Chapter 14: I Believe She Loves Me

Around five or six in the afternoon, only four melons remained in the cart. The two brothers exchanged smiles, both feeling a sense of relief.

“Take a break. I’ll deliver these melons to Old Huang,” Wang Peng said, packing the melons into a woven sack as he approached the guardhouse door. “Uncle, these melons are for you.”

“No, no need. I still have some at home,” Huang Biao replied with a smile, waving his hand.

“Please don’t be so polite. Our field still has ten to twenty thousand jin of melons,” Wang Peng joked.

After some polite exchange, Huang Biao finally relented, locking the door behind them as they headed home. But rather than returning to his own house, he went to his son’s place—a first-floor unit in a staff housing complex.

Wang Peng saw a middle-aged couple there. The man sported a slicked-back hairstyle, resembling a leader at the workplace. The woman wore jeans, had a short bob cut, and gold-rimmed glasses, speaking with gentle refinement.

He put the melons in the storage room, greeted Huang Biao briefly, and then left without much conversation with the couple.

“Xiaowei, this child is really pitiful,” Huang Biao sighed. “His peers told me his father forced him to give his admission notice to his younger brother. When he refused, his father kicked him out. He’s selling melons just to pay for his tuition.”

Song Wei smiled. “Dad, if you have something to say, just say it.”

Huang Biao nodded. “He was the top scorer in the high school entrance exam. Your school should just waive his tuition fees to avoid losing such talent over money.”

“I can’t decide school matters alone,” Song Wei shook his head. “Dad, we can only offer him convenience—allow him to sell melons here.”

Huang Jin remarked, “Dad, favors come with strings attached. Helping him too much won’t do. Don’t worry yourself; everything depends on his own fate.”

…

Across from the People’s Market was a restaurant.

Wang Peng ordered two bowls of noodle stew with an extra five yuan for lamb. The brothers sat across from each other.

Before the noodle stew arrived, Wang Peng quietly counted his money under the table, soon bursting into laughter.

Today’s income was 206 yuan. After deducting the cost of 700 jin of melons, he netted 138 yuan.

He took out seventy yuan and placed it in the inner pocket of his waist pouch. Along with the savings from previous days, he had already gathered two hundred yuan for tuition.

The remaining sixty-plus yuan would serve as capital for business and daily expenses.

“I’ve saved enough for tuition. Let’s celebrate with a beer,” Wang Peng called to the owner. “How much is a bottle?”

“One yuan each. How many do you want?” The middle-aged owner stepped out from behind the counter to fetch the beer.

“Two bottles to start,” Wang Peng said.

The owner brought two bottles and two glass cups. The brothers downed their beers in one gulp.

---

Du Lei burped. “Tuition alone isn’t enough. You need to save for living expenses, too. Once school starts, you won’t have time to work, and no one will give you money.”

He poured himself another beer. “When school starts, you won’t be able to sell melons anymore. What will you do then?”

“Easy. Before school starts, I’ll save another six hundred yuan for living expenses. Lei, do you think six hundred yuan for a semester is enough?” Wang Peng wasn’t sure about current prices.

“Barely enough, I guess. Another round,” Du Lei raised his glass.

They downed the beer in one gulp. Wang Peng felt sore all over. “Once I finish selling your family’s melons, not only will I have enough for living expenses, I can also rent a place and buy clothes.”

There were still at least ten thousand jin of melons in the field. At a profit of two mao per jin, the total profit would be around eighteen hundred yuan.

“Alright then, wish you all the best,” Du Lei sighed and drank a large gulp of beer.

Before they finished the beer, the owner brought two bowls of noodle stew and returned to reading the newspaper.

The bowls were topped with a layer of lamb. Wang Peng fed some to the little white cat.

The cat meowed twice, finished the meat, then curled up on its master’s lap.

“Peng, when we were in the first year of middle school, Feng Lingling and I started dating. By the third year, we were boarding students. Outside the playground was a stack of wheat straw where we often met, hugging and even kissing,” Du Lei confessed.

“Wow, that’s some early romance,” Wang Peng laughed. “How old were you? You didn’t even have all your hair yet!”

“Don’t say that,” Du Lei looked dejected. “She got accepted to the Third High School and asked me to lend her money for tuition. Do you think I should help her?”

“Wait, do you have money?” Wang Peng snorted coldly. “Where do you think you’re going to get money?”

Du Lei fell silent, lowering his head to eat the noodle stew.

Ping’an County had three high schools. First High School gathered the county’s top students, while the Second and Third High Schools had poorer results.

First High School produced over a dozen students admitted to prestigious universities each year, occasionally even Peking or Tsinghua University.

Second and Third High Schools considered it a celebration if even a few students were admitted to third-tier universities.

“Let me guess,” Wang Peng stared at Du Lei’s head. “You don’t want to steal Grandpa’s money? Planning to use stolen money to pay her tuition?”

“Cough, cough…” Du Lei coughed violently, beer spraying from his nose.

He rushed outside to blow his nose, tears and saliva flowing.

After a moment, he returned and sat opposite Wang Peng. “How… how did you know?”

Wang Peng sneered. “That’s not important. What matters is you can’t steal Grandpa’s money.”

In the previous life, Du Lei stole his grandfather’s savings meant for burial, secretly took Feng Lingling to register at the Third High School. Though he saved his girlfriend’s education, it caused Grandpa a serious illness.

If Feng Lingling had been a good girl, it would have been one thing.

---

But she was a scoundrel.

In the past life, coworkers called her a “bus,” and the children she bore after marriage weren’t Du Lei’s.

“Peng, I think she loves me. She said she’ll marry me in the future. I want to help her,” Du Lei blushed, looking up at Wang Peng.

“How old is she?” Wang Peng took out paper and pen from his waist pouch.

“Sixteen. Why do you ask?” Du Lei looked at the pouch. “Can you lend me 180 yuan first? I’ll pay you back double later.”

“Nonsense! You have the nerve to borrow money from me?” Wang Peng laughed angrily. “She’s using you as a sucker, and you think I’m a sucker too?”

“You’re the nonsense!” Du Lei flushed with anger. “Do you even know her? How can you say that?”

Wang Peng moved the noodle bowl aside, picked up his pen, wrote on the paper, tore it off, and handed it to Du Lei.

The note read: Feng Lingling, come to the Sun family’s melon shed at night in Duzhuang. I’ll give you a chance to earn three hundred yuan an hour.

The Sun family’s melon shed was not far from Du Lei’s. The old Sun family’s melons were sold out, and no one stayed there at night.

Bang! Du Lei stood up abruptly, the stool beneath him falling over.

He pointed furiously at Wang Peng. “What do you mean? What do you think of her?”

The restaurant owner intervened, standing up loudly. “What are you doing? Don’t fight here!”

“Lei, put your hands down,” Wang Peng sneered. “I’m just testing her. If she passes, I’ll lend you two hundred yuan.”

He patted his waist pouch with a smile. “If she values money more than her body, you’ll see her true colors and should stay away.”

Du Lei’s face darkened, his eyes nearly shooting flames.

The owner looked nervous. “Don’t fight. If you break things, you’ll have to pay, and the police will arrest you.”

“All right, boss, enough,” Wang Peng turned to him. “We’re close friends. Why fight?”

Then he looked back at Du Lei. “Try it. No matter the outcome, you won’t lose out.”

“Enough talk. Let’s eat,” Du Lei said, eyes red.

He blinked rapidly to hold back tears and finished the remaining beer in one gulp.

Wang Peng dropped the subject, finished the meal, paid, and returned to Duzhuang. He hitched the cart and headed to the melon field to prepare stock.

Du Lei agonized at home for a long time, then bit his lip, left the house, and went to find the little boy who had helped him deliver love letters the day before.