谢俞 turned his head and saw a group of people coming from the other end of the street, all holding weapons, especially the one in the lead, who walked with a swagger and a strong presence.

Although no one knew what was going on, the onlookers still consciously made way for them.

"......"

Yvonne Shaw also looked over: "Who are they, what's going on?"

Ray Jones kept watching, and suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu: "This guy... looks kind of familiar?"

Ethan Young didn't say anything, but cursed in his heart.

"Eat some more, how does it taste? If you like it, have another bowl of rice!" By the time Ethan Young came back to his senses, he was already sitting at Aunt Mei's dining table. He gently poked the rice in his bowl with his chopsticks, then watched as Yvonne Shaw used her chopsticks to pick up a piece of braised pork—her chopsticks, holding the meat, passed right over him and landed in the bowl of the person next to him.

Henry Howard thanked her several times: "It tastes amazing, like this braised pork, it's fatty but not greasy, perfectly seasoned."

Aunt Mei put another piece into Henry Howard's bowl, delighted by the praise, and said boldly, "No need to thank me, don't be so damn polite."

"......"

Ethan Young put down his chopsticks, not really wanting to talk.

Ray Jones didn't think much of it, he was actually quite cheerful: "Hey—you were awesome just now. Bro, where did you find so many people?"

Henry Howard said, "Found some temporary extras at the little internet café on the next street."

Ray Jones: "......"

Just now, Henry Howard had brought a group of people over, looking all serious to hold down the scene. The guy was such a good actor that the others really thought he was some big shot from the underworld. Ray Jones watched the whole thing in awe, and ended up squatting on the ground clutching his stomach, laughing: "Boss Xie, your classmate is awesome... This guy is definitely going places."

Ethan Young thought: Yeah, future king of excavators. How could he not be awesome.

Aunt Mei's dining room was small, just a little space carved out from the living room. If there were a lot of people and they wanted to have a meal together, they'd set up a big folding round table in the backyard, and have to check the calendar and weather forecast to pick a calm and lucky day.

Ethan Young only had to lean back a bit to touch the wall.

"What's wrong," Henry Howard also put down his chopsticks, his hand dropping under the table, nudging him, "Why aren't you eating?"

Ethan Young finally managed to say, "I need a minute."

Yvonne Shaw had a particularly good impression of Henry Howard, not just because he was the first classmate Ethan Young had ever brought home, but also because he was sweet-talking and polite. In the end, Ray Jones barely got any of the braised pork; it all ended up in Henry Howard's bowl.

"Aunt Mei, that's enough," Ethan Young sat next to her, watching as she kept piling food into Henry Howard's bowl, and said, "He can't eat anymore."

Yvonne Shaw finally put down her chopsticks, reflecting, "Maybe I did feed him a bit too much."

Sounded like she was feeding a pig.

After feeding him, Yvonne Shaw still wouldn't let go: "How is our Xiaoyu at school? He's a bit impulsive, if you can keep him in check, please do..."

Ethan Young wanted to tell Yvonne Shaw that every fight he'd gotten into at school this semester was with the very person sitting in front of her.

Henry Howard immediately replied, "Our Xiaoyu... I mean, your Xiaoyu, um, he's doing great at school."

Ethan Young's right eyelid twitched, sensing something bad was coming.

Sure enough, the next second he heard Henry Howard start spouting nonsense: paying attention in class, working hard, being friendly and united, following all the school rules—he said it all.

Afraid he'd get more and more exaggerated, Ethan Young pinched Henry Howard's hand under the table.

Yvonne Shaw didn't notice anything wrong.

She felt a bit embarrassed after all the praise, so she took the initiative to point out a flaw: "Our Xiaoyu's grades just aren't that great."

"It's fine," Henry Howard said, "I'm even worse than him."

Yvonne Shaw: "......"

Ray Jones hadn't had lunch, was starving, and was still stuffing food into his mouth, picking at the leftover braised pork.

Yvonne Shaw turned to the kitchen to cut some fruit, wielding the knife like she was chopping someone, the banging sounds a bit scary.

After pinching Henry Howard's hand, Ethan Young didn't let go, just lightly hooked a finger on his hand and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Henry Howard leaned in close to his ear and whispered, "Came to see you."

The two didn't say anything else, just met each other's eyes, and suddenly there was nothing more that needed to be said.

Ethan Young looked away, feeling like the ear Henry Howard had whispered into was a little hot.

Yvonne Shaw was making a lot of noise, but the fruit platter she brought out actually looked pretty good, except she had arranged a circle of walnuts all around it in a very unique way.

Henry Howard asked hesitantly, "...These?"

Yvonne Shaw wiped her hands and came out of the kitchen, saying bluntly, "Eat them, they're good for your brain."

Ethan Young: "......"

Henry Howard: "......"

When they left, both of them were given two bags of walnuts, already shelled, who knows how long it took to prepare them. Ethan Young carried the red plastic bag, feeling a bit complicated.

Henry Howard was quite happy, and this happiness lasted until he and Ethan Young stood side by side at the bus stop waiting for the bus, and he finally couldn't hold it in: "Does this count as meeting the parents?"

------------

58. Chapter Fifty-Eight

Whether it counts as meeting the parents or not, the way he acted just now really did look like it. He was racking up points with Aunt Mei, and honestly, he seemed more like the godson.

"It counts," Ethan Young walked a couple steps ahead, "so make sure you finish all the walnuts the parent gave you."

Henry Howard looked down at the bag in his hand, and that son-in-law joy was dampened a bit.

At the dinner table earlier, the two of them hadn't said much to each other, afraid they'd slip up, and most of their attention was on their little moves under the table. So now Ethan Young finally complained: "This afternoon, you really walked with swagger, Bro Henry."

Henry Howard said, "It was alright, walking down the street felt like the whole street was mine."

"I try to tease you and you just go along with it?"

The bus here only comes every half hour, probably just missed the last one. The bus stop sign was crooked, and there were no seats at the stop, making it look especially shabby.

Henry Howard hadn't noticed this when he arrived, tried to find a place to sit, but only saw four bare stumps. From those four stumps, you could imagine what the seats used to look like: "This place of yours is really something."

When Ethan Young came back for summer break, the seats were already like this, and back then Ray Jones was squatting by the street waiting for him.

"They were stolen a while ago, but they checked the security cameras and got them back," Ethan Young briefly explained this once-sensational theft case, then paused and added, "Probably got stolen again."

The neighborhood committee aunties are always the busiest people in this area, running themselves ragged dealing with the endless little things on the street. Every so often, you'd hear someone from the committee, with a red armband and a loudspeaker, shouting: "Where did the manhole cover go?!—Who stole the manhole cover?"

"Who smashed the bus stop sign? And those bus stop seats, what are you going to do with them after sawing them off and carrying them home?"

Henry Howard was thoroughly entertained: "That's hilarious!"

There's even more.

That manhole cover, it turned out, was stolen by a punk from the next street over. Of course, the residents there wouldn't sell out their own, and flatly denied it, so the two streets argued over the manhole cover for half a day, almost making the local news.

Henry Howard asked, "Did it end in a fight?"

Ethan Young: "No, do we look that uncivilized?"

"Not at all."

""

They didn't fight, but a few of the Blackwater Street neighborhood committee aunties, under cover of night, quietly stole the manhole cover back from the next street.

The other street never saw it coming, and everyone was dumbfounded the next morning.

After telling the story, Ethan Young saw Henry Howard standing there in a daze, so he stopped and waved his hand in front of him: "Hey."

Ethan Young waved a couple times, getting impatient, and was about to smack him when Henry Howard suddenly grabbed his hand, a few fingers squeezing between his, and then he heard Henry Howard say softly, "Before today, I'd only seen this place in the photos you took."

What Henry Howard didn't say was, it wasn't until he actually came here today that those photos came alive—like little animals darting out of the grass, with traces of mud and puddles on them, dried and turned into dark patches clinging to their bodies, squinting in the sun as they lay there.