ is different. It tells the story of a killer, and the feeling of being cool and neat when fighting is so domineering. There are many weapons, and they are varied.” Zhang Wei has a different opinion.
As a result, the two started arguing again.
“…” An Yinong was curious. How did the two of them become good friends when they didn’t seem to get along? According to the two people, what was popular now were either martial arts comics or mature comics. If An Yinong wanted to enter this industry, he should try popular themes.
“If I really want to draw comics, my first choice will definitely be martial arts.”
He was very certain: the fighting scenes in comics should have the impact of fists hitting flesh. And the fighting in comics did not pay attention to any rules, it was just the collision of strength and muscle against muscle. This was exactly his weakness. An Yinong had learned fighting and martial arts, but he couldn’t fight in the streets.
Gang fights were not like a match in a martial arts arena with rules. They only pursued the result and didn’t care about the process. There was blood everywhere, often with broken teeth and nosebleeds.
If he did not understand this kind of realistic subject matter at all, the painting would be very superficial. Creation required some imagination, but it was not okay to just let it float in the air, right?
“He Tiantong.”
When An Yinong came to his senses, Zhang Wei and the other boy had stopped fighting. They put away the celebrity photos and dug out a lot of tapes.
“Whose song do you want to listen to?”
“I’m fine with either.” An Yinong said with a smile.
As an artist sang a cheerful love song, Zhang Wei’s mother brought snacks and tea, and An Yinong remembered that he had brought biscuits with him. He took out the snacks and shared them with the other two.
“Auntie, are you from Shanghai?” An Yinong asked while eating the thousand-layer cake with date paste.
“Yes, my grandmother brought my aunt and my mother here.” Zhang Wei said with anticipation, “If I have the chance, I really want to visit my mother’s hometown. It must be very beautiful.”
An Yinong nodded in agreement: “It’s a very beautiful city, there must be a chance.”
After staying at Zhang Wei’s house for more than an hour, they went out to eat ice cream.
The place where they could eat ice cream was called “Bingshi”. One could see the glowing neon tube from afar. After entering, before you can eat the snack, you can hear a song. They don’t know whose song it was, but it was soothing and gentle.
“Welcome, is there anything you want to eat? Our store has recently launched wine-flavored ice cream, you can try it.” The enthusiastic waitress was indeed as beautiful as Zhang Wei said, and she looked no less beautiful than a celebrity.
“Okay, I want wine-flavored ice cream. Where’s Gang Tiantong?”
“Me too.”
“I want a pure milk one.”
Besides them, there were two other tables of guests in the ice cream parlor, all of them were young people. He didn’t know if they were students, but one of the pair was clearly a couple. The atmosphere was so intense that it almost melted the ice cream.
An Yinong didn’t know if all ice houses were like this, but the one in front of him looked more like a coffee shop.
Behind the boss who was mixing drinks was a row of cabinets, in which were placed materials and tools, and a small door with ‘Shiduofang’ written on it. An Yinong looked at it for a long time before he remembered that it should mean storage room.
On one side of the ice house was a transparent glass window and a door with a wind chime hanging on it, through which one can see the lively street, with beautiful girls walking on the street in fashionable clothing. On the other side of the wall were some celebrity posters and the store menu, all with simple pictures drawn with colored pens. In terms of price, it was quite cheap.
But the most special thing was that there was an air conditioner in the ice room. It was a large and bulky machine, and it has not been turned on yet. Just think about it, on a hot summer day, when you are sweating from the tip of your nose, how pleasant it would be if you could go into a cool place like this, enjoy the air conditioning, and drink sweet and delicious iced drinks? Moreover, this small shop had a waitress with a sweet appearance and gentle voice, and even girls will like her.
“Hey handsome boy, enjoy your pure milk ice cream.”
A highball glass filled with white ice cream was placed in front of An Yinong, topped with chocolate sauce and chopped nuts. The flowing chocolate sauce solidified on the snow-capped peaks, looking extremely tempting.
“Thank you, young lady.” An Yinong said with a smile.
“You’re welcome.” The waitress with a sweet voice smiled twice as sweet, and then placed the other two ice creams in front of Zhang Wei and the other man, “Your ice creams.”
She put them down and left without staying for a second. This unequal treatment made Zhang Wei and the others shake their heads and sigh, and they turned to look at An Yinong.
“She didn’t react when I called Miss or Sister, but you say little sister, and she even blushed. This guy is really a man who would make a big splash if he didn’t make any noise.” Zhang Wei, who had come several times but failed to impress the beauty, felt sour.
“Maybe…it’s because of his face?” Zhao Gang looked at Zhang Wei, then at An Yinong, and told the truth.
“…Don’t I have eyes? Do I need you to remind me?”
An Yinong scooped a spoonful of ice cream. The pure milk flavor slowly melted in his mouth. It was more delicate and smooth than what he had in the cinema before. “Delicious.”
“I thought I was seeing things, but it really is you, He Tiantong.” The door of the ice room was suddenly pushed open, and the sound of wind chimes continued to tinkle.
Four people walked in, one in front and three in the back. The one in front looked at An Yinong mockingly, “Has the He family gone bankrupt? How could I see you in such a low-end street shop?”
“…” An Yinong bit the spoon. He didn’t remember who this person was at the first time. Instead, the original owner’s emotions gave a very direct reaction – hate, very hate, the kind of hate that made him want to beat him up.
At this time, Zhang Wei, who always had a strong sense of justice, stepped forward and said, “Hey, who are you? What do you mean by a low-end shop? Let me tell you, the ice cream here is the best in the Harbor District, did you know that?”
The visitor looked at An Yinong and said, “Your dog is barking so loudly.”
“What?” Zhang Wei was so angry that his face turned red, but An Yinong raised his hand to stop him.
An Yinong turned to look at Zhao Gang, his eyes carrying an indescribable coldness and sharpness: “A Gang.”
“Don’t worry, I will stop him.” Zhao Gang responded subconsciously.
An Yinong turned his head away, he didn’t know that Zhao Gang was sweating on his back. Just now, He Tiantong’s aura was like that of a big shot whose words carried a lot of weight…
Was this the child raised by a wealthy family? Even if he was very low-key and could get along well with them on weekdays, he dared not say a word at the critical moment.
WhiteMoon x BlackSun 