Chapter 32: Fang Ye Has a Snake-like Scar on His Hand

Chapter 32: The Snake-Like Scar on Fang Ye’s Hand

Because the silver bracelet was handmade and Bai Li’s requested design was intricate, the production time was inevitably much longer than that of a simple band. Bai Li was in no hurry.

By the time her ankle felt slightly better, she had nearly finished the sketch commissions for her classmates. Counting the money she had saved, the drawings had earned her nearly a thousand yuan. A boy who had commissioned a drawing for a confession had also paid her three hundred, bringing her total to fourteen hundred yuan.

The weather had turned overcast again, though it showed no sign of rain. The clouds were vast and heavy, shielding the scorching sun and allowing a gentle, cool breeze to blow.

Fang Ye left early and returned late as usual. Bai Li often wandered nearby and actually managed to find a decent part-time job for a student: handing out flyers for a local bar called "Surge." The job was eight hours a day with a pay of 120 yuan. The boss was a kind man who didn't exploit her for being young.

The working hours happened to coincide perfectly with the time Fang Ye was away from home. Almost the moment Fang Ye stepped out, she would head to Surge to collect a thick stack of flyers.

Around nine in the morning, with the sun trapped behind the haze and the temperature yet to rise, a faint mist hung in the air, and the streets were already bustling with tourists. Packing most of the flyers into her canvas bag, Bai Li put on a black baseball cap and chose to distribute them at the busiest intersection.

It was a job that required no particular skill—just reaching out to hand over a flyer, mentioning the bar’s opening promotion, and letting the pedestrians decide whether to take one or not. Yet, Bai Li spoke every word with utmost sincerity. Her diction was clear, free of any local accent, and her voice was crisp, laced with an earnest tone. Combined with her bright, delicate beauty, many tourists were willing to listen to her. Among the several distributors on the same street, hers were always the first to run out.

There were veterans in every trade. Seeing how hard she worked, a colleague came over to advise her, "You're still a student, right? This is your first time handing out flyers, isn't it? Don't do it like this. You'll finish them all too quickly, and the boss won't give you a raise just because you handed out more. It’s not worth the exhaustion."

Bai Li took her bottle from her bag, took a sip of water, and smiled in reply, "It’s fine, I have the energy."

A sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl’s heart is at its purest; if she takes someone’s money, she must do her best, or she feels uneasy.

Under the old tree behind them, the owner of Surge would occasionally come out to check. Seeing that the girl was indeed diligent, he had the server making coffee inside send her a strawberry smoothie. Bai Li accepted it with a smile. The sweet, soft ice melting in her mouth was the very taste of high summer.

She handed out flyers until six in the evening. During her lunch break, the boss had let her rest for a while, and several customers had come to the bar based on her flyers—an unexpected bonus. When settling up, the boss gave her 150 yuan and suggested that next time, she could just stand at the shop entrance with drinks to attract customers, offering a thirty-yuan commission for every guest she brought in.

Bai Li agreed.

Back home, she put all her earnings into her small white bag. There was still plenty of room left; her goal was to fill the bag to leave for Fang Ye when she eventually returned home.

The next day, Bai Li no longer had to run around chasing people. The boss gave her a tray filled with colorful cocktails to offer to passing adults who looked like they enjoyed a drink. On the cloudy August street, pedestrians came and went, all eyes on the young girl in front of the bar.

Meanwhile, at the deep-water cargo terminal:

It was sweltering and barren, without a breath of wind. Fang Ye kicked away a steel pipe blocking his path. Cold sweat covered his forehead, but his spine remained unbent. The men who had come to settle a score for "Red-Head" were now all lying on the ground.

The foreman approached him awkwardly and shoved ten thousand yuan into Fang Ye’s hand. "This trouble is just too big. This is your pay for the last month. Don’t come back next time. I know you’ve chased away a lot of people trying to steal construction materials for me. Besides, you guys run this part of the old city anyway; if you’re short on money, go collect some protection fees."

Fang Ye lowered his gaze to the money in his hand, pulled out the extra two hundred, wiped the blood from his face, and thanked the boss.

The humid air filled his throat, but he felt no pain. The foreman also felt a sense of regret—the boy was truly capable and had solved many problems for him over the past month, but he was just a small-time foreman; he couldn't afford to provoke the big bosses of Lingjiang.

Holding his injured shoulder, Fang Ye stumbled toward a tavern, turning a deaf ear to the suggestion of collecting protection fees. Bullying those weaker than oneself had never been considered a skill.

He washed away the mud and the blood from his wounds, making sure he wouldn't frighten the young girl at home before heading back. Yet, he stopped in front of a bar nearby.

From a short distance away, he saw the girl standing at the entrance with a tray, chatting with the bar staff. She was laughing happily, her forehead covered in fine beads of sweat.

Someone asked her, "You're so young, why are you out working?"

Bai Li’s lips were the color of wild roses. She thought for a moment and said earnestly, "I need to earn my tuition. Tuition for four years of university."

She had asked Chengzi; Fang Ye’s grades were quite good, and he could get into a good university. She had also heard from Chengzi that Fang Ye was saving up for tuition. Even if she couldn't cover all of it, she wanted to earn a portion for him.

At the thought of handing the money to Fang Ye in the future, her eyes curved into crescents.

It was that radiant smile that kept Fang Ye standing there for a long time. He touched the fresh stack of money in his hand, turned, and headed back into the bar.

He pulled out his phone and coughed, tearing the wound inside his mouth and tasting the metallic tang of blood. When the call connected, the background on the other end was noisy.

Fang Ye’s eyes were dark and dim. "Red-Head, I’ll solve your trouble at the port. Give me one month."

The man on the other end seemed delighted, saying "good" several times over.

In this exchange of interests, no one was a fool. Red-Head had trouble because he had offended too many people in his youth. While he could hire more men to solve his problems, he couldn't guarantee that so many people would lay down their lives for him at all times, nor could he control their intentions.

He needed someone who wasn't afraid of death, someone young, capable, daring, shrewd, and with a rough life to charge to the front, to establish a long-lasting reputation so that others wouldn't dare touch his territory.

Being such a person meant that if you lived, you could earn a fortune to find your own opportunities. And if you died... well, there was always compensation.

...

That night, dark clouds dragged the bright moon into the abyss. The earth could borrow no moonlight, and the horizon turned pitch black. Having worked hard all day, Bai Li fell asleep early. In her hazy state, she had another dream.

In the dream, Fang Ye stood in a suit before a luxurious sedan, opening the car door for her. On those long, pale, slender hands, a jagged, snake-like scar snaked across his skin.

She screamed in terror.