Chapter 10: Li Jing

"Mom! I'm back!" Li Jing pulled me along like she was leading a puppy and took me to her home.

Li Jing's mother, though only in her forties, had a lot of white hair and deep wrinkles on her forehead, making her look as if she had been through many hardships.

"Xiao Jing… who is this? Is he your classmate?"

"No, Mom," Li Jing said, gripping my arm tightly. "Mom, I just caught this kid by the river. He was acting all sneaky, and I could tell right away he wasn't a good person. I suspect he was electrofishing."

"Electrofishing?" Li Jing's mother looked at me in confusion. "Young man, are you electrofishing?"

I quickly explained that it was all a misunderstanding, that I was definitely not an electrofisher.

Li Jing's mother gave me a kind smile and shook her head. "I don't think this young man looks like an electrofisher. Xiao Jing, you made a mistake this time. You even dragged him here. Apologize to him."

Later, I understood why Li Jing was so determined to catch electrofishers.

The Forestry Bureau of Shunde had set up a reward program. At the time, the ecological environment of the Yangtze River was severely damaged. The Chinese sturgeon and the Yangtze River dolphin were on the brink of extinction. The authorities were determined to protect inland water ecosystems, and this movement extended to Shunde as well.

Anyone who caught an electrofisher or someone using explosives to fish could claim a reward at the Forestry Bureau. Catching one person would earn them a hefty 500 yuan!

That's why Li Jing wouldn't let me go—she thought I was an electrofisher and wanted to turn me in for the reward money.

Because her family needed money.

Under her mother's insistence, Li Jing reluctantly apologized to me. She muttered, "Sorry, classmate."

Li Jing's mother was hospitable. To make up for the misunderstanding, she invited me to stay for lunch.

It was already past two o'clock, and I was starving, so I accepted.

For lunch, we had rice with three side dishes: scrambled eggs with chives, stir-fried zucchini with green beans, and a plate of cold lotus root slices. Simple home-cooked food, but it was delicious.

As I ate, Li Jing kept giving me cold looks. Every now and then, she would deliberately tap her chopsticks loudly against her bowl, making a sharp noise that made her mother frown.

She was annoyed that I was eating her family's eggs.

Her mother scolded her, "Xiao Jing, where are your manners? What did this classmate do to you?"

Li Jing bit the tip of her chopsticks and pouted. "Nothing, but I just don't like him."

I was irritated.

I may have been born into a poor family, an orphan with no one to care for me, but one thing I had was pride.

I put down my chopsticks, stood up, and told Li Jing's mother I was leaving.

"Who wants to eat your eggs anyway?" I thought angrily.

But before I could step outside, a group of men barged in and blocked my way.

There were six or seven of them, all young men in their twenties or thirties. Some carried paint buckets, and others held sticks.

"Where's Li Dequan? Get out here!"

"If you don't come out, we'll beat your wife and kid to death!"

They looked ferocious, and I was so startled that I froze. Li Jing and her mother were just as frightened—their faces turned pale.

One of the men carrying a paint bucket walked into the room. When he saw the dishes on the table, he sneered coldly.

"Damn, you still have money to eat eggs? If you've got money for eggs, why haven't you paid us back?"

"Eat, huh?" He suddenly lifted the paint bucket and dumped red paint all over the table.

The strong smell of paint filled the room. The once-appetizing dishes were now covered in a thick red layer. Li Jing's mother trembled in fear, while Li Jing kept her head down, silent.

"Heh heh…" The man chuckled. "You like eating eggs, huh? No money, huh?"

He used his stick to push the paint-soaked scrambled eggs in front of Li Jing.

"Eat it. You like eggs, right? Just finish this plate, and we'll leave. Hahaha!" The others burst into laughter.

"Stop it!" I couldn't hold back any longer. This was pure bullying!

"Oh?" The man turned to me with amusement. "And who are you supposed to be?"

I took a deep breath and said, "I'm Li Jing's classmate. If you dare make trouble, I'll call the police!"

"Call the police?"

The room erupted in laughter.

"Paying back debts is only fair! You little brat, you want to call the cops?"

The man suddenly swung his stick at my head.

I instinctively raised my arm to block it, but I was too slow. The stick hit me hard on the head.

I felt something warm trickle down. When I reached up, my hand came away sticky with blood.

My vision blurred as the world spun around me.

"Stop hitting him!"

"I'll eat it! I'll eat it!"

Li Jing, who had been silent all this time, suddenly shouted, her eyes red with tears.

Her mother wiped her tears away.

Li Jing picked up a handful of the paint-covered eggs and stuffed them into her mouth.

The smell of paint was pungent and overpowering. She gagged after just one bite.

"Hahaha, not bad. But you have to eat it all! Didn't you hear me?"

Li Jing forced herself to keep eating.

Five minutes later, the plate was empty.

"Heh, well, that was entertaining. At least we got to watch a good show today. But make sure you tell Li Dequan—when we come back next time, if he still doesn't have the money, it won't be this simple."

With that, the men spat curses and left.

I lay on the ground, my head still bleeding and my body weak.

"Are you okay?" Li Jing wiped the paint from her mouth and carefully helped me up.

Her mother brought some bandages and wrapped my wound. I lay in their bed for over an hour before I finally felt better.

"You… young man, I'm so sorry for what happened," Li Jing's mother said apologetically.

"Auntie, who were those people?" I asked, still in pain.

"My father failed in his business and owes them a huge amount of money," Li Jing said.

"Business failure? How much does he owe?"

Her mother sighed heavily. "Fifty thousand yuan…"

"Fifty thousand! That much?" I was shocked. That was an astronomical amount—without any income, they wouldn't be able to pay it off in years.

"Young man, do you need to go back to school or a hospital? We'll take you there. I'm so sorry for everything," Li Jing's mother apologized again.

"No, no, I don't need to go to the hospital. I can walk on my own."

As I stepped outside, Li Jing followed me.

"Hey… sorry about earlier," she said, keeping her head down.

"It's fine. It's all in the past now," I said with a forgiving smile.

"You're not from our school, are you? Which school do you go to? I'll come find you to hang out," she asked.

"Uh… um…"

I lied. "I'm a second-year student at First High School."

"First High? Then you must be really smart," she said with a smile.

I blushed, not knowing how to respond. In truth, my grades were consistently in the bottom three—not that I ever fluctuated much.

At that time, pagers were just starting to become popular, and ordinary students couldn't afford mobile phones. Naturally, we didn't exchange numbers. But Li Jing told me to visit her when I had time and even asked me to tutor her.

When I returned to the inn, Wang Batou was sipping tea.

The moment he saw my bandaged head, he nearly spit out his drink.

He stared at me and asked, "Yunfeng, what the hell happened to you? Did you fall into a pit while scattering the soil?"

Feeling a little embarrassed, I sighed and said, "Batou, I got beaten up."