Chapter 42 The Trump Card: "Brother Leshan, please save me!"...
There are quite a few barbershops on the street, but not many that cut hair well. On North Street, you can find three barbershops every step of the way, so it seems like business is good.
Jiang Yueming's hair is usually cut by her aunt, who comes from a big city and has a good sense of style, always at the forefront of fashion. Before the millennium, she lived in Guangdong. Her friend worked in the beauty industry, sporting big waves in her hair and smoky makeup. She dragged Jiang Yueming into the business, basically just living together. Her aunt always said that life back then was like living hand to mouth; even eating a fried egg was a luxury. The two of them would pass the egg back and forth, neither willing to take the first bite.
They lived a carefree and seemingly unrestrained life, but without any stability. Looking back, it wasn't really unrestrained at all; that's too idyllic a description, giving a different flavor to the hardships of life. In reality, it wasn't that good. There were things binding them—money, living conditions, poverty—that couldn't be hidden.
After my aunt left, she quit her job and had to find stable work to support her family. I still contact that girl occasionally; I heard she's still working and doing alright, a little better than before. Things were so tough before; she can't afford to be worse off than that.
What was the prevailing aesthetic at that time? The artsy youth! Those who wore white shirts and jeans, their bangs covering their eyes, feigning melancholy—it was incredibly fashionable. Even in Shengping, this little-known county town, you could find them everywhere. Ideally, they'd also carry a secondhand guitar, calling it "wandering the world." In reality, it was just drifting around in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, wandering the world.
Jiang Yueming didn't like his hair cut too short. It wasn't that he had to grow it long enough to tie into a small bun or braid; short hair just didn't look good. He was a young man in the prime of his youth. So Lin Cuiqin basically just trimmed and cut it a couple of times, giving him plenty of emotional value, making him irresistible to countless girls when he went out.
...
“Auntie, you watch too much TVB, don’t you?” Jiang Yueming said.
Lin Cuiqin smiled shyly and greeted Li Leshan with a smile, telling them to take a good rest since they were on holiday.
This time, Jiang Yueming decided to take the lead and act as the barber. He felt he was quite professional, so he followed the example of the barbers in the shop, wearing a smock around his neck to prevent stray hairs from sticking to his clothes.
"Look at me, pretty professional, right? How about I open a barbershop someday?" Jiang Yueming said cheerfully. "You can get your hair cut for free at my shop."
Li Leshan smiled and said, "Okay, I'll help out at your shop then, and you'll have to pay me a salary?"
"Open!" Jiang Yueming was very loyal and waved his hand, acting like a real boss. "Open, open, open! I'll open it even if you don't help me."
“You know, when we were kids, I fought with Han Jiang. He cut my hair, and I cut his back. Neither of us would give in,” Jiang Yueming pointed to the right side of his hair, where Han Jiang had almost cut off half of it. The kid didn’t hold back at all. “Anyway, the sound of him crying could be heard from one end of the alley to the other. The alley is 400 meters long.”
“But don’t worry…” Jiang Yueming said, “I’m confident.”
Jiang Yueming wasn't very confident, but he had a slight chance.
"Close your eyes, don't let any hair get in them." Without the special chairs for barbers found in barbershops, Jiang Yueming had to stand in a horse stance while the hairdressers were being cut.
Li Leshan sat on the sofa, while Jiang Yueming half-squatted in the small gap between the sofa and the table.
Lin Cuiqin and Tiantian watched from the side. Lin Cuiqin was worried for Li Leshan. She thought that Leshan and Jiang Yueming had a really good relationship. He could even entrust the haircut to him. Xiao Jiang cried so much last time.
Jiang Yueming started by cutting Li Leshan's bangs. He didn't know his own strength when he cut, and he hesitated for a moment. In order to prevent Li Leshan from feeling uneasy, he didn't dare to hesitate any longer and continued cutting. After he finished, he blew on Li Leshan's face to make sure that no stray hairs would get in his eyes.
"Ding ding ding!" Sweetie served as the background music before the surprise. However, Jiang Yueming felt it wasn't a surprise, but a shock.
Li Leshan opened his eyes in front of the mirror, looked at the "Jiang Yueming style" hairstyle, and felt somewhat amused.
"How was it? Not bad, right?" Jiang Yueming scratched his head, smiling a little embarrassedly.
“But you’re handsome,” Jiang Yueming quickly said, “You’re good-looking no matter what.”
Li Leshan's eyes were now fully visible, bright and clear. Books always say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and that some emotions don't need to be spoken, but will be expressed through the eyes. Jiang Yueming now thought it made a lot of sense. But ultimately, it was because Li Leshan was handsome, incredibly handsome, so even his mediocre haircutting skills could hold up.
"Beautiful! Leshan's eyes are so pretty," Lin Cuiqin praised from the side, genuinely praising them. "This is just right, so they don't block the eyes and can see the road clearly."
"Auntie, stop praising him. He'll get shy and his face will be so hot it could boil an egg," Jiang Yueming teased.
Lin Cuiqin laughed heartily. She verbally agreed not to praise him anymore, but her eyes still held appreciation and joy as she looked at Li Leshan.
"Stay home for dinner, Leshan. You play with Yueming for a while, it'll be ready soon."
"No need to trouble Auntie..." Li Leshan's sign language was interrupted by Jiang Yueming, who quickly stopped him. In fact, even if he hadn't stopped him, Lin Cuiqin wouldn't have understood it anyway.
Jiang Yueming pressed Li Leshan's hand and answered for him, "Hurry up, Ms. Lin Cuiqin!"
He would stay in the room with Li Leshan to do practice problems. After entering junior high school, he had to do more problems, like those "Must-Do Problems" and "Step-by-Step Improvement" books. In addition, his aunt got him some practice books that he had never even heard of before, saying that his older brother hadn't done them when he was in junior high school, and that Jiang Yueming should inherit them. After all, why not take advantage of it?
After entering junior high school, math problems like equations, inequalities, and systems of linear equations in two variables—basically all difficult, complex, and headache-inducing math—came one after another. Jiang Yueming, who had been completely bewildered since the "chicken and rabbit in the same cage" problem, was truly struggling to keep up.
Li Leshan continued to highlight key points and write out solution steps for him, his pencil tracing back and forth next to the questions with great patience.
He certainly had the patience to write, but Jiang Yueming didn't have that patience to memorize. Even Li Leshan couldn't do it; after writing three problems, he collapsed onto the table. Just as Li Leshan was about to wake him, the man seemed to sense something and waved his hand, indicating that Li Leshan shouldn't wake him and should let him fend for himself. To be precise, it wasn't fending for himself; he was fended for death by mathematics.
When Li Leshan left, Jiang Yueming hurriedly called out to him, gesturing for him to stand at the door and not move.
"Don't move, don't move!" Jiang Yueming made a stop gesture.
"Brother, I'm ready!" Sweetie rushed over upon hearing the voice.
"What have you prepared?" Jiang Yueming was completely confused.
"You told Brother Leshan not to move, weren't you going to play 'Red Light, Green Light'?" Tian Tian asked, puzzled, standing next to Li Leshan without moving.
"Go away, who wants to play this with you?" Jiang Yueming didn't have time to chat with her. "Go downstairs and play with Xiaoyu."
"No," Sweetie pouted, "There are only two of us, Xiaoyu and I—"
"Two people are enough. It's not like we're playing cards or mahjong and we're short one player." Jiang Yueming urged her to go downstairs and not stand in the doorway blocking the way.
Li Leshan patted Tian Tian's shoulder, took out a few candies from his pocket to coax her, and Jiang Yueming rushed to the room without stopping, finally bringing out five or six sets of practice questions. They were so thick, they would have reached his neck if they were any taller.
"You...you're going to sell books now?" Li Leshan asked, puzzled.
"What are you selling?" Jiang Yueming handed the stack of books to Li Leshan. "You made all of this."
Math, Chinese, English, Politics, History, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, Biology—it's all there, not a single subject is missing. No wonder people say knowledge is power; it's incredibly powerful. It could knock someone unconscious with a single blow. It's like a bulletproof shield placed in front of someone.
Li Leshan didn't buy many practice problems. He would do the exercises in his textbook two or three times over, then do the exercises the school gave him, as well as some test papers printed by his teacher. He wouldn't spend that much money buying practice problems. Jiang Yueming knew he was trying to save money.
Li Leshan shook his head while holding the pile of books. He couldn't use gestures now, so he could only refuse by shaking his head.
“Okay, I say it’s okay.” Jiang Yueming didn’t give him a chance to refuse. “I have something to write about. How could I not have something to write about? Even if you gave me so much, I couldn’t finish writing it all.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Li Leshan put down the pile of questions. “Your aunt bought these for you; she paid for them. Keep them and do your homework. You can ask me if you don’t understand something.”
“Who said she spent any money?” Jiang Yueming started making things up. His aunt did spend some money, but she didn’t spend any. He was just exaggerating the part she didn’t spend. It wasn’t a complete lie. Besides, why would he keep these things? They weren’t useless to him, but more useful to Li Leshan. “She didn’t spend any money. She got them from her older brothers and sisters. She just added a little bit of favors.”
"Well..." Li Leshan still didn't intend to accept it.
"Oh dear—" Jiang Yueming really had no choice but to beg and plead this time. He held Li Leshan's hand, looking like he was entrusting his son to someone else, "Brother Leshan, please save me, I can't finish writing!"
This move is considered Jiang Yueming's trump card. Jiang Yueming is two months older than Li Leshan, but he usually resorts to this when he's out of tricks, and Li Leshan generally lets him have his way. He uses this move often when things are less demanding, but he doesn't know if it will work as well as when things get bigger. Anyway, Jiang Yueming just uses it for now; whether it's effective or not, he'll only know after trying it.
Li Leshan looked somewhat helpless. "Okay, thank you and Auntie."
"This trick seems to be very effective," Jiang Yueming thought to himself. "If it works, I'll use it again next time."
"Okay, okay," Jiang Yueming quickly picked up a pile of books from the ground, and even wiped the last book off Li Leshan's clothes to make them dirty. "Take it and write on it. It'll help me out."
Watching Li Leshan leave, and only after she could no longer hear him going downstairs, Jiang Yueming closed the door, feeling somewhat relieved.
"Brother, don't give out my questions too." Sweetie witnessed the whole thing and had never seen her brother act like this before, like a child.
"I can only give you something if you need it, okay?" Jiang Yueming gestured for her to go inside. "Even if you wanted to, you wouldn't have the chance..."
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Author's note: To be continued tomorrow. [Okay]
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