After a long silence, Chi Cheng finally spoke.

“Why did you stop coming to play basketball these few days?”

Wu Suowei rested on his forehead… Building up so much emotions just to ask this question.

In reality, all those conversation that Chi Cheng made with Wu Suowei was just a lead up so that he could ask this question. What he really cared about was just this small matter – why did you stop coming to find me?

Wu Suowei answered nonchalantly, “No whys. I just didn’t feel like playing basketball.”

Chi Cheng’s face changed. He put Xiao Cu Bao down and moved to right in front of Wu Suowei and stared into his eyes.

“So why did you feel like playing in the past?”

Wu Suowei felt a sense of foreboding shadowing him, making it hard for him to breathe.

Not getting a reply after a long time, Chi Cheng suddenly struck out his hand towards Wu Suowei’s head and pressed Wu Suowei down on the sofa. Wu Suowei’s iron-head is so hard, even Chi Cheng’s muscular hand felt unease after strong impact against it.

Chi Cheng looked down onto Wu Suowei, his tone becoming heavier.

“Talk!”

Wu Suowei gritted his teeth and refused to make a sound, making a certain someone anxious.

Jiang Xiaoshuai lightly coughed and managed to lighten the tensed atmosphere.

“Don’t lean so near to him, he has a flu. Don’t let it spread to you.”

“You are down with flu?” Chi Cheng asked.

Wu Suowei’s bright eyes instantly dimmed. He scrunched his forehead slightly and continued staring at Chi Cheng, pretending that he is a weak soul persevering to show that he is fine.

“Don’t listen to his nonsense. I’m well and healthy!”

“I’m talking nonsense?” Jiang Xiaoshuai continued to exaggerate, “Running out even when it’s cold and raining and coming back full of sweat. With that rain and wind, is it possible to not catch a cold? Just to catch a few toads, you jumped into the brook in this freezing weather, making you run a fever of 41 degree Celsius……”

Understanding what Jiang Xiaoshuai was trying to do, Wu Suowei cut in, “Jiang Xiaoshuai, you better stop talking!”

Jiang Xiaoshuai continued rumbling, “This antic of cheapening yourself can be addictive. Wearing old, torn clothings on your own while sending all the good stuff into others’ pocket. Now that you are sick, you don’t even dare to show your face, afraid that you would infect the other person…” Turning his head to Chi Cheng, “Mr Mighty, if this guy froze to death in the brook, what a big loss it would be for the world of idiots!”

The memory of Wu Suowei playing basketball alone on the night it was raining floated into Chi Cheng’s mind.

“Wu-ge!”[1]

The junior’s voice rang out clearly and anxiously from the door.

Came at the perfect timing! Wu Suowei pushed Chi Cheng aside, adjusted his clothed and looked at his junior.

“Yes?”

The junior’s face was filled with anxiety, “Another dozen of our snakes died again!”

This time round, Wu Suowei finally had some response. He jumped up from the sofa, worriedly put on his shoes and started walking out as he asked his junior, “What happened? How did it die?”

Chi Cheng also followed.

When they reached those two rooms and saw the dying baby snakes, Chi Cheng asked Wu Suowei, “you also raise snakes?”

Wu Suowei is gritting his teeth in worry and didn’t bother answering.

Chi Cheng lifted one of the snakes up, carelessly looked at its eye and threw it back.

“Stop wasting your effort. All your snakes won’t survive.”

Wu Suowei looks like this is the first time he is hearing this news and his eyes became watery immediately.

“Why? When my shifu (mentor) sold me this batch of snakes, he said these are wild snakes and want me to feed them with wild feed. I followed his instructions and only used human-made feed at most twice.”

“The feed doesn’t matter.” Chi Cheng calmly said, “It’s the snake species that is bad. You got cheated.”

“Nonsense!” Wu Suowei argued plausibly, “I was there as an apprentice for two moths and know them very well. Why would they cheat people they are close to? The snakes must have ate the wrong stuff.”

After he said that, he made the junior mince up the wild toads and squirrels from the bucket beside, planning to feed it to the baby snakes a in while.

Chi Cheng also didn’t continue to be nonsensical with Wu Suowei. He scooped up the bucket in one swoop and walked outside. His Er Bao has been craving for a few days, it’s time to improve its diet.

Wu Suowei started to panick, “What do you want to do?”

Chi Cheng answered naturally, “Since your snakes are not going to survive, there is no need to waste feed.”

Wu Suowei chased him all the way out.

Chi Cheng stood outside his car and asked, “Which snake farm did you learn your skills from?”

Wu Suowei answered adamantly, “Wang’s Snake Farm! If you don’t believe it, go and find out about it. They have a very good reputation and wouldn’t do such a thing.”

Chi Cheng did not say anything and drove off.

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[1]Ge means big brother and Wu is the surname of Wu Suowei. Hence, Wu-ge means Brother Wu and is referring to Wu Suowei.