Unbridled 7
Ding Ji sat across from Lin Wuyu.
This fried rice noodle restaurant was actually quite famous, so as soon as Lin Wuyu mentioned it, he immediately guessed that it was here.
It happened to be lunchtime right now, and for someone that had been studying hard all night for several days, it was important to eat when the time came.
He took out a pair of chopsticks from the holder next to him, lowered his head, and took a bite. “You knew that I would come? If I hadn’t come, you would’ve wasted the food.”
“I wouldn’t have,” Lin Wuyu said.
“Huh?” Ding Ji looked up at him.
“To tell you the truth,” Lin Wuyu cleared his throat, “both of these servings are mine.”
Ding Ji was stunned, “What…”
“And that plate…” Lin Wuyu pointed to the plate of fried rice noodles he was eating. “Sorry to inform you, but I’ve already taken a few bites from it.”
“No,” Ding Ji straightened up abruptly and threw the chopsticks on the table. “Just tell me if you have any grudge against me.”
“You can eat this plate.” Lin Wuyu didn’t say anything else and just pushed another plate in front of him while taking the previous one away.
“… Don’t you want to eat two servings?” Ding Ji felt like he lost some face, and glanced at the fried rice noodles in front of him. “Didn’t you say both servings were yours?”
“Do you want to eat them then?” Lin Wuyu asked, and pulled out a pair of chopsticks for him, putting them on the edge of the plate.
“I don’t,” Ding Ji said. “Who knows if you’ve licked this plate or not? After a while, you might say ‘Ah, this plate is the one I ate from’.”
“I’m not that annoying,” Lin Wuyu laughed.
“Then I’ll be the annoying one,” Ding Ji said.
“You’re annoying when you’re hungry.” Lin Wuyu lowered his head and began to eat.
Ding Ji stood up for a while, then after suppressing his anger, he picked up his chopsticks.
When he went out in the morning, his mother chased after him and asked if he had studied well during this time. He said a few words to his mother before he left.
He wasn’t used to his mother’s distrustful attitude. He studied and reviewed until midnight every night, but what he got in return were these kinds of irritating and maddening questions.
If his grandpa was around, he might’ve been persuaded after just telling him that he studied until midnight every day.
However, he didn’t want to. It was his business and his life. He just wanted to live his life at his own pace. He was only willing to report to his grandparents if he had to report to someone. Why would he want to report to his parents who only occasionally made an appearance over the phone or on video call for over 10 years?
He took ten thousand steps back, trying to understand his father’s naive thoughts.
If you really love me so much, how do you not know that I don’t go to bed until 3 o’clock every single day?
“You didn’t go to school?” Ding Ji was stunned for a while and then checked the time.
“I went, then I left again,” Lin Wuyu said. “What about you?”
“I came to win an induction cooker,” Ding Ji said.
Lin Wuyu paused and raised his head. He stared at Ding Ji’s face for a second then turned his head to look at the big glass bottle he had put on the table. “Why do you want an induction cooker?”
“To give to my grandma,” Ding Ji replied.
“Your family…” Lin Wuyu looked at the hoverboard he left next to them again. “You’re not going through tough times, right?”
“There are two reasons,” Ding Ji explained. “My grandma feels like it’s not worth spending money on an induction cooker, and that it might not be safe.”
“Got it.” Lin Wuyu ate two more mouthfuls of rice noodles and put down his chopsticks. “Let me help you.”
“ You…” Ding Ji originally wanted to ask if he could, but when he saw his plate, he changed what he was going to say out of surprise. “Have you finished eating?”
“Well,” Lin Wuyu wiped his mouth with a tissue, “I’ll have enough time to eat another plate before you’re done.”
“Are you a pig?” Ding Ji couldn’t help but ask.
“No.” Lin Wuyu leaned back in his chair and looked at his glass bottle again. “What kind of tea are you drinking today? The one last time was honeysuckle, right?”
Ding Ji didn’t make a sound and reached out to take the bottle off the table and put it on his lap.
“Thank you.” Lin Wuyu took the Coke handed over by Ding Ji. “Aren’t you going to drink it?”
“I’ll drink green tea.” Ding Ji shook the bottle in his hand, unscrewed it and took a sip, then put the bottle into a bag that was as slack as a bag of dough hanging on his waist.
This habit of drinking tea from a glass bottle in your hand is pretty rare amongst young people nowadays, especially considering that it’s Ding Ji…. I guess that sometimes there are some young people who can’t hide their charisma.
Of course, he probably doesn’t try to hide it either.
“Let’s go.” Lin Wuyu walked over to the shopping mall.
“Wait for me,” Ding Ji followed him on his hoverboard, took out his phone and dialled a number. ”I have to park my hoverboard.”
Lin Wuyu stopped.
After Ding Ji finished making his phone call, a girl ran out from the nearby milk tea shop, happily smiling. “Go, go, I’ll play with the hoverboard for you first.”
“You have to pay me back if you break it,” Ding Ji got off the hoverboard. “I’m not soft towards girls.”
“Got it!” The girl stepped on the hoverboard and left without looking back.
“You know someone from that milk tea shop?” Lin Wuyu took a sip of Coke. “Why didn’t you treat me to get milk tea then? It wouldn’t have cost you anything.”
“That’s my classmate from elementary school. If you say you want to drink milk tea, I’ll take you to her house to drink it. Don’t you want to drink Coke?”
“Ah, I want to drink milk tea.” Lin Wuyu said.
“Go buy it yourself!” Ding Ji glared at him, then turned and walked towards the mall.
Xinjia was considered small compared to the shopping malls nearby, and because of its age, its location was relatively remote. Although it had an old-timer status out of the shopping malls, it was still an unavoidable fact that it was old and rustic.
Lin Wuyu hadn’t come to this shopping mall for three years. He didn’t expect that people still shopped in this mall and organized activities.
However, the publicity of the event was obviously subpar. There was a poster outside the mall, and when they arrived, it had already been going on for almost half an hour.
There weren’t many spectators or participants…
“Can I go back on my word?” Lin Wuyu asked Ding Ji in a low voice.
“Go back on what?” Ding Ji said.
“I won’t help you win the induction cooker.” Lin Wuyu looked around at the aunts and sisters who had signed up and were eager to try.
The few men present were all uncles.
“What’s the matter?” Ding Ji looked around and looked at him with disdain. “Are you afraid you won’t be able to win with force?”
“Isn’t it,” Lin Wuyu was still whispering, “isn’t this bullying the elderly?”
“How are you sure who’s bullying who?” Ding Ji cut in, with an expression on his face as if he was one of the elderly people. “Don’t go up there and compare yourself, you haven’t even touched the power cord of the induction cooker.”
Lin Wuyu looked at him for a few seconds, trying to judge whether he was being sincere or aggressive.
Unexpectedly, he couldn’t make a judgement.
He even felt that his words were from the heart.
“Alright.” Lin Wuyu nodded.
The rules of this event were very simple; it was to hit-the-target.
Everybody had 15 balls, and whoever scored the most goals would win. If they had the same number, it would depend on who scored more goals in the row, and if that was also tied, it would depend on who took the shortest time.
It was basically the same concept as a basketball machine, except the distance was a little longer.
“What if the two of us are the last ones standing?” Lin Wuyu asked Ding Ji.
“You’re overthinking it,” Ding Ji said. “I won’t make it to the end, or else I wouldn’t have treated you to a Coke.”
“Didn’t you treat me to a Coke because I bought you fried rice noodles?” Lin Wuyu asked.
“I bought you a Coke because you bought me fried rice noodles and you’ll help me carry the induction cooker,” Ding Ji replied calmly.
“Is your family…” Lin Wuyu was interrupted by Ding Ji before he finished speaking.
“We’re not going through tough times, I just wanted to take advantage of you,” Ding Ji said.
“Oh,” Lin Wuyu smiled. “Why don’t you try to foresee if I’ll win or not? You probably don’t even know if I can play basketball.”
Ding Ji didn’t refuse either. He picked up his phone and glanced at the time, then began to read his fortune.
Lin Wuyu watched his movements.
To be honest, I don’t understand what he’s doing, I just vaguely feel like Ding Ji’s mumbling something.
He looked convincing, especially like a fortune teller.
“Don’t you need something to read my fortune with?” Lin Wuyu really couldn’t see anything so he asked.
“No, I’ll use my grandma’s copper coins if I’m at home. If I’m outside, I’ll use whatever I want. Numbers, time, that basketball over there, birds…”
“Birds1?” Lin Wuyu was stunned.
Ding Ji stopped fortune telling, turned around and glanced at him with an extremely contemptuous expression. “What are you thinking about? It’s a bird flying in the sky!”
“Chirp chirp chirp,” Lin Wuyu said. It seemed like he really got the wrong idea.
People’s minds think of all sorts of things.
“Chirp my ass…” Ding Ji clicked his tongue. “Understood? If you think about what you want to ask, you can use anything to tell someone’s fortune.”
“Got it.” Lin Wuyu nodded.
Suddenly, an unrealistic, almost magical idea came to mind.
“You can win,” Ding Ji said.
“Then can you predict how many shots I’ll make?” Lin Wuyu asked.
“No,” Ding Ji answered. “It’s easier for me to predict whether or not I can make some extra money than for me to predict if you can win.”
“… Sure.” Lin Wuyu nodded.
Let’s see what happens.
At the start of the competition, Lin Wuyu saw that almost all the aunties and older sisters came in groups. They were divided into around 5 or 6 groups, and they even brought a cheerleading team to cheer them on when they were shooting.
Lin Wuyu took a look and felt like he really underestimated the elderly.
Although their posture was very non-standard, to the point where every shot was a different posture, two aunties actually scored 8 goals.
Shocking.
The uncles weren’t half bad either. One even scored 12 goals.
Lin Wuyu glanced at Ding Ji, who was leaning on the railing next to him with a lollipop in his mouth, watching with relish. “Hey.”
“Huh?” Ding Ji responded without looking at him, and cheered for the uncle on the field, “Awesome!”
“Did you really predict if I could get that induction cooker or not?” Lin Wuyu asked.
“It’s not the induction cooker, it’s extra money. Don’t be afraid,” Ding Ji said. “Relax. If you really don’t win, I might be able to pick up 10 yuan2 when I head out.”
“So you’re not really unsure, right? But… between the induction cooker and 10 yuan, isn’t the gap too big?” Lin Wuyu admired Ding Ji’s mentality.
“One must be satisfied with what they receive,” Ding Ji replied calmly.
They signed up late and were last in line. Ding Ji went first.
When Lin Wuyu watched him throw the first ball, he felt like the battle for the induction cooker was probably between them.
Although Ding Ji had humbly expressed his determination not to get the induction cooker before, the way he handled the ball showed that he had played basketball for over 10 years.
One, two, three, four, five.
After scoring five goals in a row, Ding Ji turned his head and raised his eyebrows triumphantly. Lin Wuyu saw him like this and wanted to go over and push his eyebrows back down for him.
However, his gaze was quickly attracted by someone next to him.
When he signed up, he paid attention to it. Apart from all the grandpas and aunties, he didn’t see any young people, let alone such a young man who looked like an athlete.
The man was watching Ding Ji shoot the ball, and his feet were still moving habitually, and he even jumped a few times every now and then.
Lin Wuyu felt like he had been led astray by Ding Ji before, so he wanted to try to get the induction cooker, but he never thought that even an induction cooker would cost a hundred dollars or so, so how could some random passerby casually take it away?
Ding Ji scored 13 balls in a row, but the last two missed a bit and bounced off the rim.
However, this result already massacred the middle-aged and elderly people in front of them in seconds.
“The induction cooker is mine!” Ding Ji happily jumped to his side. “It’s up to you. You can relax and throw whatever. you want. It doesn’t matter if you get any in or not. There’s nobody behind us.”
“There is.” Lin Wuyu glanced at the young man.
Sure enough, that person’s name was called out and he entered the stage.
“Was there someone like that before?” Ding Ji asked.
“I don’t know,” Lin Wuyu said in a low voice. “Anyways, there is now, and seeing him like this, he might…”
Ding Ji raised his index finger to his mouth. “Let’s just watch him first, stop spouting nonsense.”
As expected, this young man scored 14 goals as soon as he went up. Although one of them missed, according to the rules, the total number takes precedence.
“Damn!” Ding Ji whispered next to him. “This guy looks like he throws javelins, so how did he get 14 in?”
“… How do you know that?” Lin Wuyu asked while smiling.
“I don’t know, intuition?” Ding Ji rubbed his nose. “Brother Yu, it’s up to you.”
“Okay.” Lin Wuyu bit back ‘Okay, Brother Chicken”.’
When the javelin thrower was off the court, he met Lin Wuyu’s gaze, his eyes full of confidence.
Lin Wuyu smiled and stood in the position circled on the ground.
This position was neither far nor close. It was further than the 2-point line, but closer than the 3-point line, and the height of the basket wasn’t standard and was a little shorter, which was pretty good.
Everyone was watching him, and he glanced at the induction cooker on the table next to him.
In fact, it was just an ordinary induction cooker, and the make was also of an older model. It didn’t matter if you wanted it or not.
However, he was very serious when he picked up the ball.
He did this for everything. He didn’t care about winning or losing, or getting a rank, or what others said. He only cared about whether he did what he wanted to do well.
For example, right now, he just wanted to win that induction cooker.
Whether someone was genetically athletic, whether or not they exercised regularly, and whether or not they were fit could be seen in every move, even if they wear clothes to cover it.
Ding Ji wasn’t sure if Lin Wuyu could play basketball and if he could shoot.
However, he was sure that Lin Wuyu wasn’t just a learning god who just sat at his desk and studied stupidly.
Student Lin also vigorously supported this judgment of his.
The first ball was shot very beautifully.
“Ooh, it swished!” The auntie beside him said.
Then the second one.
“Ooh, it swished!” The auntie said again.
The third.
“Hey! It swished again!” The auntie raised her voice.
The fourth.
“Oh! Hey!” The auntie shouted. “This is professional-level!”
After the fifth shot, Lin Wuyu turned his head and glanced at him.
He wasn’t sure if it was to show off, but before Ding Ji could react, he turned around.
It probably wasn’t to show off, he just wanted to see the surprised expression on his face.
He also turned back before he could react, probably just to save time.
To throw the most balls in the shortest time.
It was best to get 15 in. If he couldn’t get 15 in, he needed 14. If he got 14, he needed to take less time than the javelin thrower just now.
When the aunties were shooting pretty well before, Ding Ji even called out for them. When Lin Wuyu was shooting, he didn’t even make a sound, just staring at him.
Then it was over.
15 goals, all scored.
“He has to be cheating!” The auntie shouted again in shock.
“If he’s really cheating,” Ding Ji said, “he wouldn’t have dared to do it so blatantly. It’s too obvious.”
“Hey! Really!” Another auntie also shouted, very upset. “You young people are here to join in the fun and grab things from us old people!”
“No,” Ding Ji said calmly. “I came here to rob on behalf of the elderly back at home.”
The organizer of the event was still very disciplined. After registering Lin Wuyu’s information, he was given a coupon to come over a week later to receive the induction cooker.
“You need to bring your ID card to confirm your identity,” the staff member said. “Then we can make sure that everything is valid.”
“Can’t I get someone to do it on my behalf?” Lin Wuyu was stunned.
“No,” the staff member said. “It has to be you.”
Lin Wuyu hesitated for a moment. “All right.”
After walking out of the shopping mall, Ding Ji clapped his hands. “Wasn’t my prediction accurate!”
“Sure,” Lin Wuyu smiled. “But I have to make another trip then.”
“I’ll treat you to milk tea.” Ding Ji pointed to the milk tea shop just now.
“I want to drink Coke.” Lin Wuyu said.
“… You just want me to spend money, right?” Ding Ji said.
“You’ve got a pretty good head on your shoulders, why don’t you calculate how much money I made you today?” Lin Wuyu said.
Ding Ji bought him a bottle of Coke, took him to the milk tea shop, and they sat under the parasol by the door.
When the milk tea and a lot of snacks were brought over, Lin Wuyu felt a little embarrassed. “What I said just now was a joke, you didn’t have to…”
“I wanted to treat you to Coke and also 2 plates of fried rice noodles. I think you didn’t eat enough just now,” Ding Ji said. “But the snacks are delicious. The shop next door sells Chongqian style noodles. The shop is also theirs, so I asked them to make you two bowls so you can try it.”
“… Thank you,” Lin Wuyu said.
“You’re welcome, I really didn’t expect to get an induction cooker today.” Ding Ji leaned back on his chair and swayed around. “I saw something pretty athletic when I passed by here. Thanks.”
“I didn’t do anything, I just made a few shots.” Lin Wuyu smiled.
“If you need help in the future, just let me know,” Ding Ji said.
There really is something.
But he couldn’t open his mouth.
Lin Wuyu felt that he’d already been shocked by just the thought of it.
If he said it out loud and confirmed it…
“What were you doing here today?” Ding Ji asked. “If you wanted to relax and clear your mind, you should’ve gone to the small park, it’s closer to the middle school.”
“Guess,” Lin Wuyu said.
If you can guess it, I’ll ask for your help.
Ding Ji glanced at him. “For real?”
“Guess.” Lin Wuyu frowned.
“Okay.” Ding Ji narrowed his eyes, put his chin in his hand, tapped the tips of his fingers on the corner of his mouth, and then said, “Give me a number, single or double-digit, whatever.”
“95.” Lin Wuyu said.
Ding Ji looked at him for a while. “I should have tried to tell your fortune before answering you.”
“Yeah.” Lin Wuyu responded.
“But you… I won’t predict anything, I’ll just guess.” Ding Ji said as leaned toward him. “Are you here to find someone?”
