Seventy-nine people gathered to gamble on football.
Li Wei saw Li Lin and Li Lianhui happily eating grapes in the classroom through the window. She was furious. She walked around the window, strode into the classroom, stood in front of the twins, and glared at them: "Do you two have anything to say?"
You little punks, I'll give you two more chances. If you don't explain yourselves clearly, see how I deal with you later.
Li Lianhui looked up and asked as if nothing was wrong, "Oh, sis, is something the matter?"
Hey there! I've been incredibly bored at school all day, just barely surviving on a little food and drink, while you two...
Seeing her sister's unfriendly expression, Li Lin was the quick-witted one. She quickly pulled up a chair for Li Wei: "Sister, sister, please sit down for a while. Have some grapes. Xiao Hui just stole them from the school's vineyard. I went to look for you, but you and Wu Feng weren't there."
Li Wei: ……
So it was stolen goods after all! Li Wei's complexion improved considerably. She gestured for Wu Feng to sit down, but Wu Feng didn't. She looked at the juicy grapes, then glanced at Li Wei: "Um...didn't we just eat some?" And quite a few, no less.
Li Wei patted Wu Feng: "Oh dear, it's not like we're eating, it's just a puddle of water. My stomach hasn't felt anything for a while. Come on, eat." They'd been sent to fertilize and weed the school's grapes countless times, but they weren't allowed to go anymore after the grapes were almost ripe. Now that they had the chance, they had to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Wu Feng sighed and sat down to eat some with them. The grapes looked really good, almost the same as the ones Luo Da had given Li Wei for her picnic.
Li Wei ate a few and found them quite sweet, nodding in praise: "Not bad, sweet. Xiao Hui, when are you going again next time? Let me know in advance so we can go together. I'll prepare a basket or something and bring some back for Mom to try too." Unfortunately, Grandma and Grandpa didn't really like them.
Although Li Lin had always known her sister was audacious, this was still a bit too much. She glared at Li Wei and said, "Sis, aren't you afraid of getting caught? What if Mom finds out? She'll give you a good beating!" Once, Li Lin took ten yuan from her mother to buy a classmate a birthday present, forgetting to tell her mother. As a result, she was caught and got a spanking that lasted three days.
What's most infuriating is that after she was beaten up, her sister laughed at her, saying why she didn't ask her for money. Li Lin rolled her eyes in anger. She was actually angry with her sister those days.
Li Wei smiled maliciously: "So you're going with Li Lianhui and the others. If we're discovered, everyone will scatter and run for their lives. The park guards might chase anyone. I don't believe I'll be the slowest runner!"
Li Lianhui glanced at her sister. She didn't say a word. He thought to himself, "You really are the slowest."
Li Wei is truly... She's been eyeing that little vineyard at the school for two lifetimes, but never had the chance to make a move.
As usual, Li Wei had to go back to dance practice early that evening. She packed her bag and took Zhou Xiaoyan's car home. As usual, she practiced for a while first. Li Wei then took a plate to prepare food. She had just returned from the backyard with the tray when she peeked out from the third floor. There she saw Luo Dazheng sitting on the sofa in the small living room near the stairwell, waiting for her.
Li Wei glanced at Luo Da: "Something wrong?" Could it be that someone's arm has worsened? She saw Shen Tao at noon, and he was very lively and energetic.
Luo Da pulled a roll of banknotes from his pocket and handed it to Li Wei: "Who said we didn't need that much money? I brought some back for you."
Li Wei responded with an "oh." She didn't think much of it; she had taken the money and hadn't considered when to return it. She figured Luo Da probably didn't have much money right now, so she said, "If you need the money, you can keep it. I don't need it."
If it weren't for Shen Tao's incident, Luo Da wouldn't have felt he would need money anywhere. Now that Shen Tao is alright, he doesn't need it anymore: "No need. I don't need it either."
Li Wei said nonchalantly, "Okay, but you have to remember, a thousand is a drop of kindness, and returning a few hundred is still the same."
Luo Da: ...
Li Wei was holding a plate, which made things a bit inconvenient, so she raised one arm slightly and gestured to Luo Da: "Here, put it in my pocket."
Li Wei wore a tight white long-sleeved t-shirt under a sleeveless, round-neck vest, with a pocket covering her stomach. Luo Da didn't notice at first. He stuffed the roll of banknotes into the pocket, but blushed slightly as he took his fingers out.
Li Wei finished collecting the money. Seeing that Luo Da seemed a little awkward, she assumed he was embarrassed to borrow money from her and comforted him, "Don't be too embarrassed. When you make money in the future, I'll collect the debt from you at usurious interest rates. I hope you won't default on the debt then." Perhaps she should consider having Luo Da write an IOU or something?
Before Li Wei could figure out the procedures, Luo Da picked up his bag and said, "I'm leaving."
Li Wei: "Oh, do you want some... Huh? Where is everyone?" This one is fast enough, I might consider taking a basket and stealing grapes.
It must be said that although the children of high-ranking officials can be quite difficult to deal with at times, they still have an advantage over ordinary students when it comes to giving full play to their initiative.
For example, right now, after Li Wei finished practicing today, she discussed the performance costumes with everyone. After Li Wei finished explaining her requirements, before anyone else could say anything, Zhou Xiaoyan spoke up: "No problem, I'll go borrow one. It's just a short skirt with sequins, I'll ask someone at the town government's cultural activity center to borrow one." After being treated like dirt by Li Wei for so long, she could finally raise her eyebrows.
Li Wei thought this matter would take some effort, but she didn't expect it to be so easy. She hurriedly instructed Zhou Xiaoyan: "Then you should hurry up and do it. Don't be late and let someone beat you to it. It's best to decide tonight and let me know tomorrow. If it doesn't work out, you can make plans early."
Zhou Xiaoyan immediately patted her chest and assured her, "Don't worry, don't worry, I guarantee there won't be any problems."
These past few days I've been eating dinner early, for no other reason than that my mom wants to finish getting ready early so she can watch "Shanghai Bund." Because of Chow Yun-fat's sudden rise to fame as Wen Ge, some students at school are already stuffing small handkerchiefs into their jacket breast pockets, with just a corner peeking out. Li Wei predicts that by winter, some boys will definitely be wearing long white scarves. Although it seems funny now, it's actually quite fashionable.
Li Lianhui wasn't home for dinner. Cheng Min asked Li Lin and Li Wei, but neither of them knew where he had gone. It was almost seven o'clock, and Li Lianhui still hadn't returned. Li Zhaoxing hadn't been home for the past few days. Cheng Min clearly sensed that Li Lianhui was acting a bit wildly.
Seeing her mother's anxiety, Li Wei thought for a moment and said to her, "Mom, I'll go look for him and see if he's at a classmate's house. Don't worry, it's alright."
Cheng Min was helpless. Apart from the original neighbors, she really didn't know which classmate's house her son often went to. Usually, by the time she finished her work, it was already late, and the children were all there, so she didn't have to worry about them.
Now, when she finally had something to worry about, she suddenly realized that she couldn't find the person.
Now that Li Wei had volunteered, Cheng Min was naturally delighted: "Go quickly, bring your brother back to me. Mom will reward you handsomely."
Li Wei politely declined her mother's generous reward, as it was only a few dollars.
As to where Li Lianhui went, Li Wei roughly guessed that it was either an arcade or a billiards hall, and the possibility of him going to a classmate's house to do his homework was zero.
I overheard Luo Er talking to his classmates about where they were going to go that night when I rode his bicycle a few days ago. They were all boys of similar age, so their interests should be pretty much the same.
Li Wei left her house. She walked along the main street of the town, which was also the town's only commercial street, lined with various shops on both sides. Because it was getting dark, the signs and advertisements of each shop were lit up. Li Wei looked at the signs as she searched.
I searched several places, but couldn't find any. Every arcade and billiards hall was smoky and chaotic, filled with people of varying ages and backgrounds, with few girls. Even the few girls there were dressed rather provocatively and didn't seem like decent people.
Li Wei grew increasingly frightened as she searched; this was no place for a single woman. Seeing that there was still one relatively large arcade ahead, Li Wei gritted her teeth. This was the last one; if she still couldn't find it, she'd have to go back and think of something else.
She stepped into the arcade. The entire first floor was over a hundred square meters, mostly filled with teenagers, all engrossed in playing games. Li Wei quickly glanced around. The back was blocked by game machines and people, so she couldn't see anything. Li Wei moved closer to peer inside. A small head peeked out; it looked like her younger brother.
Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief and made her way inside. When she got closer, she realized it wasn't Li Lianhui at all, but he looked familiar. He seemed to be Li Lianhui's classmate. At least she had a clue. The room was too noisy, so Li Wei raised her voice: "Hey, you're Li Lianhui's classmate, right? Have you seen Li Lianhui?"
Li Wei called out twice before the boy responded, but he was so engrossed in his game that he tilted his head and glanced at Li Wei, saying, "Upstairs." Then he continued playing.
It seemed like there was a billiards hall upstairs. Li Wei felt much better after finding out where her little brother was and wasn't so nervous anymore. There were people guarding the stairwell, but seeing that Li Wei was a girl, they didn't say anything and let her go upstairs.
The staircase was narrow, and the floor was covered with a dull, grayish-brown fiber carpet with small holes burned by cigarette butts. Li Wei thought it all had a cheap, low-class feel to it.
The upstairs room was noticeably smaller than the downstairs room, with only three pool tables, each surrounded by a large group of people shouting and yelling. The fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling reflected the swirling mist above their heads, and Li Wei almost choked on the fumes when she first came up, as if she had stepped into a stove.
He quickly found himself holding a cue stick, circling the table, intently looking for the right angle on the pool table.
Li Wei didn't care about being a boy or a girl anymore and squeezed her way in. She was stopped when she got to Li Lianhui.
Li Wei looked at the hand grabbing her arm. Who was it that dared to touch her? She turned her head and saw that it was someone she knew—Luo Er!
"Why are you stopping me? What are you doing here?" Li Wei said in an unfriendly tone.
Luo Er grinned, released Li Wei, and scratched his head: "Can't you wait a bit? Erpangzi and I are waiting for him to win back his losses."
Li Wei almost choked on her breath. This... this was practically a group of neighbors gambling on football!
I've never seen them so united during normal school days, but they're really working together when they're up to no good! And there's even a place for protection and escort here! Ignoring Luo Er's pleas, Li Wei tried to squeeze in again, but Luo Er, realizing what was happening, quickly grabbed her and called to the chubby guy beside him, "Hurry up, hold her down!"
It almost made Li Wei furious.
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