Just in Time Chapter 16
Translated by Sylver (ko-fi)
Chapter 16: Bad
Yi Chenliang only had two or three pieces of clothing in total. This white short-sleeved shirt he’s wearing had already turned a bit yellow and couldn’t be washed clean anymore. There were a few small holes around the collar. He usually only wore this at home, but he put it on just now when Yun Fang handed it to him.
But now, looking at the clean and brand-new light blue shirt on Yun Fang, he suddenly felt a bit of indescribable embarrassment.
“Where do you want to eat?” Yi Chenliang subtly averted his gaze.
“There’s a barbecue restaurant on Wufu Street, let’s go there.” Yun Fang was a bit thirsty and was holding a glass intending to drink water.
“Hey—” Yi Chenliang pointed at the glass, “That’s the one I use for drinking water.”
“It’s okay, I don’t mind.” Yun Fang drank more than half of the water in the glass, saw Yi Chenliang staring at him, and thought he’s also thirsty, “Do you want a drink?”
Yi Chenliang was almost exasperated by him, “I didn’t wash it.”
“It’s okay, it looks quite clean—” Yun Fang lowered his head to take a closer look at the glass, only to find that this transparent glass was not so transparent anymore. “How long since you last washed it?”
“About seven or eight days.” Yi Chenliang pointed to the water cup with a lid on the bedside, “I’ve been using the one from school.”
Yun Fang calmly put down the cup, his expression didn’t fluctuate at all, “Let’s go, let’s go eat grilled lamb skewers.”
He definitely wouldn’t lose his temper and turn Yi Chenliang into skewers.
Yun Fang silently chanted ‘I am a good person’ three times in his heart.
The midday sun was very poisonous, and the two of them walked for a while before they reached the bus stop. Yi Chenliang looked up to see which buses could go to Wufu Street, and then heard Yun Fang ask him, “Are you hot?”
“A bit.” Yi Chenliang glanced at his face, which had turned a bit red from the sun, “You go stand under the shade of the tree for a while, I’ll call you when the bus comes.”
Yun Fang nodded, but he didn't go to stand under the tree. Instead, he went to a small supermarket not far away. The old man was lying on a rocking chair, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan.
“Uncle, give me two ice creams.” Yun Fang said.
“Pick one yourself.” The old man was drowsy, his eyes not even open.
The refrigerator was still covered with a small quilt. Yun Fang lifted the refrigerator lid and took out two ice creams, “Two yuan?”
“Mm.” The old man lifted his eyelids to look at the two yuan in his hand, “Just put the money in the box at the back.”
Yun Fang paid the money and walked towards the bus stop with the ice cream. The ice cream was white chocolate on the outside, sprinkled with sesame seeds. He always liked to eat that layer, but later this brand of ice cream was almost unavailable.
“Here.” Yun Fang handed the ice cream in his hand to Yi Chenliang.
Yi Chenliang took it and tore open the packaging bag, “You also like to eat this?”
Yun Fang nodded, “The chocolate on the outside is delicious.”
Yi Chenliang deeply agreed, so the two of them squatted in the thin shadow of the bus stop and started eating ice cream. As a result, they had only taken a few bites when the bus slowly came.
“Get on the bus.” Yi Chenliang stood up and got on the bus first, and paid the fare for Yun Fang as well.
In view of the fare, Yun Fang kindly did not snatch his exclusive seat this time and sat in the seat next to him, concentrating on eating ice cream.
“Didn’t you eat roast duck?” Yi Chenliang suddenly asked.
Yun Fang bit the ice cream stick and mumbled unclearly, “The roast duck doesn’t taste good.”
Looking at the faces of Li Kai and Sun Yuan, it really upset his stomach.
“The duck in his house is indeed not fresh.” Yi Chenliang said, “In the future, don’t go to his house to eat.”
“Have you considered the feelings of the duck boss when you say this?” Yun Fang couldn’t help but laugh.
“The duck boss is not worthy.” Yi Chenliang thought of the mean big-bellied boss of the roast duck shop and couldn’t help but laugh. After laughing for a while, he suddenly turned his head to look at Yun Fang, “How do you know I call the boss duck boss?”
This was clearly the nickname he gave to the black-hearted boss, and he had never told anyone.
Yun Fang pretended to be calm and pushed his glasses, and confidently asked him back, “If the boss of the roast duck shop is not called the duck boss, is he called the chicken boss?”
Yi Chenliang was unable to refute for a while, but always felt that something was not quite right.
“Have you finished your homework?” Yun Fang saw his puzzled expression and decisively changed the subject.
Although it was abrupt, it was very effective. Yi Chenliang’s expression obviously stiffened.
“Two unit test papers for math, a big newspaper for English, and the exercises in the back of the physics and chemistry workbook are done wherever you learn.” Yun Fang was very considerate, “Because you didn’t come on Friday, so there is also extra homework for Friday, I brought it back for you, go to my house to get it after dinner.”
Yi Chenliang stared at him dryly, “I asked for leave from the head teacher.”
“Who says you can skip homework if you ask for leave?” Yun Fang pretended to be surprised, “Did Old Fang tell you?”
“…No.” Yi Chenliang squeezed out two words from his teeth.
What chicken boss and duck boss had long been thrown behind his head, Yi Chenliang looked at Yun Fang in front of him, just wanting to throw him out of the window!
Yun Fang showed a kind smile, “You’re welcome.”
Wu City was not particularly large, Wufu Street could be regarded as the busiest commercial street in the city, with shops on both sides of the road, everything to eat, drink and play, and a large clothing city. Today was just Saturday, and the street was bustling with people.
As soon as Yun Fang got off the bus, he was hit by a wave of heat, and the noisy voices shook his head.
Yi Chenliang usually didn’t come to this kind of place, he stood next to Yun Fang uncomfortably, and asked somewhat blankly, “Where’s the lamb skewers?”
Yun Fang hadn’t returned to Wu City for over a decade. At that time, he had just barely recalled the family barbecue shop from his memory, subconsciously thinking it was on Wufu Street, and so he brought Yi Chenliang over.
At this moment, Yun Fang seemed to have transformed into an old father who had promised to take his son to eat lamb skewers but couldn’t find the place, and touched his nose somewhat awkwardly, “It should… be around here.”
There were quite a few people on the street, and the two of them hadn’t walked for long before they were pushed apart several times. A child even bumped headfirst into his arm wrapped in gauze.
Yi Chenliang winced in pain, but the child instead started crying loudly. Yi Chenliang stood still, not daring to move.
“Hey, what’s the matter with you walking?” The child’s mother came over with the freshly received roasted chestnuts and started scolding Yi Chenliang fiercely. “Can’t you see such a big child?”
Yun Fang walked a few steps before realizing that Yi Chenliang hadn’t followed. Hearing the child’s crying, he turned his head and saw Yi Chenliang standing there helplessly, being scolded with a bewildered look on his face.
“Yi Chenliang!” Yun Fang squeezed through the people in front and walked over, nervously lifting his arm, “Was it hit?”
“It’s okay.” Yi Chenliang shook his head somewhat awkwardly, “Let’s go.”
“Hey, you hit someone and you want to leave?” The woman holding the child wanted to stop him with a displeased look on her face.
Yun Fang’s face instantly turned cold, and he instinctively shielded Yi Chenliang behind him, saying in a deep voice, “It’s you who didn’t watch your child, let him hit my family’s child, my family’s child’s arm wound has been hit and is bleeding, shall we go to the hospital to check?”
When Yun Fang’s face was stern, his eyes were dark and fierce, and his whole person was imposing. The child had stopped crying, but when he saw him like this, he was directly scared and started crying wildly, kicking his legs non-stop.
The woman was startled. Although the other party looked gentle and not very old, she didn’t know why his fierce appearance made her legs weak.
This person doesn’t look like a good person at first glance, maybe he has even killed someone.
She quickly held the crying child and hurriedly left, even a bit like fleeing in panic.
“Yun Fang?” Yi Chenliang called out to him.
Yun Fang suddenly came back to his senses, lowered his head to look at his forearm, “Did it hurt from collision?”
“It’s okay.” Yi Chenliang felt a bit embarrassed and somewhat lost face. It was okay for him to fight with people, but when faced with a crying child and an unreasonable middle-aged woman, he couldn’t use any tricks.
He couldn’t fight, and he couldn’t outtalk them, which was quite frustrating.
“You looked quite intimidating just now.” Yi Chenliang was pulled by his wrist and walked forward. He wanted to pull his wrist out, but Yun Fang held it tightly, so he found something to say, “Did you learn it from TV?”
“What?” Yun Fang turned his head to look at him in confusion, with an innocent and harmless face, a 24K purebred good kid.
Yi Chenliang: “…Nothing.”
Although Yun Fang just now looked exactly like the ruthless and vicious big villain who killed without blinking an eye in TV dramas, that should just be his illusion.
But in fact, Yun Fang was really a bit angry just now, only this anger was mixed with various complex emotions such as annoyance and confusion.
When he first returned here and became another person, he didn’t intend to interfere with Yi Chenliang’s affairs. Many bad things had already happened in his memory, and whether he changed them or not didn’t mean much to him, so at first, he didn’t even intend to stop Yi Chenliang from stabbing someone.
At that time, he was sitting in the cafeteria of No.1 High School, eating a slightly salty egg fried rice, and simply recalling the past - accidentally killing someone, going to a juvenile detention center, continuing to fight, being bullied, bullying others, coming out of the juvenile detention center, continuing to fight, mixing in society, and then doing all kinds of evil…He suddenly lost his appetite.
God gave him a chance, and perhaps he should also give himself a chance. So he rushed out, found Yi Chenliang, and grabbed the knife that turned Yi Chenliang’s life upside down.
Even later, when he whimsically and enthusiastically wanted to pull Yi Chenliang back on the right track, he only defined it as a kind of disguised self-compensation. He pitied Yi Chenliang, or rather, he was going around in circles pitying himself. He so forcefully interfered in Yi Chenliang’s life, without any explanation to Yi Chenliang, and would not get his consent, he had always been clear about his own viciousness and selfishness.
Before seeing Yi Chenliang today, he even thought it would be good to let Li Kai beat up Yi Chenliang, he should learn a lesson, after all, the other Yi Chenliang was still being beaten in the juvenile detention center at this time.
But from the moment he saw the knife wound on Yi Chenliang’s arm, everything about Li Kai and Wang Youwei was thrown behind his head, he only felt that Yi Chenliang’s wound was very painful, so painful that it made him very irritable.
So much so that just now, when he saw Yi Chenliang being bullied by a child and standing there helplessly looking silly, he already felt anger and irritability.
Yun Fang vaguely felt that something was wrong, but he just couldn’t find the reason, he could only forcefully hold Yi Chenliang’s wrist and move forward.
He noticed that Yi Chenliang wanted to struggle free, and very viciously held his wrist even tighter.
He wanted to become a good person, but deep down, he was still that vicious and selfish ‘Yi Chenliang’. Yun Fang thought somewhat darkly.
The two of them walked for a while but couldn’t find the lamb skewer shop, so they finally found a ramen shop to sit down and ordered two bowls of beef noodles.
The weather was already hot, and eating a bowl of hot soup and hot noodles was not enjoyable at all.
The fan in the shop was whirring, probably because the weather was too hot, or the noodles were really not delicious, there were only a few people scattered around.
Yi Chenliang was sweating profusely from eating, he just put down his chopsticks ready to take a tissue paper to wipe his mouth, Yun Fang handed him one, “By the way, I almost forgot to tell you something.”
Yi Chenliang took the tissue, picked up the cup to drink water, and asked without lifting his head, “What is it?”
“Wang Youwei asked Li Kai to find someone to teach you a lesson at the fertilizer factory tonight.” Yun Fang wiped his mouth leisurely.
Yi Chenliang almost sprayed the water directly onto his face.