Chapter 20 Chapter 20

The man that the quagmire sister mentioned was called Liu Mang

. More than a decade ago, he was a well-known ruffian in their hometown, who was a drunkard, a whore, a gambler, and a bad person. At that time, his father was still alive, and he borrowed a lot of money from Liu Mang and his group. Feng Ran still doesn't know the exact amount, but when his father died, he saw the IOU, the principal plus interest, which had reached 1.5 million.

1.5 million may seem insignificant to some people, but it is enough to crush Feng Ran's family.

After his father died, the family's income depended on his mother. His mother worked in a supermarket and earned 2,000 yuan a month. She paid the water, electricity, and gas bills, and was responsible for the food, drink, and tuition of the two children, leaving little.

His mother borrowed money from all relatives, and borrowed until everyone turned against her, but she only managed to collect 300,000 yuan.

At that time, Feng Ran was 16 years old, and had a vague concept of money. He lived frugally every day, hoping to share his mother's pressure.

Even so, when he was 18 years old, his mother passed away.

Feng Ran didn't hate his mother at all. He knew that she had almost no power to fight back against those hooligans. He also knew how wronged and uncomfortable his mother felt when she heard the harsh words of relatives. It was bad enough to marry a scumbag and get into a lot of trouble. She didn't need to spend the rest of her life on the debt of a scumbag.

There was a sign that his mother left.

Feng Ran got up in a hurry without eating breakfast before the alarm clock rang. He grabbed Feng Qing and rushed out - she was still in elementary school at that time - but was suddenly stopped by his mother.

His mother stuffed two boiled eggs in their pockets and gave him a few hundred yuan.

His mother was about to say something, but he didn't notice it. He was only thinking about being late.

For a long time afterwards, his mother went out early and came back late, and even didn't come back for several days. But as long as she came back, there would be eggs to eat the next morning, as well as a few hundred yuan extra.

This situation continued until the college entrance examination.

It rained heavily for two days during the college entrance examination. He returned home in the rain. His sister was sitting alone on the sofa watching TV, holding a large bucket of popcorn.

The house was unusually clean and tidy, and his mother and all her clothes were gone.

Feng Ran asked where his mother was. His sister happily said that his mother had gone to buy her favorite potato chips and would be back soon.

But she didn't come back.

When they met again, Feng Ran was already 26 years old.

In the eight or nine years since they were apart, the only thing Feng Ran regretted was that he didn't persuade his mother to take Feng Qing away. Girls who have just entered puberty instinctively need a mother more than a unkempt, burly brother.

In short, his mother left, and Liu Mang became the one he entangled with.

When a group of hooligans appeared at the door of his house with weapons and cigarettes in their mouths, shouting words like "the son pays the father's debt", Feng Ran was completely confused.

The frequent and varied harassment by a group of hooligans was like a huge dark cloud, covering Feng Ran's summer vacation after the college entrance examination.

He chose to call the police several times, but what he got in return was even more terrible revenge. After the last call to the police, he received a strange express delivery with a knife stuck in his sister's photo.

Feng Ran was scared.

All his graduation plans were ruined, and he used all his energy to fight wits and courage to prevent his sister from meeting them.

Soon, his sister realized something and asked him, "Where is Mom?"

Feng Ran couldn't answer because he didn't know the answer to this question.

Before his mother left, she left only cash, except for a gold bracelet for Feng Qing. She hid it in various ways, under Feng Ran's pillow, in the pocket of his jeans, in the drawer of his computer desk, and even in the gap of a physics book.

Three to five hundred yuan in each place.

Feng Ran didn't understand her intention. It was not until he spent all his money and panicked and rummaged through the boxes and cabinets that he realized that his mother wanted him to taste the feeling of spending all his money and teach him to spend frugally.

Finally, he found five hundred yuan in a shoe box. He thought it was the last money for a while, and spent it with fear, wishing to break every dollar into two pieces. When he had fifty left, he had to find out how to make money and tried to go out to work.

The first job was selling milk tea. He didn't dare to leave his sister alone at home, so he arranged for her to do homework and play games in the milk tea shop, and she was absolutely not allowed to leave his sight.

When he had a meager salary, even if he couldn't find the money his mother left, he didn't have to live in fear of being out of money. He wouldn't be very excited to find a few hundred yuan from somewhere.

That was probably the last lesson his mother taught him.

After the results came out, the teacher recommended a very good university in the neighboring province, but he still chose to stay in his hometown and went to the University of Finance and Economics, which had a score line of more than 50 points lower.

He couldn't leave his sister alone. He was depressed because of this until he got a grant and scholarship.

He didn't apply for a dormitory, and all the standards of life were reduced to the lowest. He went out to work whenever he had time, doing any kind of work to maintain his sister's life at a makeshift level.

Even if the days were getting better and better, he didn't dare to relax for a moment. Liu Mang and his group were time bombs, and the endless mountain of more than one million yuan weighed on his shoulders.

While college students were enjoying college life and enjoying the continuous living expenses and care from their parents, Feng Ran was hanging out in auto repair shops, restaurants and bars. During the most difficult times, he worked five jobs by himself, eating only steamed buns all day long and picking up leftovers that others couldn't finish in restaurants. Everyone who knows him knows that this guy is crazy about making money and he wants money more than his life.

He doesn't know when this kind of life will end, he only knows that he can't stop for a moment.

On the National Day when he was 19 years old, there were a lot of people holding weddings, and he took a job from a wedding banquet company.

That rainy night when the whole country was celebrating was the first nightmare of Feng Ran's life in the next few years.

The scale of the wedding was very large, to the extent that he had never seen it before. He and a group of staff were busy running around, and were insulted by the boss from time to time, but they could only swallow their anger.

Because the pay for this job was very generous, as much as 5,000 yuan.

Finally, it was time to rest. Feng Ran took a bottle of mineral water to rest, and the boy who came with him also sat down.

The boy's name is Ren He, he is Feng Ran's childhood friend, and now he is in the same university as him.

"Feng Ran, do you know how much their wedding will cost?"

"I don't know."

Ren He took a deep breath: "Nine hundred and ninety thousand. Damn, just one wedding, nine hundred and ninety thousand. I can't make half of this money in my whole life, unless I sell my kidneys. One is probably not enough, I need two. Rich people are damned!"

Feng Ran's hand holding the water bottle paused. Before he had time to think, he saw the bride and groom who came to inspect the situation. The groom was wearing a neat suit, and the bride was wearing a bright red dress. They walked from a distance with smiles on their faces, hand in hand, with a happy glow on their faces, like gods, making him unable to look directly at them.

Feng Ran lowered his head and saw his dirty overalls and the sneakers he had worn for several years. The total amount of his clothes was no more than 50 yuan.

Nine hundred and ninety thousand... If he also had nine hundred and ninety thousand, how great it would be... Feng Ran was like a light cloud, wandering in reverie.

Nine hundred thousand is used to pay off debts, and the rest of the money is used to buy some new dresses for his sister? She said her classmates all had beautiful skirts to wear...

Ren He knocked his head with a mineral water bottle and whispered, "Look at those flowers, see? They were all airlifted in this afternoon. Guess where they came from? Bulgaria! Feng Ran, have you ever heard of this place? Damn it!"

Ren He's beloved man ran off with a rich man some time ago, and Feng Ran could understand his anger.

He was just about to comfort her when a group of people suddenly came in with golden instruments in their hands, which made him unable to open his eyes. From the conversation between the bosses, he learned that the symphony orchestra was planning to rehearse now.

The boss drove them out like ducks, and Ren He cursed on the side, but Feng Ran didn't think it was a big deal. Those instruments were noisy and clattering.

They were busy until one o'clock in the morning that day.

"One o'clock?!"

When Feng Ran learned the time, his whole brain buzzed. He had never been home so late before, and he didn't know if Feng Qing had rested.

He borrowed someone else's mobile phone to call home.

The few seconds of dialing the phone were particularly long.

"Hey, hello? Feng Ran! Where have you been? You left your sister alone at home, you are so amazing!"

Liu Mang's disgusting voice was like a thunderclap, hitting Feng Ran's head.

Why was Liu Mang in his house? !

How long had he been there, and what had he done!

Feng Ran's scalp was numb, and his adrenaline surged in an instant. He was trembling all over, and he almost used up all his strength and yelled out of control: "Fuck, what did you do to her? What did you do to her! I will kill you--"

The whole banquet hall was quiet in an instant, and everyone turned around to look at him. Their eyes were shocked and terrified, as if they were looking at a madman who was having a seizure.

Feng Ran gasped, his eyes turned blood red, and his fists creaked.

Liu Mang laughed even louder: "Hahahaha, nothing happened, you came back to see it yourself--"

Feng Ran hung up the phone, picked up his schoolbag and rushed out.

It rarely rained heavily in the autumn in this city, but that night was an exception.

The raindrops hit Feng Ran's face and body tirelessly. In a few seconds, he was soaked from head to toe.

He pedaled the broken bicycle with all his strength and rode home with red eyes. He hated the bicycle more than ever because it was so damn slow. Why was the road so long? And why didn't he pay attention to the time and go home earlier?

On the way, he was filled with murderous intent. He swore that if anything happened to Feng Qing, he would die with Liu Mang and cut him into pieces! Definitely!

When he returned to the community, he saw from a distance that the door of his house was open - no, the door was gone.

The door was violently and completely removed.

He rushed into the house, turned on all the lights, and pushed open all the doors of the rooms like a headless fly: "Feng Qing? Feng Qing!"

The door of the closet in the corner creaked open, and his sister's thin voice said: "Brother, I'm here."

Feng Ran turned his head and saw the thin Feng Qing huddled behind a pile of clothes, looking at him with a pair of big eyes.

"What happened to you? Are you okay? What did they do? Huh?"

Feng Qing moved her arms and legs, shook her head and said, "I'm fine, they... took the gold bracelet."

"The one my mother left behind?"

Feng Qing nodded.

Feng Ran gritted his teeth and said, "Just wait for me here, don't go anywhere."

After that, he rushed into the rainy night again.

Liu Mang and his friends didn't go far, Feng Ran chased them for two blocks and caught up with them. Seeing him, a drowned chicken, they burst into laughter.

Feng Ran said, "Give me back my things."

"What?"

Feng Ran's voice was a few degrees higher: "Give me back my things."

Liu Mang and his companions looked at each other with surprised expressions: "Give it back to you? Don't you know how much money you owe? You have nothing at home, you can only use this to pay off a few thousand yuan!"

"That's my sister's thing! I will pay it back, but if you don't return the bracelet, I won't give you a penny in the future. Go and sue me if you have the guts."

Liu Mang's face darkened. He walked up and grabbed Feng Ran by the collar: "Little bastard, do you know what you are talking about?"

The 19-year-old Feng Ran, who ate steamed buns and fermented bean curd sauce for almost three meals a day, was as vulnerable as bean sprouts in front of the huge and muscular Liu Mang.

Even so, he still glared at Liu Mang fiercely: "If you don't return the things to me, I won't pay a penny--"

A heavy slap came over, and countless stars flashed before his eyes. He staggered a step to stand firm, and in his blurred vision, his glasses flew far away.

Feng Ran roared, stretched out his fist, and punched Liu Mang's face full of flesh.

He punched very quickly, and in Liu Mang's shocked eyes, time seemed to slow down several times. Feng Ran saw the flesh lines on his face rippling, and blood and tears flew out of his nose.

Liu Mang thought he would be scared by the slap, but he immediately fought back. He was caught off guard for a while and was hit hard.

Fresh red blood dripped onto his chest. Liu Mang woke up as if from a dream. He touched it with his hand in disbelief and shouted, "Fuck you! Hit me!"

One against five, no chance of winning.

Feng Ran panted and ran away. The strap of his schoolbag was yanked hard on his back, and he fell to the ground.

Sticks, fists and kicks rained down like raindrops. Feng Ran rolled over to get rid of his schoolbag, aimed at Liu Mang's legs, and rushed in that direction.

When a person is unarmed in a one-on-many fight, the outcome is bound to be a heavy loss. The best strategy at this time is to aim at the leader of the group and fight back.

As long as you can use all your strength on one person, even if you are injured and disabled in the end, the other party will never feel comfortable and will always call for a stop. This kind of life-threatening style of fighting, hurting the enemy 800 times and hurting yourself 1,000 times, was taught to him by that bastard father. I think he often owed money and summed up the secret of survival in countless fights.

After Feng Ran threw Liu Mang to the ground, he used the method he had always disdained, attacking Liu Mang's abdomen and lower body with every move, and his fists were aimed at the soft abdomen, facial features, etc.

After a few rounds, Liu Mang was howling, and it was obvious that he had never encountered such a situation before. When he cursed and wanted to imitate, Feng Ran was as nimble as a fish, leaving the parts of his body that were not hit by others were either his back, buttocks, thighs, etc.

Finally, Liu Mang covered his crotch and hid here and there, yelling in embarrassment: "Give it back to him, give it back to him!"

A gangster took out a gold bracelet from somewhere and threw it far away. The metal and the ground made a crisp collision sound. Feng Ran gasped and let go of his hand, took out the salary that was not yet warm from his trouser pocket, and swung it vigorously. The red and green banknotes swirled in the air, and the gangsters threw down their sticks and stretched out their claws to grab it.

Liu Mang pulled Feng Ran's hair painfully, gritting his teeth and saying, "Feng Ran, I'm not done with you!"

Feng Ran stared at him viciously and spat bloody saliva at his face.

They left.

Feng Ran turned over, closed his eyes and lay in the water. Heavy rain fell from the sky, landing on his face and body. The smell of blood filled the air. He felt no pain, only tiredness.

He opened his mouth, and the cold rain flowed into his throat, moistening his mouth full of blood. Suddenly, a low sob came to his ear.

He opened his eyes slightly, and his sister was sitting beside him, holding the gold bracelet and his glasses in her hands, and her tears mixed with the rain flowed down, making it difficult to distinguish.

Feng Ran struggled to get up. The pain came belatedly, and he saw two fingers twisted into strange angles and his pants with several holes. His sister cried even louder.

Feng Ran walked towards the schoolbag in the puddle with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

He unzipped the zipper with shaking hands, revealing a few bunches of snow-white lilies. The petals were ravaged and beaten, and had become soft and rotten, but you could still vaguely see their beauty when they were in full bloom.

Those were the extra flowers from the wedding, thrown into a cardboard box in the corner. The wedding banquet was lavish, and tons of bouquets were picked and chosen, and the slightly withered and defective ones were thrown away mercilessly. He asked the boss if he could take a few to bring home to his sister.

The boss asked him to move all the boxes away, but he shook his head and said that he would leave them to Ren He to sell. He picked a few flowers with fewer defects and put them into his schoolbag.

What is the difference between heaven and earth? This is it.

Two questions and answers were repeated in Feng Ran's mind.

He handed the flowers to his sister, and the flowers he raised covered his face, so Feng Qing could not see his expression.

Raindrops fell on the beautiful curved and wide petals, flowing down Feng Ran's broken finger bones and opened fingernails, and condensed into dark red blood at the base of the bouquet.

Feng Qing instinctively felt that he was crying, so her tears flowed even harder. She said, "Brother, don't cry. We have medicine and gauze at home."

Feng Ran shook his head vigorously, stuffed the flowers into his sister's arms, turned around quickly, and left her with only his back.

But his voice was so hoarse, and he clearly had a trembling cry.

"Let's go... go home."