Not Familiar

It was already dark by the time Fang Huaining returned to the city via taxi. He was always good at arranging his schedule reasonably, and he rarely indulged himself, but today he wandered around aimlessly all day.

Looking at the time, it was almost eight o’clock.

The most important thing that Fang Huaining should be doing right now, is to go home, take a shower and get a good night’s sleep. However, his leg impatiently moved up and down in the car, and finally he couldn’t help but get off two stops earlier.

When Li Ting pushed the small scooter and passed by the station, he saw Fang Huaining standing there motionless, staring at the passing vehicles on the road in a daze.

Li Ting looked at the other party for a while, and perhaps Fang Huaining finally felt something, so he turned his head, looking at him with surprise in his eyes.

Li Ting turned his face away, pushed the vehicle and continued to move forward, without any intention of saying hello.

It was just that ever since his small scooter fell down in the accident, it was always difficult to get it started even after repairing it. It got stuck for no reason today, and because there were too many things on the car, just a small jolt made one of the two big bags on the backseat fall down.

Li Ting was about to stop to pick it up quickly, but somebody picked up the bag with one hand, before him.

“Thank you.”

Li Ting naturally stretched out his hand to take the things, but the other party didn’t give it.

Fang Huaining stood in front of him, looking at Li Ting, and then at the package that completely occupied the entire seat and left no space for anyone to sit. He weighed the packet in his hand and asked, “What is it?”

It was soft and fluffy, like cotton.

Li Ting didn’t intend to explain in detail, and simply said: “Goods.”

Fang Huaining said: “You can’t carry everything like this, it will fall down again if I give it to you.”

Li Ting frowned, as if thinking about what to do.

Fang Huaining asked again: “Where are you going?”

Li Ting: “Just ahead.”

Fang Huaining raised his hand to look at his watch, as if he was checking to see whether or not he was free at the moment, and after a while, he reluctantly said, “Since it’s not far away, I’ll carry it for you.”

After speaking, he walked ahead confidently.

Li Ting looked at his tall and straight back for a moment, and then stepped up to follow.

It was indeed not far. And after crossing the road and arriving at the shopping street in front of A University, just as Fang Huaining was thinking about whether the little landlord was going to deliver goods to Hyacinth Xiaoshe this time, Li Ting stopped moving from behind him.

Fang Huaining turned back to see him lift the bag on the scooter lightly, and drag it all the way to a certain place before putting it down.

As soon as the knot was untied, the contents inside gushed out like popcorn, and two of them rolled along the stairs to Fang Huaining feet.

Fang Huaining put down the bag in his hand, and picked up the object on the ground, looking closer to see that it was a doll the size of a hand, with big nostrils and long ears, very fat and ugly.

What the hell?

Pig?

Rabbit?

Fang Huaining’s brain suddenly flashed!

A pig and a rabbit?

One for 200?

Then that* 3600 yuan?

[TN: FH saw a record of 3600 yuan in the Little Field app before, in case you forgot.]

Was it spent on this?

When he looked at Li Ting again, he found that he had already turned on the machine in front of the shop, and was taking out these ugly things one by one and putting them into it, repeatedly adjusting the angle and correcting the orientation, with the same serious expression as when he was writing a thesis.

“You…” Fang Huaining was startled for a moment before opening his mouth, but he didn’t know what to ask.

Li Ting guessed what he wanted to say, and answered lightly: “I rented it.”

“2400 yuan?” Fang Huaining blurted out and almost bit off his own tongue after speaking. How could he know such a precise number for the price*?!

[TN: Saw it on Little Field, that’s why. But ofcourse he isn’t supposed to know this.]

Li Ting gave him a strange look, Fang Huaining thought he would have doubts, but he turned his attention back to his work, and only said after a while: “The machine is old, so it was cheap. “

Fang Huaining breathed a sigh of relief, and followed, “Is this cost cheap?”

Li Ting nodded: “Because it does not include the cost of commissioning and maintenance, although human supervision is required at the beginning.”

As a novice in this line of business, the placement of dolls and the success rate all need to be carefully studied. So in the first few days, the machine cannot be left without supervision.

Human supervision? !

Fang Huaining’s head lightened up when he heard this, as if a knot in his heart was suddenly loosened.

He looked at the claw machine in front of him, and then turned his head to look across the road. Isn’t this right across Hyacinth Xiaoshe? At that time, the girl was standing on this side, and Li Ting was standing on the other side, looking here from time to time, this suddenly gave Fang Huaining a bold guess.

So at that time, Li Ting was not actually looking at the girl, but the machine!

After Li Ting finished putting away the bag of dolls, he counted them and found that there were still two missing. He looked back, and saw Fang Huaining holding the pig and rabbit in his arms. His head was lowered and he was staring at it intently, his eyes were full of smiles, very affectionate. And the corners of his mouth was curled up in a strange arc.

Li Ting: “…”

“You.”

Fang Huaining had finally made some mental preparations, and was planning to probe through some indirect remarks. But Li Ting approached suddenly, and stretched out his hand to grabb the thing he was holding.

“It’s useless to like it anymore.” Li Ting said coldly.

Fang Huaining: “???”

After locking the machine, Li Ting pushed the scooter to go to his next destination.

Now that he knew what Li Ting was doing, Fang Huaining guessed from the records that he should go to the subway station next. Fang Huaining happened to be going home, so he went with him as a matter of course, and continued to help him.

Li Ting didn’t refuse, and slowly pushed the cart while walking beside Fang Huaining.

The two still didn’t talk much.

In fact, if you don’t count the delivery incident of the hyacinth cake, this was still the two people officially meeting for the first time after the embarrassing incident on the bus that day. In addition, there was an inexplicable undercurrent surging between the two.

Fang Huaining couldn’t tell if it was an illusion caused by the ghost in his heart, because although Li Ting’s face showed no abnormalities at all, and his eyes were as cold as ever, everytime he met Fang Huaining’s eyes, even if it was only for a momen, there seemed to be a strange kzzkzz sound of friction, as if in a few more seconds, sparks will erupt at the intersection of their lines of sight.

Fang Huaining pressed down on his wildly beating heart with the pig and rabbit dolls in his arms, telling himself do not think about it, keep your composure, and calm down.

After walking for a while, they crossed the overpass and arrived at the subway station.

This was the station A. Because of the holiday, the flow of people was much less than usual, but there were still people in twos and threes gathered around several claw machines, playing with them with great interest.

The shops on the shopping street earlier were closed, and the slightly dim lights had made it difficult for Fang Huaining to see the claw machines placed there. Now, in this bright environment, Fang Huaining was able to confirm that the business of the machine filled with pigs and rabbits was very good. Even if the doll could not be hoisted for a while, the customers were still very happy and persevered.

It was only then that he relazied, what small landlord, the small landlord had already turned around and become a little boss. Fang Huaining’s admiration for Li Ting at this time could hardly be overstated.

Li Ting didn’t go forward immediately, but stood silently waiting for the customers to finish trying again and again. When they finally left, after catching a pig, he took the dolls from Fang Huaining’s hand and walked over to add a new doll into the machine.

After putting the doll away, Li Ting waited for a while and watched a few customers operate normally before he was satisfied.

Fang Huaining watched him turn around to leave, but then he stopped in place, feeling that he had no more excuses to continue followin the other person. After all, he was supposed to take the subway home from here.

As a result, Li Ting took two steps, and as if realizing that the other person hadn’t followed, he turned to look at Fang Huaining.

Fang Huaining’s heart lifted slightly.

He heard Li Ting say: “You haven’t eaten.”

He used an affirmative sentence.

That’s right, Fang Huaining spent a day wandering outside, he was almost starving to death, but where he could get food near Hexin Industry?

So, what does the Little Boss mean?

Fang Huaining couldn’t help but look forward to it.

Li Ting opened his mouth and was about to speak when suddenly several bangs caught his attention.

Fang Huaining turned to look back with him, and saw a young couple standing in front of the claw machine. The boy kept beating the machine, as if venting, and caused a lot of commotion.

With his mouth, he cursed: “What crap, cheating my money.”

Li Ting narrowed his eyes, and before Fang Huaining could open his mouth, he had already walked over.

“One hundred yuan for every damage, you hit it three time.” Li Ting said coldly from behind the boy.

“What?”

The boy turned his head angrily, and when he saw Li Ting, he suddenly laughed out of displeasure, and said sinisterly, “So it’s you, Li Ting?”

Li Ting didn’t notice the change in the acquaintance’s expression, and directly stretched out his hand to him: “Three times, three hundred yuan.”

“Damn you!” The boy got angry, and slapped the claw machine loudly, “I tried twice and didn’t catch fart. This rubbish thing cheated my girlfriend of money, how dare you ask me for money??!”

“Cheng Peng, you didn’t have to come play if you couldn’t afford it.” Li Ting looked at him without fear, his tone still calm, “but now even if you can’t afford it, you have to pay.”

The boy was stunned, and immediately started to be shout: “Fuck your mother, Li Ting, you want me to lose money? Dream about it!”

Noticing Li Ting’s silent gaze, the boy’s tone spiked and he immediately raised his voice: “What’s the matter, you think you can do something to me? I let you off at school before, but this is outside. If you dare to touch me, I’ll call the police directly to arrest you, believe it or not! This time, let’s see who can protect you!”

He turned out to be the leader of the group of boys who troubled Li Ting at school.

Since Li Ting was silent, Cheng Peng thought he had scared down the other party, and raised his finger arrogantly.

“Understand it well and don’t dare to be so rude. This machine is yours, right? Believe it or not, I will make you unable to use it every day in the future.”

Before he could finish speaking, his wrist was held, and he was pushed harshly in the opposite direction, finger twisted away from Li Ting’s face abruptly.

Cheng Peng was in pain, and upon looking up, he found that there was another boy beside Li Ting, who was very tall, looking at him with a straight face.

“This kind of behavior is very rude. And your fingers, are they even clean?” Fang Huaining asked.

Cheng Peng was stunned for a moment, and then he became angry. While cursing his mother, he tried his best to shake off Fang Huaining’s hand. He used a lot of strength, but Fang Huaining was not a weak chicken, so he couldn’t do it easily. Maybe it was a coincidence, but as Cheng Peng struggled to break away from Fang Huaining’s hold, he accidentally tugged something off his wrist.

There was only a crisp sound, and something broke.

The few people there lowered their heads and found that a watch had been smashed to the ground, and it’s dial had cracked immediately.

Fang Huaining pursed his lips. This was a birthday present from his parents when he turned 20 years old. And although the price was also quite expensive, the most important thing was the heart put in it.

He was very unhappy.

Li Ting also looked at the things on the ground, and his brows finally wrinkled on his previously calm face.

“That was not my fault, it’s you!” Cheng Peng tried to evade the responsibility, but just as he opened his mouth, he was kicked hard in the stomach!

Notes:

Violence is never the answer.

But sometimes it is the question.

And the answer is, yes!

(Just kidding don’t fight )