Chapter 14: Turning Enemies into Friends

  When Li Han woke up, it was already evening. Fortunately, it was the weekend, otherwise he would have skipped school for a day. The sound of clanging pots and pans came from the kitchen, and it must be Xia Meng busy cooking. Li Han couldn't help but smile, feeling delighted.

  He has very high standards for the food he eats, and it must have color, fragrance, and flavor. Because he is too picky about food, he usually cooks at home and rarely eats in the school cafeteria.

  Li Han thinks the most perfect scene in the future is, after work, he returns home and hasn't entered the door yet, but smells the fragrance of food. He pushes open the door, his children are surrounding the table, "Dad, you're back!" The kids crowd around him to the dinner table, his beloved wife Xia Meng, brings out fragrant dishes from the kitchen, urging him to sit down quickly, then picks up a delicious piece and feeds it into his mouth, asking: "Husband, how's the taste of tonight's dish?"

  "Time to eat, scrambled eggs and rice!" Xia Meng's shout pulled Li Han out of his reverie. The plate of scrambled eggs and rice almost made Li Han faint. Was this scrambled eggs? The dark eggs in the rice porridge were winking at him. Xia Meng brought over the plate of scrambled eggs and rice in front of her, eating with relish, apparently quite satisfied with her own work.

  Li Han looked at Xia Meng with suspicion, closed his eyes, took a bite, and couldn't help but feel a wave of nausea in his stomach. He spat it out. "What is this? You can swallow it!" The egg was salty and bitter, not to mention the rice, which had probably been soaked in water for too long, had a sticky and strange taste.

  Xia Meng can definitely swallow it down. From a young age, her parents were busy with business outside and never cooked at home. She rarely saw how her family members cooked and no one taught her how to cook. Her stir-fries and cooking were all impromptu ideas, whether they tasted good or not was up to her alone. In fact, most of the time she ate in the school cafeteria, and on weekends if she didn't go out to eat, she would just boil a bowl of instant noodles at home to get by.

  Li Han snatched the plate from Xia Meng's hand and dumped its contents into the trash can. Before long, Li Han magically produced a golden fried rice dish from the kitchen.

  Xia Meng took a bite: "Wow, it's delicious, too delicious! I've known you for so many years, and I didn't expect you to have such a great skill!" Li Han secretly lamented that in the future when they live together, Xia Meng will be cruelly torturing his stomach. But looking at her dark fried rice today, she absolutely doesn't have the talent for cooking delicious food!

  "I'll meet you at school later, Chen Yumeng was waiting for me in the dormitory, saying she had something to talk to me about!" Xia Meng said. "You go wash the dishes first! Later I'm going out for a workout, I'll send you to the bridge!" After cleaning up, Xia Meng kept a distance from Li Han and walked towards the school direction. Just as they were crossing the bridge, suddenly, a voice came from behind: "Brother, it's him, he got me caught by the police last night!"

  It turned out that Xia Meng had seen clearly, this was the boy who robbed last night. Later, Xia Meng only knew that this boy was a second-year student in Class D, named Zhang Wu, tall and strong, but only 14 years old, often mixed with idle people outside, because he had no money to buy cigarettes and wine, so he committed robbery, his father was the captain of the Public Security Bureau's criminal investigation team, managed him very strictly, often beat him up.

  Zhang Wu was taken to the police station yesterday, but due to his good attitude and being underage, his parents actively compensated, and the victim also stated that they would not pursue the matter further. Under his father's guarantee, the police station released him. When making a statement, Zhang Wu remembered Li Han's name and school. After leaving the police station, he immediately found his "brothers" and lay in wait at the entrance of Li Han's school to see if they could run into Li Han.

  It's really a narrow road for enemies! Xia Meng saw that they had come with 5 people, surrounding Li Han. The leader of them said to Li Han: "You little boy, just kneel down and kowtow to us one by one, I'll spare your life!"

  "Can't we go down to the bridge? There are many students coming and going here, and I know them all. If a fight really breaks out, it won't be good for you guys," said Li Han.

  "Hey, you little kid's got a big mouth! Let's go, to the bridge!" Li Han was dragged by them towards the bridge. Xia Meng suddenly became tense, although Li Han was not small in stature, but there were 5 of them, and it was hard to win against so many people! What to do? Xia Meng suddenly remembered Qin Lang, yes, he was the best fighter since middle school, quickly gave him a call, asking him to come over and help. "Qin Lang, hurry up, Li Han's in trouble, he's being beaten by people at our school bridge!"

  "What? Li Han was beaten up by someone? How many people were there?" Qin Lang asked over the phone, his tone not worried but rather disbelieving.

  "Five people!"

  "Only 5 people? Oh, no big deal! I'll go take a look later!" Qin Lang hung up the phone.

  "Hey, don't you have a conscience? Your best friend is being beaten up and you're not worried at all!" Xia Meng shouted over the phone!

  Xia Meng hastily ran to the bottom of the bridge, she couldn't bear to watch Li Han being beaten up, after all, she had just finished eating his delicious egg fried rice! Xia Meng was absolutely a person who repaid kindness.

  There were five people under the bridge, no, it should be one person lying down. Xia Meng was puzzled in her heart. "What are you doing? Sneaking around!" Li Han jumped out from behind, Xia Meng was startled. "Aren't you knocked to the ground? I thought you'd been beaten into a pig's head face by now, don't you still have injuries on your shoulders?" Xia Meng was both shocked and delighted!

  "Come on! Don't be so curious about this!" Li Han walked towards the bridge.

  "I just called Qin Lang and asked him to come support you!" Xia Meng shouted from behind.

  "Perfect timing!" Li Han chuckled with glee, letting Qin Lang see that history was repeating itself.

  When Li Han first entered school, he was often bullied by his classmates because of his small stature. Especially Qian Lang and his gang, who took great pleasure in bullying weaker students. As a freshman, Qian Lang had already grown to 175 cm tall and weighed 160 pounds, and when he fought, he didn't care about his own life, earning him the nickname "Desperate Wolf". Even older students didn't dare to mess with him, as he had a group of younger followers who would beat up anyone who disobeyed him.

  Li Han would just laugh and let it go when his classmates pushed or kicked him, without fighting back. If someone blocked his way, he would either walk around them or even let them hit him a couple of times, without showing any displeasure.

  However, one day, Qin Lang and several younger brothers intercepted Li Han on the way. "You are Li Han, it is said that no matter how you beat him, he will not get angry?" Qin Lang looked at Li Han in front of him with disdain, his eyes full of contempt, "Today, I must make you cry!"

  Li Han looked at Qin Lang and said, "Others can hit me, I won't get angry, but you hit me, I get angry!" Qin Lang was confused by Li Han's answer.

  "I don't need to establish my position by fighting you again and again like you do! Today, I'm going to take you on one-on-one!" Li Han pointed at Qin Lang.

  Tan Lang was suddenly subdued by Li Han's momentum.

  "Whoever loses will have to obey the other from then on!" Li Han said.

  "Joke, I'm still able to lose to you!" After finishing speaking, Qīn Lǎng pounced forward, wanting to grab Li Hè's collar. Li Hè dodged and with a swift kick, his foot swept across Qīn Lǎng's face.

  Tan Lang was so angry that his eyes were seeing stars. This weak and small Li Han, since he had such a great strength, Tan Lang thought to himself, "Not good, I've met my match!" He retreated two steps back, calling out to the two little brothers behind him: "Come together, let's beat this kid into a pancake!" The three of them rushed forward, surrounding Li Han. Li Han used one sweep of his leg and knocked Tan Lang's two little brothers to the ground.

  Qin Lang was grabbed from behind by Li Han, who exerted force and broke free. He punched Qin Lang in the face and then swept his leg, sending the 175cm-tall man crashing to the ground. Li Han straddled him, unleashing a flurry of punches that rained down on Qin Lang's body, each one landing with a loud thud. The two brothers were shocked into stupidity by Li Han's ferocity.

  It's done, Li Han took out 50 yuan from his backpack and stuffed it into Qin Lang's hand: "Today counts as my fault, you take this 50 yuan to buy some ointment to apply. Tomorrow either you come to my classroom to find me, I guarantee that in the future I won't bully weaker classmates again, or tomorrow after school I'll be waiting for you at the school gate, and I'll beat you up in front of your classmates!" After finishing speaking, Li Han rode his bike away.

  After that, Tan Lang became Li Han's most loyal follower. Li Han took him to the gym, taekwondo room, martial arts hall, boxing hall, and also taught him how to play online games, surf the internet, and even play basketball, badminton, and tennis.

  Whenever the brothers were restless and wanted to vent, Li Han would take them to the basketball court, football field, badminton hall, or tennis court to expend their excess energy and sweat. Li Han became a hero and big brother in their eyes, and he was also very impressive physically, growing rapidly to 174 cm by the second year of junior high school, with a sturdy build that lived up to his nickname "Head".

  Qin Lang rode a broken motorcycle that went "puff puff puff" and arrived, saying "Xia Meng said you were beaten up!"

  Xiǎ Mèng pointed at the five people under the bridge, waving his hands and shrugging his shoulders. "I have something to do, I'll leave first, you two can chat slowly!" Xiǎ Mèng said as he turned around and walked towards school.

  "Who is it? You dare to provoke me?" Qin Lang asked.

  "Go down and take a look!" Li Han ordered Qin Lang.

  Qin Lang arrived at the bottom of the bridge and saw 5 people with swollen faces and bruised necks. He asked, "Are you still not convinced? Are you planning to bring more people tomorrow? Which middle school are you from? Speak!" Qin Lang picked up one of the smaller ones and asked.

  "We are...are...are D's!" The thin classmate had just been beaten up, and seeing another big guy coming out, his heart was trembling.

  "Tomorrow, Xu Qiang from Class D will come and talk to you!"

  Xu Qiang, the big brother who can fight the most in D, once had a fierce battle with Qin Lang in an internet cafe. However, Li Han intervened and mediated, and both sides reached a reconciliation. As soon as Zhang Wu heard that Xu Qiang was going to question them, he became scared, "Big brother, we won't dare come again!"

  Li Han suddenly appeared in front of them, "If I find out you're mugging people outside again, I'll beat you until you can't get up and then send you to the police station. Did you hear me?!"

  Zhang Wu and others hastily nodded and said they didn't dare anymore.

  Li Han rode on Qin Lang's motorcycle. "Hey, after you left, we brothers in B are really too lonely!" Qin Lang complained.

  "Tan Lang, you're about to enter high school soon, you need to plan your future, don't just mess around aimlessly, that won't do!"

  "My grades aren't good, but I'm okay at sports, so I'm planning to apply for a police academy!"

  "Go on, from now on if your brothers commit a crime, you can still collude with each other!" Li Han said with a smile.

  "What's wrong with us being good comrades, how can we commit a crime?"

  "Haha, let's go, come with me to the gym!"