Chapter 3

Excitement waned, and Yang Tang, slightly dejected but not willing to give up, still made his way to the old street. As expected, he saw almost no antique stalls. After inquiring, he learned that the old street would completely ban street vendors starting from March 1st, so there had been almost no antique dealers setting up stalls since the beginning of the year.

Faced with this blow, Yang Tang felt uneasy. Not being able to find a bargain was not the main issue; the key was whether this meant he would lose his wife as well.

Fortunately, before his rebirth, Yang Tang was already in his thirties, approaching forty, and had the psychological resilience to handle such a situation. Or rather, his life experiences from his previous life taught him a lesson: whatever heaven decides, do your best and leave the rest to fate!

However, since he was already at the old street, Yang Tang decided to take a look around, even considering buying some cheap items. This was a habit he had developed over the years as a househusband, which he couldn't easily change.

Unfortunately, he didn't see any good deals along the way. When he reached the end of the street, he found a few antique stalls, with signs advertising clearance sales.

Yang Tang naturally didn't expect to find the big bargain from his previous life, but he still approached the stalls, joining a few others who were also browsing, unsure if they were shills.

"Boss, you say it's a clearance sale. How much are these items?" Yang Tang asked, picking up a bracelet.

The boss, with dead fish eyes, was smoking and reading a newspaper. Hearing the question, he glanced at Yang Tang indifferently and pointed to the largest pile of small items: "This pile is ten yuan, the middle pile is fifty, and the smallest pile is one hundred each!"

Upon hearing this, Yang Tang realized the boss wasn't selling antiques, as he wouldn't have set fixed prices. He didn't bother to look closely, just glanced over the items, noting the ones he liked without touching them to avoid the boss raising the price.

After a while, Yang Tang had selected a few items and gathered them in front of him: "Boss, these six items. Can you give me a discount? Fifty yuan, how about that?"

The boss didn't even look closely at the items Yang Tang had chosen. He glanced at the number and shape of the items, stared at Yang Tang with his dead fish eyes for two seconds, then moved his gaze, took another puff of his cigarette, and extended his hand from under his buttocks, holding up one finger: "Sixty yuan, or you take one less item!"

"Too expensive," Yang Tang muttered but still reached into his pocket to get the money.

The boss's lips curled into a smile, watching Yang Tang's actions without a word.

Yang Tang fumbled through his pocket, pulling out a handful of small bills—five and ten yuan, but no large denominations. He counted them and said with a difficult expression: "Boss, I only have about seventy yuan. I haven't secured this week's meal money yet. Can you give me these six items for fifty?"

"No way," the boss refused bluntly, "each item in that pile is ten yuan, no negotiation!"

Yang Tang made a pained expression, picked out the one with the roughest craftsmanship, and counted out fifty yuan, throwing it on the stall: "Give me a bag to put them in."

The boss casually pulled a black garbage bag from the leg of his stool and threw it to Yang Tang, then picked up the money, smoothed it out, and slowly put it away.

Yang Tang took the opportunity to put the five selected items into the garbage bag, carried it in his hand, and glanced at the stall before turning to leave.

Once out of sight of the stall, he smiled to himself, took out the five items from the garbage bag, and examined them closely. He kept one that looked like a thangka, and threw the other four rough items, along with the garbage bag, into the back of a garbage truck.

The thangka had a texture that was not quite gold, looked like jade at first glance, and felt like plastic upon closer inspection. It was less than half the size of a palm, with many strange patterns, seemingly forming a design, but Yang Tang couldn't figure out what it was after looking at it for a long time. He didn't feel that spending fifty yuan on this item was a waste; instead, he felt a small thrill of having found a good deal.

"Hmm, there's a hole on this thangka, probably for a string. Looks like I'll have to spend a bit more."

After leaving the old street, Yang Tang turned a few corners and arrived at the new street, where various small shops around the school were concentrated. Boarding students at the school usually ate at the new street if they didn't eat at school.

The new street had a variety of noodle shops, restaurants, hot pot places, and stir-fry restaurants. It also had the most pool halls, rental bookstores, and arcade rooms in the area. There were dry cleaners, small supermarkets, and markets at the street entrance. In short, except for very rare items, you could buy almost anything on the new street.

Yang Tang crossed the street and headed straight for the dry cleaner, not noticing a tall figure waving at him from the arcade room entrance.

******

Inside the arcade room, a blond guy smoking a cigarette asked the tall figure: "Hey, Da Fei, are you still playing?"

"I'm out of money, what can I play?" Da Fei replied.

"Want me to lend you some?"

The tall figure glared at the blond guy: "Er Huang, don't give me that crap. Unless you don't charge interest."

The blond guy, feeling uncomfortable under the tall figure's gaze, looked away: "The money is from Big Bi. How can there be no interest?"

"Then that's settled. Wait here, I'll go ask my brother for some money and come back to play!" The tall figure ignored Er Huang's attempts to stop him and left the arcade room.

Another guy with four ear piercings saw this and couldn't help but curse: "Er Huang, did you forget what Big Bi told you? You let Da Fei go just like that?"

"I didn't forget, but Da Fei is a top athlete, knows martial arts, and is a fierce fighter. He's not even eighteen yet. When he finds out we tricked him, will you take the blame or will I?"

The guy with four ear piercings: "……"

******

At this moment, Yang Tang had already entered the dry cleaner: "Boss, do you have any red string?"

The boss, a woman in her early forties with a lingering charm, was discussing a cleaning plan for a leather jacket with a female customer. Hearing Yang Tang's question, she subconsciously replied: "Red what?"

"Red string... to hang this." Yang Tang showed the thangka and put it back in his inner pocket.

"I have it, let me find it for you!" The boss, known for her scatterbrained nature, left the female customer and went to the cabinet, saying, "The cleaning plan I suggested is the best. Think about it!"

The female customer, who had brought the leather jacket for dry cleaning, heard the boss's words and looked angry. She immediately pulled the jacket back from the counter and said sharply: "If you can't dry clean it, I'll go to another store."

The boss, who was pretending to look for the red string, immediately objected: "Who said I can't?" She quickly rushed over and grabbed the bottom of the female customer's jacket.

Yang Tang saw this and was speechless, thinking the two women might start fighting. Before he could finish his thought, the female customer pulled hard.

"Whoosh—"

The bottom of the jacket slipped out of the boss's hand, drawing a beautiful arc and hitting the iron hanging above the counter.

Unfortunately, the iron was usually unplugged, but today the boss had plugged it in to iron a piece of clothing. The dry cleaning business for the leather jacket had fallen through, turning the iron into a dangerous weapon.

The iron, following a straight arc, headed straight for Yang Tang, with the hot surface facing him. Yang Tang, terrified, didn't try to dodge but instead covered his face and leaned back.

No matter what, he couldn't let his face get burned.

"Zzz—"

The iron landed squarely on Yang Tang's chest, the smell of burning flesh filling the air, causing the boss and the female customer to scream in horror.

Worse still, Da Fei, who had come to borrow money, was a bit reckless. Seeing Yang Tang get burned by the iron, his first reaction wasn't to help but to grab the boss and the female customer, shouting angrily: "My brother got burned in your store, pay up!"

******

An hour later, in the dormitory of the boarding students at the school.

Yang Tang lay on his bed, clutching his aching chest and cursing.

He never expected to suffer such an unexpected disaster while skipping class. Moreover, Da Fei's "timely" arrival had prevented the boss and the female customer from helping, prolonging the time he was burned by the iron.

The result was severe. At the hospital, the doctor solemnly told Yang Tang that his skin was burned and needed daily dressing changes to avoid infection, which could be very troublesome.

Fortunately, the boss and the female customer each paid Yang Tang a thousand yuan as compensation for medical expenses. Otherwise, the cost of the dressings would have been a significant burden for Yang Tang, and he couldn't let the school know, as his parents would find out if the school did.

Yang Tang, who had always felt guilty for not being able to get into a regular university after his parents had worked hard to support his education for over a decade, was deeply troubled.

He dozed off until evening, when the other three classmates in the dormitory returned. Seeing Yang Tang lying on the bed with what seemed to be bandages on his chest, they were all shocked.

The dorm leader, Tang Xun, was the most dramatic: "Third, no way, did my curse come true? I just told Panda Li this afternoon that you were sick, and you're really lying in bed?"

Panda Li, their female homeroom teacher, was in her early forties, not old, and had a decent appearance, but she loved makeup, especially around her eyes, which made her look like a panda. The boys in the class who didn't like her called her Panda Li in private.

"Bro, what happened to you?" the youngest in the dorm, Chen Song, also asked.

"Nothing serious, just a burn on my chest. I'll be fine in a couple of days."

The second oldest in the dorm, Duan Yibin, who was usually the quietest, frowned and said: "Do you need me to ask for another leave for you?"

"Absolutely not... I got burned outside of school, and I can't let the school know. If Panda Li asks tomorrow, tell her I have a fever and am sweating in the dorm."

"Got it. What do you want to eat tonight? I'll get it for you!" Duan Yibin added. Despite his few words, he was the closest to Yang Tang among the three, having met him during a basketball game in high school.

.

.

Page Flip AD Start

Page Flip AD End