The Xiaoxiao Noodle House was about to close when they arrived there. Seeing that Xiao Bing was back, Zhang Jing, Li Hong, and Wang Guifang came to surround him immediately. They all felt relieved. Zhang Jing and Li Hong kept asking him about what had happened.
Xiao Bing smiled bitterly and said, “I will tell you all later. Aunt Wang, could you please make us some noodles? We haven’t had dinner yet.”
Dumbass raised three fingers and said, “Four bowls for me please.”
Wang Guifang looked at him and got puzzled.
“Oh, no.” Dumbass raised four fingers and said, “Three bowls for me please.”
Wang Guifang laughed and said, “Your friend is funny. Okay, I will make you a big pot. You can eat as much as you want.”
Dumbass scratched his hair and laughed.
After Xiao Bing and the others sat down, while Wang Guifang went to cook noodles, Xiao Bing started to slowly tell them what happened in the cell in detail, including how Dumbass got framed and how they met.
After hearing that, Li Hong took a look at Dumbass, said with anger, “Brother Bing, he tried to break your leg. And you brought him out and treated him to noodles!”
After she said that, she looked to Dumbass with hostility, which made Dumbass a bit confused.
Ever since Xiao Bing promised to take care of Li Hong, she had viewed him as a big brother. She was moved by him and now he was more than a manager to her. Therefore, after knowing that the silly man in her sight tried to hurt Xiao Bing, she got a bit upset right away.
Xiao Bing laughed and said, “Don’t feel bad, Li Hong. There was nothing he could do. Think about it, he was threatened to be locked up in jail for his whole life and was told plenty of evil things about me. If it were you, what would you do?”
Hearing Xiao Bing defend Dumbass, Li Hong had less hostility in her eyes.
Xiao Bing smiled and said, “Be nice to Dumbass. I’m guessing that there is no place for him to go now. Maybe we could keep him here to help us. There are two resting areas. We could let him stay in one of them so that he has a place to rest at night.”
After hearing this, Zhang Jing said in a hesitant voice, “That’s alright with us, but would Aunt Li agree?”
Xiao Bing said with a smile, said, “As for Aunt Li, I will talk to her. Things will be okay, don’t worry.”
Dumbass laughed from the side and said, “I don’t need a salary, I just need food.”
Xiao Bing laughed and patted on Dumbass’s head, laughing loudly, “You are not silly at all. Don’t worry, you will have your salary. But you eat a lot, so we will deduct that from your salary.”
Zhang Jing and Li Hong were chuckling at one side, Yezi even said, “Brother Bing, he was named Dumbass, but that doesn’t mean you can bully him because of that. He won’t cost you that much for food.”
Dumbass scratched his hair, laughed and embarrassedly said, “I feel fine about that though.”
The noodles with gravy got served quickly. Wang Guifang also sat down at one side after she put three bowls of noodles on the table. While eating, Xiao Bing and Yezi kept talking and laughing with the others. However, Dumbass stopped talking and buried his head in the bowl, gobbling down food. Before Xiao Bing got to talk more with others, Dumbass had already finished his noodles. He put his bowl aside, and said with oil on his lips, “Two more bowls please.”
Looking at his empty bowl, the others all got stunned except Xiao Bing. Xiao Bing laughed and said, “All right, help yourself and go to the kitchen to get more.”
“Okay.” Dumbass stood up and went straight to the kitchen. He quickly brought two bowls of noodles, and started gobbling them down again. This time nobody spoke, they all just stared at Dumbass. In under a minute, Dumbass had wolfed down two bowls of noodles. He didn’t even chew. It was more like pouring food down his mouth.
Dumbass stood up again, entered the kitchen again with two empty bowls, brought back two more bowls of noodles, sat down, and kept on eating…
In less than ten minutes, he ate up five bowls of noodles. Looking at those empty bowls, Xiao Bing asked curiously, “Are you full?”
Dumbass smiled, embarrassed, and said hungrily, “There’s no more in the pot…”
“Jesus!” Wang Guifang got shocked and said, “Five bigs bowls of noodles and you’re still not full?”
“My mom said, I eat a lot, so I have more strength than others…”
Xiao Bing laughed and said, “What your mom said make sense. Sister Wang, can you make him some more noodles?”
Dumbass said hurriedly, “No need.”
The others looked to him. Xiao Bing asked, “You don’t want more?”
Dumbass stood up and ran to the kitchen, “I will cook for myself.”
Everybody looked at each other and laughed.
Yezi laughed and said, “I didn’t know that this silly brother of yours knew how to cook.”
Wang Guifang said aside, “Actually, for people from the more remote areas, the more hardworking they are, the more versatile they would be.”
Hearing Wang Guifang saying this, Li Hong and Zhang Jing started to look sad. Obviously, their families were also poor.
At this moment the door opened with a squeak. Everyone looked to the door and saw Su Xiaoxiao walking in from outside. She was in a light-green dress, and despite her cold temperament, there was still a hint of purity on her. After she saw Xiao Bing, she felt relieved. However, she pretended to be cool and asked in a cold voice, “I just came back from the detention house. People there said you were set free. I couldn’t get through to your phone. So I guessed you would be here.”
Xiao Bing took out his phone, looked at it, and said, “My phone is dead.”
Su Xiaoxiao said coldly, “Couldn’t you borrow a phone from the others to inform me?”
At this point, Yezi stood up, smiled, asked in a sweet voice, “Brother Bing, who is she?”
Xiao Bing smiled and said, “Let me introduce you, this is the Su Xiaoxiao I mentioned before. Xiaoxiao, this is Yezi.”
Su Xiaoxiao and Yezi looked at each other. Yezi was surprised by Su Xiaoxiao’s cold beauty, and Su Xiaoxiao was stunned to find out that Yezi was the school beauty in her school. How did Brother Bing know her? It seemed that they were already quite close to each other.
Yezi reached out her hand and said with a warm smile, “Brother Bing mentioned you a lot. I think we have met before. I remember now… One of my classmates still has a crush on you.”
Su Xiaoxiao shook hands with Yezi and said from her heart, “The guys in my class talk about you all the time, you…”
“Oh.” Yezi held Xiao Bing’s arm, put her face on it, and said in a cute voice, “He is my boyfriend.”
“Is that so?” Su Xiaoxiao somehow smiled, but it seemed forced. She looked around the noodle house, and said to Xiao Bing in a soulless voice, “Since you are alright now, I’ll be going home first. Tomorrow you should pay a visit to my mom, she was asking about you…”
“Sure.” Xiao Bing replied. Before he could say any more, Su Xiaoxiao already walked out in a hurry. She was so hurried that she stumbled at the doorsill when she walked to the door.
After she left the noodle house, her face turned pale, Su Xiaoxiao thought to herself secretly, “What am I thinking? He’s got a girlfriend. What does it matter to me? He doesn’t deserve Yezi. That’s right. I am feeling bad for Yezi. That’s all!”
Seeing Su Xiaoxiao running out of the noodle house in a daze, Yezi let go of Xiao Bing, looked at him with a vague smile, and said with her tongue in her cheek, “It seems she has feelings for you. Looks like she cares about you a lot.”
Xiao Bing smiled bitterly, “What are you talking about? She hates me…”
“Really?” Yezi laughed and said, “I don’t believe that.”
Zhang Jing and Li Hong also said, “Neither do I.”
Xiao Bing asked, “Why not?”
The three girls said at the same time, “A woman’s intuition.”
“Intuition?” Su Xiaoxiao’s cold face came to his mind. Xiao Bing thought of the cold and disagreeable look every time she gave him, and the concern and anger she had when she rushed in the noodle house. “Really? She doesn’t hate me anymore?” Xiao Bing thought to himself.
“However, even if she doesn’t hate me, she wouldn’t like me in that way… She wouldn’t!”
Dumbass ate three more bowls of noodles after that. Now, these women finally knew why Xiao Bing said to deduct the food expenses from Dumbass’ salary – he was indeed a glutton.
In the evening, Dumbass started to live in the noodle house. It was late, and they all started to leave. Still, Xiao Bing didn’t get the chance to escort Yezi home, so he went home alone.
It was dark in the house. After Xiao Bing turned on the light, he found Su Xiaoxiao lying on the sofa. Sensing the light turn on, Su Xiaoxiao opened her eyes and sat up. Xiao Bing changed his shoes into slippers and asked, “You haven’t slept?”
“Yes.” Su Xiaoxiao said. She took out the memory stick on her, put it on the sofa, and asked, “Is this why he set you free?”
Xiao Bing smiled, “Bingo! You sure are smart.”
Su Xiaoxiao frowned and said, “What are you going to do with it? Keep it or destroy it?”
Xiao Bing said with a smile, “We hand it over. Why would we keep such a corrupt officer around for?”
Su Xiaoxiao got a bit confused, and asked with surprise, “Wasn’t this the deal between the two of you? To let you out?”
Xiao Bing walked up to her with a smile, took up the memory stick and held it in his hand. At this moment, Su Xiaoxiao found him to be different, he had icyness in his eyes. He became cold, ruthless, and aggressive, just like when he had faced Xie Lun. Xiao Bing said with an icy and cold atmosphere, “I told him that if he didn’t let me out, I would turn in the evidence. However, I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it if he let me out.”
“For a social parasite like him, the only way is to get rid of him!”
“Do you remember? I already told him the moment he arrested me. I am going to jail, but he is going to hell!”
“I never show mercy or sympathy to my enemies. No loose ends!”
Su Xiaoxiao looked at Xiao Bing blankly. There was a subtle smile on his face, which contained a humbling power and confidence that dominanted over all things. “Time for Chang Huai’an to go to hell.”