Shameless Gangster - Chapter 8.1

A fierce tiger meets a wildflower, restrain its teeth and claw

When Han Jia pulled and dragged Jiang Xiaoning into the elevator, he was already tired and panting excessively.

Jiang Xiaoning was in an even more sorry state than him. His clothes had been torn when they fought earlier, exposing skin and he also had a bloody mouth that was cut by pieces of the ornament. The palm print on his cheek was redder and more swollen than before, there was even tear stains that had yet to dry.

But both his eyes were not even the slightest infected with this kind of sorry state, and although the eyes were red, there were two balls of fire burning fiercely inside. Han Jia looked over and only thought that the flames were very resplendent, making this boy who was in a fit of rage still embraced by a trace of purity and innocence.

It was evident that Jiang Xiaoning did not know what he was thinking as he glared and struggled ruthlessly while cursing. “You son of a bitch, let go of me! What do you want?!”

Han Jia blocked him in the corner of the elevator and stifled his fists. He smiled and said: “Didn’t I say it already, I’ll ask you some questions and then you can hit me as you wish?”

Hearing that seemed to make Jiang Xiaoning angrier as he pushed him hard: “I finished! You let me go!”

“That won’t do,” Han Jia answered with a calm tone. “I can’t let you go.”

The blazing resplendent flame was even more radiant, and Jiang Xiaoning seemed to want to burn him to death with that look. “Pervert! What do you want to do?”

As Han Jia looked down at him for a while, the elevator door closed in silence. Jiang Xiaoning’s hostility increased, and the look of cautiousness resting in his eyes was like a baby leopard boring its tooth before it attacked.

Han Jia smiled light: “Jiang Xiaoning, I want to make a deal with you.”

“I don’t want to make a deal with a person like you!” Jiang Xiaoning replied angrily.

“Then I won’t let you go,” Han Jia’s smile widened.

Jiang Xiaoning was trembling with anger as his fists tightened, but he could not free himself from Han Jia’s hold. His mouth opened and closed, but there were no words for him to fight with.

This kid is really not good with disputes. Han Jia thought while slowing down his tone, “Your temper is truly awful. It’s not like you’re going to lose anything from just listening to the content of the deal.”

Jiang Xiaoning was fuming with rage between gritted teeth as he looked at him without saying anything.

“Your father was my teacher and I don’t want to let him down.” Han Jia thought for a moment and sold his weak point to him in a low voice, “I hope that you don’t tell him about my situation. In return, I can take any of your condition into consideration.”

Han Jia looked at Jiang Xiaoning’s brow twist then looked as he gazed at him with an ill expression. He held his breath and waited for Jiang Xiaoning to speak.

Jiang Xiaoning thought of something and his resplendent eyes unexpectedly became dim in seconds. He lowered his eyes and looked at his shirt button then after a while, his breathing gradually calmed down.

“I already hit you,” he simply answered.

Han Jia was a little startled. Then he looked at Jiang Xiaoning for a good while until he laughed. “Then has your anger dissolved?”

Jiang Xiaoning looked up at him, his eyes contradicting his previous words.

“Jiang Xiaoning, I’ll teach you something. Violence doesn’t solve all the problems,” Han Jia told him. “You did hit me, but are you feeling any better now?”

Hearing that, Jiang Xiaoning’s face sank. Han Jia smiled and continued, “Only this few hits and your anger is already gone? You don’t look like you’d be ready to go to jail for making me crippled or dead. If afterward, you find it not worthy and still decides to tell Jiang Laoshi, then wouldn’t I be doomed?”

Jiang Xiaoning said angrily: “I destroyed your home!”

“Do you think I care about those things?” Han Jia asked him, “I can buy them again and there’s no need for me to clean it up myself. I can hire someone to do that. Xiaoning…” he called him intimately on purpose. “You actually didn’t cause me to suffer any damage.”

Jiang Xiaoning’s tone was packed with stubbornness, but his eyes had lost the brilliance of anger. “I won’t tell my dad and I don’t need you to compensate me with anything either,” he paused and added: “I have no conditions, I have to leave. Let me go.”

That dispirited appearance of his is another kind of cuteness, Han Jia sighed. Just as he was about to campaign some more, Jiang Xiaoning hatefully said: “Anyways, I won’ tell my father no matter what. I only said I will complain about it before only for the sake of scaring you. You can rest assured now, alright?”

Han Jia was quiet for a while and then asked: “How come you won’t tell Jiang Laoshi no matter what?”

Those words made Jiang Xiaoning twist his head to the side.

Once more, Han Jia whispered: “Are you afraid that Jiang Laoshi will be worried?”

Jiang Xiaoning replied impatiently: “Are you just being annoying? I said I won’t tell him, so let me go!”

Han Jia grabbed his hand, refusing to let go. “You definitely won’t tell him after being wronged? If he asked where you went tonight, how will you answer?”

When Jiang Xiaoning’s face was riddled with anger again, Han Jia truly felt at a loss since he had never seen such an easily irritated person.

“If Jiang Laoshi sees you like this, wouldn’t he want to get to the bottom of it in a fit of pique?” Han Jia asked cautiously. “Since you didn’t gain anything by being here with me, aren’t you going to sell me out when the time comes?”

“I already said that I won’t! Why do you want to force me?” Jiang Xiaoning glared at him and shouted which made Han Jia think that he would cry out. “Bastard! Son of a bitch! If he knew that I was wronged, would I have run here to destroy your home? If he had asked, would I still run over to that lousy Jin Ting place of yours? Get to the bottom of what? He won’t—”

“Hey…” Han Jia was a little confused by his fierce reaction. Seeing his expression of grievances reached to such an extreme, he could not help but touch his head.

Before he could move his hand, he ended up freezing because Jiang Xiaoning was glaring at him and actually shedding tears at the same time.

“What’s so good about my dad? Why are you afraid of him?” Having asked that, he seemed to become aware of the tears flowing down. He wanted to reach out and wipe his tears but notice that Han Jia was still holding his wrist, and that provoked him to struggle once more. “Pervert! Let go!”

Han Jia gripped even tighter and then pressed his hands to the wall—and regardless of how much he screamed and cursed, he just watched him silently for a good while.

Soon, Jiang Xiaoning was tired from all the cursing; his tears also slowly come to a stop as he leaned against the wall and look at Han Jia.

Han Jia sighed lightly and spoke in a low voice, “Jiang Laoshi… doesn’t treat you well?”

He remembered that when Jiang Laoshi tutored him back then, he would constantly be rebuked by the other teachers. They had said that whenever he tutored his students, he would always forget to cook for his son and let his son starve at home all alone.

Jiang Xiaoning froze.

“He doesn’t believe you?” Han Jia glanced at his red and swollen cheek. “Is he very strict with you? You just said that if you run out, he wouldn’t track you down… Jiang Xiaoning, do you often run away from home?”

“What does it have to do with you?” Jiang Xiaoning was provoked by his last question and started to rain curses, “You’re just a pimp. Why do you care?”

Han Jia was not angry as he gently spoke. “I will teach you a bit more, the pimp understands the ways of the world best. You don’t believe that?” He looked at Jiang Xiaoning and lowered his voice, “It hurts right, to be ignored by the ones closes to you? When you started to run away from home, Jiang Laoshi must have been very anxious and went to look around for you everywhere and then apologized to you, but then everything changed back to the way it was before… you became angrier, run away from home again and again… perhaps, you didn’t just run off. With this temper of yours, you must have caused trouble everywhere, you made yourself become more and more annoying and the old tricks no longer work. You battled through more hardship until you simply come to hate yourself, but that person has not changed whatsoever. Then you really left home, but still, they don’t believe you…”

Jiang Xiaoning looked at him in a daze as tears ran circles around his eyes.

Han Jia glanced at him and suddenly said: “Jiang Xiaoning, why did you come out to be MB?”

With that, Jiang Xiaoning’s tears came down at once.

“I don’t know.” He lowered his head and the tears fell on the ground. “For fun, in order to buy an MP3, my dad always said that he would buy it for me, but he always forgot… for someone to accompany me, for someone to be good to me… I don’t know…” He cried out, “Let me go. I won’t tell him, he won’t ask, even if he asks, I won’t say anything… just let me go…”

Han Jia could not explain the next move that he himself made. He could comfortably let Jiang Xiaoning go—he had drugged Jiang Xiaoning before, but Jiang Xiaoning was saved. Jiang Xiaoning destroyed his home and struck him, but that was not considered to be a loss, moreover, those were not enough to compensate for his pain; Jiang Xiaoning had promised not to say anything about his matters. Their accounts should be settled, and Jiang Xiaoning can return to his rebellious life while he can return to Jin Ting… they can simply proceed according to their own respective life track.

But as if he was possessed, he couldn’t let go. Before him now was this kid who was so rash, impulsive, emotional, with the notion that the entire world had let him down—he was charging around violently, looking for the entire world to settle accounts, but behind this pretense was the fragility and loneliness that laid hidden deep within him. In fact, he could not help but look for someone to settle these accounts… he greatly desired for the warmth of anyone.

The emotions in boiling in his heart were too strange. He wanted to protect someone, feel remorseful for someone, and send out a heartfelt apology—he had not felt this way for many years.

He knew that this was a bit dangerous, but he also knew that he could not let Jiang Xiaoning go just like that. He was still had scars and tears on him. He was still shaking…

“Just go up with me first,” he softened his voice. “Your wounds need to be dealt with. I can also give you something to eat,” he paused, then added: “You can really cry, your eyes looked like peaches now. Don’t you want to apply some ointment on them?”

Jiang Xiaoning looked at him while thinking of something and then he gasped for breath. “I don’t want to make a pimp to have pity on me!”

Since he saw through his bluff, this sentence was actually not hurtful at all. Han Jia smiled, “This pimp doesn’t pity you. This pimp just wants to make you pitiful. Because he is sorry toward you, he is now trying to atone for his crime.”