Chapter 23: Duoyu’s Teenage Angst Literature
While his dad and Shou Jiaxun drove to wholesale fruit, Guo Duoyu inspected six apartments non-stop, selecting the most cost-effective three-bedroom unit to rent.
After repeated testing by Student Guo, it took only seven minutes to walk from their new home to the new shop.
That was quite convenient.
This made the two bosses, who were calculating accounts and counting goods far away at the wholesale market, very satisfied.
Guo Duoyu paid the rent and signed the contract but didn’t return to the fruit shop immediately. Instead, he broke precedent and spent fifty-nine yuan at a barbershop to get a cool haircut.
The new hairstyle had nothing to do with being shocking, but it was much more stylish than the round ball head his dad shaved with electric clippers.
They had originally wanted to buy a new T-shirt, but after browsing two shops on the pedestrian street and feeling the prices were high, they comforted themselves: Forget it, it’s just one night, quite expensive… can’t return it after wearing.
Reality soon verified that Guo Duoyu’s decision not to buy new clothes was wise, because while helping his dad and Shou Jiaxun set up the stall, after moving a truckload of fruit, let alone his shirt, even his pants were soaked with sweat.
While the two Omega bosses went back into the shop to wipe down and change into work uniforms, Young Master Guo stood at the entrance of the alley blowing in the draft.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t helped his dad move goods before; in fact, he did it often. But there had never been such a large volume of goods before. Usually, ten boxes were the limit, maybe twenty in peak fruit season.
The father and son would move it a bit, and it would be done in ten minutes.
A scene like today, where the minivan was almost stuffed full, was a first for Guo Duoyu after accompanying his dad to sell fruit for over ten years.
Just as Student Guo saw his body was about eighty percent dry, two middle-aged Alpha men passed by talking and laughing. They stopped just as they were about to exit the alley, peering towards the fruit shop.
They were about ten steps away from Guo Duoyu. Logically, Guo Duoyu shouldn’t have heard their whispered conversation.
But there happened to be a breeze in the alley, and Guo Duoyu stood downwind of them, so the vague dirty talk unexpectedly drilled into his ears.
One said, “I went in the middle of the night the day before yesterday and did the big one. Tonight let’s go together and do the small one too.”
The other said, “You’ve got guts, daring to play in someone’s shop alone.”
The first one looked smug. “I’ve been watching since they started renovating. Just one big and one small Omega. The other day the small one was taken away, and the big one was home alone. What wouldn’t I dare?”
Guo Duoyu ground his back molars together, slowly shuffling to the base of the wall, grabbing a brick someone had placed under a rain spout to block splashes in each hand.
The young Alpha suddenly tensed his muscles like a black panther, pushed off the ground violently, and rushed up in three steps, bam bam, smashing a brick onto each of the two scumbags’ heads.
One was smacked to the ground on the spot. The other was in slightly better shape and still had the strength to turn around and block, fighting Guo Duoyu, but got another brick to the face.
The one knocked down earlier climbed up during this time, so it became Guo Duoyu fighting two alone.
But the two thugs had lost the initiative and their morale was lower. Plus, Guo Duoyu had bricks in hand, swinging his arms wide to smash specifically at the two bastard Alphas’ faces.
After seven or eight exchanges, he actually beat the courage out of them. They retreated clumsily while shouting that they would call the police.
Guo Duoyu wanted to chase them and pin them down, but hearing them shout about police, he stopped instead, watching helplessly as the two thugs slipped away in panic before his eyes.
Two minutes later, Uncle Guo’s shout suddenly came from the entrance of the alley: “Guo Duoyu!”
Guo Duoyu turned with an iron-green face and walked out of the alley. Coming face to face with his dad, he startled him. His dad widened his eyes and scolded, “F*ck, where did you go?”
“Fighting,” Guo Duoyu muttered in a low voice, bit his lip, and stopped speaking, walking straight into the shop. Passing the entrance steps, he turned to call Shou Jiaxun, who was tying his apron: “Come in with me for a second.”
Shou Jiaxun followed him into the shop, confused. The shop had been renovated pretty much completely in the last few days; they just needed to assemble the last batch of solid wood cabinets before they could pick a lucky time for the grand opening.
The piled-up boards in the shop emitted a faint fresh smell mixed with some latex paint odor, requiring the door to be kept open for ventilation or the exhaust fan to be on to avoid harshness.
“What’s wrong?” Shou Jiaxun asked the back of Guo Duoyu’s head.
Guo Duoyu took a deep breath, keeping his back to Shou Jiaxun as he spoke, “The night before yesterday… middle of the night, where did you go?”
Shou Jiaxun was tongue-tied, turning to look at Uncle Guo who had chased them into the shop.
Uncle Guo frowned and scolded, “Guo Duoyu, speak properly! What exactly is the situation?”
Guo Duoyu breathed heavily, clearly emotional. He said, “I ran into the thug who entered the shop the night before yesterday in the alley just now… I beat him up.”
For a moment, none of the three people in the shop knew what to say next.
In the empty forty-something square meter shop, only the sound of three people panting could be heard.
After a long while, President Shou coughed twice to clear his throat and asked softly, “Did you call the police?”
Guo Duoyu didn’t answer. He suddenly turned and walked straight towards Uncle Guo, hugged his dad’s neck, and choked out a plea, “Dad, can we not do this anymore? Or I’ll drop out and work with you guys.”
Uncle Guo patted his back to comfort him. “Oh, it’s fine! Can we just forget the past? Just close up early and lock the door tight from now on! Stop making a fuss. The customer flow will start soon, and we haven’t even arranged the goods on the stall yet.”
Guo Duoyu relentlessly grabbed his dad’s shoulders and begged, “Can we just stop? We sold less before, but nothing happened! We earn more here, but there are more bad guys too!
One came that day, I met two today, and they said they were coming in together tonight, to do you and Shou Jiaxun together…”
Uncle Guo frowned and interrupted him, “You listen to their bragging!? If we lock the shop door, how do they get in? The lock is connected to an alarm, do you have any common sense?
That day was my carelessness. I should have locked the door. I was stingy, unwilling to pay for AC, thought I’d leave a crack for ventilation, and a thief took advantage.
Be careful in the future and it’ll be fine!
You’re a big tall guy, can you use your brain before speaking? Did studying make you stupid?”
Guo Duoyu’s eyes glistened with tears, corners of his mouth twitching, staring at his dad with grievance written all over his face. “We didn’t have debt before even though we were poor; lived badly but no one broke in at midnight. Dad! We are ordinary people, we can’t afford to play. We’ll pay back the money we owe slowly, I’ll go work and earn…”
He stalled here, probably realizing no one would hire a high school student, but immediately changed his thought: “I can be a professional test taker! I’ll repeat senior year a few times, surely I can pay off the debt!”
President Shou frowned slightly, his face gradually calming, stepping forward like a mediator to grab Uncle Guo’s arm. “Uncle, let Duoyu calm down. Let’s go arrange the goods first.”
“Mmhmm.” Uncle Guo walked towards the door with him.
Guo Duoyu caught up and pushed Shou Jiaxun away, grabbing back his dad, shouting sorrowfully, “Shou Jiaxun! Is there nothing more important in your heart than doing business and making money? Do you have any humanity?”
Shou Jiaxun reached out in time to support himself against the counter, steadying his body. He turned to glance at Uncle Guo, his gaze finally resting on Guo Duoyu. “Yes, making money is important. No humanity.
Making money relies on guts, on brains, not on humanity.
Guo Duoyu, I’ll only tell you once. Every bit of suffering you and your dad endured from the past until now is the suffering that the bottom layer of society deserves.
If you don’t grit your teeth and climb out yourselves, that bitterness and sorrow will follow you like a shadow forever.
Also, to me, Uncle is Uncle, you are you. My partner is Guo Ran, not you. You have no right to dictate to me.
Watch if you want, get out if you don’t.”
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