Chapter 6: Righteousness is often found among butchers and dog killers

  Liu Ying'er and Old Mother Xu had finished buying the vegetables, but when Xue Xiang was about to put down Little Girl, she tightly hugged his neck and refused to let go.

  "Baobei, be good, come down quickly and go home with grandma. Let uncle buy the vegetables." The old lady pulls on the little girl's hand.

  "No, I want to be held by brother, it's warm in brother's arms. I don't want to walk, with brother around, no one dares to bully me." The little girl wrinkled her nose and chattered quickly, her voice sweet and tender, pleasant to hear.

  "Call him uncle," the old lady corrected.

  "It's older brother, not uncle!" Beibei shook her little hand, making a negative gesture.

  Xue Xiang also liked this little girl very much, and touched her little head with his hand, smiling: "Brother is brother, hurry up and go home with grandma, next time brother will come to your house to play with you, okay?"

  "Brother is cheating, you don't even know where they live."

  "Then you can tell your brother now."

  "I live at No. 15 Beijiao Street, Dongcheng District, brother must remember to come and see Beibei."

  "Alright, I've taken note. Next time someone bullies you, just report it to your brother, my name is Xue Xiang, remember that."

  "Remember, next time when my deskmate Xiaoming pulls my hair again, I'll call out your name and scare him to death, haha! Brother, you must come visit me, let's make a deal." Beibei was thrilled to have gotten Xueyang's name and stretched out her chubby little finger to make a deal with him.

  Xue Xiang was momentarily stunned, scratching his head, truly unsure of how to explain himself. His reputation probably wouldn't be enough to intimidate the Little Ming in BeiBei's mouth. LiuYing'er watched from the side with amusement, looking at him still being arrogant, empty boasts indeed. So he was Xue Xiang, the infamous bad guy from East City, humph, indeed a rascal leader, LiuYing'er felt somewhat proud of her own foresight.

  Xue Xiang stretched out his little finger and hooked it with BeiBei, then bent down to put BeiBei down. With a "smack" sound, his cheek was kissed by BeiBei, the little girl's smile shone brightly like sunshine, and Xue Xiang's heart felt warm too. Xue Xiang took off the fox fur scarf from around his neck and wrapped it around BeiBei's neck, tying a small knot.

  Liu Ying'er's eyes were momentarily dazed, what kind of person is this? Sometimes tender and shy, sometimes cruel and ruthless, bloody and violent, but now making people feel warm and affectionate, so complicated! Never mind, anyway, she won't see him again in the future. Liu Ying'er drove away a thread of emotion from her heart.

  Xue Xiang said goodbye to Beibei and spent some more time, the three salesmen and the crowd behind did not dare to urge him to hurry up.

  He saw the three people leave, Xue walked to the window, put the vegetable basket on the counter, and took out all the tickets from his pocket and handed them over to the ticket inspector. Then, he took out a shopping list with non-essential items that didn't require tickets, and handed it over along with his wallet, letting the cashier take the money herself. The ticket inspector calculated the total based on the tickets and the list: "100 catties of rice, 18 yuan and 4 jiao; 5 catties and 4 liang of pork, 4 yuan and 2 jiao and 3 fen; 3 catties of white wine, 1 yuan and 2 jiao; 2 catties of fresh fish, 9 jiao and 3 fen..."

  The woman made change for a while, took out 34 yuan from the tiger skin wallet and handed it back to Xue Xiang. Just as she was about to find the change, Xue Xiang waved his hand and said please have some candy, the woman's face turned bright red. The salesman in charge of supplying goods was a tall-faced man in his twenties, who used to be a hooligan in the Dongcheng District area. Earlier during the fight, he also stood at the window watching, and had been shocked by Xue Xiang's amazing martial arts skills. Seeing that seven or eight people suddenly softened up, he guessed that this was the legendary "Third Brother". At this time, seeing this master coming, he immediately put on a smiling face, without any of his previous coldness and impatience towards customers.

  They picked the freshest vegetables, grabbed the largest bottles of wine, and chose the best of everything. When it came to cutting meat, a long, thin knife was used to cut out large chunks of the fattiest pork, which were then put into small baskets. Xue looked at the meat and frowned, thinking it was too fatty, but he didn't say anything. He knew that when buying vegetables in the market, you couldn't be picky, and when buying meat, good meat and bad meat were often sold together. At this time of year, people generally lacked oil and water, so the best meat was the kind with thin skin and thick fat - the five-flower fatty pork. Few people wanted lean meat, so having a relative who worked in sales was more exciting than having one who held office.

  The long-faced man saw Xue Xiang frowning, thinking he was dissatisfied with the amount of meat, so he quickly picked up his knife and cut off a large piece of fatty pork. Xue Xiang saw this and realized that the other person had misunderstood him, so he said to the long-faced man: "Do you have pig's feet? Give me one."

  The little girl who checked the ticket said in a low voice, "Your flesh ticket is not enough." After finishing, she carefully looked at Xue Xiang, afraid that the tall and strong young man in front of her would get angry with herself. She had seen him slap someone's ear and cut off someone's finger just now, and for a moment, she regretted speaking too much.

  Xue Xiangzheng was about to say that the meat tickets were not enough, but the long-faced man suddenly became angry: "What are you yelling about? Third Brother came to my place to buy vegetables, it's giving me face, whether the tickets are enough or not has nothing to do with your nonsense. I'll make up for it later and that's it." After scolding the little girl who was checking the tickets, he turned his head, adjusted his tone: "Third Brother, don't mind her, she's new here, doesn't understand the rules."

  The little girl was scolded until her eyes were red, and she knew that Dongzi was defending herself. Xue Xiang felt a bit uneasy, shook his head and said: "Do you know me? Never mind, she's just doing things by the rules, it's my fault for being careless, forget about the pig trotters."

  "Hey, hey, Third Brother, you have to give me some face, or else this thing will get out and I'll really be done for." The long-faced man was in a hurry and didn't even bother to explain how he knew Xue Xiang. He was afraid that Xue Xiang wouldn't accept it, so he quickly took out a big pig's trotter from under the counter and stuffed it into Xue Xiang's basket. The pig's trotter weighed about 7 or 8 catties, with a large piece of lean meat hanging from the hind leg. The meat was dark red in color and had a moist texture, indicating that it was fresh. The basket was a bit small, so he took out the cloth-wrapped eggs and put the pig's trotter inside, which still stuck out halfway. The long-faced man was really worried that Xue Xiang wouldn't accept it. If those rascals from East City found out that he had dared not to give Third Brother some face, he would probably have to move his family out of 49 City to avoid trouble.

  The tall-faced man insisted on not taking back the pig's leg, and Xue Xiang also didn't pretend to be polite. He took out a big red envelope from his wallet and stuffed it into the tall-faced man's hand: "Thanks, buddy, I don't even know your name."

  "My name is Ding Weidong, just call me Dongzi. The long-faced man saw Xue Xiang and called him his brother, he was overjoyed in his heart, with three brothers behind him, and the East City would not be easy to walk horizontally."

  Ding Weidong did not want to accept Xue Xiang's money, he knew that if you do something for someone, you should do it thoroughly. But Xue Xiang had already stuffed the money into his hand, and not taking it would make Third Brother angry, especially since just now Third Brother was smiling and talking, but suddenly broke someone's finger. The money Xue Xiang gave far exceeded the value of the pig trotters, even if he went to the black market to exchange for meat tickets, there would still be a lot left over. Ding Weidong handed the money to the female cashier, using his eyes to signal her to make change, Xue Xiang saw this and said: "Keep the change, consider it my treat for your cigarettes, from now on we're friends, if you need anything just call me."

  Upon hearing this, Ding Weidong was extremely excited and nodded repeatedly. He had finally established a connection with San Ge, who turned out to be as generous and open-minded as rumored, but not as arrogant as people said.

  He had no idea that Xue Xiang was now a contradictory personality.

  The small vegetable basket was already filled to the brim, and Ding Weidong saw this, took out a 200-kilogram grayish-brown burlap sack from under the counter, carefully packed the rice, flour, meat, and vegetables that Xue had purchased, with many items, the mouth of the bag was barely tied tight. Only the cloth-wrapped eggs were left in the vegetable basket, which couldn't be put in, as they would easily break. Ding Weidong and three others each lifted a corner of the burlap sack, using all their strength to finally place the big sack on the counter.

  "Third brother, it's all packed up and everything is here. The rice noodles are at the bottom, I've separated the pork and fish and wrapped them in oil paper for you so they won't mix flavors. This sack is too heavy, it would be inconvenient for one person to carry, or else I'll find someone to deliver it to your home later." Ding Weidong patted the sack and said, "Delivering things to Third Brother, those little rascals will have a hard time getting any money out of you."

  Although plastic bags had already appeared and were in use at that time, they were not widely used in the markets. People often carried baskets to buy vegetables, and vendors mostly used oil paper to wrap them. Xue turned around, grasped the tied opening of the hemp bag with one hand, picked it up, and held it in his hand. With his right hand holding the vegetable basket, he said to Ding Weidong, "Thanks, I can manage, see you later." After that, he walked away quickly.

  Three people in the business saw them humming and humming, and finally put the big hemp package on the counter. Xue Xiang held it in his hand like a bundle of straw, and everyone's face was shocked.

  "He's so strong and handsome, Dongzi, why do you call him Third Brother, it seems like he doesn't even know you." The coin-collecting girl asked while shaking Dong Wei's arm.

  "That's right, Third Brother is a character, the leader of the gang, Song Jiang's name isn't self-proclaimed, before I didn't know him it was okay, now that I do recognize him, this time Third Brother called me brother, next time I meet Li Er Gou and them, I'll have to show off in front of them, see if they dare to mess with me." Ding Wei Dong stuck out his thumb, shaking his head and boasting, seemingly proud of Xue Xiang, he also had a share of the honor.

  "Handsome Song Jiang? He's just handsome, why add the name Song Jiang behind it. I know what Song Jiang looks like, short and dark. The person from earlier was tall and fair-skinned." The ticket-checking girl said in confusion.

  "You don't know, do you? Jun is talking about San Ge's appearance, Song Jiang is talking about his sense of justice, many brothers and friends, see or not, I am San Ge's brother, haven't you heard 'Dongcheng timely rain, Beihai Hu Bao Yi'?" Ding Haodong looked down on them with a look that said they were already out.

  "Oh dear, I remember now! My brother mentioned these two sentences before, and it seems he was the one who said them. Looks like our little sail has fallen in love and is already defending someone's words!" The coin-collecting girl took over the conversation, shifting the focus to the ticket-checking girl.

  "Xiao Juan, you're going too far! Just now he said the remaining money would be used to buy sweets for you, I don't know whose face is flushing red." The girl called Xiao Fan retorted with a red face.

  "Die, you little girl, dare to talk back..."

  “……….”

  The two of them made a scene together, ignoring the anxious customers waiting in line.