Chapter 104: Friends of Women

With her intellect, Sis Xiaoling would be able to guess why I wanted to break up with her all of a sudden . After all, she knew I just visited the Zhangs residence today and I was so out of order when I came back in the evening . As the posterity of one of the Eight Families, she certainly knew how to relate to the Zhangs . Fearing Zhang Zixuan would tell her something, I made a phone call to him, “Brother Zhang, could you do a favor for me? If someone were to ask if I met you today, please don’t say anything especially to those of the Xu House . ”

Zhang Zixuan did not ask the reason at all and just said, “Alright . But Brother Xiaolong, I might need your a.s.sistance for a certain matter this time around . ”

“Just call me . But it’s best to tell me as soon as possible because I must leave after some time here . ”

“Got it . I’ll contact you by then . ”

“Ah, right . Help me to keep my condition a secret, Brother Zhang . ”

I did this because I wanted to completely cut off all relations with Sis Xiaoling . She was always a good woman; gentle, loving, and considerate . I loved her to the very bones of my body . I never understood what true love meant . What I knew was that when we got along together, we never had a quarrel, having a strong dependence on each other, even to the extreme of it . Maybe this feeling should indeed be called as love .

But it was exactly because I loved her so much that I had to give up on her .

Be that as it may, this slice of my life was similar to when I cursed at a movie at thought of entertaining such melodramatic scenes . And yet, when it was my turn to have such a script played for me, only then did I finally understand this feeling .

It was as Old Chen said . Movies were scenes reproduced from life in and of itself . It was because of this kind of recurrence in the plot, that was constantly exaggerated, and yet, was still able to make people feel contrived for such melodramatic twists .

As I arrived back home . I couldn’t cast away the memory of hearing Sis Xiaoling’s sobs . My heart felt like it was being sheared by a knife! I really wanted to call her to console and comfort her! But still, I could not do it… I could only do other activities so as to s.h.i.+ft my mind away instead of thinking about the angelic woman in my heart…

I put the two interspatial rings on the table . One was silver and the other was black . The black one was an extra reward of reaching the top 3 places . Then I took out the book Feng Nian gave me and began reading it .

The book was ancient . It was pretty much a ma.n.u.script with no t.i.tle, written on it were lines created by someone with undoubtedly exquisite calligraphy skill, along with a lot of notes from many others . I could recognize one of the notes . It belonged to Feng Nian’s since I had seen her handwriting . It was because of her notes that it was easier for me to read and understand the content .

The spiritual power was also known as mental force or psychic power . It was one of the treasures buried in the human’s body . When cultivated deeper in this area, you would be able to materialize spiritual power . Even when closing your eyes, you could ‘see’ the blowing wind within a radius of 100 meters .

The word ‘SEE’ here was being marked with a quote .

What I found really interesting was that you could open interspatial rings as long as you learned this spiritual power .

As for the method for practicing it, it was pretty much similar to meditation . I sat down cross-legged and began to practice as was described in the method in the book .

Noon the next day

I had finally figured it out . The reason why I fell into this situation and predicament was the consequences of having relied too much on Small Thumb Sword Qi! If my Inner Force, Daoist arts and skills were stronger, I would not have used this move which proved to harm myself more often than my opponents .

I might be unable to live much longer, yet wasn’t there still two years left for me? Besides, I still must return to the Phantasm Rain Pavilion next month . I had to give my best to practice and get another quota in the next compet.i.tion to go to the outside world! After all, I wanted to accompany Dad and Mom while I was at it!

Although Feng Nian could bring me outside, I didn’t want to owe her a favor . Besides, why would she help me? We were, after all, neither relatives nor family .

I could no longer use the Small Thumb Sword Qi to defeat my opponents by surprise for the next compet.i.tion . I could only depend on myself for everything .

As I was sitting in my bedroom practicing spiritual power, I heard knocks on the flat’s door as my Mom then exclaimed, “Eh, Xiaoling? What happened to your eyes, did that brat bully you?”

“No, it’s not that, Auntie . Anyways, is Xiaolong home?”

“He’s inside, locking himself up in his room . Tell him to come out for dinner . ”

“Auntie, I want to talk to him alone . ” Then, she came to my bedroom’s door and knocked it, “May I go in, Xiaolong?”

I sighed inwardly and spoke in a low voice, “It’s not locked . ”

She opened the door, came inside, and shut the door with her backhand .

She was wearing a pink dress, exposing the skin of the cleavage beneath . Such a beautiful lady yet her beauty was destroyed by red and swollen eyes . Pain filled my heart as I looked at her eyes . I could feel the sadness and pain that drove her to tears . As much as I wanted to hold her tightly, I wasn’t able to force myself to…

For a long time, she looked at me before she began to ask, “What exactly happened yesterday, Xiaolong? Why are you hiding it from me?”

Two lines of tears dropped from her eyes . She choked and continued, “Why did you hide it from me… What exactly is the problem? Am I that useless that I can’t help you solve it? I’m already used to having you beside me . Don’t leave me out of this…”

Just when I wanted to talk, my cell phone suddenly rang . It was a number unfamiliar to me, but I still picked it up as a female voice then came out, “h.e.l.lo, is it Xiaolong?”

I was quite puzzled and asked, “I am . May I know who you are?”

“Idiot! You don’t even recognize your cousin’s voice?”

I quickly remembered . It was indeed my older cousin’s voice, so I chuckled and asked, “Eh, cousin, what’s up?”

“I tried to call you two months ago to ask you to come here and play . Who knew that I couldn’t contact you and that you had mysteriously disappeared? If anything, I didn’t know you were back until I called my Mom last night . Hey, would you like to come and play with me for a couple of days? You know, this older cousin of yours is really sincere to invite you . ”

I only had two years left to live . Messing around and wasting time was not a luxury I could enjoy, so reasonably speaking, I couldn’t and shouldn’t go .

However, I just broke up with Sis Xiaoling and she just couldn’t bear to part with me . Looking at the weeping beauty like a pear blossom bathed in the rain truly triggered my impulse to wipe her tears off, holding her tightly while telling her the truth about everything…

But at this time, the best choice for me was to disappear for a couple of days . I gave her some moments to calm down, so as to compose myself as well . Afterward, I laughed and said, “You sound very enthusiastic, cousin . How would I dare not to rush over there then? Alright, I’ll go there tomorrow . ”

I intentionally cast Xu Xiaoling aside and chatted with my older cousin for ten minutes before hanging up the phone . Then I spoke with an expressionless face, “Sis Xiaoling, breaking up is just a normal thing to happen . Don’t be so sad like that . If there’s nothing else, please leave and don’t disturb my daily life . ”

“Xiaolong…” Tears ran down like a bubbling spring as she looked at me deeply as though she wanted to carve every detail of my face in her mind . Without uttering any more words, she turned around and went outside . Then, she apologized to Mom, and said, “Auntie, I’m going first . ”

“Don’t go yet, Xiaoling . Have a meal with us before you go . ” I could hear Mom asked her to stay, but the door’s bell then sounded as it closed .

Mom then came into my room . She looked rather dissatisfied and spoke to me, “Are you bullying Xiaoling? Why didn’t you go out and ask her to come back here?”

“Please, Mom . It’s the matter between us, the young . Just leave it alone . ”

“What? I don’t care! That’s my daughter-in-law! Xiaoling is such a good girl that you will find it hard to find another even for a thousand years! I won’t recognize you as my son if you don’t apologize to her!”

“But Mom, I’m your real son…” I wryly smiled, but then my nosebleed flared up so I quickly ran to the bathroom to clean myself .

Mom then asked, “How come you have nosebleeds every day recently?”

“It could be because I took too many tonics recently, but I’m fine, Mom . ” I casually replied, “Anyways, older cousin just called . She invited me to visit her house so I’ll go there tomorrow . ”

“You wanna leave again as soon as you come back? Alas… I really can’t make you stay anymore even if I want to since you’ve already become an adult . Just go . Go . ”

I could only apologize inside my heart but still, I let out a smile and said, “Mom, look at what you said . You speak as if I won’t be coming back home . ”

After cleaning up my nosebleed, I went out to the market to buy two fruits, one for Jiannan and the other to carry home . When I came to the copy shop, however, I saw a lot of people in front of the entrance to the shop .

‘Huh? What’s going on here?’

I hurried toward the crowd and squeezed to get into the door . There was a middle-aged woman in the room holding a golden banner, whereas Jiannan received it with a solemn and emotionally moving expression, “Thank you, Ma’am!”

“You deserve it, young man!” The middle-aged woman patted Jiannan’s shoulder and then flipped away .

I finally saw the writing on the banner written with gold color: Friends of Women!

I staggered forward and almost fell down!

Jiannan proudly raised the banner and the women around the door were all applauding before leaving after a long while . I was practically turning into a statue beside him, petrified . At this time, Jiannan was humming a song while looking for a hammer and nail, after which, he was ready to nail the banner on the wall, leaving me speechless . I then asked him, “Are you really going to hang that up?”

“Don’t look down nor underestimate this, Big Bro . This is a symbol of honor!” Jiannan proudly pointed to the big words written as ‘Friends of Women’ . [1]

“What do you call this? An honor…”

“Definitely . You just didn’t get it yet…”

Oh, G.o.d! Jiannan was actually looking at me with disdain? This exotic good of nature thought that being awarded the t.i.tle ‘Friends of Women’ was an honor? But speaking about it honestly, this banner was indeed something that could not just be owned by anyone .

I fell into silence for a short while . After Jiannan hung the banner in the most conspicuous spot, only then did ask, “So, Jiannan . How is the progress with the interrogation of the ghosts of those criminals?”

“All of them have confessed, Brother . I already informed Officer Chen everything they told me, too . So, what do you think? I’m very efficient, right?”

“You are indeed . ” I nodded and said, “Also, there’s something I’d like you to help with . Please go to the train station and buy me a ticket to Yining City, preferably for tomorrow morning . Here’s 10,000 yuan . 9,000 yuan is your three months of salary and the change after you buy the ticket is yours . ”

Then…

Jiannan really did his work very efficiently . He called me back after more than half an hour, “Hey, Big Bro, are you OK with the ticket for tomorrow morning at 8:40? It will take 13 hours for you to arrive at Yining City Train Station . ”

“Yes, buy it,” I replied while sitting on the sofa inside the copy shop .

In the evening, I called Chen Haotian to come over, who then came dressed in casual clothes . He looked neither like a young master of a respectable family nor like a gangster at all . We sat in a restaurant and drank gla.s.s after gla.s.s . I asked him why he chose to be in the triad . He said that there was nothing wrong with living in the underworld as he had his own principles and bottom lines . He did not taint himself with p.o.r.nography, nor gambling, and just dealt in the smuggling business .

He told me that he chose to stay here so he could take care of my family while in pa.s.sing, and I also felt it was great . We had hung out and had a drink until it was past ten before I went home and hit the bed .

Notes:

[1] Friends of Women here refers to a single male who has so many friends of the opposite s.e.x, but there’s no one he can develop a relations.h.i.+p with . Kinda contradictory, isn’t it?

Chapter 104: Friends of Women.

With her intellect, Sis Xiaoling would be able to guess why I wanted to break up with her all of a sudden . After all, she knew I just visited the Zhangs residence today and I was so out of order when I came back in the evening . As the posterity of one of the Eight Families, she certainly knew how to relate to the Zhangs . Fearing Zhang Zixuan would tell her something, I made a phone call to him, “Brother Zhang, could you do a favor for me? If someone were to ask if I met you today, please don’t say anything especially to those of the Xu House . ”.

Zhang Zixuan did not ask the reason at all and just said, “Alright . But Brother Xiaolong, I might need your a.s.sistance for a certain matter this time around . ”.

“Just call me . But it’s best to tell me as soon as possible because I must leave after some time here . ”.

“Got it . I’ll contact you by then . ”.

“Ah, right . Help me to keep my condition a secret, Brother Zhang . ”.

I did this because I wanted to completely cut off all relations with Sis Xiaoling . She was always a good woman; gentle, loving, and considerate . I loved her to the very bones of my body . I never understood what true love meant . What I knew was that when we got along together, we never had a quarrel, having a strong dependence on each other, even to the extreme of it . Maybe this feeling should indeed be called as love

But it was exactly because I loved her so much that I had to give up on her

Be that as it may, this slice of my life was similar to when I cursed at a movie at thought of entertaining such melodramatic scenes . And yet, when it was my turn to have such a script played for me, only then did I finally understand this feeling

It was as Old Chen said . Movies were scenes reproduced from life in and of itself . It was because of this kind of recurrence in the plot, that was constantly exaggerated, and yet, was still able to make people feel contrived for such melodramatic twists

As I arrived back home . I couldn’t cast away the memory of hearing Sis Xiaoling’s sobs . My heart felt like it was being sheared by a knife! I really wanted to call her to console and comfort her! But still, I could not do it… I could only do other activities so as to s.h.i.+ft my mind away instead of thinking about the angelic woman in my heart….

I put the two interspatial rings on the table . One was silver and the other was black . The black one was an extra reward of reaching the top 3 places . Then I took out the book Feng Nian gave me and began reading it

The book was ancient . It was pretty much a ma.n.u.script with no t.i.tle, written on it were lines created by someone with undoubtedly exquisite calligraphy skill, along with a lot of notes from many others . I could recognize one of the notes . It belonged to Feng Nian’s since I had seen her handwriting . It was because of her notes that it was easier for me to read and understand the content

The spiritual power was also known as mental force or psychic power . It was one of the treasures buried in the human’s body . When cultivated deeper in this area, you would be able to materialize spiritual power . Even when closing your eyes, you could ‘see’ the blowing wind within a radius of 100 meters

The word ‘SEE’ here was being marked with a quote

What I found really interesting was that you could open interspatial rings as long as you learned this spiritual power

As for the method for practicing it, it was pretty much similar to meditation . I sat down cross-legged and began to practice as was described in the method in the book

****.

Noon the next day.

I had finally figured it out . The reason why I fell into this situation and predicament was the consequences of having relied too much on Small Thumb Sword Qi! If my Inner Force, Daoist arts and skills were stronger, I would not have used this move which proved to harm myself more often than my opponents

I might be unable to live much longer, yet wasn’t there still two years left for me? Besides, I still must return to the Phantasm Rain Pavilion next month . I had to give my best to practice and get another quota in the next compet.i.tion to go to the outside world! After all, I wanted to accompany Dad and Mom while I was at it!.

Although Feng Nian could bring me outside, I didn’t want to owe her a favor . Besides, why would she help me? We were, after all, neither relatives nor family

I could no longer use the Small Thumb Sword Qi to defeat my opponents by surprise for the next compet.i.tion . I could only depend on myself for everything

As I was sitting in my bedroom practicing spiritual power, I heard knocks on the flat’s door as my Mom then exclaimed, “Eh, Xiaoling? What happened to your eyes, did that brat bully you?”.

“No, it’s not that, Auntie . Anyways, is Xiaolong home?”.

“He’s inside, locking himself up in his room . Tell him to come out for dinner . ”.

“Auntie, I want to talk to him alone . ” Then, she came to my bedroom’s door and knocked it, “May I go in, Xiaolong?”.

I sighed inwardly and spoke in a low voice, “It’s not locked . ”.

She opened the door, came inside, and shut the door with her backhand

She was wearing a pink dress, exposing the skin of the cleavage beneath . Such a beautiful lady yet her beauty was destroyed by red and swollen eyes . Pain filled my heart as I looked at her eyes . I could feel the sadness and pain that drove her to tears . As much as I wanted to hold her tightly, I wasn’t able to force myself to….

For a long time, she looked at me before she began to ask, “What exactly happened yesterday, Xiaolong? Why are you hiding it from me?”.

Two lines of tears dropped from her eyes . She choked and continued, “Why did you hide it from me… What exactly is the problem? Am I that useless that I can’t help you solve it? I’m already used to having you beside me . Don’t leave me out of this…”.

Just when I wanted to talk, my cell phone suddenly rang . It was a number unfamiliar to me, but I still picked it up as a female voice then came out, “h.e.l.lo, is it Xiaolong?”.

I was quite puzzled and asked, “I am . May I know who you are?”.

“Idiot! You don’t even recognize your cousin’s voice?”.

I quickly remembered . It was indeed my older cousin’s voice, so I chuckled and asked, “Eh, cousin, what’s up?”.

“I tried to call you two months ago to ask you to come here and play . Who knew that I couldn’t contact you and that you had mysteriously disappeared? If anything, I didn’t know you were back until I called my Mom last night . Hey, would you like to come and play with me for a couple of days? You know, this older cousin of yours is really sincere to invite you . ”.

I only had two years left to live . Messing around and wasting time was not a luxury I could enjoy, so reasonably speaking, I couldn’t and shouldn’t go

However, I just broke up with Sis Xiaoling and she just couldn’t bear to part with me . Looking at the weeping beauty like a pear blossom bathed in the rain truly triggered my impulse to wipe her tears off, holding her tightly while telling her the truth about everything….

But at this time, the best choice for me was to disappear for a couple of days . I gave her some moments to calm down, so as to compose myself as well . Afterward, I laughed and said, “You sound very enthusiastic, cousin . How would I dare not to rush over there then? Alright, I’ll go there tomorrow . ”.

I intentionally cast Xu Xiaoling aside and chatted with my older cousin for ten minutes before hanging up the phone . Then I spoke with an expressionless face, “Sis Xiaoling, breaking up is just a normal thing to happen . Don’t be so sad like that . If there’s nothing else, please leave and don’t disturb my daily life . ”.

“Xiaolong…” Tears ran down like a bubbling spring as she looked at me deeply as though she wanted to carve every detail of my face in her mind . Without uttering any more words, she turned around and went outside . Then, she apologized to Mom, and said, “Auntie, I’m going first . ”.

“Don’t go yet, Xiaoling . Have a meal with us before you go . ” I could hear Mom asked her to stay, but the door’s bell then sounded as it closed

Mom then came into my room . She looked rather dissatisfied and spoke to me, “Are you bullying Xiaoling? Why didn’t you go out and ask her to come back here?”.

“Please, Mom . It’s the matter between us, the young . Just leave it alone . ”.

“What? I don’t care! That’s my daughter-in-law! Xiaoling is such a good girl that you will find it hard to find another even for a thousand years! I won’t recognize you as my son if you don’t apologize to her!”.

“But Mom, I’m your real son…” I wryly smiled, but then my nosebleed flared up so I quickly ran to the bathroom to clean myself

Mom then asked, “How come you have nosebleeds every day recently?”.

“It could be because I took too many tonics recently, but I’m fine, Mom . ” I casually replied, “Anyways, older cousin just called . She invited me to visit her house so I’ll go there tomorrow . ”.

“You wanna leave again as soon as you come back? Alas… I really can’t make you stay anymore even if I want to since you’ve already become an adult . Just go . Go . ”.

I could only apologize inside my heart but still, I let out a smile and said, “Mom, look at what you said . You speak as if I won’t be coming back home . ”.

After cleaning up my nosebleed, I went out to the market to buy two fruits, one for Jiannan and the other to carry home . When I came to the copy shop, however, I saw a lot of people in front of the entrance to the shop

‘Huh? What’s going on here?’.

I hurried toward the crowd and squeezed to get into the door . There was a middle-aged woman in the room holding a golden banner, whereas Jiannan received it with a solemn and emotionally moving expression, “Thank you, Ma’am!”.

“You deserve it, young man!” The middle-aged woman patted Jiannan’s shoulder and then flipped away

I finally saw the writing on the banner written with gold color: Friends of Women!.

I staggered forward and almost fell down!.

Jiannan proudly raised the banner and the women around the door were all applauding before leaving after a long while . I was practically turning into a statue beside him, petrified . At this time, Jiannan was humming a song while looking for a hammer and nail, after which, he was ready to nail the banner on the wall, leaving me speechless . I then asked him, “Are you really going to hang that up?”.

“Don’t look down nor underestimate this, Big Bro . This is a symbol of honor!” Jiannan proudly pointed to the big words written as ‘Friends of Women’ . [1].

“What do you call this? An honor…”.

“Definitely . You just didn’t get it yet…”.

Oh, G.o.d! Jiannan was actually looking at me with disdain? This exotic good of nature thought that being awarded the t.i.tle ‘Friends of Women’ was an honor? But speaking about it honestly, this banner was indeed something that could not just be owned by anyone

I fell into silence for a short while . After Jiannan hung the banner in the most conspicuous spot, only then did ask, “So, Jiannan . How is the progress with the interrogation of the ghosts of those criminals?”.

“All of them have confessed, Brother . I already informed Officer Chen everything they told me, too . So, what do you think? I’m very efficient, right?”.

“You are indeed . ” I nodded and said, “Also, there’s something I’d like you to help with . Please go to the train station and buy me a ticket to Yining City, preferably for tomorrow morning . Here’s 10,000 yuan . 9,000 yuan is your three months of salary and the change after you buy the ticket is yours . ”.

Then….

Jiannan really did his work very efficiently . He called me back after more than half an hour, “Hey, Big Bro, are you OK with the ticket for tomorrow morning at 8:40? It will take 13 hours for you to arrive at Yining City Train Station . ”.

“Yes, buy it,” I replied while sitting on the sofa inside the copy shop

In the evening, I called Chen Haotian to come over, who then came dressed in casual clothes . He looked neither like a young master of a respectable family nor like a gangster at all . We sat in a restaurant and drank gla.s.s after gla.s.s . I asked him why he chose to be in the triad . He said that there was nothing wrong with living in the underworld as he had his own principles and bottom lines . He did not taint himself with p.o.r.nography, nor gambling, and just dealt in the smuggling business

He told me that he chose to stay here so he could take care of my family while in pa.s.sing, and I also felt it was great . We had hung out and had a drink until it was past ten before I went home and hit the bed

Notes:.

[1] Friends of Women here refers to a single male who has so many friends of the opposite s.e.x, but there’s no one he can develop a relations.h.i.+p with . Kinda contradictory, isn’t it?.