Chapter 2

In his mind he already started chanting the words, you have to repay me well, repay me well!

After pulling the person to the clinic, it turned out to be closed, but the light upstairs was still turned on.

Ding Xiaowei stood downstairs and shouted twice.

Soon the thumping sound of someone going downstairs could be heard, and listening to the sound Ding Xiaowei knew it was Doctor Wang's grandson.

Sure enough, as soon as the door was opened, a pure and handsome little face appeared. “Ding Shu?”[1]

“Hey, quickly open the door for Ding Shu, I have a friend who got a bit hurt in a fight with someone. Let your grandfather[2] take a look.”

The child opened the door, “You bring the person in, wait a bit for me to call my grandfather.”

Ding Xiaowei again used a lot of strength to drag the unlucky devil[3] out of the car and managed to put him on the bed.

Sweating from exhaustion, Ding Xiaowei looked at the tall and handsome man.

In his mind he already started chanting the words, you have to repay me well, repay me well!

Soon after, Doctor Wang came down.

“Aiya, Xiao Ding[4], where did you find such a person in the middle of the night?”

Ding Xiaowei said while grabbing some toilet paper to wipe his hands, “Doctor Wang, I'm sorry for soiling your sheets. Quickly take a look at this man, his head is bleeding.”

Doctor Wang was after all a doctor, and his attention quickly turned to the body on the hospital bed.

He moved swiftly to examine the wound, “Aiyo, needs stitches.” He said to his grandson, “Go find the razor and shave this part of his hair clean.”

Just as Ding Xiaowei was about to say something, the phone suddenly rang.

As soon as he saw the caller ID he began to panic, it was the boss's son.

He forced himself to calm down and answered the phone.

“Hello Ding Shushu, we're done in about half an hour, remember to pick me up.”

“Hey, no problem, no problem, I'm just in the neighborhood.”

Ding Xiaowei hung up the phone and in a hasty panic grabbed a cleaning rag from Doctor Wang, “I'll leave that person to you, Doctor Wang. I'll be back in an hour or so, I promise to come back, right now I need to leave because of an urgent prior thing. “

Doctor Wang made a few noises but did not stop him.

After rushing out, Ding Xiaowei used all his strength to rub the rear seat with the cleaning rag, first soaking up the water, then brushing off the sand.

Unfortunately, no matter what he did, he still couldn’t clean off the sand.

Ding Xiaowei was so anxious that his face was sweating. Seeing that the time was almost up, he stopped caring and hurriedly drove to the beach.

Even though he hurried to make it, he still let the boss's son wait for ten minutes.

The boy didn’t look happy, but he also didn't say anything.

He immediately sat down in the front seat, and failed to discover what had happened to the back seat.

Ding Xiaowei was on edge the whole way when he sent him back home.

Once he had gone upstairs and handed over the errand to the boss, Ding Xiaowei went to hide himself in the garage and carefully and delicately cleaned the rear seat one more time, until he was sure that one wouldn’t be able to tell, only then did he hurriedly ride his bike in the direction of home.

He had been through such a terrible time in this one night, but luckily when he arrived at the clinic, the man's wound had already been well treated, and there was no serious problem. Although his face was pale, he seemed to be sleeping soundly.

Dr. Wang's grandson was only seven or eight years old, so he climbed to the man’s bedside and traced his outline with his fingers, and then said with surprise in his voice[5], “Grandpa, he’s mixed race, I’m sure.”

Doctor Wang said “oh” and turned his head to discuss with Ding Xiaowei, “Xiao Ding, this man is fine, the wound isn’t deep, the bleeding has stopped, but he can't sleep here. If he is your friend, you take him back home.”

Ding Xiaowei nodded in embarrassment, thinking about how to explain to his daughter when he went back.

Dr. Wang's clinic was only a hundred meters away from his home. Ding Xiaowei never felt that this was a long way before. However, walking this distance carrying a person on his back, in addition to this being a person who was taller and heavier than himself, could really make a person tired enough to spit out blood.[6]

Ding Xiaowei thought his obsession with money was embarrassing and disgraceful, but he had gotten the person here, and he didn’t want to waste his previous effort. Besides, how could he throw a comatose patient to the roadside in the middle of the night?

When he got home, he didn't have time to fish out the key before the door was suddenly opened.

The little Lingling raised her small face, not very happy, and immediately widened her eyes when she saw that there was another person being carried on her father's back.

Ding Xiaowei gave her an embarrassed smile, and with a big effort brought the man into the room and put him on the sofa, “Lingling, close and lock the door.”

The little girl obediently took the key and locked the door, then immediately after bounced on him, gesturing in sign language, and asked her father who this person was.

Ding Xiaowei said, “This uncle is father's friend. He had an accident and was injured. Now he will stay in our house for a few days. This uncle is very pitiful, Lingling, don't be scared.”

The little girl nodded, glanced at the man, and asked with a gesture, “He is injured, has he encountered a bad guy?”

Ding Xiaowei nodded.

“Is he a bad guy too?”

Ding Xiaowei was dumbfounded.

He slapped his forehead and felt that he had again committed a foolish act. He never thought about what to do if this guy wasn’t an honest person.

He was just momentarily obsessed with bringing this person back home, who the hell knew what this person did.

Maybe he was involved with organized crime, maybe he was a thief, maybe he was...

How could he be so stupid, he should have called the police directly when he saw him, yet he even brought the person inside his home, why was he this crazy because of money!

Ding Xiaowei angrily sat down on the sofa, anxiously watching the man.

His little daughter shook his knees and blinked her eyes at him.

Ding Xiaowei patted Lingling's head, “Did you take a bath?”

Lingling nodded.

“It's so late, hurry up and go to bed. Even if you don't have to go to kindergarten tomorrow, you must still develop a good habit of going to bed early and getting up early.”

The little girl nodded cutely and hugged Ding Xiaowei's neck to ask him for a kiss.

Ding Xiaowei deliberately used the stubble on his chin to rub against the little girl's delicate skin.

The little girl let out a faint laugh, kissed him lightly on the cheek before running back to her room with heavy steps.

Ding Xiaowei looked at the still unconscious person on the sofa, somewhat worried.

He stood up first and took off the unlucky bastard’s clothes.[7]

This must originally have been a very nice suit, but now it looked wrinkled like a dried plum, and in addition it was still damp. One would certainly get a fever by wearing it for an entire night.

As soon as he started undressing the man, he discovered that this person had a very good figure. Looking at him, he couldn't help but feel a little jealous, thinking that this unlucky bastard was indeed very dedicated to his work, with his bulging chest and rock-hard stomach. Usually, one wouldn’t have to work hard to practice this line of work.[8]

They say ‘love what you do’, and it would be possible to attract lonely, insufferable rich women’s pampering just with such a face and figure, so being covered in gold and silver[9] wasn’t unreasonable.

Fortunately, the height difference between the two wasn’t too much. After Ding Xiaowei put his own pajamas on the man, he began to consider the possibility that he might be a bad guy.

Finally, he came up with a cheap trick and tied the man up with a rope.

He didn’t tie him up too severely, just tied his two hands together and tied one of his feet to the coffee table, thinking that if he was going to make any movement at night, Ding Xiaowei would be able to hear it, as his room was close to the living room.

After finishing all of this, Ding Xiaowei finally went to sleep with a peaceful mind.

He wasn’t aware of how long it took, but Ding Xiaowei was woken up by a rattling sound. He quickly jumped out of bed and looked at the dawning light in the sky outside, it was only around five or six o'clock.

He hurriedly ran to the living room and turned on the light.

The moment he turned on the light, he heard a muffled cry. Ding Xiaowei went around to the sofa and stared blankly at the sorry figure of the man who had fallen to the ground, with the rope wrapped around his hands and foot.

The man's face was pale, his expression was a bit vicious, looking straight at him with an ice-cold gaze.

Ding Xiaowei saw that he had opened his mouth, with a hoarse voice coming out of his throat: “Who are you and what do you want?”

Ding Xiaowei crouched down, “Didn't you pass out before? What’s the matter? Does your head still hurt?” It was too dark when he brought the man back, in addition he had been both tired and nervous, so he didn’t pay real attention to his head, but now he discovered that the hair on this man's head had been shaved into a complete mess. A chunk of the middle was bald, it looked pretty funny. He couldn't help wanting to touch the man’s head, and he couldn’t keep the smile expression off his own face.

The man dodged him fiercely and coldly said, “What is that you want?”

Ding Xiaowei smiled a bit, “What are you afraid of, can I kidnap you ah[10]? Why don't you quickly say thanks to me, you were lying on the beach with a hole in your head, if I hadn't picked you up and brought you back, you would have been in tomorrow’s newspaper.”

The man was stunned and raised both his hands, “What’s the meaning of this?”

Ding Xiaowei glanced at the rope and felt a bit embarrassed. No matter who it happened to, to wake up and discover that you had been tied up would make anyone feel agitated.

“Actually, I was worried, wouldn’t you fall down on the floor if you didn't sleep well?”

The man’s eyes glared with distrust.

Ding Xiaowei didn't want to untie him either, so he asked, “Hey, what did you do, who did you offend? Do you want to call your family and get someone to come pick you up?”

The man looked at him for a few seconds, the expression on his face slowly regained its calmness. He raised his hands towards Ding Xiaowei, “Untie the rope for me.”

Ding Xiaowei made a "tsk" sound, touched his half-inch[11], “Bro, I took you back in a moment of kindness, even without knowing your background, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but I also have a child here at home....”

Hearing these words, the man slowly leaned against the sofa and looked at him in silence.

His gaze made Ding Xiaowei feel somewhat nervous.

The expression in this person's eyes was too sharp, his eyes were clearly devoid of emotion, yet when he stared at a person his gaze seemed to penetrate the flesh. Being subject to such a stare, Ding Xiaowei subconsciously felt a guilty conscience.

Ding Xiaowei swallowed, “No, in any case you can tell me what’s your name, what do you do, where are you from, uhm, and so on.”

The man tilted his head, his gleaming eyes wavering, and quietly opened his mouth to say, “I don't remember.”

Ding Xiaowei didn't understand at first, “What?”

“I don't remember anything.”

Ding Xiaowei was stunned. What the fuck was the meaning of this? Don’t remember? That hole in his head didn’t cause his IQ to leak out, right? Is this the so-called amnesia? Is this real or fake?

Ding Xiaowei still didn't believe it, so he shook his hand in front of him in a daze, “Dude, are you alright? I think you're quite awake.”

The man nodded, “I'm awake now, but I can't remember anything.”

Ding Xiaowei sat his butt down on the ground and looked at him like he was a freak.

The first thought that struck his mind was, this guy wasn’t trying to swindle him, right? By pretending to have amnesia he wanted to stay at his house, eat for free, live for free, otherwise, why would he want him to believe such a bullshit thing?

The man was still very calm and collected, with clear eyes.

“Dude, are you kidding me?”

He shook his head, “I really don't remember, do you know me?”

Ding Xiaowei stared blankly at him for a long while, then pushed himself up from the floor. “I'll go back to sleep in a bit, wait for me to wake up, then I'll show you around a bit.”

The man called out, “About the rope.”

Ding Xiaowei turned back and sent him a stiff smile, “I’ll keep you tied up for now.”

-

“It should be a temporary memory loss caused by the violent blow; he may be able to recover after a while.”

The doctor pondered a bit with a frowning face before coming to this conclusion.

Ding Xiaowei was clenching the bill for the examination inside his pocket, feeling distressed about the money. When he heard such a vague diagnosis, it really pissed him off.

“Then with him like this, when will he be able to recover?”

“This is hard to say, could be tomorrow, could be several years, but generally this would be classified as a short-term memory loss, depending on luck it should not take long to recover.” The young doctor said while texting, without even raising his head.

“Fuck me.” Ding Xiaowei sat half paralyzed on the chair like a deflated ball, looking at the innocent face of the handsome duck sitting next to him, and felt his brain hurting.

If time could flow backwards, he would definitely grab his own self from last night and give him two big slaps on the face.

You money-crazed person!

You money-crazed person!

You picked up a living, adult person who can’t remember his first or his last name, and it’s even a fucking man, can you turn him away now, huh? Such a worthless nobody, will keeping him enable you to put food on the table?!

Ding Xiaowei sighed with worry.

When the two of them walked home together, Ding Xiaowei was three steps behind the other, staring at him with probing, peeping eyes, trying to get some clues from the expression on his face.

Yet the man turned out to be quite calm, and just said that memory loss is simply memory loss, being completely unambiguous about it.

Afterwards, when they finally got home, Ding Xiaowei handed him the wet clothes he took off him yesterday. “Look at these things, don't you recall anything? These valuable things in your hands aren’t something I’ve given you. Seeing this, can you remember anything? Maybe you have an important father worth tens of billions of yuan who’s waiting for you to go back and inherit the fortune. If you really can't remember, you might miss out on a huge sum of money, eh?”

The man took the coat, patted it, and suddenly put his hand inside the inner pocket.

Ding Xiaowei looked at his hand, and sure enough, from the coat’s interior he fished out a red card which had already turned into a soft lump from having been soaked in water, but it seemed to have been an invitation or something similar.

When turning over the soft mass of paper, the words on it have been blurred beyond recognition, only the name at the top of the head was still barely recognizable.

“Mr. Zhou Jinxing?” Ding Xiaowei tilted his neck and read aloud, “Is that your name?”

The man shook his head, nodding. “It probably is.”

“Alright, you can just use it for the time being.” Ding Xiaowei stood up. “Come on, I'll take you to the Public Security Bureau[12] and report you as a missing person.”

Zhou Jinxing threw his jacket aside and leaned back on the sofa with a calm expression, “Really?”

“Why not? That way you can find your family to take you away sooner. Your family must be very anxious, eh?”

Zhou Jinxing stroked the ring on his hand with his slender fingers and smiled gently at Ding Xiaowei and said: “I haven't asked your name yet, have I?”

Ding Xiaowei was stunned for a moment, “My surname is Ding, Ding Xiaowei, it’s okay to just call me Ding Ge[13].” This good-looking person was so different, his smile was really radiant enough to fucking light up the entire humble surroundings[14].

“Brother Ding.” Zhou Jinxing took off the ring from his hand. “You saved me and took me home to give me shelter. I don't know how to thank you enough, take this ring, ok?”

Ding Xiaowei swallowed, his eyes evasive, “So what, it's not a big deal, whoever saw you like that would have to help, wouldn’t they? We’re all Chinese, why, you’re Chinese yourself right...”

Zhou Jinxing looked at him with a faint smile[15] and pushed the ring into his hand, “Thank you.”

Ding Xiaowei blushed a bit, he used to think that wearing a wedding ring was kind of uncomfortable, but now that he held this ring in his hand, words couldn’t describe comfortable and satisfying it felt[16].

Suddenly a golden light seemed to shine brightly on this unlucky bastard who he originally regarded as a big nuisance, making him want to make a salute. Even the guy’s half-bald head looked extremely handsome.

“Then let's go to the police station now?”

Zhou Jinxing smiled and said, “Let’s not go to the police station, I don't know how they will handle me when I go there. I don't know anyone now, I'm still only familiar with you. I would like to stay at your house for a while, would that be okay, Ding Ge?”

Ding Xiaowei's heart and eyes were full of that ring. How could he say no at a time like this, especially when the other one called him “Ding Ge”[17] left and right. He nodded and said, “Alright, no problem, no problem, you can stay as long as you want, stop being so polite[18] with me.”

Zhou Jinxing raised his chin, looked up at him and smiled.

-

Thoughts on chapter 2

So, do you really think Zhou Jinxing has amnesia? Also is it just me or is Ding Xiaowei getting surprisingly flustered around the mysterious Mr. Zhou? And isn’t it weird that someone with amnesia doesn’t want to go to the police and report himself missing, but instead decides to stay with a random guy who saved him? Of course future chapters will tell what the deal is with our mysterious hottie, but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a while to find out…

Bonus: 188 boys group – from worst to mildest ML (the translator’s totally biased opinion)

1. Shao Qun: Sissy – the kind of boy who breaks his favorite toy and then cries about it afterwards

2. Qu Moyu: Alpha Predator – in urgent need of a beating

3. Song Juhan: Years of Intoxication – maybe the lowest EQ among the whole bunch

4. Luo Yi: Additional Inheritance – psycho behavior isn’t good for your relationship

5. Li Yu: In Love with an Idiot – deserves a prize for being able to handle Jian Suiying

6. Zhao Jinxin: Winner Takes All – being a green tea bitch will only get you so far

7. Yan Mingxiu: Professional Body Double – please consider your life choices

8. Zhou Jinxing: Grey Uncle – best boss bitch moment

9. Yuan Yang: Beloved Enemy – why you should always prioritize data safety

10. Yu Fengcheng: My Little Poplar – DTR (define the relationship)

11. Gong Yingxian: Blazing Armour – baby boy

There’s one thing that is set in stone when it comes to scum ranking for the 188 gongs: Shao Qun from Sissy is the absolute worst.

But besides Mr. Scum President, it’s up for debate who ranks highest in terms of scum behavior. Our dear ML from Grey Uncle is quite far down the list, partly because he’s one of the least abusive and villainous. Is he a scum? Yes, absolutely (not really a spoiler since this is the basic premise of almost all 188 novels). Is he worse than Yuan Yang from Beloved Enemy or less terrible than Yan Mingxiu, Lu Yi, and Zhao Jinxin? I’m not sure, but I will say that personally I was way angrier at Zhou Jinxing (let’s see if you get as mad as me when we get to that point, dear reader) than at wolfdoggy YY, who has a surprisingly high EQ and early dedication to his shou compared to his brothers. It’s also a question of what’s worse – physical abuse (e.g. rape) vs. psychological cruelty? I feel that sometimes the psychological abuse outweighs the physical abuse in the series. But read the books and judge for yourself.

I think Song Juhan is still officially recognized as the ‘vice president’ of the scum club, but personally I feel that Qu Moyu, the little 11th brother, recently outdid him and deserves the title now. I’m rooting for you, Moyu, but I’m also going to relish in it when you’ll inevitably get your just desserts and get sent to the ICU!

Oh, and Yu Fengcheng isn’t a scum, just a bit of a bully and with the typical dumb, insensitive behavior that always lands the MLs in trouble. On the other hand, Gong Yingxian is a treasure and shouldn’t even be on the list of scums. While I would run far away from any of the other MLs in real life, I would wrap Yingxian in a blanket, give him a mug of hot cocoa, and call Ren Yi (his shou) to come and pick him up, like you do when a kid gets lost. He’s a precious cinnamon roll who must be protected at all cost.

Also there’s now a Reddit group for fans of the 188 boys group! Good place to discuss the books no matter whether you’re reading your first novel in the 188 series or like me have obsessively plowed through, cough, I mean, casually read the series.

[1] 叔 – originally means one’s father’s or husband’s younger brother, but is often used as a nickname for an older male acquaintance that one has a somewhat close relationship with. So DXW isn’t actually the boy’s uncle

[2] specifically his maternal grandfather

[3] 倒霉鬼 – unlucky ghost/demon, same phrase as in last chapter, but I think this is the best equivalent in English

[4] 小 – means little, and is often used as a nickname for friends, family, and acquaintances who are younger than yourself

[5] lit. in a novel manner or 新奇地说

[6] trope in Chinese literature and movies/dramas, can come from injury or agitation – it’s a manner of speech here

[7] 倒霉蛋 can actually be translated as ‘poor devil’, but since I already used that term earlier instead of 鬼/ghost, and 蛋 actually means ‘egg’, I’m changing it here. I’m trying to switch the words around a bit whenever SQC does it, and the frustrating part is when there are fewer words with the same meaning in English – also some words have several meanings/associations in Chinese, and English just can’t capture all of them, which is a bit sad

[8] original sentence is 平时没下功夫练不出来吧 and I’m not sure I really got the correct meaning out of it

[9] idiom 穿金戴银, lit. ‘dripping with gold and silver’

[10] Actually, it’s 呀/ya – but it’s the equivalent of 啊/a (like saying ‘ah/oh’, ‘what’ or similar exclamations without a real meaning except it adds to the speaker’s tone), which is used a lot in Chinese and is kind of an exclamation. I don’t want to use too many of these in the translation since it gets confusing, but some expressions just don’t really translate, and leaving them out take away a lot of the meaning

[11] Okay, I had to give up on this sentence – in the raws it’s 摸了摸自己的半寸 – maybe I’ll figure it out later and can come back and correct it

[12] 公安局similar to a police station

[13] 哥 or ‘Ge’means older brother in Chinese, but just like you can call an elder male acquaintance ‘shu/uncle’, you can call a slightly older man ‘Ge’if you’re familiar with him. Also something you can call someone close to you – like your boyfriend - or 哥哥/Gege if you want to be flirting😉

[14] 蓬荜生辉 peng bi sheng hui – idiom, means something like ‘Your presence brings light to my humble dwelling’, which is a self-deprecating polite phrase when receiving a visit or a gift from someone. And it’s Ding Xiaowei thinking this just because Zhou Jinxing smiles at him. And all I want to know is, exactly how hot is our mysterious stranger?! I’m getting serious Song Juhan or Fan Wushe vibes here (aka top hotness level in the SQC universe)

[15] 笑非笑 – from the idiom ‘a smile that’s not a smile’. 非笑 can also mean ‘to ridicule’- so Zhou Jinxing is kind of laughing at Ding Xiaowei’s befuddled speech, but not really in a nice way as far as I understand

[16] So I’m not a 100% sure I’ve translated this entirely correct – for transparency the original sentence is 以前觉得结婚戒指带着都咯手

[17] I can just imagine Zhou Jinxing saying this with sweet, pitiful eyes, LOL. Ding Ge, you really are easy to lure in

[18] 客气 can also mean ‘modest’ or ‘formal’ – so ZJX is basically being extra polite and DXW is telling him to be more relaxed and informal with him.