The boss hurriedly lifted the curtain from the inner room and looked outside, only to see a little girl grinning from ear to ear as she grabbed a boy by the neck, shaking him back and forth. He smiled, let the curtain fall, and went back inside.

Zoe Young was excited for a long time before finally calming down. She touched her nose a little embarrassed and asked, “Why am I the only one happy? Why aren’t you shouting or something…”

Benny tilted his head and smiled, “I was already happy a few days ago!” Was it that day he helped her out? Zoe Young just kept grinning foolishly, hehe, hehe, pulling on Benny’s sleeve and shaking it again and again, until even she couldn’t stand her own silly behavior and tried hard to restrain her smile. “So… that day, why didn’t you tell me you were Benny?” Benny lowered his head shyly at her words, and in that instant, Zoe Young finally saw again the quiet, bashful little friend from childhood. “My brother was there… how could I say it…” Zoe Young nodded in understanding.

A mafia boss named Benny—that’s just impossible to accept no matter what.

(End of Part One)

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5. The Crazy Button

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The reunion with Benny instantly lifted the heavy mood that had weighed on Zoe Young for so long.

After so many years apart, meeting again in such a dramatic way—it turns out that kind of outrageous plot doesn’t just happen in TV dramas.

Or maybe, what’s outrageous was never the reunion itself, but the fact that they still remembered each other and truly missed one another.

What many people lack isn’t a reunion, but a heart that cherishes the past.

Zoe Young had so much she wanted to say to Benny: “Where did you go to elementary school all these years, where do you live now, are we still neighbors, how could you end up hanging out with those people…” But she didn’t know where to start. So she just kept grinning foolishly. Anyway, this friend was by her side, and there was plenty of time ahead—they could talk slowly.

“So you’re in Class Two,” Zoe Young laughed, “but I’ve never seen you before.”

“I’ve seen you a few times. Your class was on duty, and you came to our class to check hygiene during morning self-study. But I didn’t realize it was you—you’ve changed so much since you were little.” Benny’s black shoulder bag bounced against his backside as he walked.

“Really?” Zoe Young squinted her eyes with a smile. Benny pointed at her face in surprise and said, “But your smile is still the same.”

Hearing this, Zoe Young also began to study Benny’s appearance carefully. He had grown taller, half a head taller than Zoe Young—

Of course, that was obvious. His face was still fair, his eyes especially bright, and compared to when he was little, his features had relaxed a lot, though he still looked a bit thin and pale.

“You and when you were little…” Zoe Young started to say, then realized she wasn’t really qualified to compare. She couldn’t clearly remember what Benny looked like as a child. That childhood playmate who always followed her around had long since become just a symbol, a reason to reminisce and feel sentimental when things got tough.

But at least she could tell—he’d grown up, grown up a lot.

The magician of time never pulls a white rabbit out of a hat in an instant to win applause. An ordinary hat sits there gathering dust for years, and you never pay attention. Then one day, you look back and find a flower has bloomed inside, its roots deep and strong.

Zoe Young said with a face full of joy, “Benny, you’ve grown up.”

Benny touched his nose and lowered his head. “No one’s called me Benny in a long time.”

Zoe Young felt a little wistful, then suddenly remembered the really important thing: “Benny… what’s your real name?”

“Charles Morgan.”

“What?”

“Morgan,沉没的沉,木字旁,樟树的樟,Charles Morgan.”

Zoe Young was petrified for two seconds.

“Hahahaha…” She laughed so hard she almost bent over.

“What’s so funny?” Benny blushed a little, frowning in confusion.

“This is…” Zoe Young gasped for breath, “This is, a name?”

“What do you mean? That’s my name!” Benny hurried to explain. “Isn’t it a good name?”

“It’s nice, it’s nice,” Zoe Young nodded, but the mischievous smile on her face couldn’t be hidden no matter what, “But, I’ve never heard of anyone in real life with a name like that. It’s nice, really… very nice.”

Benny felt a bit discouraged. He didn’t know how to explain just how important such a cool name was for a boy “in the mafia.” Everyone thought his name was awesome—why could Zoe Young laugh like this?

“Fine,” he waved his hand helplessly, “just call me… Benny, but, don’t, don’t call me that in front of others.”

Benny had a vague aversion to this nickname, which surprised Zoe Young a little, but she quickly brushed off the tiny bit of discomfort. They were standing at a crossroads. Zoe Young pointed at the traffic light ahead: “I’m going this way. I live in Haicheng Community. What about you?”

Benny smiled, “I live really far away.”

“Really far?” Zoe Young was puzzled. According to the household registration, didn’t he go to the nearest school?

“Yeah, over by the city government.”

“Then you should head to the bus stop after leaving school. You’ve walked so far with me, now you have to go back…”

Benny shook his head with a smile, “We have something to do nearby. Zoe, you should go!”

Zoe Young instinctively sensed danger from Benny’s evasive expression. She wanted to say something, but in the distance, she saw a group of people blocked by traffic, and vaguely recognized a few of the ninth-grade boys from that day, joking with each other as they walked this way.

Zoe Young didn’t hesitate.

“Okay, I’m going. Bye.”

Zoe Young lowered her head and hurriedly jaywalked across the street, standing on the opposite sidewalk, still shaken, and looked back. Benny was already swallowed up by that group of boys—thankfully, none of them were carrying anything like weapons, so it probably wasn’t a fight.

She felt a little disappointed. There was still so much left unsaid. She knew nothing about him, and he knew nothing about her.

But there was still time. They could go from strangers to friends again, just like when they were little. Only, Zoe Young forgot that one side effect of growing up is that making friends gets harder and harder.

She smiled brightly and waved at Benny’s back.

“Have those little troublemakers at school bothered you again?” Mom asked as she served dinner. Zoe Young was busy fighting with the crab shell on her plate and didn’t hear clearly.

“I asked, have the little troublemakers at school bothered you?”

“No!” Zoe looked up happily. “Mom, do you know, I ran into Benny today!”

“Benny?” Mom was stunned for a while before she reacted. “Oh, the neighbor’s kid from the house we rented after we moved?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you recognize him? Hasn’t he changed since he was little?”

Zoe Young opened her mouth, not knowing what to say.

The current Benny was just a little troublemaker.

Zoe Young frowned, her pen spinning in her palm over and over without writing a word. Lately, she’d been learning pen spinning from her deskmate Lena Taylor. Lena Taylor could not only spin the pen back and forth using her middle finger, index finger, and thumb, but could also make the pen roll from her pinky all the way to the space between her thumb and index finger, then roll it back the other way, over and over, like a dragonfly with rapidly vibrating wings dancing on the back of her hand. But as nimble as Lena Taylor was, she’d threatened to hang herself several times because her apprentice Zoe Young was so clumsy—yet Zoe Young was a diligent student, practicing all the time. Luckily, the self-study periods in class were always noisy, so no one could hear the clattering from her desk or notice the blue ink splattering when the pen cap flew off.

“Damn it!” Zoe Young put down her pen, forgetting to cap it. She’d just failed a pen spin, and when it fell, it scratched a harsh line across the paper.

Weekly journal. Every week, they had to hand in a journal of at least three hundred words and five sheets of penmanship practice. Zoe Young wasn’t afraid of writing essays, but these journals for the teacher always made her feel awkward.

“Alan Carter, I think things are always so interesting. The teacher wants to read about our lives, but I just don’t want to write for her. And you don’t want to read my letters, but I just can’t stop writing them. Oh, I’m not complaining, I really am not.”