Four-Faced Buddha [To My Shore] - Chap 51
Chapter 51 Protecting the Environment
2024-10-13 07:22 Category: Four-Faced BuddhaTurn off the lights
The financial university in the neighboring city is renovating its gymnasium. High-end leather shoes tread on the bricks and rubble, leaving a layer of dust.
Passing through the construction site, Fan Xiao saw a young man standing by the artificial lake, his features obscured by bare willow branches.
He bent down, dusted off his trouser legs, and walked over unhurriedly. When he got closer, he asked, “Zhang Chen? You Shulang’s younger brother?”
Fan Xiao did not restrain his aura, and as he wished, the young man’s expression stiffened, and he nodded with some apprehension, replying, “It is me.”
Fan Xiao lowered his eyes to examine the young man. He did not look like You Shulang. He was more handsome and his face still had the appearance of a boy. However, there was a heavy gloom between his brows.
“Are you planning to talk standing up?” Fan Xiao asked coldly.
“Oh, may I sit over there?”
Following the direction the young man pointed, Fan Xiao saw a bench by the lake. He frowned slightly, but still took a step and walked over.
Fan Xiao was afraid of the cold and disliked the bulkiness of thick clothes, so he was only wearing a wool coat. Fortunately, he had added a sweater under You Shulang’s tyranny when he went out in the morning.
Wrapping his coat tighter, Fan Xiao sat on the bench, somewhat impatient, and got straight to the point: “I’ve already investigated your affairs. You used your identity as a graduate student at a finance university to trick elderly people into handing over their savings, and then you used that money to invest in stocks on their behalf, earning commissions in the process.”
Fan Xiao looked at the young man beside him with obvious contempt in his eyes: “This is not a big deal. Your mistake is that you are greedy. You not only earn commissions but also line your own pockets. Moreover, you recently failed in your trading and lost most of this money. Now you can’t plug the hole.”
The young man hurriedly protested: “According to the contract, I am just the trader. If there are any losses, the investors should bear them, and it has nothing to do with me!”
Fan Xiao took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, smiling sarcastically: “But the money you put in your own pocket is much more than the number on the contract.”
He casually asked, “Is it okay to smoke here?” Before he could answer, he lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled the smoke. “You thought you could just fool these old people and get away with it, but you didn’t expect that the son of the old man who invested the most was no pushover. Not only did he hire professionals to get evidence that your data was falsified, but he also wants to use it to extort money from you, or else he’ll make a big deal out of this.”
The young man’s face was pale, like the gray sky of early winter. Suddenly, a fierce glint appeared in his slanted eyes, and he roared, “I didn’t come here to listen to your gloating! Didn’t you say on the phone that you were You Shulang’s friend and could help me?!”
Fan Xiao rolled his eyes: “Is this how you usually call your brother by his name?” He glanced at the young man’s clothes, which were all brand-name. “As far as I know, your brother covers all your expenses, but apart from asking him for money this time, I have never seen you contact him on your own initiative.”
A contemptuous smile appeared on the young man’s face. He snorted and said, “You and You Shulang have that kind of relationship, don’t you? If you want to curry favor with You Shulang, then do my job well. I’ll make sure he sleeps with you a few more times later.”
Fan Xiao, with a cigarette butt in his mouth, suddenly laughed. He draped his arm over the back of the bench, relaxed his body, and casually crossed his legs: “Things are more interesting than I imagined. It seems this trip wasn’t in vain.”
He took off his cigarette and said very bluntly, “Even if you make up the principal and add that compensation, your brother can’t raise that much money even if he sells the house. The old lady’s son won’t wait for you to raise the money. If he makes a scene, your degree and future will be ruined.”
The young man’s flustered gaze was like willow branches swaying in the wind, chaotic and disordered. Fan Xiao had his fill of observation before continuing, “I have money and connections, so this matter won’t be difficult for me.” The smoke, still warm from his body, pierced the cold air, struggled for a moment, and then slowly dissipated. “However, I don’t need to curry favor with your brother through you. I can sleep with him as many times as I want.”
The young man suddenly stood up, his neck bulging with anger: “Then what do you want from me? To laugh at me?!”
Fan Xiao slowly raised his eyes, a slight sharpness between his brows: “I just don’t want to put the photos away anymore.”
“What?”
The man said casually, “I’ll pay the principal and compensation for you. The old lady’s son has also agreed not to pursue your liability anymore. My lawyer is drafting the agreement, and I estimate we can sign the settlement agreement with the other party tomorrow.”
Fan Xiao looked at the young man’s eyes, which lit up instantly, and said in a drawn-out voice, “However, there is one condition.”
Overjoyed, the young man plopped down next to Fan Xiao: “Brother, whatever your conditions are, I’ll agree to anything!”
“You call me ‘brother’ so easily?” Fan Xiao felt disgusted, and his tone turned cold. “The condition is that you stay away from your brother from now on and don’t go to him for every little thing.”
The young man paused, quickly suppressing his smile, and scoffed, “As if anyone wants to associate with him. I’m only looking for him because he owes me, he owes my family, and he’ll never be able to repay that debt in his lifetime!”
Fan Xiao frowned slightly: “What do you mean by that?”
“Why don’t you ask You Shulang?” the young man snorted. “That’s right, why would he bring up something like this?”
Fan Xiao was silent for a moment, then smiled mischievously again: “Zhang Chen, I’ve paid so much money, can’t I even hear a few old stories?”
“Listen, if you want to hear it, what can’t I say?” The young man pulled up the hood of his cotton coat and put it on his head, obscuring his face and making it impossible to see his expression.
“You Shulang is not my biological brother. He is an orphan that my mother picked up from a garbage dump. He was seven years old at the time, and he was picking up recyclables in the dead of winter wearing only a thin shirt. My mother took pity on him and brought him home.”
“My mother has a slight intellectual disability. I don’t know who my father is, and neither does she. My mother and I have always depended on each other for survival, and later we had You Shulang.”
“My mom pasted cardboard boxes, did housework, and sewed insoles on a sewing machine to support his education, all the way up to university, but he… but he’s gay!!”
The broken roar dissipated into the cold wind, making it impossible to tell who was colder.
Fan Xiao took out his cigarette: “What’s the connection?”
“Of course! He was exposed as gay in high school, which caused a huge uproar. He was boycotted by the entire school and bullied by delinquents, but You Shulang was awesome. He used violence to fight violence and killed several people, so no one dared to touch him again. He got through high school peacefully and got into university, but he ruined me!”
“When he graduated from high school, I was a junior. The thugs at school couldn’t touch You Shulang, so they bullied me! Do you know how I spent those two years?” The young man suddenly turned his head, and Fan Xiao saw his bloodshot eyes. “There was trash on my seat every day, my school uniform was always wet, and I was beaten up by a mob in the toilet. They said You Shulang was gay, and since I’m his brother, I must be too!”
The young man trembled slightly: “I can tolerate all of this, because he’s my brother, someone I’ve respected since I was a child!”
“But…” The young man bent down and buried his face in his palms. “That day I was beaten up again. When my mom saw my bruised and swollen face, she ran to the school to try to persuade the other person to stop hitting me. But they laughed at my mom and called her an idiot. Everyone was making a fuss, saying that one person in our family is gay, one is a big idiot, and the other is a coward!”
“I got angry and started fighting with those people. My mom tried to break it up…” The young man began to choke up. “In the chaos, someone pushed my mom. She lost her balance and fell down the stairs… She broke her neck and spent two months in the hospital… before she passed away.”
The cold wind howled in, dragging the work chants along, like a mournful song.
But a calm voice interrupted the endless sorrow: “Although I’m sorry, what does this have to do with your brother?”
“Nothing to do with it?!” the young man suddenly shouted sharply. “If he weren’t that damned homosexual, this wouldn’t have happened; if he hadn’t fought back so fiercely, those people wouldn’t have held a grudge and treated me so badly, and my mother… my mother wouldn’t have died because of it!”
“What the hell is wrong with your brain?” Fan Xiao paused, feeling his insults weren’t strong enough. He mentally reviewed the new sentences he had learned before speaking again, “Did you get your brain slammed in a door? You’re weak and easily bullied, yet you blame your brother for being strong? He lets others bully him, so you think you’ll get away with it?”
“What do you know? My mother saved his life, but he killed her. So what You Shulang owes me and my mother, he can never repay in this lifetime!”
Looking at the young man with a face full of grief and indignation, Fan Xiao pondered for a moment and then suddenly smiled: “I think you actually understand everything in your heart, but you’re just pretending to be confused. You just want You Shulang to feel guilty and be your slave for the rest of his life.”
He stood up and said coldly, “Sign the agreement at Manfulou at 10 a.m. tomorrow. I’ll pay for it for you, but you and You Shulang should not say that you’ve met me. Just say that the other party’s evidence is insufficient, and you only need to return the money you embezzled.”
The young man’s expression changed drastically, and now he was back to his obedient self, saying “yes” several times.
Before leaving, Fan Xiao exhaled his last puff of smoke, nodded to the young man, and glanced at his hand.
The young man was somewhat stunned, and spread his hands in confusion.
“Higher,” Fan Xiao commanded.
The one who pays the bill is the boss; Fan Xiao now holds absolute authority over the youth.
He raised his hand a little higher.
After the laughter subsided, a fierce glint suddenly appeared in Fan Xiao’s eyes. He took off his cigarette and, expressionless, shoved the burning cigarette butt hard into the young man’s palm.
Amidst the heart-wrenching screams of pain, he casually remarked, “Sorry, there are no trash cans nearby.”
He patted the young man on the shoulder and said, “Protecting the environment is everyone’s responsibility.”
After saying this, the tall man turned and walked back the way he came.
