Old Deng awakens: He starts by eliminating the yoga pants in the county town!

The wind along the river is cooler than in the city.

Moisture seeped up from under the bridge arch, carrying with it the smell of moss.

Lin Dawei's light truck was parked at the bridgehead.

The car headlights shone on them.

A chubby figure crouched in the shadow of the bridge arch.

Zhang Dahai leaned against the bridge pier, his clothes so dirty that their original color was no longer visible.

There was a half-empty bottle of baijiu (Chinese liquor) lying next to it.

Several pieces of paper were scattered on the ground: a franchise agreement, a receipt, and a rendering of a dessert shop with muddy imprints.

The picture shows white walls, warm lights, and glass shop windows.

It was as clean as Zhang Dahai's dream.

Lin Dawei got out of the car.

A river breeze blew, and my sweat-soaked short-sleeved shirt clung to my back.

He had just come from the gym; his muscles were still tingling and his stomach was empty.

But seeing Zhang Dahai's appearance, anger flared up first.

"If you really want to die, don't call me."

Zhang Dahai looked up, his eyes swollen, and there was a handprint on his face.

His lips trembled twice, but he couldn't utter a word.

Lin Dawei walked over and kicked the bottle of liquor on the ground.

The bottle rolled away and hit a bridge pier.

With a clang.

Zhang Dahai shrugged slightly.

"Making the call means you still want to live."

Lin Dawei squatted down and picked up a contract.

The paper was softened by the dampness from the riverbank, and it was covered with dense writing.

Party A.

Party B.

Brand management, voluntary assumption, and operational risks.

Lin Dawei didn't understand much.

But he recognized the words "voluntary" and "not responsible for anything".

These few words, like tiny razor blades, are sandwiched among a pile of beautiful phrases.

Zhang Dahai reached out to snatch the contract.

I tried to grab it, but missed; my fingers were shaking terribly.

"Stop looking."

"Shameful."

Lin Dawei flipped the contract over and glanced at the receipt again.

"How much?"

Zhang Dahai's Adam's apple bobbed.

"The franchise fee is 38,000 yuan."

"The equipment costs 62,000."

"The renovation... cost over 80,000."

"The first batch of raw materials, training, and design fees."

He wiped his face, his palm brushing against the slap mark, the skin turning red.

"It adds up to more than 200,000."

Lin Dawei remained silent.

Car headlights flashed by on the river.

The light reflected off the water, casting a play of light and shadow on Zhang Dahai's chubby face.

Zhang Dahai suddenly lowered his head.

"It's not all my money."

Lin Dawei's eyelids twitched. "What else?"

Zhang Dahai pulled out a stack of papers from his pocket.

Lin Dawei took it.

County Rural Commercial Bank, business loan, amount 80,000.

Lin Dawei's finger stopped.

The unpleasant image of Zhou Man's face in the bank lobby flashed through my mind.

He folded up the loan agreement and stuffed it into his pocket.

Zhang Dahai looked up at him.

"Dawei, I will pay you back. I didn't mean to renege on the debt."

"Right now... I don't know how to pay it back."

Lin Dawei stared at him.

"Where is that woman?"

Zhang Dahai's lips twitched.

He immediately lowered his head, as if he had been pricked with a needle.

"She's had a tough time too."

Lin Dawei smiled.

She was speechless and just stared at him.

Zhang Dahai grew anxious, rubbing his thick hands together on his knees.

"real."

"She suffered hardships in the South before."

"I've been divorced and raised children, so I'm under a lot of pressure."

She said the fumes from the small restaurants were too strong and gave her a headache.

"She said that all she ever wanted to do in her life was open a clean and beautiful shop."

Zhang Dahai sniffed; his nostrils were covered in sweat.

"I figured, what's a little hardship or fatigue to me, a grown man like me?"

"She wants to be dignified, so I'll give her dignity."

Lin Dawei's fingers tightened.

The edges of the contract paper made a soft rustling sound in his palm.

"And the result?"

Zhang Dahai came without saying a word.

Lin Dawei took a step forward, and his shoe landed on a dessert shop flyer.

The flyer had a sentence written on it.

A couple in a small county started a business and recouped their investment in three months.

Half of the paper was covered in mud and water.

"She's made decent, while you've become a homeless person under the bridge."

Zhang Dahai's face twitched slightly.

"Dawei, don't talk about her like that."

She's not a bad person.

"She just wants to live a good life too much."

"Blame me."

He raised his hand, as if to slap himself again.

Lin Dawei grabbed his wrist, but the fat man's wrist was as limp as a lump of wet dough.

"Stop smoking."

"Even if her face is bruised and battered, she won't be able to see it."

Zhang Dahai's eyes reddened. "She used to be good to me."

"She even bought me a pair of designer shoes a few days ago."

Lin Dawei gritted his teeth in anger.

"You spent over 200,000 yuan just to buy her a pair of shoes?"

"Zhang Dahai, you fucking made a really good deal!"

Zhang Dahai shrank his neck and remained silent.

The archway fell silent, with only the river lapping against the concrete piers.

*Slap. Slap.*

It's like someone slapping you in the face from the shadows.

Lin Dawei bent down and gathered all the copies of the contracts, receipts, and chat logs on the ground together.

He saw a photograph.

In the photo, a young man in a suit stands at the entrance of a dessert shop's showroom, giving a thumbs-up.

Zhang Dahai's woman was standing next to him.

The woman was wearing brown sunglasses and holding a cup of coffee.

At the edge of the frame, there's a man with a large belly.

Her hair was combed back, she had a handbag tucked under her arm, and a string of Buddhist prayer beads on her wrist.

Lin Dawei's gaze paused for a second.

He remembered the place, and he also remembered the kind manner of the big brother in that county.

He recharged his online loan account to become a diamond member and received a free foot massage service.

Lin Dawei didn't say it out loud.

He folded the photo and put it away with the contract.

When Zhang Dahai saw him take the photos, he quickly reached out his hand.

"Don't……"

"Don't damage her photo."

Lin Dawei looked at him.

Zhang Dahai's hand froze in mid-air.

Lin Dawei slowly stuffed the photo into his pocket.

"If you keep protecting her, I'll throw you into the river right now."

Zhang Dahai's lips moved, but he didn't dare to object.

Lin Dawei turned and walked toward the light truck.

"stand up."

"Where to?"

"Go back to your shop."

Zhang Dahai's eyes narrowed slightly.

"There's no going back, the shop has been sold."

"The storefront has a 'For Sale' sign."

"My regular customers know I closed down to open a bakery. If I go back now, won't they laugh at me to death?"

Lin Dawei stopped.

He turned to look at Zhang Dahai.

The streetlights at the bridgehead shone on his face, half of his face in the light and half in the shadows.

"You've been swindled by a woman so badly you're almost broke. Aren't you ashamed?"

"Go back to cooking and earning money, you think it's shameful?"

Zhang Dahai kept his head down, the flesh on his neck pressing down in layers.

Lin Dawei walked back and grabbed him by the back of the collar.

With a swift movement, he pulled the person up from the ground.

Zhang Dahai's legs went weak, and he almost knelt down.

Lin Dawei did not let go.

"Walk."

"Your brain is covered in cream."

Zhang Dahai staggered after him, and as he got into the car, he glanced back at the underpass.

The liquor lay on the ground, and a corner of the dessert shop's rendering was lifted by the wind.

A line of text is printed on the glass window: Be your own queen.

Zhang Dahai squeezed out a short, sharp sound.

Like crying.

It was swallowed back down again.

Lin Dawei opened the car door.

"Stop looking."

"She's gone to be a queen."

"Think about what to eat tomorrow."

The light truck starts, its headlights cutting through the darkness of the riverside road.

Zhang Dahai sat in the passenger seat, looking at the phone with the cracked screen in his hand.

Lin Dawei glanced at it; it was a post on WeChat Moments.

A photo of coffee, located in the provincial capital.

The caption was just one sentence: "Women should always look forward."

Zhang Dahai stared at the words, his eyes reddening again.

"She probably wants to start over too."

Lin Dawei gripped the steering wheel tightly with his fingers.

The knuckles made a soft cracking sound.

"If you transfer another penny to her..."

"I'll throw your phone in the pot."

Zhang Dahai shrank back, not daring to reply.

As the light truck drove into the main road of the county town, the shop signs on both sides receded one by one.

The neon lights of Honglang Romantic Foot Massager flashed briefly in the distance.