Chapter 8: Wei Zhiyuan blushed and declared, "I'm not going to school!"
From dropping out of school to the “one-vs-many” fights, Wei Qian had been living a mechanical and repetitive life for a whole year. Life was like a piece of coarse sandpaper that had rubbed off his youthful exuberance as though it were dead skin.
The door to the future was slowly closed in front of him, and time pushed him tirelessly. Wei Qian originally thought that such a life would be very painful, but later he discovered that once a person was living a "painful life", they were less sensitive to the feeling of "pain". He could still find some joyful moments in life he enjoyed talking about for a long time, and a year passed quickly.
One of them was caused by Wei Zhiyuan.
Wei Zhiyuan would prefer death over going to school. His living environment was rather abnormal. He knew a lot about survival-related things, but he lacked the common sense normal children had. He had no idea about school. Xiaobao told him that school was just sitting in a classroom and learning to read and count. Wei Zhiyuan thought about it and decided that he was not interested in reading and counting.
The little boy stubbornly thought that going to school was equivalent to doing nothing, to eat and be lazy every day whilst relying on his da ge to support him.
This made him scared to go to school - even though Wei Zhiyuan had been picked up by Wei Qian that autumn for a whole year, and completely gotten along with Xiao Bao, so much so that they even often picked fights together, he still had a fear of being abandoned at any time.
Wei Zhiyuan regarded making contributions to his family as a way to alleviate this fear. Doing housework and picking up bottles to sell for small change were his ways of contribution. When he was "deprived" of the opportunity to make contributions, Wei Zhiyuan subconsciously felt that this was the foreboding of his abandonment, so he began his fiercely resist.
Wei Qian was as busy as a dog every day. Of course, he didn’t observe the child’s twisted thinking. On the morning of the first day of school, Wei Qian simply and brutally took Wei Zhiyuan and Song Xiaobao out of the house, unlocked the door despite Wei Zhiyuan's flailing hands, and dragged them all the way to school.
In the meantime, Wei Zhiyuan acted like a cat with its fur standing up. He was carried by Wei Qian who also held his schoolbag. His feet could not touch the ground, and he was hanging in the air. He scratched and bit the air like a dog, causing passers-by to stare from time to time.
When he met Sanpang on his way out, Sanpang was happy:
"Oh, Qian’er, what are you going to do? He’s struggling so much, have you finally decided to butcher him for meat? "
Wei Qian slapped Wei Zhiyuan's ass fiercely: "Did you hear that? You disgraceful thing, even pigs are braver than you!” Wei Zhiyuan blushed and declared, "I'm not going to school!"
Song Xiaobao jumped up and down alongside him and said cheerfully, "Then I won't go to school either!"
Just as Wei Qian was about to speak, another crying declaration of freedom exploded beside him. A little boy was also forcibly carried to school by his dad, crying his heart out all the way, saying heartbreakingly, "I don't want to go to school!"
The boy's mother followed closely with small steps and babbled about education to the child. Wei Qian listened for a while, he discovered that she talked about how scientists were making a fortune, about a future where one could buy pork elbows marinated in soy sauce at night, everything from astronomy to geography to 5000 years of history, she included everything. The elder boy couldn’t agree with this kind of cumbersome way of educating. He took the simple route and immediately sneered, then turned his head and glanced at the two young children nobly and coldly, and said ruthlessly: "Did I ask you two for your opinion? Do you have the right to say 'no'?"
The sentence came out with a bang, Wei Zhiyuan became silent. Song Xiaobao was purely following the trend, so she immediately stopped making trouble. Even the child who had been badly nagged and was sobbing next to them dared not to cry anymore.
Wei Qian put Wei Zhiyuan down at the entrance of the school, raised his chin at the elementary school, and said in a merciful tone: "Go in."
Song Xiaobao took two steps, looked back, found that Wei Zhiyuan was still in the same space, and hesitantly stood still. Wei Qian's patience was completely exhausted, and he looked down at Xiao Yuan, "Do you want to disobey da ge?"
Wei Zhiyuan stubbornly didn’t utter a word, Wei Qian sneered: "It's up to you whether you go or not, no one is begging you. If you have the ability, get the fuck out of here" Wei Zhiyuan instinctively took a step back. he was not afraid of his da ge's anger, but he was afraid of his da ge's impersonal cynicism. Wei Qian was too lazy to indulge in his problems and turned around and left.
Wei Zhiyuan felt wronged. All this time, he had been trying hard to get close to this person and do more for this person. However, it seemed that no matter what he did, the other party was ungrateful. Da ge was like a person he could never please. He (WQ) always gave him (WZ) the image of his back turned and him leaving. Even his smile was extremely rare.
Wei Zhiyuan suddenly rushed forward and bit into Wei Qian's wrist. Wei Qian retracted his wrist instinctively, and the juvenile’s abrupt and hard wrist bone knocked on the boy’s front teeth. Wei Zhiyuan suddenly let go. Wei Qian looked down and saw the child spit out his first to fall baby tooth. Wei Zhiyuan's expression at the time was stunned. No one had ever told him about losing baby teeth to grow adult teeth. He could understand when teeth were knocked out, but he couldn't understand them simply falling out by themselves for no reason.
According to Wei Zhiyuan's understanding, arms and legs could be chopped off, and one would not die, but what happens when they fall off by themselves for no reason?
Wei Zhiyuan stood there sullenly, staring blankly at his fallen incisors, with a shocked and frightened expression on his face, like those in a TV show who had just heard they had a terminal illness.
Wei Qian managed to be entertained by his(WZ) bizarre expression, his(WQ) gloomy face almost failed to stay taut, he quickly turned around and walked away with a smile, even forgetting to take into account that the pup had bitten him.
Wei Zhiyuan’s thoughts were in turmoil, unfortunately, there were still people who were afraid of the world not being chaotic enough (1). Song Xiaobao, a comrade (TN: also slang for homosexual which made me laugh way more than it was supposed to) who only knew how to make things worse, saw it, and made a fuss beside him, yelling, "Woah! Your tooth fell out! You’re probably deeply poisoned already, there’s not much time left!"
Wei Qian spent five yuan on an old TV that others hadn't wanted and took it home to fix it. Song Xiaobao was watching martial arts movies these days and had learned nonsensical lines. Her audience was not in the mood to listen. Wei Zhiyuan's face paled after hearing her words and instinctively raised his eyes to find Wei Qian, only to find that the person had already left. Suddenly, a great feeling of emptiness rushed into Wei Zhiyuan's heart. He was scared out of his wits as he was dragged into the school by Song Xiaobao in a daze. He thought blankly: "I'm going to die." Wei Zhiyuan no longer fought with Wei Qian about going to school. ——He was dying, and all struggles were meaningless.
In the middle of the night, Wei Zhiyuan often sat up in the dark, feeling his other teeth that were becoming looser and looser. He realized that his life was not long. He was suffering from the torture and pain of parting forever. He looked at Wei Qian's peaceful sleeping face almost greedily. Seemingly wanting to imprint his da ge in his mind and take him to the next world after death.
A month later, Wei Zhiyuan lost three teeth, and his words began to slur (TN: the character for leak was used here but I think slur fits better). He stopped talking and put on a silent expression, waiting for death. During this period, other children hadn’t learned Chinese Pinyin quickly (TN: It’s me, I’m other children). Wei Zhiyuan had learned the common characters in the back of the textbook due to his extraordinary learning ability and motivation that was much greater than ordinary people. His motivation was the desire to leave a suicide note before he died.
For this suicide note, Wei Zhiyuan specifically asked the teacher how to use a dictionary. Every day after class and playing time, he desperately tried to learn words in the old dictionary lent him by the teacher. Therefore, Wei Zhiyuan had no distractions. He believed that people who were dying did not need to befriend classmates, so he was indifferent to every one. Naturally, he didn't notice that there were hordes of those with small, gaping teeth in the class who slurred their words like him. Finally, when the mid-term exam was nearby, Wei Zhiyuan could recognize hundreds of Chinese characters with the perseverance of "people about to die".
By the way, he got full marks in the Chinese test.
He didn’t care about the teacher's praise in the slightest and finished his masterpiece of a suicide note before all his teeth fell out. It just so happened that Mazi and Sanpang were both having dinner at Wei Qian's house. Wei Zhiyuan solemnly handed over the suicide note to Wei Qian. Out of nowhere, Sanpang asked: "Yo, just two months in school and you’ve already written a love letter to your da ge?"
Wei Qian held his chopsticks in his mouth, unfolded it three or two times, and started to read it with great interest. Wei Zhiyuan glanced at him and lowered his head in a sad mood: "It's a suicide note." Sanpang didn’t hear clearly: "What is it?"
Wei Zhiyuan said calmly, like a warrior about to die: "It's a suicide note, I'm going to die." Everyone looked at him with strange eyes. After a long while, Mazi asked, "Y- Yo- You- Wh- Why do you think you’re dying?"
Wei Zhiyuan felt like his throat was blocked, which made his voice sound very small: "I’ve lost several teeth, and there are still several more which have begun to wobble." Sanpang's face twitched, as he cautiously asked: "Then you... don't you feel new teeth growing from where the other teeth fell?"
Wei Zhiyuan finally couldn't help but choked up: "Isn't that the final radiance of a setting sun?" Everyone was silent for two seconds, then San Pang and Wei Qian looked at each other and burst into laughter at the same time. Only Mazi was kind enough to suppress it: "D- Do- Don-, Don't laugh, you... Don't- laugh at him, he- he is still young..." Wei Qian choked on his own saliva, rolled onto the sofa and coughed, he laughed and coughed whilst tears came out. Da ge always acted like an unsmiling parent at home, he had never laughed so unscrupulously in front of them. Wei Zhiyuan was almost stunned, for a while, he even forgot about "parting from life".
He didn't expect that da ge, who had ignored him no matter how he pleased, would be amused by a mistakenly made suicide note.
Afterwards, not knowing what he was thinking (He as in himself WZ), Wei Zhiyuan secretly treasured the "suicide note".
It was a pity that Wei Qian dragged his family around and couldn't leave, so he had to reject Hu Siye's kindness.
Since then, "Xiao Wei" became "Xiao Wei Ge".
*Moved up a level in the gang
To support the family, Mazi also worked under Le Ge - Mazi was responsible for cleaning the nightclub early in the morning.
He cleaned and worked diligently, but it was a pity that he didn’t have much potential. If it weren't for Wei Qian, Le Ge might not have remembered him. On the contrary, Sanpang, as he got older, began to drift away from the Le’s gang. Even though he was still attached to them, he was just thinking about brotherhood loyalty, and occasionally he would lend a hand when something happened. Sanpang seemed to be more enthusiastic about the family trade of killing pigs and selling meat. (TN: Butcher) When Wei Qian dragged a broken arm back home to rest, the two cubs returned from school. Wei Zhiyuan rushed over without putting down his bag: "Ge!" Mazi stopped him hurriedly: "W- Wai- Can’t- you can't rush him, he- his arm..." Wei Zhiyuan frowned: " What's wrong with his arm?" Wei Qian said vaguely with a cigarette in his mouth: "It got bitten by a dog." Song Xiaobao said carelessly: "How can a simple dog bite need to be wrapped up like a dumpling?" Wei Zhiyuan's small face was tensed, he still wanted to ask. Wei Qian obviously didn’t want to say anymore and he put on a serious expression: "Do your homework, what's all this nonsense? Don’t muddle in adult affairs."
Just like that, he dismissed the two children.
Although Le Ge generously gave him leave, Mazi didn't dare to take it seriously. Mazi looked at Wei Qian sheepishly and stumbled to explain to him. Mazi was a sincere person, he wouldn’t resort to trickery and try to evade work. It wasn’t the first day that Wei Qian met him so waved his hand: "Okay, I know, you go, go!" Mazi with difficulty instructed him: "D- Do- Don't touch the water, b- be careful..." Wei Qian: "Well, you can leave quickly and say fewer words, this old man can still live for a lot more years. " Mazi left, Sanpang was cooking in the kitchen and Wei Qian was bored. He picked up a copy of Xiaobao’s extracurricular reading materials. The reading materials were issued by the school for second-grade children. They were usually inspirational stories involving heroes. After reading them, they were asked to write a book report, and sometimes parents were asked to supervise and sign their homework. After reading a few stories, Wei Qian suddenly felt like a worthless person. In these stories, people either shed their blood for their motherland at a young age or determined to overcome all difficulties and study hard to make progress every day. It seemed that everyone's difficulties were greater than his, but they could still become role models.
Only one translator note hehe~ This chapter was so hilarious, I was literally cackling whilst typing it up lmaoo. Procrastinated translating for so so long, reading someone else's translate notes actually encouraged me to get my butt up and work on a chapter lololol I'll be trying to restock my chapters to prevent and chance of future delays now! Also discovered the site MDBG which had honestly been a blessing for translating wowza!! I've also decided to rename Third Fatty to his name in piyin Sanpang so I need to go back and edit the name in previous chapters as well as some name and school term inconsistencies wuwuwwuwu, what I get for being lazy. Fushuwang has some pretty cute sounding BL raws ahhh might just translate one so I can read it as a side project and maybe? possibly? upload it on to this site and NU who knows... Anyway, stay safe guys and if all goes well see you next week ^^Support the author here