A Rat

Wang Ming could finally feel the heavy feeling in his heart, lessening. Wang Ming could again focus on the tasks he needed to do. He still needed to open his restaurant in two days, he also needed to check the capabilities of his legs.

He didn't have a lot of money, so he didn't want to go to the doctor. But Wang Ming thought he should run a few laps and do some leg exercises instead, to see if he had any pain or hidden injuries in his legs, if he had then he would stop the test and then go to the doctors at a later date.

Before he went out of the restaurant Wang Ming showered and changed his clothes. He did neither of these things the last three days he looked like a homeless man. Walking out of his restaurant, something he had never done before, everything felt so different now when he can walk.

He had gotten used to it, but the last two weeks had been bad, since he couldn't more around like he wanted going to the toilet and showering were a struggle every time. He never realized how hard someone sitting in a wheelchair has it. The smallest thing could be an enormous problem for them. Thankfully, Wang Ming never needed to go up or down stairs.

Locking the door behind him. Wang Ming instantly started running out of the market. He missed this feeling. It was like he had regained his long-lost freedom. Luckily for Wang Ming, there weren't many people outside at the moment, else he would probably have run into other people as he was running in an incredible speed.

After running roughly one km, he stopped to look at the time and realized he had only run 3 and a half minutes. He barely felt tired and if he had used all of his strength and energy, Wang Ming felt sure of pressing the time down to roughly 2 and a half minutes for one km.

What Wang Ming didn't know was that the fastest recorded speed for one km is roughly 2 minutes and 10 seconds. He also didn't know or have proper running technique or have running gear. What Wang Ming had just done should be impossible.

When Wang Ming stopped running, he realized there was a group of schoolgirls looking at him. After his body healed, his hearing also got better so he could faintly hear that they talked about him. What they said made Wang Ming blush, he didn't think that they were praising his looks.

The girls were gushing and kept talking about how hot and manly he was looking with his wet hair and damp white t-shirt. They also dared each other to approach him.

One girl though stood out to him, she also talked about him. But instead of looking attracted, she had a disgusted expression when she looked at Wang Ming. He didn't know why, but since they didn't know each other he didn't care.

It was also the first time he had seen a girl with such an arrogant look. When she looked at Wang Ming and others it was like she were looking at ants, something totally beneath her. She had an LV bag which Wang Ming heard from Fu Ya cost at least 30 thousand USD.

He felt curious about why a young girl like her would have such an expensive bag, but honestly he didn't care much as long as she didn't bother him, he wouldn't bother her.

So winking at them, he ran towards Weng Ping's meat store. Wang Ming needed to resupply a lot of meat since the shop would open in two days. The next day would go to preparing the restaurant and teaching Louzheng. He would also invite his closest friends, which were Lang Lin, Fu Chunhua, Peng Tong and Meng Hao, to have a small opening ceremony.

After Wang Ming winked to the girls, they all squealed and giggled happily. All except from Zhou Mei, she didn't understand why the girls her age liked guys like them. Zhou Mei dubbed everyone looking like Wang Ming as hot boys.

The only thing they're good for is to seduce girls, running away from trouble and abandoning you if they ever face danger, or they're only it in for sex and money. She only liked real men, men who could shield her from all the dangers in this world and would never betray her.

She had experienced it too many times already, even though she's only 19. So many hot boys had approached her only because of her family status and money. She was even stupid enough to believe it once, but after being betrayed, she realized. Only a true manly gentleman would never betray her.

But since they were all her friends, she warned them.

"Why do you guys even bother, none of you have anything he would ever want? The only thing those guys want is to play you and take your money, but none of you are even as pretty or as rich as me. I would advise you to give up."

After warning them, Zhou Mei saw that none of them wanted to take her advice but even criticised her. Seeing her so-called friends treat her like this only because of a boy, she lost her mood and went home.

Arriving at the meat store this time, Wang Ming felt excited. Since he was here, he could quality check all the meat before buying. Since last time he got a few cuts that were subpar in quality, they were good enough for a home chef but not for Wang Ming's standards. Wang Ming only wanted the best he could get as long as it's in his budget.

He didn't have a lot of money left, if he accounted for Louzheng's salary and all then Wang Ming would roughly have 4000 yuan left to buy meat. He felt very confident in the dish and the recipe he had made, Wang Ming believed the dish was something that would easily become popular. It wouldn't take over two or three days for his restaurant to generate more profits than liabilities.

Though Wang Ming's goal was something much higher than that, he would at least have to get 110 thousand yuan before the end of the year. But Wang Ming didn't want to live like this anymore, he wanted to succeed in life. Build a food and entertainment empire with his own two hands.

Ultimately, Wang Ming knew that this was the way for him to ensure that he could live happily with his family for the rest of his life. Wang Ming didn't want his kids to live like he has done, being a tool to make money, not having a mother, or like him now living in his restaurant. They should be able to do whatever they want and dream of.

After arriving at the meat shop, Wang Ming opened the door but saw no one there. So Wang Ming shouted for Weng Ping, since the shop didn't have a bell.

"Uncle Weng? Are you here?"

But even after shouting multiple times he got no response, so he went further into the store to check if somebody were there. Walking up to the counter, he saw Weng Ping lying on the counter passed out.

Shocked, Wang Ming didn't know what to do, afraid that he had just walked in to a crime scene. But seeing Uncle Weng like this, he had to help him. Running towards his side, Wang Ming lightly tapped Weng Ping on his shoulders, seeing no reaction. He tried to hit his back harder this time.

Which made Weng Ping spurt out about a milliliter of blood. Seeing this, Wang Ming felt his face go white. Did he just kill a man? An Innocent man? Such thoughts kept revolving around in his head. But then Wang Ming's face changed this time smiling as he saw Weng Ping slowly stretch his arms up into the air and yawn.

"Uncle Weng, are you ok? I just saw you spurting blood from your mouth. Let me take you to the doctor now!"

But Weng Ping just kept sitting there, stretching his body. Feeling scared again, he walked to the other side of the counter so he now faced Weng Ping. When Wang Ming saw Uncle Weng's face again, he furrowed his eyebrows. Since Uncle Weng were smiling at Wang Ming and even had some tears in his eyes.

"No need to worry about me, Wang Ming. I have had a chronic lung sickness over 30 years now, and it makes me cough some blood up now and then. I've been at many doctors and experts throughout my life, but none have ever been able to cure me."

After coughing two more times, he followed up with.

"But thank you for your concern, it's been so long since someone cared about me. Thank you for being my regular customer!"

"So, what do you need from me today?"

Hearing this, Wang Ming wanted to ask about his cousin, but since this was Uncle Weng's family problems he didn't find it right to ask.

"No need to thank me, Uncle Weng. I buy from you because of your service and quality. I don't want to say this, but I think it's important for our cooperation. I got some inferior quality meat last time. It's ok for cooking at home but since I operate a restaurant, it's not something I can serve."

After telling Uncle Weng about this problem, he noticed that Uncle Weng's eyes flared with anger, rapidly breathing in and out as he tried to control himself, but failing at it. He then slammed the table so hard that his entire hand became blood red, then he bowed towards Wang Ming and said sorry.

"I'm so sorry, Wang Ming. I don't know what happened. But I'm sure that I did not send you any subpar quality meat. I check everything that goes in and out of this shop, and I only pick the highest of quality. I think this has something to do with my cousin once again I apologize to you."

Weng Ping coughed a lot, so much that he took a handkerchief to cover up his mouth and cover up the fact that he was coughing blood, but it didn't escape Wang Ming's eyes. Looking at Weng Ping's face, his eyes were bloodshot, but his eyes kept looking to the ground it seemed like Weng Ping didn't have the face to look at Wang Ming anymore. Seeing him like this, Wang Ming regretted telling Weng Ping about it.

"It isn't a big deal, Uncle Weng. You need to take care of your health. I think that this was just a onetime case, I will still support your shop!"

Weng Ping felt relieved that Wang Ming didn't want to pursue this matter. But Weng Ping couldn't let this go by, because he knew who was behind this. And this wasn't the first time it had happened. If he let this pass again, then he had no qualifications to be a salesperson anymore.

"No, I will give you an answer for this Wang Ming. Don't change my mind. As compensation, I will give you a 50% discount on all the meat you buy for one month. It's a thank you for reminding me I'm raising a rat in my house."