Chapter 1: Everything was so beautiful

The moonlight was clear and pure, the tree shadows were hazy, and at ten o'clock in the evening in Qingcheng, vehicles occasionally roared past on the main road.

In this city where housing prices are equivalent to a second-tier city, consumption is close to a first-tier city, and income is lower than a fourth-tier city, nightlife is not rich.

Most of the shops on both sides of the street had long since closed, but one brightly lit storefront stood out at the street corner; it was one of the few 24-hour convenience stores still in operation.

"Forty-six point eight, beautiful, you can scan the red envelope code for mobile payment first!"

Zhang Su put a box of gold-packaged Condoms into a shopping bag and pushed it toward the girl who didn't even dare to lift her head. He smiled and tapped the red envelope code stuck in the corner, showing no strange expression at all because of the special nature of the goods the girl was buying; this was basic professional ethics.

The end of September was a comfortable time, allowing one to dress coolly and wantonly to enjoy the last trace of summer's warmth.

The girl was wearing a short JK skirt and white silk stockings, looking like someone with a strict upbringing and a clean, pure air about her.

"Tha, thank you... keep the change!"

Dropping a crumpled fifty-yuan note, the girl grabbed the shopping bag and scurried out with short, quick steps.

"Hmm, real money..."

Zhang Su put the money into the POS machine, crossed his arms, leaned on the counter, and looked outside with interest.

The girl walked quickly to a Kawasaki H2 by the side of the street and, in a fit of shame and anger, threw the shopping bag into the arms of the handsome young man sitting on the motorcycle.

The handsome young man was very satisfied with the girl's performance; he pulled the girl onto the back seat of the motorcycle and then waved at Zhang Su.

Zhang Su also smiled and nodded at the young man to say goodbye. As the roaring sound faded from near to far, the taillights of the Kawasaki H2 disappeared around the street corner.

"Probably lost a game of Truth or Dare again..."

Zhang Su knew the young man on the motorcycle, a minor rich second-generation; every time the school season started, he would drift around the major universities, and that JK girl was naturally a freshman from one of them.

Twenty-eight-year-old Zhang Su had just ended a hearty short-term romance, and his next target had yet to appear, leaving him in a leisurely window period.

"Scroll through the phone for a bit..."

With no customers, Zhang Su took out his phone and started scrolling through short videos.

"A certain superstar appears at a crazy bull show..."

"Meteorological observatory issues a cold wave warning, huge scale covering the whole country..."

"The summary master... do you know why boys all like to watch black silk? It's because..."

The work at the 24-hour convenience store was very boring, especially the night shift. After the girl who bought the Condoms left, there were only two customers. Zhang Su scrolled through his phone, smoked, did some proper exercise, and soon it was time for the shift change.

"Welcome."

The mechanical greeting sounded from the speaker.

Five minutes to twelve, a young man with dark circles under his eyes walked into the convenience store.

"Brother Su, stocking up? If you ask me, Brother Su is just diligent; no wonder the boss let you be the manager, hehe..."

After saying this, the sickly-looking youth scanned the store. Seeing there were no customers, he didn't hide anything as he took a bottle of chewing gum from beside the POS machine, opened it, poured a few into his mouth, and started chewing with a smack.

Zhang Su saw the sickly youth's actions, his eyebrows twitched imperceptibly, and he scolded: "Luezi, you damn well shoplifted from the store again. The boss treats you like his own child, and you treat the boss like a sucker, right?"

"Hi yo, it's just a few dollars' worth of stuff; how could our boss care about that..."

The sickly youth Wu Lue turned and walked into the counter, casually tossing the chewing gum to Zhang Su, and laughed: "Brother Su, what does our boss actually look like? Is it a man or a woman, how old? I've been here for a year, and I've only chatted with the boss in the group; I've never seen his true face. It's so damn mysterious!"

Zhang Su exercised all year round and was very agile. He caught the chewing gum Wu Lue threw over and said seriously: "Luezi, I treat you like a buddy, and it's no problem to treat you to food and drink, but if the accounts don't match, how am I supposed to explain it to the boss?"

After saying this, Zhang Su scanned the barcode of the chewing gum and said to Wu Lue: "Nine point nine, pay up!"

"Okay, okay, okay!"

Wu Lue took out his phone very helplessly, muttering while paying: "It's just being a manager, not the boss; why be so calculating..."

Not the boss?

Zhang Su heard Wu Lue's words, and a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

You've never seen the boss, so how do you know I'm not the boss?

That's right, Zhang Su was the owner of this Ileiwen convenience store. He had always pretended to be the manager, and he was also responsible for interviews and recruitment. When he had something to say, he would use another WeChat account in the group, which made the other clerks have no idea he was the boss!

"It's not a question of being the boss or not, Luezi; this is a matter of principle!"

As he spoke, Zhang Su picked up the chewing gum, poured out more than ten pieces, and stuffed them into his mouth, completely ignoring Wu Lue's pained expression.

"I'm telling you..." Zhang Su chewed the gum, pointed his finger in front of Wu Lue, and teased: "You're ten years younger than me; don't always learn from the teacher. Your body is so weak, your eye circles are almost catching up to a panda's!"

Wu Lue rubbed his eye sockets and laughed, not refuting, because there was no refuting...

"The teacher is so charming, I don't want to skip class."

"As expected of you!"

Zhang Su was speechless at Wu Lue's impervious nature. He slapped the half-box of cigarettes left on the counter and said: "There's three hundred in change left in the machine. Let's go, help me move some goods to the car."

"You got it!"

Wu Lue swept the cigarettes into his pocket and followed Zhang Su to the warehouse while putting on his uniform vest.

"Holy... Brother Su, this damn... can I return the cigarettes to you?"

Wu Lue looked at the goods piled at least a cubic meter high on the flatbed cart and was speechless.

"Stop the damn nonsense. If you want to return them, return everything from this week and last week, otherwise hurry up!"

Zhang Su habitually slapped the back of Wu Lue's head.

Wu Lue was one meter seventy-three, while Zhang Su was a full one meter eighty-five. The perfect height difference made Zhang Su like slapping the back of Wu Lue's head.

Seeing that Zhang Su had already started pulling the cart, Wu Lue stopped dawdling, ran to open the big door, and while helping to push the cart, asked: "Brother Su, are these the goods for that big client you mentioned the day before yesterday?"

Zhang Su nodded casually, busy with his hands.

More than ten minutes passed, and the two stuffed the goods from the cart into a half-new Wuling van.

"Phew..." The sickly youth Wu Lue wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked at the goods in the car, and asked puzzledly: "Brother Su, buying so much instant food and drinking water, is the company having a camping team-building event?"

During the moving process, Wu Lue saw that although there were many goods, they boiled down to nothing more than eating and drinking: various flavors of self-heating pots and self-heating rice, as well as plenty of bottled water, drinks, and snacks.

Bang!

Zhang Su pulled the car door shut, clapped his hands, and said: "A streamer, seems like they promised their fans to challenge eating, drinking, and pooping in the room for a month without opening the door... that's it. Luezi, don't fall asleep at night, stay safe. I'm off!"

Patting Wu Lue's arm, Zhang Su sat in the driver's seat and started the car.

Driving on the deserted road, Zhang Su lit a cigarette, exhaled the smoke slowly, and looked at this city where he had lived for ten years; he still didn't have a strong sense of belonging.

He was not originally from Qingxian. If it weren't for the incident ten years ago, he wouldn't be living here.

Ten years ago, just after finishing the college entrance examination, Zhang Su heard some bad news: his parents had divorced and neither wanted him. Fortunately, both had some conscience and left him some money, and he took the money and went far away.

As his thoughts drifted, the vehicle stopped at an intersection.

"Brother Su!"

"It really is Brother Su..."

"Brother Su, good evening!"

Just at this moment, a group of young hoodlums drinking and blowing in the wind by the street saw Zhang Su and waved enthusiastically to greet him. There were a dozen men and women, very lively.

Zhang Su smiled and waved at the group, then took two boxes of Liqun cigarettes from the glove box and threw them over. He didn't stop when the light turned green and left the intersection amidst a chorus of thanks.

Zhang Su had a good relationship with the hoodlums in the nearby streets, mainly because he had some business dealings with their boss, and he had gotten to know many of the young people along the way.

Usually, he would sell them unsharpened iron blades and hollow thin-skinned baseball bats, and occasionally meet them to hand out cigarettes. Coupled with Zhang Su's own impressive fighting ability, the little hoodlums were very polite when they saw him and would often patronize the convenience store.

The new book sets sail, thank you all for your support!

(End of chapter)