“Yes…” Zhang Xiulu nodded depressed.
“Both of your characters are unflattering. My dad is your coworker in the same car workshop. How could you steal from him? Aren’t you afraid that others will find out?” Yang Ming looked at Zhang Xiulu in disdain. Based on his age, Yang Ming should address him as ‘Uncle’ but a guy like him was able to actually commit something so sly.
“We deceived Master Worker Yang[1] by saying that the factory manager was looking for him. At that time, the factory manager was in a meeting. Thus, he would need to wait for quite a while and we seized this opening to come here…” Zhang Xiulu explained, “We also discussed it. We would only take the lottery ticket and not the other things so that even if Master Worker Yang found out that there was a burglary, he would not delve deeply into the matter because nothing was taken.
“You guys are quite thoughtful. You knew that my dad wouldn’t notice if a lottery ticket had gone missing!” Yang Mind nodded his head. “Yes, from where did you obtain the key to my house?” Yang Ming recalled that he locked the door before he left!
“We duplicated the key when Master Worker Yang wasn’t paying attention!” said Zhang Xiulu.
“Hand it to me!” Yang Ming extended his hand.
Zhang Xiulu obediently took out a key from his pocket and gave it to Yang Ming.
“There’s only one?” Yang Ming simply asked a question. Unexpectedly, it was a simple question that led to a lead.
“Yes… Yes!” Zhang Xiulu reluctantly nodded and smiled.
— “There’s another one in the drawer of the cabinet. Hmph!Hmph! I will wreck your house when the opportunity comes. Even if I don’t steal anything, I will give your television a bath in the laundry basin!”
“Who are you fooling?” Yang Ming was enraged as he launched a kick that knocked Zhang Xiulu to the ground. Then he walked toward the cabinet and took the key out of the drawer. He left a cold sneer. “You kept one as a backup. Are you waiting for the opportunity to take revenge on me at my house? For example, bathe my TV in the laundry basin?”
“I… I…” Zhang Xiulu was speechless. He couldn’t believe that Yang Ming knew what was he thinking. He at least knew that Yang Ming was more than just violent, this kid was quite smart as well. His lies would be exposed by Yang Ming at the moment he spoke them.
“For the sake of my father’s honor, I will let today’s matters go! However, you shouldn’t hold grudges as well. If I find that you took an opportunity to cause problems for my dad, I will not tolerate it. I am someone who went to prison twice and I don’t mind going in for another few times. You think it over for yourselves!” Yang Ming kept the two keys as he spoke in an awe-inspiring voice.
Yang Ming felt the matter of him going to prison wasn’t something he was proud of but such villains required more vicious methods so that they would be intimidated!
“We wouldn’t dare to!” pledged Zhang Xiulu as he nodded his head after listening to those words.
— “Why would Old Yang have such a ferocious son? I never heard him mention it. Oh, yes! Now that I think about it, I heard that this little brat was the leader of the gang in this area when he was in junior high school! Oh my, why would I mess with him? Would he just let us go like that? Will he take revenge on us in the future?”
Yang Ming knew they were genuinely afraid of him this time. Let’s not talk about seeking revenge on his father, now they were afraid of Yang Ming taking revenge on them.
After being assured of their thoughts, Yang Ming walked out of Zhang Xiulu’s house satisfied. He hastily walked back to his home. He wanted to clean up the house before Father Yang got back. Since the matter was resolved, there wasn’t a need for his father to get worried about the burglary.
Luckily, this place wasn’t far away from home. Yang Ming quickly reached his house. At this time, Father Yang had not yet returned. It was easy to see that the factory manager had not yet finished his meeting while my dad was foolishly waiting at his office.
Yang Ming organized the objects back to their original place. Since it was his home, Yang Ming was familiar with the original position of the items. Hence, he managed to quickly tidy up everything.
Only now did Yang Ming take out the lottery ticket. On the top was the popular dual-colored ball game. Even though he didn’t know how much money it was worth, he was sure that it wouldn’t be millions of yuan. He never heard of the first prize being awarded for the dual-colored ball lottery.
Yang Ming took out his phone book. He looked up the automated inquiry number for the province’s lottery center and dialed the number. Following the voice instructions, he entered the numbers on the lottery ticket. The voice on the other end of the phone came out, “Hello, please wait. We are in the process of querying…”
Yang Ming was excited at this moment. Even though it wasn’t the biggest prize but at least it hit the jackpot! That was an excitement, a delighted excitement, that was similarly felt by most people!
“Greetings, congratulations. You won the prize for season X’s duel-colored ball lottery. The prize is sixty thousand yuan.”
Sixty thousand! It was actually sixty thousand! Yang Ming didn’t care about the money. But for his family’s situation, six million was a great sum of money! If my parents knew, they would be delighted!
Most of the workers of the Song Jiang Car Factory weren’t wealthy. No wonder Zhang Xiulu had ill intentions after seeing this amount of money!
After a while, Father Yang returned home. He carried two bags in his hands and spoke as he saw Yang Ming, “Big Ming, I returned home late. I didn’t make it in time to prepare lunch. Instead, I have grabbed some dishes and steamed buns from the restaurant downstairs. Quickly finish up your food and go to school!”
After listening, Yang Ming took the things in his father’s hands and put it on the dining table in the kitchen. He put the dishes on plates. It was actually shredded pork with chili and soy as well as spicy beancurd [2]. They were Yang Ming’s favorite foods!
Yang Ming actually was hungry. He handled Zhang Xiulu for quite a long time which exhausted his energy. Thus, he took a steamed bun and gobbled the food!
After a few bites, Yang Ming realized that his father wasn’t eating but rather looking at him in an amicable manner!
“Dad, you also eat!” said Yang Ming.
“I won’t eat first; you go ahead. I will take care of it later!” Father Yang said.
“Dad, I can’t eat anymore! Hurry and eat!” said Yang Ming as he passed a steamed bun to his dad.
“Never mind. If you can’t eat anymore, we can keep it for your dinner!” Father Yang took the steamed bun and put it into a plastic bag.
Yang Ming knew his father was reluctant to eat. In a family like his, they rarely got food from a restaurant unless it was a special occasion! Yang Ming was a bit sad. Suddenly, he thought about the matter of the lottery ticket and asked promptly, “Dad, did you buy any lottery tickets?”
“Lottery ticket? Where would I get the money to purchase such thing!” Father Yang laughed.
“Dad, you didn’t buy this?” Yang Ming took the lottery ticket and put it on the table.