Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 207

The ticket seller looked at the petite, weak, beautifully fair Jiang Ning and then at the tall, burly Tong Jingang, who resembled a gorilla.

Tong Jingang then realized that something was off about what he said, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

It was also Grandpa Jiang’s first experience at the bathhouse; he truly felt like all the years of grime on his body were thoroughly scrubbed off by Jiang Bo and Tong Jingang, making him feel as light as ten pounds lighter and completely relaxed.

Jiang Bo felt the same way. Although there was a bathhouse in Shuibu Town, he had never been there. Tong Jingang often went to soak in the bathhouse and, seeing that Jiang Bo and Grandpa Jiang were unfamiliar with it, he took them both to the warm leather bed, where they scrubbed Grandpa Jiang all over. Grandpa Jiang was thin and had little flesh, mostly skin, and Tong Jingang was terrified while scrubbing his back.

Then the two of them scrubbed each other.

Jiang Bo’s skin was whiter than his face. Even though Tong Jingang was from the city and Jiang Bo from the countryside, Tong Jingang had gotten tanned from playing basketball and couldn’t return to being pale. In contrast, Jiang Bo used to swim outdoors in the river, tanning for a whole summer and then staying white for the whole winter.

Jiang Bo was pale, thin, and tall, while Tong Jingang was dark, stocky, and strong. Lying on the black leather bed scrubbing each other formed a stark contrast.

Because he was so white, Tong Jingang had strong hands; when he scrubbed with the bath towel, Jiang Bo’s skin turned red, making Tong Jingang exclaim, “Wow, your skin is so tender! I haven’t even used much force yet!”

Jiang Bo retorted, “Can you be gentler? Do you think I’m a pig getting de-haired?”

Perhaps because he had money, Jiang Bo seemed more confident and lively than before, which made Grandpa Jiang laugh.

On the other side, Jiang Ning also had a thorough wash from head to toe. Once her hair was dry, the four of them stepped out, feeling refreshed and relaxed.

At this time, it was still early, and they hadn’t reached the school’s curfew. This year, he and Jiang Bo had been busy selling clothes to earn money and hadn’t had a proper outing, so Tong Jingang suggested they go ice skating.

The ice skating rink and dance hall were currently the favorite hangouts for young people in the city, though the dance hall was more adult-oriented, while the ice skating rink was also loved by kids.

Jiang Bo was always rule-abiding, never doing anything out of line, and he didn’t like taking his sister to these somewhat chaotic places, so Tong Jingang suggested going to the movies instead.

“After the movie, we can have dinner. There’s a roasted duck shop next to the cinema; their roasted ducks smell amazing! We can buy one to eat with Grandpa Jiang!”

Tong Jingang thought Jiang Bo, being from the countryside, hadn’t seen a movie before and wanted to take him to see the world. In reality, Jiangjia Village had its own cinema, and during the New Year, the cinema had shown The East is Red and Mama, Don’t Love Me Again.

Although Jiang Bo and Jiang Ning hadn’t been able to afford tickets to the village cinema, they had seen plenty of free outdoor movies, often running to the cinema to play as children since the owner was their uncle from the third branch of the family.

The most popular movie in the cinema now was the recently released Young and Dangerous, starring Zheng Yijian and Chen Jiahua. After watching the movie, Tong Jingang was still immersed in the brotherhood of Chen Haonan and Shanjin, feeling that his bond with Jiang Bo was just like that of Chen Haonan and Shanjin.

He was playful and, after coming out of the movie, couldn’t help but want to go to the ice skating rink. He clung to Jiang Bo’s neck and coquettishly said, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, Baizi, Baizi, just accompany your brother for a bit~”

Even Jiang Ning couldn’t resist Tong Jingang’s strong man’s coquetry, but Jiang Bo remained expressionless and resisted his advances, pushing his hand away and saying, “If you want to go, go by yourself.”

“Hey, if you don’t go, what’s the point of me going alone?” Tong Jingang followed Jiang Bo closely.

Jiang Bo walked straight toward the roasted duck shop.

Last time, Tong Jingang paid for it, and friends should share the expenses. In the past, he hadn’t had money and often relied on Tong Jingang to treat him to food. Now that he had money, he didn’t want Tong Jingang to pay.

Since it was around the New Year, everyone was willing to spend money on food. There was a line in front of the roasted duck shop, and many snack stalls surrounded it. The line extended from the square next to the cinema all the way to both sides of the street, selling toys, balloons, goldfish, and rabbits, creating a lively scene.

Now that Tong Jingang had money in his pocket, he couldn’t hold back and bought three skewers of authentic Xinjiang lamb skewers. The skewers were huge, grilled on metal sticks over a charcoal fire, sprinkled with cumin and chili powder, making them incredibly fragrant.

The small bamboo skewer lamb skewers cost one yuan for five, while these larger metal skewer lamb skewers cost one yuan each, making Jiang Bo, who had gone to buy roasted duck, feel distressed. The cafeteria’s braised pork only cost eight taels of meal tickets, but this skewer of lamb cost a whole yuan?

But the lamb was real lamb, delicious and genuinely good. After finishing the lamb skewers, Tong Jingang wanted to eat stinky tofu. Jiang Bo just watched Tong Jingang eat this and that, and in the end, the three of them each held a candied hawthorn to munch on.

It was probably the New Year, and the snacks at these stalls were twice as expensive as usual. Jiang Bo took the candied hawthorn Tong Jingang handed over, eating while saying, “Don’t buy this for me next time; we have plenty of these on the mountain; I’ve eaten enough of them since I was small.”

A wild hawthorn tree could produce a lot of hawthorn fruits, and they couldn’t finish picking them. However, wild hawthorn fruits were small, mostly sour and astringent, and not only did people like to eat them, but bugs did too. Therefore, wild hawthorn fruits were prone to having worms, and when people took a bite, they would find it full of bugs.

However, eating such bugs wouldn’t cause any harm; it was just disgusting. Jiang Bo, who had some obsessive cleanliness, never liked eating these things since childhood. He handed it to Jiang Ning, asking if she wanted to eat it, but Jiang Ning still had a skewer in her hand.

Tong Jingang bit into the candied hawthorn that Jiang Bo was holding, taking a piece and saying, “Hey, this thing is just for the festive atmosphere during the New Year; who eats this stuff normally?”

 He patted Jiang Bo’s shoulder and waved the candied hawthorn in his hand, saying, “Just feel the New Year’s vibe.”

At Tong Jingang’s age, making friends was purely about whether they hit it off. He didn’t have the contemplative thoughts about life and friendships that came with being in his thirties or forties. Right now, he just vaguely felt that Jiang Bo lived too rigidly and suffered too much, so he wanted to take him out to try something different and make him a bit happier.