Chapter 14

“We were the ones who stabbed him, but you were the ones who caused it. Let’s see what to do about this matter.” Yang Lei opened his mouth first.

“Xiao Wu first blew the whistle and brought people to surround them, but he didn’t strike towards the critical places. Your brothers must all have superficial wounds. I’ll pay for his medical fees, but I must be given an explanation,” Fang Yu said slowly.

According to the order of the negotiation, both sides had to make clear the other side’s responsibility, showing that the wrong wasn’t entirely one’s own, before the talks could continue.

“What explanation do you want.” Yang Lei didn’t at all wish that the one sitting across from him was Fang Yu.

“Let’s pay an amount.” In the countless times Fang Yu had negotiated, this time, he had the fewest words.

“We will take responsibility for the stab that Xiao Wu suffered. But your people went to get payback for the stab, forcing Chuan-zi to jump out of the building. How will this bill be calculated?”

Without waiting for Fang Yu to open his mouth, the brother standing behind Fang Yu, who was closest to Xiao Wu, couldn’t bear it anymore.

“He fucking deserved it! Xiao Wu nearly died! Breaking one of his legs was going easy on him!”

He knew about Fang Yu and Yang Lei’s friendship. He was afraid that Fang Yu would let the other off.

Yang Lei was already in a very bad mood, holding in the anger he felt on Chuan-zi’s behalf. The person he had to face in the negotiation was Fang Yu, towards whom he had complicated feelings. He was already upset. Now that he heard these words, he slowly raised his eyes, staring at the person who spoke.

His eyes made the person’s back cold.

“Is there a fucking place for you to speak here?” Yang Lei said.

“…” That person couldn’t help but avoid his eyes.

Very few people could be unafraid when they saw Yang Lei’s expression of authoritative eyes and a cold face. Usually, Yang Lei was talkative and loved laughing, was bright and easy going, and never became unfriendly no matter how one joked. But the moment he encountered Jianghu’s matters, Yang Lei wasn’t at all a pushover. What kind of person was Yang Lei? Injuring countless people with his hands, definitely injuring someone if he made a move, and a cruel master who could shoot at someone’s main artery without blinking. When his face darkened, he wasn’t the usual Yang Lei, but the gangdom’s fighter Yang Lei. There was an innate difference between the Yang Leis of these two scenarios. In this respect, Fang Yu was also the same.

Fang Yu glanced at that person. That person stopped speaking.

“We accept this bill. Pay the amount that should be paid. Let’s both declare an amount,” Fang Yu said.

Fang Yu first declared an amount, and Yang Lei declared the amount they would give. They both didn’t have objections to the amount. The negotiation was settled.

If any person at the scene of today’s negotiation were changed, there wouldn’t be this situation. It wasn’t possible that both sides would settle the compensation sum this quickly and calmly, without even bargaining. The amounts of money both sides gave out, no matter privately or personally, were all sincere enough, respectable, and sufficient to shut everyone’s mouth. It even made the most stubborn and angry subordinates incapable of finding fault and unable to say anything.

Both leaders, who on the surface were in direct opposition, were able to spontaneously compromise.

No one wanted to make it difficult for the other. They would rather lose their own face so the other person would be able to provide a satisfactory explanation to their brothers, without embarrassment.

In those years, when the gangdom resolved such disputes between little brothers, the amount of compensation represented not money, but reputation. It wasn’t that they couldn’t pay this amount, but it was that they couldn’t extinguish their own ambitions to grow the others’ influence. So in these similar negotiations where both sides were evenly matched, it was never this fast, this easy, and this bloodless. In the end, if it had not developed into an even more vicious fight, the conflict would have escalated until neither side would give in. Finally, they would have to call on their own Jianghu bosses to personally come forward to solve the problem.

So, Fang Yu and Yang Lei’s negotiation nearly made a record of being the shortest in the Jianghu gangdom history.

The brothers behind both people were all dumbfounded. They had never seen them so accommodating at the negotiation table.

When they finished discussing, both parties stood up to leave. It wasn’t known whether it was intentional or unintentional, but when someone stood up, they knocked over the glass cup on the table. The cup fell onto the floor with a “pa” and broke.

The loud sound of the cup shattering was like throwing a hand grenade, blowing up the previous calmness of the negotiation.

Hearing the noise next door, the little brothers who were already waiting in the left and right rooms all rushed out, as though they had heard a starting pistol.

It was a convention that when the negotiation broke down, smashing a cup or smashing something else to make noise was a signal indicating that the discussion had failed. So the little brothers in rooms on both sides, who didn’t know how the negotiation was progressing, thought this was a signal to come out and cut people. They all rushed out at once, each wielding pipe forks, machetes, and steel rods. When they saw each other in the corridor, they fought without speaking a word. Twenty or thirty people were stuck in the crowded corridor, hacking at each other. The situation instantly became chaotic.

These gangsters, who were less than twenty years old, all had restless blood in their veins. Their bodies were filled with energy and hot-blood without anywhere to vent it. Every day, they found all kinds of reasons to fight and blow off steam. They didn’t even need a gang fight as an excuse to start fighting, much less a situation like this one. Each one wanted to show off their bravery and desperation in front of the big brothers. Furthermore, there were truly some of Xiao Wu and Chuan-zi’s close brothers among them, who had come to let out their anger from the start.

The corridor was too crowded, and people all crowded into the large room that Yang Lei and Fang Yu were in.

“Stop fighting! The discussion didn’t fail!” Yang Lei’s people were shouting to stop.

“Misunderstanding! Everyone stop!” Fang Yu’s people were also shouting.

But this crowd, who had gotten fired up and were screaming to fight, were unable to hear them. They were still fighting, and the situation would soon go out of control.

“No one fucking move!”

Fang Yu’s one yell ended all the commotion.

An Auto-5 was slapped onto the center of the table.

Seeing the ice-cold object on the table, no one moved. Both sides stopped.

Everyone was looking at Fang Yu. No one dared to move again.

A scene that had originally developed into an irremediable fight was extinguished instantly.

“Have you finished venting your anger? Have you fought enough? Still want to fight?” Yang Lei walked in front of his own group of courageous but brainless little brothers, scanning each of their faces.

The little brothers all blankly lowered their heads, scared of angering Yang Lei again.

“Today this matter is over! If anyone looks for trouble again, then they are going up against me, Yang Lei.”

Yang Lei enunciated each word to his subordinates.

With Fang Yu’s one look, everyone backed away. A path was made in the crowded corridor.

“Go!”

Yang Lei led his people away.

That night, Fang Yu called Yang Lei.

In those years, there were no cell phones. There weren’t even pagers yet. Fang Yu made his call to Yang Lei’s house, and he had called the military line.

Yang Lei lived in the military district. The military phone line in his house was confidential. Few people outside knew Yang Lei’s military line number.

Yang Lei had told Fang Yu, if there was nothing important, don’t call this number. So Fang Yu had never called it.

“…” Yang Lei just happened to be home. Hearing Fang Yu’s voice, he was somewhat silent.

“Are you free at night? Come over to my house,” Fang Yu said.

“Did something happen?” Yang Lei didn’t know what to say.

“If there’s nothing, then I can’t visit you?”

“…”

“Are we brothers or not?” Fang Yu suddenly asked.

“…We are.”

“If we are, then come over. I’m waiting.”

Fang Yu hung up the phone.

Yang Lei walked into Fang Yu’s eighth floor house. He hadn’t come for several weeks, but as he went up to the second-floor terrace and up to the old-fashioned corridor of the house, Yang Lei felt a little impatient.

He already liked this place, whether it was this spacious terrace or Fang Yu’s room. He had passed by the farmer’s market downstairs several times, hesitated for a long time, but didn’t come up.

When he passed by, he still looked up at Fang Yu’s high balcony, thinking whether or not he could just happen to see a part of Fang Yu’s head.

All in all, Yang Lei felt that he really had a problem.

Fang Yu opened the door, wearing a form-fitting white undershirt, looking fresh and handsome.

“You came?”

Fang Yu casually greeted him, like Yang Lei had been here yesterday, as if they hadn’t negotiated in the KTV room that day.

Several plates of cooked vegetables were placed on the table in the small living room, and there was a case of beer on the floor, of which half the case remained.

Fang Yu took out two bottles of beer and deftly opened them.

“Did you eat? Eat with me.”

Yang Lei walked into the kitchen with practiced ease, took out two bowls from the cupboard, and rinsed them in hot water. He took out two pairs of chopsticks from the chopsticks cup next to the cupboard and a ladle from the bottom drawer, and rinsed all of them in hot water.

These were things that he often did before when he came over often. He was already as familiar with Fang Yu’s house as he was with his own. He could reach out a hand and find where things were placed, knowing their position even better than Fang Yu.

Fang Yu looked at Yang Lei’s smooth actions, his eyes crinkling. Yang Lei turned around and saw Fang Yu staring at him, a smile at the edges of his lips, and he also couldn’t hold back his smile.

“What are you smiling about?” he asked Fang Yu.

“You’re finding things quite easily. I even thought I went into the wrong door, that I went to your house,” Fang Yu said.

“Next time, give me a pair of keys too. I come over often anyways. It’s no different from my house,” Yang Lei joked. But when he finished speaking, he remembered that he already hadn’t come in a long time.

He was a little awkwardly silent.

“…” Fang Yu also didn’t speak.

“Drink,” Fang Yu said.

They ate and drank, chatting about some insignificant things.

The television program was cheerful and very lively, and the weather was still hot, the autumn temperature was still hot. The ceiling fan hanging in the living room rotated and whirred. The shadow of the ceiling fan rotating made their faces alternate between light and dark.

After Fang Yu drank a bottle of beer, he switched to baijiu, saying that he craved wine.

When they had just about finished eating and drinking, no one cleaned the bowls and dishes all stacked on the table. They sat there.

“Have you been avoiding me recently?” Fang Yu said.

Yang Lei knew this was coming.

“…No.” His tone was vague.

“That day Xiao Wu called people, I was outside. I really didn’t know about this. I didn’t call those people. I only knew after the incident that they surrounded Chuan-zi.”

“I know it wasn’t you.” Yang Lei had long known. That day, after he asked carefully, he knew that the more than 20 people were all Hua Mao’s subordinates. The person Xiao Wu reached on the phone was not Fang Yu, but Hua Mao.

“No matter what, Xiao Wu instigated this matter. He was immature, but he also learned a lesson. Don’t worry about Chuan-zi. I guarantee that no one will trouble him again.

“Forget about that. It wasn’t because of that matter.” Yang Lei was troubled. He knew that Fang Yu had misunderstood. The trouble in his heart wasn’t that at all.

“Then what was it for?” Fang Yu stared at Yang Lei.

Being stared at by Fang Yu like this, Yang Lei was even more guilty.

“I…” Yang Lei surely couldn’t say, Because I’m thinking of you in my wet dreams!

“…I wasn’t avoiding you. I was just busy, nothing else. Really.”

“Don’t speak nonsense!”

Fang Yu was angry.

“I called you here today, so that you can say what’s on your mind. If I was lacking somewhere, say it! No matter where I’m lacking, I can’t be lacking towards my brother! You suddenly avoided me. Something must have happened!”

Fang Yu was also in a bad mood.

Fang Yu was someone who really valued relationships. He didn’t really express his joy or anger towards a person, but he truly liked Yang Lei. During this period of interacting with Yang Lei, he had long regarded Yang Lei as his own people. Towards Yang Lei’s sudden distancing, Fang Yu could only think that there was some misunderstanding between them.

“You’re not lacking. I’m convinced by your conduct,” Yang Lei said quietly. He drank a mouthful of wine. The wine was a little bitter, carrying dejection.

“…” Fang Yu also took a sip of the baijiu in his cup.

“Yang Lei, although I have many brothers, there are only a few with whom I can say the things on my heart. You are one.” Fang Yu was a little drunk, and his voice was heavy.

“You helped Da Hu’s mother. I saw all of it.” Fang Yu drank wine again.

That night on the terrace, after Fang Yu told Yang Lei about Da Hu’s story, Yang Lei saw the old lady selling melon seeds several times when he left Fang Yu’s house. He took out all the money in his pocket and bought all of the seeds.

Once, when he arrived at Fang Yu’s house, he bought a chair with a back from across the street, replacing the old lady’s unsteady little stool.

He did these things along the way. He had never mentioned them to Fang Yu.

They both drank wine, drinking more and more. Yang Lei also drank baijiu.

Fang Yu had drunk too much. His eyes started to become unclear. He started saying the things in his heart.

“In my heart, I… acknowledge you,” Fang Yu said, his eyes looking straight at Yang Lei.

“You and I… already have feelings,” Fang Yu said, having drunk a lot of wine again.

Yang Lei’s whole heart was swelling, and his eyes were red from drinking. His chest rose and fell, staring hard at Fang Yu who was also drunk.

“In my heart, you… are different!” Yang Lei nearly screamed this sentence.

“I acknowledge you. I only acknowledge you!” Yang Lei felt that his eyes were swollen. There was no one to whom he could talk about his anguish and worry during this time, nowhere to vent. He didn’t want to avoid Fang Yu. He wanted to be with Fang Yu every day like before!

“I really…” After drinking, Yang Lei’s heart was filled with emotion. He couldn’t at all hold back the words in his heart. He had many words that he wanted to push out, that he wanted to express to Fang Yu. Fang Yu had already fallen over onto the sofa on one side, drowsily about to fall asleep.

“I just love being together with you!” Yang Lei shouted rashly, and fell over next to Fang Yu, lying on top of Fang Yu.

“Fang Yu!” He shook Fang Yu. Fang Yu was spaced out. He didn’t react.

“Say, do I fucking… have a problem?” Yang Lei didn’t even know what he was saying.

“…I really always think about you!” Yang Lei dejectedly shouted, hugging Fang Yu. He lay on top of Fang Yu, placing his head on Fang Yu’s chest, and fell asleep…