Chapter Ninety-Three: Framed

After Qin Anyi left Zheng Sining’s home, he checked the time and saw that it was only around two in the afternoon, the hottest part of the day. Beneath the blazing sun, the restlessness in his heart seemed to be slowly evaporating. Now and then, his mind still wandered back to Zheng Sining’s flawless body. Even so, from the standpoint of build alone, Wang Yiran ought to have been even more...

In the depths of his subconscious, Qin Anyi simply did not want Wang Yiran to know about anything like this. Although Wang Yiran had never clearly stated anything, Qin Anyi’s mind had already, without his realizing it, begun to treat himself as Wang Yiran’s lover. Men may be naturally inclined to wander; no matter how loyal a man may be, he will never truly mind a little fleeting romance with other beautiful women. But in the end, there is always a trace of guilt in the heart.

Qin Lianshan wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead with a sweeping motion of his arm under the scorching sun. His undershirt was already soaked through. The three other men, about his age, were also wiping their sweat and panting hard.

Though the weather was stiflingly hot, none of them was willing to spend money on a bottle of ice water to cool off. They merely found a patch of shade and rested for a while.

“All right, fellas, we’ve rested for about ten minutes. Let’s put in a little more effort and get this wardrobe upstairs. Then we can call it a day!” Qin Lianshan clapped his hands and called out loudly.

This was Qin Anyi’s father’s job: he worked as a mover for a moving company. His hours were irregular, his pay was irregular, and often he rose before dawn and worked until late at night, exhausting himself for a whole month only to earn less than two thousand yuan.

And that money had once made up the overwhelming majority of the family’s living expenses.

“Lianshan, your son’s in his final year of high school now, right? How are his grades? Any chance he can get into Capital University? Tsk tsk, a top student from Green River First High. You really did raise a fine son,” said one of the men, stamping out the cigarette butt between his fingers with an envious look on his face.

“Yeah, he’s in his final year now. His grades are still pretty stable. Capital University is out of the question, though. Our family has held him back too much. But with his current marks, getting into a good university shouldn’t be a problem.” A proud, heartfelt smile spread across Qin Lianshan’s face as he spoke.

To him, in more than forty years of life, the greatest thing he had ever done was father Qin Anyi.

“Wonderful. Unlike our little brat. He’s never studied properly since he was a kid, always likes running off to fight and make trouble with other people. No matter how hard I beat him, he never learns.” The man sighed in admiration and went on, “Lianshan, you must have earned a blessing in a past life to raise such a good son. When he gets into university, you have to call the rest of us over for a drink no matter what.”

“Don’t worry. As long as my son gets into a top university, the drinks are on me. We’ll celebrate properly!” Qin Lianshan said with a laugh. He then tugged the three men back aboard the truck parked by the roadside, and together they lifted out the final large piece of furniture.

It was a wardrobe, nearly two meters tall and half a meter wide, made of solid wood, and therefore extremely heavy. Even the four of them, all used to physical labor, found it burdensome.

“Come on, guys, a little more! Let’s get this big fellow up in one shot!” Qin Lianshan shouted, and the four of them once again exerted themselves to hoist the wardrobe...

“Damn it, this is a brand-new Passat. We bought it less than a month ago and now it’s got such a huge scratch. If we go through insurance, next year’s premium is definitely going to go up. If we don’t, it’ll cost at least several thousand yuan to fix. Hell!”

A few meters away from Qin Lianshan and the others, a young man in a black tank top cursed with a look of misfortune on his face. Beside him stood a brown, brand-new Passat, its sleek lines highly pleasing to the eye. Unfortunately, the obvious scratch on the door had ruined the beauty of the whole car, and it was no wonder the young man was so upset.

“Xiangzi, isn’t this car Brother Pang’s? Wasn’t it bought specially to celebrate his latest promotion? If we don’t get that scratch removed soon, and Brother Pang blows his top, we’ll all be in deep trouble,” another young man said anxiously through clenched teeth.

“Yeah, we at least need to give Brother Pang a reasonable explanation. You took the car out to cruise around and chase girls, and then you scratched it yourself. We absolutely can’t say that kind of thing. Brother Pang will be here in a minute, right?” the other three, about the same age as the two, chimed in one after another.

All five of them had crew cuts and similar builds.

“Yeah, it was bought with the boss’s money to celebrate Brother Pang’s promotion. The boss paid for it and let Brother Pang use it as his new ride for a month to break it in. And now look at this. Think of something, will you? You want me dead or what?”

Xiangzi spat on the ground and swore repeatedly.

“There.” The young man standing beside Xiangzi nudged his arm with his elbow and tilted his chin toward Qin Lianshan’s group.

“What is it?”

Xiangzi looked over and saw Qin Lianshan and the other three struggling to carry a large wardrobe. They seemed to be trying to take it up the apartment building, but because the wardrobe was so heavy, their pace was slow.

“Come on, you’re usually so quick-witted. Why are you being so slow now?” the man said, patiently leading him on. “Those four movers are concentrating entirely on the wardrobe. That thing is heavy as hell. If it scratches the car by accident, that’s perfectly normal. Naturally, they should pay for the repairs.”

“Right!” Xiangzi slapped his hand and his eyes lit up.

Without hesitation, he jumped into the car, started it, made a sharp U-turn, and parked the Passat directly in the path ahead of Qin Lianshan and the others.

At the same time, one of the other young men dashed out from the group and rushed to the side of Qin Lianshan and the others.

At that moment, all four movers had their attention on the wardrobe. Qin Lianshan and one other man were carrying it from the front, so they were constantly checking the surroundings while shouting instructions to the two men walking backward.

When he saw the Passat suddenly stop beside them, Qin Lianshan immediately called out to warn them, in case they brushed against it, which would mean a lot of trouble.

People in this line of work had to be not only strong but careful. Otherwise, not only would they fail to earn money, they might even have to make up losses out of their own pockets.

“Lin Hai, watch your back. A car just stopped here. Don’t scratch it. Let’s shift our direction a bit.” Qin Lianshan continued shouting.

But just as the words left his mouth, one of the young men who had run over from the five suddenly slammed into the mover directly opposite Qin Lianshan.

The mover was already straining under the enormous weight of the wardrobe. With that collision, he immediately lost his balance, and the whole wardrobe lurched violently!

“Push! Push! Hold it steady! Lin Hai!”

Qin Lianshan could only watch as the person who had jumped out of nowhere shoved his partner and then ran for it. There was nothing he could do to stop him, and all he could do was throw all his strength into dealing with the crisis in front of him.

With a harsh screech, even though the four of them exerted all their strength and desperately tried to correct the tilt, the wardrobe was simply too heavy. The mover who had been hit had lost the use of one arm for the moment, and although they managed to prevent the whole thing from collapsing, they still could not fully control it. One corner of the wardrobe left a clear scratch on the front door of the Passat that had just been parked there...

Fortunately, the side of the Passat had provided just enough cushioning; otherwise, the four of them might truly have been unable to control the wardrobe at all.

“I fucking knew it! Are you all trying to die or what!”