Husky’s Side Chapter 5

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Life-Saving Days by the Husky’s Side
For the first time

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Other than that disease, Zhou Li had lived a smooth life for all these years.

He had a good personality, many friends, and a wide range of interests, such as drag racing, basketball, piano, and dancing… As long as he played alongside his friends, he would pick up a little skill. He even learned flower arrangement with his mother. The point is, he has never gotten into a fight.

He, Zhou Li, lived a vigorous and sunny life since he was a child. He has always felt that the behaviour of rolling up sleeves and throwing oneself into a brawl was rather uncivilized. So no matter how low ranking his mentality was, he was still a loyal supporter of “victory without bloodshed”.

It wasn’t until this very moment that he realised that for those who were unreasonable, rolling up your sleeves and beating them up was actually really cool.

Unfortunately, he was a complete novice.

Although there were the “educational videos” left behind by Qian Liye in his mind, he was still inexperienced. In addition to that, when Qian Duoshu was in a rage, he can’t be considered an opponent at all and will be quickly knocked to the ground.

Ji Shaoyan was currently using a dog’s nose and even in the bedroom, all he could smell was the concentrated scent of instant noodle broth.

He didn’t eat dinner and immediately became hungry. Just as he thought about the probability of getting dinner tonight, he heard the sounds of fists making contact with someone’s body, a sound that occasionally mixed with a few muffled groans.

Roughly counting, he heard around seven or eight hits before the punches stopped, followed by Qian Duoshu crudely saying “Clean up the living room”. There was the sound of the bathroom door opening and closing.

He listened carefully for a while and noticed that the only the sound present was the spraying water in the bathroom. He never heard Zhou Li making any movements, so he went back to the doorway and saw Zhou Li lying motionless on the ground.

Zhou Li’s chest was not in view from his angle and he didn’t know whether this boy was alive or dead.

Ji Shaoyan took a few steps forward and could clearly see that this little gangster was still pent up with anger, but he wasn’t sure whether if he was badly injured and could not stand up or if the boy simply didn’t want to for the time being. He wasn’t interested in probing for answers so turned his head and returned to his room.

Zhou Li didn’t want to get up.

Qian Duoshu’s fist was heavy but it wasn’t enough to defeat him.

The pain was certainly there. The muscle ache was working alongside the chest burn and he couldn’t tell which one was more painful by itself, but his attention was not on these things anyway.

For the first time in his life, only now has he realised what it was like to burn with anger. He was constantly working on his psychological construction to reduce the fire, feeling that losing himself to madness for this beast was too much of an insult to himself.

The sound of trickling water in the bathroom disappeared and his fire finally decreased to half its size. 

He heard a “click”. A certain beast had come out after taking a shower.

Qian Duoshu was previously extremely pissed off and he didn’t care to change his clothes, going into his bedroom naked.

But when he passed by the living room, he saw his son still sprawled out on the ground and his heart suddenly tightened. Two quick footsteps approached the one lying on the ground and he met his son’s plain gaze, saying with an uncomfortable but somewhat authenic tone, “Did I hurt you?”

Zhou Li moved his gaze away. It was a chore to even look at him.

Qian Duoshu felt at ease when he saw this reaction, knowing that the other was just venting his annoyance.

He went back to his room and dressed himself, then came out and said, “Instant noodles are just chemicals and preservatives. It’s not good to eat too much. Don’t cook these things next time.”

His mood had stabilised again and he gave this advice while walking to the door, changing his shoes once he stopped in the hallway. He took out a hundred dollars and put it on the shoe cabinet, saying without much edge to his voice, “Get up quickly and go out to buy an actual meal after you clean up. Don’t make me worry about you all day long.”

The door opened and closed, and the living room was quiet once more.

Zhou Li slowly sat up, rubbing his thumb over the corner of his mouth. It was stained with some blood.

He pushed himself up and washed his hands, then looked around for his phone to open WeChat, typing a line in the group chat: The ones who think of me as a brother, come out and do me a favour.

With one sentence, all the little brothers replies immediately popped up in their bubbles, asking him what happened.

Zhou Li’s mouth was still throbbing and he didn’t want to speak, so he quickly typed his replies and chatted with them for ten minutes before finally going into the bathroom to take a shower. When he finished washing up, his emotions had also stabilised, but his expression was still a bit heavy.

With this sullen expression, he pulled out a baseball bat from the case underneath his bed, carrying it in his grip while making his way towards the husky.

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

Young Master Ji turned head and bolted away.

This outcome was too easy to guess. Both father and son were prone to violence; if one was angry, of course he would find a living being to vent his anger on.

Zhou Li was stunned and took a few quick steps to hold him down.

Fortunately, this uncle’s limbs were still not healed, otherwise restraining him would definitely take a lot more effort.

Ji Shaoyan had no way to struggle so he settled with staring coldly at this person.

Zhou Li slowly reviewed his actions and didn’t know whether to laugh for cry for a while. He picked up the puppy. “What are you thinking, I’m not going to hit you. Let’s go, come with Ge and we’ll do something big.”

Ji Shaoyan reacted, quickly guessing another theory, and stayed still without any fuss.

Zhou Li held the dog in one hand and carried a bat in the other, walking out with high spirits, completely ready to participate in the first group fight in his life——he wanted a group of people to surround one.

Next to the old apartment complex was a newly built one, with a pavilion in the small leisure park located in its centre.

By the time Zhou Li arrived, three people were already waiting for him. The others lived far away and it would take a while more for them to arrive.

The three of them talked among themselves and hurriedly stood up when they saw him walk over. All of them surrounded him with concern. “Ying-ge.”

Zhou Li nodded and took a look at what he had.

Everyone in their had dyed their heads together. Because they thought it wasn’t worth getting it done at the barber’s considering that all of them were boys with short hair, they bought their own hair dye and dyed each other’s heads.

There were many types of hair dye on the market but the ones that were do-it-yourself and had a good chance of coming out well were probably only three types: black, red and yellow. The rest all needed the hair to be bleached before they can be coloured, which was not easy to do at home.

So eight of them ordered two colours: red and yellow.

The four people currently standing in the small pavilion were made of two reds and two yellows. Together, they made a plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes.

Egg No. 1 looked at the wound on the corner of his mouth and his heartstrings were tugged on.

They’ve always seen injuries on their Ying-ge in the past, but every time Ying-ge said his wounds were all earned from fighting with some other person that he had already cleaned by then. They never doubted it, and never expected the truth to be so cruel!

He asked with obvious pain, “Ying-ge, are you okay?”

Zhou Li said, “I’m okay.”

Egg No. 2 hesitantly asked, “Are…are we really going to beat uncle up?”

Zhou Li said, “Really.” 

The younger brothers stopped asking and didn’t dare to continue this topic, lest Ying-ge’s mood turned sour.

The three brothers’ attention all fell on the dog. Knowing that this husky was what they had painstakingly spent money on to rescue, they gazed at him with the same kindness as “looking at my old father” and one by one reached out to touch his head.

Zhou Li: “……”

Zhou Li looked at the uncle in his arms and saw that the person sitting absolutely still, as if the thing the boys were touching was a doll.

He turned numb just by watching this young master’s calm appearance and walked to the benches to sit down, then began to wait for the remaining four boys.

A little brother curiously said, “You’re going to hold it while you’re fighting?”

Zhou Li said, “En, if I don’t take him out with me, after sending that old thing home after we’re finished with him, wouldn’t he explode on this little guy?”

The little brothers thought that what he said was right and there was another round of touching head.

They waited for twenty minutes until everyone was gathered.

The summer days were long and the sun has not yet set.

It was definitely impossible to start the fight now. He arranged for all of them to meet at this point mainly because there were a few of them who lived in the villages and won’t be able to come at night, and because Zhou Li didn’t know which food stall Qian Duoshu drinks at, so he must check first before acting.

He dug up several places that Qian Duoshu often hung out at from his information pit and assigned each of them to the younger brothers.

The brothers spread out and wandered about, quickly determining the specific location. Based around that place, Zhou Li took them to find an area where people could rest, somewhere that was in the middle of the only path Qian Duoshu could take to go home. Then, they crouched in a circle and played cards.

Some of them have not had the chance to eat dinner yet. Hearing that Ying-ge was inviting them to eat barbecue afterwards, they bought some snacks and fruit to stuff their mouths for now.

Zhou Li looked at the array of fried snacks and ended up only feeding a few pieces of apples and watermelons to a certain uncle, watching the others play cards while he played with the dog. It was nearly nine o’clock when they finally saw Qian Duoshu wander into their sight.

He immediately handed the husky and baseball bat to a younger brother, intructing the others to position themselves in their planned space and wait, then he walked straight to Qian Duoshu, calling the man’s name.

Qian Duoshu’s reaction was a little slow and only recognised him once he was in a close vicinity. He said with a clumsy tongue, “You… Why are you here?”

Zhou Li smiled with curved eyes. “I’m here to pick you up.”

Qian Duoshu grinned and slung an arm over his shoulder. “Good, you know how to listen.” 

He patted his son. “Actually, I don’t really…really want to hit you, it’s only because you’re the one who constantly makes me angry…”

Zhou Li listened to him in a good manner, taking him farther and farther away.

Qian Duoshu didn’t notice anything. Only when he realised the surrounding lights were getting darker and darker did he notice the problem and pulled him to a stop. “Some…something’s, not right. You dumbass brat, you don’t even…even recognise the road back home!”

Zhou Li said, “I recognise it.”

He pushed the man to his front and gave a single order: “Hit.”

The little brothers who were already squatting jumped out with a “hu la“* and pressed the person down, sending him to a round of punches and kicks.

[T/N: flapping sound]

But this was still an elder so they didn’t dare to hit too hard.

Zhou Li looked from the side and motioned for them to stop, then walked over with a baseball bat and swung down on Qian Duoshu seven times. He only used a little bit of strength, but no matter how hard he threw it, at the end of the day it was still a baseball bat. Swinging down on someone will be quite painful.

Qian Duoshu was mostly sober by now and his whole person was about to blow its top. “You dare to hit me?!”

Zhou Li said, “Should I not dare?”

Qian Duoshu’s roar was a little broken. “I am your laozi!”

Zhou Li replied, “Oh, then you should just treat me as unfilial.”

He tapped Qian Duoshu’s chest with the baseball bat and rested it there. “Remember this, from today, you hit me once, I will pay back double and hit twice. No, I will pay back tenfold. Hit me three times, and I will cripple your leg. Today you gave me four punches and three kicks. Going by my standards, I should be giving you fourteen blows with my bare hands, but right now feel pain all over my body and I can’t be bothered to move my hands, so I’ll just use this to beat you seven times. Next time, it will be tenfold. You are welcome to try.”

Qian Duoshu angrily yelled, “You dare!”

Zhou Li encouraged, “Then how about you try hit me right now?”

Qian Duoshu’s face was instantly ashen but he didn’t say a word.

Zhou Li sneered and bent over to take out the wallet in his pocket.

Qian Duoshu said, “What are you doing?”

Zhou Li answered, “Taking my mental damage expenses.”

He glanced at Qian Duoshu’s expression. “If you don’t think I deserve some damage expenses after I was beaten by you these past two days, then you can just think of this money as food that will feed my body and my husky so we don’t starve from now on. This is just an allowance given in advance. But, if you think an advanced allowance is too rebellious a move, you can count this as me borrowing from you, and I’ll double it back to you in the future.” 

Qian Duoshu, as a mid-tier employee at an internet-centred company, had always disliked mobile payments and preferred to carry cash. Zhou Li counted and found more than 800 yuan, so he took it all without hesitation and casually threw the wallet back to the owner.

After beating his laozi (only in name) Zhou Li was physically and mentally happy.

He passed the baseball bat to a younger brother and took back the husky to hug, then took his tomato scrambled eggs to have a barbecue.

Before the skewers were served, a round of beer arrived first.

Zhou Li took advantage of the younger brothers being distracted by opening the bottles of beer and ordered a soft, slightly salty flaky pancake, shredding it to put it in a disposable small dish and handing it to a certain uncle. Then he grabbed the beer bottle in front of him and cheered with the others, gulping down a mouthful with his head tilted up. 

The cold beer entered his stomach and he has never been more carefree.

He thought about what happened tonight and for a moment was caught between laughter and tears.

He was not the original and did not have those complicated feelings for Qian Duoshu.

Qian Duoshu was just a stranger to him. This stranger beat him up and in order to be able to get along well in the future, he returned with his people and struck him back.

And not only that.

He also poured instant noodles on someone for the first time, jumped someone for the first time, fought in a gang for the first time, and ate barbeque on the roadside for the first time, chugging bottles with a group of gangsters that he thought he would’ve never overlapped with in his entire life.

He couldn’t help but laugh.

This sound was too soft and only Ji Shaoyan next to him could hear it.

The manager didn’t let the dog sit on the table but Zhou Li was worried that if he put him on the ground the little guy might be stolen away by someone if he didn’t pay close attention, so he put two plastic stools together and let the young master sit on top and beside him to eat.

Ji Shaoyan originally wanted to enjoy his late dinner but raised his head when he heard this sound.

From this angle, only Zhou Li’s profile can be seen, his eyes were slightly bent under the lamp, stained with shards of light and without the slightest shadow of haze.

The pain brought from family love was often heavy.

He was beaten by his dear father until he became paralysed for most of the day then he went out and brought people to hit his dear father back. No one could remain indifferent at this time, but he was only gloomy for a while during this entire operation before quickly returning to normal, and was even still full of vigour. Was this because the second personality was not bound to family love?

A bit weird, but also a bit magical.

Ji Shaoyan slowly swallowed the food in his mouth and was finally willing to take a serious look at this little hooligan. He finally realised one thing, something as clear as day——this silly fool’s personality was really different from the previous bastard.

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The author has something to say:

Zhou Li: You are the silly fool!

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And now we have JSY’s nickname for ZL: 傻白甜/sha bai tian; literally means silly, white, sweet. Someone who is cute, kind, and naive (and a bit stupid). I will be using ‘Silly Fool’ since I can’t find a good equivalent, but you can replace it with an affectionate ‘Dummy’ if you feel it’s better~