Zhuang Rui's major in college was finance and accounting, a field where women always outnumbered men. There were a total of 45 students in the class, but 40 of them were girls, with only five male animals. Naturally, those five ended up sharing a dorm.
Big Bro's real name was Yang Wei. No one knew if his ancestors had any connection to Yang Dingtian from Jin Yong's novels, but just judging by the name itself, his was clearly more catchy than Yang Dingtian's—easy to understand and hard to forget. Literally, it meant that 'yang' thing was pretty great. But every time Big Bro was introduced to someone, he never gave a detailed explanation of his name's true meaning. So 'Wei Ge' became his official title both inside and outside school—fitting for all ages and all occasions.
Wei Ge's parents were originally just ordinary factory workers. However, his mother had sharp insight and was bold yet careful. When their factory was restructured and went public during the early days of Zhonghai Securities, back in the late 1980s, people didn't really understand or accept the new concept of stocks. They always felt it was safer to keep money in the bank or at home, so no one was willing to buy stocks—they only bought a tiny amount under heavy pressure and coercion.
At that time, Wei's mother stood firm against all opposition at home, borrowed over a hundred thousand from her maiden family, and bought a lot of her factory's stock from coworkers at the original share price. When it went public, they made a tidy profit. Later, after the stock market started heating up, Wei's mother carried several sacks of ID cards, hired people to queue up and buy lots of subscription warrants to speculate with. This series of moves completed their initial capital accumulation.
After that, Yang Wei's family withdrew from the stock market, started a company, and focused on foreign trade. During the collapse of the former Soviet Union, they even chartered a train to ship goods to Russia. Although Wei's parents weren't highly educated, in Shanghai's glitzy business scene today, they are considered big shots.
Back in the 90s, there wasn't really a concept of spoiled rich kids, but because Wei's parents had suffered plenty from lacking education early on, they learned from the pain and went all out to raise their son. They sent Wei to a prestigious university. As for why he majored in accounting—it's because the old couple used to make calculation mistakes all the time when they started doing business, either overcharging or undercharging people. They really suffered from it.
Since Wei was pretty accomplished and brought his parents face, he was also quite well-off financially. When he started college, he already had a brick-sized cell phone, a big black chunk with analog numbers starting with 9. Mobile phone, mobile calling—we'd often see the big guy wandering around staircases holding that black brick, searching for a signal.
Zhuang Rui was the youngest among the five roommates, but he was diligent, steady, honest, and loyal. He often helped the other guys copy notes and answer roll call. Over the four years, they grew as close as brothers. As for how Zhuang Rui landed a job at a pawnshop—it was Wei's mother who pulled some strings to get him in.
……
“Hehe, Uncle De is here too. My dad bought a painting a few days ago and was just saying he wanted you to take a look and appraise it. You know my dad, last time he insisted that Tang Yin and Tang Bohu were two different people. I argued with him about it, and he almost hit me with a broom. With that level of knowledge, he still insists on playing with antiques now—he's totally clueless…”
Yang Wei was also well acquainted with Uncle De, and as soon as they met, he started badmouthing his own father.
“You little brat, is that any way to talk about your old man? But that Old Yang is something else—I already told him last time, when you're in this game, you need to look more, listen more, and act less. He probably got fooled by some made-up story again. Alright, I'll find some time to go check it out.”
Uncle De smiled and scolded Yang Wei, then said to Zhuang Rui and his mother, "Little Zhuang, sister-in-law, I won't see you off. When Xiao Zhuang comes back to Zhonghai, sister-in-law should come and stay too. Living together will let Xiao Zhuang show his filial devotion, and you'll have someone to look after each other."
After Zhuang Rui saw Uncle De out, Yang Wei was already helping him pack. A few days earlier, Zhuang Rui had asked him to help buy train tickets. The Spring Festival travel rush had already started, and if they didn't book tickets in advance, they might not make it home for the New Year. The tickets were for 1 PM, and they should arrive in Pengcheng around 11 PM.
“Little bro, your injury hasn't healed yet, so you can't have meat or oily food. Last time Aunt Zhuang came to Zhonghai, I couldn't entertain her. At noon, I'll take you guys to try some local Zhonghai snacks. Man, we're brothers, why are you being so polite? The hospital bill is settled by your company, and everything is packed. Let's go…”
Many things in the VIP ward were provided free by the hospital. Zhuang Rui didn't have much stuff—after packing, it was just a backpack. Yang Wei picked it up and turned to Zhuang Rui and said.
Zhuang Rui opened his mouth but couldn't say anything—he already owed the big bro too many favors, and mere words of thanks wouldn't repay them. He just kept it in his heart. At this moment, Zhuang Rui felt that in four years of college, learning knowledge was only one aspect; having a few truly sincere friends like this was the greatest wealth.
Leaving the hospital, Zhuang Rui felt a bit regretful because he hadn't seen Nurse Song, who had been taking care of him for more than ten days, before he left. He had just gone to the doctors' office to thank her, only to be told she had taken leave.
Actually, in Zhuang Rui's heart, saying thanks was secondary; he was still thinking about whether that scene he had seen that morning was real. If so, that person must have been Nurse Song. But now there was no chance. Shanghai was so big; they would never meet again. Besides, even if he saw her, he wouldn't recognize her.
“Hey, big bro, you changed your car again? How come other people's cars get better and better, but yours gets crappier and crappier?”
Seeing the big bro toss his luggage onto a beat-up jeep, Zhuang Rui found it curious. The big bro always said a car was his main wife now, and before, the worst he'd driven was a Santana.
“Xiao Rui, how can you talk like that? Apologize to Brother Yang.”
Aunt Zhuang said from behind. In her eyes, this classmate of Zhuang Rui's treated him really well—he had been running around before and after during the half-month that Zhuang Rui was injured, bringing plenty of food and supplies every day. Even relatives would find it hard to do that.
Yang Wei's face, whose thickness almost matched its length, rarely turned red. He scratched his head and said with a smile, “It's fine, Aunt Zhuang. We brothers are used to joking around. My driving skills are average, but don't worry, I won't hit anyone. I changed cars because I backed the old one into a wall myself.”
Zhuang Rui chuckled as he opened the car door for his mother, choosing not to keep ragging on his buddy. He was more than just an average driver—he'd been driving for almost three years, and every time he reversed, he bumped into something. Plus, his biggest flaw was being directionally challenged; unless he'd driven down a road dozens of times, don't count on him remembering it.
There was this one time Yang Wei arranged to meet a girl for dinner at 6:30 in Huangpu District. The girl waited until 7 o'clock, but he still hadn't shown up. When she called, she found out he had gotten on the elevated expressway at 5:30, but then couldn't figure out which exit to take. After a bunch of wrong turns, he ended up taking the wrong off-ramp and driving dozens of kilometers all the way to Baoshan District. By the time the girl called, he was already heading back. Needless to say, dinner never happened—he just ate dust the whole way, and the condom he'd specially bought in his pocket never got used.
Sure enough, it was Zhuang Rui who had to navigate. They spent a good half hour wandering the streets before finding a soup dumpling shop on Huanghe Road in Huangpu District. The place was incredibly popular—even at just past 10 in the morning, it was nearly full.
But the soup dumplings here lived up to their reputation: the wrappers were thin but didn't break, and when you picked one up with chopsticks, you could vaguely see the meat filling and broth sloshing inside. Take a careful bite, and the soup was plentiful and delicious, the meat filling firm and springy. Zhuang Rui had lived in this city for almost six years, yet he'd never had such authentic local street food.
After lunch, Yang Wei drove them to the train station. It was already close to 1 PM. To prepare for the Spring Rush, the station plaza had been set up with five or six waiting and boarding areas under rain shelters, each with 6 ticket-checking gates, each gate staffed by 3 ticket inspectors, and passengers were required to arrive 4 hours early for boarding. A long line of passengers snaked across the plaza, waiting to enter the station.
At the ticket area, it was a sea of heads, the massive crowd packed the spacious square so tightly that not a drop of water could trickle through. Although many armed police were maintaining order, the scene was still somewhat chaotic, with many people having braved the biting wind since early morning to line up; fruit peels and scraps of paper were scattered all over the square's ground.
After parking the car, Yang Wei didn't move anywhere; he just made a phone call in front of the vehicle. A few minutes later, a middle-aged man in a railway uniform hurried over.
“Xiao Wei, why did you only come now? The train departs in ten minutes. Hurry up, follow me into the station.” The newcomer nodded at Zhuang Rui and his mother, and without further pleasantries, turned and walked ahead.
Yang Wei stuck out his tongue and whispered to Zhuang Rui, “This is an old neighbor of ours. He’s doing pretty well now, and he’s in charge of ticketing. If it were anyone else, it would be really hard to get tickets right now.”}
Compared to the chaos outside the train station, entering the waiting hall brought a sense of order, though long queues still formed at the ticket gates. The middle-aged man didn't go through the ticket gate but led them through the staff passage to the platform. By then, since departure time was near, most passengers from Zhonghai to Pengcheng had already boarded, making the platform look relatively empty.
“Lil bro, go back and recover well from your injury. Next time you're here, we'll go find Nurse Song again.” After sending Zhuang Rui to the sleeper compartment, Yang Wei whispered in his ear while Zhuang Rui's mother wasn't paying attention.
Although the temperature in the sleeper compartment was easily 27 or 28 degrees Celsius, Zhuang Rui still shivered. He hadn't expected that this guy still hadn't gotten over his lustful thoughts.