BXBX NOVEL Chapter 116: Pangzi
"Sure!"
The woman swiftly took the bill, her spirit uplifted.
A woman and a man walked together shoulder by shoulder on a street lightly illuminated by the street light.
"You have something on your mind, don’t you?" The woman took the initiative to start a conversation with Chang as she felt bad for taking the money but doing nothing. "Since you asked me to take a walk with you, do you want to talk?"
"Yeah, sure." Chang nodded. He noticed the appearance of the woman as he turned his head to her. She seemed to be in her thirties, neither magnificently beautiful nor ugly. Her eyes shined and she was curvy. She hadn’t lost weight due to starvation. "Do you have kids?"
"I had one two years ago, but she passed away of sickness." The woman lowered her head when she talked about her child, but she quickly shook it off. "Do you have kids as well?"
"No, I don’t. But I have a younger sister. She used to be a good kid but now that she’s grown up, she became a rebel... Every day I go home, she would have a fight with me. She even deliberately dates a gangster to take revenge on me." Chang made a wry smile. "Every day she picks a quarrel with me, and if I let her out, she causes even more trouble. I know that I shouldn’t lock her up every day, but I get worried if she leaves me and lives independently. You know what it takes for a girl to live by herself."
"You seem prosperous."
The dangerous environment pressured the citizens into learning about weapons, even this woman could tell that the handgun that Chang used was one of the best in town.
"Not too bad. For the moment, I’m not worried about my own living. But I’m always on guard, as you know, these days mutations are common enough that perhaps one day humans will go extinct after being massacred by some other species. However, to be honest, my life isn’t too bad right now."
"Well, the pressure comes in many forms, and since you’ve gotten over the pressure of mere survival, you have to deal with the pressure of living now. Humans always causes trouble for themselves." The woman smiled and the wrinkles around her eye deepened. "I don’t think you need to worry too much. When the pressure of survival returns, your sister will be the same as before."
"Thanks, I think your words are worth a hundred State Yuan." Chang’s rigid face muscles kept him from making an expression.
"Words worth money, that’s what you rich people think of. To me, things that are worth a hundred State Yuan are only food." The woman’s smile was miserable. "A woman like me gradually loses youth... I don’t have any survival skills, either, not to mention hunting in the jungle to collect samples. Even the gangs despise me. Since the military stopped distributing Crystal Pea seeds, it has become a market product. I have nothing, it’s even a trouble for me to feed myself."
"I am sorry."
Chang closed his eyes.
"Well then, sweetheart, can you give me more then?"
The woman landed a hand on Chang’s shoulder.
"It sounds like I should. "Chang took out another hundred for her. "This is the last time I would do something like this, I won’t give more."
"I know where the line is." The woman’s face showed the glaze of prudence. "Tell me more about your sister, I may help."
"I’ve been thinking about what can I do to handle her rebelliousness... Any ideas?"
"The main reason for her to do so is to get your attention. If you think you can’t handle this anymore, then divert her attention," the woman said. "For example, get her a peer friend to hang out with... I think that’s the best way of handling it."
"I see..."
The streetlights were turned off one by one as the night grew late. It was their first meeting, and they walked far down the district. Then they ended their conversation.
"Let’s call it a day, I still have another thorny affair to deal with, so I’ll be going this way, good night." They stopped in front of a tall building. "Thank you for the night."
"It was a pleasure hearing your story, and the money. I hope we can meet again."
The woman smiled briefly, turning away from Chang, and her figure slowly dissipated in the red fog.
Now, Chang faced the building. His sensitive nose informed him of the location of Jing’s date. The scent that flooded the room hinted that the man had just had sex with a woman.
"Qing Shui told me that I shouldn’t repress my feelings."
Chagn’s anger built up rapidly. He prepared so that he could climb on the wall like a gecko. The micro bristles on his palms aided with his adherance to the wall, and he supported his lower body by having his feet push off the balcony. He sneaked into the house without making a noticeable sound.
The lock of the door was destroyed, and the man who had just fallen asleep was dragged out. Chang jumped off the balcony of the second floor with the man’s neck wrapped in his arm.
He dragged the man while sprinting to an area with no residents, after reaching which he threw the man into a dark corner.
"Mercy! I beg for your mercy!"
The man turned coward instantly as his opponent was fully armed while he was all naked. The man knew that Chang wasn’t someone that he could provoke.
"Sh*t up, we’ve met once, do you remember?"
Chang looked down at the man.
"Have we?"
The man meticulously observed Chang’s face, but the features didn’t ring a bell.
"Am I this ordinary?"
Chang stomped on the man’s face.
"No, no, no. You’re not! It’s my problem! I’ve bad memory..." The man’s nose bridge was broken and blood flowed out from the nasal. "Please, mercy! I’ve really bad memory..."
"Your memory is none of my business. I came here to ask you for one thing, you’re dating a teen girl, aren’t you?"
"I am! I am dating some... Are you a relative?"
The red fog gave Chang’s face a layer of mystery.
"I’m pretty sure my sibling is your date, how many are you dating at the same time?"
Chang was obviously provoked. He lost his mind over the answer. The man lost his front teeth under Chang’s foot.
"Not... not too many," the man shouted out with a strange sound of air flowing through where his front teeth had been.
"Well then, you know about Jing Ji, don’t you?"
"I do."
"Stop contacting her. If I find you’re still dating her, I’ll leave you alone in the jungle naked."
Chang lifted his foot from the man’s face and walked away.
The man exhaled as the weight on his heart lifted, but Chang came back to ease his own worries.
"Just to be safe..."
He did the same thing again but this time his foot kicked the man’s genital area. The delicate sensation of the impact let him know that he had caused a severe injury. The man also shrieked out of unbearable pain at the same time.
"Now I’m assured..."
Suddenly, Chang felt lighthearted. He threw the displeasure of arguing with Jing behind him, returning home in a good mood.
The bell on the door rang when he pushed the door of the bar open. He returned to his own room and took a hot shower that was considered luxurious these days. When he came out of the bathroom, he noticed Zhizhi on his bed.
"I gotta talk to you about this, Zhizhi.... every single time!" Chang muttered to himself, lying on the left side of the bed. He was quickly dragged into dreams.
At midnight, Sanpang escaped from the bar, which Chang was aware of from the growing distance of Sanpang’s smell, yet he did nothing but kept on sleeping. He tracked the mercenary down on the second morning in another block.
"A hundred thousand State Yuan."
The bar was closed during day time. Chang threw Sanpang in behind the bar counter.
"Bro, that’s a hundred thousand! Even if I sell my own life to you, I’m not worth this much!" Sanpang started sobbing when he heard the cruel number. "We make our living in the jungle by collecting samples of new species, and we seldom have the luck of finding one and bringing it back safely. We earned much less than you imagine!"
"The time that we earned the most was about twenty thousand State Yuan for the sample, and we distributed that money evenly among us... We’re basically exchanging those samples with our lives. I’m sure you know how dangerous the jungle is: the bugs, trees, animals, and I heard that there is a species called monkats, which know how to trap humans! Please, our lives are hard, and a hundred thousand State Yuan is simply too much...
"Let’s speak for real... If we weren’t drunk that day, we woud’ve never order Baijiu... We thought it was a nicer Crystal Pea spirit. We were really happy that day because of the sample, and we wanted to be unrestrained for once on alcohol, and I didn’t know...."
Sanpang started to act out sobbing again, and Chang found it funny.
"Please... Those *ssholes don’t have a hundred State Yuan at all, even if they had, they wouldn’t pay them for my life..."
"Hahahaha, stop sobbing. You’re making me laugh, and people say that I look weird when I’m laughing because I can’t make proper expressions."Chang only opened his mouth but his lips did not curve up. "I see your situation. How about this? You work for me for three months and you’re free of debt. This mission is to take care of my sister, prevent her from dating any suspicious men. I’ll give you a good weapon but you have to promise me that you can ensure her safety."
As he spoke, Chang threw a well-made pistol to Sanpang from the drawer in the bar counter.
"And so are you, put away your dirty mind when you are accompanying her. If I learn that you’ve an evil plan, the consequence won’t be nice." Chang pulled Sanpang up when the other had finished attaching the pistol to his belt. He lead Sanpang to Jing’s room, knocking on the door. "Jing, I fond you a friend."
Chang took out a key to unlock the room, cueign Sanpang to come in front of him.
"See, doesn’t he look like Pangzi?" Chang landed his arm on Sanpang’s shoulder, and the latter showed a genial smile.
"Hey, Jing."
Jing’s room was covered with glass pieces, and she sat on the floor, the only spot in the room free of glass. She was calm, gazing at Sanpang’s round face. Her memory went back to four years ago when Pangzi was still one of them. Unusually, she didn’t start bickering with Chang and the stranger but waved to the latter politely.
"Hi."