Saving The Tragic AdonisCh28 - Bro, Can You Help Me Out?

After flattering and coaxing Mrs. Cai and Papa Shu for a bit, Shu Ning finally managed to convince them to let him go to Beijing with Wang Shenshen.

However, Mrs. Cai first gave Wang Shenshen a call in order to make sure everything Shu Ning said was true. jBN 0U

After Wang Shenshen gave her the phone number belonging to his “dad”, she made another phone call to Wang Shenshen’s dad.

“Hello? Who is this?” A middle-aged man’s voice rang out from the phone.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Mrs. Cai said, “Hi, this is Shu Ning’s mother.”

“Oh, Shu Ning, he must be the classmate that Wang Shenshen hangs out with! Hello, hello!” the man said enthusiastically. Qmnsih

“I heard that you’re going to Beijing on a business trip?”

“Yes, it just so happened to be during winter break, so I was going to take my son with me to have some fun. I heard that Shu Ning also wants to go to Beijing, so why not let the two kids go together?”

“I did plan on taking him there myself, but we’ve been very busy lately so we couldn’t make the time. The kid’s been acting up a lot lately, always whining about wanting to go to Beijing…” Mrs. Cai gave Shu Ning a glare.

Shu Ning secretly stuck out his tongue.

Fs2gv4

Mrs. Cai continued to complain for a bit before she finally started winding down. “…Anyway, I’ll have to trouble you to keep an eye on him!”

“It’s no trouble, no trouble at all. We’re all headed to the same place after all.”

The two happily exchanged pleasantries for quite a bit, and Shu Ning’s trip to Beijing was decided just like that.

After Mrs. Cai finished the call, Shu Ning immediately jumped to her side and stretched out a hand. He said, “Cai Cai, give me the household register!” oUw1Dn

“Huh!” Ms. Cai slapped his grubby little hands aside. “That’s not something for you to hold onto!”

Shu Ning didn’t let the matter go. “I don’t have an ID card, so I’m obviously going to need the household register. Don’t worry, Cai Cai. I’ll make a copy at the police station first, so I won’t lose the original copy.”

“Oho, you really thought it through, haven’t you? How long have you been planning this?”

Shu Ning replied, “Isn’t it obvious? I told you a long time ago that I wanted to go to Beijing. Don’t worry, Cai Cai. Your son is super, super smart. I already prepared everything.” aIXQWB

Mrs. Cai accompanied him to make a copy of the household register. Then, she bought a lot of travel items for him before taking him home. It was winter vacation and the Spring Festival was also coming up soon. Plane ticket prices had already soared into the stratosphere, and every available train ticket had already been swept clean.

When Shu Ning checked his balance on his phone, there was only a couple thousand yuan left. Shu Ning still had things to buy for the villain and travel fees to consider, so he gritted his teeth and settled on a cheaper red-eye flight. It would leave at one in the morning.

He didn’t have the guts to tell Cai Qin the truth, so he lied and said the flight was at six in the afternoon.

Before leaving, he made a visit to the supermarket to do some shopping. Considering that he wouldn’t be able to buy things for the villain during Chinese New Year, Shu Ning decided to buy some sausages and snacks, all of which were popular over the holidays. Then, he handed them all off to Zhou Juan. 0hNPcG

After another day passed, he left with his suitcase at four in the afternoon. After all, he had already announced that his flight was at six. There was nothing he could do but leave earlier. Cai Qin and Papa Shu were both too busy to send him off, so Shu Ning made his escape while he still could.

He dragged his suitcase and wandered around the streets near the airport. He picked a restaurant that seemed pretty nice and stopped for dinner. While he was eating, a burst of laughter suddenly erupted from not too far away.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Happy birthday!”

A couple of students were laughing and cheering, celebrating with each other. There was a birthday cake placed on the table of their booth. zHdP9K

Shu Ning was eating twice-cooked pork. He suddenly started wondering when was the little villain’s birthday?

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Llr ylgatvjs kjr mbwlcu eq gluta joafg atf tbilvjsr. Qjr atf nliijlc’r ylgatvjs yfobgf bg joafg tlr?

Ktf ilaaif nliijlc’r ylgatvjs kjr cfnfg vfrmglyfv lc atf ybbx. Snfc lo la kjr, ktb kbeiv qjs jaafcalbc ab j nliijlc’r ylgatvjs? Vte Rlcu revvfcis gfwfwyfgfv atja tf tjv cfnfg ybatfgfv ab qjs jaafcalbc ab atf nliijlc’r ylgatvjs flatfg.

He thought about it for a bit. Then, he sent Zhou Juan a WeChat message. zykuIj

[When is Yin Mingzheng’s birthday?]

Once his birthday rolled around, Shu Ning needed to prepare a present and brush up the villain’s favorability.

Zhou Juan quickly replied: [January 10th.]

“Huh?” Shu Ning looked at the message and cursed internally. mNsYRg

January 10th had already passed a long time ago. He opened the calendar on his cell phone and realized that January 10th was almost half a month ago.

Wait, January 10th?

Shu Ning remembered something and found a screenshot in his photo album.

“…On the morning of January 10th, there was a murder incident at Lanzhou Hospital…” sokq2j

Holy shit!

That was the day that Yin Qiang killed Chen Hui!

This…

Under those circumstances, Zhou Juan definitely wouldn’t have been able to celebrate the villain’s birthday with him. There very well may have been media personnel harassing them as well. ZJdG5V

Shu Ning silently sighed.

The little villain’s birthday was over. What should he do?

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If he wished him happy birthday now, wouldn’t it seem like a bit of an afterthought? After all, it’s almost been half a month already.

Shu Ning put his phone on the table and continued to spoon his food into his mouth. He kept eating bite after bite, but he still felt a little uncomfortable in his heart. Z4d89

Wouldn’t the villain feel upset if no one wished him a happy birthday?

He picked up the phone again and hesitated for a while. Finally, he carefully picked out Yin Mingzheng’s name from their class group chat and clicked on it. Then, he sent a “Happy birthday”.

Yin Mingzheng rarely spoke in the group chat. If it wasn’t for the occasional homework assignment or announcement, he probably wouldn’t check the group chat at all. He was like a hermit. Others rejected him, and he rejected others.

The villain’s profile picture was gray. He definitely wasn’t online. D26Vkz

Shu Ning didn’t know whether or not he would see it.

If he had known about the villain’s birthday, he would have definitely given him a big surprise. Imagine how much favorability he could have earned! He definitely would’ve been able to add the villain’s WeChat and QQ! Unlike now, he didn’t even know the villain’s cell phone number.

Shu Ning didn’t know when he’d be able to hold hands with the villain…no, that’s not right, when he’d be able to make friends with the villain.

Missing the villain’s birthday felt like losing the lottery. Shu Ning was so annoyed that he didn’t even feel like eating anymore. He paid the bill and dejectedly headed into the airport. N9PpC4

After struggling with airport check in procedures, Shu Ning found a leather sofa and plopped down. Before going to sleep, he set an alarm on his phone. He also checked QQ one last time, not really expecting anything. Then, he immediately sat up in surprise—the little villain replied to him!

[Thanks.]

This one word was enough to fill Shu Ning with energy. The villain actually said thank you! Ah, it sure wasn’t easy.

He felt like a cat owner whose cat was finally letting him pet its belly. His hard work and efforts were finally paying off. AbKS1X

His baby was so good.

What a good son. Wait for Daddy to help you get your identity back. I’ll make sure you live the life you were always meant to have!

Shu Ning put on a sleep mask and fell asleep against the sofa.

There weren’t a lot of customers in the roast chicken restaurant at four in the afternoon. The employees leisurely sat around at a table and chatted, smiling at the pretty boy that was talking to the boss. OTbJUK

“How old are you?” The restaurant owner looked Yin Mingzheng up and down critically.

Yin Mingzheng quietly said, “Sixteen.”

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“Sixteen? You want a job over winter vacation?” The restaurant owner said, “Alright. The pay is ten yuan an hour. You good with that?”

Yin Mingzheng asked, “Could you make it a little higher? s0oBLy

“Ten yuan is already a very fair wage!” The stout restaurant owner shook his head. “Kids these days don’t know what it means to work hard. Do you think it’s that easy to earn money? Look around and you’ll see. A lot of people only earn ¥2,000 a month. Ten yuan an hour is already a really good wage.”

Yin Mingzheng was silent for a moment. Then, he raised his head. His eyes were deep and dark. “Sir, could I get a job that pays a little more? I have some money that I need to pay back as soon as possible.”

“A job that pays more?” The boss laughed. He was very disdainful of this kid who didn’t know his limits. “Sure, if we’re talking about a decent job, programmers can earn tens of thousands of yuan a month. If you do business, you can earn hundreds of thousands or even a million in a good year. If you do finance, you can earn tens of thousands of yuan in a month. If it’s stocks, you can also earn hundreds of thousands or millions…you can try it for yourself, I guess.”

“There are also those indecent jobs that can make you a lot of money. The good-looking men and women in the clubs can earn ¥10,000 in a single night. Your looks aren’t bad. You might be able to earn that much if you accompany a rich woman…” IYs8lW

Yin Mingzheng interrupted him. “I want a proper job.”

The employees sitting around the table laughed.

“A proper job?” The boss also laughed, like he was teasing a little kitten. “The jobs with high wages are the ones I mentioned earlier. However, most of them require an education and personal connections. Do you have any?”

Yin Mingzheng shook his head. “Then, what are the high-paying jobs that don’t require any of that?” dRlbkH

The employees burst out laughing again.

The boss grinned and said, “Sure, sure, sure. You can open your own business, try your hand in the stock market, or win the lottery…which one are you gonna choose?”

Yin Mingzheng nodded. “Thank you.”

He silently left the roast chicken restaurant. The sound of laughter echoed out from behind him. ZubMew

“What’s with kids these days? They have their eyes in the sky but no skills to back it up! He wants a high-paying job right off the bat hahaha!”

This was the fifth place Yin Mingzheng had visited. Shops, restaurants, cleaning businesses…the wages were all very low. Plus, they noticed that he was young and pushed the wages even lower.

It would take him years to pay back the money at that rate.

Programming, stocks, finance… AibChq

Yin Mingzheng’s face revealed a pensive expression.

He took the bus to the city library. Then, he found some books on programming, settled down in a seat, and slowly started reading.

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Slowly, night began to fall as he immersed himself in his reading. He pulled out his phone to make a few online searches. Then, he opened up QQ to see if the homeroom teacher sent any announcements.

An unfamiliar shiitake mushroom avatar sent him a message. 6p9A1a

Yin Mingzheng stared blankly for a moment. Then, he clicked on the shiitake mushroom avatar.

[Happy birthday.]

Yin Mingzheng stared at those two words and left the chat window. Then, he clicked into the class group chat and searched for the shiitake mushroom avatar. Next to the avatar, the name printed was [Shu Ning].

Yin Mingzheng’s lips gradually curved into a smile, and he clicked on the shiitake mushroom. He typed out a message, but, then, he deleted it. Finally, he replied with: [Thank you.] Yin Mingzheng quickly glanced at the other messages in the class group chat before finally exiting the chat room. His face had restored its blank expression. He lowered his head and continued to read. sl1Ttx

He stayed in the library until seven o’clock. When he got home, he tied an apron around his waist and started to cook. He waited for Zhou Juan to come home so they could eat together. After eating dinner, washing the dishes, and cleaning up the house, he went back to his room and opened up his laptop. He spent about ten yuan on Taobao to buy an online programming course. Then, he set the video speed to two times normal speed.

Yin Mingzheng fixed his eyes on the screen, unblinking. He kept watching until half past eleven before he finally went to bed.

The next day, he went to the library again to continue reading. He quietly sat in there for an entire day, only leaving at noon to eat lunch. Zhou Juan was still giving him an allowance of two hundred yuan per week. For this, he was grateful.

Now that Yin Qiang wasn’t around, Zhou Juan didn’t need to hand over all of her money to him. They had a lot more wiggle room when it came to money now. L7V69q

After lunch, he continued to stay in the library, a high stack of books next to him.

He repeated this routine for several days.

“Ah! Damn it!” Sitting across from Yin Mingzheng, a man wearing glasses kept grabbing at his hair, looking incredibly frustrated. He had been cursing under his breath for a long time. He ket muttering every now and then, irritating the people around him.

Yin Mingzheng frowned. He stood up and walked past the man to go to the bathroom. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a dense wall of code on the man’s computer screen. PdWwbp

After returning from the bathroom, Yin Mingzheng walked over to the man and saw that he was still stuck at the same place as earlier.

“Where did I go wrong…” He looked as if he was about to pull all his hair out.

Yin Mingzheng stared for a moment. Then, he pointed to a spot on the screen and quietly left.

The man pushed up his glasses and leaned over to take a look. “Crap! How did I mess up something so simple?!” og0VxK

He looked up. “Thank you, b…”

The word “boss” got stuck in his throat when he saw that Yin Mingzheng was just a teenager. He quickly changed what he was saying to “bro”.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Yin Mingzheng quietly returned to seat and went back to reading.

The man continued tapping at the keyboard. After a while, he stopped and started pulling at his hair again. “No, that’s not right. It’s still not right.” BT6gd9

He stretched out his head and secretly observed Yin Mingzheng for a moment. Then, he glanced at the mountains of programming books next to him and said in a low voice, “Bro, do you think you could help me out again?”

Translator's Note

Hukou is a system of household registration used in mainland China. The system itself is more properly called “huji”, and has origins in ancient China; hukou is the registration of an individual in the system.

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19 comments

  1. So this is the start of his awesome job as programmer and businessman. Rooting for him that everything works out fine. 😄