The Finance University in the neighboring city was renovating its gymnasium, and high-end leather shoes stepped on the bricks and rubble, leaving a layer of dust on them.
Passing through the construction site, Fan Xiao saw a young man standing by the artificial lake. His features were obscured by the bare willow branches, and he could not see clearly.
He bent down and brushed off the dust on his trouser legs before walking over slowly. When he got closer, he asked, "Zhang Chen? You Shulang's younger brother?"
Fan Xiao did not hold back his momentum, and as he wished, the young man's expression froze. He nodded fearfully and replied, "It's me."
Fan Xiao half-closed his eyes and looked at the young man. He did not look like You Shulang. He was more handsome and his face vaguely resembled that of his youth, but there was a heavy gloom between his brows.
"Are you planning to talk while standing?" Fan Xiao asked coldly.
"Oh, can we sit over there?"
Fan Xiao followed the direction of the young man's finger and saw a bench by the lake. He frowned slightly, but walked over.
Fan Xiao was afraid of the cold and felt that thick clothes made him feel bloated, so he only wore a woolen coat. Fortunately, when he went out in the morning, he put on another sweater under the coercion of You Shulang.
Wrapping his coat tightly, Fan Xiao sat on the bench. He was a little impatient, so he got straight to the point: "I have already checked your affairs. You deceived the elderly into taking out their savings by posing as a graduate student of a financial university, and then you used the money to trade stocks on their behalf and earned commissions from it."
Fan Xiao looked at the young man beside him with obvious contempt in his eyes: "This is not a big deal. Your mistake is greed. Not only did you earn commissions, but you also pocketed the money. Moreover, you recently failed in trading and lost most of the money. Now you can't fill the hole anymore."
The young man hastily defended himself: "According to the contract, I am just a trader. If there is any loss, it should be borne by the investor, and it has nothing to do with me!"
Fan Xiao took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, laughing and mocking: "But the money you put into your pocket is much more than the number on the contract."
He asked casually, "Can we smoke here?" He lit up a cigarette before waiting for an answer, took a deep breath and exhaled the smoke, "You thought these old men could just fool you, but you didn't expect that the son of the old man who invested the most is not a good person. Not only did he hire professionals to get evidence of your data fraud, he also wants to blackmail you for money, otherwise he will make a big fuss about this matter."
The young man's face was as pale as the gray sky in early winter. Suddenly, his drooping eyes were filled with cruelty, and he said angrily: "I'm not here to listen to your gloating. Didn't you say on the phone that you are You Shulang's friend, can you help me?!"
Fan Xiao raised his eyelids: "Do you usually call your brother by his name like this?" He glanced at the young man's clothes, all of which were branded goods. "As far as I know, your expenses are all covered by your brother, but except for asking him for money this time, I have never seen you contact him on your own initiative."
A disdainful smile appeared on the young man's face, and he snorted, "You and You Shulang are in that kind of relationship, right? If you want to please You Shulang, then help me do things well, and I'll let him sleep with you more."
Fan Xiao bit his cigarette butt and suddenly laughed. He put his arms on the back of the bench, relaxed his body and crossed his legs. "Things are more interesting than I thought. It seems that this trip was not in vain."
He put down his cigarette and said rudely, "You need to pay back the principal, plus the compensation. Even if your brother sells the house, he can't raise that much money. The old lady's son won't wait for you to raise the money. If he makes a fuss, your degree and future will be ruined."
The young man's flustered eyes were like willow branches swaying in the wind, chaotic and messy. Fan Xiao admired him enough before continuing, "I have money and connections, so it won't be difficult for me to handle your problem." The smoke with body temperature split the cold air, struggling for a while, and slowly dissipated, "But I don't need to use you to please your brother, I can sleep with him as much as I want."
The young man stood up suddenly, his neck thick with anger: "Then what do you want to do with me? Are you here to laugh at me?!"
Fan Xiao slowly raised his eyes, his brows slightly sharp: "I just don't want to put the photos away again."
"What?"
The man said nonchalantly, "I will pay the principal and compensation for you. The old lady's son has agreed not to pursue your responsibility. My lawyer is drafting an agreement and I estimate that we can sign a letter of reconciliation with the other party tomorrow."
Fan Xiao looked at the young man's eyes that lit up instantly, and said in a long voice: "But there is one condition."
The young man was so happy that he sat down next to Fan Xiao and said, "Brother, I will agree to whatever conditions you give me!"
"You call me brother so easily?" Fan Xiao felt uncomfortable and his voice became cold. "The condition is that you stay away from your brother in the future and don't blame him for any mess."
The young man was startled, and quickly stopped smiling. He sneered, "As if no one likes to associate with him. I'm looking for him because he owes me and our family, and he will never be able to repay it in this lifetime!"
Fan Xiao frowned slightly: "What do you mean by that?"
"Why don't you ask You Shulang?" The young man snorted, "That's right, why would he bring up such a thing?"
Fan Xiao was silent for a moment, then smiled mischievously again: "Zhang Chen, I paid so much money, and I can't even hear a few stories from the past?"
"Listen, if you want to listen, there's nothing I can't say." The young man pulled up the hood of his cotton-padded jacket and put it on his head. His entire face was hidden in the darkness, and his expression could not be seen clearly.
"You Shulang is not my biological brother. He is an orphan my mother picked up from a garbage station. He was seven years old at the time, wearing only thin clothes in the middle of winter, picking up waste. My mother took pity on him and took him home."
"My mother has a slight intellectual disability. I don't know who my father is, and neither does she. My mother and I have always depended on each other, and later on, You Shulang joined us."
"My mother made paper shells, did housework, and operated a sewing machine to make insoles to support his education. She even sent him to college, but he... but he is a homosexual!!"
The voiceless roar dissipated into the cold wind, and it was impossible to tell who was colder.
Fan Xiao took off his cigarette: "What's the connection?"
"Of course! When he was in high school, he was exposed as a homosexual, which caused a big uproar. He was boycotted by all his classmates and bullied by bad elements. But You Shulang was awesome. He fought violence with violence. After killing several people, no one dared to touch him again. He spent his high school years smoothly and was admitted to university, but he ruined me!"
"When he graduated from high school, I was in my second year of high school. The bullies in the school couldn't touch You Shulang, so they bullied me! Do you know how I spent those two years?" The young man suddenly turned his head, and Fan Xiao saw his red eyes. "There was garbage on my seat every day, my school uniform was wet, and I was beaten up in the toilet. They said You Shulang was gay, and I was his brother, so I must be too!"
The young man trembled slightly: "I can tolerate all this, after all, he is my brother, the person I have admired since I was a child!"
"But…" The young man leaned forward and buried his face in his palms. "I was beaten up again that day. My mom saw my bruised face and ran to the school to persuade the other party not to beat me up again. But they laughed at my mom and called her a fool. Everyone started to make a fuss, saying that one of our family members is a homosexual, one is a big fool, and the other is a loser!"
"I got anxious and started fighting with those people. My mother went to separate them..." The young man began to sob. "In the chaos, I don't know who pushed my mother. She lost her balance and rolled down the stairs... She broke her cervical spine and stayed in bed for two months... before she passed away."
The cold wind whistled in with a whistle, like a sad song.
However, the infinite sadness was cut off by a calm voice: "Although I am sorry, what does this have to do with your brother?"
"It doesn't matter?!" the young man suddenly said, "If he wasn't a damn homosexual, this wouldn't have happened; if he hadn't fought back so hard, those people wouldn't have held a grudge against me and treated me so badly, and my mom...my mom wouldn't have died because of this!"
"What the fuck is wrong with your brain?" Fan Xiao paused, thinking that his scolding was not strong enough. He picked up the new sentence in his mind and started again, "Is your brain stuck in the door? You are weak and you want to blame your brother for being strong? He allows others to bully you, and you will suffer the consequences?"
"What do you know? My mother saved his life, but he killed her. So You Shulang will never be able to repay me and my mother in his lifetime!"
Fan Xiao looked at the young man with a face full of grief and anger, and after thinking for a moment, he suddenly smiled: "I think you actually know everything in your heart, but you pretend to be confused. You just want You Shulang to feel guilty and work like a slave for you all your life."
He stood up and said coldly, "Sign the agreement at Manfulou at 10 a.m. tomorrow. I'll pay for you, but you and You Shulang don't have to say you've met me. Just say the evidence the other party has is insufficient. You just need to return the money you embezzled."
The young man's expression changed very quickly, and now he looked obedient again, saying "yes" several times.
Before leaving, Fan Xiao exhaled the last puff of smoke. He raised his chin towards the young man and glanced at his hands.
The young man was a little stunned and spread out his hands in confusion.
"Higher." Fan Xiao ordered.
The one who pays the money is the boss, and Fan Xiao now has absolute authority in front of the young man.
He raised his hand a little higher.
After the smile faded, Fan Xiao's eyes suddenly showed a hint of viciousness. He took out his cigarette, and with an expressionless face, he pressed the hot cigarette butt hard into the young man's palm.
Amid the heart-wrenching cries of pain, he said lightly: "Sorry, there is no trash can nearby."
Patting the young man on the shoulder, he said: "Protecting the environment is everyone's responsibility."
After saying this, the tall man turned and walked back the way he came.