The two of them didn't think much of it, eating as they walked home.
As they walked, the younger of the two finally asked, puzzled, "How come big brother forgets to take his things every day? Was his memory always this bad?"
Jiang Jiu shook his head.
Unable to figure it out, they simply stopped thinking about it.
After the two disappeared at the street corner, Zhou Zedong stood still for a moment where he was. He looked at the old man's stall, now surrounded by customers, and his gaze paused.
He didn't turn back towards the school. Instead, he walked in the direction of the tenement building.
Below the tenement building, a group of people dressed in drab, dusty clothes were fighting over territory.
In front of them were piled small mountains of garbage.
This was all waste discarded by the textile factory after production.
Although much of this fabric was damaged, it wasn't completely unusable, and there were people who specialized in recycling it.
These people often came here to scavenge through the trash. On a good day, they could earn seventy or eighty cents, enough for a decent meal.
The smell of plastic was pungent and assaulting.
Yet, this group acted as if they couldn't smell it, each fighting with a fierce, red-eyed intensity.
The first group were not very old, maybe thirteen or fourteen.
They were quickly overpowered and beaten to the ground by another group.
The sound of fists hitting flesh was terrifying. Anyone else would have been scared stiff, but Zhou Zedong seemed completely unfazed.
He watched for a while. Seeing that one side had no chance of fighting back, he suddenly shouted towards the group, "The police are coming! The police are coming!"
Sure enough, the group that was attacking immediately panicked, turned, and ran, disappearing into the alleys in moments.
The boys lying on the ground also tried to run. Struggling to help each other up, they then realized there were no police.
Standing before them was only a boy younger than they were.
"It's you?" One of the three boys blurted out involuntarily.
He was somewhat surprised.
This boy had been coming over every day for the past few days, watching them from a distance.
They didn't know what he wanted. When they asked, he wouldn't speak.
But the look in his eyes was unnerving.
The relatively thin boy in the middle straightened up, wiped the dust from his face, and squinted as he assessed Zhou Zedong. "Did you just save us?"
Zhou Zedong nodded. "Yes."
"Brother Chen? What do you mean?"
His two sidekicks looked confused.
The one called Brother Chen ignored them and kept staring at Zhou Zedong. "You want to be my underling, work for me?"
Zhou Zedong looked at him for a moment before speaking slowly. "No. I want to be your boss."
Upon hearing this, Brother Chen was taken aback. A flicker of disbelief passed quickly across his gaunt face.
The other two were also stunned. When they recovered, they couldn't help but laugh, then winced in pain as the movement tugged at their injuries.
"On what grounds?" Brother Chen asked, recovering, a scornful laugh escaping him.
A kid, several years younger than him, comes running over saying he wants to be the boss? It was laughable.
"Your family is poor. These two are also poor. Following you, they can't earn money," Zhou Zedong stated.
He had observed over the past few days. These guys fought desperately with others over territory, yet couldn't even earn one yuan a day.
Hearing this, Brother Chen's expression changed instantly.
"So you're saying, if we follow you, we can make money?"
Zhou Zedong nodded. The calmness on his young face made them look at him more closely. Then they heard him say, "I have a business opportunity. You follow me and we'll do business."
"What?" The others thought they had misheard, even rubbing their ears. "Are you joking? Do you think making money is that easy? A 'business opportunity'? How do you do business without money?"
"You don't have it, but I do," Zhou Zedong said. "I'll invest in you. You work for me. We split the profits fifty-fifty."
They were shocked by him.
"Aren't you afraid we'll take the money and run?"
This didn't sound like something a child would say at all.
Zhou Zedong said, "You won't."
Brother Chen sneered, "What makes you so sure?"
"Because you're not the kind of person who repays kindness with betrayal," Zhou Zedong replied. "Just now, you could have run, but you stayed to protect them, which is why you got beaten."
The two beside him were immediately moved, looking at him with emotion.
"Brother Chen~"
"Boss~~"
Zhou Zedong withdrew his gaze.
"And without me, even if I gave you the money, you couldn't make the business work."
Brother Chen stared at him blankly, finding it hard to believe. In a situation like that earlier, any other kid would have been scared off long ago.
He had actually stopped to observe the details?
Was this kid's brain not normal?
Meeting Zhou Zedong's eyes, he felt an inexplicable chill. "You wouldn't help us for no reason. Speak, what do you want us to do?"
Zhou Zedong showed his first smile of the day. "Riverside Street, ten li away. Help me with something..."
Zhou Zedong had already inquired. These guys were parentless hoodlums from the area. Besides scavenging, they weren't strangers to petty theft and mischief.
They were the kind who would do anything to survive.
He didn't want to dirty his own hands, and he couldn't beat an adult himself.
He could only use someone else's hands to get revenge for his little brother.
This was a method his mother had once taught him.
Fighting violence with violence.
...
Teacher Xu was walking home with a dark expression.
Suddenly, she noticed a figure standing ahead.
Recognizing who it was, her eyes immediately narrowed with malice. "Zhou Zedong, what are you doing here?"
Her hand still hurt terribly from being bitten by his brother today.
Having just been lectured by the principal, Teacher Chen was already seething with pent-up anger.
To run into Zhou Zedong here was like walking right into the line of fire.
Zhou Zedong took two steps forward and asked, "Why did you hit my brother?"
He didn't believe it was just a coincidence. Targeting him was one thing, but targeting his little brother too?
His brother might be mischievous, but he had a good nature and was usually well-liked by teachers.
Teacher Xu lifted her chin, speaking as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "What a stupid question. Of course it's because he was disobedient. I've never seen such an ill-bred child. I thought you were ill-bred enough, but your brother is even worse. He actually dared to talk back to a teacher. Who knows how your mother raised you two."
"What's with that glare? Do you want to learn from your brother and hit a teacher too?"
