Zou Yang didn’t really have any tangible sense of death. The closest he’d ever come to understanding it was an elderly relative passing away—and if it wasn’t someone particularly close, he wouldn’t even feel much sadness.

Now, a few simple words from his mom had painted a scene he had never even imagined.

“And nobody knows where his dad went, either. Beat the kid before he left, head completely covered in dried blood…” His mom said something else, but he didn’t catch it. Suddenly, Fan Jun’s voice rang out in his mind.

“When he left, he said he’d kill me when he got back.”

That line, carrying such deep, bone-chilling fear for Fan Jun, must have been said right then.

Was his ear beaten deaf at that time too?

Driven the mother to suicide, battered the child, and promised to commit murder upon returning…

A line added at the end of a movie saying “Based on a true story” was often enough to make people’s scalps tingle. But this was something that had happened to someone he actually knew.

From his back all the way to the top of his head, a numb, cold sensation washed over him.

The hairs on his arms stood on end.

His mom sighed and went back to cooking.

Zou Yang leaned against the counter, stunned for a moment, then pulled out his phone. “What was Fan Jun’s dad’s name again?”

“Huh? Fan Gang, I think,” his mom glanced at him. “Why?”

“No reason.” Zou Yang tapped rapidly on his phone screen.

“Don’t you go stirring up trouble,” his mom said. “With Fan Jun’s situation, it took knowing Old Lü for two or three years before he even told me a little bit. You really shouldn’t be casually digging around about this…”

“Yeah, I know,” Zou Yang nodded.

Fan Gang?

“Stop hovering around here,” his mom gave him a push. “Go wait outside, you’re in the way.”

“I’ll keep you company,” Zou Yang said.

Fan Gang?

“Don’t need your company. What are you keeping me company for? You’re just making a mess.” his mom said.

“I’ll go out then.” Zou Yang walked out of the kitchen, his eyes glued to the screen.

Fan Gang, Fan Gang, Fan Gang, Fan Gang, Fan Gang… [T/N: Searching different characters with the pinyin ‘gang’]

Zou Yang wanted to search online for social news articles regarding this Fan gang. A piece of human trash like that, having disappeared for over a decade, most likely wouldn’t have kept his nose clean. Maybe he could find this guy in some local crime report… Hopefully, he was already in prison. Or better yet, maybe he’d already been sentenced to death…

But he found nothing.

Not knowing exactly which gang Fan Gang’s name used, Zou Yang searched every single gang character he knew. If it wasn’t for this search, he wouldn’t have even realized he knew so many words pronounced gang.

He even tried Fan Gang [T/N: using the character for ‘anus’], but still couldn’t find any content that matched the man.

Where did he go?

Where is he now?

Will he really come back?

Zou Yang set his phone down, leaned back in his chair, and sighed.

After thinking about it, he picked up his phone again and sent Fan Jun a message.

– Coach, I want to book a class

Fan Jun didn’t reply. Zou Yang didn’t know if he hadn’t heard it or if he just didn’t have time to text back.

His mom made dalumian [noodles with gravy/thick sauce], and it smelled incredible.

Zou Yang continued tapping away on his phone as he ate, searching for A man surnamed Fan.

Still nothing.

“Don’t play on your phone while you eat,” his mom said mid-bite, her eyes fixed on the TV.

“Don’t watch TV while you eat,” Zou Yang retorted.

His mom shot him a glare, then looked at the noodles in his bowl. “Is it good? I didn’t know you were coming back for dinner today, so there aren’t enough toppings.”

“It’s good, super savory,” Zou Yang nodded. “If Fan Jun put away a massive bowl like this, he’d have to go run a half-marathon.”

“Ai,” his mom laughed, then thought of something and sighed. “I originally wanted to make dalumian at the martial arts school today. Bought a whole pile of meat and vegetables, but now there’s no one to cook for.”

“Let Lü Ze make it,” Zou Yang said. “Before you were there, did they just go out and beg for food?”

“You’ve got such a mean mouth,” his mom tsked. “They used to have an auntie who cooked. Later, when she quit, Fan Jun did the cooking.”

“Fan Jun cooked?” Zou Yang’s gaze shifted from the various men surnamed Fan on his phone up to his mom’s face. “He cooked?”

“Yeah. Made pretty decent food, too, just a bit slow.” His mom nodded.

“Damn,” Zou Yang was genuinely shocked. The number of people eating at the martial arts school wasn’t just one, two, or three. “Shouldn’t everyone there only know how to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes?”

“That’s why I said he’s sensible. He’s a kid who’s eaten bitterness. He’s not like you, or Liu Wenrui, or the rest of you kids,” his mom said.

Hearing his mom say that Fan Jun was sensible and hardworking because he’d suffered hardships, Zou Yang didn’t feel that awkward discomfort from last time. It was mostly just a sigh of emotion.

---

“Is this how you cut them?” Monkey stood by the counter, eyeing the shredded cucumbers Fan Jun had chopped up.

“Yeah,” Fan Jun said, grabbing a carrot to start cutting next.

“Dalumian…” Sun Xulei stood on his other side, looking slightly perplexed. “When my grandma makes it, she cuts them into shreds…”

Fan Jun pinched a piece of cucumber and dangled it in front of him. “Is this not a shred?”

“This…” Sun Xulei didn’t stand on ceremony. He simply leaned forward and ate the cucumber strip right out of his hand. “Isn’t this a stick?”

Fan Jun said nothing and lowered his head to continue cutting carrot ‘shreds.’

Halfway through, he couldn’t hold back a laugh.

His knife skills really weren’t all that great.

“Sticks are fine,” Monkey said. “Chewier than shreds.”

“Get out of here,” Fan Jun said.

“You’d be better off just stir-frying a couple of hot dishes,” Monkey said. “Your stir-fries are definitely better than your dalumian.”

“The ingredients are already prepped,” Fan Jun said.

“True. Guess we’ll eat whatever’s prepped,” Monkey nodded. “You just flipped the freezer, going to cost money to fix it. Best to save where we can.”

Fan Jun shot him a look but said nothing.

“Flipped it good, too!” Monkey added.

“Both of you, get out of the way,” Fan Jun said.

“Let’s go, let’s go,” Monkey waved at Sun Xulei. “We’ll go walk the dog. Be right back in time to eat.”

“Brother Fan, do that knife-flipping trick for us,” Sun Xulei lingered, unwilling to leave.

Fan Jun sighed. He tossed the cleaver in his hand straight up, flicked his wrist to let the blade spin twice in the air, and as it came down, the heavy blade sank into the cutting board with a loud thwack.

“Hurry up and get out, stop annoying me,” Fan Jun said.

“Badass,” Sun Xulei said.

After the two kids left, Fan Jun was the only one left in the kitchen. He finished cutting all the various ‘shreds,’ then picked through them, pulling out the ones that were too ‘stick-like’ to modify his cuts.

He didn’t actually need to be this meticulous, but Uncle Lü and Lü Ze were still talking in the training hall. The ingredients were prepped, and there was nothing else to do.

When Uncle Lü walked into the kitchen, Fan Jun was leaning against the counter, staring off into space.

“Jun-er.” Uncle Lü walked up beside him.

“Hmm?” Fan Jun turned his head.

“How’s the cut on your arm?” Uncle Lü asked.

“It’s fine. Small cut.” Fan Jun glanced toward the training hall but didn’t see Lü Ze.

Even though they hadn’t gotten into a fistfight, they’d both drawn blood.

When Fan Jun flipped the freezer, his hand got cut, and when the freezer came crashing down, it smashed onto Lü Ze’s foot.

“Ignore him,” Uncle Lü said. “That temper and that brain of his, don’t know who he gets it from… Let’s eat first, just the two of us.”

“Yeah,” Fan Jun replied.

He plated all the toppings, set them on the table, and finished boiling the noodles just as Monkey and Sun Xulei returned with the dog.

“How many days has your grandma been at your aunt’s place now?” Uncle Lü asked Sun Xulei.

“Almost a week,” Sun Xulei piled a mountain of toppings onto his bowl, struggling to mix the noodles. “It’s great. With my grandma gone, my dad doesn’t come home. I’m completely free.”

“If I catch you at the arcade during school hours again, you’re dead,” Fan Jun said.

“I wouldn’t dare!” Sun Xulei yelled.

Lü Ze walked past the kitchen window and headed out of the courtyard.

Just as they were almost finished eating, Lü Ze came back, walked into the kitchen, and tossed a paper bag onto the table next to Fan Jun’s hand before turning to boil some noodles at the stove.

Fan Jun glanced at it. It was a paper bag from the pharmacy. He opened it and saw medicine inside—wound healing ointment, waterproof bandages, and the like.

He didn’t say anything. After finishing his noodles, he took the medicine, grabbed the dog, and headed over to the new venue.

There were no students at night, and the new venue was quiet.

Fan Jun turned on the lights.

The freezer had been righted and was leaning against the wall again. The shattered glass door had been taped up with cardboard by Tan Ru and Monkey, and it was currently working overtime, humming away.

Fan Jun opened the freezer door and pulled out a bottle of cola. Surprisingly, it was actually quite cold.

Looking at the freezer, he let out a soft sigh.

Normally, when he and Lü Ze argued, it never escalated to this level.

He knew where Lü Ze’s anger was coming from. Because Lü Ze was born with the ultimate martial arts physique, he also carried a stubborn pride and confidence in his own intellect, stemming from his championship titles. As a result, something that could have easily been avoided with just a little bit of extra research had turned into a mess because of his blunder…

More importantly, Fan Jun and Zou Yang had found out about it, and had even stepped in to stop Old Liu from causing trouble once. He had lost face. He had lost a lot of face, and it made him furious.

“Where were all these bright ideas of yours back when your dad was beating you?”

If this had been any other normal day, Fan Jun most likely would have just endured it and let it go. But today, he hadn’t. The only thing he held back on was not picking up a chair to smash over Lü Ze’s head, opting for the freezer instead—mostly because he couldn’t physically pick the freezer up.

He was more terrified of this new venue going under than Lü Ze was. If the new venue went under, they’d both have to go back to the old venue, which had never seen any real growth…

If that happened, he would truly become a burden.

He wanted to keep this new venue alive even more than Lü Ze did.

After zoning out in front of the freezer for a bit, he patted his pockets, wanting to call Big-Headed Fish to ask him to help find a secondhand freezer. But his phone wasn’t in his pocket.

He patted himself down completely but still couldn’t find his phone.

“Where’s my phone?” He turned to look at Xiao Bai, who was sitting attentively nearby.

Xiao Bai stood up and let out a very low “wer~” sound.

“Phone. What are you wer-ing for?” Fan Jun made a phone-calling gesture with his hand. “Bai, find the phone.”

Xiao Bai stood up, thought for two seconds, and trotted into the training area.

“It’s not in there,” Fan Jun said, searching around the front desk. “Probably dropped it during the chaos this afternoon, maybe near one of the—”

Xiao Bai trotted back out with a phone in his mouth and dropped it at Fan Jun’s feet with a smack.

“…How did it even end up in there? Good boy, Xiao Bai is the best.” Fan Jun patted the dog’s head, picked up the phone, and took a look. There were several new messages.

All of them were from Zou yang.

– Coach, I want to book a class
*- Coach Fan, I want to have class*
*- Hey, booking a class*
*- I’m just going to go over and kick the dojo’s door down tomorrow*
*- Is your phone broken?*

Fan Jun smiled and sent a reply.

– Left my phone at the venue this afternoon, didn’t have it on me. How about 10 AM the day after tomorrow?

Zou Yang’s reply came back almost instantly.

– Tomorrow
*- I’m off tomorrow*
*- I’ll pay double*
*- ?*
– Deduct two classes from my card

---

Zou Yang stood in front of the freezer, admiring it from all angles, and even took his phone out to snap a picture.

Then he untied the rope holding it shut—the door had warped and couldn’t close properly anymore—and pulled out a bottle of sparkling water. Taking a sip, he marvelled, “Damn, it still works? The water’s actually cold.”

“Yeah, we can still sell it for some money.” Fan Jun was at the front desk, eating a serving of steamed dumplings.

“Where’s the payment QR code?” Zou Yang leaned against the desk and asked.

“No idea where it dropped,” Fan Jun said. “It’s on me.”

Zou Yang glanced at his steamed dumplings. “Buy me a steamed dumpling too.”

Fan Jun looked up at him, then slid the takeout container over to his hand.

Zou Yang picked one up, popped it in his mouth, chewed twice, and looked a little surprised: “The meat filling is this big?”

Before Fan Jun could answer, he reached over and pinched another one: “Such a big meat filling.”

“Did you not eat breakfast?” Fan Jun asked.

“I’ll pay you back two of them later! Stingy,” Zou Yang said.

“…No need, I was just asking.” Fan Jun lowered his head and kept eating.

“Coach,” Zou Yang dragged a chair around the front desk and sat down next to him. “Can we do an outdoor class in a bit?”

“What?” Fan Jun didn’t understand.

He had originally thought Zou Yang would ask about what happened yesterday, considering Sister Shan had been so mad she went home. But Zou Yang hadn’t mentioned it at all, and was just fixated on his double-priced class.

“Go for a walk outside. Outdoor instruction,” Zou Yang said.

“Collecting protection money is illegal,” Fan Jun said.

“Damn,” Zou Yang leaned back in his chair and laughed. “Psycho.”

Fan Jun ate two more steamed dumplings. There was one left in the container. He looked at Zou Yang: “Still eating?”

“I’m good,” Zou Yang said. “I just wanted a taste.”

“Okay.” Fan Jun ate the last steamed dumpling.

“I’m paying double for this class, you know,” Zou Yang said. “Can’t I make a little request?”

Fan Jun thought for a moment: “Alright. Did you bring sweatpants?”

“I did.” Zou Yang patted his backpack.

“Go change into them,” Fan Jun said.

There was a small river in Nanzhou Ping.

This was something Zou Yang had been completely unaware of.

“If there wasn’t a river, why would it be called Nanzhou Ping (South Boat Flat)?” Fan Jun said.

“…I really never thought about that.” Zou Yang paused.

“Let’s warm up a bit,” Fan Jun said.

The path by the river was closed to motor vehicles. Even though it was still in Nanzhou Ping, it was much quieter than the North Small Street area, and there were plenty of trees. So, even though it was almost ten o’clock, there were still quite a few people exercising on the riverbank.

Zou Yang stretched his arms and legs: “We can stroll along the riverbank…”

“Let’s go.” Fan Jun didn’t wait for him to finish before suddenly taking off running.

“What are you doing?” Zou Yang was stunned.

Fan Jun ignored him—whether he genuinely didn’t hear or was just pretending not to. While Zou Yang was standing there in a daze, Fan Jun had already run quite a distance.

“Fan Jun!” Zou Yang had no choice but to break into a run and chase after him.

Even after catching up to Fan Jun, there was no opportunity to talk. Fan Jun simply turned his head and said, “Watch your breathing.”

Zou Yang subconsciously adjusted his breathing.

There was genuinely no opportunity to talk after that. Fan Jun’s pace was quite fast; if Zou Yang wanted to keep up, he had no choice but to shut up and focus on running.

Fan Jun finally stopped at the top of a slope by the river: “Rest for a bit.”

“Holy—” Zou Yang glanced at his watch. Exactly five kilometers. “You were serious?”

“Outdoor class,” Fan Jun said. “Not a window-shopping class.”

Zou Yang didn’t say anything, just gave him a thumbs up. Then he walked down the small steps nearby, reached the bottom of the embankment, and collapsed onto the freshly sprouting grass: “So comfortable—”

Fan Jun followed him down and sat beside him.

“Lie down for a bit,” Zou Yang patted the grass next to him. The sun was brilliant right now; closing his eyes, all he saw was a warm golden glow.

Fan Jun didn’t say anything and lay down.

It really was very comfortable. Although his back pressed against the grass still felt a little cool, the air had been slightly warmed by the sun. As it brushed over his face, it carried the scent of sunshine.

After lying there for a while, Zou Yang sat up. His back was sweaty.

He turned his head and looked at Fan Jun.

Fan Jun was wearing a baseball cap today. While he was lying down, his whole face was basically visible; only his eyes were hidden in the shadow of the brim.

Right now, Fan Jun’s eyes were closed. Who knew what he was thinking about.

Zou Yang didn’t make a sound. He sat cross-legged beside him, propping his head on his hand, just watching him.

Even when Zou Yang felt his own back getting hot from the sun, Fan Jun still hadn’t moved.

Was he asleep?

“Fan Jun.” He reached over and gently pushed up the brim of Fan Jun’s cap.

Sunlight fell onto Fan Jun’s eyes.

“…Mm?” Fan Jun didn’t open his eyes, merely raised a hand to drape over them, blocking the light.

Zou Yang didn’t speak. He stared at the scar on the bridge of Fan Jun’s nose. His hand, still hovering in the air, ultimately couldn’t hold back. His fingertip moved down and lightly tapped against that scar.