01 : First encounter

 Song Shi first met Chen Zhoumu at a car repair shop in Xia City. Xia City is a northern city, much cooler than Yangcheng in June.

He had forgotten most of what happened that night, only remembering the name of the car repair shop and a talkative northerner.

—

“I’ve come all this way to see you, can’t you at least give me a smile?” Tang Ze looked at the expressionless man driving, that same coffin-like face, so sour, though he’d seen that look for almost ten years.

He and Song Shi were childhood friends, practically inseparable. Tang Ze followed Song Shi for a reason: when he was cornered in an alley in Yangcheng and beaten half to death, Song Shi came to his rescue.

“If you don’t like it, get out,” Song Shi uttered succinctly.

Tang Ze smacked his lips, automatically ignoring the other person's cold words, and then pulled out his phone: "I told Grandpa, I'm transferring here too—"

Before he could finish, the car suddenly stopped, cutting him off. Tang Ze's head nearly hit the dashboard due to inertia, and he quickly pressed his upper body against the seatback.

"What are you doing here? Just stay in Guangzhou." Before he could recover, Song Shi's words hit him.

"Brother, I was just worried you'd get bullied here, and besides, I'll have company, right?" Tang Ze said dryly.

Tang Ze had been on medication since childhood due to poor health. After finally recovering, he became very overweight due to hormones, and was constantly bullied as a child. Fortunately, after meeting Song Shi, such incidents rarely happened.

Now he had lost weight, but he wasn't very brave. To outsiders, it seemed like he was helping Song Shi, but in reality, Song Shi was the one looking after him.

Song Shi looked at the person sitting in the passenger seat. He knew the Tang family wasn't very strict with Tang Ze, but they had clearly stated that he should stay away from them. However, the other man was like a leech, stubbornly sticking to them no matter what anyone said.

He clicked open his seatbelt, got out of the car, ignoring Tang Ze's call of "Old Song," and took a large bag from the trunk before returning to the driver's seat.

He turned to Tang Ze and casually tossed the bag to him.

Tang Ze glanced down; the white bag was full of his usual medications, unbranded, probably custom-made from the Song family hospital. He hugged the bag tightly to his chest. His brother was always like this, saying one thing but meaning another.

"By the way, Old Song, can't you explain this to your dad? What's the matter that made him send you to such a faraway place?" Tang Ze looked at his brother's handsome face, with a thin, long scar on his lower right jaw.

Song Shi's relationship with his father, because of his mother, had no chance of improvement; they always argued when they met, but rarely physically.

His dark eyes turned cold, and his lips tightened slightly. For a moment, no one spoke in the car.

Tang Ze had taken leave for a medical check-up that day. When he returned to school, he learned that Song Shi had assaulted someone. One of the three people had suffered a head injury and was hospitalized. Song Jinming had initially planned to settle the matter with money.

However, the family refused the money, demanding that Song Shi kneel down and apologize to the injured person before the matter would be considered closed.

The next day, Song Shi went to the injured person's hospital room. Just when everyone thought he was about to compromise, Song Shi broke the other side of the person's head again.

The injured person's name was Zhang Su, a top student at Yangcheng No. 1 School, consistently ranking in the top ten of his grade. Song Shi was also a consistently excellent student, and Yangcheng No. 1 School was torn between protecting both of them.

In the end, Song Shi transferred schools. The matter gradually subsided. Tang Ze didn't really understand why Song Shi had fought with that person. He had never heard of him before and didn't know what Song Shi had done to provoke such a violent reaction.

Although his brother seemed cold and aloof, and even though he looked fierce, he wasn't the kind of thug who would fight at the drop of a hat. Deep down,

he was a model citizen. Tang Ze knew Song Shi was ruthless in fights, sometimes fighting like his life depended on it—he'd witnessed it when Song Shi saved him in the alley.

Aside from that fight, he'd never seen Song Shi throw a tantrum. People often said he looked like a delinquent, but once you got to know him, you'd find he was a genuinely good guy.

He was just a little difficult to approach.

Seeing Song Shi avoid the topic again, Tang Ze wisely didn't press further. He looked out at the dark street: "Seriously, are there any auto repair shops at this hour? There's not a soul on the street."

While waiting at the traffic light, Song Shi glanced at his watch; it showed 1:35. Normally, Song Jinming would be yelling and banging on doors by now.

The red light turned green, and the car started moving again, navigating the deserted street.

After driving around for what seemed like forever, Tang Ze, half-asleep, finally spotted a car repair shop with its sign still lit up on the side of a dark street.

"There really is a shop open!" Tang Ze's sleepiness lessened considerably.

Logically, they shouldn't have needed to be out so late looking for a repair shop. The story begins at noon earlier that day.

Tang Ze was incredibly bored, so he rented a motorcycle from a nearby shop to go to an internet cafe. Everything went smoothly until he came out of the internet cafe, where some heartless person had stolen the motorcycle's seat.

Since he'd spent a long time at the internet cafe, he was afraid to go back for fear the owner would see him, so he had to ask Song Shi for help. However, Song Shi had gone to visit a professor there and only just came to pick him up.

So, the two of them ended up driving out so late at night looking for a repair shop.

As the car approached the auto repair shop, they realized how pitifully small it was. The two got out; Tang Ze went inside to find the owner, while Song Shi, leaning against the car, looked up and saw the huge shop sign overhead.

It was enormous, with the crowded shop below, like a giant head perched on a slender neck, and the words on it were very eye-catching.

"Big Brother Auto Repair Shop," was the shop's name, followed by a series of smaller words: "Mobile Phone Repair, Selling Jianbing Guozi, Finding Lawyers, Environmental Design."

Below that was a list of contact information.

Song Shi glanced to the side of the shop; there was a tricycle parked there, with a similar sign that read: "Big Brother Jianbing Guozi!

" "..."

After Tang Ze had called out "Boss!" countless times without any response, he came out from inside. "Strange, the shop's open, but nobody's here."

"Let's go." Song Shi was starting to feel sleepy, his voice a little hoarse.

Tang Ze was still somewhat unwilling to give up. He felt bad if the car owner didn't fix it tonight and saw his car like this tomorrow morning.

Before coming here, someone had warned him that northerners had bad tempers and he should try to avoid trouble. Fortunately, the owner who borrowed the car was easy to talk to.

But thinking of his own burly shoulders, he was afraid he couldn't withstand a punch from the owner.

Song Shi didn't say much and turned to drive away, but as he turned, his head bumped into something warm. He frowned and looked up. There was someone standing behind him, which really startled him.

He swung his fist to punch, but the person caught his wrist.

A strange sensation came over him. Song Shi tried to shake off the person's hand, but failed. Before he could even see who it was, a voice rang out: "Huh? Are you alright?"

Tang Ze, hearing the commotion, also came over and saw this bizarre scene. His usually cold-faced brother was now being held in someone's arms, their hands clasped together. In his memory, Song Shi seemed to dislike physical contact.

The person, half a head taller than Song Shi, released his brother's hand and instead cupped his face, seemingly looking at something.

Song Shi felt a strange sensation all over his skin. He slapped the person's hand away forcefully, then took a few steps back, moving away from the person, and said coldly, "Are you sick?"

Tang Ze almost stopped breathing, because the person was significantly taller than Song Shi. In the south, Song Shi's height of 1.8 meters was already considered very tall, but it was obvious that the person opposite him was half a head taller.

If the two sides started fighting, Tang Ze wasn't sure if he and Song Shi could win. Tang Ze wanted to step in and ease the tension, but then he saw the tall, handsome guy take a step towards Song Shi.

His tone was casual, with a hint of a smile: "How did you know!"

Tang Ze was momentarily speechless, unsure whether this guy was serious or genuinely didn't realize he was being insulted.

Song Shi casually wiped the spot where the other man had touched him on his shirt hem.

Tang Ze stepped forward: "Are you the owner here?"

"Doesn't look like it?" The man adjusted the hem of his vest.

Tang Ze was about to speak when the man said, "Actually, I'm not."

Song Shi: "."

Tang Ze: "."

"Just kidding, the owner's on break. Are you two here to get your cars fixed?" The man walked past the two men into the shop.

Coming to a car repair shop and not to get your car fixed, are you really here to buy your pancakes? Song Shi scoffed.

"Yes, I'm here to fix my motorcycle. It's in the trunk." Tang Ze followed him into the shop. He looked at the motorcycle for a long time after the man took it out of the trunk.

"Looks like it's been stolen. There are a lot of seat thieves around here. You haven't been in Xia City long, have you?" He said, starting to look for a suitable model.

"Yes, we just arrived a few days ago," Tang Ze replied.

"All done." After a while, the man looked up. "Don't let it get stolen again next time. This motorcycle is an older model, hard to find."

Tang Ze nodded.

After helping to put the motorcycle back in the trunk, a man came out

. He looked to be in his thirties or forties, with some gray hair. The man who had just walked over said, "Brother, you're awake?" The man made a few hand gestures, revealing that the owner was mute.

After the man made a few more gestures, he went back inside. The man then walked over and said, "Brothers, you're our last customers today, so you can get a 12% discount."

Song Shi heard him give a number and scanned the original price on his phone.

As he left, he glanced at the sign again, remembering what the man had said and the old man's situation. He regretted saying those words.

Before he could turn around, a heavy weight settled on his shoulder, and a warm breath emanated from beside him, along with that irritating voice:

"Come again! 30 years of professional car repairmanship, Mr. Chen, satisfaction guaranteed!"

Tang Ze looked at the hand on Song Shi's shoulder, then at the man's young, handsome face, thinking to himself, "Why does this guy always seem to be jumping around in minefields? "

Seeing Song Shi's extremely impatient face, he wondered if he should leave first, fearing that blood might be spilled and innocent civilians might be injured.

"Tsk..." Song Shi impatiently shook off his hand and got into the car without a word.

Tang Ze exchanged a few words with the man before getting into the passenger seat: "Speaking of which, this guy is quite—"

—before he could finish, the car shot off like an arrow.

As the car passed the man, Tang Ze looked up, feeling that the man's face looked somewhat familiar, but he didn't think about it further.

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