BXBX NOVEL Chapter 180 - One-Hundred and Eighty: Exchange
“How many debts does he owe you? Why do I get the feeling he does this quite often?” Xiang Yang stage-whispered to Shi Ke.
Shi Ke chuckled, “They both do this. It’s a rule we’ve had since we were kids.”
He turned to his little brother and asked, “How many debts do you owe Ye
Kun’s brother?”
Shi Nian coughed lightly into his fist before replying, “Just a few.”
Yun Nan and Fang Xi looked at them in surprise. Xiang Yang asked the question the girls also wanted to ask, “How do they usually pay you guys back? Won’t they skip out on the debt?”
Shi Ke glanced at the two younger boys—they’ll always be boys to him—and said, “They won’t because we’re their older brothers. In any case, up until now, none of them had dared to rebel. As for how they would return the favor… that’s up to them and the situation at the time. They’ll repay their debts; a gentleman’s agreement isn’t to be broken, after all.”
The three women looked at each other, amazed the men had such a system.
Xiang Yang sympathetically uttered to Shi Nian and Ye Kun, ”
Shi Nian and Ye Kun were very calm; they didn’t think the exchange was unfair at all. Ye Kun stated, “It’s an equivalent exchange; our older brothers gain, but we don’t lose either. Sometimes, we have no other choice but to ask our big brothers for help; some things can only be solved by those big shots. For example, even my father can’t get me a vacation from my brother, but Shi Ke can. My brother will let me off for Shi Ke’s sake.”
Xiang Yang curiously asked Shi Ke, “Why is that?”
“That’s how our friendship works,” he answered mock-mysteriously.
Xiang Yang was impressed and said to Yun Nan and Fang Xi, “I gotta hand it to them; that sounds pretty out there.”
Yun Nan and Fang Xi nodded in agreement. ‘Sometimes, the friendship between men is truly inexplicable,’ they thought.
The three women went to the washroom hand in hand, chatting and laughing as they sighed at the friendship between men. When Xiang Yang brushed past someone, she accidentally bumped into that person.
“Oh! I’m sorry,” Xiang Yang apologized reflexively.
“Can’t you watch where you’re going?” The other party questioned sternly. That person was a petite woman in her twenties or thirties with an arrogant expression.
They’d bumped into each other because they were walking in different directions, so they were both at fault for the collision. Xiang Yang only apologized out of politeness. She didn’t expect that just because she’d apologized, the other woman thought she was in the right and was being pushy and unreasonable about it.
Xiang Yang stood still and stopped smiling. She coldly retorted, ‘Me? Can’t you watch where you’re going?”
The woman didn’t expect Xiang Yang’s prickly repartee. She loudly rebuked, “You apologized, so that means you’re in the wrong; if you weren’t at fault, why are you apologizing to me?”
“I apologized because I thought I hit a person!” Xiang Yang stated coolly. “If I’d known what I bumped into was something that’s not even worth trash, I wouldn’t have bothered.”
“Who are you calling trash? You’re the one who’s not worth trash! ” The woman became even angrier.
“That’s right! I’m not! I’m worth much, much more!” Xiang Yang smiled. The other woman probably had a brain made of wood; she still hadn’t caught on.
When she finally did catch on, the woman shrieked, “You!” She was so mad she was at a loss for words.
“Gu Wen, what are you doing?” someone inquired, and then three women walked over from behind the woman.
The petite woman—Gu Wen—turned around and whined, “Mom! Auntie! She called me trash!”
Xiang Yang laughed and said to Yun Nan and Fang Xi, “It’s been years since I’ve met a wimp who’d run crying to their mom when they’ve lost an argument.” “Who’re you calling a wimp?” Gu Wen snapped back, even more furious than before.
Xiang Yang crossed her arms and leisurely remarked, “I’ve seen people beg for money, but I’ve never seen anyone beg for a scolding before. What? Don’t tell me you like people calling you a wimp?”
Before Gu Wen could respond, an older woman frostily stated, “Who are you rude vixens? How dare you bully my daughter?”
‘ The apple sure doesn’t fall far from the tree. With an attitude like that, no wonder her daughter is so arrogant,’ Xiang Yang and the girls thought.
Yun Nan told Gu Wen’s mother, “Madam, you’ve misunderstood. It was your daughter who started it. We didn’t bully her. Calling us vixens is a little too much, isn’t it?”
“Too much? I don’t see what’s wrong with what I’ve said. All of you look like vixens, laughing and giggling in such a high-end hotel. You don’t seem like decent folk to me!”
Fang Xi was angrily amused. “You’re saying, just because we’re good-looking, we’re vixens? Then what do you call that troll of a daughter you have there?” Gu Wen’s face turned red with anger. “Who are you calling a troll?” “I’m sorry, but the three of us aren’t ugly, so…” Fang Xi lightly remarked.
“Yun Nan, you guys have really gone too far,” a soft and meek voice suddenly spoke behind Gu Wen’s mother. Only then did Yun Nan see Yun Liu. Yun Liu had probably seen them earlier and deliberately hid behind the other women.
“You know her?” Gu Wen’s mother questioned sharply.
Yun Liu shrank away and said softly, “Auntie, she’s the Yun family’s biological daughter, Yun Nan.”
Gu Wen’s mother glared at Yun Nan harshly and commented, “She certainly is a difficult character. No wonder you’re so submissive and useless—it’s probably because you always got bullied.”
Yun Liu lowered her head, looking as though she didn’t dare to speak..