Chapter 69 (1/2)

Chapter 69

I'll try not to make this story hard to comprehend, but life is not something that can be explained with just words .

I remember a saying that goes: It takes three years to learn something good, but just three days to learn something bad .

But how can a thoroughly evil person become good?

My answer? Seven friends .

They walked in front of me, falling into the depths of the unfathomable abyss on my behalf in order to put me back on the right path and to make me cherish everything that I have .

If not for these seven friends, I might've turned out to be a complete bad egg .

When did I meet Whitey, you ask?

I'll have to begin my story from when I started falling .

I wasn't the easiest to deal with when I was young .

I never did things good kids do .

On the other hand, I never stopped doing things bad kids do .

Grade 5, Winter break .

My older cousin who came from the village was staying with my family .

He was 23 that year and was searching for a job in the city .

I was 13 and in grade five .

I had surprisingly little a.s.signments to clear that winter break .

Whenever my cousin was free, he enjoyed sitting on the long bench and flipping through recruitment ads .

I was placed under his care and it seemed that my cousin hadn't been a good kid when he was younger either .

One day, he put down the newspapers in his hand, and on impulse, brought me out in search of a gaming cafe . Internet cafes weren't as available during that time .

The one we found could practically be found in all corners of the city center, but one trip was all it took for me to remember the route .

That route leading to degeneration .

My cousin gave up his search and returned to his village after seven days .

During the seven days that he was with us, I was basically having fun 24/7 .

I must have played every single game in the cafe .

He led the way and handed all his pocket money to me .

30 RMB was a treasure to me back then since I had no pocket money yet .

Of course, I spent all of it on the gaming cafe .

That cafe was situated in a bustling and lively business district .

A coin cost 50 cents and I broke the 30 RMB into a few portions of coins .

As a kid with no allowance, I was very calculative when it came to money .

No matter how calculative, however, I was unable to resist the bright colors of the monitors .

I even felt that I wasn't reserved enough . Only when I reached university did an economic professor mention that it was perfectly normal . He said, ”For women, children, elderly or dogs, to earn money is to look forward . ”

I finished that sum of money within a week .

The following days were difficult but there was still half of winter left .

I could only stare as other children played their games .

Soon enough, however, I found a path to get rich .

It was the new year and I was going to get money from my relatives . It was the tradition .

Sadly, it was also tradition for children to hand them over to their parents . Nevertheless, some were able to keep the money for themselves .

I quickly got started on my plan .

Thinking back, I realized that I really did commit an offense .

I'd imagine that you'll understand how quickly and easily children team up with one another, especially when they were immature and when money was involved .

The five of us, barely acquainted, would wait all morning for a target to appear .

Our targets would usually be new faces whose pockets produced clinking sounds or those who carried copper tins with them . These were children who had exchanged for many coins in one go .

The five of us were a team, with four playing bad cops and one playing the good cop .

We always managed to get a sum of money .

Come to think of it, I was usually the good cop .

There were usually only two staffs in the cafe, one watching the door and the other collecting money .

The door watcher was also in charge of the joystick .

We would wait for our targets to enter the cafe's blindspot before making a move .

I would first go over to talk to them, telling them that I was a pretty big figure in the cafe and that they could look for me if they ever needed any help .

They would ignore my words at the start and I would leave the cafe .

My teammates would then enter the cafe, approach the target's station, and switch the console off by pressing a b.u.t.ton on top of it .

They would then wait for the target to realize what was going on before starting their standard procedure .

”Have you paid the protection fees?”

”Is this a place for you to visit?”

”Why are you still here? Get out . ”

All of them spoke, one after another, effectively confusing the target .

At that point, if the target were to fight back verbally, they would scatter away .

If the target remained pa.s.sive, I would reappear, pull them to a side, and pretend to calm them down before going over to the target to explain the situation .

I would tell him that these people were gangsters and that their brothers were all big figures before asking how much he had on him . I would tell him that I had managed to convince them to collect just 10 instead of 20 RMB .

I would also explain that after collecting the fee, the guys could protect him whenever he needed .

Usually, the targets would be well-behaved and honest, emptying their pockets and taking out their coin tins .

Around the Chinese New Year period, our success rate was about 70 to 80% .

After the targets leave, we would divide our ill-gotten gains or play in other gaming cafes .

Were there times that we failed? Of course .

If the targets start to shout or run over to the counter, the staff would chase us out .

Nevertheless, after a short while, the big brother watching the door would sympathize with us and let us in .

After a few times of doing that, I asked him why he was still letting us in .

According to him, it didn't matter who earned whose money .

Plus, he'd rather deal with familiar faces like us rather than the new ones .

We became this gaming cafe's official gangsters .

We played tricks initially, but they did not remain effective for long .

Newcomers became veterans and there were familiar faces all around .

Without any choice, we invented another method .

We seldom used it and only used it in unfamiliar cafes .

If we get caught, we might not just be shooed but also beaten .

The five of us would search the grounds of the new cafes for a fallen coin .

Even after growing up, I had dreams where I was just looking around for coins .

Finding the coin was just the first part .

After that, we would search for a target who kept his coin box on the table while gaming .

We would ensure that he had a decent amount of coins in the box before tossing our coin on the floor around his feet and informing him that his coin had dropped .

While gaming, the target would usually only throw a swift glance on the floor .

If there really was a coin, he would bend down to grab it real quick .

One of us would then use our body to hold him down, pretending to continue his game for him while someone else reaches in for his coins .

When the target got back up, we would quickly release the joystick and he would instinctively take over immediately .

When he finally realized that he was missing something, we would've long been gone .

We used this method thrice and only when we were really itching to do it .

In actual fact, we were really just hoping to find coins on the ground .

This step was already very challenging without adding having to find a lone, rich, and brainless player .

It was really difficult and soon enough, only few would still leave their boxes on the table .