The IOU was for Jiang Nuomi's medical expenses; the time, place, and how much was owed was written in great detail and clear at a glance.
"You paid Jiang Nuomi's treatment fees. I don't have money to give you yet, so I can only owe you first." Jiang Li explained, although looking at Chi Fang's behavior these days, he certainly would not mind this in his heart, but he couldn't let it go like that.
Chi Fang stood up from the floor and didn't take the IOU from his hand. Although he was expressionless, his tone had changed a little, "Did I ask you to pay?"
"No." Jiang Li shook his head. "But this is not a small amount, I can't take advantage of you. I will…"
In Chi Fang's consciousness, Jiang Nuomi was picked up by him and Jiang Li together, the two had also visited and cared for in the hospital together these days, so for him, Jiang Nuomi belonged to both of them.
So now, how Jiang Li acted as if he was drawing a clear line between the both of them made him really unhappy. He interrupted his words without hesitation, "You also know that this is not a small amount, can you even afford to pay back like this? Do you think Jiang Nuomi is yours alone? Don't be so self-asserted!"
The moment he said those words, Ch Fang realized he had said the wrong thing. He noticed Jiang Li had a momentary daze and wanted to explain, but when thought of Jiang Li being so heartless he pursed his lips and still didn't say anything.
In the previous life, Jiang Nuomi was given to Jiang Li by Jiang Zhan, and with the relationship between Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan, Jiang Nuomi was raised by the two of them by default. In this life, without Jiang Zhan's presence, Jiang Li subconsciously thought that Jiang Nuomi was his own, ignoring Chi Fang's stance.
Chi Fang's words reminded Jiang Li that this was indeed his mistake.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think it through." Jiang Li took back the IOU and put it back in his school bag.
When Chi Fang saw this, he thought to himself, you're tactful enough. The next second, he saw Jiang Li pull out his notebook and pen from his school bag and re-write another one.
Chi Fang: "…" WTF?
Jiang Li handed the re-written IOU to Chi Fang. "I reduced the medical fee by half, now it's reasonable."
"Reasonable?" Chi Fang simply wanted to pry open his head to see if he had brains or shits in his head, he was so poor that he had to earn tuition by working during the summer, and now he still took the initiative to write IOUs, "Are you crazy? Don't you know how to take advantage?"
"Yes." Jiang Li saw that he didn't take the IOU, directly pulled his hand and stuffed it in his hand, "But I don't want to take advantage. You are a good person, I can't let you suffer a loss."
Once Chi Fang heard the words "good person" now, he could feel the veins on his forehead pounding. Pinching the note in his hand, he said as he gritted his teeth, "Put away your good person card, Laozi is getting a headache hearing it."
Jiang Li pursed his lips and smiled a little, bent down to carry up Jiang Nuomi, and said to him, "Then I'll go back first, should I carry Jiang Nuomi back first?"
Chi Fang looked at the little guy nestling obediently in his arms, thinking that if he kept it here, he would probably fight with it, so he said with displeasure, "Take him with you, the little ungrateful thing is annoying to look at."
Jiang Nuomi saw his expression and meowed at him and made threatening gestures with its paws.
"Fine then, I'm leaving, you tell the old man for me when he comes back from playing chess." Jiang Li said, picked up his school bag, and left.
Chi Fang opened the IOU in his hand and looked at it. It clearly stated how much Jiang Li owed him. He calculated Jiang Li's salary at the cafe; even if Jiang Li didn't eat or drink, it would take at least half a year to pay back.
"What an idiot." Chi Fang muttered, "Don't even know how to take advantage, how is he going to repay it back?"
"Clatter–"
The door of the living room opened from the outside, and the old man walked in, only to see Chi Fang in the living room, and asked, "Xiao Li has gone back?"
Chi Fang stuffed the IOU in his hand into his pocket. "He just left, didn't you run into each other?"
"No." The old man waved his hand, closed the door behind him, and walked in, "How did you learn tonight? Did you get used to it?"
"It's still fine." Chi Fang took the old man's water cup, poured him a cup of warm water, and placed it on the coffee table.
The old man picked it up and took a sip. "Xiao Li is a good boy, you should learn from him well. The boy was reluctant to accept the tutoring fee at first, saying that you had saved him before and wanted to return your kindness. I insisted on giving it, only then was he willing to receive half of the money."
"He didn't want a tuition fee?" Chi Fang frowned, "Isn't he crazy? He can't even afford to pay the school's tuition fee and he still doesn't want to be paid for tutoring make-up classes."
"Can't afford to pay tuition fees?" The old man froze when he heard. "What's going on?"
Chi Fang didn't know Jiang Li's family situation very well, he only said that his parents didn't care about him and he was now working in a cafe to earn tuition fees.
When the old man heard this, he was furious with Jiang Li's parents. "What kind of parents are they? It's bad luck that such a good kid like Xiao Li has such parents!"
After saying that, he said to Chi Fang, "You are in the same school with him, help him a little more usually, and don't let others bully him, understand?"
"I know." Chi Fang answered, taking a glance at the wall clock. "It's almost eleven o'clock, you should hurry back to bed."
"Okay, okay, okay, you also hurry to wash up and go to sleep." The old man said and went back to his room.
Chi Fang also went back to his room, took out the IOU from his pocket and put it in the drawer, took his clothes, and prepared to take a shower. As he passed by the living room where Jiang Li was standing before, he found a key on the floor.
The key was Jiang Li's, he probably dropped it when he was emptying his school bag earlier and it happened to fall on the blanket laid for Jiang Nuomi to play with. There was no sound so neither of them noticed.
Chi Fang went back to his room to take his phone and call Jiang Li, who didn't pick up the call after Chi Fang called twice.
Worried about Jiang Li wouldn't be able to get into his house when he arrived, Chi Fang told the old man and then went out with the key.
The old town where Jiang Li lived was not far from the South Slope Street where Chi Fang lived, but Chi Fang had not been to Jiang Li's house and only heard him mentioning the approximate location. He went downstairs and rode his bicycle out of the neighborhood.
…
…
When Jiang Li left Chi Fang's house, he had already missed the last bus. He waited at the bus stop for a while, intending to hail a cab to go back. He waited for ten minutes, but there wasn't a single cab that passed by, so he finally had to choose to walk back.
The good thing was that the two districts were not too far apart; he estimated that after a forty-minute walk he would be able to reach his house.
There was no nightlife in the small county, almost all the stores on both sides of the street were closed and had their lights out. There were also not many pedestrians on the road, only a few people who rushed in the opposite direction occasionally.
As Jiang Li walked for a while carrying Jiang Nuomi, he suddenly heard rapid footsteps behind him. His sense of alertness made him hasten his footsteps and he heard System notifying him in his mind urgently, "Host, be careful behind you!"
At the same time, Jiang Li's ears keenly heard the sound of wind and subconsciously dodged to the side to avoid the attack from behind. He looked back and found several people rushing up from behind to stop him.
There were four people stopping Jiang Li. Some were wearing singlets, some wearing flowery shirts; all with a naughty appearance. Two of them even had large black tattoos on their arms.
These people were holding wooden sticks in their hands, looking at Jiang Li maliciously..
Cats were more sensitive to danger, so as soon as it saw these people, Jiang Nuomi – who was in Jiang Li's embrace – purred twice uneasily.
Jiang Li patted the cage soothingly and whispered "Don't be afraid" before looking up at the people. "What do you guys want?"
"Nothing." The man standing directly across from Jiang Li laughed twice, "It's just that someone paid us to treat you well."
Jiang Li didn't remember these people in the original host's memory, and the original host was not someone who would find trouble, so he couldn't recall for the moment who was trying to get into trouble with him.
"Qiang ge, the cat in that cage of his seems to be a ragdoll cat." One of them said to the man who had just spoken, "I've heard people say that this breed of cat doesn't sell cheap, should we…"
He didn't finish his sentence, but everyone present knew what he meant.
An expensive breed of cat could be sold for quite a lot of money.
Jiang Li took a small step back slightly holding Jiang Nuomi's cage and looked warily at the people in front of him, planning what it would take to beat the group without hurting Jiang Nuomi.
There were only four people, it was not a difficult task for him, the more troublesome matter was that he was afraid that they would snatch Jiang Nuomi.
Qiang ge listened to his subordinate's words, his gaze averted towards the cage in Jiang Li's arms, he then signaled the man on the left with a wink. "Let's do it."
The man on the left nodded and walked towards Jiang Li, swinging his stick violently a few steps away from him and was about to smash him. Jiang Li moved his feet and was about to avoid it when a bicycle suddenly rushed out from the left, coming into their line of sight overbearingly and knocking the man directly to the ground.
"Bzzt–"
The emergency brake sounded and the person on the bicycle stepped on the ground, stabilizing the body of the bicycle. He looked at the people surrounding Jiang Li in front of him, his tone cold and harsh, "Chen Qiang, I didn't beat you to death last time, so you have the opportunity to come out again today, right?"
"Chi Fang?!"
Jiang Li and Chen Qiang both responded when they saw the person who came, the former was surprised, the latter was shocked out of fear.
Chi Fang sat on his bicycle and whistled back at Jiang Li, "Yo."
"Why are you here?" Jiang Li looked at him in surprise, not understanding how he could suddenly appear.
"You left your key at my house and didn't answer your phone, so I brought it to you." Chi Fang explained, he rode all the way over earlier. He was afraid that he was not able to catch up with Jiang Li so he rode a little fast. He rode past Jiang Li and Chen Qiang's gang in a flash, fortunately, he returned back again.
Jiang Li didn't hear the phone ring at all, only to find out that his phone was muted when he fished it out from his pocket.
Chi Fang got off the bicycle, looking down at the person who was still holding his legs and moaning on the ground and kicked the other party with the tip of the foot. "What are you simply screaming for? Are you trying to pick a fight?"
The other party covered his feet and got up, hiding behind Chen Qiang.
Chen Qiang once had a conflict with Chi Fang. At that time, Chi Fang broke two of his teeth, he still remembered this revenge. The reason that he didn't take the initiative to find Chi Fang was that: one, he was unable to beat him, two, he was afraid of the power of Chi Fang's family. He didn't expect to meet him again on this day.
He looked at Chi Fang with a grim face. "Chi Fang, today's matter has nothing to do with you, I don't want to start a conflict with you. Hurry up and get out of the way."
Chi Fang picked up the stick on the ground, weighed it in his hand twice, looked at Chen Qiang, and smiled, but the smile didn't reach the bottom of his eyes. "You're going to take action on my xiongdi, but you said it has nothing to do with me? Are you an idiot?"
Chi Fang thought that if he came just one step later, Jiang Li, a weak chicken would be beaten into a dog (meaning that his face is going to swell like a dog after all the beatings). A wave of anger rose rapidly in his heart. Holding the stick in his hand, he pushed Jiang Li to the side. "Be obedient and watch here, gege will bring you home after cleaning up this group of trash."
Jiang Li: "…"
Jiang Li didn't know if he should laugh or cry towards Chi Fang's self-proclaimed address. He was a person who had lived two lives, how could he, a high school brat, be an older brother?
But Jiang Li still listened to his words, obediently watching from the sidelines, and didn't have the intention to help; because he had previously heard Feng Yu say Chi Fang was once the champion of the national mixed martial arts competition of the junior group when he was in junior high school.
Chi Fang was ruthless and forceful when he was beating people up. For him, cleaning up four people was just as easy as cutting vegetables. In ten minutes, Chen Qiang and the others were pressed on the neck by him and kneeling on the ground with bruised and swollen faces.
Throwing the stick in his hand on the ground, Chi Fang lifted his foot and kicked Chen Qiang, who was on his knees, to lie on the ground from behind, right in front of Jiang Li's position.
"Say. Sorry." He stomped on Chen Qiang's face, with unrestrained hostility still in his eyes.
"… So … sorry."
Chen Qiang spat out the word with difficulty, blood was all over the corners of his lips. After he opened his mouth, the other three also quickly apologized and begged for forgiveness.
Jiang Li held Jiang Nuomi up, squatted down, and asked Chen Qiang. "You said someone paid you to teach me a lesson just now, who was it?"
"Chen Jialin."
"Chen Jialin." Jiang Li frowned, remembering the day he ran into Chen Jialin in the bookstore. He didn't expect it to be him, but when he thought about it carefully, it made sense, Chen Jialin must be holding a grudge against him for beating him up in the first place.
"Who is Chen Jialin?" Chi Fang asked.
"Someone from our class." Jiang Li stood up and said to him, "Let them go."
"You're not going to beat them up?" Chi Fang's foot, which was stepping on Chen Qiang, didn't move. "They don't dare to resist now, so you can take revenge."
"It's okay, it's the same if you beat them up." Jiang Li said, Chi Fang didn't restrain when he beat them earlier, if he were to beat them up again, these people might not be able to be healed.
The phrase "It's the same if you beat them up" in Chi Fang's ears sounded the same as "You beating them up also means that I beat them up,", his heart inexplicably felt pleased. He then no longer dwelled on the matter and let go of his foot. "Fuck off, trash. "
After Chen Qiang and other people left by holding each other, Jiang Li said to Chi Fang, "You saved me again, I really don't know how to thank you, you are really …"
"Stop, you mustn't say that!" Chi Fang hurriedly stopped his words, deeply afraid that he would say the sentence "you are really a good person" again, "I beg you to shut up, okay?"
"What's wrong?" Jiang Li didn't understand, "You saved my life again, I really don't know how to thank you."
— The saving grace must be returned with one's lifelong devotion.
Feng Yu's phrase was simply everywhere. Chi Fang inexplicably jolted when he thought of it and he said on impulse: "You don't need to do anything, just don't fall in love with me!"
"??"
Jiang Li didn't understand why he suddenly talked about this but quickly realized that it was because the original host liked Xu Haowen, so he was afraid that he would fall in love with him.
As of now, Jiang Li had no intention of capturing Chi Fang and only wanted to maintain the favorability of being a friend. So for fear of his misunderstanding, he nodded and said, "Don't worry, it won't happen."
After saying that, he was afraid that Chi Fang still didn't believe him, so he added a sentence with a sincere tone, "I only have studies in my heart."
Chi Fang: "…"
Am I thinking too much, or are you fucking kidding me?