1. Chapter One

"Next stop, Heishui Street. Passengers who are getting off, please prepare to exit from the back door."

The bus set off from the outskirts of B City, made a half circle, and slowly turned into the commercial street. The streets were crisscrossed, bustling with pedestrians.

The voice announcer pronounced this line with perfect enunciation, different from the usual Mandarin, sounding like a machine imitation, even the rising intonation at the end seemed deliberate.

Ethan Young sat in the corner of the last row, turning his head to look at the blazing sunlight outside the window.

He felt the air conditioning inside the bus was too cold, yet also felt hot.

The bus was already moving slowly, and now, surrounded by crowds on all sides, its speed dropped to a crawl. It happened to hit a red light, the long bus body shook violently for a moment, then slowly came to a stop.

Ethan Young held his phone, looking out the window while waiting for the other party to pick up.

The call rang several times before finally being answered. A familiar yet noisy voice came through, followed by a woman's voice, even louder, completely drowning out the chaos. Bold and a bit hoarse, it was unclear who she was arguing with.

"Who knows when those six truckloads of goods will arrive, there's never a definite answer, those bastards keep making excuses all day long."

"One moment they say tomorrow, then the day after, the time keeps changing, and in the end they just tell me they don't know either, damn it."

Ethan Young listened calmly as the woman cursed.

"Rush my ass! Now they don't even dare to answer the phone, playing missing with me. Those things that came out of a bitch's asshole, they should go out and ask around, who the hell in all of Heishui Street dares to mess with me, Yvonne Shaw."

Seeing the cursing getting worse and worse, as if she could shout out an eight-hundred-word essay without pausing, Ethan Young finally reminded her: "Aunt Mei."

All the swearing stopped instantly.

Yvonne Shaw waved at the others, shut her mouth, and even stubbed out the cigarette between her fingers without hesitation, pressing it onto the corner of the table. She pointed at the unexpectedly answered phone on the table, signaling that the "Six Truckloads of Goods Not Delivered On Time Criticism Meeting" was over.

After stubbing out the cigarette, she pulled back her long legs that had been stretched across the shabby office desk. Her tone was one of gentleness that no one else had ever heard from her, completely different from the foul-mouthed madwoman from just now.

"We just get together during lunch break to chat, nothing serious, just messing around. Life is so dull, swearing now and then is good for the mood."

Ethan Young didn't call her out, just asked, "Smoking, huh? Is smoking also good for your health?"

Yvonne Shaw reeked of nicotine, lying through her teeth, thinking anyway this brat couldn't crawl out of the phone: "I'm not smoking, ever since you told me not to, I quit. Hey, don't bring it up, if you do, I'm afraid my cravings will come back, don't tempt me."

She was quite the actor—who was tempting whom.

Ethan Young listened to her increasingly raspy smoker's voice—only when she was cursing did it suddenly become clear. Anyone could tell with their toes whether she was telling the truth.

"You're on break now, right? I heard from your mom a while ago that you finished your last exam on the twentieth. Why didn't you reply to my messages?"

Yvonne Shaw continued to change the subject: "How did the exams go? I spent a long time online looking for those sentences, they were all so pretentious, I almost got sick reading them."

Don't worry about the test, just do your best and that's a good result. Let your dreams set sail in the exam room, let your life swim in the ocean of knowledge! Brat, good luck on your exams!

Ethan Young didn't know why he could recite this completely unoriginal, obviously mass-produced message that didn't fit modern teenagers' tastes, word for word.

The bus happened to enter a tunnel, blocking out the scorching light outside, and everything around dimmed.

Ethan Young was already dressed in black, and now he was even more hidden in the darkness. He leaned back, stretched his long legs that were cramped together due to lack of space, and casually pulled up a smile: "So why bother looking? You already know what my grades are like. What do you want me to reply? Thanks for the encouragement, I'll try not to be last?"

Barely two minutes of peace, and over at Heishui Street, the big sister Yvonne Shaw had someone else shouting again: "Is this place a scam? You call this a wholesale market? The prices are so high, it's obviously a rip-off."

"What did you say?" Interrupted, Yvonne Shaw didn't catch Ethan Young's reply. "It's so damn noisy, and now a bunch of idiots are here trying to smash up the shop. I'll buy a big loudspeaker next time, I don't believe I can't shut these bastards up."

Ethan Young's fingers tightened slightly on the phone, words turning over on his lips, but in the end he didn't say them: "It's nothing."

"I saw your message, I was busy studying and forgot to reply."

"Alright, alright, even though your grades are a bit poor, don't get discouraged. Don't give up until the last moment, who's afraid of who, right?"

As Yvonne Shaw spoke, her voice got louder again. She covered the receiver and yelled at the customers still complaining about being ripped off: "What are you doing, what are you doing, I'm ripping off people like you, buy it or don't, if not, don't stand here!"

The front of the bus emerged from the tunnel, and sunlight poured in again, shining from the front all the way to the back.

Ethan Young squinted slightly, seeing the familiar scenery outside the window, knowing his stop was near.

Today was Monday, the third day of summer vacation, and a workday. There weren't many people on the bus.

A few students sat in the front row, the girls with ponytails, still obediently carrying their backpacks even when going out to play, their clothes clean and white.

Although Heishui Street was called a commercial street, prices were actually low, and it was far from prosperous. The street construction was poor even for the suburbs, and the buildings were shabby. But this kind of cheap lifestyle culture attracted many people without high spending power, especially middle and high school students.

Ethan Young stared at the girl's hair tie, which had a glass pendant that was clear with a hint of pink, sparkling in the light.

"We're here, we're here, get ready to get off." The girl flicked her ponytail, grabbed the pole and stood up. "Last time I had stir-fried rice cakes here, I'll take you guys."

At the same time—

"Heishui Street South Station has arrived. Passengers who are getting off, please exit from the back door. Thank you for your cooperation."

The bus slowly stopped, and as the doors opened, a wave of heat mixed with a dry wind rushed in.

Yvonne Shaw thought she misheard: "Brat, where are you? Why do I hear the announcement for Heishui Street?"

Ethan Young got up to get off: "Yvonne Shaw comrade, I'll be at the Guangmao entrance in ten minutes. Think carefully about how to get rid of that smoke smell, think about what you're going to say to me, and also remember what you promised me back then. Hold your head up and come see me."

Yvonne Shaw glanced at the ashtray full of cigarette butts on her desk: ""

"Sister Mei, what's wrong, why do you look so worried?"

Yvonne Shaw pushed open the door and went out, rolling up her sleeves to help the shop owners in the warehouse: "Don't mention it, I'm worried to death."

Yvonne Shaw ran a clothing wholesale market on Heishui Street. She'd been in the clothing business for over a decade, starting out with a few girlfriends selling at a street corner, then opening a proper shop, and finally taking over two floors in the center of Heishui Street's Guangmao Building—these two floors housed over a hundred small shops, forming this "wholesale market."

As the boss lady of the wholesale market, Sister Mei was famous in Heishui Street. She was also known for her loyalty, a true heroine.

"Really worried? I think you can barely hide that smile," one of the shop owners said.

Yvonne Shaw replied, "What nonsense are you talking about? By the way, do you have any perfume or something? Spray me a bit, Xiao Yu will be here soon, I reek of smoke, if he catches me he'll definitely scold me."

The shop owner straightened up, patted the dust off his pants: "So it's your precious son. Look how scared you are. Perfume? I have some, I'll go find it for you."

"How can I not be scared, our Xiao Yu is a good kid." When Yvonne Shaw said this, her voice was very soft. She gripped the knife in her hand and sliced open a bundle of rope, muttering to herself, "I can't be a bad influence on him."

"He's not even your real son, just your godson."

"Good kid? My son is in the same class as Ethan Young, and that kid's a troublemaker. Not only are his grades bad, no one in class dares to sit with him, and I hear he's the boss of the school, always getting into trouble. Only Sister Mei treats him like a treasure, barely even swears in front of him."

"I heard he cheated to get into high school, otherwise with those grades, he'd have to be possessed to get in. Even though No. 2 High isn't a great school, it's still a regular high school."

"Alright, alright, enough, let's get back to work."