Chapter 5 - Thugs with Dignity
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
There was an electronics market not far from school. It only took about ten minutes and Shi Lei was pondering which type of phone to buy.
Maybe not Vivo or Oppo, the majority of people who used these two brands are primary schoolers. Not Xiao Mi either, too cheap as it was focused more on the price performance ratio. Shi Lei’s goal right now was to spend the money as quickly as possible. Naturally, he would choose a more expensive phone.
As for Meizu, oh please, aren’t you sick of this phone you’ve been using ever since the first day of University?
Huawei was pretty good, but it was not enough to blind others.
Sony? Japanese goods can go die.
Samsung? Koreans can go die too.
Uh, maybe iPhone after all. The new iPhone just came on the market and is the most popular right now.
iPhone it is!
Walking into the electronics market, Shi Lei went straight to a shop with a relatively good popularity and reputation.
As soon as he walked in, an employee girl greeted him with a smile: “Hey handsome, looking to buy a phone?”
“Do you have an iPhone 6 in stock?” Shi Lei pretended that he was not short on money. With the newly bought Nike sports clothes and Air Jordan 29th generation that cost about a thousand, he indeed didn’t look like money was worry to him.
The smile on the girl’s face brightened, immediately replied: “Yes we have it. Qin(1), do you want the mainland or the Hong Kong version? The American version is the cheapest but it doesn’t include warranty. I suggest you buy the Hong Kong version because it is cheaper than the mainland version and also with warranty.” Without knowing when, she did not use nin(2), but qin.
“Ok, I’ll take a Hong Kong version, 64G, gold.”
The shop assistant took out a mobile phone, but was slightly worried as the phone Shi Lei had was a Meizu.
Seeing that Shi Lei was going to open it, the girl said hurriedly: “Qin, you have to make sure you are buying it to open it. Otherwise we can’t sell this.”
Shi Lei took out his card and threw it towards her: “Is card ok?”
“Using a card requires 1% service charge.” Without demur, Shi Lei said: “Swipe it!” Then he opened the plastic wrap outside, but could not take out the sim card on his Meizu, he could only ask: “Uh, could you put my sim card to the new phone. Also, please download all the apps I have on my old phone onto the new one.”
The girl finished swiping the card, and had Shi Lei confirm the sum and enter the password. Soon afterwards she was busy with downloading all sorts of apps for him.
20 minutes after, Shi Lei was playing on his new iPhone.
As expected of a top shelf product that’s worth 6,000 yuan. That smooth handling, almost as smooth as silk, so much better than the three-year-old crap phone that lags for a good 30 seconds before opening any app. The gold color was also shining brightly, Shi Lei felt as if he was going to take up the post of a CEO, marrying a pretty and rich girl, walking towards the peak of his life.
“Qin, anything else?” As she made a deal early in the morning, her smile became more and more heartily.
Shi Lei was about to say no, but suddenly realised that his old phone that might have been attacked by viruses…… Yep, must be viruses. Android is not very reliable huh. It must be that man last night, planting the virus on his phone when he added himself on his WeChat. Hence he could retract that 100,000 yuan quietly. Oh, my God, that was 100,000 yuan. Shi Lei’s heart bled as he thought about it.
“Do you recycle this phone?” Shi Lei pointed towards the three-year-old phone.
The girl was stupefied for a second, thinking why doesn’t he just throw this crap phone away? But she took a look at the phone and said: “We do recycle this, except it isn’t worth much.”
“How much is not much?”
The girl made eye contact and communicated with another shop assistant silently, and said: “normally about 80 yuan, but you bought a new phone at our shop, so we’ll round it off to a hundred yuan.”
Shi Lei was extremely happy. The money he used to buy the phone was other’s, but the money he earns from selling his old phone is his. 100 yuan, that was equivalent to two tours of tutoring students!
He waved his hand and earned 100 yuan. The girl watched in confusion as Shi Lei left the shop, as if he was more excited to get 100 yuan rather than when he had bought a new phone.
“What a strange guy. Bought a 6,000 yuan phone so hastily, but so excited over selling his old phone for 100 yuan.”
Shi Lei couldn’t hear these. He calculated it roughly. Clothes costed about 1,000, shoes were also 1,000, plus this iPhone 6, he had already spent over 9,000?
Shi Lei thought that he did not have much cash left on him, found a random ATM and checked his balance. The 100,000 he received out of surprise now only has 800 left.
He withdrew 700 yuan……
Shi Lei calculated clearly. He only had about 100 on him altogether, and this came from selling his phone, which means it is his own money. After withdrawing 700, it meant that he had spent the 100,000 yuan entirely.
As for this 800 yuan, Shi Lei decided to charge that to his card for the school canteen. Since he had been asked to spend all of the money within a week, he can eat at the third floor of the canteen every day. One meal would cost no less that 50 or 60 yuan, a day is more than 100 yuan and seven days’ time would be perfect.
It is decided then!
Shi Lei excitedly walked away, whenever he saw the glass display windows of shops, he would pause slightly to look at his new clothes, slightly waving his iPhone. What a show off!
Shi Lei ordered two plates of food in a restaurant next to the school gate, ate three bowls of rice. Then, with the vast sum of 800 yuan, he planned to take a talk around the school to digest his food. He was too full from eating violently just then.
As he walked aimlessly, he entered a small alley without knowing it.
To his surprise, it was a dead-end alleyway. Shi Lei didn’t realise this until bumping into the wall at the end.
Planning to turn around and go back, he suddenly saw a traffic light appear in the middle of the alley and they were all lit. How were you supposed to go with traffic lights like this?
But why did such a small alleyway need a traffic light? Shi Lei fixed his eyes upon it. Oh, there were three guys with their hair dyed in red, yellow and green. Their shoulders were slanted with a cigarette hanging from their mouth, they obviously weren’t good people.
Before he could think, the three traffic lights already surrounded him, laughing freakishly.
One of them said: “See, I wasn’t wrong. Blocking people off in a small alley is easy. That’s a dead end right there, no one can pass if us three don’t let them!”
The other two gave him two thumbs up, and said in unison: “Da ge(3) is awesome!”
Shi Lei didn’t want to waste time with badass boys like this. Plus, their tone of voice did seem to be filled with bad intentions. He lowered his head, and tried to walk past them.
“Stop! Did I fucking let you go?” The red light spit out the cigarette butt in his mouth. Shi Lei dodged it quickly, fearing that it would burn his new Nike clothes.
“Not bad huh, bloke. This is Nike, right? With bloody Jordan shoes!” Green light spoke up this time.
Shi Lei’s heart sunk. Were these three planning to rob him? My new clothes, oh crap, and my phone!
“They are all fake, a cheap copy, doesn’t worth much.” Shi Lei could only step down to save himself. Although he was not small in size, and relatively buff, it is no problem for him to run away, but he might not win if they start a fight. If they really wanted to fight, these clothes would definitely be ripped. These new clothes are worth 1,000 yuan!
“Fake my ass! You aren’t very honest are you! We bros don’t really want to bother you, we just don’t have money to eat, so we want to borrow some money from you.” Yellow light pushed Shi Lei.
Red light stopped yellow light, and said: “Hey, don’t get physical if you can talk it out. Be civilised. We have dignity; we just want to borrow some money, not rob him, don’t scare him.”
Green smiled wickedly, and said: “Dude, give us all your cash. It doesn’t matter if your clothes are real or fake, we never planned to take it.”
Shi Lei was relieved as soon as he heard what he said and took out his money without hesitation. He kept the change from selling his Meizu, that was his own money obviously. He handed the eight sheets of bright red paper notes(4) without a second look.
Ahh, a week of eating at the canteen third floor was gone. Never mind, that’s not important.
(1)Qin: means ‘dear’, a way to call others, popularised from Taobao(online shopping website), short for ‘dear friend’
(2)Nin: polite form of ‘you’
(3)Da ge: means ‘older brother’, but used to address the head of the gang in this case
(4)Red paper notes: Money in China worth 100 yuan